I think I was reminded of this because of Asimov's Fantastic Voyage, which I read about a month ago, and Fantastic Voyage II which I just borrowed but haven't read yet. Er, in case you don't get the connection I'm about to make, the novels involve miniaturization technology: a shrinking machine, essentially.

Anyway, you know the movie "Honey I Shrunk the Kids"? If I remember correctly, the principle behind the shrinking machine was that all atoms are made of mostly empty space, which is true, so if you were to condense every individual atom in a body to get rid of the empty space, then you'd be able to shrink things. Now of course that goes against ten bajillion laws of physics and Planck's constant and whatnot, but that's not what bothers me most, because there very well may be a way to bend physical laws in the future (though never to break them).

What bothers me is this: imagine a "standard" person, 1.5 meters tall and 60 kilograms, right? (US system sucks, use metric!). Now, the "Honey I Shrunk the Kids" version of the shrinking machine is used on them, and they shrink to a mere 5 centimeters. But... if the principle is to only remove empty space from atoms, and since empty space has no mass... the person would still have the same amount of particles in their body. I.e., they would still be 60 kilograms, even though their volume is several hundred times smaller, since they're just denser. So how does that work out? How does a person with 60 kilograms of inertia almost get sucked up by a lawn mower? How is someone with 60 kilograms of mass able to sleep inside a LEGO brick without collapsing it? Moreover, they would still have the same amount of muscle cells, lifting the same amount of load: if they jump, wouldn't they leap half a meter into the air? Wouldn't they be able to jump forward a meter? I mean, if you walk, you take about half a meter per stride, right?

And how, I ask you HOW, does someone lift a 60 kilogram person with a spoon? Even more, how does someone with such a concentrated mass not sink like a stone? Or when they run across the floor, shouldn't the tiles crack or something? I mean imagine concentrating that much mass into something so small! Pressure is force over area: the smaller the area, the greater the pressure. They should have found them right away by following the "BOOM BOOM" they made while walking.

I mean really, if you're doing science fiction, cover all your bases! Asimov's version had each individual atom losing mass and becoming smaller, not some stuff about removing empty space. I mean it's a good idea, but please! And the giant dog bone at the end? By increasing the empty space, once you reach a certain limit, the dog would be able to walk through the dang bone! AND since it still contains the same amount of atoms it would provide the same amount of sustinance for the dog, the same amount of calories... it's in fact BAD for the dog. I mean, imagine eating so much that your stomach is full, and getting like two calories out of it. It's worse than eating celery, where you burn more calories chewing the vegetable than you gain from digesting it. Geez...

Yes, this is in fact what I think about in my free time. Solving world hunger? Fixing global warming? Being a champion of world peace? Nope. Mulling over the technicalities of sci-fi comedy movies.