Science question for the brainy among us

[Tabarnak Smokeblower]

The water is shrunken, and not compressed. As F5 pointed out, where does the shrunken mass go? You can't translate this problem in real-life physical events, since the basis is impossible. It is as if the water molecules, in fact the hydrogen and oxygen atoms, or whatever sub-atomical particles that make up those elements, shrink in size.

When we think of other magical effects that deal with size, the rule is always "you can't use size-altering magic to hurt/damage the re-sized creature/object". The water would simply stay in a state of shrunkeness.

All IMO, of course.

TS.

Edit: n/m

 

[Number47]

I say that a dimensional explosion happens. Just 'cause it's cool. As the water tries to re-enter normal dimensional space, it finds the way blocked and there is no more magic to sustain its existence in the pocket dimesion. The sphere doesn't deform, the area around it is shot through with a small dimensional explosion, possibly opening a small rift and perhaps making a wild magic or dead magic zone.

 

[Andor]

Icy sphere

Assume the water was compressed to an extreme degree, so that the larger volume of water was made to fit inside the smaller sphere. The water mollecules would get packed together in a super-solid state. Maybe if you re-grow shrunken water inside an unbreakable metal shpere, it gets packed into some kind of super-ice, harder than diamond, and unnaturally heavy.

Bwa ha ha ha. I love this. You get Ice-4* and your world dies. That'll teach your players to experiment.

-Andor

*If you don't know what this is, try a library. That authors name is Kurt Vonnegut.

Really the answer is, whatever you decide. You're trying to use physics to describe magic. If you want to pretend that there is an instant where the water attains it's full volume/pressure but is contained within the sphere then just realize that you're talking about pressures about halfway between the bottom of the Marianes trench and a neutron star.

 

[Aaron L]

It could break the electron shells of the water molecules and make neutron star material.

 

[Ashrem Bayle]

Wait... isn't this the same thing that air does when put it into a balloon?

Compromise the integrity of the balloon, and BOOM!

Same thing, bigger boom.

 

[BVB]

re gas instead of liquid: So if the naysayers among us insist water can't be compressed (once de-magicked in the sphere), let's perform the experiment with a gas instead. Superheated plasma results, right?

But in our pseudo-medieval fantasy setting, how would you define a mass of gas and then move those shrunken molecules into a particular space like our sphere?

 

[Goobermunch]

Re: Icy sphere

Bwa ha ha ha. I love this. You get Ice-4* and your world dies. That'll teach your players to experiment.

-Andor

Ice 9, it's ice 9.

--G

 

[F5]

OK, I'll edit my previous extradimansional void hypothesis.

The water, when it tries to re-grow, is blasted under unimaginable pressure back into the Elemental Plane of water, where the excess mass goes when it was shrunk in the first place. It leaves behind a vortex which leads into the elemental plane, but since the contents were contained in an UNBREAKABLE sphere, the vortex itself is contained and doesn't expand outside the limits of the sphere.

But, exactly how big is the elemental plane of water, in comparison to the prime plane? Since it exists on a different spiritual, spatial and quantum reality to the Prime, can it be said to have any size at all? How many angels can dance on the head of a pin, you could ask?

Without a common frame of reference, the size of the elemental plane is not immediately comparble to the size of the prime plane, which is the location of the sphere. So, like Schroedinger's cat, until the unbreakable sphere is broken open and the contents checked, there's the possibility that the inch-thick sphere contains the entire elemental plane of water. You're left with a paradox and some seriously pissed off elementals. Maybe this is how you create a sphere of annhiliation?

Now I'm just getting punchy. I'd better get back to work.

PS: I'm still the most fond of the injection-molded diamond-ice idea, for what it's worth.

PPS: it's lines of reasoning like this that have caused my group to ask me not to play spellcasters whenever possible...

 

[Psion]

Re: Re: Icy sphere

Ice 9, it's ice 9.

Yeah, Ice 4 is real.

 

[Nifft]

IMC, this actually has a single answer. Since shrinking is really forcing a major portion of the object's mass onto the Ethereal plane, when you try to "dismiss" the shrink spell, the mass does not return to the Prime. It will exert a pressure to return, but not enough to burst the ball. If the ball doesn't project into the Ethereal plane far enough to constrain the entire mass of the water, then the water will return to the Prime around the ball.

Basing your campaign world on ten-dimensional hyperstring macrospheres really clears things up.

-- Nifft