The Science Of Fiction

thescienceoffiction:

Yeah yeah yeah I know we’ve just started kickin into a schedule down here at the labs, but life has gotten in the way and out Top Researcher can’t really come into work!

Basically I probably won’t be able to reach a computer to type up a new rant/lecture/thing for you people.

Sorry, but that’s how life is. I’m not sure how long it will last, but I already have a post ready to go next Sunday and you’ll still get that on schedule. If it only lasts a week, great! No hiccup, no worries. If it lasts any longer, then we’ll have a problem.

Sorry, that’s how it has to go at the moment. We here at Science of Fiction Hypothetical Labs wish you the best of Valentine’s Day, and we will see you in a week or two!

So it turns out I lied.

The circumstances that prevented me from posting have been replaced by other circumstances.

The post this Sunday will proceed as planned, even though it would have been anyway.

But the Sunday after that I may not be able to post anyway.

Yeah yeah yeah I know we’ve just started kickin into a schedule down here at the labs, but life has gotten in the way and out Top Researcher can’t really come into work!

Basically I probably won’t be able to reach a computer to type up a new rant/lecture/thing for you people.

Sorry, but that’s how life is. I’m not sure how long it will last, but I already have a post ready to go next Sunday and you’ll still get that on schedule. If it only lasts a week, great! No hiccup, no worries. If it lasts any longer, then we’ll have a problem.

Sorry, that’s how it has to go at the moment. We here at Science of Fiction Hypothetical Labs wish you the best of Valentine’s Day, and we will see you in a week or two!

So, we’ve all played Pokemon, or at least heard of it. Or watched it. Or read it. Or any combination of the above.

And we’ve all wondered at SOME point in our lives.

How in the heck do Pokeballs work?

And Pokemon Centers, but that’s a whole different lecture.

We here at The Science of Fiction Hypothetical Labs have come up with a few theories:

Energy Converters

Pokeballs work as mass-to-energy converters, and back again.
 They would literally transform the pokemon into energy upon entry, and back to mass upon exit. This is difficult, if not impossible, and also requires and understanding of what energy IS.

We, as humans, know of many types of energy, from electromagnetic to thermal to nuclear, but they’re all really the same thing, just expressed in different forms.

According to a few physics teachers, energy is the ability to do work. Work being the force required to move a mass over a distance.

This is true, in a very basic way. All forms of energy do have the potential to do work, they can all move masses. But it’s more complex then that.

According to the famous Albert Einstein and his Theory of Relativity, Energy is equal to Mass times the Speed of Light squared, proving that energy is equivalent to mass. They are the same, mass is just moving much much slower.

However, for Pokeballs to act as converters, it would require an enormous amount of input energy to do conversion either way, and to remember what energy equals what mass is too complex to fit in such a tiny space, so this theory is highly improbable.

Energy to Data Converter

Working off of the previous theory slightly, we have the more practical Energy to Data Conversion theory. This would explain how Pokemon are able to be stored in computerized “Boxes” as well.

Most would say “But Mod G, this violates the Conservation of Mass and Energy!” I say, not really. For what is data, but energetic flows of electrons in specific pattens? And how are those electrons excited? The provision of energy. This allows for Pokemon to be stored like bits of data, just in a very specific and specialized format.

However, while it may be used for immobile computer structures, it is impractical to carry around on a belt, and probably would have a hard time shrinking down to the size of a few grapes.

This theory is very improbable.

Teleporters

The final theory is that Pokeballs are merely teleportation devices. Again, this handly explains Boxes as merely digital representations of Pokemon teleported elsewhere in the world. Judging by the expansive nature of the Pokemon world, this would be easy to do.

While the world may not have portable Mass to Energy/Data converters, it is not so hard to believe that they may have mini teleporters. Its also not hard to imagine that each Pokeball locks onto the Pokemon it’s transferred, thus making them one-time use.

The only thing left, is how Pokemon escape. The Pokeball would have to have a delay, where the Pokemon on the other end has a chance to return to his/her original location. This would be accomplished by having the Pokeball place a small machine of some sort on the Pokemon, tagging them for later use, and allowing them to escape if they find it before the Pokeball locks.

This theory is probable, much more probably than the previous two. If you have your own theory on how Pokeballs work, please submit them using our submit button.

Next week, we shall attempt to figure out how Pokecenters would work using all three theories expressed tonight.

If Bolin and Mako are brothers, and possibly twins, is it possible for them to have different colored eyes, as well as different bending powers?

Let’s start with the bending, as it makes the most assumptions.

Let’s suppose there are 5 different genes: a, b, c, d, and e

So there are 20 different 2-gene combinations

Each bending represents one of four gene combinations as well as 4 for non-bending (we’re ignoring doubles for now)

Non-bending: ea, eb, ec, and ed

Air: ba, bc, bd, and be

Water: ab, ac, ad, and ae

Fire: ca, cb, cd, and ce

Earth: da, db, dc, and de

So Mako and Bolin have to have similar genetic codes here, sharing one letter. Let’s assume Mako has a ca code and Bolin has a da code.

So using basic genetic theory we figure that one of their parents was a Firebender with code ca and the other could’ve been an Earthbender with any code.

Okay, so the bending portion checks out, using some basic genetic theory. Now let’s go one step further, and check out their eyes. One has red eyes, and the other green.

The only way for a human to have red eyes is to be an albino, so if we assume Mako’s hair is naturally black and they don’t yet have spray-on tans, this is impossible.

But let’s say Mako uses hair spray of some kind, and paints himself tan.

About 1 in every 19000 people are born with albinism.

About 1 in 50 people have green eyes.

For both to happen at the same time, in the same family, that is 1 in 950000, which is quite a small chance.

Going back to the bending, we’ll assume benders and non-benders are spread equally, with about 50% of the population being able to bend.

This means that 12.5% percent of the population bends fire, 12.5% bend water, etc. Again, assuming that genes are spread about evenly, only 2.5% of the population have the ca genetic code required. This gives a 1 in 320 chance of their parents having the required code.

In total the maximum chance that the brothers are able to exist is….

1 in 3.04x10^8

That seems tiny but considering that Legend Of Korra is set around what would be the 1950s, and over 2.5 billion people were around on Earth at that time, it’s actually very possible.

Mystery solved, science sound