Sunday, November 18, 2007

Equivalent Exchange is for Losers
So I just had a thought (no it didn't hurt, har har). It's been a long time since I did FMA-related thinking, so here goes.

Equivalent Exchange is basically the principle that you can't create or destroy matter or energy (which is a basic physical law as well), so if you try to you end up using matter from somewhere else. Also it apparently applies to souls, or whatever you want to call the essence of life, in that they are of a value unequaled by anything else and therefore cannot be retrieved without a significant payment of other souls (Ed and Al only paid an arm, a leg, and a body, but they didn't get the soul back either; the Philosopher's Stone, however, with its collection of hundreds of souls, was sufficient to retrieve a soul). From the E.E. law also stems the idea that you can't make, for instance, a rock into bread. You need something of a similar make-up.

So I started to think of loopholes. The first one has to do with density. Say you have a hunk of lead, which is very dense. While it may small enough to fit in the palm of your hand, you could potentially transmute it into something considerably larger, of greater volume. This is because while you have increased its size, you have not increased its mass or amount of matter. Altering the density of a substance would allow you to transmute with less size limitations.

The other loophole I thought of is one I've been toying with for some time, and has to do with atomic structure. If subatomic particles have mass, which they do, they are considered matter, and can be transmuted like any other matter. Would it then be possible, with very sophisticated transmutation, to change, for example, a hydrogen atom to a helium atom by altering the number of protons? Just take some from or give some to nearby atoms. In fact, would it be possible for a proton t remain freely floating without being a part of an atomic nucleus? I suppose the biggest question is if one did manage to sever one or more protons from the nucleus, would this result in an atomic explosion? Would there be a way to do it without causing one? Because if so, it would be possible to create any element from any other element.

Just some thoughts. Oh, I also like the idea that human life energy from this side of the Gate is used on the other side for alchemy--energy is not destroyed but reused. What happens to the energy used in alchemy then? Does it zoom back over to supply a newly conceived baby? I assume it must be a particular kind of energy not currently recognized, since kinetic energy or heat energy or whatever would just be used on this side. Hm, just thoughts, yes.

PS - Got Ichigenme vol. 2, yes MORE Fumi Yoshinaga... I am so spoiled by her. Goodness.

PPS - I have a shirt emblazoned with the title of this post. Thank you Aardvark Tees.
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