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Shrinking Research Report 3 - Shrunk Micro on Amber's Peanut Butter Toast - What would realistically happen?
🕑 Added 2025-04-17 17:17:45 +0000 UTCWelcome back to another Shrinking Research Report! In the last report (here it is if you have not seen it: https://www.patreon.com/posts/shrinking-2-on-126446433?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link ) I shrunk you down to 0.01 Millimeters tall and dropped you on top of a slice of toast, so now we will continue to see what happens next!
I was surprised to find a willing person to shrink after searching online and found you, who's perfect for my newest experiment. I paid for your flight to my apartment, and once you arrive I waste no time, and inject you with a good portion of my shrinking serum, quickly reducing you to 0.01 Millimeters tall. You're so small I can't even see you in the petri dish! I tilted over the dish and dropped you onto a slice of toast. The shrinking made you go unconscious, so in a moment you'll wake up dazed and confused on a totally new landscape. Before you wake up however, I step away to go sit down on the couch to monitor you from my computer, since before you shrunk I implanted everything I need to gather my research and all the data without even needing to see you or be next to you! It is a new device I have put into all my tinies to track them and experiment. I wont be there to guide you or observe the experiment personally however. The twist here is, the toast was never mine, it is my roommate Amber's. After toasting it, she laid it down to go use the restroom, a perfect opportunity for a little experiment, to see what would happen to you when she comes back...
You’re jolted awake, sprawled on a bizarre terrain. The ground beneath you is warm, radiating a toasty aroma that fills your senses. It’s rough, like a desert of jagged ridges and pebbles, stretching endlessly in all directions. You’re no longer human-sized, but a imperceptible, puny 0.01 millimeters, or 10 micrometers, the scale of a single cell. The toast, a mundane 10 cm × 10 cm slice, is now a vast continent, its center your precarious home, 50,000 micrometers (50 mm) from any edge. The toast’s surface is a microcosmic wilderness:
Starch granules (1–30 μm): Boulders or hills 0.1–3 meters wide.
Pores (0.1–2 mm = 100–2000 μm): Distant chasms, 10–200 meters across.
Crumbs (0.01–1 mm = 10–1000 μm): Mountains 1–100 meters tall.
Crust ridges (1–10 μm): Cliffs 0.1–1 meter high.
You’re dwarfed by this landscape, stuck to the ground by van der Waals forces (10⁻¹⁰ N), far stronger than your weight (1.396 × 10⁻¹³ N). Each step feels like peeling your feet from glue. A low rumble shakes the air, like distant thunder. You strain to see, but your eyes—pupils ~0.012 μm—are too small to form clear images. Light scatters, rendering the world a hazy blur of golden-brown and shadow. The toast quakes faintly, and a vast shape looms, impossibly large. It’s Amber. At 1.7 meters tall, she’s 1.7 million micrometers—1.7 kilometers in your world. If she’s 30 cm (300,000 μm) away, she’s a 300-meter distant colossus, her red hair a fiery cascade of 5–10 meter-thick ropes, her glasses glinting like 50-meter mirrors. Her face, a 200-meter expanse, is indistinct, her features lost in a foggy glow. When she moves (1 m/s = 1700 m/s at your scale), it’s a graceful, mountain-like shift, though your brain perceives it as “normal” speed (neural processing unchanged). She speaks—perhaps muttering about the mysterious toast. Her voice, frequencies shifted by your tiny ears (~10 μm), is a deep, unintelligible hum, like a storm vibrating the crust beneath you. You’re awestruck, a speck in her shadow, heart pounding as she decides to craft peanut butter and banana toast. Your vision is nearly useless, leaving a blurry glow. At 30 cm (300 m), Amber’s 1.7 km form is a vague silhouette: Closer (10 cm = 100 m), she’s still hazy, her skin a cratered plain (pores ~100 μm = 10 m). Her voice vibrates the air, a low roar. She’s a goddess of scale, beautiful yet terrifying, her every gesture reshaping your world.
Would my Roommate Amber Notice You?
Well lets consider some facts about human vision:At 30 cm, Amber’s eyes (20/20, assuming glasses correct fully) resolve ~87 μm. Your 10 μm height is ~8.7 times smaller, invisible without magnification.
At 10 cm (peanut butter spreading distance), resolution is ~29 μm—you’re still ~2.9 times too small.
Diffraction limit (~200 μm for naked eye) confirms you’re undetectable.
Other factors:You’re a speck, smaller than a starch granule (1–30 μm), blending into the toast.
Motion: Walking (8.235 μm/s) or jumping (~10 μm) covers ~8 μm/s, too small to register against the toast’s texture.
Contrast: Your skin reflects differently (50–80%) than toast (20–40%), but your light output is negligible (area ~10⁻¹¹ m²).
Toast: Granules and ridges (1–10 μm) camouflage you perfectly. You’re one speck among millions.
Amber’s focus: Spreading peanut butter demands attention to the knife and jar, not microscopic anomalies.
Amber has zero chance of noticing you, even if you’re dancing wildly. A microscope (100×, resolving ~1 μm) could reveal you, but she’s not inspecting toast like a scientist, its just her quick breakfast. You’re invisible, lost in the jungle of the bread.
Lets find out what happens next, considering she does not see you on the toast, and cannot hear you, and what your experience will be like :3
Amber’s hand, a 100-meter-wide shadow, grasps the toast’s edge. The ground lurches upward at ~0.5 m/s (850 m/s scaled), accelerating ~1 m/s² (1700 m/s²). The inertial force is: F = ma = 14.25 × 10^−15 × 1 ≈ 1.425 × 10^−14 N . This is trivial compared to adhesion (~10⁻¹⁰ N), so you stick fast. A 30° tilt adds: Fg sin(30°) = 14.25 × 10^−15 × 9.8 × 0.5 ≈ 6.98 × 10^−14 N
You cling to a starch granule (1 m boulder), its rough surface like jagged rock under your bare skin. The toast’s warmth (~50°C) burns, your high surface-area-to-volume ratio (1/s ≈ 170,000) making heat transfer brutal. You’re a mote on a tilting continent, the kitchen a hazy 1.7 km horizon. Amber’s fingers, distant cliffs, flex with godlike power. You’re unnoticed, a ghost in her world. Amber sets the toast down—impact negligible, your mass too small to feel it. A silver blur, her knife (100 m wide), descends, smeared with peanut butter (density ~1200 kg/m³, viscosity ~50 Pa·s). A 1 mm layer (100 m thick to you) surges at ~0.1 m/s (17,000 m/s scaled). Viscous force hits: F ≈ ηA v/d = 50 × 6.228 × 10^−11 × 0.10.001 ≈ 3.114 × 10^−6 N . Your strength (2.4 × 10⁻⁹ N) is ~1000 times weaker. The nutty, oily flood engulfs you, a 100-meter tsunami of sticky warmth (25°C). You flail, but air viscosity (Reynolds number ~10⁻⁶) makes swimming impossible, it’s like drowning in tar. The smell is overwhelming, a cloying haze of roasted peanuts. If you’re near a granule, you’re buried, in a rare open patch, you’re swept along, trapped. The knife’s shadow darkens your world, a gleaming cliff carving the sky. Peanut butter roars in, a suffocating tide, clogging your limbs and lungs. You gasp, finding no air, the sticky mass sealing you in a warm, nutty tomb. Amber’s face, a 200-meter blur, hovers above, oblivious, her glasses flashing like distant stars.
If you’re not fully buried, Amber adds banana slices (~5–10 mm = 500–1000 m thick, mass ~5 g, area ~5 cm²). One lands, pressure: P = 0.005 × 9.8/0.0005 ≈ 98 Pa. Force on you: F = 98 × 6.228 × 10^−11 ≈ 6.1 × 10^−9 N. This is ~2.5 times your strength, pinning you in soft, sticky pulp (viscosity ~1 Pa·s). The banana’s sweet, humid scent chokes you, its fibrous texture a 500-meter prison. A yellow-white wall crashes down, a kilometer-thick canopy blotting out light. You’re crushed into mushy fibers, like being buried in wet clay. Breathing is a struggle, air pockets fleeting. Amber’s movements—slicing, placing—are distant quakes, her red hair a fiery smear in the haze. If eaten: Amber bites (10 cm²), sweeping you into her mouth (100 m cavern, ~37°C). Chewing (2 × 10⁶ Pa) obliterates you instantly, or saliva (~0.01 Pa·s) drowns you. If swallowed, stomach acid (pH ~1.5) dissolves you in ~1–2 hours. If the toast is set aside: Trapped in peanut butter or banana, you suffocate (air depletes in ~seconds) or starve (metabolic rate ~10⁻¹⁵ W, no food access). The most likely outcome: You’re buried in peanut butter (80% chance, given coverage), pinned by banana, and eaten. Amber, focused on her snack, never sees you. Consumption is swift (5–10 minutes post-preparation), ending in chewing or digestion.
So lets go over a couple of ways you survive, and a couple of ways you don't.
Two Ways You Could SurviveHide in a microcrack in the bread crust and wait:
How: You scramble into a crust microcrack (1–10 μm = 0.1–1 m deep) before peanut butter hits, using your strength to wedge in. Safe from the flood, you wait hours until Amber discards the toast (e.g., crumbs fall). You emerge, signal (jump ~10 μm), and hope a future observer with a magnifying tool (unlikely but possible) spots you.
Why plausible: Cracks are common in toasted crust (1–10 μm scale), and your 8.235 μm/s speed reaches one in ~1–10 s. Your low metabolic rate (10⁻¹⁵ W) sustains you for hours.
Challenges: Finding a crack quickly enough. If you do, then if she doesn't eat the crust, you'll be safe, or maybe you will fall off of the crust with a crumb and land on her plate.
Cling to a Granule and Fall to Plate:
How: You grip a 1 μm granule (0.1 m rock), surviving peanut butter’s edge (less force near boundaries). When Amber sets the toast on a plate, vibrations dislodge you (safe fall, 0.006 m/s). On the plate, you crawl to a visible spot, signaling for rescue if Amber cleans closely later, but she most likely will not see you, and you'll have to hope I come to save you.
Why plausible: Granules are everywhere, and adhesion aids clinging. A plate’s smooth surface (~1 μm roughness) is less camouflaging, though detection remains a long shot.
Challenges: Avoiding peanut butter entirely. She really likes the stuff, so she's going to spread a good amount of it onto the bread, covering as much as she can. If it covers you, you're practically done for.
Two Ways You Would Not Survive
Buried in Peanut Butter, Eaten:
How: Peanut butter’s 100 m flood traps you (force 3.114 × 10⁻⁶ N), suffocating you in seconds (no air). Amber eats the toast, and you’re chewed (2 × 10⁶ Pa, instant death) or swallowed (acid digestion, ~1–2 hours).
Why likely: Spreading covers ~90% of the toast in ~10 s, and your central position ensures entrapment. Amber’s obliviousness seals your fate.
Probability: ~80–90%, given coverage and speed.
Pinned by Banana, Suffocate:
How: You dodge peanut butter (e.g., behind a granule) but a 500–1000 m banana slice pins you (force ~6.1 × 10⁻⁹ N). The sticky pulp cuts air, and you suffocate in ~1–10 minutes (oxygen diffusion insufficient) or starve (no food, hours).
Why likely: Slices cover ~50% of the toast, and entrapment is probable if peanut butter misses you. No rescue comes in time.
Probability: ~10–20%, depending on placement.
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Luckily, as she's taking her second to last bite, you fall off the toast, stuck to some peanut butter on a nearly imperceptible crumb, and land on her plate. After finishing her toast, she puts the plate in the kitchen sink, but luckily for you, she does not rinse it or clean it immediately, she just places it down and leaves it there. About 20 minutes later after she leaves to go to class, I see that my tracker says you're surprisingly still alive, so I go over to the sink with a magnifying glass, and after finding you, with some tiny tweezers I pick you up off the plate and take you into my room for further analysis :3
Lmk in the comments what experiment you want me to do next!
