History Main / MinovskyPhysics

* From DC comics:

** It's also the life blood of Transformers ''and'' Transformer life in general, as it's their fuel, the fuel for their weaponry, and used as currency. Any constantly-glowy melee weapon will also be called an Energon Whatever (presumably meaning it's powered by energon, because if it were truly made of the stuff, because stuff that explodes when struck doesn't make a good sword.) However, some series have somewhat different rules for the stuff:

*** In the second season, GN Particles go from {{Minovsky Particle}}s to [[GreenRocks magical pixie dust]], capable of performing such feats as [[EvolutionaryLevels evolving a person]], [[IGotBetter magically healing dying people]], and [[TeleportersAndTransporters teleporting mobile suits at will]]. While these changes are essentially unexplained the series drops hints of it in absolutely every episode, and some of the more "ridiculous" effects are simply extrapolations of previously observed properties. [[spoiler: Basically, the 'true' (green colored) GN Particles had always been magical pixie dust in a sense but humans and technology didn't catch up for all of fifty-two episodes. Aeolia's convoluted Master Plan was intended to facilitate this catching up before his created assistants decided to go off on their own tangent.]]

[[folder: comicbooks ]]

* ''{{Chaos}}'' (which is ''all over'' {{mohs scale of sci fi hardness}} by the way, one section will seem to be trying to adhere ''almost'' rigidly to {{real life}} laws of physics, the next will be almost unmitigated [[{{science fiction versus fantasy}} fantasy]]—though this is most likely [[{{hand waved}} explained away]] by its nature as a {{scrapbook story}} with each section being [[{{literary agent hypothesis}} ostensibly]] written by a different {{unreliable narrator}}) has the "scalon", the carrier particle (really particle-wave…okay, just wave) of a fifth fundamental force called the "divine force", or more commonly, the "chaotic force". The setup here is sort of similar to the ''{{Mass Effect}}'' example below: the Chaotic Force is a fundamental force, it's sort of like a mixture of electromagnetism [[{{this is your premise on drugs}} on steroids]] and [[{{anti gravity}} gravity in reverse]]. It conveniently answers a few of the questions plaguing physics today, such as, what is dark energy? It's the chaotic force! What gives matter its mass? It's the chaotic force! Because scalons (the ''Chaos'' counterpart of the [[{{magical particle accelerator}} Higgs boson]], also known as ''scal''ar waves or torsion waves) can [[{{FTL Travel}} move at superluminal speeds]] and [[{{reality warper}} warp up space and time themselves]] (in fact, they essentially ''are'' just quanta of warped spacetime), there are [[{{sufficiently advanced technology}} really very few limits placed upon what they can do]], and the various types of powers they enable, referred to collectively as "[[{{shout out}} chaos bending]]", [[{{clarkes third law}} for all intents and purposes, are simply functional magic with a sci-fi technobabble explanation]].

* ''VideoGame/ArmoredCore'' has Kojima particles which are a pseudo-radioactive substance which powers the eponymous HumongousMecha's energy shield, over boost, [[SphereOfDestruction assault armor]] and some weapons. This extends to the [[BaseOnWheels Arms Forts]] as well. Most things in the world are powered by Kojima technology; the cost, however, is that it [[WalkingWasteland erodes all biological life]]. This is shown in-game when you're not allowed to use anything using Kojima Technology in or near a populated area. This is also shown to an ''extreme'' in ''For Answer'' [[AfterTheEnd where the earth is now mostly desert and mankind now lives in the sky due to the surface being polluted]].

* ''VideoGame/ArmoredCore'' has Kojima particles which are a pseudo-radioactive substance which power the said HumongousMecha energy shield, over boost, [[SphereOfDestruction assault armor]] and some weapons. This extends to the [[BaseOnWheels Arms Forts]] as well. Most things in the world are powered by Kojima technology, the cost however is that it [[WalkingWasteland erodes all biological life.]] This is shown in game when your not allowed to use anything using Kojima Technology in or near a popluated area. This is also shown to an '''extreme''' in for Answer [[AfterTheEnd where the earth is now mostly desert and mankind now lives in the sky due to the surface being polluted.]]

* ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam'', as noted above.
** So famous are these particles (presumably because they are all-but unique in modern fiction) that ''Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake'' gives a cheerful ShoutOut to ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam'' by blaming the radar malfunction on 'Minovsky molecules.'
** It is worth noting that the Minovsky Particles were designed specifically to allow or even encourage the existence of giant combat robots (the biggest of which is messing with electromagnetic signals used in things like radar, preventing long-range targetting). The series creator has definitely read and possibly even written a few reports stating that interstellar combat will take place at distances and speeds that make human involvement at anything past the planning stages dangerously wasteful... barring unpredicted advances such as the Minovsky Particle.
*** Interestingly, [[ScienceMarchesOn recent technological advances]] will make even the Minovsky Particle ineffectual in that role. Materials with [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metamaterial#Negative_refractive_index negative refractive indexes]] and [[http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/02/ff_algorithm/all/1 rather impressive decompression algorithms]] could allow you to accurately detect and target things even with the distortion caused by Minovsky Particles.
**** Negative Refraction index - I don't see how it can help, and Enhance Button Algorithms can only go so far - so unless a character managed to "see through" I-Fields or something like that - it can just be assumed that the I-Field corrupts them further.
**** Metamaterials don't help much with long-range perception; their application to imaging is mostly related to surface effects that allow subwavelength resolution (look up something called a "superlens"). As for new algorithms, the gain isn't actually from the enhance button. Instead, a computer just allows you to gather more, better data. Modern computer astronomy can survey the entire sky in under four hours: a person can look through a telescope, a computer can look through thirty actively-stabilized telescopes with adaptive optics. Since Gundams can apparently be seen using visible light from long distance, just build a few hundred future-Hubbles and hook them up to a future-Google-image-search.
***** The main problem is that with a Radar array, you can do the same thing with a much smaller device in something like 4~6 seconds with technology 30 years ago. Having better optical devices helps, but losing radar is still going to be a big blow, especially when it is a sudden loss and your [[BattleStar Space warships]] aren't fully equipped with counter measures. The UC universe actually kept improving in optical systems and 8 years after the One Year War, a battle carrier cruiser can find enemy warships a few ten thousand kilometres away and can see it launching mechas, along with what specific equipment they are equipped with, which is well beyond the firing capability of any [[ArbitraryMaximumRange long range cannons]] at that time.(Since the Mega Particle Cannons[Ahem, degenerated Minovsky Particles] need somewhere around 3 seconds to reach that distance and is more than enough time to dodge after shooting.)
*** Note that, in a rather strange subversion, this may in fact be somewhat plausible (taken directly from the Gundam Wiki):
--> ''The disruption of electromagnetic radiation is due to the small lattice of the I-field creating fringes that long wavelengths cannot penetrate, and that diffract wavelengths that have similar distance with the fringes. This diffraction and polarization process disrupts the electromagnetic waves. Notice in real life there is a similar experimental particle that could do the same thing in few thousandth of a second, which is still not practical but proves the theory to be correct.''

** '''Literally Averted''' in ''Anime/TurnAGundam'' that the Wadom and Turn A Gundam are equipped with the system called 7th GMPT, or 7th Generation Minovsky Particle Theory and can disable all previous Minovsky Particle technology devices. [[AllThereInTheManual The system were never used in the story]], since no one know of its existence(all weapons were dug up [[BreakOutTheMuseumPiece Museum pieces]]).

*** I am pretty sure it was mentioned that heat deep in the earth was the source of energy needed for the transformation.

* Apparently, the theory behind the extra-dimensional and inter-dimensional density-changers in the WhateleyUniverse. The author writes like it's set in stone and all worked out.
** Probably it is. They have the WhateleyUniverse Bible, and that's got most of the science they'll ever use.

* DigimonTamers embraces this troupe in a way that stands out from the rest of the [[{{Digimon}} franchise]]. In this series, there are only two fundamental changes to reality: That digital information can realise (i.e., literally become real in mid air) and that fully artificial intelligence is not only possible, but has been achieved in the eighties. The amount of detail put on explaining the working priciples behind both, respectively the need for a converter algorithm and the mechanism of evolution. Otherwise, everything that happens in the series either obeys the rules of physics (especially because many of them did happen in real life) or is a consequence of the application of the MinovskyPhysics.

The TropeNamer is the {{Anime}} series ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam.'' YoshiyukiTomino wanted to write a RealRobot anime. However, anyone remotely familiar with either engineering and military tactics will tell you that such devices are TooDumbToLive; a bipedal platform is needlessly complicated, hard to properly armor, and the easiest thing to shoot at in a battlefield. Enter the Minovsky Particle: a sensor-jamming, delicate-electronics wrecking PlotDevice that not only renders all ranged targeting useless, but requires [[{{Unobtainium}} Helium-3]] to produce. Consequently, humans had to go to space to get Helium-3, fight battles there with systems capable of tricky microgravity maneuvering, and eventually expand on the technology to make maintenance easier. Boom: a world full of HumongousMecha--which, far from being contrived, seem like a natural evolution of military technology ''in light of'' the Minovsky Particle. On a metafictional level, Gundams made the particle necessary; but, InUniverse, the particle made ''Gundams'' necessary.

Any instance of a fictional subatomic particle, molecule, element or form of energy which has [[MagicAIsMagicA rigidly-adhered-to]] but [[AppliedPhlebotinum useful]] physical properties. MinovskyPhysics is quite rare in fiction, as having more rules to follow tends to make things harder for the writers. Such particles are a form of microscopic {{Unobtainium}}.

Aside of purely flavour text value, having some strict mechanics behind the {{Verse}} prevents it from easily slipping into pitfalls full of MisappliedPhlebotinum and thus helps to [[MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness make a whole setting more believable]]. For authors, this may be viewed as a SelfImposedChallenge or a way to defuse the temptation of sneaking in NewPowersAsThePlotDemands. Named after the Minovsky Particle from ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam'', which uses the particle's various, extremely well-defined properties to various, non-contradictory effects.

The primary use of this trope is to [[LikeRealityUnlessNoted alter the existing universe]] in a manner in such that [[AnthropicPrinciple the desired storyline becomes not only possible, but probable]] - ''without'' invoking PlotInducedStupidity. Example: TropeNamer Anime/MobileSuitGundam. YoshiyukiTomino wants to write a RealRobot anime. However, anyone remotely familiar with either engineering and military tactics will tell you that such devices are ''stupid''; a bipedal platform is needlessly complicated, hard to properly armor, and the easiest thing to shoot at in a battlefield. Enter the Minovsky Particle; a sensor-jamming, delicate-electronics wrecking PlotDevice that not only renders all ranged targeting useless, but requires [[{{Unobtainium}} Helium-3]] to produce. Result: go to space to get Helium-3, fight battles there with systems capable of tricky microgravity maneuvering, expand on the technology to make maintenance easier, and you have a world full of standardized robots - and the occasional SuperPrototype and AceCustom.

* ''MassEffect'' digs deep into the technologies and machinery made possible by "Element Zero" -- a form of {{Unobtainium}} originating in supernovae which increases in mass when positively charged (allowing for things like [[DeflectorShields kinetic barriers]] and ArtificialGravity), and decreases mass when negatively charged, even to a ''negative mass'' (hence the name "''Mass Effect''"), enabling [[{{Flight}} anti-gravity vehicles]] and a perfectly researched form of FasterThanLightTravel.
** In addition, a ''lot'' of effort is put into making this incredibly fictional material believable, including (but not limited to): Doppler shifting of EM radiation at FTL speeds, the effects of overexposure to eezo ({{Bizarre Baby Boom}}s of "[[MindOverMatter biotics]]"), and regular static discharges when it is used. Probably the most consistent world {{BioWare}} has yet made. A lot of thought went into the resulting implications of the technology -- for example being unable to use [[StealthInSpace stealth systems]] at FTL speeds because of the effects blueshift would have. It even points out how the ability of mass effect fields to reduce an object to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exotic_matter negative mass]] negates TimeDilation.

* Tratons in ''UnicornJelly'', Tryslmaistan's equivalent of atoms.

* Alchemy in ''FullmetalAlchemist'' plays this trope pretty close, when you're not using a philosophers stone. While the second law of thermodynamics is thrown out the window, [[NoConservationOfEnergy conservation of energy]] is usually held true.

*** It was revealed late in the first anime that [[spoiler:the energy comes from death on our side of the gate (and it's [[strike:WW2]] WW1, so there's plenty of energy to be had), but now we're getting into dimensional energy transfer, human souls having a quantified energy value not retained in our reality but shunted to another, and a buch of creepy black things hanging in the space between realities that screw up anyone who tries to conjure a human soul, which would be the purest form of this extradimensional energy, and... I have a headache now. Long story short, when you die, you don't go to Heaven or Hell, you become MP for someone in another reality. ]]

* ''MassEffect'' digs deep into the technologies and machinery made possible by "Element Zero" -- a form of {{Unobtainium}} originating in supernovae which increases in mass when positively charged (allowing for things like [[DeflectorShields kinetic barriers]] and ArtificialGravity), and decreases mass when negatively charged, even to a ''negative mass'' (hence the name "''Mass Effect''", but [[FoxNewsChannel some people]] [[CriticalResearchFailure took it the wrong way]]), enabling [[{{Flight}} anti-gravity vehicles]] and a perfectly researched form of FasterThanLightTravel.

** ''TransformersEnergon is a series where all the usual rules are kept, but it does a lot more, gaining NewPowersAsThePlotDemands, due to the amount of focus. We meet the Omnicons, who through millennia of AcquiredPoisonImmunity, can handle raw energon, and are the craftsbots who turn it into usable forms. Terrorcons, created from Unicron's body, can ''eat'' raw energon and generate processed energon. Energon Stars are the main form of processed energon, not cubes, and they can be plugged into Autobots, having the same effect as normal energon consumption in most series... or it can make new weapons appear out of thin air, heal massive damage as if by magic, and restore life to dead planets, mechanical and organic, and is said to be the building block of ''all life everywhere.'' Also, raw energon is yellow. When processed, the energon made by Omnicons and used by the Autobots is red, and is as deadly as raw energon - perhaps more - to Decepticons. Terrorcon-made, Decepticon-used energon is green and is similarly deadly to Autobots. Major FridgeLogic here - apparently, that makes the two factions different ''biologically'' somehow, and who knows what that means for when someone changes sides (If [[TransformersArmada Wheeljack or Scavenger]] were still around, what kind would they use/avoid? And neutrals?) Oh, and letting the two types mix is very ''bad.'' There's also Super Energon - always liquid, will either supercharge you or kill you dead. Mind you, a ''lot'' (not all) of the unique properties of energon in this series, though not mentioned elsewhere, are also not contradicted.

Aside of purely flavour text value, having some strict mechanics behind the {{Verse}} prevents it from easily slipping into pitfalls full of MisappliedPhlebotinum and thus helps to [[MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness make a whole setting more believable]]. For authors, this may be viewed as a SelfImposedChallenge or a way to defuse the temptation of sneaking in NewPowersAsThePlotDemands. Named after the Minovsky Particle from ''MobileSuitGundam'', which uses the particle's various, extremely well-defined properties to various, non-contradictory effects.

The primary use of this trope is to [[LikeRealityUnlessNoted alter the existing universe]] in a manner in such that [[AnthropicPrinciple the desired storyline becomes not only possible, but probable]] - ''without'' invoking PlotInducedStupidity. Example: TropeNamer MobileSuitGundam. YoshiyukiTomino wants to write a RealRobot anime. However, anyone remotely familiar with either engineering and military tactics will tell you that such devices are ''stupid''; a bipedal platform is needlessly complicated, hard to properly armor, and the easiest thing to shoot at in a battlefield. Enter the Minovsky Particle; a sensor-jamming, delicate-electronics wrecking PlotDevice that not only renders all ranged targeting useless, but requires [[{{Unobtainium}} Helium-3]] to produce. Result: go to space to get Helium-3, fight battles there with systems capable of tricky microgravity maneuvering, expand on the technology to make maintenance easier, and you have a world full of standardized robots - and the occasional SuperPrototype and AceCustom.

* ''MobileSuitGundam'', as noted above.
** So famous are these particles (presumably because they are all-but unique in modern fiction) that ''Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake'' gives a cheerful ShoutOut to ''MobileSuitGundam'' by blaming the radar malfunction on 'Minovsky molecules.'

** In ''GundamWing'', the Vayeate used a [[http://aboutgundamwing.com/SC/SC20/vlcsnap-301380.jpg Minovsky Particle Accelerator]] for its beam cannon.

** '''Literally Averted''' in TurnAGundam that the Wadom and Turn A Gundam are equipped with the system called 7th GMPT, or 7th Generation Minovsky Particle Theory and can disable all previous Minovsky Particle technology devices. [[AllThereInTheManual The system were never used in the story]], since no one know of its existence(all weapons were dug up [[BreakOutTheMuseumPiece Museum pieces]]).
** Oddly, ''{{Gundam SEED}}'''s Mirage Colloid combined this and AppliedPhlebotinum, as the particle is ''artificially'' made (not natural coincidence like the original Minovsky Particle and [[MobileSuitGundam00 GN Particles]]).
** ''{{Gundam 00}}'' has its own version in the form of GN ("Gundam Nucleus") Particles. Basically they do all the same things as Minovsky particles (produced via an exotic type of reactor, jam radar, allow non-aerodynamic machines to fly, and make beam weapons possible), along with a few new tricks (increasing the strength of armor and the cutting power of physical blades when they're impregnated with the particles).

** [[{{Superman}} Kryptonite]], radioactive elements from Krypton, which come in a wide variety of colors and effects (most notably Green, which weakens Kryptonians to fatal levels.)

** Spider Robinson later used thiotimoline to drive the plot of his ''[[{{ptitlebga5e439}} Callahan's Saloon]]'' short story "Mirror/rorriM".

* [[{{Transformers}} Energon]] is a borderline case; while it was given many more powers than it used to have when it was introduced in ''TransformersEnergon'', it still shared the basic properties of all other Energon in the macrofranchise - it is an energy source for the Transformers that come in both solid and liquid forms, has PowerGlows, but is unstable and gives off radiation that's hurtful to Transformers in large concentrations (though confusingly organic material is generally immune to it).
** This applies to almost every continuity in which energon is the life blood of all transformers, which they used for almost anything. Its is used to power their weapons and also used as currency.
** In ''TransformersPrime'' the Autobots have been able to create synthetic energon, which can be a substitute for normal energon.

** Also, the Second Law of Themodynamics is adhered to so long as there is some dumping ground for the entropy removed by reorganizing the matter. Presumably, part of the matrix involves the transfer of entropy from the object being transmuted to the surroundings. As for the first anime, Dante makes direct reference to the Second Law by referring to wasted effort- while input of matter and energy is necessary to achieve what you seek, it is by no means sufficient.

** Borrowed by James Blish for "Cities in Flight" - this is the only substance suitable for building the Bridge on Jupiter.
** There actually is an Ice IX - "A tetragonal metastable phase" of water ice. However, it has nothing to do with the fictional ice-nine. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_IX The other wiki]] makes this distinction pretty clear.

* IsaacAsimov once wrote a mock academic paper (and eventually a sequel or two) about "the endochronic properties of resublimated thiotimoline", a substance with one chemical bond reaching in the past and one into the future, which dissolves ''before'' it actually comes in contact with water. (Technical explanation: there's a carbon atom so sterically crowded that the only place two of its four substituents can go is ''through time''.)

** In ''MassEffect2'' there is even a scene that goes on in the background where a gunnery officer yells at recruits about fire discipline. He explains that the main guns of human ''Everest''-class [[TheBattlestar Dreadnoughts]] fire a 20kg slug at 1.3% of lightspeed, which impacts a target with a force of 38 kilotons -- [[HiroshimaAsAUnitOfMeasure 3 Hiroshimas]]. Every five seconds. He then quotes Newton's first law (object in motion remains in motion until acted on by an outside object) and says that [[ArbitraryMaximumRange if you don't hit your target, that slug is going to keep going and hit someone, somewhere and sometime]]. A fantastic example of [[strike:the blending of fictional and]] real physics.
--->'''Drill Sergeant:''' [[IsaacNewton Sir Isaac Newton]] is the '''''[[CrowningMomentOfFunny Deadliest Son-of-a-Bitch in Space!]]'''''

* StarTrek deserves a special mention only because it has a dedicated fan community that understands science and worked hard over the decades to try to make the science of as many different technologies of the show as possible believable. In the end, the only thing that seems to stick is that dilithium crystals regulate the interaction of matter and antimatter in the warp core to facilitate the creation of a stable warp field. The rest is [[AWizardDidIt Quantum]].

* The "philotes" in the ''[=~Ender's Game~=]'' series.

[[folder: Anime/Manga ]]