F*cking Capsules, how do they work?

[MetaMoss]

I was curious on other people's theories on how Capsules do what they do. Personally, I think they work similar to the TARDIS from Doctor Who, where inside it's a separate dimension, which allows it to hold much more stuff than its normal size would allow.

[Eire]

In one cartoon there was a mixture that made shorter distance between subatomic particles, but it didn't change the weight. The effects were funny But I don't see any rational explanation to change of the weight except that mentioned above and used also in Harry Potter.

[Herms]

When Bulma explains the Great Saiyaman transformation suit/watch to Gohan, she says that it works like a capsule, by changing the suit into "particles" and storing it that way.

[Fox666]

Bulma made a device so that could shrunk, and I felt that was the capsule technology.

[Kaboom]

They work just fine, thanks for asking.

[Herms]

Bulma made a device so that could shrunk, and I felt that was the capsule technology.

The idea seems to be that capsules shrink things down by "turning them into particles".

[penguintruth]

Leaked Wonka technology.

[Bussani]

When Bulma explains the Great Saiyaman transformation suit/watch to Gohan, she says that it works like a capsule, by changing the suit into "particles" and storing it that way.

Where does all the mass go?! I'm gonna say that subspace fields are involved. Either that or they're some pretty far out particles.

[ggf31416]

They could work by reducing the electromagnetic forces, which are the only ones that keep objects intact and prevent you from falling through the floor or the earth collapsing from its gravity. Since most of the atom is void, if the electromagnetic force is reduced, matter can be compressed up to densities close to a white dwarf star.
However it still has to deal with gravity from Earth, it could do that applying an equal force in an opposite sense. As long as the electromagnetic force is not reduced too much the gravity from the object itself shouldn't be a problem.

[Herms]

Either that or they're some pretty far out particles.

Maybe Bulma meant grammatical particles. Those wouldn't really have mass.

[Bussani]

Maybe Bulma meant grammatical particles. Those wouldn't really have mass.

That's some Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy technology right there.

[Rocketman]

Buu Arc Gohan is strong enough to carry the mass of the Saiyaman suit even in a compressed form.

Pilaf Arc Bulma, on the other hand, probably can't lift a house.

[Pan-Pan]

I thought items could be put in capsules only if they were fabricated that way (with an integrated system) since you need to push a button to turn them into capsules. But it seems that capsules can contain more than one item (like Dr Brief's magazines which seem to be unmodified) and even elements without clearly defined physical limits (like water for Nam's family). So I don't understand how the characters proceed to store many items in capsules. Any idea ?

[caejones]

Maybe Bulma meant grammatical particles. Those wouldn't really have mass.

That's some Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy technology right there.

So, when Krillin's corpse was put into a refrigerator capsule, Krillin was turned into desu?

The weight is really the confusing thing more than the volume compression. Compress a house to the size of a grapefruit? No problem! Make said grapefruithouse light enough that a normal human can lift it? Hmm...
Well, while we're hacking electromagnetics, let's also assume that the capsules contain some sort of pressure sensors, so they know when someone's trying to move them, and exert the necessary force to keep the contents in motion. I kinda suspect that capsules are thrown to be activated because they take some sort of force detection as a failsafe against accidentally pressing the button at a dangerous moment.
Of course, if capsules can tell mass to go shove it, then they could conceivably accelerate things way the heck more easily than the average jet engine. Maybe capsules just have epic batteries of awesomeness to power all of this physics hacking.
Which, again, would mean that said awesome batteries could probably be used to develop weapons capable of making Piccolo Daimao think of his canonical death as lame.
I dunno, maybe Capsule Corp has restrictions on using their technology for weapons development. But Dr. Gero's a jerk and used it anyway.

[Vegeta Jr]

Pokeballs for technology, that's how I have always seen it.

[Herms]

So, when Krillin's corpse was put into a refrigerator capsule, Krillin was turned into desu?

Desu is a verb. Particles would be stuff like wa or ga. [/nitpick]

[Cipher]

Science.

[rereboy]

Bulma is clearly a witch. Goku was right all along.

[hleV]

Bulma is clearly a witch. Goku was right all along.

Only to Vegeta. And to Yamcha, for that matter.

[Maphisto86]

Bulma is clearly a witch. Goku was right all along.

Only to Vegeta. And to Yamcha, for that matter.

Kinky.

I was curious on other people's theories on how Capsules do what they do. Personally, I think they work similar to the TARDIS from Doctor Who, where inside it's a separate dimension, which allows it to hold much more stuff than its normal size would allow.

Well as Herms and everyone else has mentioned so far, Bulma does talk about items being reduced to "particles" or some such. Being a Trekkie I always figure it was something like a transporter or something that can break stuff down and then reassemble it. Heck there is a lot of such crazyness in fiction (Pokeballs or somesuch anyone?). Either that or Dr. Briefs discovered the secrets of Hammerspace.