Shrinking Addendum

Last Friday’s blog post, I’m Shrinking!, reviewed height loss with aging. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that it’s not only aging people that shrink, but I will. And I’ll illustrate with examples.

My favorite shrinking-people movie was the 1957 The Incredible Shrinking Man. I even read the book by Richard Matheson. I remember thinking the ending was quite profound. (Movie trailer: www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTIWloXBCww)

Alice herself brought on shrinking, the first time by drinking from the drink-me bottle. Sir John Tenniel illustrated Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass. (www.gutenberg.org/files/114/114-h/114-h.htm)

Shrunken people may be limited to heads, as exhibited at San Diego’s Museum of Man. (www.museumofman.org/blog/how-shrink-human-head)

Of course it’s not only people that shrink. In 2013, the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology unveiled a concept car that folded like an armadillo, shrinking from 110 to 65 inches. (www.core77.com/posts/25433/Shrinking-Cars-for-an-Expanding-Populations-KAISTs-Armadillo-T)

You can be in hot water if some things shrink too much. (multiple websites)

Like your assets or the value of your country’s money. (multiple websites)

Or the population of your country, as is happening in Japan. (multiple websites)

But don’t get too wrapped up in that, because shrinking things can be useful. (www.duckbrand.com/products/window-kits/shrink-film-window-kits)

And even fun, I suppose. (multiple websites; game by Creativity for Kids)

Which may be why my mother often warned me not to be a shrinking violet. (multiple websites)

If you really get into this, you’ll find Shrinking Words, for which you keep dropping one letter to make another word (e.g., princess, princes, prices, pries, pies, pie, pi and I).

And you’ll find Shrinking Patterns, in which the numbers decrease and the amount subtracted changes each time in a predictable way (e.g., 537, 535, 531, 523, 507…where the pattern rule is to subtract 2 then double the amount you subtract each time).

Clearly, if I do many more of these, I may need to see a shrink.