How do Changelings deal with mass?

[Neo]

It is interesting how Founders manage to transform themselves into small or empty inside objects - as glasses, bags and so on. A glass and a Changeling in his humanoid form should be of equal weight, but it has no sense. Where goes the bulk of mass? Or they can change their weight somehow?

 

[Ice Queen]

It's a plothole. A gaping one. If you notice also, Odo forms his own communication badge as well. That's quite a bit more complex than ears, methinks.

 

[Shaun]

Well they only need to weigh the same so the size doesn't matter they would just need to be incredibly dense. And they can turn themselves into a gas, so maybe they just have an invisible cloud floating over them. Or it's just easier for the writers to do.

 

[Dave]

It is a big plot hole. Against all the laws of physics. I knew about the combadge too.

What Shaun says is essentially correct, but it just doesn't wash with what we see of Odo, because when he changes into small things like a carpet bag, he should still weigh as much as he did before, yet he can be picked up as easily as. . . a bag!

 

[Technomage]

Since we know that Changelings can turn into gas, wouldn't a good explanation for the weight problem be that any unnecessary mass would simply be converted into a gaseous state?

 

[FeedMeTV]

Do we know that when they're in a humanoid form they're not just really, really light people?

 

[Dave]

We know a lot about Odo. You can tell how heavy he is from his interactions with objects and with other characters -- the fight with the other changeling that he killed in 'The Adversary' DS9 -- I don't think there is any way of defending this mistake -- invisible gas clouds suspended over their heads would have been noticed.

 

[Despondent]

In the early episode 'Vortex' the gamma-quadrant fugitive who gave Odo the necklace, had to at one point carry an unconscious Odo back to the runabout. It's obvious that it was a difficult task, and he later says: "You're heavier than you look." So we know Odo weighs at least as much as a humanoid. So I decided for myself that he converted the excess mass into a cloud ('aura') of air. One scene that wrecks this theory though, is when Odo and Lwaxana are trapped in a turbolift and he forms a pool in her lap. We know that ALL of him should be in a liquid state, so Lwaxana shouldn't be able to hold him up, unless she eats a hellovalotta spinach.

 

[Coops]

Parts of Odo might exist in another dimension. This might be something that changlings do without even knowing it. One example is species 8472 from Voyager but there are many examples in Star Trek of aliens who exist in other planes of existence.

 

[Lefty]

Parts of Odo might exist in another dimension. This might be something that changlings do without even knowing it

Yo, i cant remember wether it was in a trek book ive read or that episode where quark gives odo a baby changeling but it explained they do "shunt" their excess matter or whatever into some kind of alternate dimension, subspace or some crap like that.

 

[The Ace]

It's like the Heisenberg Compensators;

How do they work?
Very well, thank you.