Incorrect comments on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, part 10 - Less Wrong

11 Post author: Oscar_Cunningham 07 March 2012 04:46PM

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Comment author: Incorrect 16 March 2012 06:49:55PM *  1 point [-]

Transfigure a one-atom line of antimatter through the earth's crust all the way to the Wizengamot or Malfoy Manor, and then a small bubble there. His wand is then touching the item to be transformed, and it will work.

Items aren't held in stasis while in mid-transfiguration as far as I am aware.

I'm not sure he even needs a line anyway.

Comment author: cultureulterior 16 March 2012 06:55:12PM 3 points [-]

Ok, do the same with a radioactive substance- it won't do anything until enough has been transfigured to go critical.

Comment author: pedanterrific 17 March 2012 05:52:53AM 0 points [-]

Items aren't held in stasis while in mid-transfiguration as far as I am aware.

It took me a while to figure out what you meant by this. I'm pretty sure, from the descriptions we've been given, that while transfiguration requires some time spent concentrating, the actual change happens instantaneously at the end- if you're interrupted before you finish, nothing happens.

Comment author: loserthree 17 March 2012 06:30:13AM 2 points [-]

As an airborne scout, Goyle was able to report what HJPEV & Blaise were in the process of transfiguring during the battle in chapter 78.

Is that less than conclusive evidence that the transformation is gradual?

Comment author: pedanterrific 17 March 2012 07:38:55AM 2 points [-]

You know, you're right. I was going off the demonstration of partial Transfiguration:

And a few minutes later, Harry was strapped into the safety chair and resting his wand against a metal ball - one that, based on his current test scores, should have been too large for him to Transfigure in less than thirty minutes.

And a few minutes after that, Minerva was leaning against the wall, feeling faint.

There was a small patch of glass on the ball where Harry's wand had rested.

Which seemed to me to indicate that the glass didn't appear until a few minutes after he started the transfiguration. And the bit where Harry cuts through Azkaban's interior wall seems to make somewhat less sense if it's gradual- the motor oil would just drip out, for instance.

But the fact that Goyle could recognize the cauldrons before the transfiguration was done pretty conclusively rules the idea out. Oops.

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