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mare-of-night comments on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, part 21, chapters 91 & 92 - Less Wrong Discussion

4 Post author: NancyLebovitz 04 July 2013 11:49AM

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Comment author: Tripitaka 05 July 2013 12:12:06PM *  1 point [-]

Some thoughts on "Hermiones brain will be transfigured and kept frozen by Harry":

We know from Harrys first transfiguration lesson that transfigured living things undergo changes with time, which will kill said things. Harry knows this, and is thus likely to thing of deep-freezing the Hermione-diamond. Only he also plans to retransfigurate his fathers rock, and we know that one sustained transfiguration is a serious drain on his magic. Add to that the magical drain from having to cool the H-diamond and its thermal buffer, I think it unlikely that he did something of that sorts.

One way to circumvent the drain of the transfigured H-diamond would be to make it microscopically small, but he still would have to touch it regularly; given that its temperature should be in the cryogenic range, only touches with his wand would be feasible.

The only way I can think of to circumvent these problems would be to have others partake in the task, but that brings with it other problems.

Any thoughts which theories Harry tested with

"Is that a usual tactic, by the way?" Harry said, voice still odd. "Carrying something large Transfigured into something small to use as a weapon? Or is that a usual exercise for Transfiguration practice?"

Comment author: mare-of-night 05 July 2013 04:18:57PM 10 points [-]

Alternately, he might want people to believe he has transfigured his father's rock again, but not be actually planning to keep it transfigured, because he wants to carry the Hermione diamond and let people think it is the rock.

Comment author: Tripitaka 05 July 2013 06:35:31PM 0 points [-]

Any thoughts on the changing/cooling issue? That seems to really get brushed off. Is a perfect diamond supposed to be absolutely stable at room temperature?

Comment author: Plasmon 05 July 2013 06:43:14PM 3 points [-]

It isn't

Contrary to the popular belief that "diamonds are forever", they are in fact thermodynamically unstable under normal conditions and transform into graphite.[13] However, due to a high activation energy barrier, the transition into graphite is so extremely slow at room temperature as to be unnoticeable.

Comment author: Decius 06 July 2013 03:06:38AM 0 points [-]

What is the most stable thing at room temperature, with magical assistance?

Comment author: Velorien 06 July 2013 01:23:46PM 0 points [-]

Arguably a troll - it's constantly transfiguring itself back into the same form.

Comment author: Decius 06 July 2013 10:17:29PM 2 points [-]

So transfigure Hermione's brain into a troll until you figure out how to save her.

Twitch.

Comment author: TobyBartels 07 July 2013 01:42:24AM 1 point [-]

I don't think that a troll's transfiguration is supposed be stable at that level of detail.