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skeptical_lurker comments on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, February 2015, chapter 113 - Less Wrong Discussion
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I have just realised that the 'partial transfigureation to create a steel monofilament' idea probably doesn't work. The problem is that in general, it doesn't actually require partial transfigureation - one could simply transform an object into a steel spike which pushes (rather than transfigures) its way through the soil, going under the shields and then up into your enemies' brain. If this worked, someone would have figured it out by now, because this requires no special knowledge. Therefore, there is some defensive shield which would prevent this attack, and presumably the Death Eaters have shields raised, unless they want to run the risk of a sudden attack wiping them all out at once.
I agree. Wizards would have caps on the ends of their wands for this sort of weapon if this were the case.
No one has been able to transfigure a piece of the air or ground before, as far as anyone knows, so the shields might not be designed to block that.
Transfigured tendrils that intersect all the bad guys' spinal cords at the neck level would do the trick. Only question is if Harry has the range to do that.
No, I mean transfigure a steel spike that pierces through the ground, without actually being transfigured from the ground.
Would would Harry not transfigure it from the ground? Or the air from that matter? What else does he have to work with?
And he'd be transfiguring part of their bodies too.
Wouldn't work on Voldie due to resonance cascade, but he could disable the uzi.
I mean that transfigureing a steel spike through the ground is doable without partial transfigureation, so it would have been tried before and would be used as a battle tactic already if it worked.
Wouldn't you need partial transfiguration to make the spike out of a piece of earth?
Regardless, that's not what I'm proposing that Harry should do. I'm saying he should use partial transfiguration to make acid or cesium threads through the air that include the death eaters and Voldemort's handgun in the transfigured material. That has never been done before, and its likely there won't be defenses against it.
No, I mean you transfigure something else into a spike, and the transfiguration pushes the material through the ground.
Sheilds stop projectile weaponry (up to a point) and I'm not sure this is any different.
It wouldn't be a projectile. It would be transfiguring part of the enemy INTO acid or some other deadly substance by including a bit of their body inside of Harry's conceptual "object."