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TuviaDulin comments on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, February 2015, chapter 113 - Less Wrong Discussion

8 Post author: Gondolinian 28 February 2015 08:23PM

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Comment author: TuviaDulin 01 March 2015 01:58:36PM 2 points [-]

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.

Comment author: skeptical_lurker 01 March 2015 02:06:07PM 3 points [-]

No, I mean transfigure a steel spike that pierces through the ground, without actually being transfigured from the ground.

Comment author: TuviaDulin 01 March 2015 02:33:42PM 0 points [-]

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.

Comment author: skeptical_lurker 01 March 2015 02:44:46PM 3 points [-]

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.

Comment author: TuviaDulin 01 March 2015 09:22:12PM 0 points [-]

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.

Comment author: skeptical_lurker 01 March 2015 10:38:29PM 3 points [-]

No, I mean you transfigure something else into a spike, and the transfiguration pushes the material through the ground.

I'm saying he should use partial transfiguration to make acid or cesium threads through the air

Sheilds stop projectile weaponry (up to a point) and I'm not sure this is any different.

Comment author: TuviaDulin 02 March 2015 02:56:20PM 2 points [-]

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."