NEW CANON- Teeth and Transport

[Steve]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "Erin" <erinellii at y...> wrote:
>
> ...GMS... (...Great Merciless Snip...)
>
> > > > >
Why all the bad teeth? At last count, Snape, Sirius, and Karkaroff
all had yellow teeth, and now Hagrid's gotten some teeth knocked out
by Grawp. Has the wizarding world never heard of dentists?
> > > > >

The British don't put Fluoride in their water, so they are notorious
for having bad teeth. Apparently, like some Americans, they are
convinced fluoride a great government conspiracy to poison them all,
even though the discovery of the connection between good teeth and
fluoride was done in France when a connection was made between
naturally occurring fluoride in well water and good teeth. 


When asking question, it's great to think of all the answers we would
like to know, but the odds of getting an answer to those questions are
slim to none. It's much better to try and think of question JKR would
be likely to answer.

Also, given the many many many many etc... people who will likely be
on-line for this, I suspect there will be equally many many many
people screening the in-coming chat messages and only relaying
messages they think are significant to JKR. Therefore, asking a
question that is NOT likely to get answered, very much means, it is a
question that is not likely to get asked. Also, it helps to be cute.


Things I would like JKR to answer, but don't see much chance of the
question ever being posed to her.


Brooms, Portkeys, Apparation, Floo Network, Owls, and Thestrals -
what's up with that?

I would like to know more about the nature and limits of the various
forms of transportation in the magic world.


How fast is the fastest broom?

Harry's Firebolt will go from 0 to 150 in ten seconds, Ron's
Cleansweep will go from 0 to 70 in ten seconds, but that is
acceleration in a fixed period of time; I want to know what the TOP
SPEED of the fastest broom is. I suspect it's currently drag limited
to about 250mph.


Typically, what is the greatest distance a person can Apparate?

JKR said in an interview that Apparation gets harder as the distance
gets longer. So what is the typically limit? About 500 miles seems to
be the limit we have seen so far. Devon, the Burrow, to London is
about 150 miles, so we know that can be done. There are some
implications that London to Hogsmeade can be done; that's just under
500 miles.

So can you go London to Paris? ...London to Rome? ...London to
Istanbul? ...London to Bombay?


Tell me more about Portkeys?

I had a theory that the reason Portkeys are so tightly controlled is
because it is a dangerous spell to perform, get it wrong, and the
result could be just as disastrous as improperly apparating. I would
like JKR to confirm that I am right.

Also, what are the limits on Portkeys? Can you portkey from China to
England? Apparently, if I remember the World Cup episode correctly,
you can portkey from the Black Forest in Germany to the World Cup
which appeared to be in Scotland somewhere.

Over great distances, you might make a multi-layered portkey where
maximum distances are traversed in automatic leaps; Peking to Tibet,
Tibet to Russia, Russia to Ukraine, Ukraine to France, France to
England. ...confirm or deny?

So, what's up with that?


What are the limits of the Floo Network?

Is it strictly in Britain, or does it extend to the nearest neighbors
is Europe (France, Germany, Spain)? Can you Floo to China? ...North
America?


Next, applying to Floo, Portkey, and Apparation, how long does it take
to cover distance?

For example, does the traveler perceive 1 seconds travel time for
every 100 miles traveled? That would make travel from London to
Scotland seem to take place in 5 seconds. 

Personally, I think it's more like 1 second perceived for every 20
miles traveled. That would make the flight to the Quidditch World Cup
about 30 seconds long. (Burrow to London=7.5 seconds)



Do Owls and Thestrals travel my magic?

Given the flight speed of a typical muggle non-enchanted owl, Owl Post
seems to be very very fast. On some occasions, I seems almost instant.
So, are Post Owls just owls, or as I suspect, are they enchanted owls?
Owls with magical capabilities that allow them to travel great
distances in a extremely short periods of time.


We are reasonably safe in assuming that Hogwarts is in the Highlands
of Scotland. From that general location to London is just under 500
miles, and the OotP rescue mission to the Ministry of Magic appeared
to reach their destination in short order. Given that and the
description in the book, I have to suspect that magic is involved in
the Thestral's ability to fly.

Not just magic that allows them to fly fast, because the required
speed would have been too excessive for their passengers to endure. If
the flight to London took and hour and a half, that is a speed of
about 325 miles per hour. It would be extremely difficult for an
unprotected person to endure that high speed in the open. 

I've been on a motorcycle at sustained speeds of over 100 mph over
long distances (no jacket, no helmet, no gloves, no windscreen), the
force of the wind and the wind chill effect are substantial, very
substantial. The full force of three times that would have been
excessive. Hurricane and tonado windspeeds just in excess of 100mph
are enough to uproot trees and blow over buildings. Three hundred
miles per hour would make it next to impossible to stay on the
Thestral's back. 

So I conclude that the free flight of the Thestrals allows for some
type of Star Trek-like magic movement through time and space that is
not proportional to the apparent required speed. In an old discussion
on this subject, some one suggested warp jumps, implying that for a
quarter of a second the Thestrals fly in real-time and for the next
quarter of a second they are at warp/magic speed. By combining Magic
warp and real-time flight, you get the perception of flying at 50 mph
while actually covering ground at 500 mph. 

Just a few think I would like JKR to clear up.

bboy_mn