Thermodynamics & Wizarding

[Aberforth's Goat]

No: HPFGUIDX 7262

*N.B. Some apologies in advance: I've missed quite a few posts recently and
have lost the collection on my hard disk, so I may be whalloping on dead
horses. AND my copy of GoF has also been stolen, AND I don't have a spell
checker on this computer, so I'm winging it.*

I've just finished gnawing on Heidi's and Ebony's Chistmas Dinner posts and
am very intrigued. There are at least two fascinating issues here: (1)
transforming matter and (2) creating matter ex nihilo.

Obviously, they can transform matter. Otherwise there wouldn't be a course
called transfiguration. But they can't make any sort of transformation at
any time. Some things would seem to be more difficult to transfigure than
others--and the difficulty level does not correspond to muggle standards of
thinking. For example, turning a match into a needle is the very first task
McGonagall gives the first years in PS--but turning lead into gold requires
the philosopher's stone. Interesting.

Issue (2) is more problematic, though. If Molly could magic unlimited
quiantities of galleons or dress robes or baked Alaska or even cloth and
flour into existence, why are the Weasly's poor? And yet, Dumbledore makes
all sorts of things appear with a mere twitch of his wand. ("Drawing up" a
chair, for instance.) And doesn't Olivander make wine stream out of Fleur's
wand in GoF? In fact, doesn't Molly herself ejec--I mean, shoot--a stream of
white sauce out of her wand while preparing dinner at the Burrow? (Or have
you people lead my impressionable mind to remeber quotes that aren't
there??[1])

So, wizards really do seem to be able to cause matter to appear, where none
was present before.

Three thoughts: (1) Could it be that magic does not create matter out of
nothing but out of the wizard's power? Hence, a wizard with a huge reserve
of power (and the ability to tap into it) can create a great deal more than
a less powerful one. Perhaps Dumbledore has the power to create all the
dress robes he could ever want. This thought could alos be mixed with
Heidi's theory that particularly powerful wizards can manipulate some energy
and matter latent in empty space. (A little QED could come in handy here.)

(2) But perhaps the same rules that make certain transformations
particularly difficult apply here as well--perhaps making gold from nothing
would require even greater powers than Dumbledore has.

(3) And of course, maybe we're just mauling Jo's stage props. Perhaps the
potential and limitations of magic are governed more by exigencies of plot
than by metaphysical logic.

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1. In passing: in the world of wizarding, guys aren't the only wavers of
potent wands. Could it be that the wizarding community has solved the Great
Envy? Could that be why only males experience the frustrations prerequisite
to becoming major league bad guys? If only Lacan had read Harry Potter,
post-structuralist Freudianism might have been legible ...
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Baaaaaa!

Aberforth's Goat (a.k.a. Mike Gray)
http://profiles.yahoo.com/aberforths_goat