Magic calorie-burning

[tex23236]

No: HPFGUIDX 37293

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "marinafrants" <rusalka at i...> wrote:
> I guess we do have to assume that.  Hogwarts does seem to have an 
> awful lot of stairs and no elevatiors.  Plus, chasing after Blast-
> tailed skrewts and such in Hagrid's class is probably pretty good 
> cross-training too. :-)

Plus Harry & Co. do a lot of old-fashioned running.  They all seem 
to be in good physical conditioning.  Dragon wrestling seems about
the most stenuous task that needs doing.  JKR doesn't say much
about it, physical and mental exercise a la Yoga or something
must be going on. 

> In any case, when I originally had my "magic burns calories" idea,
I 
> wasn't thinking of wizard weight problems at all; I was thinking 
> about the First Law of Thermodynamics: energy can be converted from 
> one form to another, but it cannot be created or destroyed.  It may 
> be just the engineering geek in me coming to the surface, but I
like 
> to think that magic doesn't just ignore the laws of physics -- it 
> has to work within them, but using totally different methods and 
> principles than science does.  So to cast a spell, potential energy 
> must be converted to kinetic/magical energy, and since there's no 
> evidence that wizards draw potential energy from an external
source, 
> I assume it must come from the spell-caster him/herself.

The UFO people like to talk about "zero-point energy," which
smacks of perpetual motion, but NASA has a web page on it.
Kenetic energy might be obtained from body fat, but some curses
might not need a lot of energy. Take the UC's for example.  
AK or Cruciatus would just require the tweaking of a few protien 
molecules.  The right mix of laser light might do it.  Imperius 
sounds in Harry's experience like plain old hypnosis, again
only the tweaking of molecules.

Transfiguration, on the other hand, seems routinely to change the 
mass of the target.  When Wormtail turns into a rat, all that human
body mass has to go someplace, and it must be gotten back when 
he changes back to Pttigrew.

JKR doesn't tell us how magic works.  If she did, it would
be technology, and the series would be science fiction, not
fantasy.  She might even be writing grant proposals and patent
applications instead of stories.

Tex