What is Magic?

[tex23236]

No: HPFGUIDX 42482

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "digitopolis_2000" <digitopolis_2000 at y...>
wrote:
> 
> Now it is very doubtful that JKR will have someone go off on a
spiel 
> about what magic is, since, in Potterverse, magic simply *is*.

This is really how science-fiction starships go faster than light. 
They just do. Hogwarts teaches "theory of magic," although 
JKR doesn't pass it to the reader.

>  Magic isn't physical – it's not made up 
> of atoms – which leads me to believe that magic might be some
sort of 
> radiation.
> 
1. Radiation is physical (waves and/or particles)

> 1. Muggles can't detect it using any instrument. Detection would
rely 
> on interaction between the radiation and something else, but that 
> doesn't happen for muggles. 

So magic isn't radiation.

> 2. Magic interferes with electronic equipment which uses/gives off 
> radiation in the EM spectrum.
> 
The interferance might be at the quantum level, which would apear to
muggles to be a randomizing effect.  

> Now we have three ideas: (don't want to call them options, as they 
> might be interrelated.)
> 1. There is another spectrum parallel to the EM spectrum that deals 
> with magic. 

Or an effect on EM whithout being a spectrum.

> 2. Magic is a fundamental force or the manipulation of the 
> fundamental forces. There are four – weak nuclear, strong
nuclear, 
> gravitational and electromagnetic. 

Okay...

> 3. Two words: Quantum physics.
>
Probably.
 
> People talk about the `magical-ness' of places/people, for example 
> Hogsmeade is a totally magical village. Pictures of Earth from
space 
> show bright spots of light coming from large cities during the
night. 
> This is how I `see' the magic of a place – as radiating from
it. 
 
Okay, thus electronics messes up in the vacinity of Hogwarts.
 
> Magic interacts with waves in the EM spectrum, for example the 
> invisibility cloak. Light waves seem to pass straight through –
like 
> glass. And like glass, the person/thing under the cloak remains 
> solid. However transparency is a property inherent in glass due to 
> crystal structure, I believe. I don't think that the cloak can give 
> properties like that, so it must mean that it somehow interacts
with 
> the light rays, bending them in some manner so that it appears that 
> we can see straight through.

The cloak isn't consistant. If the light waves all pass through or 
around the cloak, Then none would enter the eye of the wearer; 
thus the wearer would be in the dark. Also, Ron wouldn't be able 
to navigate the Flying car.

> 
> "In the scene where Harry and Hermione use the time-turner to
rescue 
> Buckbeak why didn't they replay the scene as many times as they 
> needed to get it right?  

They got it right on the first loop
> 
> "To expand on the second of these points, the theory goes that,
using 
> the time-turner, people can only change the course of time if the 
> outcome is uncertain or, "exists in a state of `Quantum Ambiguity' 
> where it can go one way or the other".  The rescue of Buckbeak was 
> possible only because Harry and Hermione had not witnessed his
death; 
> they heard the axe fall, but they did not see him beheaded.  Once 
> they had rescued him, the ambiguity of the situation was resolved. 
> 
H&H didn't in fact change anything; they caused it to turn out the
way it did.
> 
> "Could this be related to the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle,
which 
> holds that one cannot measure both the momentum and location of an 
> electron with any accuracy at the same time?

Probably a good explanation

> 
> Currently, lots of physicists are experimenting with quantum
effects 
> (for lack of the real term). They say that they've managed to bring 
> particles to an `entangled' state. Extrapolating, they say that it 
> could be key to creating teleportation devices (a la Star Trek). 
> Apparation immediately come to mind – disappear from one place, 
> reappear almost instantly in another. This is basically what
happens 
> in Star Trek, basically what the scientists say they may eventually 
> be able to do years from now – and wizards do it all the time!

The trick is to make the jump from particles to human-scale objects.
> 
One really bizarre part of quantum effect is that the observer is
part of the effect. This makes me want to look at Harry's 
Divination exam in PA, when he looks into the crystal ball.  
Trelawney expects him to see a beheaded Buckbeak
twitching on the ground.  Instead, he SAYS he sees 
Buckbeak escaping and flying away.  JKR doesn't
tell us what he really saw.  But if Harry REALLY saw Buckbeak
escaping in the ball. This may be what ultimately caused 
the success of the time turner.

Quantum Physics is that wierd.

Tex