[HPforGrownups] Re: Flight to London - Speed Questioned

[Random]

No: HPFGUIDX 71808


On Saturday, Jul 19, 2003, at 21:51 America/Indianapolis, Steve wrote:

> bboy_mn:
>
> I'm sure I mentioned windchill and wind turbulence. Haven't you ever
> stuck your arm out of a car going 50 mph? OK... now multiply that by
> 10. Wind turbulence at 500mph would rip your head off. Pilots who
> eject from their planes at that speed frequenlty sustain substantial
> injuries from the sudden blast of 500 mph air.

Well, why can't _that_ be the magic bit? It's going 500mph _for real_ 
but maintains a bubble of static air around it.

> (snip more)
>
> So, the only logical way to get there in a resonable amount of time
> under those conditions, is magic. I simply outlined a likely means by
> which that particular magic would manifest itself.

Ever heard of Occam's Razor? The simplest explanation is best... Of 
course, i've seen anime with flying spells that explicitly create a 
bubble of air (slayers) so i'm biased towards that being the most 
believable explanation. However, it seems

> As to the only possible point of reference being the ground speed, if
> you apparate 500 miles in 2 seconds, your apparent ground speed is
> 900,000mph. Talk about wind chill.

Teleportation is rather different than actually dragging your body 
around physically. The thestral is actually physically moving.

> So, what is the ground speed if you Floo 140 miles from Ottery St.
> Catchpole in Devon to London in 2 minutes? 4,200 mph!

And your voice goes down the phone wire much faster than the speed of 
sound, let alone the speed you could possibly drag yourself over to 
your friend's house to talk to them directly. You're also presuming 
that you're exposed to open air... some people compared the floo 
network to the underground, who says there's not an invisible train car 
around you, in that case, providing the same "static air bubble" that 
the car/train/plane does in the real world?

> Otter St Catchpole's Stoad Hill to Quidditch World Cup in Scotland
> (500 miles; best guess) in say 5 minutes by portkey? 6,000 mph.

Teleportation, again.

> Those things aren't physically possible. The human body could never
> withstand it, so the only possible solution is magic.

or the _body_ isn't transported in that way.

> Again, I simply describe a likely manifestation of that magic.

For the Thestral's case, where the body is not transmitted or 
teleported but actually physically transported, it makes more sense to 
just have a "bubble" of static air around the immediate area of the 
thestral.

Back to sticking your hand out the window of the car - it only happens 
when you stick your hand _out_, not when you first open the window. 
Even if you have the top down on a convertible, (at least in the front 
seat) you don't feel the _fast_ wind until you stick your hand up over 
the windshield. even with "open air" your car has an inertial "bubble" 
of air within it, and the magic could simply be an effect of creating 
that without the use of physical framework like a windshield.

--Random832