Where do you get the idea that wizards don't know about muggle tech? Hermione took muggle studies, and she never complained about inaccurate information. If you are using Arthur to base your opinions off of well he wasn't even in the Slug club nor can he manage money well so I don't think he is a prime example to use. Let's look at the fact that no Death Eater has even been marginally hurt by a muggle, and the Death Eaters have such wonderful members as Goyle and Crabbe....I think that pretty much says all you need to say about this topic if a bunch of pure bloods who wouldn't be caught dead in a muggle studies class and who are arguably the dumbest wizards alive have not been harmed by a muggle then I don't think wizards have much to worry about.

 

Wasn't there an article in the Daily Prophet talking about "firelegs"?

 

I stand corrected. The dumbest people in the wizarding world work at the daily prophet, and mispronunciation does not equal a lack of understanding of the concept of muggle weapons if it did people in the southern parts of America would be unable to use guns of any sort.....they love talking about their pity caliber guns.

 

I see what you mean, but you're missing one very important fact here. Magic does not conform to the laws of nature. Therefore it does not need to obey the second law of thermodynamics or even be a type of energy. Magic, as seen in the Harry Potter books, is almost synonymous with God.

For an example of how it completely blows the idea of magical energy out of the water: Gubraithian Fire. A flame that never goes out. Think about that for a second. If magic were reliant on any type of energy that could not happen, it defies the second law of thermodynamics in every way. The only way you can try to rationalise that is by saying that JKR told a lie and that it's only eternal insofar as it will go out well past our lifetime.

 

Magnetism also can blow gravity right out of the water, that doesn't mean it does not mean it is not governed by physical laws. I think you are confusing physical laws with the laws of physics as we know them.

 

You misunderstand precisely how stupid and uninterested in the muggle world most wizards are, TimeLord. Muggle Studies does exist, but is it a core class, or is it an elective? If it's an elective, how many students do you think take it?

 

If magic weren't restricted by at least some laws - for instance, the law of conservation of energy, which is really the most fundamental law - then discussing it would be meaningless. Thus, any discussion of magic must be restricted by physical laws, except where it would be unreasonable and detrimental to the discussion to impose them.

Also, JKR is an idiot. What else is new? Anyway, that's either something one of her characters said or wrote, and thus isn't necessarily true, even in the canon universe, or something she said in an interview, which isn't really canon. So there.

That said, on the subject of the spell in question, there's no reason that it can't be a ward that constantly creates hydrogen and oxygen, for example, and burns them. That'll last "forever" in the sense that it'll last as long as magic is around.


For everyone who insists on not reading long posts: it takes one wizard with a bit of creativity and an understanding of wards and vanishing/conjuring spells in order to create the Flying Castle of Doom. War over; wizards win.

Now, if you want to disprove the Flying Castle of Doom as a concept, that's another story.

Narion

 

Well Kingsley had to have some good understanding of muggles or else he wouldn't have been able to blend in so well. Which would indicate that the Ministry probably has information on the muggle world. The majority are uninterested. But at the same time the majority probably have never spoken to a muggle in their life.

 

That is the point I was trying to make. The ministry obviously knows about muggles, and they keep tabs on all of the government offices so it would be impossible to plan a major attack without wizards knowing about it and stopping it. I mean we only know about the paintings, but I'm sure the ministry has several other methods of gathering information which are more effective. If you consider the fact that we, as readers, know almost nothing about magic besides a few spells and we can still construct arguments for the magical side winning the war it should be fairly obvious that with the other spells we don't know about they would easily have who knows how many more weapons at their disposal during a war time situation. We have never actually seen a magical war only a terrorist group creating a rebellion which is much different then two countries going at it.

 

No, actually. The article in question (in PoA, on the Knight bus), refers to guns by that name, and goes on to give a crude analogy as explanation for an ignorant wizard. So the Daily Prophet knows what a gun is, but considers it a fact worth explaining.

"Firelegs" is from OotP, Kingsley asks Arthur Weasley about his report on "Firelegs", at which point Arthur corrects him. Taking HBP into account (Kingsley integrated himself as a Muggle pretty effectively it seems), Kingsley obviously made an effort to correct his ignorance.

The fact that Arthur Weasley was making a Ministry report about firearms in the first place shows that the Ministry has the knowledge.

/me jumps back out of the thread.

 

...Oh. Thank you for the correction, Taure.

 

Muggles win. I'm not saying anything more because pissy people are going most definetly going to say something to on how wizards are far superior. I gave my opinion on this matter and that's it. I don't care what anybody else thinks on this.

 

Rofl, what's the point in posting unless you're going to substatiate your post? Frankly, I don't give a shit about your opinion unless it's going to add something to the discussion. "I'm not saying anything more because pissy peple" my ass - you're not saying anything more because you have nothing worthwhile to say.

Man, posts like yours piss me off. Too similar to that of creationists.

 

I wonder if it's too late to attach a poll to this discussion. I'm not about to go back all the way through and figure out exactly how many individuals came down on each side, but I'm vaguely interested in the exact breakdown.

A) Muggle victory
B) Magic victory
C) Whoever strikes first takes all.
D) Wide scale destruction, blasting the entire population back to the Stone Age.

(I go with C and D, myself)

 

Jaba this is a debate you're supposed to elaborate and the way your worded makes you sound like a pissy person
Banner has a good point.

 

There was a poll on the thread that came before this one (this one is number 2, for those who didn't realise), but that thread was locked. Still, the poll results should be there.

 

so, you came back...

QFT

Thanks for the info...
And I agree with helltanz, Banner does have a good point