What's the source of power of wizard in the Potter universe?

[Khatti]

And outstanding example of how not using proper punctuation can lead to confusion. With a comma after "Ma'am" there is no ambiguity.

Thanks Mom.

I understand that there is a study out linking fussy concern with penmanship to sociopathology. You haven't read it, have you.

 

[phinds]

Thanks Mom.

I understand that there is a study out linking fussy concern with penmanship to sociopathology. You haven't read it, have you.

Dont' need to. I am one.

 

[Khatti]

Dont' need to. I am one

Well...as long as you know.

 

[Noisy Rhysling]

It did confuse me.

 

[Khatti]

It did confuse me.

Yeah I can see why. It was an oversight. Normally I would have caught that. My...relationship with Phinds predates you. I suppose I'll be hearing from Evo again soon.

 

[Noisy Rhysling]

I grew up on Indiana, where English still hasn't made many inroads. Follow that with 20 years in the USN and my language skils are ... exotic ... in normal usage.

 

[DaveC426913]

And outstanding example of how not using proper punctuation can lead to confusion. With a comma after "Ma'am" there is no ambiguity.

Eats shoots and leaves. :)

 

[Khatti]

I grew up on Indiana, where English still hasn't made many inroads. Follow that with 20 years in the USN and my language skils are ... exotic ... in normal usage.

This has nothing to do with you Sir. Don't worry about it.

 

[Fervent Freyja]

I'm a LotR guy.

HP came along too late for me to get caught up in it. I could tell parts that were precious to fans but didn't do much for me.

(It was so adorable when a 30-something co-worker said, with surprise: "Wait - Lord of the Rings was a book first? And it's how old??")

Well, that's okay, I have felt the same way about Star Wars and Star Trek, I didn't have an interest to watch or know about it. And I'm not going to do so just because they are suddenly now this new hype- that annoys me.

Though, I did enjoy Tolkien, which was not an easy read with all the background and technical aspects to keep up with.

 

[DaveC426913]

Well, that's okay, I have felt the same way about Star Wars and Star Trek,

It should be taught in schools.

I weep for the future.

 

[Sebastian Martinez]

@phinds
It was not relevant to them. At all. Their belief was: they already had all the answers.

One of my neighbors was convinced he was witched. I did not try to talk him out of it.

Another good friend was working in his field. A dust devil formed and swept over him. He fell extremely ill later that day. Dust devils are spirits of evil beings.

You have to just go with the flow, and stay out of it. Yet other experiences with non-science explanations: My wife died in my house. Months later, a breeze blew through the house. Although I thought all the doors and windows were shut, my neighbors from the Rez told me it was the spirit of my wife leaving and saying good-bye. I thought it was one of those gusts that sometimes come down thru fireplaces. But what did I know?

It simply boils down to the kind of thinking virtually everyone in the Western world had prior to the Renaissance. It persists. In the Western world, too.

I believe in science and witchcraft. Is it a bad thing?

 

[phinds]

I believe in science and witchcraft. Is it a bad thing?

Good and bad are moral judgements. Believe what you like, just don't expect scientists to take you seriously. In fact, expect them to roll their eyes.

 

[Fervent Freyja]

Good and bad are moral judgements. Believe what you like, just don't expect scientists to take you seriously. In fact, expect them to roll their eyes.

Yes, incredible at what even "professionals" and media in parts of Africa still attribute crime to the Tokoloshe monster!

Part of why I have so little trust.

 

[Khatti]

I believe in science and witchcraft. Is it a bad thing?

No, but it will get you talked about.

Good and bad are moral judgements. Believe what you like, just don't expect scientists to take you seriously. In fact, expect them to roll their eyes.

Say what you like, I've yet to attend a funeral where the minister intoned: "In our hour of need let us never forget that a body continues in a state of rest or uniform motion in a straight line unless it is acted upon by external forces. The rate of change of momentum of a moving body is proportional to and in the same direction as the force acting upon it. And if one body exerts a force on another, there is an equal and opposite force, called a reaction, exerted on the first body by the second."

 

[Noisy Rhysling]

No, but it will get you talked about.
Say what you like, I've yet to attend a funeral where the minister intoned: "In our hour of need let us never forget that a body continues in a state of rest or uniform motion in a straight line unless it is acted upon by external forces. The rate of change of momentum of a moving body is proportional to and in the same direction as the force acting upon it. And if one body exerts a force on another, there is an equal and opposite force, called a reaction, exerted on the first body by the second."

But would we really know if the person is dead unless we open the coffin?

 

[Khatti]

But would we really know if the person is dead unless we open the coffin?

True. Until we make and observation--but then all other possibilities are eliminated. It's just too sad.

 

[tobyr65]

Ryan those are fighting words and we're supposed to be nice. Harry Potter is fully justified. It is written at a third grade level and fully explained. Anyone who has cracked the book knows that wizards are born magical and can perform some magic by accident before training begins. Once schooled in magic, wizards learn how to control that magic. Wizards are not all equal just as some Muggles are not all IQ equal.

 

[DaveC426913]

Ryan those are fighting words ...

To what do you refer? Do you mean Ryan's initial post? You should use the quote feature, so that people can read the text and follow the link:

The book has no justification. The ability to perform spells is determined by how well you can say/think them and wave your wand.

 

[tobyr65]

You should use the quote feature, so that people can read the text and follow the link:
[/QUOTE]

I did not see 'mentor' by your name but hey I'll bite. When replying to a thread part and selecting the quote button I do not just receive the remarks of the person I want to respond to. Rather I get the quote from every thread in every forum I've liked and or visited for the entire log in session. It is inconvenient. How do I get around this issue?

 

[DaveC426913]

I get the quote from every thread in every forum I've liked and or visited for the entire log in session.

When you click +QUOTE it is adding the reply to any replies you already have there, so the list builds up in the 'Review Selected Messages' popup dialogue. That list should zero itself out once you've inserted the ones you want.

If, for some reason, they're not zeroing out, you can always remove them in the 'Review Selected Messages' popup before inserting - there's a little 'remove' button in the upper right of each quote.

But in normal use it should work just fine.

 

[Ryan_m_b]

Ryan those are fighting words and we're supposed to be nice. Harry Potter is fully justified. It is written at a third grade level and fully explained. Anyone who has cracked the book knows that wizards are born magical and can perform some magic by accident before training begins. Once schooled in magic, wizards learn how to control that magic. Wizards are not all equal just as some Muggles are not all IQ equal.

The thread question is specifically the source of a wizards power. The worldbuilding of the books does contain many rules about the magic (though the worldbuilding itself is weak in favour of entertainment, which is by no means necessarily a bad thing), for instance:

• Ability to use it is mostly inherited in some manner
• It requires specific artefacts (wands, potions etc) to work properly
• Performing spells almost always requires specific words to be clearly said/thought along with appropriate wand movements

But no where do we get an inclination of why these things work. To my knowledge there's no part of the mythology that accounts for what the difference is between wizards and muggles, where the energy comes from to power spells, why spellcasting actions lead to the consequences they do etc. Contrast that to fantasy such as the KingKiller Chronicle or anything by Brandon Sanderson where all parts of magic have explanations for how and why they work within that universes rules.

This isn't necessarily a good or bad thing. Some fiction works well with having the science of magic set out and explained (the discovery is often a good part of the plot). For others it's unnessary and not the focus of the story (like LOTR that had very loose mythology on what magic was, let alone how it worked).

You should use the quote feature, so that people can read the text and follow the link:

I did not see 'mentor' by your name but hey I'll bite. When replying to a thread part and selecting the quote button I do not just receive the remarks of the person I want to respond to. Rather I get the quote from every thread in every forum I've liked and or visited for the entire log in session. It is inconvenient. How do I get around this issue?

If you click the reply button on someone's post a copy of that post is automatically quoted for you. If you hit the quote button the forum software adds the quote to a list of quotes. If you click "insert quotes" in the bottom left of the text box you can review all quotes in that list and remove them as needed,

 

[tobyr65]

If, for some reason, they're not zeroing out, you can always remove them in the 'Review Selected Messages' popup before inserting - there's a little 'remove' button in the upper right of each quote.[/QUOTE]

Thank you. It works the way it should on the laptop but sometimes i am using a phone and its not the same.

 

[DaveC426913]

You can also quote a piece of text manually if you want.
In the above post, you see that your text ended with a closing [ /QUOTE ]
If it had started with an opening [ QUOTE ], it would have made a proper quotation.

 

[Flyx]

For example in DBZ, the level of power is determined by the ki, so what about the potter universe?

Each wand has a unique length, core material, and flexibility. I believe it is the core material that give the power.

 

[Noisy Rhysling]

You can also quote a piece of text manually if you want.
In the above post, you see that your text ended with a closing [ /QUOTE ]
If it had started with an opening [ QUOTE ], it would have made a proper quotation.

I just "ACCIO QUOTE!"

And yes, I have a copy of the Elder Wand here.

 

[Noisy Rhysling]

Each wand has a unique length, core material, and flexibility. I believe it is the core material that give the power.

The cores are from magical creatures, so yeah. Harry and Moldevort have Phoenix feather cores in their wands, both from Faux, Dumbledore's pet.

 

[DaveC426913]

Each wand has a unique length, core material, and flexibility. I believe it is the core material that give the power.

The cores are from magical creatures, so yeah. Harry and Moldevort have Phoenix feather cores in their wands, both from Faux, Dumbledore's pet.

But these just move the question farther down the line.

What gives the Phoenix feather its magical properties?

 

[Flyx]

But these just move the question farther down the line.

What gives the Phoenix feather its magical properties?

Maybe they're like physical properties. They just are.

 

[Noisy Rhysling]

But these just move the question farther down the line.

What gives the Phoenix feather its magical properties?

A sublime disregard for the natural laws of the Universe?

 

[DaveC426913]

Maybe they're like physical properties. They just are.

We can describe how physical properties operate.

A sublime disregard for the natural laws of the Universe?

Certainly. But it doesn't really describe how it works, does it?