History Headscratchers / HarryPotterAndTheMethodsOfRationality

* What was the last decision of the survivors of the eighty-eighth Wizengamot? What did the non-survivors die of?

** Hogwarts has had some really, really bad Defence Professors, then the hyper-competent Quirrell comes along and agrees to teach a near-suicidal position, on the caveat that nobody asks about his identity. Dumbledore (and more tellingly, MCGONAGALL), of course, accepted in an instant.

* Why is Harry bothered about the form of the quantum Hamiltonian when McGonagall turns into a cat in Ch. 2? If she's violating conservation of energy, then the shift symmetry of time goes out the window - Noether's theorem is, well, a mathematical theorem; you can't violate a mathematical theorem by magic, any more than you could cast a spell that would make 2+2=5 - so, either there's no shift symmetry of time, or the universe cannot be modelled by a Lagrangian. Either of those would be *far* more dramatic than merely reformulating the Hamiltonian; we did that when QFT replaced traditional QM in the 1950s. Given that I really don't want to give up the shift symmetry of time (yuk! results of experiments differ depending on when you do them? The amounts of difference you'd need for Transfiguration would demolish the entire regularity of the laws of physics, to the point that atomic nuclei would casually fall apart) we have to assume that the universe cannot be modelled by a Lagrangian. Which is messy as hell. Yes, the quantum Hamiltonian is a Lagrangian, but throwing out the generalised structure, not just a single special-case is, wow, really mind-blowing.

** Chapter 92 answers this; Lesath was thinking "I shouldn't stand out, because Harry told me not to."

** Hogwarts has had some really, really bad Defence Professors, then the hyper-competent Quirrell comes along and agrees to teach a near-suicidal position, on the caveat that nobody asks about his identity. Dumbledore, of course, accepted in an instant.

** When the troll attacked, it was during break, so most students, including Lesath, weren't at school.
*** But Lesath was most likely among the orphans – his parents not dead, but incarcerated. He should have been at the school during the hollidays.

*** But Lesath was most likely among the orphans – his parents not dead, but incarcerated. He should have been at the school during the hollidays.

** When the troll attacked, it was during break, so most students, including Lesath, weren't at school.

* Why didn't Lesath answer TheCall when Harry called for fifth-years in chapter 88?

** "For example, call back… Voldemort – no, wait, forget it. He would just lie about where the Chamber of Secrets is and send us all to our deaths…"

** "For example, call back… Voldemort – no, wait, forget it. He would just lie about where the Chamber of Secrets is and send us all to our deaths…"

* In chapter 90, when Harry lists [[spoiler:ways he could have saved Hermione]], he says, "if only I'd gone with… if, that night…" Any idea who he could have gone with on what night that could have saved her?

** "For example, call back… Voldemort – no, wait, forget it. He would just lie about where the Chamber of Secrets is and send us all to our deaths…"

*** Because very few wizards have any ounce of logic or scientific background. Scientific method just isn't something that's taught to wizards, so that just leaves muggle-borns, and most people still aren't very scientific. The wizards are told the rules, and they follow them without seeing why. Also, Harry was only able to do partial transfiguration based on an in-depth knowledge of quantum physics, something wizards just don't know anything about. Also, that's kind of the entire point of the fanfic, isn't it? That in the actual canon of HarryPotter, no one actually does try to scientifically approach science; if they did, they'd notice that a lot of things don't quite make sense. So the author is running with that and showing one person who actually does try to apply science to magic, and is baffled when no one else has even tried what seems obvious to him.

* In Chapter 39, Harry mentions a test for the Resurrection Stone which he prevents himself from saying. Any idea what it was?

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** He was just upset that his entire model of the universe was falling apart.

* Why is Harry bothered about the form of the quantum Hamiltonian when McGonagall turns into a cat in Ch. 2? If she's violating conservation of energy, then the shift symmetry of time goes out the window - Noether's theorem is, well, a mathematical theorem; you can't violate a mathematical theorem by magic, any more than you could cast a spell that would make 2+2=5 - so, either there's no shift symmetry of time, or the universe cannot be modelled by a Lagrangian. Either of those would be *far* more dramatic than merely reformulating the Hamiltonian; we did that when QFT replaced traditional QM in the 1950s. Given that I really don't want to give up the shift symmetry of time (yuk! results of experiments differ depending on when you do them? The amounts of difference you'd need for Transfiguration would demolish the entire regularity of the laws of physics, to the point that atomic nuclei would casually fall apart) we have to assume that the universe cannot be modelled by a Lagrangian. Which is messy as hell. Yes, the quantum Hamiltonian is a Lagrangian, but throwing out the generalised structure, not just a single special-case is, wow, really mind-blowing.

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* If Lilly was Good through and through, how did she fail to mention to her ''best friend'' that he had gotten Sorted into SS Junge?

* What were they supposed to "get word from Madeye" about in chapter 61? If it were the graveyard, wouldn't Severus know already?

* What were they supposed to "get word from Madeye" about in chapter 69? If it were the graveyard, wouldn't Severus know already?