For all we know the hogwarts express runs on magic and so does the car, after all it flies.
Comment on Anon learns a new spell
NaibofTabr@infosec.pub 4 weeks agoDon’t they drive a car? and ride a train? so combustion works…
zaphod@sopuli.xyz 4 weeks ago
NaibofTabr@infosec.pub 4 weeks ago
For all we know the hogwarts express runs on magic
It makes steam.
Mirshe@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
Aesthetic is more important than practicality.
Ilovethebomb@sh.itjust.works 4 weeks ago
Combustion, sure, but not an explosion. Or the car is a special magic car or whatever.
dohpaz42@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
Combustion, sure, but not an explosion.
I hate to do this to you, but that’s kind how explosions work (i.e. combustion).
ccryx@discuss.tchncs.de 4 weeks ago
More specifically, that’s how cars with a combustion engine work: lots of tiny explosions.
Ilovethebomb@sh.itjust.works 4 weeks ago
No, they’re a combustion event. An actual explosion (detonation, pre ignition) is really bad news for an engine.
Firearms use a self oxidising propellant, so it would be quite easy to say that just doesn’t work.
GregorGizeh@lemmy.zip 4 weeks ago
Don’t be coy, you absolutely love doing this.
Ilovethebomb@sh.itjust.works 4 weeks ago
Nope, there’s a fundamental difference between a fuel/air mixture burning and something like gunpowder, which is a self oxidising propellant. Most explosives are in the latter category.
NaibofTabr@infosec.pub 4 weeks ago
Explosions are combustion.
And really we’re just talking about oxidation. If oxidation works (which it must, because the characters are breathing) then chemically-propelled projectiles must also work.
Ilovethebomb@sh.itjust.works 4 weeks ago
Look, we’re talking about a world where people fly around on broomsticks like we ride bicycles.
Of course you can just declare that firearms don’t work.
NaibofTabr@infosec.pub 4 weeks ago
I mean… not if your fantasy world has any internal consistency… and if it doesn’t then it might as well be Cloud Cuckoo Land.
reseller_pledge609@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 weeks ago
Pretty sure wizards are familiar with old technology like trains and cars. But like another comment said, muggles are advancing while wizards stagnate in their old ways and traditions and shit sice they keep themselves so separated.
NaibofTabr@infosec.pub 4 weeks ago
Combustion is very old technology. Putting it inside a different machine (e.g. a gun or a car engine) doesn’t change the chemistry. If you want to get right down to it, we’re just talking about oxidation - which means that in any sort of world where rapid oxidation doesn’t work (i.e. explosives), your lungs also don’t work because you need that oxygen bonding with the iron in your hemoglobin or you die.
If you can light a fire, you can make an explosion. If you can make an explosion, you can use it to launch a projectile.
There’s no world in which fire exists but guns are impossible. Even if you don’t have the metalworking sophistication for a modern gun, you could still make a Chinese-style gunpowder rocket.
LH0ezVT@sh.itjust.works 4 weeks ago
Or just straight up bombs. The beauty is that an IED can catch even a master wizard off guard. No need for metalworking, and since they have cars, well… surely there is some character with Irish roots, right?
boonhet@sopuli.xyz 4 weeks ago
Son of an Irish muggle, even
Ilovethebomb@sh.itjust.works 4 weeks ago
This is a world with flying broomsticks and cars, teleportation, and even time travel.
Of course you can get away with saying gunpowder just doesn’t explode here.
icelimit@lemmy.ml 4 weeks ago
Gunpowder is just fire propagating at the speed of sound through solid (powder). As long as sound exists, the magical world can’t exclude the angry dust.