I think the point of that was partial transfiguration was a low hanging fruit that could be done fairly easily, but only if you had the right mindset. Other than having to hold timelessness in his head, it’s not any harder than regular transfiguration.
Come to think of it, you’re right.
I’d been approaching it from the “hero must struggle for several episodes to get awesome powers” angle, but Eliezer was obviously writing it to demonstrate the opposite.
(Although Harry being able to hold timelessness in his head with half an hour of trying is still Marty Stu-ish.)
He really should have been able to do it with billiard-ball atoms. Just define “the left half of the brick” as an object. It doesn’t make any sense that you can transfigure a bicycle but not the front wheel of that bicycle..
Come to think of it, you’re right.
I’d been approaching it from the “hero must struggle for several episodes to get awesome powers” angle, but Eliezer was obviously writing it to demonstrate the opposite.
(Although Harry being able to hold timelessness in his head with half an hour of trying is still Marty Stu-ish.)
No one else has ever tried it. It might not be that hard once you know what it is.
He really should have been able to do it with billiard-ball atoms. Just define “the left half of the brick” as an object. It doesn’t make any sense that you can transfigure a bicycle but not the front wheel of that bicycle..
Also, as someone on TV Tropes pointed out, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is set in 1991, but Julian Barbour’s book The End of Time was published in 1999 and his research paper directly addressing the subject was published in 1994.