Electricity vs Magic?

[robkelk]

StackExchange: How can electricity not work at Hogwarts?

The question was asked because nerves and brains use electricity.

The best answers look at the source material and point out that it isn't electricity that doesn't work, it's mundane applications of electricity that "all go haywire around Hogwarts, there’s too much magic in the air" (Hermione, in Goblet of Fire).

So... I assume (and seem to recall a statement from Bob) that Doug's helmet is protected against EM interference. That should provide protection against magical-field interference, too.

Or am I way off-base here?

[Bob Schroeck]

Doug's helmet lives inside one of the most intense magical fields a living creature can generate -- after all, Hogwarts doesn't do the kind the kind of stuff Doug's field does -- and is most definitely immune to magical interference as well as EM.

EDIT: As for the original question, at least some fics speculate that it's not magic in general, but something about Hogwarts, or even just a thing purebloods say to keep modern Muggle innovations away from the Wizarding world.

[classicdrogn]

My favorite theory is that because electronic devices rely on mass produced semiconductors to function, the laws of similarity and contagion mean that when immersed in a high-magic area they stop working because the components in that specific device are connected with every other one of the same type and doubly so if they came from the same silicon blank. Wizarding Wireless sets use tubes instead, individually charmed or otherwise protected to avoid being too similar to other tubes of the same model.

[Cobalt Greywalker]

I've seen speculation that for Hogwarts at least it might be the lightning protections (in whatever way they work) causing the issues mentioned.  I can't remember if anyone in canon used something like a lighning spell, so...

The other speculation I sometimes see is that magic and electricity are tying to use the same paths/circuits and that clash is causing the probable issues, thus EMP protection like a Faraday Cage would work (and in several fic it does).

[Inquisitive Raven]

I don't know about anything else, but I could well believe that unplottable charms could screw up any kind of wireless transmission that isn't specifically designed to work through them.

[hazard]

The Wizarding Wireless probably makes use of the laws of similarity to transmit and receive, rather than being enchanted to prevent the laws of similarity. Having the ability to make hundreds of receivers respond to your transmissions is not a flaw.

[classicdrogn]

"Would you believe it's a parenting ward purebloods worked out in the seventies intended to stop the spread of Rock and Roll to their kids when battery-powered radios became a thing?"

SV link

[ECSNorway]

There was at least one fic where they discovered that it was just annoyed older Slytherins tossing silence spells at headphones that made music players 'not work'.....

[Bob Schroeck]

One of the omake side stories for Taylor Varga (The Long Slow Lizarding of Hermione Granger) makes it out to be a technology suppression spell, examples of which tend to have dangerous long-term side effects:

She shrugged. "I've seen it before. Lack of common sense, a sort of unpleasant conformity to authority… Of course, some of the more disreputable rulers have tried using them for exactly those reasons. They make the population very suggestible. But it also tends to reduce birthrate a lot. Eventually there's a population crash and..." She waved a hand dismissively. "The problem solves itself in the long run, but not in a good way."