Unlike nukes, antimatter weapons can be made small enough yeild that you don’t flatten the whole of hogwarts when you use one.
...but the amount of antimatter you’d use for that is very small indeed; about 0.000023 grams for an explosive yield equivalent to 1 ton of TNT, going by Wikipedia’s numbers. I wouldn’t put it past Quirrell to figure out a way to transmute quantities that small, but it’d be tricky; everything we’ve seen transmuted onscreen has been macroscopic.
Also, all the initial yield would be in the form of highly energetic gamma rays, so we’d likely be looking at something more like a hard radiation pulse than a bomb.
Do wizards generally have a reason to transmute microscopic things?
There’s also the possibility of transmuting a larger portion of antimatter, levitated within a vacuum (bubble head charm maybe?) and then subdivde it, if that is possible.
You could transmute something into something containing trace amounts of antimatter. Once the gamma rays hit something and get absorbed, they’ll turn to heat. The bomb will make the floor explode.
...but the amount of antimatter you’d use for that is very small indeed; about 0.000023 grams for an explosive yield equivalent to 1 ton of TNT, going by Wikipedia’s numbers. I wouldn’t put it past Quirrell to figure out a way to transmute quantities that small, but it’d be tricky; everything we’ve seen transmuted onscreen has been macroscopic.
Also, all the initial yield would be in the form of highly energetic gamma rays, so we’d likely be looking at something more like a hard radiation pulse than a bomb.
Hermione transfigured single walled carbon nanotubes
Hermione transfigured a macroscopic volume into single-walled carbon nanotubes. Barely macroscopic, if memory serves, but still macroscopic.
Do wizards generally have a reason to transmute microscopic things?
There’s also the possibility of transmuting a larger portion of antimatter, levitated within a vacuum (bubble head charm maybe?) and then subdivde it, if that is possible.
You could transmute something into something containing trace amounts of antimatter. Once the gamma rays hit something and get absorbed, they’ll turn to heat. The bomb will make the floor explode.