| Ramora
Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Kita's pocket
Posts: 5,228
Hogwarts RPG Name:
Aslan Archer
Slytherin First Year
Hogwarts RPG Name:
Rose Woods
Gryffindor Second Year
Ministry RPG Name:
Amrita Sandhu
Law Enforcement
Ministry RPG Name:
Laleh Kiani
 x9  x6
|  ½ of Lauralie | Koala | The being in Ern's pocket | Baby Smurf | Prouf member of The Flock
SPOILER!!: replies Quote:
Originally Posted by oh its Erik ok  Now it would have been on brand for her to show up in anything but trousers. She was not really in the mood to risk things lately considering all that was happened to her recently. Oh where they talking about space now and not just stars.
Eloise likey
Solar System well pretty sure someone was going to bring up the debate of Planet X tho by 2099 hopefully it would have an official name by than vs Pluto.
"Oh i know that the moon of Jupiter oh whats the one..I...Io yeah that one, has these huge massively awesome towering volcanic eruptions on it. Pretty cool i think"
It counted since it was part of the solar system. Yeah space and the solar system was cool besides it behind so big and hard to wrap her head around it
Simran smiled – Eloise Fairfield might not always have the most accurate or even generally acceptable answers, but Simran could almost always count on her to be correct.
"Correct! Io not only has some very fascinating volcanic activity, but the magma samples have shown some very interesting activity when tested magically. Io also experiences a very fascinating phenomenon called tidal heating!"
But as much as she'd love to ramble about it for the duration of the lesson (and was fully capable of doing), she would keep her unsolicited nerdisms to herself for today.
Quote:
Originally Posted by hermionesclone It was safe to say that Lucas was confused - and a little bit heartbroken about this lesson already - but that didn't stop him from offering Sandhu a smile in return. Maybe she wouldn't mind if he sat out for whatever the roller skates were for. Maybe.
Oh, the solar system?
The boy perked up immediately. This was more like it! This was something he could take part in, even if he didn't really understand what roller skates had to do with the solar system. Questions? He had them. Plenty of them.
But first. "See, when our solar system was forming," he started, his hand up in the air, "the four planets closest to the Sun could only be made up of rocky material and metal that has condensed. This is because of how high the temperatures were." Pause. "But the planets outside of the Frost Line are much colder and that's where ice condensation occurred." Lucas Dakest's enthusiasm for astronomy only brightened her smile, and Simran nodded along as he spoke, encouraging him to go on. "Well said, Master Dakest!"
She wondered if he had a favourite planet – her personal favourite was Venus.
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Originally Posted by SneakySeverusSnape Analiese quietly groaned when Professor Sandhu replied 'yes' to her question. She leaned over to Avalon and whispered. "I don't know how to skate. Do you?" She leaned back into her chair. The last time she exercised with adults she nearly got lost in the mist. The mere thought of it sent cold chills down her spine. And now they were talking about the solar system. Well done in regaining Analiese's interest in the lesson, Professor. She raised her hand and began to speak. "The solar system consists of eight planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Pluto was once called a planet was reclassified as a dwarf planet in 2006. Most of the planets were discovered by ancient Greek and Babylonian philosophers. In contrast, Neptune was discovered in the 18th century by two German astronomers, Uranus was discovered in the 19th century by a German astronomer and a French astronomer, and Pluto in the 20th century by an American astronomer." "Very in-depth information, Miss Senchuri! And you're correct – Neptune was discovered by Johann Galle and Urbain Le Verrier. I can't recall who discovered Pluto, but you are most likely correct there as well."
Simran really never had bothered to memorise things she could look up. Sorry, child.
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Originally Posted by siriusblackliveson Patrick nodded his head about the eventually having to be active. He didn’t understand what roller skates had to do with astronomy but that didn’t matter because the first question was already coming and class was rolling on. He listened and wrote down what the others were saying and raised his own hand. “Some believe that life could exist on Mars because there is allegedly water on there.” he always loved to hear people have hour long discussions about that topic. Oooh, life on Mars! Simran had been wondering when it would be brought up. “Good answer, Mr Dooley,” she said, with a sharp nod. “Scientists are somewhat certain that life on Mars has at some point existed, not only because of the presence of water, but also methane and carbon dioxide. However, we’re not currently sure if Mars will ever be in a position to sustain it ever again.”
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Originally Posted by lazykitty "People used to believe that our solar system revolved around the Earth instead of the Sun until, like, the 17th century." Which, if you asked her no one had, was a long time to figure something like that out. "Oh, and there's smaller objects, besides the planets, comets and asteroids, that also orbit the sun called centaurs." Which made her wonder what Thereos thought about all that. I mean, there were these randomly orbiting objects that were named after his species. It had to be weird, right? "Not to mention all the hypothetical planets and the random space junk that just randomly floats into it....and the extraterrestrials." Honestly, who even knew what all was out there? “Superb, Miss Calrissian!” Lots of nods of approval from this side of the room, yes. “These are all important componenets of the solar system, and especially centaurs, which orbit the Sun between Jupiter and Neptune and cross the orbits of one or more of the giant planets. They’re interesting names to have given the celestial body, for sure -- I’ll have to look up the reasonings behind the nomenclature after our lesson.”
Thank you for giving us food for thought! She really hoped her pen was taking this down because it would not do to be lying in bed trying to remember what it was she was meant to look up.
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Originally Posted by Fireheart Avalon smirked at Professor Sandhu's sly correction to her greeting. It was evening indeed, although the first year was under the impression that 'good day' could be used as a salutation for any hour. "Yes, good evening indeed!" she replied with a light laugh. Avalon turned to Analiese, who was obviously a bit nervous about the skates. "I don't know how to skate, either. Don't feel bad," she said, hoping that commiserating together would ease her friend's worries.
And then the lesson had begun. Professor Sandhu was starting the lesson with a question about Astronomy - not skating. Thankfully, she knew a possible answer to the first question. After raising her hand, she said, "It's made up of tons of objects like planets, asteroids, and gases. And everything orbits around the sun." It was a relatively simple tidbit of information, but an important one nonetheless. And now that Avalon had offered her response, she had a faint idea of where this lesson might be heading. She figured that she might as well throw in another fun fact she had learned back in primary school. "It was also formed over four and half billion years ago!" In other words, a loooooong time ago. Good day may indeed be a salutation for every hour, but Simran felt like that was a technicality that didn’t make much… sense. It didn’t make sense to wish someone a good day when the day was effectively over.
As for her answer, however, Simran jumped up and down a little. Excited? Maybe. Or maybe she was warming up for their activity later, who knew. P L A N E T S and more importantly, ORBITS! There we go. That was it. The later parts of the answer got a small nod of acknowledgement in between all the jumping because she could barely contain the point.
“Yes indeed!” she eventually managed, once her fit of excitement had passed. “Everything orbits the sun, yes! Exactly! I’ll get back to you in a second.”
For now, deep breaths!
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Originally Posted by Kimothy Drewett felt sheepish, but he smiled a little bit when Professor Sandhu corrected herself. He was also still getting used to it, even if it had been three months since the holiday break. There were also three Gunters in school now, so it was fine that any professor still got his surname mixed up. No worries at all, professor.
Still didn't change the fact that he did not know how to skate. Watch him turn himself into a clown in tonight's lesson. Drewett was wearing trousers though, and he'd like to keep himself free from wardrobe malfunctions as the professor said.
What can he tell her about the solar system though? A lot, if he were to be honest. The Ravenclaw enjoyed the physics in astronomy. Astrophysics. Science. The whole concept of it interested him. But he wasn't about to spill everything in one go. He listened to a few of his classmates share their thoughts first before he raised his hand. "Greek philosophers first b-believed that our solar system was geocentric. Th-the Earth was the center of the solar system, and everything including the p-planets and the sun revolved around it," Drewett shared. "But then this model was later replaced b-by heliocentrism, thanks to Nicolaus Copernicus, where the sun is in the middle. I-It's the model we believe in today." Insert tiny awkward smile here. “Well done, Mr Gunter!” AND she got his name right this time! They were on a roll today! “Almost all correct, and you’re really on a roll now.”
GO CLASS. And now that everyone who had planned to answer had done so, she could finally reveal the topic of the lesson. She did so love when students, one after another, gave her JUST the momentum she needed to go on. It was so energising, rejuvenating! Also, she really needed a win today, she’d been as miserable cooped up in the castle as the rest of them.
“As Mr Gunter said, we did begin with the Ptolemaic model, where the solar system was mapped as so,” she said, jerking her head towards the whiteboard, where a piece of chalk was drawing. “As you may notice, if we switch the earth and the sun, Ptolemy basically had it right. The sun and moon were also on epicycles, according to this model, but it’s easier not to draw them. Likewise for the deferents for Venus and Mercury. You won’t be tested on this unless you’re a NEWT student, so if you’re particularly curious, there is information available in the syllabus.”
She just wouldn’t cover it today.
“Some time later, Copernicus -- God rest his beautiful soul, I miss having a portrait of him near my office -- published "On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres," which was the first fully worked out idea in mathematical astro since Ptolemy. That was 1400 years, where the status quo went unchallenged.” The look in her eyes was clear. Don’t let this happen again. “Copernicus proposed the radical notion that the Earth wasn’t the centre of the solar system, but that the sun was. Mr Cope also believed in epicycles, which we don’t, but he correctly stated that planets don’t go backwards!”
“His new theory also didn’t need to explain retrogade motion, which was a big problem at the time. What this means is that the other planets don’t actually go backwards, but that the only appear to, because the Earth is also travelling around the sun! However, this means that if the distance for one planet changes, all the distances had to change, which made the maths more complicated and less fun.”
“However, he managed, and did have the order of the planets correct and their sidereal periods correctly calculated as well as pretty accurately calculating their orbit size. However, Mr Gunter was wrong. This is not the model used today, as that model relied heavily on epicycles, which are not a thing.” DUN DUN DUNNNN.
“The model we use today is the model developed by Johannes Kepler, which is rather similar to Mr Cope’s. Can any of you describe what it was that Mr Kepler learned, or otherwise describe how gravity acts on parts of the solar system?”
In the meantime she'd just take a seat on her desk and try get her breath back after that spiral of nerdiness. Whoops. OOC: HELLO GUYS. That was long, sorry. You'll have at least 24 hours to answer this question before we move on with the lesson!
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