Arithmancy Lesson One: Arrows of Pythagoras When you enter the Arithmancy classroom that afternoon, you'll be pleased with the Halloween decor that Professor Robinson placed around the classroom. Although the decor has nothing to do with today's lesson (or does it? :shifty:), it's nice to see the spirit of halloween to hopefully make the subject enjoyable. If nothing else then because of the aesthetics. Across the board, in familiar neat handwriting, you'll see a series of warm-up math equations on the board. Professor Robinson's customary way of getting you into the zone of working with numbers. Quote:
ooc: HIIII!!!! So while this might be the first OOC lesson, just a reminder that this is NOT the first IC lesson. Also, Professor Robinson is terrible with names, but hopefully he'll get better, so your characters should be familiar with him and he's trying to learn all your students names! Lesson Progression Question 1 Question 2 Mini Activity: Calculating your life path numbers Main Activity: Arrows of Pythagoras |
"Hi, Professor,'' Claudine said, taking a moment to observe his demeanor today. She'd noted his agitation during previous lessons and wondered if it was just anxiety about the prospect of teaching here at Hogwarts. However, he seemed calmer today. "It's nice to see you more... settled... today." With that, she went off to take a seat at the back of the class. The moment she did so, her eyes scanned the board for the familiar numerical problems. Claudine wasn't surprised to see that there were a few there. Immediately she set to work. SPOILER!!: C's work Were these answers all correct? Time would tell. |
As Olive entered the arithmancy classroom, she was delighted to see the spooky decorations. Fall was defiantly her favorite time of year, and she loved when the castle got all dressed up for Halloween. “Good Afternoon, Professor.” She nodded and choose a seat at the front of the room. She prepared her supplies while scanning the board for instructions. She immediately began her work glancing up every now and then to make sure she had the correct numbers written down. Okay what was 5 times 3? 15 plus 2? Done. Next. 14 times thirty? Finished. Lastly, what was 20 plus fur? Easy: 24 times 2? With her work finished she set her quill down on the desk then flagged down Professor Robinson,“What exactly are we covering today?” she inquired, tilting her head to the side. SPOILER!!: Ollie’s answers |
Arithmancy was another class that just made sense to Evan, so he was in a fairly decent mood as he made his way into the Arithmancy classroom, offering a quick, "Hello, Professor Robinson." One of his favorite things about this class was the warm up questions, which left little time for awkward small talk or anything of the like while people were making their way in. He gave a brief head nod towards his two Slytherin friends already present, sliding into a seat next to Ollie. "Hey." He pulled out a piece of paper and a muggle pencil, his preference for math questions, and wrote each of them down before making his way through the problems, working showed underneath the questions like his muggle Professors had always been so particular on. Only pushing it back and looking back up towards the front of the classroom when he was satisfied with his answers. SPOILER!!: Evan's answers |
Ash was feeling... okay today. That was a good thing, she thought. She took a seat next to Claudine. Pretend big sister! "Hey professor. What's your costume?" She got started on her work. It was... math? Good thing she learned that stuff in muggle school. SPOILER!!: Ash's work |
SPOILER!!: Greetings With a subtle flick of his wand, Winston closed the door to the classroom. "Right, let's get started. Just a reminder, that I'm Professor Robinson, here to educate you on the art and science of arithmancy. Even though we've had lessons before, it would be a helpful reminder to me if you could state your name before answering a question." He flicked his wand at the board behind him to reveal the answers to today's problems, which from a quick glance at everyone's papers, it seemed at though everyone was correct. Not that he would have been bothered if they had been wrong, but it was just a nice easy gateway to get them focused on numbers. Nothing high pressure. Quote:
ooc: so starting off with simple of where you see numbers - could be at hogwarts or at home, feel free to be as imaginative as possible!! Also, friendly reminder that even though we've started, catchup posts are allowed! However, pretend as though you've been here the whole time, unless of course you WANT to get in trouble <3. Also, you about 24 hours to answer this question before we'll post again |
Feeling brighter than she had the other day, Lisa had come into the classroom and greeted Professor Robinson enthusiastically before taking a seat to work on the problems. As her quill hit the parchment, her mind went to work solving problems. 2+5x3. Order of operations. Had to be 17. 14 x 30. Okay she had to break this one down, she tapped her quill and pictured the numbers and…. 420! And finally (20+4)x2. PEMBDAS? 48. Easy peasy. Math made much more sense then people’s emotions and crushes. Her hand shot up IMMEDIATELY. She had just been reading about this the other day aaaaaaaand she had to share “This sequence is special and so cool because every number after the first two is the sum of the two preceding ones. So like 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, and so on!” |
Maya felt like Arithmancy was a lot like math class when she was back in primary school. Except with a slightly more magical component which the Slytherin was more than okay with. Upon entering the class, she had greeted the professor politely and taken her seat towards the front of the room, enjoying the decorations that were around the classroom. And the warm up equations? That only reminded Maya so much more of home. After answering them in her notebook, 1the Slytherin was pleased but not surprised that she had gotten them all right. They were pretty simple equations after all. At the professor's next question, Maya's hand raised. "You use math to calculate tip, taxes and sales," Maya offered. |
Of course she noticed; Claudine went through the same thing, especially that period of time when Rosier and his gang had been around so it hadn’t taken much to recognise the signs in Robinson. She seemed to understand his comment though for she nodded. “Agreed. Can’t let the anxiety keep you down.” Claudine raised her hand - and quill which she was holding - in greeting to Evan. He was one of those whom she was going to miss after she graduated. He was so much like her. Anyway. Here came Ash. Another one to be missed. Goodness. Claudine had a thing for Ravenclaws, didn’t she? The seventh year tried to peek at Ash’s calculations as the girl worked. [B]“Copycat,’’[/B] she muttered good naturedly. Because the two had the same answers. Right. Robinson was not good with names. It was some progress that he remembered hers earlier Claudine supposed. The Snakette checked her answers against the ones recently revealed. Great. She had them all correct. Colour her pleased with herself. Um… The who sequence? Claudine stared at Lisa. Good for the younger girl that she knew something like that. So. Math. Her hand went up. “Claudine Blaze, professor. We can use math regularly to count out the number of times we stir a potion in a clockwise or an anticlockwise manner.’’ |
Her eyes widened at the professor's remark. She didn't even know there was an assigned reading! Of course if she would've know, she would've done it! Of course he probably didn't know that Ollie was on top of these things yet but he'd learn it soon enough! She leaned over to Evan as the professor turned his to other students, "I had no clue there was an assignment. What was the reading on?" There was visible worry on her face as she asked the question; she hated not being prepared for class. She returned her attention the Robinson as he began his class. Ollie's hand shot up to answer it. Of course she was a little eager to give him an answer and get on his good side. "Olive Burke."She nodded. She heard Claudine remind him of her name and figured it'd be good to follow suite. "I think in the muggle world it's very common in medicine practice. All around the hospital doctors and nurses are shouting different doses of medicine. It's very important to get them correct so they don't kill anyone." |
"Violet Blackthorne, sir," she announced before making her answer, as Professor Robinson had requested. She'd been pleased that all her answers to the opening problems had been correct, but then felt a little intimiated when another student started talking about the Fibonnaci Sequence, which she'd never heard of. "You use math in potions a lot, to calculate amounts of things, or if you want to double or halve a potion." |
Mamie wasn't the best at arithmancy, but she thought she was getting better. With help from her tutor, of course. And the fun decor today definitely made it more enjoyable. She raised her hand. "Margaret Turov, I think numbers are used in traveling, too, for saying distances, or how long it will take you to get some place," she said. And the how long it took to get there usually depended on how you got there. Broom, or car, or train. They all took different amounts of time. |
His sister's answers amused him, because it was just so on brand for both of them that Lisa would have so much enthusiasm for patters of number and Maya would have been considering it's impact on counting money. He wasn't sure what she was saving up for, or if it was anything in particular, but she'd been very successful so far with her tutoring and she was very good at keeping track of her earnings. Probably even more so than he had been. And knowing Claudine would have missed him certainly would have made Evan happy. He quite liked the older Slytherin girl, and he was not at all looking forward to the fact she would not be there next term whenever he remembered she was already a seventh year. His attention was drawn to Ollie, sounding rather panicked about the required reading before class. Not wanting to disrupt Professor Robinson by trying to explain it, he gathered his notes and handed them over to her with a small smile. Hopefully they made sense, as he usually put a summary of the section all the way at the top of the page only THEN followed by bullet points of important info. He imagined if Robinson saw, it would probably look like they were passing notes - but considering it was school related he wasn't sure if the Professor would be bothered by him sharing his own with a peer. Back to the question. Where was numbers easily found? Evan's hand raised as well, and he waited to be called upon. "Evan Nam," he figured it was not necessary for him to have said so given the fact Robinson had already remembered him, but those WERE the instructions, "Similarly to what Ollie and Mamie said, numbers can also be used in baking to measure out ingredients." Much like you would for potions, or medicines. |
Ash snorted at Claudine’s words. “I don’t need to copy you because I know alll the answers.” And she ‘angrily’ rolled her eyes. Meaning that she tried to roll her eyes and ended up giggling instead. “Who cares if other professors dress up? I say do what you want. Be a fairy princess who is also an arithmancy professor. Or a dinosaur that knows how to count. Or a math textbook. OR a pirate who’s like “pi arrrr squared, blah blah blah.”” Get it? Pi arrrr squared? Hahahahaha, ooh that was terrible. “I use math when I’m paying for things. Because when I need to pay 5 knuts for something, I can’t accidentally give someone 27 pounds. You need math for currency conversion, and also just in general when you are dealing with money.” Father was much better at math than parenting. Which was why Ash was much better at math than making good decisions. |
Been here the entire time! <3 Dahlia had greeted Robinson as she normally did, with a warm smile and a polite 'hello' when she had entered the room. Taken her usual seat and took out her things to work on the warm-up questions that were normally on the board. It had become routine and gotten easier over time even though arithmancy was certainly not one of her strong suits. Not always was she the best with numbers but she did try and that's what mattered most. At least this afternoons math questions weren't difficult. She could start the lesson by not feeling like a complete failure. Lia quietly worked on the three problems for a few moments then set her quill down returning her attention to the professor as the lesson officially began. Quote:
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SPOILER!!: responses! <3 Once it seemed like everyone had the opportunity to offer some unique perspectives for where math was utilized, Winston figured it was time to move on again (or else they'd probably never get through the lesson). "Excellent, excellent answers…. So even without the complexities, math is present and accounted for in pretty much all aspects of our lives, which brings me to the next question. I’m told that Hogwarts has 142 staircases." He paused to let this set in for a moment, because no one had brought up the number of staircases. Did they not read Hogwarts, A History? Was it an outdated text? "Strange that the number adds up to seven, which is a number linked to intellect, responsibility, invention, culture and philosophy. Words that seem to capture the very essence of the institution. Do you feel seven accurately represents the institution? Perhaps there should have been one or two less staircases? Why or why not?" ooc: sorry for the delay in posting this, but question two is up!! So feel free to use google or the textbook found here to have a look at the number meanings and basically see if you think 7 represents Hogwarts or if there's another number. Feel free to discuss one of the words (intellect, responsibility, invention, culture and philosophy) or whatever else!! I'll be moving onto the first activity probably around 6pm CST tonight, so about 15 hours from now <3 |
Claudine thought that her answer was excellent as well. Given the number of times they all had to count while stirring their potions each week, it had been one of the first ideas to pop into her head. Not that some of the other students hadn’t provided some pretty great ones too. Yes, she had read Hogwarts: A History once upon a long time ago. Probably during her first year when everyone was stuck at Beauxbatons and she had found herself longing to come to Hogwarts. Those staircases though… Claudine had actually forgotten the exact number. She marveled at the facts Robinson revealed. Whoever took the time to realise such things? Using her textbook, the seventh year flipped through the pages to take a good look at the meaning of the various numbers. There were mentions of money, balance, loyalty and a whole heap of other stuff but it all came back to one thing. Her hand went up after some time. “Any less or any more staircases would have totalled a different number. I think seven’s more accurate than other numbers as a representation of Hogwarts, professor.” |
A hundred and forty-two staircases? Why would anybody ever count those? That it might be included in a history book didn't occur to her. And even if it had, at some point somebody had to have counted. What if they counted wrong? Would they have to count twice?? Margaret was feeling rather contrary today, so she took a moment to check in the textbook for the number meanings. She didn't reeeeally think the number of staircases had been chosen specifically to mean something. Why would it? Had somebody built an extra staircase somewhere just to get it to be that specific number? That seemed unlikely. Nobody wanted to build staircases to nowhere. After reading over some of the numbers' meanings, she raised her hand. "I think there should have been fewer staircases, professor" she said. "If the number of staircases added up to 4, that would make more sense, because four means...um... stability, and security, and, um, don't you want staircases to be safe?" |
Violet looked through her book at some of the other number meanings. Really, a lot of them seemed to have something to do with Hogwarts, but none were quite all of it. One was beginnings, Five was change and transition, and Nine was endings and completion--those were all part of Hogwarts, but only part of the time. Three had elves and creativity and Four meant building, endurance and hard work--well, this castle was a building that had endured for centuries, and they certainly put in a lot of hard work. The one she like best, next to Seven, was Two, because it dealt with relationships and human magic. But...Seven meant magic, too, and Hogwarts was more than relationships. Seven seemed best, though it didn't quite have everything. When she finally answered, she said "I think seven is probably the best number for Hogwarts, though I don't think it says everything about it. But...if you take the three numbers adding up to seven, they altogether say something about Hogwarts--One means beginnings, and this is the beginning of our life in the wizarding world; Four means endurance and stability, like Margaret said--and also hard work, which we do a lot of! And Two means relationships and collaborations, which are also an important part of Hogwarts. And together they all add up to seven!" |
Truth be told, Evan did not want to delve too much into how he felt about Hogwarts - or magic school - as a whole so the question was something he thought he might prefer to skip. But he had a hard time not saying something in classes, probably a by product of Headmaster Trent's classes. So his hand raised, and he waited his turn. He wasn't sure if he was supposed to say his name again before answer, so he opted to not this go around and hope that wasn't against what Professor Robinson was wanting them to do. "I think seven is a good number, because at the end of the day the meaning for number seven is exactly what a school should be." And he supposed even Hogwarts had it's moments, since people seemed successful. Noah'd been here for three years and he seemed well adjusted and like he'd go places. And look at Chase! And because he couldn't resist, he added a little more opinion. "I think it's really cool they had had all that forethought too." Assuming it was, in fact, intentional. "intellect. Responsibility. Invention. Culture. Philosophy. It's exactly the things that should be intentionally taught to students. And it's encouraging to have perhaps a hint that that was exactly the founders ideals." Sure, some people talked about that in History of Magic but with all the information surrounding Salazar Slytherin as well, sometimes the intentions could feel a bit tainted. At least to him. |
SPOILER!!: students! Once it seemed like everyone had offered as much insight as possible, Winston continued the lesson. "So as a whole, we can collectively agree that seven is what Hogwarts should strive to be, but individually we can look at the numbers one, four, and two which each offer pieces to the puzzle. While we can't know for certain, it'd be nice to think that our founding members had some insight into number meanings with their designs, but we can only assume that to be the case..." Probably Rowena and Helga's brainchild. From what he could tell, he doubted Salazar and Godric had the patience to sort through numbers for the correct meanings for what they hoped for Hogwarts. "Each of the numbers one through nine gives off particular vibrations within the universe that we can use to help predict the future. According to numerologists, there are no such thing as good or bad numbers, as each number contains both good and bad and just because it’s not suitable for a person, doesn’t make it a bad number, but just that the vibrations don’t match." He paused to make sure they were all keeping up with what he was saying. "So one of the simplest calculations that we can do in determining your own numerical vibrations, which will be used for our main calculation today," hint. "is to use your date of birth and calculate your life path number." On the board, Winston wrote the following as an example, 8 February 2066 "So my life path is 6, which is a number represented by harmony and community relations, so I think it’s safe to say that I find joy in keeping the peace in communities, particularly as an educator. Go on and use your textbook to determine your life path number and its meanings." ooc: Mini activity leading to the main activity is up! Basically just calculate your life path numbers and determine if the meanings are accurate. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask me, but you're using the numerical value of your characters full birthdays and reducing those digits to a single digit! You'll have until approximate Wednesday morning/noon-ish CST (so about 36 hours) before we move on to the main activity! Feel free to use this and this as a resource <3 |
“Its so cool, Professor!” she began, taking a deep breath before she felt like jumping in to share everything she knew on the subject. OH. She forgot her name. “Lisa Nam, sir… sorry I get excited about math….” Her cheeks flushed BRIGHT red. Lisa paused at his question as the Professor offered a theory that Hogwarts was like the number seven. She opened her textbook and flipped to the source material that he had recommended. Hmmm… Seven represented analysis, research, solitude, wisdom, spiritual focus, investigative, mysticism, magic….. “Professor… I don’t think seven fits just right. I think a combination of numbers is more suited. Why can’t Hogwarts be represented by all three numbers of 1, 2, 4? Sure 7 is a facet of what Hogwarts is but Hogwarts represents a beginning for all of us and relationships and harmony… and structure.” And then they were moving on again. Right her birthday. January 13th 2093… So that’d be 13 + 1 + 2 + 0 + 9 + 3 = 28? = 10 = 1? She blinked. Uhhhh… |
Ash could count just fine, so she was feeling rather confident about finding her life path. But the more that she read, the more she was convinced there was a problem. “Professor, can you check my work?” She lowered her voice. “My birthday is May 3rd 2091, which I believe means I have life path number two. But that’s all about balance and peace. Am I doing it wrong, or is the universe trying to be ironic?” Or did none of these numbers mean anything??? Because while some of these life paths were accurate for her and some were a bit of a stretch, this was... more than a stretch. It was like, a cosmic joke. “Maybe it means that I’m inventing my own life path instead of doing what the math says I should do. Hm. That does sound like me. Either that or... I can’t count.” |
Arithmancy was one of Kizzy's favorites so she usually tried her very best not to get distracted, but ... It was hard to pay attention in class when there was so much happening in her head. Why did life have to be so complicated all the time? She was trying SO hard to be uninvolved this year and there was STILL drama! At this rate, the best way to avoid it would be to live in the Great Lake with Sir Henry. So that's what Kins was thinking about right now. Not Arithmancy. Um, no offense, Professor. It wasn't anything personal. She usually loved this class. So when question time was over (and only after Kins had spent it being uncharacteristically quiet), she took out some parchment to get started on the maths. She liked maths. Maybe that'd help her focus. 2066? Wow, Professor Robinson was ancient! She was still only half-paying attention, her mind was absolutely elsewhere - so she absently flipped through her textbook as she looked for the pages about life path numbers. Maybe she had already passed them. |
Oh, professor Robinson. Little did you know that Claudien did not usually delve into depth with her answers. Doing so would mean a lengthier time in speaking which would in turn result in attention being longer than necessary on her by everyone. That was one of the things about being an introvert. “I guess? The beginning of a new chapter in one’s academic life perhaps.” Arithmancy reminded her of Divination in one way: Claudine was slightly skeptical of both, though she was moreso of Divination. Anyway. A calculation of her Life Path number was something that could be done easily, which she set about completing: Quote:
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