Ahhhh, numbers. Something she could handle. Something that wouldn't cause her anxiety or a panic attack or embarrassment... hopefully. Carsyn had been following along with Professor Hadley's instructions, wondering what educational point these calculations would specifically come out to. She reviewed her work quietly as she waited for further instructions. Her parchment read thus far:

With her parchment before her on her desk she listened careful to the professor, she knew that his subject would be difficult, but she also was convinced that she could learn this lesson, one of her maids at home had told her about arithmancy and she had remembered a few things, she now wondered if she could use the things she already knew.

Quickly did Sonea what the professor had asked her and wrote something on her parchment.



Next Sonea followed the other instructions and she realized that this wasn’t so bad!

Sonea looked a little worried now that she had calculated, she hoped that she had done it right…

Dylan eyed Professor Hadley as she began talking in front of the class. Just simple, curious eyeing, though...Nothing of the mean variety he reserved for ridiculous people. Like certain people

EYES FOR YOU, CERTAIN PEOPLE.

An even number, though...Any even number...

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

50.


Were they really making this a math lesson? It was a curious start, though. A different one...and for once, Dylan appreciated this. He liked different when it came to his Arithmancy. So, the Slytherin was going to go with it...

50 doubled was 100. Adding 12 to that made it 112....and then dividing that by four was...28, right?

Yea, 4 into 112....4 into 11 was 2, which would leave 3. Bring down the 2...would make that 32. 4 into 32 was 8...Yea, 28.

Ahem. Never mind his mathy thoughts which he did this all in his head.


What was next?

So...half of the original number was 25...and he'd be subtracting that from 28.

Well, that wasn't very hard to figure out. It'd leave 3.


Was three good?

Simple math was simple, Oakey finished his math and looked at the total. Three, what was so special about three?
Okay Hadley what's this warm up? Just to make sure they can write today?
He tapped the tip of his inked quill to his cheek leaving marks all over it.

Now a small smile crossed Hadley's features when they finished their calculations and realized the final answer and what a small number it was. "So, if you did this correctly, exactly as I described, then no matter what your original number was, every single one of you should now be thinking of three." She waited to hear some sort of discrepancy or contradiction....

As she noticed a young Slytherin. "Uh Sonea, you've begun with an odd number...." But her eyes scanned down her parchment. "But no matter, just as long as you follow the rest of the steps correctly, meaning 22 divided by 4 is 5.5, not 5." Which if her mental math was correct, then she too ended in a 3.

Now addressing everyone, "And THUS, as I've just demonstrated by this simple example, is the power of Arithmancy and numbers."

And now that she demonstrated such power in numbers, they can continue with the actual lesson...

"So in previous years, we've examined your destiny as presented in your name and birthday, your personality, and even how certain days affect outcomes. Today though, we will be taking a closer look at an important mathematical constant found in both the artistic and natural worlds. Which is . . . the Golden Ratio. We'll begin by you telling me if you've heard anything at all about this golden ratio."

PFFT... this was JUST a warm up excersise? Well, great, he was even struggling with simple mathematics here.

Theo scratched the back of his head then observed the numbers in front of him. Okay, his original number was 2. Half of two was one. His last total was 4... It was quite lucky that he had picked such small numbers, because it was actually quite easy for him. Theo picked up his quill again and added the last part onto the end.



And that was his last number. 3. Not so hard really.

Errrr.....

Theo raised his hand slowly. "It must be the number one ratio." You know, because it was gold and stuff? What was a ratio even? He lazily dropped his hand and started tapping his quill on the desk.

Carsyn tried to recall anything she had read or heard about the golden ratio. It had a bunch of other names, that she remembered. But would that be a worthwhile enough contribution to the class discussion? She didn't want to seem simple to the professor and the older students. She raised her hand, a hopeful expression on her face that she wouldn't seem dull or daft in answering, "The Golden ratio is an irrational mathematical constant that is equal to, ummm, 1.618 something something and a whole bunch of other numbers. But more simply, if you divide a line into two segments, the ratio of the larger of the segments in relation to the whole line segment is equal to the ratio of the smaller section to the longer section." Did she explain that right? Did her answer even make sense? She hoped she didn't mess that up completely. It took her 7 tries to understand the concept the first time she read it.

Oh. So everyone supposedly got three? Beezus took glances at her sides and was very tempted to ask them if they got three at the end of their calculations but since there wasn't any voiced out contradiction, she'd concluded that all of them had in fact, came up with the number 3.

...Whoa. Power of Arithmancy and numbers indeed.

They were going to tackle the topic of the Golden Ratio, she said. It sounded rather familiar. Her Aunt might have mentioned it before when she was seeking the woman's help when she was preparing for OWLs.

....Oh! She remembered a bit. "The Golden Ratio is also known as the divine proportion....the golden mean or the golden section." And it had a constant numeric value of 1.61....something. That was all she could share, really. Professor Hadley was only asking what they know about it, right? And not a textbook definition.

3. West was underwhelmed but only because he'd expected something along those lines. He DID perk up at the introduction to the proper part of the class though and put his hand up.

"Its also called Phi. Its an art thing about proportions and shows up in lots of paintings and in architecture."

Three! THREE! Everyone should have gotten three!?!?!
and he thought Four was a special number.

Oakey continued tapping his quill on his cheek while he listened carefully to Professor Hadley finally explain what they'll be learning today.
Well, it wasn't curse breaking, but Oakey read up a lot on Arithmancy over the summer. Newts were very important now and he needed to get at least an E to even consider Curse Breaking as a career. The A he got in his Owls was not good at all. "Professor The Golden Ratio is sometimes also known as the Divine Proportion. and the Greek Letter Phi is used to symbolize it."
Oakey quickly went back to his parchment and scribbled down the letter itself below all his previous work.

So this was a warm-up, eh? Ella bit her lip and eyed her parchment, knowing this had been a bit too easy. Arithmancy tended to make Ella's brain hurt and it wasn't pained in the least right now. She should have taken that as a sign, yeah? Anways...back to calculations.





Oh. 3. That was sort of cool. Ella thought she'd seen this exercise before when she was younger but couldn't be sure. Instead she offered Hadley a small amused smile and then waited to see what they'd be doing next.

The Golden Ratio? Hm.

"Professor, this number often shows up in nature and it is sometimes called nature's perfect number."

Tora hated math. Really disliked it a lot. Which was funny since she absolutely loved transfiguration... but eh. Its not that she was bad at math, it was just that she didn't get the the point in putting forth the mathematical effort required to solve the more difficult equations. Luckily the problem posed was not a complicated one so Tora wasn't too annoyed.

SPOILER!!: Parchment of equations

Original Number: 36

x2=72
+12=84
/4= 21

Tada. All the work done in her head too.

Minerva looked up when Hadley said her name. She then looked at her paper and her cheeks turned a nice pinkish color. How could she have been so dumb. How did she got from 12 to 14... That was just really weird. Erasing the original 12 she made it a 14. She figured she already did the calculations for the 14 why not stay with that.

Not focusing again she listened to what they were suppose to do. Subtract half their original number, well since she stuck with the 14 she was going to have to subtract 7. Looking down to her parchment she began to do her subtraction.





Minerva had just finished her subtraction when Hadley began talking again. Oh they were moving quite quick today. Listening she smiled, at least she got the 3 right even if her first part was screwed up.

Anyway, Golden Ratio.. what did she know about the golden ratio. Well nothing that she could come up with. How on earth did these other people know that.. Minerva pulled her parchment out and took down notes on this Golden Ratio...

Kace was still working on his parchment when he heard the next set of directions. He added the next steps of the math problem to his parchment.

SPOILER!!: Kace's Parchment

24
24X2=48
48+12=60
60/4=15

24/2=12
15-12=3

There that seemed sufficient. He seemed confident and was getting the hang of this.Then he heard the professor talking and he put his head up.

SPOILER!!: Le Prof

Quote:

Originally Posted by PhoenixRising

Now a small smile crossed Hadley's features when they finished their calculations and realized the final answer and what a small number it was. "So, if you did this correctly, exactly as I described, then no matter what your original number was, every single one of you should now be thinking of three." She waited to hear some sort of discrepancy or contradiction....

Now addressing everyone, "And THUS, as I've just demonstrated by this simple example, is the power of Arithmancy and numbers."

And now that she demonstrated such power in numbers, they can continue with the actual lesson...

"So in previous years, we've examined your destiny as presented in your name and birthday, your personality, and even how certain days affect outcomes. Today though, we will be taking a closer look at an important mathematical constant found in both the artistic and natural worlds. Which is . . . the Golden Ratio. We'll begin by you telling me if you've heard anything at all about this golden ratio."

Once the professor said the number that it should come out to was 3. He was gobsmacked. How did she know that? There is NO way she could have know that...well maybe since she was the teacher.

This class was getting more interesting. Then the professor was talking about the golden ratio. What was that? Kace had no idea. He had his quill ready in his hand to take notes though.

Final step? Yeah? And then they'd find out what this was all about?

Scribble... scribble... scribble...

Text Cut: Parchment!

Quote:

Four

4 x 2 = 8
8 + 12 = 20
20 / 4 = 5
5 - 2 = 3

There. Three. Which... according to Hadley, was the number that they should all have. Even if they didn't start off with the same numbers? Heh, that was weird. And sort of cool, actually. Yeah... numbers and Arithmancy really were powerful!

But they were moving on to something called... the Golden Ratio. What did he know about the Golden Ratio? Wasn't there that weird equation that had popped up with the a's and the b? And somehow it ended up being a over b or...? No, if Hadley knew it, which he was sure she did, then... he'd let her explain it properly. Especially since he didn't really know what that weird equation was about.

But... the number. It equalled to a number that seemed to stretch on forever, given by the ellipses at the end. "Erm... Professor? It equals to 1.62, when rounded up to two decimal places," Right? Yeah? Not another number?

Quietly but surely Renesmee listened to Hadley. She scribbled her number down which was 18, because in a few weeks time that's how old she were to be. Thus why it wasn't unusual that the even number was on her mind.

Time for some maths then? She pouted at Hadley then got to scribbling. It was only when new instructions were given that she looked up, otherwise her eyes were glued to her calculations. They were simple, but maths was the kinda thing she made careless mistakes in. Three. Interesting how they all happened to have the same answer there, as was what this golden ratio thing was. Pout. It sounded familiar, very familiar. The red head was sure she'd come across in before. Ahh. Yes it was the one with that formula that she somehow remembered. "Professor I think we are able to tell if two quantities are a golden ratio if let's say we use a and b as substitutes. Then a added to b divided by a would be equal to um...something." Mellow. Yeah she didn't remember that whole thing. Better than nothing than, yeah?

Nigel knew a little about this golden ratio. But he did not know where she was going with this.

"It appears many times in geometry, art, architecture and other things"

Well that was all he knew about the golden ratio.

Numbers. He was actually decent at these. You know, when he went to Muggle school and stuff before he got yanked into all of this craziness. And it WAS craziness, yeah?

Anyway, this was familiar. Something he could do without wanting to groan really loudly and complain about the academic institution in general. Psh.

But he knew this stuff. It wasn't magic related. Nope, it was good, old fashioned numbers. Things that did not seem to change from world to world. Awesome.

He rose his hand, for probably the first time all year, and answered, "Golden ratio, ma'am," Yeah, she even got a ma'am, "is a number. Used a lot with taking ratios of distances and stuff." Simple geometry and such.

See that? Just as she thought. The easy stuff wasn't going to last long. That question sounded like one that you'd only know the answer to if you bothered to pick up an Arithmancy textbook and actually read it.

She could tell that it wasn't all that hard a question though because everyone else seemed to have an answer to offer. Pfft. Readers. Lex sat back in her seat just allowing herself to be amazed by the fact that everyone ended up with three no matter what number they picked. That kinda made things interesting for the subject...didn't change the fact that she didn't know the answer though.

Now as much as she would have liked to listen to everyone then steal an answer, she couldn't because they weren't all giving the same answer and she didn't know who's answer to take for fear that that person would secretly be an idiot because then her answer would be wrong.

Professor Hadley shouldn't have to see her taking a wrong answer. Nope. She would just keep her mouth shut.

The number one ratio? Was he making fun? Hadley frowned but only for a brief moment, as she was in far too good a mood to let it be ruined by a sly comment from a Slytherin child. "It is a ratio, yes." She agreed, but not about to confirm or deny about the number one part, cause that didn't even make sense.

"Yes. Ultimately speaking, that is exactly what the Golden Ratio is!" So props to the young Ravenclaw over there, who clearly immersed herself in mathematical books in her free time.


"1.618 ... yes, which could technically be rounded to 1.62" Hadley smiled at the sixth year and fifth year. "It is known as many other names, some of which you mentioned."

"It's represented by the Greek Letter, Phi," Fina clarified. "But yes it does play a rather important role in art and nature, as well as ... Arithmancy." Shocker, wasn't it? It being found in Arithmancy.

"You mean to say that a plus b, divided by a is equal to a divided by b, which is also equal to phi?" Hadley finished of Ness' train of thought.

"The golden ratio was defined by a Greek Mathematician, Euclid, over two thousand years ago. Which basically states that dividing a line in two segments, the ratio of the larger of the sections in relation to the entire segment, as Carsyn described, is equal to the ratio of the smaller segment to the larger segment." She paused to write on the board;

"Or in other words the total length of 'a+b' is proportional to the segment 'a' in the same way that 'a' is proportional to 'b'. But our goal isn't to derive phi, however, i do want you to be able to see how phi plays a role in nature and art, as well as arithmancy." Easy? It should be considering there wasn't so much calculations involved as well as critical thinking. "Phi is intriguing because it has this way of popping up where its least expected. Everything and anything can be represented by a number or fraction such as phi." She went over to her desk and shuffled through for a moment to find some photos.



"So one of the easiest ways to look at this relative to ourselves is to measure the length of your longest finger bone. Start from the knuckle to the tip. And then the length of the finger next to it. And divide the longer length by the shorter one. Your answer should result in a number close to 1.168." She paused as she held up the picture of the human face and then handed it to Minerva to pass around. "Looking closely at the face ratios you'll see even a face is relatively proportional and symmetric. It might not be exact, but it's pretty close. So, don't take my word for this though; take a few moments and measure your fingers or your neighbors fingers and try it out for yourselves...."

ooc: I'm assuming you don't know your character's dimensions in THAT much detail, so if it's easier, you MAY guesstimate by measuring your own fingers and try it out that way ;D Borrow a friend's fingers, or whatever, really!

Eliza jotted down her numbers as quickly as possible.

Okay so...take my number, 62, and double it. Then add twelve. Then divide that total by 4. Okay.

SPOILER!!: Numbers

62 + 62 = 124
124 + 12 = 136
136 / 4 = 34

She was pretty sure she had that right so she listened for the next instruction. When she got it, she thought it over. Okay, now...divide my original number, 62, by 2.

SPOILER!!: Numbers

62 + 62 = 124
124 + 12 = 136
136 / 4 = 34

62 / 2 = 31

She listened again and jotted down the next step. Now subtract your that half of your original number from your original total.

SPOILER!!: Numbers

62 + 62 = 124
124 + 12 = 136
136 / 4 = 34

62 / 2 = 31

34 - 31 = 3

She was glad they were warming up with this, but the wording was a little tricky. Then Hadley said something she wasn't expecting. Everyone's number is now three?! Wow! That was pretty cool.

And the Golden Ratio? She wasn't sure, but it just sounded like something that would be really evenly balanced or something. She let the other students respond, since she wasn't positive.


Finally hearing Professor Hadley describe it though, really didn't clear it up for her. There were so many...words. Usually she was good with words, but words about math were confusing words just like she supposed numbers about words would probably be pretty confusing numbers, right? At any rate, she did as she was told and checked out her fingers.

Her longest finger was about 3.35 inches and the shorter one next to it was about 3.0. She did her best to do the math, but again, it wasn't her favorite subject.

SPOILER!!: Numbers

3.35 / 3.0 = 1.1167

Wow, she thought, That IS pretty close to the number she said. That's crazy! She continued to look at her fingers and then began wondering if her face was as "golden ratio-ey" as her fingers were. She hoped so. Symmetrical faces were subconsciously more attractive right? She thought she'd heard that somewhere before. Or read it. She wasn't sure.

So...Ella was sort of lost. She got the gist of what Hadley was saying but she got sort of distracted thinking about Alec's face faces and their proportions. Yeah, she really needed to focus.

Looking down at her hand, the blonde began to measure her fingers. She started with the longest one and came up with about 3.75 inches from the knuckle to the tip. Her next finger measured about 3.25 inches from knuckle to tip. Ella then scribbled down her measurements and divided.



...Was that right? Close enough? Hmmm.

Laura looked at the Professor and sighed, this was going to be really hard, how was she going to measure her fingers, surely the Professor could have thought of something else. "Professor where do I measure from?" Laura looked at her head of house and waited for an answer.

Tag had to repeat the Professors instructions over and over again until he got a clear understanding of what he was meant to do. So, he measured his longest finger from the knuckle to his tip, which was 3.75 inches. An then he continued with the second portion of the step and measured the shorter finger beside it, 3. 25 inches.

SPOILER!!: Work

3.75/ 3.25= 1.15

That was halfway there, right? After being done with his calculations he waited around for further details.

...

......

.....................

Yeah. The door wasn't that far away. If she could just make it their before the Professor noticed, she could casually leave, take a trip down to the kitchen and drown all this stuff in ice-cream. It was all seeming more and more legit with everything the Professor was saying.



It wasn't until they got to the part with measuring that she started following again. She could do that.



Eh.

Okay.