When the Professor began to JUMP on a desk and SING, the Gryffindor flinched in shock for a second as his mind went to their duel this saturday. Was he...really...going to DUEL this ...unpredictable ...person?!

He was distracted out of his thoughts when the Professor picked up the quaffle and apologised. Yeah if there was one thing Kevin KNEW about this man was that he didn't mean his apologies....kinda like himself heh.

And then there came a lot of information that made Kevin yawn out loud. He never liked theory as he was more of an practical person. He did look though as the Professor demonstrated how the earth!quaffle to orbit the sun!lamp. His different coloured brown eyes looked at the demonstration but then cringed again when he sang AGAIN! "Do you HAVE to sing and ...jump on desk to explain?!" he blurted out, rubbing his forehead where the writting was still visible in annoyance. As of the question, the second year didn't raise his hand as he said "because...the axis only has ...half of the ...planet where...the uhm.. sun shines on it? ..or something?" He didn't even understand his own answer. Not that it mattered though.

SPOILER!!: the quill incident

Quote:

Originally Posted by ArianaBlack

Why was he moving so much. One second he was here. And then there. And then back here again. GAH. This was by far the most tiring class Zander had ever experienced. Another question? Boy was there a lot of talking in Astronomy. Don't you normally just look through a telescope and try to find shapes in the sky or something? Zander chose to stay quiet this time around, instead of answering the question as he noticed all his other classmates were taking care of that bit. So instead he just vigorously wrote down some notes that he hadn't had the time to take down while Professor Flamsteed was proclaiming his love for the Earth's axis or what not.

SNAP.

And there goes the new quill. Aw man. Now his parchment is all splotchy and inked on.

Quote:

Originally Posted by nicole black

Justine was taking notes, she hadn't participated much in the lesson as she was feeling less than enthusiastic today, it wasn't for any particular reason, she was just feeling lazy. Having to balance her chair wasn't helping with her lack of enthusiasm. Wibble, Wobble, Wibble. This was really tiring.

The young girl was minding her own business, when to her side she heard a sickening snap. Oh, she knew that sound very eel, she encountered it far too often for her own liking. Looking to the side she saw a young man looking down at a broken quill and ruined parchment. Poor guy, that was just the worst. Maybe she ought to give him hand...

"Zat's zee worst," Justine said, nodding to the mess of ink, feathers and parchment on the boy's desk. She pulled out her wand from her robe pocket and without another thought siphoned up the ink with a nifty spell she'd just learned. "I can fix your quill if you'd like," Justine added quietly in her thick Parisian accent.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ArianaBlack

Stilling moping over his sad piece of parchment Zander almost missed the fact that someone had started talking to him! After quickly checking his surroundings to make sure Professor Flamsteed wasn't need by he looked up at the girl. Yeah, he agreed. It was 'ze' worst. And though he was embarrassed to admit, his "Magic" skills weren't up to par just yet and he didn't have any other quills so he really did need the help. Although he was a little reluctant to speak up, firstly because he wasn't the most talkative little wizardly, but secondly because he was afraid of getting yelled at by his eccentric professor.

Woah! She cleaned it all up for him. Wow, he liked her already. Silently praying that he wouldn't get called out for speaking he leaned over and whispered to the older girl. "Wow, thanks so much. That-uh-that was really nice. And yeah, that would be er- that would be really, um, really nice of you." He held the quill up to her and a little more ink dripped onto his fingers as he did.

Quote:

Originally Posted by nicole black

The younger boy looked so worried, but then Justine supposed he was a little anxious about talking in class, she certainly had been, now that Justine had gotten more comfortable she didn't even blink an eye. The Professors hardly ever noticed in class talking and in this case it seemed justified.

"You're welcome, and it vas nothing, I've been vaiting for a chance to use zat spell," Justine said, winking at the younger boy as she replied. He seemed sweet, if a bit out of his depth and immediately Justine felt compelled to befriend him, after all she had been like him just last year, worried and nervous about doing wrong. Was he new? He seemed like it and the Ravenclaw hasn't seem him around before...

Taking the broken quill from the blond boy, Justine held it up and lightly tapped it with her wand. "Reparo," She muttered, watching with satisfaction as the quill mended, seemingly on its own. She handed the quill back, smilingly at the boy in a friendly manner. "Zere, you go all fixed," Justine said. "I'm Justine by zee way, are you new?" She politely asked.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ArianaBlack

He reached for his newly repaired quill and let an easy smile embrace his face. Magic really was amazing. He drew a little swirl around his parchment and woah! It was as good as new. "Woah. It's amazing, thank you. You're really good at this stuff." Zander knew who he was going to sit next to in charms and transfiguration. Justine definitely knew her stuff. He looked up from his quill once more as she spoke up again. Quick check to make sure Professor Flamsteed hadn't started yet, and "Um, not really" answering this question was always so embarrassing. "I-uh- just never really participated until this year." Yes. He was shy. VERY shy. But he didn't want to tell her that right away. What if she stopped being friendly?!?

Clearing his throat, Airey walked over to the two and bent down so his face was just about even with theirs and beamed. He had seen the quill snap out of the corner of his eyes - part of the benefit of having a semi circle set up for desks. "I hope my lesson isn't disturbing your conversation," he whispered with a somewhat smug look on his features. "I trust your quill is back to proper working condition, yes?"

SPOILER!!: Aubrey! Gosh she is so cute XD

Quote:

Originally Posted by PhoenixStar

Could it be that she was already in trouble without ever intending to be? She gave the professor her sad puppy dog eyes that always seemed to work so well on her dad, and not so much on her mum. "I'm so sorry professor. I was just so excited about your lesson that I didn't manage to get much sleep fantasizing about it, and then on my way here the staircases decided to move..." she was just a baby lion after all. She did a quick "Meow" as if to remind him of that point. "...and I apologize and promise that it will never happen again." She really hoped her charm would work in her favor.

Hoping that it would be the end to that discussion she listened to the next question and her hand shot into the air. "Because you can't have a hot Christmas, that would be weird." Oh, she wasn't done with her explanation just yet. "Of course you can't just give Christmas special treatment because then 4th of July would be over here like... Hey, it would be weird if it wasn't hot for us because who shoots fireworks and bbq's in cold weather? So to be fair to everybody the seasons change to suit holidays." she remembered that her teachers in her primary school told her all about that American holiday. Mmmm... BBQ, and what was the question again?

Apparently she had been yapping so long that the professor had moved on and she was unaware of it. Blink. Blink. That was okay she always had plenty to say. She thought about the question and didn't really know why that was. She answered with the first thing that popped into her head. Once again her hand zoomed into the air because there was a guy that said something about head warmth that made her brain start thinking. "You know how like your feet always seem to be freezing and your head is always warm? Well, maybe that is what it means if you think about the earth as a human... just adding on to what that guy what saying." she said while pointing to the guy who she did not know the name to. Oh man, this professor was cool and she wanted in on the action. "Can I dance and jump on tables too?" Cause she so would in case he ever needed her to or anything.

An honest answer, although he REALLY could have done without the meow (not a fan of the felines, you see), and he could hardly blame a first year for not having figured out how best to handle the moving staircases. He, on the rare occasion, would still end up in the wrong place thanks to them.

Just ask Miss Diggle about that one.

"Alright, Miss Valentine, you get a free pass this time. But in the future please ensure that you arrive on time," he said before giving her a quick salute. And then he was reminded of the innocence and creativity that was the mind of a first year. "Don't let anyone in the Southern Hemisphere hear you calling them weird, Miss Valentine," he chuckled, giving his nose a tap with his index finger. "For the Southern Hemisphere, December is summer, so muggles often depict Santa delivering gifts on a surf board wearing festive swimwear." At least that had been the image on a postcard his sister had sent when she was doing some cursebreaking business down there.

Short pause.

"Also...please don't ever meow in my presence again."

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kayla Taaffe

Viv walked into her Astronomy lesson feeling happy. Today they were going to be learning about seasons. She took out her notebook and wrote:

My favorite season is spring. Many people believe that in summer Earth is closest to the Sun & in winter Earth is farthest from the Sun. The tilt of the Earth affects the seasons & the Earth's climate because of which parts are closer & which parts are farther from the sun. When the Earth is tilted towards the sun the seasons will be summer/spring & the climate will be warm. When the Earth is tilted away from the from sun then the seasons will be fall/winter & the climate will be cooler.

And speaking of arriving late.

Airey stared the Ravenclaw down as she entered the classroom and proceeded to write in notebook. Well, at least she was on topic...but STILL....

STARE.

"Have trouble with the moving staircases as well?" he asked, his arms folded across his chest as he waited to hear just why she had arrived so late.

OOC: Please do not RP your character arriving late unless you are willing to accept any IC consequences of doing so :3

Quote:

Originally Posted by carpediem

"If the earth wasn't tilted, then there would just be direct sunlight on one place at a time. Like say the earth wasn't tiled and it was one of out Winter months or something." Didn't he say that it was actually closer to the sun in the winter? Because that's what the blue eyed girl got out of this. Hopefully that was somewhat right.

"And if the sun was hotter in the winter --because she thinks that what you said-- than it would just be shining directly on us. It would be too hot for anyone to live anywhere for long periods of time." Was that answer right? Because it SOUNDED right, and Caelen was going with it.

Oh sweet solstice, he had clearly confused and lost the Ravenclaw somewhere. TIME TO FIX THAT!

"If the Earth wasn't tilted, there would be no seasons at all," he replied as he flicked his wand towards the still orbiting quaffle. "In fact, this is what the Earth looked like some 4.5 billion years ago before a Mars-size object collided with it. As a result of this collision, the Mars-size knocked off a chunk that would become the moon and tilted Earth." But she wasn't entirely wrong with her thoughts on winter. Or what he gathered her understanding was. "Scientists and astronomers believe that an Earth without a tilt would be stratified into climate bands that would get progressively colder as you moved away from the equator, meaning that civilization as we know it would likely have been impossible for where we are today." Meaning Hogwarts would certainly not be in Scotland if in existence at all.

He gave a small wink towards Miss Wisteria who had covered this in her response as well.

He paused for a moment to go over the rest of her words in his head. "The Sun's temperature does not change, not to the extent that it would be noticeable here on Earth. What changes is the Earth's position in its orbit around the sun and how its tilt relates to that position."

Quote:

Originally Posted by lemon

He didn't even bother answering the seasons question, on account of he had no idea. Dima was just as clueless about this inquiry as he had been for the first, which was especially embarrassing in the face of all his classmates being human textbooks. What... what... tilt... axis... Earth... what?

And when did the professor get on a DESK?

"'Cause... sunlight.... hits... different spots?" Yeah? Yeah!

True Ravenclaw right here.

"Mmmmmmm....yes and no," he replied cryptically.

And that was all he was going to give the young man. Heh.

SPOILER!!: the quiet ones & non-answer things :3

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eriin

Aaaand it was official! Professor Dude had lost it. Had he been this mad last term? Silas didn't seem to recall.

Watching him jump from desk to desk Silas just shook his head slightly. And didn't bother raising his hand for the next question. Everyone was busting out answers left right and center. Besides... it was kind of self explanatory wasn't it? The more exposure to the sun the warmer the weather was. Duh.

Quote:

Originally Posted by hermionesclone

What.

In the name of merlin.

Was this man.

DOING?!

Grayson, who had almost absent-mindedly scribbled in something in his journal instead of answering the last question, found himself STARING at the Professor as he jumped on people's desks. Yeah, that's right, JUMPING. Had he really escaped from the local circus? But what confused the boy even more was that some of the others weren't even phased by it. Someone was even LAUGHING! HELLO?!

And then there was singing. Of course there was singing.

Still looking thoroughly confused by the random bought of HAPPINESS that had erupted from the Professor, the fourth year looked over at the quaffle instead. See, now this he could understand. Uh huh. The quaffle was orbiting the lamp. It was tilted. Certain parts were being hit with more light and were closer which meant that those parts were warmer too.

Seeing as he had nothing useful to add that was different from what the others had said, the boy shrugged and set about doodling in his notes. There was an earth orbiting a sun and then a quaffle orbiting a lamp beneath that. More detail was being put into the earth and the quaffle but the sun did get sunglasses and a cheesy grin. Because old habits didn't die. And now the sun was cool and hot. What a lucky star.

This was useful doodling, mkay?

And then there was a kid who was all too enthusiastic with her answer. Er.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lottiepot

Terry, whom was staring at his girlfriend from across the room blinked in reaction to her point loss. Seriously? She just felt like hugging Professor? Couldn’t she just hug him instead? You know, later. After class. Not a Professor who was going to take points from Slytherin before the term had even started. Was there something up with Ana? He needed to know. So many questions in his head.

And these thoughts were clearly distracting him from the continuation of the lesson which he had missed entirely. He snapped back into reality, glancing to Flamsteed who was seemingly prancing around the classrooms on desks shouting about something or other and clearly enjoying himself.

What had he just missed?

And then he was off again on one of his really long talking rampages which the Slytherin did often find insightful. But he was so lost in thinking why the Professor was using the classroom as an obstacle course that he really wasn’t taking note in what was being said. Until the next question was asked that was and the seventeen year old swiftly picked up his quill and started jotting down notes looking as if he was actually paying any attention to this lesson at all should the Professor come round and see what he was doing.

Heh. Such a Slytherin.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sararara

A singing and dancing professor? Amazing! Norah giggled delightedly when he landed on her desk, belting a song enthusiastically. She had expected classes at Hogwarts to be fun, but not to this level. Her eye grew wide as she watched Professor Flamsteed's demonstration, but she didn't recall anything about weather in answer to his next question. Hmm...The light hit different parts of the quaffe, that made sense, but weather patterns? Norah pulled out a piece of parchment and a quill to take notes. She might as well learn it if she didn't know, right?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Felixir

Toby really wasn't surprised to hear Professor Flamsteed break out into a musical number. It was pretty, y'know, normal for him to do stuff like this after all. And what with LAST term and the whole oldness thing... well, he could absolutely forgive all the overdue desk jumping.

But Airey was saying a lot of words. SO MANY WORDS. Tobias was slightly alarmed to discover that his ability to pay attention to those words was somehow worse than it had ever been. Professor Flamsteed was talking and Toby would TRY SO HARD to listen and pay attention, but his focus would wander after hardly any time at all. Sure, he could always catch up with the textbook later on, but it wasn't quite the same as having something explained. Especially the way Airey explained things.

Frustrated with his own brain's inability to DO HIS BIDDING, Toby began to try and jolt himself back into concentrating, and shook his head hard every time his mind started to wander. Trouble was, the more it happened, the more vigorously he'd try and snap himself back, until eventually he overdid it and overbalanced. Before he knew what was even happening, Tobias accidentally rocked his already unsteady chair and flailed off of it sideways, giving a high pitched 'meeEEEEP!'

He sprang up just as fast as he'd gone down, and quickly righted his chair again, looking apologetically at Airey. "Sorry Professor," he said quickly, sitting carefully back in his chair and deciding to take notes on what people were saying. If he gave himself something to do, maybe he was less likely to become distracted?

Quote:

Originally Posted by feeheeheeny

Well. Her terrible joke hadn't been poorly received, like she was expecting, and her face broke into a grin at the professor's laughter. "Thanks, professor. Best I could do on the spot." More like thanks for humoring her, but all the same, she appreciated his sense of humor, and threw Nigel a 'sup' nod.

As the class went on, Sophie realized she had almost forgotten how agile and full of energy Flamsteed was when he wasn't an elderly man. Bursting into song and jumping on desks and being a weirdo - it made Sophie giggle, though. She would prefer a class like this over one of Bellaire's any day. It wasn't even like the guy was shooting off nonsense - he was making really informational stuff fun. It didn't even matter that he was hard to follow sometimes - the excitement was too contagious.

She was kind of 'meh' about the whole quaffle thing, and watched the faces of fellow Quidditch players to see their reactions more than reacting herself - it was a nice educational tool on the professor's part, though. Suitable illustration. He was still singing, though, which was distracting - but it wasn't as distracting as Tobes falling out of his chair right next to her.


A proper best friend might have looked concerned and offered him a hand to help him back up, but the Hufflepuff sprang back up so fast and she wasn't the typical best friend - so she had to cover her face in her hands, avoiding his gaze and stifling the laughter that had began as soon as he started tipping. Totally not laughing at him. With him.

Once she had sufficiently suppressed her laughter, she peeked through her fingers at him, still grinning goofily, and mouthed, Sorry. After another moment, she held onto her own desk and leaned toward him to mouth further, You okay? Because she did care. It was just... really funny. He would be the one to fall out of his chair in the middle of class. Just Tobes.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cassirin

Everyone was giving approximately the same answer, so Mo contented himself with not answering. It was far more interesting to watch the quaffle!planet rotate on its axis and to take in first hand just exactly what the professor was talking about. The question was a bit basic, really, when you could just watch and figure it out.

It didn't hurt that the watching was of a quaffle, and that it made Mo feel sort of nostalgic and mopey. He dropped an elbow to his desk and watched the whole thing turn and turn and turn and turn with studied concentration.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SlytherinSistah

He needed to much attention. Cutty's face held like granite as Airey Flamsteed's long legs leaped and pranced from table to table with an agility Cutty had not seen the man perform since that fateful night their paths first crossed. Actually, this was more exaggerated, or maybe it just seemed so due to the elevation. Like a stage. Airey Flamsteed live and in person! Shows nightly!

He could probably sell the idea to that little Abby girl that kept bothering him whilst he was music shopping.


Cutty kept his eyes on the light and shadow and the chiascurro casted through the quaffle demonstration.

Giving Miss Brown a quick salute, his blue eyes glanced around the room and offered a small nod to those who were not raising their hands. Nothing wrong with just sitting and listening......

..............or falling out of one's desk as it seemed was the case with Mr. Tempus. "You alright there, Mr. Tempus?" he questioned, looking around the room at all the desks. He supposed the point had been made by now and he ought to put the poor students out of their misery. Even if they wouldn't be sitting like this for too much longer. "Hold on just a moment. I'll fix things..."

Wand out, Airey gave it a lavish wave above his head that caused the legs of the chairs and desk evened out until they were level once again.

You're welcome!

SPOILER!!: Theo! Melek! Sophie N!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Emzily

Oooooookay this made a bit of sense, despite Flamsteed talking lots and moving about so much. It was kind of annoying really. "Because the sun gives us hot weather... so when we're not facing the sun, we don't get as much heat... which gives us winter." His voice was lazy because he was trying to make out he knew what he was talking about and that this wasn't new information to him.

Was it working?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anna Banana

There was singing...

...and even more singing. O_o

Sophie's head looked like a tennis ball bouncing around as she tried to follow the professor's quick song and dance movements across the room. When it appeared like he was settled down, Sophie focused on his question and tried to come up with an answer.

She raised her hand.

"It's like the axis is only letting one side of the Earth face the Sun at once," she said. "So the side that faces the Sun gets warmer weather, while the side that faces away from the Sun gets colder weather." Seemed easy enough.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Unalii

Melek winced, forgetting the whole 'five words or less' thing. She blushed and listened as the professor talked and talked. Mel tried to listen but he was talking so fast it seems. Melek yawned and eyed him then the time. She raised her hand, "Closer to sun, makes Earth hotter, Farther from sun, makes Earth colder." It was pretty concise though it was 12 words... at least there wasnt a word limit for this question... right? Melek started to get even more embarrassed at the thought of that happening again. Mel started to try to hide but it wasnt a smart idea either way.

While he assumed students knew what they were talking about, there were a few things he needed to clarify just to be sure. And it was a reminder for everyone, including himself, to be careful with the terminology. "Be careful when using terms like 'facing the Sun,' because that is more evoking the conversation regarding why the Earth has night and day rather than seasons. Instead, be sure you use the term 'tilted towards' and 'tilted away.'" Just for clarification purposes. "Same with 'closer to the Sun' and 'father from the Sun' as, as said earlier, Earth's position in its orbit is actually closer to the Sun in winter - for the Northern hemisphere at least."

Quote:

Originally Posted by ScarletCharm104

Number #386 reason to like Airey for teaching Astronomy - he sang songs to help teach. Marigold grinned at him before adding notes to her parchment. The whole quaffle analogy made complete sense, though now that Quidditch was actually stopped (it wasn't just a rumor ) it seemed like her was just teasing them. With his next question, she wasn't as sure, but she raised her hand anyway.

"Is it because the sun has a more direct path to places nearer to the equator? Which would mean that the poles barely had any sunlight, and the places where the sun didn't shine was night." Yeah?

"What you are getting at, Miss McAlister, is the overall global temperature," he nodded. Not wrong, but not entirely what he had been meaning to ask. "The equator, the black line on the quaffle, is generally hotter than other parts of the Earth because it receives direct sunlight year-round as the Earth orbits around the sun. In fact, rays of sun fall almost perpendicularly over the equator."

Quote:

Originally Posted by amadshade

"WARMTH CLOSER TO TITLED SIDES" nobody could possibly comprehend the happiness and satisfaction Tora felt from saying that one phrase. Triumph was hers!

SOMEONE WAS SHOUTING!

Oh, it was Miss Gallaway who....was having an ink problem of some sort. Oh no wait, she had cleaned that up with her wand. Stellar.

"LOVE the enthusiasm Miss Gallaway!" he beamed. TWO THUMBS UP FOR YOU!

Quote:

Originally Posted by DuckyLinJi

And then there came a lot of information that made Kevin yawn out loud. He never liked theory as he was more of an practical person. He did look though as the Professor demonstrated how the earth!quaffle to orbit the sun!lamp. His different coloured brown eyes looked at the demonstration but then cringed again when he sang AGAIN! "Do you HAVE to sing and ...jump on desk to explain?!" he blurted out, rubbing his forehead where the writting was still visible in annoyance.

"To explain? Nope. But to celebrate the stellar answers of your classmates, YES!" he exclaimed with a cheeky grin.

Mr. Hirase was probably just jealous that his desk hadn't been jumped on. Obviously.

SPOILER!!: Adrienne!

Quote:

Originally Posted by aaetha

What in the name of Merlin's beard was Flamsteed doing on her desk?!? Adrienne recoiled in surprise as her clearly insane professor sang and danced his way across the classroom, causing her already off-balance chair to wobble crazily and for her to be startled right off of it and onto the floor. She cursed loudly in French and gingerly got back up on her feet, glaring at the professor. Great, now her tailbone was probably bruised, and her ego most certainly was. That was not under any circumstances proper classroom conduct! It took all of her self-control to refrain from yelling at Flamsteed, since she was pretty sure he would just yell at her back and then she'd have detention, which would suck. Instead, Adrienne settled for a scowl as she rearranged herself and her stuff on her desk, trying to get her mind refocused at the topic at hand. Seasons. Not gutting her professor, seasons.

She quickly looked over the notes she'd already written before raising her hand to answer. "Well, whichever hemisphere is closer to the sun is receiving both more light and more heat, which obviously affects the weather because-" She cut herself off mid-sentence, and just before she went into a long, rambling explanation, too, squinting at her parchment. "Wait." Hold up. Everyone stop everything, because Adrienne was confused.

"On other planets, why are the seasons longer? It's just because the years are longer too, yeah? Or is there something else weird going on?" She wouldn't put it past the universe to have planets whose axis changed as they moved around the sun or who deliberately made things nonsensical just so that she wouldn't be able to understand.

Oh...er...awkward.

She was alright though, yes? Oh look, she seemed that way since she was already asking questions. Stellar!

"It has to do with the tilt of a planet's axis and its orbit around the Sun," he nodded. Which was partly what he assumed she meant with it having to do with longer years. "So, it takes the Earth 365 and a forth days to go around the Sun and a season on Earth lasts between 90-93 days, but if you compare that to Venus...which takes 225 Earth days to go around the Sun and has seasons that last between 55 to 58 days. When you look at Neptune, where seasons last more than 70 years, it takes about 84 Earth years to orbit the Sun. You may be interested to read page 163 of your textbook where it goes into detail about Mars' and its seasons. Quite a fascinating read if I do say so myself."

SPOILER!!: CORRECTOMUNDO! More or less <33

Quote:

Originally Posted by Meizzner

See it was a good horrible pun. If that was possible. Some more thinking would be needed on that. Nigel stopped writing puns on his parchment when he heard his name mentioned. Who was going to challenge his marginally good wit?...

Oh Sophie. Well that makes sense. She hangs out with Cat and Mo.

This was amusing. Flameo was jumping on peoples desks and answering questions. Nigel wobbled in his chair and wished he had some popcorn. He never has it when he needs it. Story of his life. He did like Mikey's answer. Why say anything else. when tons of people said the correct answer already. Ah, so that was what the quaffle was for. Not that interesting. But the info was okay.

Might as well try and answer this one. "Doesn't it have something to do with if the earth is tilted towards the sun and away from it." He forgot which did which. But it was something. Nigel could tell you that Heliophobia is the fear of the sun. Which kind of makes it hard to walk outside and enjoy 3/4 of the seasons.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Saiai

Singing and dancing? Could they do a musical themed astronomy lesson at some point? Because that would be funsies. Not that Astronomy lessons weren't always interesting, and was it just Ana or Flamsteed looking at her like he was concerned? It was probably just her...

Ana raised her hand hesitantly to answer the question, afraid of getting it wrong because the answer seemed a bit too obvious. Even though he'd said it was already alluded too. "Because the tilt of the axis affects where sun rays hit? So while we experience Summer, because the rays are hitting the Northern Hemisphere directly the Southern Hemisphere will experience Winter because they are getting indirect rays..." Yeah, she wasn't so sure on that explanation, but from looking at the diagram, and what they'd been talking about before she'd say she was at least on the right track. Hopefully. Nevertheless she took to writing down other peoples answers as well.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DanialRadFAN01

Whoops. Oh well, Ezra thought his answer had made sense but after hearing some of the other kids answers and then the Professor's CRAZY INTERESTING DANCE AND SONG NUMBER WHILE JUMPING ON DESKS he thought he was starting to get this whole axis thing. A little bit.

Could they all jump up on the desks?

No, they were starting a demonstration. The first year looked at the Quaffle as it floated around the lamp tilted. It reminded him of something so he raised his hand. "Professor! Because the quaffle or planet is tilted with sometimes the lower half angled closer to the sun and sometimes the top part doesn't that make it heat up faster or slower? Kinda like putting a part of your body close to the fire for warmth but just because your leaned in and your back's all toasty doesn't mean your head is as warm?" Something like that, yeah??

Quote:

Originally Posted by FearlessLeader19

Oh Merlin! Adi was not expecting Flamsteed to leap on his desk. But he couldn't help laughing as the man bounded of his desk and over to that new, older Hufflepuff's. He was guessing their answers were the correct ones. Professor Airey was certainly quite the entertaining character!

The third year watched in fascination as the demonstration with the quaffle and lamp was done. And then looking at the last diagram, he now understood alooooot better about what caused the seasons. So cool all this was! Keeping his eyes on the quaffle and lamp, Adi tried to figure out the answer to the next question. "Professor,'' he began finally with his hand in the air. "I think it's cold during winter because Earth catches less of the sun's rays during that time and vice versa in the summer.'' This was of course due to the Earth's weird tilt of the axis.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Presley Black

Gwen's eyes got really wide as he jumped on her desk, singing Fiddler on the Roof. Was this for real? She knew he wasn't the normal sort of teacher, but this was bizarre. She just stared, too stunned to even realize he was singing the wrong words.

Oh! There was another question. She was a little bit in shock from the jumping and singing thing. If she answered this one, would he stand on her desk again? Hopefully not. She raised her hand, grateful that this could be longer than five words. "Because of the tilt and the 365 day orbit around the sun, sometimes certain parts of the earth are closer to the sun than others, and then farther. The closer you are to the sun, the warmer it is." That's why the tilt made seasons. Yep. Now just hope he doesn't decide to do an encore performance.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lady of Light

Delilah grinned as she watched Airey jump on the desk and start singing. Seriously, why couldn't all the professors be like HIM? Classes would be more fun and enjoyable, you know? Heh. AND, right. Next question. Still clutching on to the desk, the girl looked at the image for a moment and considered his question for a moment.

She raised a hand and said, "Well, professor. The tilt of the axis would mean that the earth would be either leaning towards the sun, which would mean summer.. or away from the sun, which would be winter.. right? And autumn and spring would occur in between..".. or something like that. The girl kept her answer short and precise although she wasn't sure if it was right. Oh, well.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Daydreamer11

Jasmine quite enjoyed the Professor's spontaneous performance. Astronomy had never been this entertaining before. This man could pull a song reference out of a hat for any situation it appeared.

Jasmine raised her hand to take a stab at answering the question. " It matters because the tilt allows part of the earth to get direct sunlight and part to get indirect sunlight for a portion of the year. This causes opposing seasons in the different hemispheres. If there was no tilt, both hemispheres would receive the same amount of direct light. We would have one perpetual season for the entire earth."

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lissy Longbottom

Caleb was really starting to wonder if Flamsteed was losing his mind. Was it a side effect of the aging thing last term? Perhaps...he certainly didn't remember him being this crazy during his first term. Dancing and singing and jumping around, making them answer in only five words - he was going to get a headache if the man kept this up!

AH YES, he could answer without counting his words this time, thank Merlin. He raised his hand. "Professor, the Earth gets different seasons based off the tilt of the axis. If your hemisphere is facing the sun for more hours during the daytime, it's summer. On the other hand, the less sun you're getting, the colder it gets. That's how it can be winter up here in the North, and summer down in Australia and stuff," he explained.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rosa Chispa Princessa

Bree raised her hand high, "The tilt of the Earths axis allows no area on Earth to be too cold or too hot for a prolonged amount of time that would make the Earth just about uninhibitable. With the tilt we get seasons like spring and fall which makes life able to thrive and depending where the Earth is on its rotation around the sun we get different seasons".

Quote:

Originally Posted by JennMarie

LEAPING LIZARDS!!! Jeremiah jumped slightly as the professor JUMPED onto his desk singing. He also had to grip and balance his desk a bit so that the professor and himself didn't fall over in a heap on the floor though but he was trilled to know he was on the right track of thought.

Why? well because the sun that's why. "Because during summer months the sun is in a position for direct heat from it, and not during winter." then it's facing away from the direct heat and hello winter and such. He didn't mind the winter cause really the snow was nice sometimes but you know. He was also jotting some things down main words, notes and all for study reasons. Tapping his quill onto his unbalanced desk he looked around he room and listened to some other answers prepared to write down anything different or any key words anyone might use. You could never really be too prepared.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Grrr..Meow

Oh Bay needed to keep his words shorter… hmm… raising his hand he smiled "I think its because where the sun directly hits on our planet?" that was short right.. he hoped that it would be somewhat right.

Thinking about it now it seemed that he should have explained more, but other students were already answering, shrugging his shoulders he watched the other students, and Professor Flamsteed was yelling, ouch his ears! couldn't he just go to sleep now. Looking down at his desk he thought his arms would make a great pillow on this hard top, he gave out a big YAWN.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Syd

Lana was hurriedly scribbling down notes and trying to keep up with all the information about the planet that was being tossed out. She missed a question, partly because she was distracted and partly because she couldn't think of how to explain the answer in four words.

She caught this one, though. And she was pretty sure she could answer it. So she raised her hand. "It's because during the summer we're tilted toward the sun so ALL the sunlight comes to US. And during the winter we're tilted away from the sun so we don't get all the sun so it gets cold."

Quote:

Originally Posted by Saraie

So moving on with the lesson now, Cinna watched as professor Flamsteed starting to sing. Not only was he singing he was also hopping on the desk. Did he always do this? Well it was a very interesting teaching method. She approved.

Her eyes widen as the finale ended on her desk. She clapped at the ending. She would stood up and gave him a big standing O. But yeah that may fall under trying to be suck up teachers pet. She did however throw him up a huge beam from her seat.

Now Cinna looked at the diagrams. Again.... Gosh people around here answered fast didn't they? She raised her hand. "The tilt of the axis makes the earth closer to the sun, making it summer time. When the tilt is farther from the sun winter time."

Quote:

Originally Posted by Expecto-Penguin

Kace was interested in this lesson. He copied down the notes from the previous question, the student's basically said what he was gonna say anyways. Why waste the energy. He then saw on the board the diagram for the earth tilted on its axis. He copied it down and made the diagram pretty.

After he got his notes down, he heard the professor ask the class a question. He put his quill down and thought about it. He heard Cinnamon's answer and nodded and raised his hand. "Professor i agree with Cinnamon's answer. The earth during the summer time is titled towards the sun, so the sun's rays affect you more than in the winter." He thought he explained his thought process well enough.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaniDiNardo

Only five words to answer a question? That seemed more like one of those times when she sat quietly and watched, which is exactly what she did. Mikey's answer was her favourite, it was. He had the right idea even if it wasn't the actual answer. Technically he wasn't even wrong! Technically because someone had said the right answer and he was owning up to it, whatever that answer was.

Lex watched, clearly amused by the Professor's hopping about. He could have done it a bit more quietly though on account of her bestfriend's sensitive hearing but he'd already gotten on with it so let him have it.

What she almost couldn't let him have was the use of the Quaffle in his example. Know something? She was beginning to think he was doing this on purpose and for a few seconds her full and undivided attention was purely on the quaffle. A small part of her kept wanting someone to fly in through the window on a broom, snatch the quaffle and initiate a game but it was overly wishful thinking and even she knew it. With a small shake of her head she tried focusing on the lesson once more.

The Professor wanted them being concise? "It's 'cause when it's tilted toward the sun those areas get more heat and when those areas move further from the sun because of that same tilt they don't get as much heat exposure so they're colder." Nod.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Squishy

Now he was jumping on the desks and singing. This was part of why Professor Flamsteed was her favourite teacher. He was so hyper and zany. Hoping that he didn't fall off of any of the tipping desks, Lux hummed along to his song.

Too soon, he stopped and it was time for her to take more notes as she listened to another spiel. Everything was sinking in much better for her so far this term, and that made her happy because she didn't feel so dense anymore.

Raising her hand, she tried to answer the next question as concisely as possible. "The tilt of the planet causes one part of it to lean towards the sun while the other part leans away from it. The area leaning towards the sun gets direct rays and more heat. This is what causes summer. The part of the planet leaning away from the sun gets more indirect rays and not as much heat. This is what causes winter." Okay, so much for bing concise, but hopefully he would see that she had been reading up on Astronomy some over the summer.

Quote:

Originally Posted by FireboltAvis88

Cris waited patiently for the other students to share their answers and when they were done, he raised his hand and have his.

"Professor, like the others have mentioned, it's the way the earth's axis tilts that is the reason for our seasonal changes," Cris paused to acknowledge his classmates before containing.

"When the earth is facing a particular side of the sun, that hemisphere receives more direct solar radiation than the other. That is when we experience Summer, while those in the Southern Hemisphere experience winter. Of course that changes in about six months, when the earth's position is on the opposite side of the Sun."

"Professor does that mean, if the earth wasn't tilted, the areas around the equator would receive the most sun while those in the northern and Southern Hemispheres would be stuck in a gradient of hot to cold and there would be no seasons at all?" Cris asked Professor Flamsteed.

It had suddenly dawned on him how important that the earth continued to tilt the way it did.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kaos.Doodles

The Professor was.....jumping on desks and stuff. It.....AWESOME! Although he half expected the man to fall cause he was so old and jumping and cause the desks were so wonky.

And now he was clapping for him? Kyroh grinned. Soooo technicallllly the man was saying that he was still kind of right, right? Yeah. He'd go with that.

Kyroh scrubbed down a few things like Mr.Odessa's answer cause that was a good on yeah?

Gaze shifting from the board back to the Professor, and then to the moving earth-quaffle in front of them, Kyroh raised his hand. "If the earth wasn't titled...then the suns rays would hit the hemispheres or whatever directly and everyone would burn up? It's like the tilt lets the seasons be consistent, so we need it. Like a lollipop. You can't have a lollipop without a stick and you can't have the proper seasons without the tilt." Also he didn't want to burn up. And a lollipop sounded good about now.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chiara

Lucy raised the wand and said:"The difference in temperatures between the different seasons, depends on the ANGLE of IMPACT of SOLAR ray that are the consequence of the tilt of the axis of rotation of the earth on an elliptical orbit's plane"..
Then Lucy added with a smile:
"But if you want to be a bit romantic during the winter the Earth is closest to the Sun because the Earth and the Sun are in love and they get hot the one with the other!"

Quote:

Originally Posted by TakemetotheBurrow

Yeah... You're welcome, Professor. Maddie would save the macking discussion for outside of class where she could ask more informed parties. 'Cause as much as she was sure the top hat man knew what it meant, she wasn't particularly sure he was able to perform the act of macking and that meant he wasn't an expert. Mhm.

And the whole jumping on people's desks thing? That was interesting. Was the guy trying to show how nimble he was or was he trying to startle people who weren't paying attention? She hadn't seen anyone sleeping but it could've escaped her when she was thinking about other things as she sometimes did. Hm. She'd have to see how often this sort of thing took place because things like this were good to know for the future. Just like it was good to know that this man appreciated singing. She'd keep that little fact in her back pocket for later too. UH-HUH.

And they'd moved on from seasons to weather now? They sort of went hand-in-hand and all that and she figured the answer to this question was pretty similar to the last but she did have a thought. "It matters cause the parts closer to the sun get more direct sunlight, yeah? Like probably around the equator since it's really hot there. My mum says places around the equator mean short weather mostly ALL the time. Dress weather too but I HATE dresses." Uh-huh. "And the parts farther from the sun are probably a bit colder all the time but they have to get warm air somehow so maybe that's where those 'Weather Front' things come in. They bring warm or cool air into places." Maddie made the little air quotations with her fingers when she'd said the term she'd heard on the news (BORING) and then shrugged her shoulders when she was done. It had to be SOMETHING like that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by McFeisty

After all of the primping and preening needed to get into the classroom they weren’t allowed more than five words? This was an outrage. Really it was. Professor Flamsteed was limiting them completely and utterly limiting them. She didn’t like this one bit.

After all it wasn’t an unknown fact that Amelia was one of those wordy people whose words kind of just flew from her mouth without the ability for it to stop. And well, maybe just maybe he wasn’t feeling well…people who didn’t feel well sometimes didn’t want to hear a lot of words or talking.

“Professor could it be because the way the sunlight hits the earth determines how hot or how cold it is in one area?” She asked carefully. “And thinking that way if the earth wasn’t on an axis wouldn’t the winters always be the same length on both the southern and northern hemispheres? If you know the earth was not ‘wonkily’ tipping on its side more and more every year?” She asked careful with her word choice.

Even if a part of her wanted to see how many shades of red his face could go...if she simply said the word astrologer or astrology it would...that was funny...so funny when his face went all magenta because of her word choice last term.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Crayola

Richard was definitely lost. There was a lot of talking (why was everybody so smart, ugh!) and singing and apparently, dancing. Wow. Just. Wow. He was definitely trying to take notes but, forgetting the fact that he could barely spell some of the words writing down, these notes would be hard to read considering that Richard apparently lacked the ability to write on a titled desk. Oops. Still, he raised his hand at Professor Flamsteed's question. "Is it because it determines the amount of sunlight we get? Sunlight is important to our weather, isn't it?"

Apparently not up here in Scotland, but nevermind that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by AlwaysSnapesGirl

Yeah, Penelope decided against trying to make an answer into four words. Not that she was against short answers, but she didn't want to put in the effort of trying to make sure it was within a certain limit. Everyone else already did fine with answering anyway so no need to repeat it all.

This question, though, she supposed she'd give it a shot anyway. So her hand went up. "If it wasn't tilted, the sunlight would hit the Earth differently than it does with it tilted. I guess the hemispheres might even have the same seasons at the same time if it wasn't tilted since it seems like the tilt is what makes them different. So the tilt matters a lot." At least that was her guess on why it did.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tegz

West grinned. Points for a rhyme, okay. Did Flammy want a whole song? Because hell, why not? The Dead Kneazles could totally do one for him. He listened to the explanation and watched, nodding every now and then.

Another question.

And actually.... West figured his same answer would do in a different way. So he put his hand up and repeated, "Tilted rotation effects exposure duration." Pause.

"Except in this case we're talking on a day by day basis and not seasonally, though they feed into each other. When a particular part of the Earth is tilted toward the sun for longer, then that hemisphere is also exposed to more Sun during the course of its day because more surface area gets sunlight. We're talking about latitude here, the closer to the equator the more direct sunlight there is and the warmer it is because even with the tilt that part is exposed for longer so the density of light from the Sun is higher, while closer to the poles being exposed to the Sunlight for less time and with less light density means night comes faster and the temperature is lower." That was... enough words. Yeah. He stopped his explaining.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Deezerz

Beverly Wayne didn't normally giggle in front of people, but when Professor Airey landed on her desk she couldn't help it. Hands flying up to her face, clasping over her mouth, she gave the tiniest giggle. Song plus jumping happy Airey was an amusing sight.

Without giving it much thought, she jotted down the song. It was catchy. And it was Airey. For the next question she raised her hand once more. "It's because of the tilt. When the Northern Hemisphere is leaning towards the sun that part of the planet receives the most light, like the Quaffle right there," she said, pointing at it and the lamp, "making it summer. When it tilts away, then the Southern Hemisphere receives more light than the Northern, thus giving us winter in the latter." Did that makes sense? "We get Spring and Fall when the sun shines in equal proportions on the North and the South."

Quote:

Originally Posted by griffin

Did the professor always sing and dance in class? Penelope raised her hand, "Because the Earth is tilted, the sunlight is more intense where the earth is tilted toward the sun."

Quote:

Originally Posted by Star-Lord

BLINK.

Flamsteed had officially lost it. Prancing around the classroom, singing about the planets' tilt. Jun just stared at his professor and rested his chin on his elbow. It was a good show, at least it would keep him awake with Airey being loud and all. But yes, the tilt. And seasons. "It matters because as Earth rotates around the sun, it tilts, so the farthest part is colder and the closest gets warmer. If the Southern Hemisphere is towards the sun, it's warm and the Northern Hemisphere is colder and vice versa," Oh look, Jun was actually participating in class and knew things. He usually stood quiet, like in History of Magic since he couldn't even be bothered to pay attention there.

And Ancient Runes.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gabben

*Oh if only Rom could give longer answers. But then he would be marked as a know-it-all and picked on. His hand still shot up as he gave his answer.*
"Because of the Earths axis and tilt only parts of the Earth get sunlight on it. When one side of the tilt is closer to the sun it is warmer, and the farthest is colder. Causing summer and winter."

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lockhartian

Stellar. Everything is stellar, Airey Flamsteed.

Except the whole thing with seasons, because even if Lottie did have a favorite season (duh, spring! cherry blossoms, anyone?), she didn't acknowledge favorites, remember? So, she had to sit through that question, otherwise the other three seasons will get jealous. Wink.

Then Tobias kept mentioning summer and the sun and completely ruined the whole seasons thing for her. Sigh.

Oh, so that's why the desks were unbalanced, then. Good to know. Clever. AND LOOK AT THAT, Nigel didn't even need to speak to be annoying. Whatever that 'Planet' had been, it was obviously a joke. Typical.

NOW, speaking of sunrise and sunset... he could've mentioned both were an illusion, since the sun doesn't rise or set, it's merely the Earth's motion that makes it seem like it does. There's no horizon either, but that was neither here nor there. It was, however, yet another illusion.

Hand raised. "It matters because that is exactly how we get such different seasons, flora and fauna diversity, climate change. They would be mere illusions, just like the sunrise and the sunset. Both hemispheres would react the same from the equator to the north pole and from the equator to the south pole. Both poles would get the same exposure to light and heat as well, quite possibly redistributing the entire scenario of life we currently know." The poles would be the ones to suffer here, you know.

Long live the North. Winter is coming.

Quite literally, because they were currently experiencing autumn.

Now he really wanted a lollipop.............and to get the image that Miss Petersfield had created out of his head.

"For the most part you all have a stellar understanding of the concept, but please indulge me yet again for a brief demonstration using these tin can lids," he said as he picked them up off his desk and showed the black painted side to the class. "Just to reiterate, when the Earth is tilted towards the Sun this is when summer occurs on that hemisphere, when it is tilted away that is when it is winter. The reason, as Mr. Oddessa and Miss Wright put best, is that the amount of light and energy from the Sun hitting that particular region of the Earth. So, if you take these lids and put one of them flat on the table and one at a slight angle right below the lamp..." he said as he did so, black side facing the class still. "Both are receiving the same amount of light and heat, but the angled one causes the light to spread over more of a surface area and the density of the light drops and will be warm to the touch, but not too warm. In contrast, the one that is facing the light full on is receiving the light directly and will be..." he continued as he reached down to touch it and... "YEOOOOOOOCH! Will be hot."

Cue some shaking of his hand. Clearly hadn't thought that one out entirely.

"So," he concluded, blowing on his hand. "It is hot in the summer because we get sunlight head on and cold in the winter because we get earth’s sun at an angle."

All clear? Any questions?

“Now as mentioned before, the Earth is also spinning around the Sun at a hundred thousand kilometers an hour, that’s a billion kilometers every year, and this spin is just as important as the tilt. Without this spin we wouldn’t have sunrises or sunsets or weather or life on earth at all!" But all this had already been said so just going to move right along. "On a slightly related note, can anyone tell me what June 21 and December 21 have in common? Besides the number 21 that is."

OOC: I am SO sorry for the delay guys. Thank you all for your patience and continued participation <33

I will most likely not post before I sleep (in about 3 hours from now) so class will resume after I wake up. Approximately 10-12 hours from the time of this post.

Ana listened to Flammy's lecturing while taking thorough notes, trying to get a good look at what he was doing. At least she'd gotten it right, which was always a positive. Some of the answers had ended up being quite strange.

Onto answering the next question.

"Those are the dates of the Summer and Winter Solstice. The longest and shortest day's of the year. The hemisphere you're in obviously affects what date you celebrate as the Summer and Winter solstice," Ana finished, putting down the hand she'd raised when she began speaking. She was obviously much more confident in that answer.

Oh, okay, that made sense.

...not really. At all. If anything, Adrienne came out of that question more confused than she'd been when she went in. Which was exactly the opposite of what she wanted to happen. In her notes, she scrawled Page 163 of textbook for more information next to the place where she'd written about seasons on different planets. She'd definitely look into it later.

Adrienne raised her hand lazily. Were there going to be any questions she didn't already know the answer to? "Summer and winter solstices. Sometimes called midsummer and midwinter, even though they're not actually in the middle of the season. Shortest and longest days of the year." Speaking in brief sentence fragments was an easy way to save time, but she was practically boring herself just listening to what she was saying. "A lot of divination-y stuff has to do with solstices, and there's a lot in various mythologies about them. Like, uh," she drummed her fingers on the table and cast her gaze upwards, trying to remember exactly where she was going with this. "Persian! Persian mythology says that the winter solstice is the day before the birth of Mit- Mith- well, something along those lines, who represents light and joy and stuff."

Adi was once again impressed with the planets that had really looooong lasting seasons. Oh Neptune. How lucky or unlucky thou were! Just imagine 70 years of winter. That would be heaven! Hey, a Puffer can dream, right?

As for that next question, Adi was about to say "21" is what they had in common but too late! Professor Airey dismissed that as a response. Ah well. Adi continued to make some notes while he gave some thought to his answer. Truth was, he didn't have the slightest clue of what the answer was. How about an educated guess? Hand in the air, the Puffer said, "The sun's position shifts to a particular spot, maybe?''

Angel couldn't help but giggle when her sister meowed at the Professor and she wasn't surprised with his reaction, she quickly put her hand over her mouth to try and stop the giggling but was struggling. Though after a few minute she managed it. "Professor the 21st of June is the longest day, the sun doesn't go down until way late, like after my bedtime so you go to bed when it light, but on the 21st of December it's the shortest day and sometimes you are at school and it's already dark." Angel thought that it was awesome that but normally on the 21st of December they were off school by them but sometimes it was later.

......................... That was a lot of words.

Everything was going swimmingly up until the man mentioned energy. It brought back too many memories of being stuck in a stuffy classroom on a fine summer's day where they were being bored out of their minds on the subject of energy. Of course, Grayson hadn't paid as much attention as he should have and he was starting to regret it very much now.

Besides, everything had made a lot MORE sense when he had used that quaffle over there to demonstrate. Another demonstration was taking place so Grayson decided to concentrate on that instead. See? This he could understand. Words were difficult in lecture form but diagrams and demonstrations were the best. That was why his notes consisted of mostly drawings and very few words.

Earth's sun????? Come again?

Fine. Question. He could answer that. The hand went up into the air. "June 21st is the summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere and the winter solstice in the Southern Hemisphere." Pause. "And vice versa for the 21st of December." See? Not dumb. He knew something.

More furious note taking as Lux listened to the Professor explain things more in depth. By this point, she was used to his speils and the amount of writing required in his lessons.

At the next question, she raised her hand to answer. "They are the dates of the summer and winter solstices. They are the longest and shortest days of the year."

*Again he was so thankful for his books during summer reading. Pffft and Jacen said summer was when you did fun things outside. Raising his hand again Rom added his answer into the mix.*
"It has great magical need in potions and history. But June 21st is the longest day of the year, and December 21st is the shortest. This is when the sun is at it's lowest and highest peaks."

Saying 21 would've been a "smart" mouth answer but uh no not to Jun. He rather just try to remember what they had in common. He learn this a long time ago, reading through his brother' sold notes book from his muggle school. "June 21st is the hottest day of the year? And December 21st is the coldest," Something lien that right? And it had something to do with time too. Or how long the day lasted. Um, which was which now? "Winter Solstice, December 21st, is the shortest day of the year. While the Summer Solstice in the northern hemisphere, June 21st, is the longest," Welp. At least that's all the boy could remember right now. Hopefully he was right.

There was the nod. Nigel nodded back and smiled. Maybe there was a correlation between terrible jokes and Ravenclaws. Might be fun to research. But effort. Now that was a lot of information. Maybe too much. And Nigel will take Flameo's word for it that it is a 'interesting read'. Unless the textbook interested Nigel. He never opened it.It was more fun to wobble in his chair and try not to think of how fast the earth is spinning right now.

That question was quickly answered. Of course it is both the equinoxes. "Both are a day in a month" Yeah he tried too hard there. But what is the fun in twenty perfect answers.

Melek sighed, feeling stupid. She was so not with it today it seemed. Melreally wanted to hide or go to bed at the moment but she tried to focus more on the professor and his question. How are they similar? Mel sighed and looked at him, trying to think of an answer that could be right. She raised her hand, "Are they suppose to be the longest days of the year? Like day and night are equal or something..." Melek sighed, absolutely sure that she got yet another question wrong. Melek made a mental note to study really hard before her next class.

Justine watched in amusement as the boy took the newly repaired quill with a look of the most perfect delight and amazement she had ever seen. Ahh, to be younger and innocent, "Vell, I do my best," Justine replied, in a playfully arrogant tone, smiling at the young boy.

What was Professor Flamsteed talking about? Oh, tilted axis, right the reason they have seasons. Justine made a quick note of this, not wanting to miss out too much after all (she might have been feeling lazy, but not lazy enough to jeopardize her academic career). Her attention was brought back to the blond boy as he spoke again, answering her previous question. Hmm. She hadn't expected that answer, well, perhaps that was more her fault than his. "Zen I must be zee one to blame, I only just transferred 'ere last term," Justine said, with a short, soft laugh.

What was Flamsteed saying? Justine really needed to pay attention, especially if she wanted to be as good at this stuff as Louis, and she very much did. Was it rude if she answered Flamsteed's question in the middle of her conversation with the blond boy? Probably, but then so was talking in class. Shrug.



"Zhey are zee days of the summer and winter solstice, zee summer solstice is zee longest day of the year and zee winter solstice is zee longest night," Justine said, automatically raising her hand as she spoke (it was a force of habit that she couldn't quite ever break out of).

Justine was guessing this had more to do with the whole tilt-axis-season thing the top-hatted Professor was talking about. "Like zee Equinoxes, zee Solstices are connected with zee seasons... " Justine said, her voice trailing off slightly as she tried to think of something else to add, but nothing else that the other students hadn't said, came to mind.

Ohh, tilted toward the Sun. Not facing the Sun. Right. Difference noted.

Sophie listened along as the professor answered everybody else, too. Then there was another question, and OH--Sophie knew this one, too! Or, she thought she did. Then again, there was that terminology aspect.

Raising her hand, she said, "June 21 is the Summer Solstice, and December 21 is the Winter Solstice. I think I read somewhere where we have twelve hours of daylight and twelve hours of nighttime on those days, too," she said. "Also, we switch seasons on those dates. June 21 starts the summer, and December 21 starts the winter."

Jasmine knew that December 21 was the winter solstice and June 21 was the summer solstice. Unfortunately, so did everyone else in the class and they had pretty much said so before she could raise her hand. Having nothing enlightening to add, she decided to remain silent, for now. Holding her quill, Jasmine was ready to take notes just in case a new tidbit was revealed.

Ezra had been right! HE HAD!

The Gryffidor sat up straighter in his now-level desk and watched the demonstration with te tin lids closely. One got hotter because it was flat and the other was less hot because of an angle like the Earth according to Professor Flamsteed. Made sense.

COOLNESS.

Now about the spinning and rotating again. Ezra listened and then pondered the question. June 21st and Decemeber 21st....

"Professor, does it matter that they are close to be the equal time apart in the year?" Because June 21st was kind of close to the middle of summer and December 21st was sort of in the middle of winter AND CLOSE TO CHRISTMAS!

Marigold nodded and jotted Airey's response to her answer down in her notebook. Astronomy was slow to start, but she still learned a lot. And now dates. The ones on a calendar. "I think they're both the equinoxes? Or at least nearby. The one in the summer is the longest day of the year, and the one in winter is the shortest. Not hours-wise, but how much sunlight is there and stuff." She looked at Airey. Maybe he would sing again?

Gwen was surprised by how many kids got it right. Maybe they'd talked about it in wizard schools too? Come to think of it, did wizard kids go to elementary school? Or primary school, she thought it was called here. Did their parents just teach them how to read and write and stuff? Where did they go before Hogwarts?

She shook the thought away. She'd ask Hope or someone when she had a chance. "Those are the solstices," she answered, raising her hand. "June 21 is the day where there's the most sunshine, and December 21 is the shortest daylight." It was worth mentioning that "in March and September there are equinoxes. That's when daylight and nighttime are exactly equal." Though she wasn't sure of the exact dates on that. Maybe it was 21st for both of them as well?

Kace was glad he got the answer right. He jotted down ALL the notes when the professor was explaining the answer. It did seem fascinating and he was learning a lot in this lesson. He liked learning about the seasons and why they change. As he was just about done copying the notes, he noticed that the professor was asking a question. He looked up and he wondered what December 21st and June 21st have in common? Kace thought long and hard and then had an answer!

Kace raised his hand and said, "Well they are the Winter and Summer solstice. It is in December when we have the shortest daylight and it is around my birthday which is kind of cool. The summer has the longest daylight of the year." he grinned and knowing a little something about something of the seasons.

These kids wanted to answer all properly and she wasn't going to REPEAT what they were saying. What was the point in that? Little know it all rugrats needed clipping round the ears for not letting her answer first. She WAS more awesome than them.. Anyways. She was going to GIVE an answer. Just because. "One is almost Christmas and the other is just after my birthday. The two most important days of my year."

Did anybody want to know exactly when her birthday was? Would they be getting her gifts? Knitting things and lollipop things were most welcome, rugrats.

Lucy raised her wand and she said:"The Sun reaches its maximum value of positive declination in the month of June during the summer solstice of the northern hemisphere, while it reaches a maximum value of negative declination in December, during the northern winter solstice, corresponding to summer in the Southern Hemisphere.
My grandmother told me that during the summer solstice the Sun reaches its maximum power and transmits this power to the ground and people .. for example the plants collected during this period have a magical power: an elder tree that was cut on the eve of June 21 bleeds ... while during the winter solstice the darkness win the light .. this is the time when the dark magic becomes more powerful ...

She'd been mostly right which was STILL close enough to a proper right in her eyes so she was going to take that as a WIN, okay? She was also wondering if her brilliant answer meant she was fit to be some sort of weather girl. She had a face for TV, that was for sure! Not that she was going to say this out loud or anything. She wasn't even positive people here knew much about television. Instead she made a mental note to add FAMOUS Weather Girl to her list of possible occupations for the future.

As for Top Hat man, he talked a BUNCH. Maddie was more into people who could get their point across using minimal words cause she tended to get B-O-R-E-D bored after a few minutes but she WAS trying to be a good listener. And hey, 187483704 people gave the answer already so she didn't really need to repeat it, did she?

Also, Ravenclaw Badged Boy was funny. Heh. She liked him already. That hair, though? Merlin.

Cris wasn't surprised to see that many of his classmates knew the relevance of both dates Professor Flamsteed had given. However, not wanting to be considered one of those who didn't, Cris raised his hand and gave his somewhat similar answer.

"Professor like the others have mentioned. June 21st for those in the Northern Hemisphere is when Summer Solstice occurs. June 21st is also known as the Northern Solstice because it occurs when the sun is directly over the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere. During this day, daylight is the longest, hence it is considered the longest day of the year.

December 21st on the other hand is Winter Solstice. On this day, the sun's elevation with respect to the North Pole is at its most negative value. Basically that means, we get less sunlight, hence making this day, the shortest day in the year, " Cris paused when he realized another significance of those dates.

"However, having said that, for those in the Southern Hemisphere, the situation is entirely the opposite. For them, June 21st will be their shortest day, hence it is Winter Solstice and December 21st would be the longest day, hence Summer Solstice.

I guess for those on the equator, those dates have no relevance, since it's just another ordinary day for them. There's no significant difference at all between the amount of daylight."

Was he right? Cris waited to see.

June 21. December 21. Due to the fact that December 21st was Rorie's birthday, Declan knew this answer right off the bat, "They're the Summer and Winter Solstices, sir." Though, he did mention something of it as he fell to his near death off his chair not to long ago, right? Thankfully, Flamsteed fixed the desks up to their normal balance. Now, the boy can slump in his chair in peace. Sluuuuuump.

Tora grinned at her favorite professor of her favorite subject and was just glad he had interpreted her shouting the right way (instead of, you know, getting mad for the noise and taking away House points). But moving onto the next question. This one she knew, it was basic Astronomy! Anyone who knew anything about the stars and the sun knew about the spring and winter solstices. Apparently, she wasn't the only one who knew anything about the stars in this class because most of her classmates beat her to answer Professor's question. Still, why not add in her own little something? "The equinoxes are on those two days. And you know how the sun rises in the East and sets in the West? The only days this really happens are on the equinoxes," she felt that this fun fact would help out the discussion, but she had a question. "Um, professor? It can't be true that they are exactly equal everywhere on Earth on the equinoxes. I know that's part of what an equinox is, but I don't understand. The far north and the far south have got to be a little different..." the fourth year asked.