Professor Skies
October 11, 2012 1:12 PM
Advanced Class: E=MC Squared. by Professor Skies
Selina had been pleased to see that so many students were signed up to her advanced class. She remembered the first time she had taught at this level, it had been her and one other student having a game of chess in her office and tackling the debate of why animate chess pieces were considered, by most, to be a transfiguration and not a charm. And now she had a whole class. They could form groups and debate amongst themselves, provided she gave them enough fodder to go off.“Good afternoon,” she greeted, her blue eyes shining with enthusiasm as she welcomed the class. “The transfigurations we will study in these classes will be highly complex. Understanding the theory behind them will help you when it comes to the practical work, as well as giving you the necessary practice and knowledge for the written parts of your RATS examination.
“Today, we are going to discuss the notion of E=MC squared,” she announced. “This was the work of a Muggle scientist, Albert Einstein. Although this man was a Muggle, the truth he uncovered was universal. It is a useful concept in magical theory in general and applies especially well in Transfiguration. Some more progressive textbooks even include discussions of Einstein,” she informed them. She hoped that, by this age, they were mature enough to accept mention of Muggles without going into hysterics or writing home to Daddy. The fact that Einstein was included in some magical theory was, she felt, a convincing argument in favour of his theory being significant and useful to them. She was not simply a mad, Muggle-science fanatic; she had references to back her up. The further one got into theoretical notions, be they Muggle or Magical, the closer together things seemed to come. You got down to the level of particles and of how energy fundamentally worked. When you built back up from that, you could go down the line of looking at technology, magic or the whole universe. You could build any kind of crazy house you wanted but everyone started with the same blocks.
“Your task for today is a group discussion. I would like you to form groups of no more than 3 and answer the following questions.
“Firstly, what is the general principle of E=MC squared? What does it mean? If there is no one in your group who has heard of the theory before, or who has heard of it but not been taught its meaning, then there are several books at the front which explain it quite clearly,” she felt that they were old enough now to explore theories without her spoon-feeding them. Plus teaching themselves the idea would put it more firmly into their heads and give them practice at articulating their ideas, which was very valuable at this level.
“Secondly, I would like you to think about how the theory pertains to magic in general. Can you think of any examples from your day to day life which seem to prove the theory? If anything occurs to you that seems to go against it, then that will be an interesting point to discuss, although it is not something that I am challenging you to do at this point,” there were certain people, mostly those who were desperate to claim that a Muggle physicist had nothing worthwhile to offer wizarding kind, who claimed to have found anomalies. Her students, without necessarily wishing to be belligerent, might feel that certain things that they felt or had understood to be true went against the theory. She was happy for them to discuss both sides of the argument, and eventually they would need to look at the views of the nay-sayers for balance. However, their examples were usually tortuous or tenuous and therefore not readily apparent to a group of sixteen to eighteen year olds, which was why she was not mandating that they argued against the theory today. Furthermore, she wanted them to get their heads around the concepts before they started trying to dismantle them. “Finally, I want you to discuss how E=MC squared affects Transfiguration. What are the areas of Transfiguration where you feel this theory is most clearly demonstrated?
“Your set texts as well as the additional materials that I have brought with me should provide you with ideas if you are struggling. I will also be floating around the room. I will try not to barge in on your discussions unannounced, however, if I feel that you have drifted off topic or seem to be moving on before fully exploring an interesting idea, I may step in to give you a little steering. You may also call me over if you hit any brick walls in your discussion or want some guidance.”
OOC – Oh no! A theory class! Before fleeing in terror, please try taking a few deep breaths. I have ideas of why and how everything Selina has asked is relevant. I don't mind if you come up with something utterly different. Classes are a test of your creativity and writing ability, not your ability to mind-read the person who wrote them. Have fun with it. You're getting to make stuff up about how the world works! So long as your posts are realistic, interesting and follow all class rules, I will be happy with you.
I appreciate that this style of class is a little different to usual and may be more challenging. I have tried to give you enough information to build on without ramming what I think the answer is down your throats. Maybe I have failed to strike that balance. I am very open to receiving feedback on this class and will not be offended by constructive criticism, which you are free to offer me via gchat if you know me that way or in the chatzy (Michael/Henny's author). I would appreciate knowing what you think. I hope people will respond to and enjoy the class.
Subthreads: This might be too advanced. by Ryan O'Malley, Crotalus with Jane Carey, Teppenpaw
Stuffed by Autumn Collins, Crotalus
Taking a shot at it. by Sam Bauer, Crotalus
Theory. Whoo-hoo! by David Wilkes, Aladren
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Professor Skies
Advanced Class: E=MC Squared.
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Professor Skies
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Ryan O'Malley, Crotalus
October 15, 2012 3:20 PM
This might be too advanced. by Ryan O'Malley, Crotalus
As he walked into Transfiguration, an anxious feeling grew in the pit of Ryan's stomach. Lately, he had been a bundle of nerves. His step-mother had given birth to a girl and it was almost midterm where he'd have to go home and meet Peyton for the first time. The Crotalus had a new little sister and the last time that happened to him, it hadn't turned out so well.As ridiculous as it sounded, Ryan was terrified. Not so much that Peyton would be mean to him now because she was only a baby but Carrie had also been a baby once and now she was...a monster. What if Peyton turned out the same way? No, she wouldn't be under the influence of his mother, but what if she was under the second year's? Or came to the conclusion on her own how revolting Ryan was?
Not to mention how miserable Carrie was going to make them all over the break. The sixth year was certain that she was unhappy about the baby. That was even obvious to someone as dumb as he was and usually, he was the one bearing the brunt of her anger. Of course, she tormented Ryan when she was not upset too. It didn't seem to matter what sort of mood Carrie was in, she was set on terrorizing him, just like their mother had been but it was worse when she wasn't in a good one and the Crotalus was dreading what the holidays would be like.
Another thing was that Ryan really missed having Aunt Lilac as his teacher. Not that Professor Skies was mean or anything but his aunt, for some reason that the sixth year couldn't possibly fathom actually liked him and he wasn't sure the current professor did. He was going with no on that one though. Ryan felt that was usually a safe assumption to make.
Plus, there was the fact that Professor Skies did a lot more theory work than Aunt Lilac had and that was more difficult for him. Not impossible but he completely lacked confidence in it, even though he did better than expected most of the time. Of course, anything more than complete failure was more than Ryan expected. It was just that he was much better at the practical side of Transfiguration. He was almost even good at it. His aunt always seemed pleased with his ability and he wasn't entirely sure that Professor Skies was.
Ryan's anxiety only increased as the lesson began.He had never even heard of E=MC squared, let alone what it meant. He hadn't heard of Albert Einstein either. The Crotalus knew nothing about Muggles beyond that they used to persecute magical people and attempt to burn them alive. A truly barbaric practice even though it didn't work on any real witch or wizard.
He sat there, unsure what to do next. Nobody was going to want to work with him, because he was too stupid. This lesson was going to be a disaster. Ryan might not know much, but he did know that .
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Ryan O'Malley, Crotalus
This might be too advanced.
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Ryan O'Malley, Crotalus
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Autumn Collins, Crotalus
October 15, 2012 4:51 PM
Stuffed by Autumn Collins, Crotalus
The first half of her seventh year had passed in a blur of studying for RATS. Autumn had been doing so even more than she'd had for the previous CATS exam-and there was always more to learn. If she wasn't being basically forced, she would definitely not be eating. If something was going to give, Autumn would have rather been that than her grades. She had to make up for CATS. The Crotalus hadn't failed, but she hadn't made all Os either and that still bothered her.Honestly, she couldn't wait to graduate. Life would be so much less stressful then. At least, Autumn hoped so. RATS would be behind her. Not that she knew what she was going to do, she wasn't betrothed yet. Which depressed her greatly. Sure, Nina hadn't been betrothed at this point either and now she was married and traveling. The thing was though, her cousin was attractive. Thin. It made sense that someone would want to marry her.
The most important thing was that when Autumn graduated, she could go back on her diet. She had no idea what she weighed now, she wasn't allowed. Sometimes, the seventh year felt like she was suffocating with all the things she couldn't do, all the monitoring of her that was going on. People didn't just seem to be breathing down her neck, it was like the life was being choked out of her day by day.
When she was thinner again, maybe someone would want to marry her too and that someone would have no need to run off with a skinnier, prettier girl. Or cheat on her. It was awful looking down at her body now, seeing how plump she was getting. If Autumn didn't lose the weight again and undo all the damage, she'd be a spinster, a disgrace to her whole family. Plus, it wasn't good for her apparently fragile self-esteem to be unwanted. Unattractive. Unappealing. Ugly. Repulsive. Fat.
The seventh year turned her attention to Professor Skies. Autumn didn't know whether or not she was watching her too. She probably was though. They all were. They were all the enemy, all trying to fatten her up. One of these days, Autumn was just going to explode from all the food they were stuffing into her. For all she knew, she could be back up to the weight she'd been when she'd originally started her diet two years ago.
The lesson didn't thrill her either. Oh, it wasn't as if Autumn was completely incapable of understanding theory, it was more that she just didn't know anything about this particular one. Plus, she was so full of facts and information that she had to know for RATS that she felt like there was no more room for those either. It was like they were full of calories too, packing even more pounds on to the Crotalus.
Autumn didn't know if she could handle more of either. What if she couldn't understand this? What if there was no more room? She needed to understand this perfectly. She turned to the person next to her. "Do you mind if I'm in your group?" She asked. Autumn wouldn't be that surprised if they didn't want her.
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Autumn Collins, Crotalus
Stuffed
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Autumn Collins, Crotalus
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Jane Carey, Teppenpaw
October 15, 2012 7:01 PM
This will be fun! by Jane Carey, Teppenpaw
Jane was not like Edmond’s eldest sister, who’d married into a family full of them, or even like Arthur, who liked to sneak into the Muggle Studies section of the library when he thought no one was looking and had even complained to her about not being allowed to take the class here at school, but nor was she opposed to the existence of Muggles in general, nor did she think that they were utterly stupid. Misinformed, yes, but capable enough of getting around once they knew how things really were, at least if they were in general like the one she’d met. He had been a little hysterical, but well, it hadn’t been the best day for anyone, and he had survived it, which said something even if he had had his magical brother for help.If that hadn’t happened, she didn’t know how she would have reacted to Professor Skies’ announcement that they were going to look at the work of a Muggle theorist, but she thought that she still would have been, at most, indifferent. Her house had every form of magical protection the Careys had been able to devise upon it, hiding them even from other wizards very effectively when they chose to be hidden, and though she didn’t expect her home, in the absence of a homicidal and spectacularly insane Dark wizard with a personal grudge against her and Jethro, to be as well-defended once she married, she still didn’t expect it to be a place Muggles could wander up to at will, either. She was unlikely to ever see any more than in passing at a transport center again in her life, and so she didn’t see the Muggle world as a direct threat.
In general…well. Certainly she was not in favor of announcing and proving their existence to the Muggle world. That would be dangerous. Everyone knew that if the Muggles found out, the world would end up soaked in blood, of all kinds, and Jane had no interest in that. In that case, though, it was best to know what they knew, so either way, she didn’t object to the information. Knowledge was always power.
Her first problem, of course, was to find out what the equation they were using was, so she opened the text and read what was there. She frowned slightly as she looked up from her book, then smiled quickly at the person beside her. “Shall we work together?” she asked, buying the moment to digest what she’d read and think through it. It seemed straightforward to her, but if that was the case, then she had understood all about it on first reading, which she didn’t think was likely, since her mind was focused on one part of what she’d read, rather than on the whole. Arranging a group was just a little longer she had to process everything and decide what was what before she began to discuss all of the relevant issues with someone else.
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Jane Carey, Teppenpaw
This will be fun!
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Jane Carey, Teppenpaw
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Sam Bauer, Crotalus
October 16, 2012 6:12 PM
Taking a shot at it. by Sam Bauer, Crotalus
Advanced Transfiguration was one of those things about which, by the time it was all said and done, Sam expected to have to say it sounded like a good idea at the time. Already, he was a little fuzzy on what his reasoning had been when he had decided to add the class to his schedule last year, and so he came into it for his seventh and final year expecting to be even vaguer on the concept before he walked out the door after his RATS. There were sure to be a few good memories, of especially memorable disasters or jokes made up to make theorems more memorable, and those would take over in time, but in the moment, he expected this part of this year to be painfully hard.Of course, all of seventh year was painfully hard, so he didn’t hold that against Transfiguration too much, and when he heard that Einstein’s theories were going to be discussed, he kept his groan entirely silent. Though he was no Muggleborn himself – his mother was a witch, one who’d attended this very school, and one of the things he knew about his father was that the man had been a wizard from a family of all wizards going back a few more generations than his mom’s family did – their financial situation had been such that his mother hadn’t been able to hire tutors or teach him herself, which had resulted in a good chunk of his childhood happening in a Muggle public school, which had led to him knowing enough about Einstein through cultural osmosis to know that this was probably going to be difficult. This was going to have math in it. That was going to hurt.
Typical, though, he acknowledged. Advanced classes demanded more on every level – magically and intellectually. Hence, more math. After the lecture, he formed a group, then opened his book to figure out what E=MC squared really meant.
“So…” he said to his partner(s) once he had the material read. “Energy equals mass times twice the speed of light.” Point one. “How much mass there is, then, that equals how much energy it can have, so…Is that basically saying that if I try to Transfigure this quill into a dinosaur, it’s probably not going to go very well? The mass of the quill doesn’t produce enough energy to fuel a transfiguration that big?”
Immediately, his mind presented him with a problem – what about the magical strength of the person and of the wand they used? People had different potentials, different levels of competence, and some wands were supposed to be different than others, too, even from what little he’d read about the subject in passing for classes, so how did that fit into this equation? – but he didn’t voice that yet, since he wasn’t sure about anything he’d said or thought yet and wanted to get some feedback before he started contradicting his own proposition. Talking too much at the very start was, in his experience and theory, never a good idea.
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Sam Bauer, Crotalus
Taking a shot at it.
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Sam Bauer, Crotalus
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David Wilkes, Aladren
October 16, 2012 7:33 PM
Theory. Whoo-hoo! by David Wilkes, Aladren
David was nervous as he sat down in Advanced Transfiguration, but after his CATS year, academic nervousness was no longer a foreign feeling to him. He had done well on all of his exams, but with all the hype leading up to them, he thought it was nothing short of a miracle combined with a hefty dose of test-taking abilities honed and refined by a childhood in the over-tested world of a Muggle school system which had allowed him to do so, because for most of the first two days, at least, he wasn’t at all sure to what extent his brain had really been involved in the proceedings at all. It had felt as though it were curled up tightly in a ball under his bed, rocking itself back and forth as it waited for the CATS to be over. The anxiety had come suddenly, after a year during which he had really thought he wasn’t that worried about CATS, and it had come hard; he still wasn’t sure what had been going on there.Sixth year, new classes or none, was a relief after that. Next year was senior year and had RATS at the end of it, and both of those thoughts made him intensely uncomfortable, but he had decided to adapt some Horace and make up a philosophy of carpe annum, in which he didn’t think about the future too much and just focused on how he didn’t have major exams this year. Who knew, next year might not (as unlikely as it was) even happen, so if he spent time worrying too much about it now, that would be so much time wasted, which he could have enjoyed. He was living for the moment.
All very good, as philosophy. Not bad on nights when he kicked back with a novel or one of his sister’s old textbooks for a little light reading. But a little harder to hold fast to when he was of two minds about a particular lesson in the year he was seizing, as he was when he heard that they were going to use Einstein’s most famous equation in Transfiguration class. The Aladren in him was interested, but the lazier side of him was strong today and didn’t want to have to think and work and such, and the two came into aggressive conflict as soon as he heard the dead scientist’s name. The best his philosophy could do for him was assure the Inner Aladren that if he screwed it up, there would either be other days, which would mean a chance to do better, or there wouldn’t, in which case he wouldn’t really care anyway, and it wasn’t completely reassuring. Plus, the small, whimpering excuse for a social conscience that he had started making some noise when it heard that Einstein was making his way into magical textbooks, and that thing speaking up was sometimes enough to ruin a whole day. He really didn’t want to have to deal with it on top of feeling lazy in a tough class.
He scribbled a few notes about the questions, assuring his lazy side that at least the first one was easy, that was just copying a definition. Probably. The second question sounded to him like it might be the hardest, in a way, since he wasn’t used to thinking much about how his everyday life worked, since no one ever made him write essays about any portion of it, but that would depend on what the answer to the first part was, since he had only really heard of E=MC2, not used it or heard what it was about. He guessed he’d just have to get some of the books up front and see.
"Want to work with me?" he asked someone, and having gained an answer in the affirmative from someone, said, "Great, I'll go get some books."
He did so, reading a little from the first one. The mass of a body is a measure of its energy content. Reading further produced a lot of confusion as he waded through scientific words, though he did spot a sentence about how maybe energy couldn’t go to matter, but matter could become energy. He copied that onto his parchment, the scribbled conjuring next to that, then reread a little, going back to something about the distinction between mass and matter, which inspired a scribble about vanishing spells.
He looked at another source. In essence, it states that there is an equivalence between mass and energy. This simple statement has many profound implications... such as no object with mass can ever go faster than the speed of light!
Beside that, he wrote Alas, sci-fi., and underlined it for emphasis. Then he looked up at the person beside him. "So far, I've got that the Millenium Falcon probably doesn't work and how that makes me sad for real life examples, and no idea how to put this together to answer question one," he said. "Any ideas?"
OOC: Particular inspiration for paragraph two came from Odes I.11 and IV.7. The first quote on the equation comes from (*ducks head in shame*) Wikipedia. The second comes from NASA’s “Ask an Astrophysicist” and can be found here.
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David Wilkes, Aladren
Theory. Whoo-hoo!
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David Wilkes, Aladren
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Ryan O'Malley
October 24, 2012 4:26 PM
*is not convinced* by Ryan O'Malley
The Crotalus nodded. Jane Carey would be a good partner, she was very intelligent and that balanced out with Ryan's being lacking in that department. He just hoped she wouldn't get frustrated with him because he was inferior that way. Well,actually he felt he was inferior in every way. The only thing Ryan had ever been moderately good at was the practical side of Transfiguration. Theory intimidated him terribly.Actually, so did people who were really smart. Not James so much, as they were friends. Ryan still couldn't fathom why the Aladren liked him when he didn't seem to like many others. Quite honestly, he didn't understand why Sophie liked him either. She was the Pecari Quidditch Captain, and he was nothing but a guy who happened to be from an important family and couldn't fly. The sixth year felt he wasn't good enough to be friends with either one of them.
He had, however, worked with Jane Carey before, and it had been a pleasant enough experience.Even though Ryan was a bit intimidated by her, more now than he'd been then. Now she was prefect and Head Girl. He'd missed out on the former-though any disappointment he'd felt had come a distant second to his utter horror at Carrie being in his House-and seriously doubted that he'd be Head Boy.
"Certainly, Miss Carey." Merlin, did Ryan ever hate calling her that. He kind of wished his sister had been named something else so it wouldn't be so awkward if he had to talk to a member of Jane's family. Come to think of it, there might be people out there with the last name Peyton too. Hopefully, Ryan's baby sister wouldn't be quite so horrible. He wasn't holding his breath though. To hope was foolish for him.
The Crotalus did not, however, have the nerve to ask Jane if he could call her by her first name, so instead he asked, "Do you have any idea what the formula means?" He instantly regretted it. It just showed how dumb he was. Still, Professor Skies had said it was the work of a Muggle scientist, and Ryan couldn't imagine that a Carey knew much more about Muggles than an O'Malley.
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Ryan O'Malley
*is not convinced*
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Ryan O'Malley
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Jane
October 25, 2012 10:16 PM
*Convinces* by Jane
Jane smiled as Ryan agreed to work with her. It was a little strange to be called Miss Carey, since most people did just call her Jane, here – she wasn’t part of a very formal year, overall – and she did not go out very much even at home, but it was technically correct, and she was the only person with that name in the area or indeed the room, so she wasn’t worried about it. She did not think, anyway, that it was a sign of some animosity he held against her; she had never done anything to him or his, at least as far as she knew.“My first thought is that it’s applicable to conjuring,” she said, placing her hands flat on her desk as she spoke. “I’m not sure how the speed of light figures in – “ that was something she had learned of in Astronomy lessons, but not figured into anything else, though she could see how it might have applications in Herbology and Potions, given the necessity of preparing or harvesting certain plants and other substances during specific phases of the moon or positions of the stars – “but the conversion of energy to matter….”
She lifted her hands now, palms up, as though they were scales. “Though that doesn’t answer the reverse problem, of course,” she said. “How something physical can be transferred into energy, and what will happen when that occurs.”
Something would have to, after all. Jane was nearly sure about that. Either the energy had to do something, go somewhere, or be dispersed somehow, at least if she was understanding ‘energy’ properly. Which, she admitted, it was entirely possible that she was not. She wished they had been given a few days to prepare for this lesson, so she could have researched it more thoroughly, but she would make do with what she had.
With what she had, she felt as though a thought were just about to come together, but she couldn’t quite work out how to put what she was thinking into words yet, so she smiled again at Ryan, looking at him more directly than she had thus far. “I don’t know yet about that, though,” she said, not embarrassed about this. No one knew everything. They just did the best they could with what they had. “But what do you think?” she asked. “About either problem, that is.”
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Jane
*Convinces*
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Jane
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5