Also, where the hell is Cedric Diggory?
Maybe under Harry’s other invisibility cloak. He has two—a time-turned one and a non-time-turned on.
solipsist
Karma: 3,073
Snape’s head snapped around, as Professor Sprout raised her wand, and the Potions Master managed to raise a wordless translucent ward between them. But the bolt that shot from Professor Sprout’s wand was a dark brown that produced a surge of awful apprehension in Harry’s mind; and the brown bolt made Severus’s shield wink out before they touched, clipping the Potions Master’s right arm even as he dodged. Professor Snape gave a muffled shriek and his hand spasmed, dropping his wand.
The next bolt that came from Sprout’s wand was a bright red the color of a Stunning Hex, seeming to grow brighter and move faster even as it left her wand, accompanied by another surge of anxiety; and that blew the Potions Master into the door, dropping him motionless to the ground.
I interpret that as Legilimensed Sprout’s magic is Voldemort’s magic is Sense of Doom magic. But then how was the troll made immune to sunlight, when Harry touched the troll’s skin directly?
That, and title of this chapter is The Truth, Pt 1, Riddles and Answers. As in two Tom Riddles.
Great answer, thanks.
Yes, my shallow, uninformed by higher maths complaint about the zeta function is that it sums n^-s instead of the simpler n^s.
I would basically be confident at this point, though cognizant of the distant possibility of a screwup or fraud.
Clearly people you know don’t take pranking seriously enough. Your friend sitting quietly at their laptop might have overheard your conversation and deployed a mirror website with fraudulent information to make your day more surreal (as I have on more than one occasion). Faking a lottery ticket would be too cruel, but I would totally fake a New York Times article “’Obama Calls on Somers to Stop F*#ing Around and Finish His Thesis Already”.
edit: This comment is not on topic, but for some reason I can’t delete it
Saying that this is what the formula intrinsically does, amounts to saying that field lines are more fundamental/”real” than action-at-distance forces on point particles.
Yep :-). I don’t know enough the physics to back that up, but that’s what my gut tells me. A more educated version of me might be able to say something “the vocabulary of forces is ‘shallow’; the vocabulary of fields is deeper; the vocabulary of group symmetries is deeper still.” I certainly do not have the depth of understanding to make that sort of statement with any authority. If you know enough physics to correct me or clarify, please please do.
why not better go for simplifying Einstein’s equation and including 8π in G
If somebody who groks relativity told me that this is the right thing to do, I would believe them (ETA mentioned on Wikipedia). I’d be curious where the factor of 2 comes from in the Newtonian approximation.
The current definition of the gravitational constant maximizes the simplicity of Newton’s law F = Gmm’/r^2.
Absolutely, and Planck’s constant maximizes the simplicity of finding the energy of a photon from its wavelength, and π maximally simplifies finding the circumference of of a circle from its diameter. But in all those cases, it feels to me like we’re simplifying the wrong equation.
ETA: To be explicit, it feels like there should be a 4π in Newton’s law. The formula is calculating the gravitational flux on the surface of a 3-dimensional sphere, and 3-dimensional spheres have a surface area 4π times their radii.
cosine seems more primitive than sine
It’s a minor quibble. I think of cosine as the real part of e^ix, which is a very simple concept in my head. sine is the imaginary part of e^ix divided by i, which is slightly more complicated. If you had to relegate one to co- status, I’d choose sine.
A function that fills in the gaps between factorials seems useful. There is a simple formula which does just that.
That’s almost what the Gamma function does, but not quite. The Gamma function calculates this:
Here’s its common integral form:
It’s like you’re asking for the factorial of n, and the Gamma function says “Hey, I’ll do you a favor and calculate the factorial of n − 1”, and you’re like “No, that’s okay Gamma function, I really just want the factorial of n”, and the Gamma function is like “No, I want to do this for you”, and then it takes your number, subtracts one, computes the factorial, and hands you back the factorial of n − 1, all beaming and proud of itself for putting in the extra effort, and you have to smile and say thank you.
A lot of math and physics definitions feel like they have weird dross. Examples:
The Gamma function has this −1 I don’t understand
The Riemann Zeta function ζ(s) negates s for reasons beyond me
cosine seems more primitive than sine
The gravitational constant looks like off by a factor of 4π
π seems like half the size it should be
After years of confusion, I was finally vindicated about π. That π is not 6.2831853071… is mostly a historical accident. Am I “right” about these other definitions being “wrong”? What are other mathematical entities are defined in ugly ways for historical reasons?
I was going to downvote you for posing a link to an article with an inflammatory headline. Wouldn’t say it was a good test for me, since I was prejudiced against the article from the title alone.
I’d still take a 250 to 1 bet.
Meta information makes me even less confident than before. If it were true that Harry rederived the Pythagorean theorem, in secret, etc., EY would have upvoted my comment asking for a bet. My comment received zero upvotes.
Assuming those are horcruxes, not like parts of the Philosopher’s stone or something (but Horcruxes are more likely).
Totally-not-going-to-happen reason for Hogwarts to stop playing with a snitch: the “air” horcurx is a snitch. Dumbledore realizes that Snitches are dangerous, and bans touching them. (Much more likely: Mcgonagall becomes headmistress).
HPMOR Horcruxes are devices with a ghost attached. When touched, the ghost inhabits a victim and gives it the ghost’s memories. But these victims are shallow copies of the original and easily dispatched.
> “There will be no second date,” said the green-lit silhouette in a voice so fearsome that it sounded, not only like a Death Eater, but like Amycus Carrow that one time just before Father told him to stop it, he wasn’t the Dark Lord.
Sure bet that Carrow has a Riddle ghost inside him? No. But still, a possibility.
I also thought there might be a hunt for the horocruxes
They might be mostly gone. Dumbledore was MIA for much of the book. It has been hinted that one Horcrux has already being used.
> “There will be no second date,” said the green-lit silhouette in a voice so fearsome that it sounded, not only like a Death Eater, but like Amycus Carrow that one time just before Father told him to stop it, he wasn’t the Dark Lord.
> Amycus Carrow had always been one of the other problem people; Father had once told Draco to make sure he was never alone in the same room with Amycus...
> Draco’s heart was hammering in his chest so hard he worried it might explode right out of his chest in a shower of blood, like that curse Amycus Carrow had used once on a puppy.
> Filch simply wasn’t in Amycus Carrow’s league.
Or as Father had said, while any Malfoy should certainly know much of the secret lore, the more… costly rituals were better left to useful fools like Amycus Carrow.
This Pythagorean theorem hypothesis is the best I have, but it’s not all that likely. I’d expect some foreshadowing about right triangles if it were true, but I see none. Does anyone have alternative hypotheses as to why Harry said “I’m not having anyone Obliviate everything I know about calculus”?
‘Throw away the cheese and buy a new pair of shoes.’
Any ideas on what this is alluding to? Shrieking Eels are from The Princess Bride.
I have a very, very long, not very likely, crazy theory. Here it goes.
If you recall, Harry made a number of TODOs when he started the year.
To-do 1. Research mind-alteration charms so you can test the Comed-Tea and see whether you actually did figure out a path to omnipotence. Actually, just research every kind of mind magic you can find. Mind is the foundation of our power as humans, any kind of magic that affects it is the most important sort of magic there is.
To-do 2. Actually this is To-do 1 and the other is To-do 2. Go through the bookshelves of the Hogwarts and Ravenclaw libraries, familiarising yourself with the system and making sure you’ve at least read all the book titles. Second pass: read all tables of contents. Coordinate with Hermione who has a much better memory than you. Find out if there’s an interlibrary loan system at Hogwarts and see if the two of you, especially Hermione, can visit those libraries too. If other Houses have private libraries, figure out how to access legally or sneak in.
To-do 0: Check out what sort of information-search-and-retrieval spells exist, if any. Library magic isn’t as ultimately important as mind magic but it has a much higher priority.
Did Harry forget about those TODOs?
Harry make a pass at reading through the table of contents in the Hogwarts main library in chapter 29. After Harry and Hermione finish gossiping about Pettigrew, Harry walks Hermione to Broomstick class. At this stage the Eliezer Yudkowsky in my head starts yelling “HEY GUYS! Table of contents! Broomstick class! Thursday, Thursday, Thursday! Come on! I’m putting all the pieces together for you!”
(Answer: on the first Thursday of the school year, during Broomstick class, Harry set off Neville’s Remembrall. Harry had forgotten about his TODOs).
It would appear that Harry entirely forgot about the other two TODOs (study library magic, study mind magic). Indeed, in chapter 90, he asks Quirrell how he could study mind magic, and is suprised to learn that the books are to be found in the north-northwest stacks of the main Hogwarts library, filed under M.
But what if Harry had remembered his TODOs? What if Harry studied obliviation in secret, and obiviated himself during some emergency? What would we expect to see?
We might see something like this:
I guess that helped a little,” said Harry. “Actually I think it helped more than playing Gobstones for an hour could’ve possibly helped, so thanks for being you. And no matter what, I’m not having anyone Obliviate everything I know about calculus. I’d sooner die.”
“What?” said Hermione. “Why—why would you ever want to do that?”
Harry stood up from the table, and there was a rush of restored background noise as his rise broke the Quieting Charm. “I’m a tad sleepy so I’m going off to bed,” Harry said...
(chapter 63)
Why would someone want to Obliviate everything they know about calculus? Well, Eliezer Yudkowsky wrote
I know many ways to prove the Pythagorean Theorem, including at least one proof that is purely visual and can be seen at a glance. But if you deleted the Pythagorean Theorem from my mind entirely, would I have enough math skills left to grow it back the next time I needed it? I hope so—certainly I’ve solved math problems that seem tougher than that, what with benefit of hindsight and all. But, as I’m not an AI, I can’t actually switch off the memories and associations, and test myself in that way.
I imagine Harry might try to do just that.
Some others, off the top of my head.
Harry knows enough mind-magic to make a person forget every life memory involving the color blue, or their left arm (or cough their animagus form cough)
The imprisoned Beatrix had as much magic as a first year student, and it was considered conceivable that she could complete an animagus transformation. Harry’s animagus form, like his Patronus form, would be a person.
Harry has mental ability to become whoever he believes he is.
Cedric Diggory and the Weasley twins have enough magic to cast the spell of cursed fire, which can destroy powerful magical devices (such as Horcruxes and the Deathly Hallows).
Cedric has a time-turner
Weasleys are the heirs of Gryffindor.
Also the controlled transformation Harry learned about in Chapter 104.
Harry won’t have enough magic to cast the killing curse for a few years. The character of Lesath Lestrange only exists to give Harry a minion who can cast the killing curse.