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**Marion Burbage** · 09-30-2016, 02:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tegz

"Sure!" Char handed out a few more bluebell flame jars then returned to her own seat with a twirl before sitting down and thrusting her hand up. OH SHE KNEW. SHE KNEW.

Aside from REALLY FAR... "Parsecs! Which is PARallax SEConds!" She said with appropriate emphasis.

Now if you were to ask Char how far a parsec was? LOL. Nooooooo idea.

Oh dear. Clearly the ghost has stumbled here near the finish line with her wording.

"Oh yes, true dear," Marion clucked.

And the Gryffindor's efforts to selflessly give others the gift of bluebell flames was noted. MMMhmmmmmm.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stefan

The Ravenclaw grinned at Azura in thanks for the Bluebell Flame. And as he did so, Jace caught Jasper’s expression this time, and knew immediately that he’d made a huge mistake by saying the word studmuffin. What? Is it a bad thing to say? Is it not...another term of endearment? It looks like Professor Burbage loves the guy to bits...so it shouldn’t be so bad, right?

He’d have to ask Jakub about it later. He was sure his brother would know.

Head snapping back at the professor, Jace gave the woman a polite nod, and stood up to write Mr. Studmuffin’s real name on the board. The Ravenclaw wrote it quickly but legibly since he has to take down his own notes for today’s lesson, seeing that the ghost professor can’t write things down on her own by hand or magic.

Jace returned to his seat quietly and started to jot down notes instead of doing their little experiment. He’d already figure that bit by reading his Astronomy book; so instead, he made a few more notes in Japanese to aide him in his revisions later on: Stellar Parallax.

Opting not to answer this time, Jace instead recorded Charlotte’s answer but gave it a bit of correction in his notes: 'Distance to Stars and other Heavenly Bodies is called Parsecs, or PARallax ArcSECond.'

"Thank you, dear," she cooed at the seventh year for his assistance. She would ask him to stay and continue to write on the board, but he DID need to tend to his own notes. She really ought to have requested this of the house elves as well.

Oh well.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steelsheen

He thanked Char for the bluebell flame with a grateful grin. Although if she actually tossed one at him, what would've happened eh? Guess they'll never know….

And well his answer wasn’t wrong, which was GREAT because he had no clue who the old gent was, and upon listening to the class he realized how FAR OFF his thoughts were. So the dude was some egghead that measured stuff and named that stuff on his own. Great! Where the heck did Green Lantern come up with Parallax anywho?

But oh activity time-- or sorta. They get to stretch see? Arms out in front like the Professor say, thumbs up, winky wink winky wink… yeah lengthy explanation but it made sense to him. Because explanation plus demo equals total win yeah!

But of course he cant help but notice everybody else doing what he's doing. And he just couldn’t help either when he GUFFAWED at the sight of them. People looked like they were flirting at the beach or trying to hitch a ride with the wind in their eyes. Bahahahahahahaha!

Next question. NO CLUE either-- too busy laughing to even think. Although Char yelled out parsecs. Oh so they're going from Green Lantern to Star Wars now? "Han Solo owns a ship that can do that." Probably an erroneous use of parsec, but that’s what he knows and that’s what he can share.

"OOOOOOOOOOOOOOH HAN SOLO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH," Marion swoooooooooned. "Now, I am NOT the sort that fancies science fiction like studmuffin Flamsteed did, but my gooooooodness graaaaaaaaaacious HEAVENS above that man. OOOOOOOHOHOOOOOOO I can still recall when The Force Awakens came out and THAT silver fox grace the screen..."

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paintbrush

Harvey thought hard about this, but he really didn't know anything about Astronomy. He had no idea.

"Space miles?" he ventured, sure that he was wrong, but figuring a guess was better than nothing.

Hmmmmmm? What was this little dear talking about? OH YES.

"Not exactly, son," she smiled gently. "But that was a valiant effort of a guess!"

Quote:

Originally Posted by FwooperOnYourLeft

Azura smiled over at her friends as they thanked her for the bluebell flames. She was just doing what she needed to keep her friends warm. She listened carefully to the Professor as she spoke and she smiled as she did the exercise that she had them do..

Huh.. it seemed like a simple concept, but to apply it to the stars.. That was brilliant!

She titled her head at the next question and was about to answer but Char answered first!

So instead she wrote the information down in her notes. Her guess had been light years, but that was the speed of light..not the distance between things..

Right?

Her hand raised though to ask her question. "Professor, what's the difference between light years and a parsec?" She asked her. Hoping that it wasn't dumb or anything.

"OOOOOOH a VERY good question, my dear. Let me dive into that in JUST a moment..."

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaniDiNardo

...
"Professor at this point I'm willing to say that if Char says it then it's the right answer." Parsecs? Sure. That could be the answer--because Char said it and he'd never seen her wrong in a class. Of course he didn't attend Charms OR Transfiguration so those were sketchy but everything else. Mhm.

"Oh ho ho ho, Mr. Bellaire," the ghost giggled. "Please DO keep your flirtatious advances towards Miss Kettleburn a BIT more descrete."

OH HO HO HO how DARLING.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Goblinfrog

Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel. So that was the name of the dashing gentleman with green hair. Kitty wrote it down in her notebook along with a note: Need to research this guy in the library later. Then the lesson had moved on.

Stretching her arms over her head and closing her right eye and looking up her thumb - surely Kitty wouldn't have been caught dead in this position if she were the only doing it, but it was less embarrassing with all them at once. With all of them doing this at once it seemed like they were taking part in a Muggle mediation class, not that Kitty had ever been in one - but that's it looked like from movies she saw.

The question of the correct terminology of distance between stars on the galactic scale was something Kitty thought she was well prepared for. "Perhaps in the wizarding world there is a different word for it, but in the Muggle world 'light years' is the common terminology - also known as parsecs."

"Oh not exactly, dear," Marion cautioned. "They are quite different and you actually need to convert with some math to go from one to the other, but doing so puts one at risk of a biiiiiiiiiiiiiiit of error."

Quote:

Originally Posted by SarcasticStrawberry

Katerina was starting to think that her dislike for astromony or her failure at it had nothing to do with Professor live long and prosper, it was completely her. Other than the bluebell flame the Hufflepuff was lost. Conjuring her own bluebell flame, since that was the only thing she knew she could do.

She had know idea who that guy in the picture was. By the way Kat didn't think the dude was much of a studmuffin. Nope. She was sitting beside one possibly... no who was she kidding. He was. She tried not to do too much inner flailing. This was the best part of the whole class right now.

Wait... she knew this answer No nevermind or did she. She raised her hand and nearly fell right out of her seat. "Lightyears? Ugh she should just sit quietly and take notes if the right answers. Maybe that would help.

WHICH had been the answer she had been aiming for, but her bumbling mind...hohoho OOPSIES!

"Also true, my dear an CLEARLY I need to do a bit of clarification as I have bewildered a few of you."

Again...oopsies?

"DOOOOOOOOOOO forgive me tears. My poor wording has caused a bit of confusion. Please permit me to go into a bit of detail...all of which can also be found in your textbooks should you require a bit of revision later," she began. "A light year is the distance light travels in a year which is about 9.5 trillion kilometers given that we knooooooooow light travels about 300,000 kilometers every second and there are about 31.56 million seconds in a year. Now...a parsec is far more complicated than that..." And SURELY she would lose a few of them as she explained, poor dears. "A circle can be divided into 360º, and each degree can be further divided into 60 arcminutes, and each arcminute can be divided into 60 arcseconds... in astronomy, we use small angles to talk about sizes and distances against the background of the sky. As Earth revolves around the Sun, we see distant stars from slightly different angles. In January a star might appear to be in one position, but six months later its apparent position has changed. This is called a parallax shift - WHICH is precisely what you all just demonstrated moments ago with your thumbs and closing one eye. A parallax second, or parsec, is the distance a star would have to be from Earth in order for it to appear to move by one arcsecond due to our viewing it from different sides of Earth's orbit. If you do the geometry right, you'll find that a parsec is equal to about 3.26 light years. So if the galaxy is about 100,000 light years across, it's about 31,000 parsecs across." LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG PAUSE. "Now, as Miss Valentine suggested, they are often seen as being interchangeable...and it IS true that astronomy books written for amateurs almost always use light years, but professional literature frequently uses parsecs."

ANOTHER LOOOOOOOOOONG PAUSE.

"Unless there are more questions, I would like to move on. Everyone...telescopes out and take position by a window," she chirped while floating towards the nearest one herself. "Please bring your textbooks with you as well. I would like you all to find a star for me...61 Ursae Majoris...you MAY be able to see it with the unaided eye...but if not please use your telescope. Star charts are in your textbooks to assist you. Once you have found it, please tell me ONE little nugget of information about it and perhaps WHY you think I asked you to find this particular star."

She would bet 10000000 galleons that none of them would be able to guess though. HO HO HO!

OOC: once again I am teeeeeerribly sorry for th delay my tears.I will try my tootin'-est to be a bit more prompt as we draw to a close soon. Just this and one more little activity to go. Catch up is always welcome <3

09-30-2016, 02:16 AM	#65 (permalink)
Marion Burbage Puffskein Join Date: Apr 2011 Posts: 1,141 Hogwarts RPG Name: Professor Marion Burbage	so TERRIBLE sorry for the delay, dears. And for just addressing some of you Goodness Gracious Heavens Above! Quote: Originally Posted by Tegz "Sure!" Char handed out a few more bluebell flame jars then returned to her own seat with a twirl before sitting down and thrusting her hand up. OH SHE KNEW. SHE KNEW. Aside from REALLY FAR... "Parsecs! Which is PARallax SEConds!" She said with appropriate emphasis. Now if you were to ask Char how far a parsec was? LOL. Nooooooo idea. Oh dear. Clearly the ghost has stumbled here near the finish line with her wording. "Oh yes, true dear," Marion clucked. And the Gryffindor's efforts to selflessly give others the gift of bluebell flames was noted. MMMhmmmmmm. Quote: Originally Posted by Stefan The Ravenclaw grinned at Azura in thanks for the Bluebell Flame. And as he did so, Jace caught Jasper’s expression this time, and knew immediately that he’d made a huge mistake by saying the word studmuffin. What? Is it a bad thing to say? Is it not...another term of endearment? It looks like Professor Burbage loves the guy to bits...so it shouldn’t be so bad, right? He’d have to ask Jakub about it later. He was sure his brother would know. Head snapping back at the professor, Jace gave the woman a polite nod, and stood up to write Mr. Studmuffin’s real name on the board. The Ravenclaw wrote it quickly but legibly since he has to take down his own notes for today’s lesson, seeing that the ghost professor can’t write things down on her own by hand or magic. Jace returned to his seat quietly and started to jot down notes instead of doing their little experiment. He’d already figure that bit by reading his Astronomy book; so instead, he made a few more notes in Japanese to aide him in his revisions later on: Stellar Parallax. Opting not to answer this time, Jace instead recorded Charlotte’s answer but gave it a bit of correction in his notes: 'Distance to Stars and other Heavenly Bodies is called Parsecs, or PARallax ArcSECond.' "Thank you, dear," she cooed at the seventh year for his assistance. She would ask him to stay and continue to write on the board, but he DID need to tend to his own notes. She really ought to have requested this of the house elves as well. Oh well. Quote: Originally Posted by Steelsheen He thanked Char for the bluebell flame with a grateful grin. Although if she actually tossed one at him, what would've happened eh? Guess they'll never know…. And well his answer wasn’t wrong, which was GREAT because he had no clue who the old gent was, and upon listening to the class he realized how FAR OFF his thoughts were. So the dude was some egghead that measured stuff and named that stuff on his own. Great! Where the heck did Green Lantern come up with Parallax anywho? But oh activity time-- or sorta. They get to stretch see? Arms out in front like the Professor say, thumbs up, winky wink winky wink… yeah lengthy explanation but it made sense to him. Because explanation plus demo equals total win yeah! But of course he cant help but notice everybody else doing what he's doing. And he just couldn’t help either when he GUFFAWED at the sight of them. People looked like they were flirting at the beach or trying to hitch a ride with the wind in their eyes. Bahahahahahahaha! Next question. NO CLUE either-- too busy laughing to even think. Although Char yelled out parsecs. Oh so they're going from Green Lantern to Star Wars now? "Han Solo owns a ship that can do that." Probably an erroneous use of parsec, but that’s what he knows and that’s what he can share. "OOOOOOOOOOOOOOH HAN SOLO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH," Marion swoooooooooned. "Now, I am NOT the sort that fancies science fiction like studmuffin Flamsteed did, but my gooooooodness graaaaaaaaaacious HEAVENS above that man. OOOOOOOHOHOOOOOOO I can still recall when The Force Awakens came out and THAT silver fox grace the screen..." Quote: Originally Posted by Paintbrush Harvey thought hard about this, but he really didn't know anything about Astronomy. He had no idea. "Space miles?" he ventured, sure that he was wrong, but figuring a guess was better than nothing. Hmmmmmm? What was this little dear talking about? OH YES. "Not exactly, son," she smiled gently. "But that was a valiant effort of a guess!" Quote: Originally Posted by FwooperOnYourLeft Azura smiled over at her friends as they thanked her for the bluebell flames. She was just doing what she needed to keep her friends warm. She listened carefully to the Professor as she spoke and she smiled as she did the exercise that she had them do.. Huh.. it seemed like a simple concept, but to apply it to the stars.. That was brilliant! She titled her head at the next question and was about to answer but Char answered first! So instead she wrote the information down in her notes. Her guess had been light years, but that was the speed of light..not the distance between things.. Right? Her hand raised though to ask her question. "Professor, what's the difference between light years and a parsec?" She asked her. Hoping that it wasn't dumb or anything. "OOOOOOH a VERY good question, my dear. Let me dive into that in JUST a moment..." Quote: Originally Posted by DaniDiNardo ... "Professor at this point I'm willing to say that if Char says it then it's the right answer." Parsecs? Sure. That could be the answer--because Char said it and he'd never seen her wrong in a class. Of course he didn't attend Charms OR Transfiguration so those were sketchy but everything else. Mhm. "Oh ho ho ho, Mr. Bellaire," the ghost giggled. "*Please DO keep your flirtatious advances towards Miss Kettleburn a BIT* more descrete." OH HO HO HO how DARLING. Quote: Originally Posted by Goblinfrog** Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel. So that was the name of the dashing gentleman with green hair. Kitty wrote it down in her notebook along with a note: Need to research this guy in the library later. Then the lesson had moved on. Stretching her arms over her head and closing her right eye and looking up her thumb - surely Kitty wouldn't have been caught dead in this position if she were the only doing it, but it was less embarrassing with all them at once. With all of them doing this at once it seemed like they were taking part in a Muggle mediation class, not that Kitty had ever been in one - but that's it looked like from movies she saw. The question of the correct terminology of distance between stars on the galactic scale was something Kitty thought she was well prepared for. "Perhaps in the wizarding world there is a different word for it, but in the Muggle world 'light years' is the common terminology - also known as parsecs." "Oh not exactly, dear," Marion cautioned. "They are quite different and you actually need to convert with some math to go from one to the other, but doing so puts one at risk of a biiiiiiiiiiiiiiit of error." Quote: Originally Posted by SarcasticStrawberry Katerina was starting to think that her dislike for astromony or her failure at it had nothing to do with Professor live long and prosper, it was completely her. Other than the bluebell flame the Hufflepuff was lost. Conjuring her own bluebell flame, since that was the only thing she knew she could do. She had know idea who that guy in the picture was. By the way Kat didn't think the dude was much of a studmuffin. Nope. She was sitting beside one possibly... no who was she kidding. He was. She tried not to do too much inner flailing. This was the best part of the whole class right now. Wait... she knew this answer No nevermind or did she. She raised her hand and nearly fell right out of her seat. "Lightyears? Ugh she should just sit quietly and take notes if the right answers. Maybe that would help. WHICH had been the answer she had been aiming for, but her bumbling mind...hohoho OOPSIES! "Also true, my dear an CLEARLY I need to do a bit of clarification as I have bewildered a few of you." Again...oopsies? "DOOOOOOOOOOO forgive me tears. My poor wording has caused a bit of confusion. Please permit me to go into a bit of detail...all of which can also be found in your textbooks should you require a bit of revision later," she began. "A light year is the distance light travels in a year which is about 9.5 trillion kilometers given that we knooooooooow light travels about 300,000 kilometers every second and there are about 31.56 million seconds in a year. Now...a parsec is far more complicated than that..." And SURELY she would lose a few of them as she explained, poor dears. "A circle can be divided into 360º, and each degree can be further divided into 60 arcminutes, and each arcminute can be divided into 60 arcseconds... in astronomy, we use small angles to talk about sizes and distances against the background of the sky. As Earth revolves around the Sun, we see distant stars from slightly different angles. In January a star might appear to be in one position, but six months later its apparent position has changed. This is called a parallax shift - WHICH is precisely what you all just demonstrated moments ago with your thumbs and closing one eye. A parallax second, or parsec, is the distance a star would have to be from Earth in order for it to appear to move by one arcsecond due to our viewing it from different sides of Earth's orbit. If you do the geometry right, you'll find that a parsec is equal to about 3.26 light years. So if the galaxy is about 100,000 light years across, it's about 31,000 parsecs across." LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG PAUSE. "Now, as Miss Valentine suggested, they are often seen as being interchangeable...and it IS true that astronomy books written for amateurs almost always use light years, but professional literature frequently uses parsecs." ANOTHER LOOOOOOOOOONG PAUSE. "Unless there are more questions, I would like to move on. Everyone...telescopes out and take position by a window," she chirped while floating towards the nearest one herself. "Please bring your textbooks with you as well. I would like you all to find a star for me...61 Ursae Majoris...you MAY be able to see it with the unaided eye...but if not please use your telescope. Star charts are in your textbooks to assist you. Once you have found it, please tell me ONE little nugget of information about it and perhaps WHY you think I asked you to find this particular star." She would bet 10000000 galleons that none of them would be able to guess though. HO HO HO! OOC: once again I am teeeeeerribly sorry for th delay my tears.I will try my tootin'-est to be a bit more prompt as we draw to a close soon. Just this and one more little activity to go. Catch up is always welcome <3 __________________ THE ROTATION OF THE EARTH MAKES MY DAY