Cris was still trying to ascertain whether his answers made sense or not, when Leah leaned over to whisper to him asking whether they could share their ideas. Cris smiled and nodded at her. "Sure here's what I've got" Cris pulled over his notes to let her read them. Tell me what you think,[/b]"





...and then Professor Domingo came around to see what he had written down. A hint? She was giving a hint about an even that the number 5 could represent in his life. The characteristics he had identified for the number 5 had been perfect balance, the union between man and woman, harmony...event? Wait could it be? Marriage?

Cris quickly turned to look at Leah, "Do you think the event Professor Domingo is talking about is marriage? I mean it seems to make sense. Since 2 is female and 3 is male, and the characteristics are harmony, opinion and balance, that would be the only event that would be applicable," Cris explained how he came up with that conclusion.

Now for number 10. The Professor had not mentioned whether his conclusion about that number had been correct, so Cris decided to delve deeper.

"Leah, the Professor said the number 10's characteristic is equal to the combination of the characteristics for the numbers 1,2,3 and 4. That means it represents is all things, reason, opinion, division, unity, harmony, space and matter, justice and order.

Now with that in mind, I recall reading somewhere, that the Greeks considered 10 the greatest number because they associated it with the tetractys, which is a triangular figure consisting of ten points arranged in four rows. Since, the tetractys symbolized the four elements i.e. earth, wind, water and fire, it was also considered a mystical symbol, by the Greeks.

So since the Tetractys is symbolic to the Greeks and they considered it the most powerful number, and that number possesses all those other characteristics, it would stand to reason that 10 represents everything there is in the universe. To make a long story short, I believe the number 10 characterizes the universe....as a whole. Am I making any sense here?" Cris looked over at Leah, even as he tried to comprehend what he had just concluded.

Number five? The number five arises from 2 (first female number) + 3 (first male number)..Therefore means a union between man and woman!!!
Number 10? the most important number, as it is formed by the sum of the first four numbers (1 +2 +3 +4 = 10), expresses the totality, the final realization.

Lucy said: "The number ten, Professor, might be the number of perfection?"

Zahra snorted. "Maybe for YOU. I did ALL those numbers." Even though she definitely wasn't supposed to. "Copy that down and I'll share my EXTRA house points with you." She wiggled her eyebrows at him. THEN she read HIS notes.

And frowned.

And looked back at him. Then at her notes. Then at his. "OHHH I get it. Like a ten. Ten is a perfect score or whatever. I'm a 10. I made myself 10 on my list, but I'm not a mix of boy and girl. Just girl. Just SUPER girl though. So you're probably part right. Cool, man. We got this."

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lolita Domingo (Post 11623624) This young lady needed some refinement, that was certain. "Yes, that sounds excellent. I expect your findings on the matter on my desk by next week Thursday." Perhaps that would teach her some refinement, no?

....REALLY? PROFESSOR DOMINGO WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT MAGICAL FRUIT POOTS?!?!?! FOR POINTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1111111111111

Yessssssssssssss. "I got you, Professor-O! I'm on it. Operation Fruit Poots is underway!!!!!!!!" AND Z saluted her. MAN! WHAT LUCK! AWESOME.

Confused firstie totally lost
 

Angel was totally confused as to what she was doing and all she knew about numbers were you either did some weird and fancy thing with them or you just added and subtracted them.



Angel looked at her work, she had no idea if she was on the right tracks but well that was all she knew about counting from one to ten, most rockets did that before a mission and she wasn't sure what else they could mean and a guess was better than nothing right?

"There are a few vegetables left up here if you want seconds!" she called as she reached the front of the room. Now who was next? Reaching Ethan, she nodded approvingly. He was clearly putting thought into it. As was Jasmine with her ideas of conflict and peace. Next was Simon, who also seemed to have some good ideas and sensible combinations. They were all three on the right track.

SPOILER!!: Penelope

Quote:

Originally Posted by griffin (Post 11623639) Her toga was fixed. Penelope hoped that nothing awkward like that would happen to her in class again. It was really embarrassing that her first impression on the new professor had been one of awkward togas. Her work had been great, but the toga made her seem awkward. At least nothing really bad had happened. The toga fit properly now, so there was no point in worrying about it more. "Thank you professor. Muchas gracias," Penelope whispered. Penelope listened to what the professor had to say about everyone's answers. Her answer for ten had been spot on. Proud of herself for figuring out 10, she listened to what the professor said about 5. Love... event in your life... She took notes on some other answers. Opinion and division, harmony, love, event, male and female numbers... What was a big event in your life about love? Event about love, harmony... Penelope was on the right track now. It wouldn't be too hard to figure out what it was. Marriage. It had to be marriage. What other events about love and harmony were there? "I think five is marriage."

Ah, a bit of Spanish. Perhaps she wouldn't give up on the British just yet. Lolita watched as the gears turned in this promising young lady's head. "Indeed! Five is marriage, well done!" she smiled. Yes, she had an intuitive grasp on this already.

Miss Cambridge seemed to be a bit lost. "Keep trying, muchacha. Don't let the vegetables get you down." This one was clearly a carnivore if her barely touched food was any indication. At least she had the common decency to take one.

On to Cris and Leah. Another one that had successfully figured out five. "Muy bueno, muchachos. Excelente." It sounded as if they were still trying to make sense of their verdict on ten, so she let them think a little longer.

Who had just asked a question? Lucy Petersfield.. interesting surname. "Spot on for five, very close for ten" She smiled once more. One more trip around the room ought to do it, since the students were starting to figure it out.

Had she been to Mr Whitlock's desk yet? Lolita didn't think so. What had he come up with? Hmmm "Keep trying, Mr Whitlock." He had veered a bit off course, but certainly not as far as Bean Girl had.

Choosing to ignore said Bean Girl's comments about Operation Poot or something, she made her way back to the girl who had not put her toga on at the beginning of the lesson (Angel). She simply shook her head and made no comment. This is what happened when you didn't follow directions to begin with: you missed the instruction and had no idea what was going on. Lolita decided to let her learn the hard way.

----------------------------------

She clapped her hands several times to get the attention of the class. "¡Atención! Back up here, please." Lolita paused several seconds to allow them to finish their sentences. "I saw many good thought processes, and a few of you even figured out the answers by the end." Some of them had clearly memorized a textbook, though, which was not the type of critical thinking and deep understanding she was looking for. Anyone could look up answers, what she wanted to know was if they could riddle them out themselves.

"So five, as the union of the first male and female numbers, was thought to stand for love and marriage." She nodded in the direction of the several who she'd heard that idea from. "Now ten unites the properties of uniqueness, polarity, harmony, and all of space or matter because it is a combination of one, two, three, and four." This was the hint she had given them. "Therefore, ten is the number of everything and was the Pythagoreans' most revered number, since it represented the whole of the cosmos." More appreciative nods toward those who had come to this conclusion.

After a slight pause for scribbling notes, she continued. "So to summarize.." With a wave of her wand, the equations disappeared and the vibratory influences they had discussed appeared.

Quote:

Vibratory Influences ONE: generator of all numbers, not actually considered a number; characterized reason TWO: first female number; characterized opinion and division THREE: first male number, combination via addition of 1 (unity) and 2 (division); characterized harmony FOUR: second female number, represented space and matter; characterized by justice and order FIVE: union of first male and female numbers; characterized love and marriage TEN: unites 1, 2, 3, and 4, represents the idea of everything; characterized by the cosmos

"Now for the task. Remember how I said Arithmancy could help us understand ourselves better? We can use these basic vibratory influences as building blocks to get other numbers. For instance, six is the product of 2 and 3, the first male and female numbers, and when the two genders combine after marriage, the 5, new life is formed. So six represented creation." And much more, but that was the most commonly used characteristic. "I would like to hear YOUR ideas on the numbers seven, eight, and nine. There are multiple answers possible, as the ancient literature has little consensus on how the Pythagoreans viewed these. Once more you may pair with someone or not, it is up to you." And she wanted to see creativity and a solid thought process here, not just textbook answers.

.

OOC: You will have between 24 and 36 hours to complete this task. This is the main activity portion of the lesson, so feel free to post multiple times!

Zander watched as Professor, Professor had walked around and took a look at his parchment. She did NOT look very impressed. Awh. And he still didn't have a partner. Wait Miss Carrington? Who? Zander followed his professor's eyes and found that Miss Carrington was Lux! Oh. Sweet!

Zander shyly made his way to the girl, "Uh, Hi Lux," he said with a warm smile. "You, uh, still need a partner?" he asked her. Hopefully she did because Zander's notes were definitely lacking.

SPOILER!!: Zander's pitful notes, he's rubbish at numbers

Five: (2+3) Male number, so good stuff

Ten: (1+2+3+4) Female number, so not so good stuff?

She liked him, Nigel could tell. It was the hair. She had amazing hair, he had amazing hair. She was insulting him. It all fit. Too bad he was taken. Nigel though his second answer thing was very insightful. You do not want a women's wrath,or a God's Wrath, that was for sure and he thought he would at least get half a point for the Spanish numbers.

He was now approaching the class in the i don't care attitude and enjoying it for what it was worth. Anyway it sounded like she was making all of this stuff up. But no, it was serious. Better than Divination at least. It had that going for it.

Maybe ancient people thought Pythagoras was a nut job and only appropriated want he did after his death. Now that would be awesome. On another slightly random note. Nigel would hated to be known as a Pythagorean. Sounds awful.

Well he had his fun on the parchment and decided not to write Seven Ate Nine on his parchment. Too lame...and horribly punny....But maybe he should. Was Agatha looking at his parchment? Well that is one way to break stereotypes. 'There's a fine line between genius and insanity. I have erased this line.' Such a good quote and really does apply to Ravenclaw.

Much Better

Adi grinned at Professor Domingo. "Thanks, Professor.'' Oh, someone needed help? Who was Moore? Was it that first year Ravenclaw kid. He waved to the guy. Adi could help. But he would need help himself with what the Professor asked. Practical event?
...........................

OH! Five meant marriage. Okay, Adi wouldn't have been able to figure that out. He added in the new information to his previous notes as Domingo continued on. Okay. Seven Eight and Nine. The third year was stumped. Maybe it had something to do with expanding the family?

Honestly, he had no idea what else to write.

He smiled when the Professor gave him an approving nod. Yes, headed in the right direction. Despite getting her assuring nod, he still felt a little wibbly-wobbly about Arithmancy, he'd have to find people to study with. He copied down the answers that the Professor wrote on the board carefully into his notebook.



He paused. Now they had to figure out seven, eight, and nine, hey? Hmm... He rested his chin on his hands. Seven could be opinion and division plus love and marriage. But what would that even mean? He had no clue. Eight could be something to do with love and marriage plus harmony. Then nine could mean justice and order plus creation? He copied down these in his notebooks but what did this mean exactly?



Now Simon was lost...... Ehh..... Okay

Bree was finding this lesson rather facinating even though her mind had drawn a blank thus far. She had never thought of how numbers could represent us as people in being. How cool and chilling. She wrote down the notes on the matter and as she thought about the current question of whar what 7, 8, and 9 could represent she added her thoughts aon that after a bit of thought.

She was a little nervous as she put down her quil if she had even gotten close to the right answer but she felt good knowing she tried.

Austin waved back to the Hufflepuff named Rehman, although he wasn't too keen on going over to the guy. Austin liked working alone. He jotted down notes for five, six, and ten as the teacher spoke, now understanding things a bit more. Five meant marriage, and six seemed to mean first child. This made a lot of sense, and he was amazed to find that numbers had a lot of meaning. He had heard how older muggles thought their Arithmacy was hard, but they would flip to find that wizarding Arithmacy was a lot harder.

He quickly fixed his notes to match he ones on the board.

If six was the first child, would seven be the second child number? IS there a 'grand kid' kind of number? Maybe nine meant 'Elderly', or first grandchild number. He scribbled on his paper, now trying to think of what seven and eight meant. Well, two parents can get a house together, so maybe seven was a housing number of some sort. That would make sense, since after marriage, you have a kid, and then you get a house. What does a family do after they get a house? Do they have a second kid? That makes sense, so eight could be some sort of sibling relationship.

His new notes didn't seem as great as the professors, but he wasn't entirely sure what would come next. He was stumped when they were asked to figure out number five, and yet it was so simple.

Oh, hello there! Smiling at Zander as he joined her, Lux nodded. She definitely needed a partner because this subject was so hard. Numbers were so very confusing. Looking at his notes, she could see that he was on the same track as her. "We are both on the same page with that... And apparently wrong." Sigh. The Professor was speaking again, and confusing her even more.

they needed to work out the meanings of MORE numbers? Seriously?! Mentally groaning, Lux supposed that it was good she had a partner for this. "Let's get started then."

okay this was all confusing… Bay just didn't know what to do or where to start.. after the kabobs everything kind of went down hill… he still doesn't know how he managed to get an OWL in Arithmancy. Could he just bang his head against the desk now… looking around he saw everyone start their number things… he looked around nervously… and he tried to write down numbers…

could he totally just die now.. everything he just wrote down was total guess work. UGHHH why did this class have to be so hard.

Leahhh
 

So they were accurate when they concluded that the number 5 represented marriage. And as for the number 10, it represented everything? They had it almost there. A tad off but almost there. Cris quickly copied down Professor Domingo's explanation.



So what did 7, 8 and 9 represent. 'The in-betweeners, that's what they were,' Cris thought to himself. 'Okay let's first figure out what these numbers might represent.' Cris told himself as he began writing down his thoughts.



Did that totally make sense to him? Cris figured it did. Whether the Professor agreed with him was another matter. Pulling his journal over to Leah, Cris showed Leah his conclusions.

"Does this look right, Leah?" Cris asked the younger puff.

Adi had indeed heard what was said to the Slytherin girl. He nodded at the Professor and focused his attention once more to his parchment. What if he did the same like he had done with five and ten?



There. He had made some adjustments. Adi wondered if he came close to the correct answer.

Blink Blink. Jasmine was still rather confused. Professor Domingo might as well have been speaking to her in Spanish. In fact she might have understood everything better in Spanish because the English version was a little hazy. Jasmine was trying her best to think things through. She just hoped that her answers weren't too far off.

Now they had to explain 7, 8 and 9. Jasmine updated her notes having gotten further explanation from the Professor. She studied the information and tried to come up with a rational answer. Unfortunately the ideas weren't exactly flowing. Finally Jasmine came up with some possible answers and wrote them down in her notebook.



Jasmine hoped that she would someday be enlightened and begin to have a clue about Arithmancy. This was the first class that she could ever remember where she felt totally out of the loop.

She was not even acknowledging him now. It was meant to be. But it seemed if he wanted the correct answers, all he would have to do is look down and to his side. Agatha was getting all the praise and points apparently. Nope not going to cheat off a third year.

Wait, what was going on now. Did she just make them partners or something. "You chose to do all the work. I chose to write really bad puns and not care....But fine" Nigel looked at her notes, impressed. They were actually really good. Nigel's had some /mean/ stick figures on his. But that was about it. They were still doing the Seven Ate Nine thing. Weren't they?

Sigh.............."Here"

Doing actual work is exhausting.

For the partner!
 

He grinned when Professor Domingo gave him some encouraging words. Arithmancy was hard man. None of this made sense at all....

How could he keep going now? :whaa: BUT HOW?

Simon had absolutely no clue in which direction he ought to go from the thoughts that he had already made so he decided that it would be best to find a partner. He glanced over at Cutty and then called out to him. "Cutty! Want to team up?" he asked, sending a hopeful glance in his dormmate's direction.