Ilia gave Henric a small smile as she saw him hide his head , knowing that it was from amusement. She was glad that she could perk him up a bit.....and also glad that she wasn't the only person that found it funny.

It seemed that the Professor did not find her question so amusing though, so she decided she would hold off on the 'humor' filled answers and respond a bit more seriously. She raised her and with her turn....... "The moon is important because it helps our gravity stay at a healthy level. The gravity and rotation affects the tides and that affects our climate." Climate affected all of the animals , which is what Ilia was really concerned with. If their climate changed, the animals would change or cease to exist which meant the earth would NOT be too ok in her opinion. "The earth wouldn't be the same without the moon and might not have life like we do, so......it probably wouldn't be very ok." No animals meant not ok for her, nopeity nope.

….. Uh, was it just him or was that dirt and stuff starting to collect together? Uh…….. And was it turning into another giant ball thing or…? Maybe he needed glasses or something? No, no stuff was definitely happening. And Zander was sort of watching all that and not really paying too much attention to the answers that other’s came up with.

Luckily for him, he tuned in right in the neck of time! Of course it was Toby’s response that got Professor Flamsteed all riled up and jumping around ’n stuff. Toby was always right. It was his thing. And well, someone had to be always right. So Zander was glad that it was Toby, ‘cause Toby was never boastful about it. Unlike some people probably would be.

As for his own answer to the question… Zander had to think about it for a bit. Uh, why exactly did they need the moon? ”It influences waves in the ocean…. Right? Or was the moon the one that had to do with the seasons changing? Erm. No, that was the sun… Right? Merlin. You’d think after OWLs he would’ve retained SOME information. But it seemed like he really just memorized what he needed for the exam. Or maybe his brain was still on holiday?

Well would you look at that. He got an answer right. Noel BEAMED when the professor jumped to his seat and did his thing. Noel wasn't really the giddy type when it came to classes but there was just something really infectious about Professor Space's energy.

Pulling out his notebook and quill, he started taking notes as the professor and waited for his turn to speak. But almost EVERYONE had given really good answers already. So agreeing with what Toby said, when Noel's turn came - instead of answering the question, Noel gave a statement really: "Sir I think Werewolves would be really glad if we could get rid of the moon somehow" It sucked. Why did they get to suffer and everyone else got to romanticize the moon.

Michael jumped ever so slightly at the Professor's exuberance, he had forgotten just how excited the man got when he talked about his subject.

He wrote down The Moon as a heading on top of his parchment and began to list all the reasons of what made the moon so important before raising his hand. "I believe the moon has contributed to the gift of workable metal deposits. Which has been beneficial to the development of technological civilisation. For muggles anyway." And for the those witches and wizards who were into that kind of thing.

Oh. He'd just... be quiet then. James bowed his head and looked down at his quill. Why had he even tried with all the older, cleverer people in the room? He traced his fingers over the feather of his quill, contemplating his wrong answer. He hadn't even glanced up when the professor jumped from table to table, he was just lost in his own failure.

The question from the professor about the moon had James about to open his mouth, but someone got there first and mentioned about the waves. He knew basics and that the moon did control the depth of the ocean at times. Remembering something from a book he'd read from mum's shelf, he spoke up. Hopefully this time he wouldn't get shot down in flames? "I read that the Moon could have been one of the things that caused the heat to escape from the centre of the Earth... which is something to do with the tectamonic plates" Was that the word? Tectoaic? Tactile? Oh, well the professor knew what he meant. Hopefully. "Does this mean the world stays warm because of the lava in the middle?" He was sure it had a different name though. Magnum or something.

"Sometimes it can affect the clouds and rain because of this too, right?" He'd asked mum what it had meant and she'd explained that the water warmth controlled how clouds were made and where they let the water go. He'd have to write and ask.

Stella didn't even register the question until Professor Flamsteed had nearly finished taking answers. When he yelled "duck and cover", she'd dived under her desk filled with the most overwhelming sense of panic she'd ever experienced. It was ten times worse than the one time her moms took her to a crowded cinema to watch a scary movie. Unexpected fear was much stronger than the kind you seek out and she was in a room full of it.

Everyone else finally calmed down enough for Stella to relax and she started paying attention to the lesson. Thank goodness for Ima's constant talking about the moon. Of course, it was generally in astrological and spiritual contexts, but Stella's science class had covered the solar system last year. That and reading the textbook over the summer helped her keep up as Professor Flamsteed waxed lyrical. The man was clearly passionate about his work. She'd remember to sit up front if she was ever experiencing too much apathy.
She raised her hand to answer the second question.

"Well for one thing, the moon controls the tides. Without the moon to pull them, they'd be, I think it was less than half the size, with a much simpler pattern. There'd be a lot less light in the sky at night. The moon also keeps the Earth's axis tilted the same way. If we didn't have a moon, the axial tilt would change the seasonal pattern which would mess up a lot of things. And finally, the length of days would go back to being short, though that would take a while."

Nothing terribly extraordinary happens now with the two sphere as they rotate around the room. The only real thing of interest to note is that both sphere appear to be rotating about their spins on their axes at the same rate. How very peculiar!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Saz Hale

Abby was a bit dissapointed that her answer wasnt right but listened to the next question and thought and thought of an answer and raised her hand and said "Our moon is important because it can be seen from earth at night but it is also important cause the moon circles the earth" Abby hoped that she was on the right track with this answer

Amused that Miss Valentine was once again the first hand in the air, the professor nodded his head...but felt the need to clarify a few things she had said. Or, well, perhaps turn things around and ask HER to clarify a few things rather than him lecturing her entirely.

"Ah, but is it only visible at night?"

Careful wording, Hogwartians.

Quote:

Originally Posted by JustAlice

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"Professor!" Her hand shot into the air. "The moon is a goddess, professor. She helps with medicine and long life and she makes divination clearer." Yep. "Well... not literally, but she represents a goddess." She corrected herself.

"Oh oh and she controls the tides. And cycles. Especially people cycles. We ebb.. and flooooow... as she changes." Was that it? "Oh, and she's especially strong with the feminine energy... and she helps things flooooow." She'd said flow twice, but it was relevant. She sort of waved her arms a little to get the point across...

A vein in the professor's forehead began to pulsate at the mention of the 'd' word - especially since it SEEMED as though Miss Fields was stating this all as fact. He was about to, firmly, reminded her that such talk was better suited for other environments...she qualified her answer.

Good. That vein could go back to normal now.

"There are indeed many lunar deities described in the mythologies of cultures all over the world, both male and female," he replied delicately.

And then, miraculously, he desensitized himself from what the first year was most likely hinting at.

"Actually, there is no scientific proof of such a claim," he informed, his eyes mostly falling on the faces of all the young women. "It is simply a coincidence that that cycle and lunar cycles are about the same. In fact, there had even been some pseudo-scientific claims that because the human brain consists of 80% water that lunar phenomena would disturb the balance in our heads and cause lunacy."

But this, like astrology, was all pesudo-scientific hokum. Bah humbug.

He paused for a moment to claps his hands together.

"So rest assured, ladies, the Moon's period has nothing to do with yours."

Quote:

Originally Posted by Govoni

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"The climate, sir."...which was helped by that gravitational pull he'd mentioned before. There were other things he wanted to contribute to the previous question...Like how Venus didn't currently have any moons and had survived collisions just as Earth had...and about the theories of the planet absorbing the two that have been suggested...but they were moving on and Gabe wasn't interested in holding up the lesson. That wouldn't benefit anyone.

Right. Notes. He was starting his notes.

Getting his notebook, quill, and ink situated, the Ravenclaw elaborated. "The moon, essentially, slows down the planet's rotation...allowing the sun to substantially warm it."

"PRECISELY, MR. BANNER!" the astronut exclaimed, resorting to more dramatic finger pointing. "And thank you for elaborating on this fact a bit more. Without the presence of the Moon, temperatures on Earth would take a substantial drop for that very reason." Airey had only given the hypothesized history of this connection, but not shared the rest of its importance. "Everyone, make sure you have that down in your notes. Final exam quality question."

Not to mention OWL and NEWT, perhaps.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Symphora

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"It is because of the gravitational pull, professor, without the moon, we could all perished and die..."he answered, gulping.

"It is actually theorized by astronomers that an absence of the moon would not have prevented human evolution," he informed the class. "And even go on to say that if it were to just....go away...we would survive that as well. In fact, the Moon IS in the process of leaving us as its orbit expands approximately 4 centimeters a year."

SURPRISE!

"However, we all have nothing to worry about. By the time an real serious consequences would occur, the Sun will have become a red giant and will have consumed both the Earth and the Moon in approximately 5 billion years."

So cheers to that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by fanficfanatict

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Shooting his hand up in the air, he said excitedly, "This question all depends on the assumption that we do exist. Science is one of the most conceivably concrete ideals in our modern world but we cannot know for certain anything. You run an experiment so many times and you get your best guess because so FAR all the answers come out one way. That's why science is always changing because every so often a result changes and we learn new things. ERGOOOOOOOO." was he following? "We cannot be sure of anything really because of instability and THEREFORE existence is merely a construct because you cannot be certain. So who knows? It doesn't matter. The moon."

......................right then......................

He was not against philosophy by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, without the imagery that philosophy brings to the mix, many scientific discoveries would likely not have been found. So he would nod his head to the philosopher for birthing new ideas, but that did not mean they had a place in his classroom.

And so...he just walked past the Slytherin. Saying nothing.

He was going to assume that answer had not existed.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SpiritWolfe Malfoy

Meh she'd be wrong with her answer but no big deal really cause that's why she was here. Not to be wrong of course but to learn. So without much care on her wrong answer she lifted Elvis up to her face and told him in a tiny hushed whisper, "See Elvis, I told you all was well and Professor Airey would never harm your kind." Nope cause the Professor was to epic for that and a huge Pet Rock lover. So all was well for her newest pet.
...

He chuckled as he strolled by Miss Lynch's desk. Look at her, already so attached to her pet rock. It truly was a beautiful thing to witness.

Quote:

Originally Posted by nanyjj

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Leah raised her hand after some thinking and scribbling on her journal. "Without the Moon, Earth would spin a lot much faster because uhhh," what was the reason again? She took a peek at her sequence of thought on her notes before continuing, "it is in charge of slowing down Earth's daily rotation."

If she was wrong then oh well never mind.

Nodding his head - and doing some dramatic pointing between Miss Abbott and Mr. Banner. Time for him to do just a tad more elaborating.

"Without the Moon, the days would be several hours shorter - which may please those among you wishing for shorter school days. Approximately 6 to 8 hours in a day which would mean about...ooooooooh.... between about 1,100-1,400 days in a year."

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hera

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Wasn't that obvious? "It's important for magic, Professor," he said, hand waving in the air like he just didn't care - 'cept he did. "Like it affects the power of wand magic and should be taken into account for some potions because of its ability to bind agents and cause effects, then there's the whole werewolf thing too. So for US it's super important because it allows us to do things that we sometimes might not be able to, or to simply do it better, but more than that, we're surrounded by magic all the time, so who's to say that the earth isn't made of magic too... which would mean that the moon would have a HUGE impact on it as well as on us."

Pointing to his own nose with his right hand, Airey thrust his left towards Mr. Zeke as a mischievous grin tugged at his exaggerated features. "Excellent thoughts, Mr. Zeke. Some of which we will be touching on later in the term. Take 2 points."

Which reminded him that he had a few professors to coordinate with still. Heh.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Emzily

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He sat and thought about it for a moment before shyly raising his hand. BARELY raising his hand, actually, until he had room to speak. "It's important because... there could be things," Aliens, "living on there?" Not that it impacted the Earth much, but he was sure scientists would excited by it. "I think it'd be dark without the moon. But then again, we got street lamps at night, so." SHRUG.

"As of right now, there are only hints of life found on the Moon, but no actual organisms or microorganisms have been found yet." No atmosphere and no water made that discovery rather impossible. "We would have VERY dark nights indeed. The Moon is 1/400,000th as bright as the daylight Sun, and the second brightest object in the night sky after the Moon is the planet Venus which is 1/14,000th as bright as the full Moon!"

Quote:

Originally Posted by GoldenSnake

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"Well the moon is important in many ways!" Should she start spitting out some of them right now? "Two of the most important ones - I think, I least - are the earth's twenty-three and a-half degrees obliquity, which gives us our seasons, and tidal currents, which just...give us waves. And waves are nice!" Natalia was starting to become more enthusiastic by the minute of space-talking! "Earth without the moon? Well...good luck dealing with tidal and climate changes. We'd probably be able to survive..." Natalia was calculating in a very rational manner all the variables to sustainable life on Earth. She should know this! Her mother was an astrobiologist! "...survive until the climate goes COMPLETELY bizarre and we die. Yeah."

Slow clap. That was all he had in response to that. A very LOUD slow clap and giddy grinning.

SPOILER!!: TOBY!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Felixir

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"An expansion, Professor. Less of a bang and more of a-" here he used his hands to sort of demonstrate something rapidly expanding, as though he had hold of a balloon that was being inflated "-whooooooosh, I suppose." His hands kept doing the expanding thing, on account of how the universe was still expanding, until his arms could spread no wider. Uh-huh. Yep. Whoosh.
...
"I reckon... the Earth would be different without the Moon, obviously. Life would be different, 'cause it'd change a whole bunch of stuff, like people said. Tides and light and shorter days and all, but I think we'd mostly adjust. Though I wonder how life would have evolved if there'd been no Moon in the first place, 'cause I'm sure there'd still be life here." That was a very longwinded way of Toby saying that he didn't know, and was theorising instead. "If we didn't have the moon then there probably wouldn't be werewolves, or perhaps there would be a different sort of condition instead. OH, that reminds me, we wouldn't have certain words either, would we, if the Moon never turned up? Wolves would have different Latin names and the word 'lunatic' wouldn't exist and there would be no-one named Luna." It seemed for a split second that Toby was done talking then, BUT ALAS. "Professor Airey, does the Moon help Earth when it comes to asteroids and stuff? Maybe help pull them off course with its own gravity? If so, that wouldn't happen if it wasn't there."

Okay, so it was slightly redundant to tack that on the end there, but #yolo.

"Excellent, Mr. Toby," he winked at the Hufflepuff for recalling that tidbit of information regarding the Big Bang. He expected nothing less from the young man. "Take 1 point for Hufflepuff."

And there were lots of other stellar observations being made by the Hufflepuff, but the Astronomy professor chose to focus on his question at the end. "It is interesting that you ask that question. In fact, NASA has had plans for quite some time now to capture an asteroid and drag it into orbit around our Moon." He had not been involved in any of the research for this project, as it was not in his jurisdiction, but he had a few colleagues that he had since lost touch with who had. "Asteroid Redirect Mission, if you want to look it up in your textbook sometime."

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cassirin

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Dot was delighted by her right answer, and by the professor on her desk, and she really hoped that she'd come up with something clever again. Or not clever, since she was just using common sense and wasn't clever in the least. Speaking clever... too clever... terribly awfully annoyingly clever... "Professor, Hughbert is hurting my brain. ERGOOOOOO, he needs to go out in the hall and think about what he's done."

Just saying. But to the question. "We pull on the moon, right? With gravity? But it must also pull back on us some, so that probably makes us spin different than if it wasn't there. Is the moon big enough to have a moon of its own? In theory, I mean?"

Which tied in perfectly to what Miss Wojack was asking.

And he wasn't going to respond to her first bit. Still assuming that that answer did not exist.

"Yes yes and more yes," he nodded. "When you look at what a moon, a satellite, is...it is highly plausible that a moon could have its own moon. Every single object in the universe is surrounded by essentially an invisible sphere of gravity. Think of it like...a Shield Charm if it helps you visualize things a bit better. Anything within this volume, which is call the Hill Sphere, will tend to orbit the object. So, NASA's plans to move an asteroid into the Moon's Hill Sphere would create a satellite for the Moon, essentially. However, what complicates matters is that it is not JUST the Moon's gravity at play. Due to its proximity to the Earth and the Sun, multiple gravitational pulls tangling with one another with all the overlapping spheres of influence - just like layering magic upon magic can make things unstable when done incorrectly. That being said, theoretically our Moon COULD have its own satellite and even last a few hundred years. Outstanding question! Take 3 points."

Quote:

Originally Posted by Grrr..Meow

Echo had really no idea why the Earth needed the Moon, so she took a guess. "Sir, would it be for protection?" it was worth a shot right.. she hoped that it was some what right.. because if something was coming towards earth it could "accidentally" hit the moon and take the impact instead of the earth, right... that could happen......
...

All the man could think about now...was junior high school girls in sailor suit inspired clothes fighting against the evils of the universe.

...

Ahem. Clearing his throat for a moment, he pursed his lips and tucked his hands behind his back. "Not...really...no." There was a lot of math that he could go into explaining his reasoning but, after looking at his sundial watch, he opted not to.

Quote:

Originally Posted by AlwaysSnapesGirl

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At the very least, this whole thing wasn't boring yet. She didn't have anything to add as an answer for this question though, so she simply took notes for now, carefully watching everything.

He gave a small nod towards the Slytherin. Oh, what fine penmanship!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mordred

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And...did that kid just mentioned Divination? Lulz. Ethan can imagine Flamsteed’s brain get all wonky for a few seconds. He knew he was sort of...allergic to the topic. Pushing that thought aside, the sixteen year old raised his hand to answer. “It brings balance,” to the Force, “and order to the Earth’s climate. I think the Moon has this responsibility to keep the Earth’s tilt in place, thus giving us the seasons...” Okay, maybe he should stop now? That answer wasn’t eloquently structured, but that will do.

It was alright, Mr. Mordaunt. He filled in the gap after balance himself.

"The moon itself does not affect the seasons, although you are entirely correct about it influencing the Earth's tilt. It is important to keep in mind, however, that this tilt is not fixed and does change. Remember, our Moon's gravitational pull on the Earth causes something called precession, a small, 21,000 year cyclic change, in the angle of the Earth's tilt."

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kaos.Doodles

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"Without the moon we wouldn't have anything to stare up at the sky at and greet us whenever we're feeling sad and lonely." Or insignificant. Seeing the moon just made you feel better, even if it was only half or a quarter or whatever.

Was this...an example of teenage Ravenclaw angst? Was Mr. Scabior...having angst? Did he need to speak with Leobald?

Blinking a few times, the man settled for a slow nod at the fourth year.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lissy Longbottom

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Caleb raised his hand. "Doesn't the moon have some sort of influence on Earth's magnetic field? Or something like that?" he said. So if they didn't have the moon, that would be all messed up. Right?

"Veeeeeeeeeeeeeeery little," he said, using his thumb and index finger to emphasize just how small. "But the Moon does take a lashing from Earth's magnetic tail."

Quote:

Originally Posted by PuppySara

What would the earth be like without the moon? He paused trying to think, slowly raising his hand, "I don't know if it's true or not, but aren't there certain flowers that bloom to the moonlight?" Hey at least it was a bit different from most of the answers right? Maybe it didn't matter to others at much, but he actually enjoyed helping his sibling's nanny with their garden, and they did have a couple that would only bloom at night... He mentally shrugged, at least he was trying.

The professor nodded. "There are indeed and an excellent inquiry to bring to the Headmistress." For he knew nothing about Herbology.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tiro MacMhuirich

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That was pretty cool. How did their moon affect them? Well, uh…. As she continued to listen people suggested that it affected the tides just like the sun, only more so. And someone mentioned that the moon affected their gravitational pull. Holding up her hand, Marsha added; ”Professor Airey, if … the moon the speed that we rotate,” She was pretty sure that she was understanding the others properly… maybe? Griffins…

”Does that mean that the moon lets us get the right about of sunlight each day? That without it we would either have too much sunlight or not enough sunlight a day? I’m not sure if the moon slows us down or speeds us up - but whichever way it goes… As without that we would be too hot or too cold… crops and plants wouldn’t grow the same, etc. Or, they would have at the very least, had to adapt to suit the new situation and way of life… Or they would have died.” That made her frown - she didn’t like the idea of all of the plant life and creatures on Earth dying or not being around any more.

A topic that had been touched on previously, but a very good question nonetheless. "You are entirely correct, Miss Hanover. As mentioned earlier, the Moon helps regulate the speed at which the Earth rotates which therefore influences our climate. Without it, the rotation would be much faster and therefore less time for the Sun to heat the planet."

Quote:

Originally Posted by Samia

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Pulling out his notebook and quill, he started taking notes as the professor and waited for his turn to speak. But almost EVERYONE had given really good answers already. So agreeing with what Toby said, when Noel's turn came - instead of answering the question, Noel gave a statement really: "Sir I think Werewolves would be really glad if we could get rid of the moon somehow" It sucked. Why did they get to suffer and everyone else got to romanticize the moon.

"If I ever cross paths with one, I will be sure to ask," he chuckled. He was too amused to even correct the sir.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mell

He wrote down The Moon as a heading on top of his parchment and began to list all the reasons of what made the moon so important before raising his hand. "I believe the moon has contributed to the gift of workable metal deposits. Which has been beneficial to the development of technological civilisation. For muggles anyway." And for the those witches and wizards who were into that kind of thing.

"Very good, Mr. Toussaint," he nodded towards the seventh year. Great to have the young man back in the classroom, truly.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Becky

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"I read that the Moon could have been one of the things that caused the heat to escape from the centre of the Earth... which is something to do with the tectamonic plates" Was that the word? Tectoaic? Tactile? Oh, well the professor knew what he meant. Hopefully. "Does this mean the world stays warm because of the lava in the middle?" He was sure it had a different name though. Magnum or something.

"Sometimes it can affect the clouds and rain because of this too, right?" He'd asked mum what it had meant and she'd explained that the water warmth controlled how clouds were made and where they let the water go. He'd have to write and ask.

The professor shook his head. "Heat from the Earth's interior does not influence our climate. In fact, the amount of heat energy coming out of the Earth is actually very small and the rate of flow of that heat is very steady over a long period of time. The effects, if any, are too small to consider influential. Likewise, the Moon plays very little role in the formation of clouds. Yes, the is something there, but it is SO minuscule that it is lost in the effects of winds and temperature gradients."

SPOILER!!: TIIIIIIIIIIIIDES & WAAAAAAAATER THIIIIIIIINGS. Sorry. I'm grouping you guys <333

Quote:

Originally Posted by FearlessLeader19

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Ahhh! So the moon! That's what they would be focusing on today. Questions? Nope. Adi had none of those! LET'S JUST GET ON TALKING ABOUT THE AWESOME MOON! Hand up, the boy volunteered, "It affects the tides on earth. Uhhh... if the tides were always low, then the people who fish for a living will not be able to go out in their boats because the boats would be grounded in the sand and if the tides were too high they could cause flooding.'' Yeah! That answer was... alright, wasn't it?

Quote:

Originally Posted by RachieRu

The moon was pretty. Grace liked the moon. She listened to her classmates answered, making notes. It was her owls this year, so she wanted to make sure she had lots of notes to help her revise when it came to it. A few seconds later, she raised her hand. She knew an answer too. "The moon controls the tides Sir..." She thought so anyway. "So without the moon.... the tides would be all weird, which wouldn't be too good..." Or it wouldn't be good for the people that lived near the sea anyway.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Daydreamer11

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"I think the moon is important because.......it gives us light at night.....well when it isn't cloudy. And it has something to do with the tides. i think it helps control them.....so that's important."

Quote:

Originally Posted by littledhampir

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"We need the moon! It regulates the water, and the currents. If the moon was smacked into like that planet thing was and it was moved closer to earth there would be giant waves and we all might die. Or if it was hit so it moved away, there would be no waves and we would probably still die." So, to recap, without the moon they would die.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Squishy

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Giving the question some thought, Lux raised her hand to answer. "Well, I know the moon controls the tides. Without waves, boats wouldn't really be able to move on water and people couldn't surf. And if there were super giant waves, people would DIE." Yep. Controlling the tides was important!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Meizzner

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"Besides it being weird to look outside at night and not see the Moon. There is the tide stuff and maybe some earthquakes and volcanoes getting more active. You know end of the world type stuff."
...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Harry174

Angel listened to what the Professor said and raised her hand. "Professor, doesn't the moon cause the tides and things like that, so I take it that we need the moon to do a lot of things, so if we didn't have the moon then we will be living in a different world." Angel said truthfully.

Quote:

Originally Posted by griffin

The moon! That was what it represented! Yes, now she remembered reading about how the moon came into existence. Penelope took notes on everything that Professor Flamsteed was saying. "The moon is large compared to the size of Earth." Moons of other planets were much smaller in comparison to the size of the planet they orbited. Just a random fact about the moon. Now, why was the moon important? "The gravity of the moon causes tides." Tides were important, right? There were so many interesting things to learn about the moon!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sararara

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"Well first off it'd be crazy dark at night time if there wasn't a moon 'cause nothing would be reflecting the sun's light or anything. Aaaaand the moon makes there be tides except I don't really know why. But there wouldn't be tides if there was no moon. Probably. How does the moon change our ocean from all the way out there anyways?" The more she thought about it the more it really made no sense. Maybe Sebby had been lying when he'd told her that. Stupid brothers, you never knew when they were telling the truth.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jessiqua

Well, two questions in one? The first one… not a big bang? Hmm… Zhenya remembered reading something about the creation of the universe, so she raised her hand to see if she remembered correctly. "Professor, I read that the universe was in a hot, dense state, then it began to expand, then cool, rather than bang." So was earth just a tiny little planet, which expanded?

Her answer wasn't right, but it was close. Hmm… she waited until the correct answer revealed itself and smiled to herself. She enjoyed looking at the stars, who didn't? But more than that, she enjoyed looking at the beautiful moon, and observing its different stages. But why was the moon so important? She raised her hand, waited, then said "Professor the moon's gravitational pull," was that the word? "causes the ocean tide to rise and fall." She paused to remember the rest, "Uh and that was important for evolution, and still is, because it lets different organisms that are in the ocean time to adapt to living out of the water too." That WAS important. Weren't humans evolved from an organism which had adapted to surviving outside the water? Did she read that somewhere or was her mind just pulling her leg? "So no, I don't think earth would be okay without the moon. Well, perhaps one big method of evolution would be taken away anyway." So… maybe for human evolution it wouldn't matter anymore. But surely it would still matter if the moon was no longer there, the ocean level remained the same, and these organisms didn't have the chance to survive and adapt outside.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Expecto-Penguin

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"Professor I think the moon is very important. I mean not only does it control our tides in the ocean but it also provides us moonlight which we sometimes need in the dark. It also controls the climate and helps stops the earth's rotation."

That is all he knew so far. He remained silent and waited for Professor Airey to move on.

Quote:

Originally Posted by RandomRaven

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Why don't he tried to participate actively, huh? The Korean guy then raised his hand and tried to answer. "Well uh... because there's a force between moon and Earth that control the ocean.." He didn't know the exact word but at least he tried, right?

Quote:

Originally Posted by VRSCIKA

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It seemed that the Professor did not find her question so amusing though, so she decided she would hold off on the 'humor' filled answers and respond a bit more seriously. She raised her and with her turn....... "The moon is important because it helps our gravity stay at a healthy level. The gravity and rotation affects the tides and that affects our climate." Climate affected all of the animals , which is what Ilia was really concerned with. If their climate changed, the animals would change or cease to exist which meant the earth would NOT be too ok in her opinion. "The earth wouldn't be the same without the moon and might not have life like we do, so......it probably wouldn't be very ok." No animals meant not ok for her, nopeity nope.

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Originally Posted by ArianaBlack

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As for his own answer to the question… Zander had to think about it for a bit. Uh, why exactly did they need the moon? ”It influences waves in the ocean…. Right? Or was the moon the one that had to do with the seasons changing? Erm. No, that was the sun… Right? Merlin. You’d think after OWLs he would’ve retained SOME information. But it seemed like he really just memorized what he needed for the exam. Or maybe his brain was still on holiday?

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Originally Posted by starryowlandinkymoon

Stella didn't even register the question until Professor Flamsteed had nearly finished taking answers. When he yelled "duck and cover", she'd dived under her desk filled with the most overwhelming sense of panic she'd ever experienced. It was ten times worse than the one time her moms took her to a crowded cinema to watch a scary movie. Unexpected fear was much stronger than the kind you seek out and she was in a room full of it.

Everyone else finally calmed down enough for Stella to relax and she started paying attention to the lesson. Thank goodness for Ima's constant talking about the moon. Of course, it was generally in astrological and spiritual contexts, but Stella's science class had covered the solar system last year. That and reading the textbook over the summer helped her keep up as Professor Flamsteed waxed lyrical. The man was clearly passionate about his work. She'd remember to sit up front if she was ever experiencing too much apathy.
She raised her hand to answer the second question.

"Well for one thing, the moon controls the tides. Without the moon to pull them, they'd be, I think it was less than half the size, with a much simpler pattern. There'd be a lot less light in the sky at night. The moon also keeps the Earth's axis tilted the same way. If we didn't have a moon, the axial tilt would change the seasonal pattern which would mess up a lot of things. And finally, the length of days would go back to being short, though that would take a while."

THERE WE GO! THERE WAS THE ONE SPECIFIC BIT HE WAS LOOKING FOR.

Of course, everything else was of equal importance. Just not the focus of today's lesson.

"The tide is high but I'm hooooooooooooolding on...I'm gonna be your nuuuuuuuumber one," he hummed while doing a bit of an exaggerated dance. The man was only functioning on a few hours of sleep having spent the entire night in the Gryffindor common room juggling to beat the world record. Give the astronut a little bit of a break today, kiddos. "TIDES! YES!"

CELEBRATORY POSE HAPPENING! HUZZAH!

"Before we get caught up in tides," he manly giggled - HAHA he made a funny! "Let's recap. The Moon controls the tides," he began, lifting the index finger on his right hand to begin counting. "It helps regulate our climate slowing the Earth's rotation and creating our 24 hour days, nights would be MUCH darker, and it helps maintain our axial tilt."

By now he had all four fingers and thumb raised on his hand.

WAS. THAT. NOT. FASCINATING?!

"While all these are important, today we are going to be focusing on tides," he continued, casting curious glances down at everyone's shoes. "I trust you all brought galoshes, yes? You'll be needing those soon so please slip those on." He paused again to clear his throat. "I would like to turn discussion to you all first. What do you know about tides?"

Well, besides the Moon's influence that is. Been there, done that!

OOC: thank you all for your patience and participation <33

Remember to keep your responses IC

Class will continue approximately 24 hours from the time of this post where, in all likeliness, we will move on to an activity

There were many reasons why he loved Astronomy, and frankly, Professor Airey was one of them.

He got TWO POINTS... and weird nose pointing gestures for being kinda right?... and then there was singing and now instead of talking about MOONS and things, they were talking about... the beach? Or well... the MOVEMENT of water.

THIS WAS COOL. HE KNEW THIS STUFFF!!!

"Professor," Zeke started hand raised to get the man's attention..." tides go," and then he conducted his demonstration, his arm waving about on thin air, with a "fwooooossshhhhhccchhhrrrfwooooossshhhhh," because apparently that's what crashing waves sounded like. Yep. This was legit.

Did he want to see it again?

Abby thought and raised her hand and said "Tides could mean many things like the ocean hitting a beach but it is mostly when the sea withdraws further out from the land and then returns the next day at a certain time" Abby had read about this somewhere

This professor was ECCENTRIC.

Natalia giggled, then stopped, then giggled again, then finally calmed herself so she could listen to the actual lecture.

Caught up in tides. HAHA. Natalia actually laughed out loud at that one.

Tides, tides, tides. What was there to know about tides? Natalia had limited knowledge on Earth tides, or just tides in general. She only knew the basics and hoped those would count in her response.

There are spring tides and neap tides, which are the high and low tides, respectively...or is it the other way around?" Natalia wasn't sure and couldn't remember the specifics. "It all has to do with the position of the moon...right?" And waves. Waves were cool.

...
Well YES but that wasn't what she meant. She meant... as a whoooole, the moon's cycle helped with divining and with health and things. Everyone had a cycle, even boys, and even girls who didn't get their periods. And the moon was important in that.

Rusty got the feeling that Professor Crazypants had no idea what he was talking about right there. Mhm. But if he chose to ignore forces he couldn't see that was his choice and she wasn't going to say anything. She just thought it was interesting, since she wasn't ignoring the scientific bit, even if it was a bit boring, and she found it hard to concentrate with all his moving around and switching so quickly between subjects.

....

okay. What? That was a lot of information at once, and Rowan couldn't make her hand write that fast. She wasn't used to learning like this, and it was a bit intense... "Professor, slow down..." She was scribbling furiously, and then he started talking about galoshes. Again, she'd had no idea what they WERE when she'd read it on the announcement, so she'd... not brought any. It was only now that she was realising he meant wellies, and she didn't have any of those anyway. But as long as they weren't going to be going anywhere with sharp rocks and stuff she'd go barefoot, she always preferred that to wearing shoes anyway.

As for tides? She knew pretty much zilch about them. They didn't live near the sea or anything and she'd never been to the seaside so she'd never really had reason to ask about them.

What they were talking about tides now? Weren't that not only a second ago speaking about the moon? Hady shifted in her seat, quill dangling from her fingers in a moments pause. Slowly lifting her free hand into the answer she gave her answer, "A tide is the ride and fall of water..uh the sea level is what I mean." Yeah she just worded it sorta weirdly. Professor Airey got what she meant though right? Hopefully.

Now it was back to note taking.

.

.

There was an abundance of shouting, finger-wagging, and singing....and Gabriel just STARED up at the excitable Astronomy man. Eccentric but brilliant, see? This is where that theory came from...Most accurate in this situation, too. He even found himself smiling...

Impossible not to, really.

Jotting a few things down, Gabe raised his hand, amusement coloring his voice. "They're critical to speciation."...which Gabe had attitude about because he wasn't a fan of.......creatures. Any creatures...unless they served some greater purpose. It was a crude point of view, but his experiences hadn't helped in warming up to the idea of them. Though, this didn't take away from the fact that it was fascinating stuff.

"....which, considering bodies of water, means that new species are given the opportunities to evolve thanks to the tides rising and receding, and currents....with adapting from salt water to fresh water, and visa versa."

...or so he'd read.

The dramatic pointing. Leah liked that. She took notes on Flamsteed's explanation, emphasizing the part about Earth's temperature drop because it was FINAL EXAM quality question. This was almost a clue that it was going to be on her O.W.L.s.

Ah, tides. The Moon controlled so many things. She reviewed the four impacts it had on Earth through while she took off her shoes and slipped her galoshes on, which were already set up under her table. Discussion time! Leah remembered reading something about tides... like a long time ago. She listened to her classmates speak before remembering a fact.

"The highest and lowest tides normally occur during Full and New Moons, riiight?" she said with her hand raised. Again, the association with the Moon.

Morgana, that was a lot of talking and Agatha just sat there with a blank, almost bored expression. Professor Flamsteed's class was always really loud and the Slytherin had learned to block most of it off, which meant she would only hear some words - usually the ones that were repeated the most.

Moon, Earth, KABOOM and whatnot. There seemed to have a lot of explosions when it came to Astronomy. Anyhow, the key word for now was 'tides', apparently. Agatha ran her hand through her beeeautiful hair and lazily looked around. If she knew anything about tides? "Sometimes it's safe to swim, some other times it's not." Agatha offered with a shrug.

DID THE PROFESSOR JUST SING?

... "I'm not the kind of girl who gives up juuuuuust like thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaatt..." Great. Now the song was stuck in his head. Hmpf. He was still annoyed at girlfriend for having made him listen to it in the first place. Er, ex-girlfriend. Yes. Right. Moving on.

What does he know about tides? Hmm. Tides. Bad for swimming. "They make navigation difficult if you don't calculate them exactly, but become really useful if you do..." yup. That was his answer. He really didn't know very much about tides.

HAHAHAHA! Professor Airey. Man, there was no one else like him. Adi couldn't help himself and he started laughing to himself at the singing reaction they got for their tide answers. Not bad, Professor. Nice voice.

Alrightey! Settle down, Adi! Class was moving on. So, what did he know about tides? Adi raised his hand after slipping on his galoshes. "I think surfers depend on tides to help them surf, Professor duuuude, Sir.'' The whole duuuude thing was said in the 'cool surfer voice'. "I mean Professor Airey, Sir.'' Oh, yeah. The Hufflepuff had a proposition for the man. "Pssst. Professor, I can help you improve your vocals if you like.'' Hehe.

“Nuuumbeerrr oooone...♫” Yeah, he knows that Blondie song. SO ANCIENT BY THE WAY, but it did give the right beach vibe of some sort. Ethan gave the Astronaut thumbs up of approval, and resumed his note taking.

So...tides? He knows...a thing or two? Yeah? Hand up! “The tides go up when the body of water faces the moon, and it goes down when that face of the earth is no longer facing the moon.”

And galo—what? Ethan assumed that what the professor meant by galoshes were wellingtons. Welp...he didn’t bring a pair of rubber boots with him because he didn’t own one, but he could transform his school shoes to one.

Merlin, being a senior student is awesome.

The Korean guy just couldn't help but blink. Of course he had seen this Professor being so... enthusiast in Gryffindor party but... He'd never seen him in class. Did all professors in Hogwarts acted sooo enthusiast like this or just him? Well, maybe just him. Nodded. He hummed the tone of the song when the Professor sang, tried not to join him singing.

Moon, Tide, Okay.

"Tide means uh... when the level of sea water changes like uh.. You know, in some time it can reach the highest level and then it can reach the lowest level... Like that?" Did his answer make sense? Well, at least he tried to explain.. despite of his limitation in English and the accent.

Oh, he was never speaking ever again! Why did he have to keep getting it wrong? James put his head down on the desk and didn't move after that. His quill sat on the desk and the ink that he'd put on it just before he'd answered was dripping onto the parchment. He missed being at home and having mum to cuddle if he felt like he was going to cry. His bright yellow wellies sat beside him, untouched. He might just possibly... maybe... be trying not to cry at failing.

Tia might or might not have been focused on the fact that two spheres were rotating at the same rate. Was that magic or was there some sort of gravitational pull on the two spheres? So much for her attention on the lesson .. but really, this was just as fascinating! And besides, why else would Flamsteed have them in the classroom if not to carefully watch? They might do something INTERESTING.

Oh wait, what. Moving on to TIDES? But weren't they just talking about moons? Oh it was all connected. The moon regulated tides and climate. But moving on it was time to put on their galoshes, something which she totally forgot in her haste after lunch. Not to worry though; glancing down at her mary-janes, Tia swiftly cast an impervious charm on them. No galoshes, problem solved.

Now onto the question of interest; what did she know about tides? Well she knew about its connection the famous physicist - noone mentioned him yet. Raising her hand, "well Professor, I know that Sir Isaac Newton was the first to explain tides as the result of gravitational pulls to astronomical masses, with use of his theory of universal gravitation."

There. Something different to contribute but all connected, yes?

Yes! She had been right again! It was nothing short of miraculous, considering Astronomy was usually one subject where Hayden struggled. But she did know about the moon's affect on tides so maybe this lesson wouldn't be such a bad one. In order to answer the next question, she had to climb out from underneath her desk to completely express her answer.

"Well, professor, tidal waves are these huuuuge waves and sometimes they come up on shore and whoosh!" She raised her hands very high above her head and brought them down in time with the sound affect, making a motion to demonstrate the movement of the wave. "Sometimes they can even wash out whole towns and that's sad." You know, because people died.

Magnetic tail? WHAT? It was a wonder Caleb hadn't failed THIS OWL instead of Runes. Was that way the moon had craters in it? No, that was from meteors...gah, this was confusing. Could they just skip to the practical part that didn't require a lot of thinking? Those were his favorite parts of lessons that he didn't understand.

But first...tides. Ok, what DID Caleb know about tides? Not a lot, but...he raised his hand anyways. "Well the tides change depending on the time of day. There's high tide and low tide...high tide is when the waves crash higher up on the beach, and visa versa," he explained. There, that was his extent of knowledge on tides.

Noel sung along, oh yes and then wrote down whatever the professor said next. Well what did he know about tides??? Nothing, except: "you don't really wanna get on the bad side of a tide. you can drown, no matter HOW good of a swimmer you are," Was that morbid? Totally.

Singing and everything? MAN, Professor Flamsteed was the best. It wasn't as if that was news or anything, but singing in class was always something to be appreciated. Always.

Norah picked up her quill again and wrote all the new stuff that had happened, smiling to herself because she'd kind of known stuff again. Granted she hadn't been very helpful but at least it was relevant, right? Maybe she was a mind reader or something and just KNEW what Flammy was going to say. 'Cept wizards didn't call it mind reading and she couldn't remember what they did call it so that probably wasn't right. It felt cool, though, whatever it was. Like she could stuff. Anyways, back to the REAL things that were going on. The fourth year squinted at the excited Professor as she tried to remember what Sebby had told her about tides. Figuring she'd try her luck, she put a hand in the air and closed her eyes hoping that Sebby's brain waves would just APPEAR there. "Sometimes the tide is high and sometimes it'd low, so when the tide is high a bunch of the beach is covered in water and when it's low it...isn't. It's like the moon had these big invisible strings that pull the water over the beach like a blanket sometimes. Maybe it's when the beach is sleeping."

That totally made sense. Right? Right.