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The crisp September evening air may be just the ticket to helping you stay awake this time of evening on your first day of lessons. Or just make you want to bundle up under the covers back in your dormitory. We won’t tell you how to feel.
Stepping into the Astronomy classroom, you may be a little perplexed to find any desks or chairs in the classroom and instead are greeted with what looks like a giant sandbox with glistening white sand. After another moment or two, you are swept off your feet by some unseen force that causing you to float up into the air - although you will need to do a little bit of air swimming to reach your seat. The initial feeling is similar to that of going down the first big dip in a roller coaster, but certainly not enough to make anyone nauseous enough for a little dinner show-and tell. Looking up, you see that the large semicircle of desks and chairs are all suspended in midair some 15 feet or so above the ground, rocking ever so slightly up and down thanks to the enchantments placed upon them. The blackboard, positioned across from the semicircle of desks, has the following instructions written upon it:
Quote:
Take out a quill and write your FULL name and year on the piece of parchment provided.
Once you have done so, give it a tap with your wand.
The parchment, enchanted by the professor himself, will turn into a sturdy wood name plaque when you do so. Don’t worry, it won’t go floating away from you but rather stick firmly to your desk.
Did you remember to use the lint roller on the small table outside of the classroom? It was there next to the sign that reads, "Not to be used as a brush for your hair" and has the signature of a former student in the bottom right corner. Also next to the sign is a small box containing an assortment of pips that you are meant to take and wear proudly on your robes for the duration of the lesson
SPOILER!!: pips
Professor Flamsteed is floating somewhere near the blackboard looking especially pleased with himself this evening. Surely that cannot be a good thing?
⌦Lesson Progression
▸ question 1 :: what significance do rocks have in astronomy?
▸ question 2 :: define asteroid meteoroids, meteors, or meteorites
▸ question 3 :: crater demonstration #1; what can you say about the importance of the mass of a meteorite in making a crater?
▸ question 4 :: crater demonstration #2; what can you say about the importance of the velocity of a meteorite in making a crater?
▸ main activity :: COSMIC HOUSE COLLISION!
▸ main activity update :: Planet #1 goes to GRYFFINDOR
▸ CLASS DISMISSED!
OOC: This is IC your character's FIRST Astronomy lesson of the term.
Class will officially begin in approximately 14 hours from the time of this post.
This lesson has officially started! Please do not announce your character arriving late and just pretend like they have been in class all along. You are free to jump in any time and should use the lesson progression links to keep up.
Hiss!Roar!Growl!Caw! | Hermione's Double | The Little Three | Alecate
Kate jotted down the last of her notes then promptly put her parchment and quill away. Awesome. It was activity time, which meant no more questions and answers and no more lecturing. Also, Professor Flamsteed always had the BEST activities!
She flicked her wand out her holster then pushed herself out of her desk. Oh, cool. She was floating, which already made the activity awesome! She watched it until it anded on the ground, and then she didn't even spare it another second of thought. A little drawstring bag floated her way, and Kate took a hold of it. Listening to the directions, she perked up at the thought of hurling house-colored marbles toward a makeshift planet. This was going to be so cool!
...and suddenly they were OFF!
Kate tossed a marble to the tip of her wand. "Tikalas!" she said, excitement in her voice. She pulled back until she saw a faint, gold band. She released the marble and watched it until it hit the sand below. AWESOME! ...or STELLAR, as the professor would say.
♥s her SS family l Wifey is MINE | Naughty Niffler l Whittysaur l #awkwardturtle<#
Her yellow crater hadn't formed where she had aimed for, but it was kind of hard to hit a target when floating around in zero-gravity. Adi had even collided with someone, which caused her to snort despite herself.
Hoping to avoid causing a collision of her own - which was easier said than done - Paulina tried to maneuver out of the path of anyone she might bump into. In the process, she became quite disoriented and nauseous.
Great, just what she needed...
Once the unpleasant feeling subsided, she slowly floated her way over to one of the planets. At this point she didn't care which one it was because they were all the same in her eyes and this one needed more yellow craters on it. She wasn't competitive, she just wanted to see a pretty colour mosaic.
"Tikalas," Paulina said as she repeated the exact same process she had done for the first marble. Once she saw the faint golden glow she let it go soaring right
Milo sat silently as he listened to the rules of the game and tried hard not to get too distracted by the drama that was happening with Kyroh, the boy from his house, and the Slytherin girl who had gotten in trouble for making all the pips fly around. It hadn't been that big of a deal in his opinion but he wasn't the Admiral.
But yes, game. The spell seemed a bit tricky but he would try his best. He caught his bag of blue marbles and peered inside to check them out before scooting out of his chair. Once he was floating beside the table, he pushed it down to the the ground. Wading in the air, the first year pulled out his wand and one of the tiny, blue marbles.
"Tikalas." The little marble just floated where it had been with no change. Bleh!
He checked out the floating planets and grinned as he saw little patches of blue appearing here and there. He twirled his wand around his fingers and prepared to try again.
No it was not. He wanted to create a crater on one of those planets again. Especially the one he was aiming at before. But he got mad at himself and lost track of which on is was. He should really be more observant of the planets. But he just did not care other than hitting them with his awesome marbles.
Floating aimlessly no waiting till a planet was in the perfect position for a shot. He waited and waited some-more. Until it was basically right i his line of vision and he took the shot.
"Tikalas!"
That sounded like he was in some intense sports movie. But no it was just on of Flamsteed crazy Astronomoy classes.
Oh and it hit.
AWESOME!
__________________
-------------------------------------Be a pineapple: Stand tall,
-----------------------------------------wear a crown, and be sweet on the inside.
Physics talk. Velocity was the variable, more velocity the bigger the crater, velocity is definitely the main point here. EH. So much for assuming things. As Profess....Amirald Flamsteed finished explaining the facts there, about small planets and moons, and gravity, and things she could not repeat in her head that minute, Victoria put her notebook and pen back in her bookbag and took her wand. She was yet not accostumed to use it, it was odd...
Tikalas. Tikalas. Tikalas. Tee-Kah-lahs? She heard that pronounciation, right? Trying to relax, she tried to think of those little marble games she observed among kids during her summer, and how it would really apply here? Aim...marble on the tip of the wand, wand movement(like throwing a marble, when she had never played that), and "TIKALAS!" The marble was released, to the first planet, and that gold mist just appeared out of nowhere. It was working, it was working!!
And, it hit, on the side, and hopefully it made a mark/crater on the planet.
__________________
____________________________staring at the blank page before you... so close you can almost taste it________________________________
He had gotten a perfect hit on his last one and that was just what he wanted. It was perfection. But now he was trying for two in a row. Something he had not yet accomplished so far in this insane activity. You would think being how awesome he is. He would have done it already.
But apparently not....Shocking Right?
"Tikalas!"
And you know what is even more shocking.....
He missed AGAIN.
Sigh. Oh well. He was not not meant to be excellent at making craters on fake planets.
Shrug.
__________________
-------------------------------------Be a pineapple: Stand tall,
-----------------------------------------wear a crown, and be sweet on the inside.
This was the time to prove her eye to aim for pictures, and now planets was good. Victoria took another marble, pondered for a minute to which planet she wanted to hit this, her second time. She proceeded to put the marble on the tip of her wand, aim again, breathe because she was holding her breath for too long.
There, she didn't look purple anymore.
And there it was, the second planet, and..."TIKALAS!" The marble sure took some velocity there, and it was close, so close....then...oops? Did it hit the planet, did it make a pretty crater?
Nope. Sigh.
__________________
____________________________staring at the blank page before you... so close you can almost taste it________________________________
It was going to work just how she wanted it to this time. It WAS. She'd decided. Prefect's order, or something like that. Norah floated in one place and watched the planets moving. Couldn't they just be still for one second so she could aim? That wasn't really too much to ask. How bad would it even be if a planet stopped moving? She couldn't feel Earth moving at all so surely it wasn't that important.
She picked a marble from her little bag and considered giving it a firm talking to, but decided against it because people would think she was far too strange if they saw her talking to a marble, and she'd promised herself not to be a weirdo anymore. It wasn't very easy because normalness was boring, but at least she was thinking about it. Opting to give the small yellow sphere a stern look instead, she floated a few feet to the right and aimed at the second planet again. HER planet. With the marble held over the tip of her wand, she concentrated hard on the movement of the planet and cast "Tikalas!" The marble was released just like the ones before, but this time it hurtled straight into the second planet. AW YEAH.
½ EagleBrain ♥ Creeperdoodle ♥ Raven Dor ♥ Berry ♥ ½ Team House Elf
If at first you don't succeed, try and try again.
Yeah. He'd do that, because he wouldn't miss now that he knew how to aim it and how to shoot it.
Loading up another marble, positioning it above his wand tip, Zeke aimed it again at the closest planet to where he was floating, though he did have to run on the spot a little to adjust his stance in midair... not easy, yo.
"Tikalas," re recited as he pulled back and released his marble slingshot, the metior---ite, hitting the planet and leaving a nice red crater. Awesome.
doesn't proofread tweets | #wrongaboutcereal | #siriusly? | emo to the extremo
Finally regaining his balance... Or lack thereof, Zander reached into his bag to grab another marble. If he hadn't been bumped into, he'd probably would've made LOADS of craters by now. But he was still at zero. What a bummer. Gryffindor NEEDED to win. Especially since they were in Professor Flamsteed's class. The towers were practically Gryffindor territory!!!
.... Also uh, maybe Ravenclaw territory too. But Zander liked to think of their tower as more of a loan. Gryffindor OWNED this place.
Ahem. Drawing back he cast a determined, "Tikalas!" And this time no incoming Astroid Adi's coming to distract his aim so... IT WAS A HIT!!!!
HAHA! Gryffindor takeover. Totally.
__________________
Days of Potter 2023:___________________________ Which Bertie Botts Flavour Are You? You are Lemon!
½ EagleBrain ♥ Creeperdoodle ♥ Raven Dor ♥ Berry ♥ ½ Team House Elf
This would be much easier if they had a firm footing, but he supposed it wouldn't be as much fun if that were the case. At any rate, challenge accepted. Zeke waved his arms a bit, moving to get a better shot at his target, which was hard when there were so many things in the room that were moving. He was surprised he hadn't yet been hit by a marble, but there was still time for that anyway.
Figuring he was in a good enough position, provided things moved in his favour, Zeke took another marble from the pouch in his pocket, and got ready to aim and fire.
...
...
Wait for it...
Wait for it...
...
.... and there was Maggie. He'd somehow been able to ignore the fact that she was here. Until now. But he COULD ignore her further, right?
Shaking his head a little, Zeke turned to focus on one of the planets, aiming, and then..."Tikalas!" he stated firmly as he slung the marble back and released it at the second planet.
Was it going to stop her, that failure of aiming she had? NO. Victoria looked at the paint smudge made by her last marble. It was big. So, maybe this time she had to focus better on a more reachable planet?
But which?
She took another marble, aimed again, maybe the third planet, which seemed closer, and wasn't so hit yet, made the wand movement, spoke a bit louder this time, "TIKALAS!" and there it went, marble, going closer and closer to the third planet, almost hitting the center.
AND YES. There it was, a decent blue crater. Ehem. Brain victory dance. Woo!
__________________
____________________________staring at the blank page before you... so close you can almost taste it________________________________
½ EagleBrain ♥ Creeperdoodle ♥ Raven Dor ♥ Berry ♥ ½ Team House Elf
A marble flew close by the edge of his face, hitting the planet he had just hit. That was close.
Zeke turned to see where it came from, but with all that was going on, it was hard to tell, instead, he took another marble from the pocket and aimed to repeat what he had just achieved. Let's do this, Lions.
Loading up his marble, he had to wiggle on the spot to get a better angle, and when that failed, he dropped his arms to his side and made swimming motions to claim a better spot.
Sooooo....
Ready.
Aim.
"Tikalas!" he enunciated, releasing his marble with the cry of 'las'. The marble soared toward his intended target and hit it JUST , because for a moment it seemed as it if would miss. The crater patch of red was funny shaped and awkward looking, but it was there!!!!
Not bad, not bad. She wasn't going to miss the opportunity to hit the planets now. She wasn't going to miss this time. Folding her shirt and robes sleeves up her arms, Victoria took another marble and looked around just in case was close to her, which would cause a serious black eye.
Aim again to a good positioned planet, marble throw wand move, and stated "TIKALAS!" in an almost war mode voice. It was close, it hit the second planet. And it made a small crater. Hehe.
__________________
____________________________staring at the blank page before you... so close you can almost taste it________________________________
Admiratrice des Maraudeurs | C-Rizzle | THE Best Snuggler
Ellery kinda got sidetracked for a while, as she floated off and couldn't really focus on what the professor was saying, so she propelled towards Olly. Once close enough, she muttered "What's going on with craters?" she asked in a mutter out of the side of her mouth. Probably something good she missed too. Darn.
She listened to the instructions for the activity…and man, that was a LOT. She almost got lost just listening to it, if it weren't for the handy dandy fact that she had SPACED OUT (get it???) for too long this class already. OOPS.
Okay. There was a spell that she heard. "Tikalas?" she tried half-heartedly, flicking her wrist, but the marble just kinda moseyed along. She was testing out to see if she was as astrologically inclined as she was in potions. 'pparently not.
½ EagleBrain ♥ Creeperdoodle ♥ Raven Dor ♥ Berry ♥ ½ Team House Elf
He took a breather for a moment, his gaze scanning over the planets trying to assess how well Gryffindor were doing. If his efforts were needed on a particular planet, he would be there to lend a hand. Strategy, there WAS a strategy to this game, but it was also something of a free-for-all which had strategy flying out the window so to speak.
In the end, it was hard to tell, REALLY how they were doing. There were colours everywhere. Blue was quite bright, so he found that was the colour that next best stood out - red being the first he noticed. But it seemed as though they were all more or less on equal footing.
How much time did they have left?
Zeke floated around a bit more, distancing himself from certain people in the room.
Preparing his next marble, he contemplated waiting for the opportune moment, but he didn't really HAVE to, cause, lots of marbles, lots of time - he hoped... so... he could afford NOT to take his time with this.
In the time it took him to rationalise his thoughts though, he had a good shot lined up. So, ready, set, "Tika," he started, pulling back, "las!" and RELEASE!
Firing marbles into the ground? Now this was something Austin could get behind. Finishing up the rest of his notes, he eagerly pushed his desk and chair to the ground, and grabbed a bag of marbles. Blue, of course, for his awesome house. He pulled one out and rolled it around in his hand. He wished he could just chuck the marble to the ground with full force, but it wasn't going to go anywhere, seeming as they were all floating around.
"Tikalas!" With as much force as he could muster, he shot his marble towards Planet 3.
BOOM!
Although the landing wasn't quite elegant, the color it provided, was.
Yeah I broke that mirror, so what? ll NOT backward ll Official Gryfferin ll Lemon's favourite
You know what was really interesting about being completely captivated with the activities of a lesson? The fact you didn't notice that in this anti-gravity space you were on a completely different side of the class than the one you'd started on on. Blaise was realizing this only now and it was just about as fascinating as all this crater making.
That would have explained why he currently couldn't spot his cousin in all the floating chaos. Bentley must have been floating about crashing marbles for their house because house of champions and all.
EVERY planet should have been red. Sadly that wasn't the case and the little boy had a lot of work to do.
Blaise reached into this little marble bag for another marble and placed it next to him while he contemplated his next target. With marbles zipping all around him and the planets facing collision literally seconds apart, it was difficult for him to choose. Did he take the road less travel? WHICH was the road less travelled?? THEY WERE ALL EXPLODED!!!!
Think Bellaire!
Planet 2? Planet 3?
Could he flip a coin or would that not work with this no gravity thing? Eyes closed maybe? NO. The Professor would call him RECKLESS then his meeting with him would get to a whole new level. He wasn't prepared for that. His heart could barely take the current expectations so eyes fully open, gaze locked on Planet 3.
"Tikalas!" GO GO GO!!! Blaise watched, his gaze set on the now rapidly moving marble. For a moment it looked like it would miss and in that moment he'd sucked in a DEEP breath which he only let out after the BOOM confirming landing. Mission accomplished. Crater made. Camera shyness zero.
__________________
Imma say all the words inside my head____________________________________
______________________________I'm fired up and tired of the way that things are said.
This was her last shot. She had to think of it as her dream photographic shot, one which had to be in movement, her camera being the marble, her hand and wand shooting it. With all hopes put in this last chance, which made her think she could try more, but she wasn't so in the mood of competition, although Ravenclaw could use the points...
Sigh. Stress was coming. Her hands were starting to sweat, her wand wasn't so keen of that, being honest here. She held the marble in her hand, thought of the planet she could hit, maybe one that hadn't been so attacked by these multi-colored meteors!
Slowly, she prepared the marble, pulled back as if shooting the marble, and firmly, and like another war cry, "TIKALAS!" and the marble was released, that magestic golden mist showing, she was sure this one was going to hit, the second planet again, approaching at a high velocity, in her eyes, and BAM.
Second planet, there, not so visible because too many colors were taking over already, was that last shot of hers. With a smile, she took a step back, cleared her throat, unfolded her sleeves and watched her classmates continue with the activity, just in case someone needed help.
__________________
____________________________staring at the blank page before you... so close you can almost taste it________________________________
Last edited by Yaya; 09-13-2015 at 02:44 AM.
Reason: Post Number, Title.
½ EagleBrain ♥ Creeperdoodle ♥ Raven Dor ♥ Berry ♥ ½ Team House Elf
Quote:
Originally Posted by Casey O
Ellery kinda got sidetracked for a while, as she floated off and couldn't really focus on what the professor was saying, so she propelled towards Olly. Once close enough, she muttered "What's going on with craters?" she asked in a mutter out of the side of her mouth. Probably something good she missed too. Darn.
She listened to the instructions for the activity…and man, that was a LOT. She almost got lost just listening to it, if it weren't for the handy dandy fact that she had SPACED OUT (get it???) for too long this class already. OOPS.
Okay. There was a spell that she heard. "Tikalas?" she tried half-heartedly, flicking her wrist, but the marble just kinda moseyed along. She was testing out to see if she was as astrologically inclined as she was in potions. 'pparently not.
Pausing what he was doing, he peered at his fellow Gryffindor. One of the loud ones he didn't really know. Merlin.
"Hey," he called out, drifting over to her. He was willing to help if it meant Gryffindor won, but that was the only reason why... call him selfish, not elfish.
"Pull back on your marble with the 'las' part, it gives it oomph when you release, just be sure that you can see the faint gold band, without it your marble won't go far," he advised. Wondering if that would help her, or if she had other issues with the spell.
With the success of the last throw, Austin was ready for his next. This was actually really fun, and he was starting to get the hang of this floating thing. Before tossing another 'space rock marble', he tried flying around. He awkwardly swam/floated towards a section where there weren't a lot of students, and turned on his back. Why didn't they have this in all of the dorms? This was so relaxing! The fourth year was going to have to learn the spell to this and ask his dad to do this to his room back home. This was incredible.
Turning back over, he pulled out another marble. Who was ready for another attack from the blue ravenclaw marble of death?! This planet number two was!
"Tikalas!" He pulled back the marble with his wand at the 'las' part and it zoomed towards the ground and landed with a successful thud. More blue!!
Alright time for activity time. He heard the Professor babble on with some information that went into the ear and out the other. I don't think the information stuck. He heard the directions and he kind of understood. He was following along with the other students. He looked down and he saw he had his marble bag. It was filled with green marbles that resembled his house colors. He got that bit and now he needed to use the spell Tikalas. He chuckled because that didn't sound like a spell. It sounded like a bird call or something. TIKALAS. TIKALAS. He might make his cousin say it one day. Anywhoo back on topic.
He needed to cast it when he threw the marble to the planet? If he said so. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Kate doing it and he would copy her. He got his marble out and said the spell, "Tikalas!" and then he waited to see what would happen.
not throwing away my shot | Slytherpuff | roll for initiative | woof you ❤
This time Olly was going to get it. He was not going to be mistaken for a planet and hit by some Hufflepuff. Hmph. He flew up, up, up, until he was above most other students. Then he was able to look down at the planets to aim. Good. He set his sights on the first planet again. He would not rest until it was taken for Slytherin. Olly could not win all of them, there was just too much going on, but he would make sure to win planet number one. YEAH.
Marble at the ready. This time it was pointed down and toward the planet. It took him a second to aim at that angle, but after just a few moments he had it lined up and ready. Wand in position. "Tikalas!" Aaaand RELEASE! He watched as his marble flew toward the planet....HIT! Yes! Oh man, he was so going to win this thing.
"COME ON SLYTHERINS! WE GOT THIS!" Just to pump them up and make sure they were all just as ready to win as he was.
Daxton blinked. Was class over already? For a moment he thought it might be, despite the fact that hardly enough time had passed to truly consider it a full lesson, but it soon transpired that, actually, they were moving on to a practical portion. Which required wands.
Right.
Though he was incredibly uncertain about this, Daxton put his many pages of notes back into his bag, slotting them inside of his notebook so they would not get creased and untidy, then pushed it all back down to the ground with his desk and chair.
Floating in midair and trying as hard as he could to stay upright, Daxton grabbed the drawstring bag when it was levitated to him and wasted no time in peering inside. From within, Daxton pulled a blue marble and inspected it closely, glancing up at Airey Flamsteed once or twice as the instructions for the activity were explained.
He was very unsure about this. Not because he was sure he would not be able to cast the spell - though that was true, too - but because with everyone floating around the room... the chances of someone crashing into him were high.
Higher than normal, anyway. People tended to do that anyway in this place, gravity or no gravity.
Daxton had no time to voice his concerns - for lack of a better term - however, because the activity was very quickly underway. Grasping the one marble in his fist and hanging the drawstring bag that held the others off of his arm, Daxton made a quick attempt to scramble through the air and away from the general throng of students and those big planets, way off to the very edge of the room where he could remain out of the way and take his time learning this spell (if he could manage it at all) in relative peace (though that was seeming less and less likely, with all the awful shouting that was going on in here; if Daxton were on solid ground, he would seriously be considering just leaving right now).
It took him well over a minute to get there, but he made it. Daxton tried for a few moments to right himself and face the class again, then inspected the marble once more.
So, he just had to... hold the marble over the tip of his wand - easy enough, like he was about to try and do some sort of balancing act with the two, which actually would likely work in this floating situation - and...
'Tikalas.'
Daxton did not say the spell, but he thought it, concentrating hard on trying to get it to work. He pulled it back in time with the last syllable, but when he released the marble, it remained floating exactly where it was. No gold band or anything of the sort.
Which was, in fact, entirely what Daxton had been expecting. He plucked it from the air again, and glanced around at the others in the class, hoping nobody was about to take it upon themselves and try to help him or something. Because it was fine. He had this.
And if he did not, then he would simply resort to manually flicking or throwing the marbles at loud people.
...
At... the planets. Yes. That.
__________________
Days of Potter 2023:___________________________ Which Bertie Botts Flavour Are You? You are Chocolate!
Professor Pink | Mrs. Bruce Wayne | I'm on a Goat | Glitterpuff | Dumbledore's Defense Squad | BHB
Text Cut: AIREY! And catching up.
Quote:
Originally Posted by sweetpinkpixie
FINALLY! 500 POINTS TO RAVENCLAW!
Did you hear that, Mr. Toby? Did yo----
Oh.
Wait.
No he did not. Because he was not here. And now the Admiral was actually wishing for the Hufflepuff’s outburst of VIVA LA PLUTO!
Minus 500 points to Ravenclaw.
Leave it to a Hufflepuff to make the man illogically sensitive to Pluto being referred to as an asteroid. Sweet solstice.
“Stellar,” he nodded gloomily although his tone was chipper. “Somethig we will not be getting into the nitty gritty of today. Pluto and its status that is. Some even would argue that it is a large comet.”
Just some food for thought.
But it certainly was NOT a planet.
Yeaaaaaaaaah! Davie had gotten another one right! He was still beaming, even though the professor hadn't sounded very enthusiastic about Pluto's status as a planet. Maybe they'd talk about it some other time?
Quote:
Originally Posted by sweetpinkpixie
“Stellar! Now that we have all that out of the way... allow me to introduce you all to three new friends - all three are looking for their forever homes, for the record,” the astronut beamed as he waved his wand to summon three rocks of varying sizes from his desk, complete with googly eyes. “The smallest rock here is Rockanne, this one Flint, and this big fellow is Dwayne Johnson,” he said as he levitated each of the rocks forward for their introductions. The first of their willing volunteers for the lesson. Making sure to line them up with equal distance between the three while also maintaining the same height, he looked up to the class with the face of a proud father teaching their son how to ride a broom for the first time. “These three will be acting as our meteorites today. So imagine that where we are all floating presently is outer space, the invisible line that bottoms of your chairs represents the outermost layer of the Earth’s atmosphere, and the soft white sand below the Earth’s crust. When I next wave my wand, the anti-gravity spell will be removed from these three and they will fall to the ground and crash into the sand and create a crater on impact.. Fear not, no harm will come to them. We have had several dress rehearsals.”
Pausing a bit more to allow for their quills to fly over their parchment, Airey cleared his throat before initiating the countdown.
“5...4...3..2..1..” And then with a flick of his wand, the spell was removed from all three and SWOOOOSH! down they went.
SPLUSH! LITTLE TO MODERATE SAND EXPLOSIONS EVERYWHERE!
ooc: the circles represent the approximate circumference
of the crater created by our falling rock friends
Peering over himself to look down, although he was rather tempted to just twirl himself horizontal where he floated, he gave an approving nod to the three and then looked back to the class.
“Now, I want you all to look down and answer either out loud or silently to yourself on parchment the following questions. One, which rock created the largest crater? Two, what is the only difference in the way each crater was made? And three, what can you say about the importance of the mass of a meteorite in making a crater?”
So, silently, Davie answered the three questions.
1. Dwayne Johnson made the largest crater.
2. The mass/size of the three rocks was the only difference.
3. Mass matters in the resulting crater size!
Quote:
Originally Posted by sweetpinkpixie
“Go Dwayne indeed,” he he chortled, giving Ensign Vogel an amused grin. “As those of you who opted to share your responses out loud pointed out, the more mass a meteorite has the greater the diameter of the crater. However, as some of you also pointed out, there is more to this equation than size.”
Summoning more rocks from his desk, the astronomer introduced each of them in the same manner he had the previous three who were now resting on the ground below them in their crater beds - all of which were simple craters, for the record.
“These three rock friends are the brothers and sisters of Roxanne, quadruplets if you will. All of them have the share the same mass,” he explained as he got the three into their ready positions, this time purposefully not keeping them at the exact same level but staggering them. “This is one here is Nephrite,” he said, leaving him the closest to the ground at about eye level. “This one Zoisite,” he continued, leaving the second to hover a few feet above Nephrite. “And this one Kunzite,” he concluded, leaving this one a few feet above Nephrite. “As mentioned by Captain Rehman and Ensign Montezor, velocity, distance over time, plays a role in crater formation as well. I will repeat the same process as I did with the first demonstration, remove the spell from these rocks and permit them to fall to the sand below.”
Were they all ready, because heeeeeeere we go!
“5...4...3..2...1…”
Spell released, the three stones hurtled themselves towards the ground and made for slightly more dramatic impacts.
ooc: the circles represent the approximate circumference
of the crater created by our falling rock friends
“Now, in honor of true scientific inquiry, please consider the following three questions. One, what did dropping our three rocky friends from different heights accomplish? Two, do you see any difference in the diameters of the three craters? And three, which do you think is more important in creating larger craters, more mass or more velocity?”
1. Varying the heights from which they were dropped varied the size of the resulting craters. This has to do with velocity?
2. Yes. The higher from which it was dropped/the greater the velocity and crater size.
3. Velocity!
Quote:
Originally Posted by sweetpinkpixie
Giving the class an approving nod, he wiggled himself off to the side a little bit and waved his wand to summon the rocky volunteers back up to his desk; taking great care, for the record, that there were no collisions between them and students and their desks.
“Excellent work,” he applauded, diving right into the remaining bit of lecture. “So we have reiterated that mass and velocity play roles in the size of a crater - velocity playing a more influential role than mass but both still important. In speaking about our own planet, objects tend to hit at approximately 12 miles per second, or 20 kilometers per second, to create a crater approximately 20 times larger in diameter than the impacting object. Smaller planets and moons have less gravitational pull than large planets and therefore meteorites will strike at lower speeds, so this is where mass will sometimes play a larger role. So, size does matter...but just not as much as velocity.” Following so far? Stellar. “Now, some of you may look up at the Moon and think ‘SWEET SOLSTICE IT IS TAKING A BEATING!’, but that too is a bit relative. Impact craters are not a rare occurrence and happen everywhere in our solar system. The Moon appears to have so many more due to its surface essentially remaining unmodified for its entire 3 billion years of existence. Venus, lava flows that have obscured previous impact craters. BUT, as a general rule of thumb, one can say that older surfaces have more impact craters.”
He looked around the semi circle of desks, wondering just how many glazed over expressions he had earned himself in the past few minutes as he checked his sundial watch. Yes. That was enough lecture for the day. Time for something a little active and get the blood flowing. Floating in sitting position for too long could cause cramping and discomfort, so before all that set in…
“ALRIGHT! Parchment and books away. You’ll just need your wands now so go ahead and wiggle yourselves free of your desks and push them down towards the ground, please. They’ll stop once they hit. No need to worry about equal and opposite reactions in that regard.” Which was a little unnerving to the man how physical laws could so easily be discarded with magic. Unnerving and exhilarating...but now was not the time to dwell on this.
Banishing his desk and blackboard to the ground (and all rocky companions except Pebbles) as students took care of their desks and chairs, the astronomer summoned small drawstring brown bags for each student and levitated them to each individual. “In these bags you will find magically enhanced marbles in your house color. These marbles, while they will feel hard to the touch, will NOT cause any physical harm to yourself or your classmates. No need to worry about concussions in this classroom. At least not today. Ha. Hahaha. Anywhoooo…. “These marbles will act as your meteoroids, meteors, or meteorites while the sand…” He paused again to wave his wand towards the glistening white sand below, transforming it into three large spheres of equal size that began to rotate around the room in seemingly random orbits, changing things up every few minutes or so so none stayed on the same course for too long but showed no risk of colliding with one another. “...will serve as a planet just waiting to have its own impact craters. When I give the word, you will float about firing your marbles off towards these planets to try and ‘claim’ it for your house. When your marbles strike, they will shattered and create a crater in your house color. The more surface area covered by craters in your house color, the larger the ‘claim’ your house has on that planet.”
Get it? Got it? Good.
“When a planet’s surface area has been entirely covered in craters...well...you’ll just have to see what happens,” he grinned.
“Now, to launch your marbles you will be using a simple spell to make your wand mimic a muggle marble shooter of sorts. Simply hold the marble over the tip of your wand and say ‘Tikalas,’ pulling the marble back on the ‘las’ bit. You wand will produce a sort of faint gold band around the marble that, when you release it, will launch it in the direction you are aiming.” First years may find it a bit difficult at first, seeing as they were just starting out with spellwork, but even those truly struggling with magic should be able to get it after a few tries.
“I will be available right over here if there are any questions,” he said, indicating a place over by the winder with his index finger. “Ready? Set. ENGAGE!”
OOC: Here are some rules and more detailed instructions so there is hopefully there is no confusion. You can, of course, as questions OOC to me or IC to Professor Flamsteed
▸ Your character has a bag of marbles in their house’s color (red for Gryffindor, yellow for Hufflepuff, blue for Ravenclaw, and green for Slytherin). The number of marbles in the bag is seemingly endless, so don’t worry about running out.
▸ Marbles will shatter on impact and create a crater in the house color as well.
▸ Your character can only shoot ONE marble per post.
▸ Please TITLE your post with the number of the “planet” you are aiming for #1, #2, or #3. For example: post 1; planet #2
▸ Please do not forget to cast the spell, Tikalas, in each post. If you do not RP this then the impact crater will NOT count.
▸ Each marble (meteorite) that makes a crater on one of the three planets creates points towards that house “owning” that planet.
▸ post numbers that are multiples of 9 mean that the marble’s velocity has greatly increased and will count as 5 points towards that house’s “ownership”
▸ post numbers that are multiples of 11 mean that the marble’s mass has increased and will count as 3 points towards that house’s “ownership”
▸ All other post numbers will count as 1 point towards that house’s “ownership”
▸ Post number means the number your post is in the thread ▸
▸ I will be keeping track of how many points each of the 3 planets has accumulated and you will know when a planet has reached its quota
▸ Talk & interaction between students is fine and encouraged
▸ Your character missing a planet entirely, performing the spell incorrectly, or simply taking a moment just to practice the spell will still count towards participation Just let your character be themselves!
▸ This activity will be open for a few days (at least 48 hours from the time of this post) to give everyone plenty of time to participate
▸ Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaave fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuun!
Minimum of five posts to get full credit (ten individual house points). Extra credit possible for outstanding RPing.
Okay, so nowwwwwww they had an activity to do. Whoohoo! Davie first pushed his desk away so it floated down to the bottom of the classroom. Awesome. Next, he pulled a blue marble out of his bag, put it right at the end of his wand, and murmured, "Tikalas!" gently pulling the marble baaaaaack with the last syllable. He saw the gold rubber band appear and was pretty psyched about it.
Hehe. This was going to be fun. It was just like using a slingshot. SWEET. He aimed his wand and the marble for... planet #2, and then LET IT FLYYYY!!!!!!!
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yeah, there's one thing about me that you should know________________________________ __________________________________________that I can't help from speaking my mind
Last edited by BanaBatGirl; 09-13-2015 at 04:03 AM.
Reason: spelling/formatting ARUGHSGLGGGG
Astronomy Lesson 1 :: Cosmic Collisions - Craters 
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x9
Post One-Planet 1 
Just let your character be themselves!
