A Hogwarts's Math Lesson

[xxreed.livejournal.com]

Chatting on MSN with the amazingly talented beanpop I brought something up that I had read in an interview from J.K.Rowling.

"J.K.Rowling said there are fourty children in Harry's year, so. There are four Houses, and two dormitories in each house. So, that would mean how many boys and girls in each room?" (Me)

Of course, we were completely clueless. And in another conversation my friend Mary said "5," which I found was a sutiable answer if it was just Harry's year. And of course, if where I read this was correct there are 600 students at Hogwarts. And then we have four houses, with two dormitories. And you have your first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seven years. Now there would be a group of boys and girls, and since with Harry's class only it'd be five boys and five girls to each room, and then you add on the other years. But, seven would stand out with Harry's upcoming year so five times seven if thirty-five, so thirty-five.

Thirty-five boys, and thirty five girls. Per house, so 70. And 70 times 4 would be 280. So-- I guess 280 per dorm. Which I guess that'd be 560.

Argh, Karen (beanpop) and I have gotten confused somewhere, so err. Check this for edits! XD Really, forgive us if it's totally wrong. But you can't say we tried? Just people:: Never do math at 4:50 AM.

Comments

[soleil-luna.livejournal.com]

JKR said she was bad at math. :)

But good work. It makes sense.

[aoyana.livejournal.com]

where'd the 2 dormitories thing come from? *is confused*

[bartendersgirl.livejournal.com]

A girls dorm, and a boy's dorm.

[aoyana.livejournal.com]

Both the boys and girls were already included in the number 10, though :/

*confused*

[moonysgirl.livejournal.com]

Why not just simplify?

40 kids per year. 40 * 7 = 280.

Where did you get 560? I think there are probably a different number of students per year. Or J.K.R. really is bad at math. Really.

Or she also did the math for this at 4:50 AM.

[xxreed.livejournal.com]

[maegwin-of-hern.livejournal.com]

Okay, we know the five boys in Harry's dorm, but who else is in the Gryff's dorm room besides Lavender, Parvati and Hermione? I mean in their year, of course.
I don't think you can divide so equally. Okay, so Gryffindor has five boys that one year, but maybe the year before had only four, or maybe there had been six. It's not as if it's always 40 kids who enter Hogwarts at the same time, because that would mean that in a one-year period there are always 40 births to be expected in the wizarding world. I don't think we know of any such regulations as birth control there, do we? At least not governmentalized, so that each year it will be 40 kids born, no matter what.
Also, the Sorting Hat. I don't think - and you must agree there, just look how we do the sorting at platform_934 - that it sorts the boys and girls after numbers in their houses. Like, "Ravenclaw is still one girl short, so the next girl will have to be one".
Sorry, but as much fun as calculating this all out must be, it's pointless. Because just like in the muggle world, I guess that the wizarding world has periods with lots of child births and periods with less (as, for example, a certain war situation).

Nicola
Hufflepuff

[xxreed.livejournal.com]

[maegwin-of-hern.livejournal.com]

You know, my friend and I also tried to do this math a while ago, and I think we ended up with 1,000 students, but don't ask me how. We wanted to see how much work the teachers at Hogwarts have to do, because the teacher-student ratio seemes somewhat unfavorable for the first group.

Nicola
Hufflepuff

[aquidis.livejournal.com]

but who else is in the Gryff's dorm room besides Lavender, Parvati and Hermione? I mean in their year, of course.

I believe she said in the same interview that she was going to bring her notes on the two girls, but forgot. So she's going to post them on her site soon.

enna : ravenclaw

[maegwin-of-hern.livejournal.com]

Ah, thank you :)

Nicola
Hufflepuff