Number of Students

[acciohp5 at yahoo.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 29424

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., caliburncy at y... wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at y..., raolin1 at h... wrote:
> > So, is Harry's year just slim, or are there less students that 
get 
> > sorted into Gryffindor (maybe less fill the personality 
> > requirement??) or are there really only about 280 students at a
> > given time?
> 
> The HP4GU essay on Hogwarts (link below) has a very large section 
> devoted to the Great Debate on Number of Students at Hogwarts.  It 
> won't really give you any concrete answers, but it will map out all 
> the arguments and evidence for various estimates.  The only 
concrete 
> answer we have, which many feel defies canon evidence and logic, is 
> that JKR confirmed in a chat that there were about 1000 students at 
> Hogwarts total.
> 
> http://www.i2k.com/~svderark/lexicon/faq/hogwarts.html
> 
from the lexicon..
Length of Tables 

"The four House tables in the Great Hall would need to be slightly 
longer than the size of an American football field to accommodate 250 
students each. There has been no mention of sound amplification in 
the Great Hall, and this would also be necessary if it were that 
large. Harry can also always see the Staff Table quite clearly, and 
this might not be as likely if there were 1,000 students in the Great 
Hall.[19] Some have countered that there was seating for about 1200 
people at the Yule Ball (see below); therefore, the space is there 
for large tables capable of seating 250 people in each House.[20]" 

An american football field is 300 feet long. If the tables were 
longer than a football field, you could sit 250 people along one side 
of it. If you have 125 people on each side of the table, i dont see 
why it couldnt be much less...maybe 150 feet long. Still large but 
they would certainly fit in a high school gym or cafeteria which 
would still go with harrys statement about the great hall being 
bigger than the dursleys house.
   Ive always suspected that there are less Gryffindors and 
Slytherins than either of the other two houses. And also, it could be 
possible that the *other* real prediction of Trelawney's led 
voldemort to murder a lot of kids of harrys year. 
  Just some random thoughts