[HPforGrownups] Re: Sirius Animagus; Broomstick

[Alexander]

No: HPFGUIDX 40335

  Greetings!

> LD wrote:

L> Bragging rights.

L> You might only need an ancient 486 to type up the
L> occasional letter on, but you still want that 2GHz P4
L> with that gorgeous flat panel monitor. It's a
L> head-turner.

  I type this on 486! ;)

  IMHO you are right about "bragging rights". But that stil
doesn't justify the choice of Firebolt as a primary broom
for *professional* quidditch team. Professional car racers
don't use sport cars - they drive their Formula bolids. ;)

  But brooms are not cars. In the air, the difference
between sporting and racing brooms becomes *enormous*,
starting from charms laid on it and ending with outwards
appearance - sporting broom by definition must be several
times tougher, as it is subject to multiple physical
affections (bludgers, quaffle, other players, whatever).

  But frankly, the reason is much simpler - JKR simply knows
nothing about numbers (yep, we have seen a lot of this
already), and even less about aerial navigation. Of all her
so-called "quidditch maneuvers" only one makes sense -
Wronski Feint. Sad but true.

L> Sure, the ability to stop and start almost
L> instantaneously would be good, but would the rider even
L> be able to stay on the broom? Accelerating to 200mpg in 2
L> seconds might *sound* impressive, but you can bet that
L> the rider would be tumbling towards the ground faster
L> than you can say "excessive power" <grin>

  Actually, Firebolt has a "non-inertial braking charm", or
smth along this lines (not sure about translation back to
English). So accelerating/deccelerating rates can be made as
high as possible - whole thing is accelerated (player+broom)
not only broom itself.

  BTW not sure about "non-inertial" thing. AFAIK it's smth
not in the broom description when it's in the store, but
this is what said by Lee Jordan on the game.

  And last. Firebolt does not have excessive power.
Actually, given the acceleration rate of Firebolt, *even*
without any "non-inertial" thing, acceleration is only about
0.75g. Compare this to accelerations experienced by pilots
of military fighters (several g's) and you have a lot of
space to improve.

  (If you want to see how to prevent the acceleration from
throwing the rider off the broom, look the movie, the moment
when Harry is catching the remembrall, several times, and
then frame-by-frame. Surely the movie has something worth
seeing).

Sincerely yours,
Alexander Lomski,
Gryffindor/Slytherin crossbreed,
always happy to throw weird ideas into community.

Tuesday, June 25, 2002, 22:19 local time (GMT+2:00)