(algorithmic) Sorting Hat

[mike_wiltse]

No: HPFGUIDX 38366

Regant4 said:
> Would this work in a single pass (as the Sorting Hat makes)? 
Suppose 
> of the 28 new students, all of whom would perfectly fit into 
> Gryfindor, the last 10 are heirs of Gryfindor himself (Ron's future 
> younger brothers – dectets ;-). By the time the hat gets to them 
> Gryfindor is already full, or nearly so, and they have to be put in 
> other houses! Surely some mistake.
> 
> So either 
> 1) The intake is so large that such anomalies are very unlikely (I 
> think JKR says that Hogwarts has over a thousand students)
> 2) The sorting hat is magic
> 3) The sorting hat gets a sneak look at the students as they arrive 
> and so can guess the numbers falling into each house, and set its 
> house boundaries accordingly to balance numbers.
> 
> I believe it is magic, and that it assigns students to the houses 
> they will flourish in. If in an odd year everyone ends up in 
> Hufflepuff, then the school has to live with that.

There is supposedly a book somewhere that records all the births of 
all the wizards/witches as they are born.  It is possible that the 
hat already knows and has presorted them into a class.  
Family, actions, behavior, are all looked at then presorted.
The sorting cerimony as the final look into the person, to make sure 
it has made the right choice.  

With over a thousand students I doubt it would be nessecary, your 
right that odds would even out with 150 new students every year.  It 
didnt seem that large to me for some reason.  Since she only mentions 
about 8 students in Harry's year in his house, I was thinking there 
were only roughly 250 students in the school.  

Either way I doubt that the hat is just a magic hat that in essence 
determines which of the main house qualities a student has in the 
greatest quantity.  She wrote to much character into the sorting hat 
to allow me to believe that.  She in fact wrote more charcter into 
the hat than she did for most of the people we meet during the books.

"Hmm," said a small voice in his ear. "Difficult. Very difficult. 
Plenty
of courage, I see. Not a bad mind either. There's talent, A my 
goodness,
yes -- and a nice thirst to prove yourself, now that's interesting....
So where shall I put you?"

Just look at what the hat is doing here.  Its judging him but 
specifically asks him where he wants to go.

"Not Slytherin, eh?" said the small voice. "Are you sure? You could be
great, you know, it's all here in your head, and Slytherin will help 
you
on the way to greatness, no doubt about that -- no? Well, if you're 
sure
-- better be GRYFFINDOR!"

Here she is either having the hat make fun of Harry, or judging on 
some kind of scale which Harry has more of, but the hat doesnt try 
very hard to convince him.

And we all have to face it that either

A) The Sorting Hat is a complete failure and can't really judge people.
B) The Sorting Hat does not sort students only by the houses 
qualities.
C) The Sorting Hat adds people into a house so they can help shape 
the people who most deserve to be in that house.

Hermonie
Ron
Cedric
Neville
Wormtail
Percy

All of these people show signs of the other houses in greater 
quantities than in the house they ended up in.

Try looking at the actions of these people and think about where you 
would put them.  There has to be something more to what the hat does, 
unless of course I am wrong and it is just a prop.  

"Mike"