CHAPDISC: HBP5, An Excess of Phlegm

[amiabledorsai]

No: HPFGUIDX 144176

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "horridporrid03"
<horridporrid03 at y...> wrote:
>
> > >>Julie:

> > 3) Arthur's greatest ambition is to discover how planes stay on   
> > the air. Don't wizards and witches learn any physics at all? Don't 
> > they –Arthur & Co- know that there are muggle books that can      
> > easily explain the basic concepts of aerodynamics? 
> 
> Betsy Hp:
> I think this does two things: on the surface it's a cute and 
> endearing wrap-up of Arthur's interest in all things Muggle; but it 
> also shows just how ignorant Arthur is of a world he claims to love.
> 
> It hints to that underlying prejudice I've seen both Arthur and 
> Molly show regarding muggles.  After all, one of Arthur's brothers 
> is a squib (an accountant, IIRC).  


Amiable Dorsai:
Other people have pointed out that it's Molly's second cousin who's
the squib.  An accountant is no more likely to know what keeps an
airplane in the air than anyone else.

I suspect it's less a question of prejudice, per se, than a sign of a
very difficult intellectual gap.  Arthur lives in a world where a
one-quart jug can hold as much as you need it to, where the law of
gravity is more like a suggestion, and where a horse-sized critter can
get itself off the ground with a pair of totally inadequate wings. 
The better he is at understanding that world--and he's apparently
quite good--the more difficult it will be for him to understand a
science based on absolutes.  

If he pops over to Blackwell's and picks up a random book on
aeronautics, he's likely to come across a something like this (I cut
out the hard part. :-) ):  

"...The value of circulation applied to the cylinder in flow field z1
should be specified so that a stagnation point is produced at the
point of intersection of the rear of the cylinder and the x-axis..."

Could he find some simpler text?  Sure.  But he probably hasn't a clue
where to start.  He needs someone like Hermione, with a foot in both
worlds, to act as a native guide, or he'll never find his way through
that jungle.

Amiable Dorsai