How many students WAS: Re: Prefects

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 157047

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Cassy Ferris <cassy_ferris at ...>
wrote:
>
> --- Steve <bboyminn at ...> wrote:
> > I think 400 is a more reasonable
> > estimate
> >  of Hogwarts size. (I've done the calculation but
> > won't 
> > bore you with them again.)
> 
> Cassy:
> 
> I think Rowling stated somewhere that there's around a
> 1000 student in Hogwarts, but she herself admits that
> her calculations are not always correct. Then again,...
> we can't estimate number of nameless extras from
> the books only, seeing as they are not mentioned.
> ...
> 


bboyminn:

Cassy, don't disagree with anything you said, but, as long as you
brought it up, I'll inject my theory on '1,000 students in Hogwarts'.

First, this was probably a mistake or miscalculation by JKR. She
freely admits that anything having to do with Math is not likely to
add up. 

But this is how I explain it. When JKR said '1,000 student at
Hogwarts' she wasn't giving the current enrollement, she was giving
the capacity of the school. We see many sections of the castle and
many classrooms that are unused, that strongly implies that Hogwarts
is NOT at maximum capacity. So, both 1,000 and some other number like
400 or 280 can be right without contradiction. The school can have a
capacity of 1,000 and a current enrollment of 400.

For what it's worth.

Steve/bboyminn