[HPforGrownups] Re: The Evil of Voldemort; Lily's choice

[Bart Lidofsky]

No: HPFGUIDX 146783

Ceridwen wrote:
> The fixation on seven seems to be a superstition on LV's/TR's part.

Bart:
I assume that he was well-versed in Arithmancy. I've actually done some 
research into the significance of the number 7; much of it seems to be 
rather arbitrary, and probably influenced by the 7 bodies in the sky 
that appear to move in relation to the relatively fixed background of 
stars (the Sun, the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn). 
However, there are a few other significances. If, there is the principle 
of 1 -> 3 -> 7. You take 1, and use it as a fulcrum between two other 
things, and you end up with 3. You take 2 of those, and put a fulcrum in 
between them, and you have 7 (the progression continues to 15, 31, 63, 
127, etc.). Note that these are all powers of 2 - 1.

Psychological testing shows that the maximum number of items that the 
human mind can conceive at any given time is 7, which is probably why 
the number 7 has taken hold so well with people.

	Bart