O O O It's Magic (More Wombat Love)

[potioncat]

No: HPFGUIDX 159365

 
> Neri:
> I think there's a simple explanation to the mystery. Since the 
> questions in many cases don't have definite answers in canon, JKR 
> takes it into account. She doesn't necessarily have answers that 
are 
> wrong and answers that are right. Instead she has answers that are 
> more right than others.
> 
> So for example, taking question 3: what's the most dangerous – 
> dementors, inferi, hags, vampires or werewolves. JKR doesn't give 
> (say) "inferi" 10 points and 0 for any other answer. Instead, 
inferi 
> get 10, dementors get 9, werewolves get 6, hags get 3 and vampires 
> get 1.
> 
> If most of the questions are graded this way then it is possible to 
> get "Outstanding" with many different variations, as long as 
they're 
> good enough. In addition we don't know what was JKR's benchmark for 
> getting an O.
> 
> Now, I haven't actually tried to formulate this problem in 
algebraic 
> terms <shudder> but a simple algebraic law says that in order to 
> solve for n unknowns you need at least n equations. This means that 
> if we have something like 18 questions times 5 answers per question 
= 
> 90 unknowns (the grade for each answer) then you'll need *at least* 
> 90 different O-grade sets of answers to discover these unknowns 
> (throw in the benchmark for O as one additional unknown). That's 
> assuming you know how to solve a system of 90 equations with 90 
> unknowns. Don't look at *me*


Potioncat:

My first reaction was "This is a simple explanation?"

and my second reaction was "C'mom---we're talking about Maths!Rowling 
here. <bg> (that does mean big grin, doesn't it?)

I didn't take the Wombats. I would have had to be carried out like 
what's her name in O.W.L.s if I had. My question(s) to the group is, 
why do you think she creates these tests. Did she create these tests? 
Have they generated, whether by intention or not, any new canon or 
clues?

P.S.---everyone, please give the List Elves a round of applause. The 
work load has picked up.

Greetings to all the new members.