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Post by william on Jul 16, 2006 10:53:18 GMT -5
He did look at the Hufflepuff girl with slightly narrowed eyes for a bit. His first impression was not that this girl was empty-headed, but rather cheeky. But she did seem embarrassed by her own answers and apologized. He was confused.
"Miss Morris, if you prefer, you can come back to class when your mind rejoins your body," he stated in a more serious tone. He knew he's new to the school, but he's still a teacher.
"And for the rest of the class, has anyone heard of Linear B?" he asked.
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Drew Thornton
Ministry of Magic
Auror-in-Training
I didn't do it and you can't prove otherwise...
Posts: 14,114
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Post by Drew Thornton on Jul 16, 2006 11:30:26 GMT -5
"It came after Linear A?" Drew offered only half joking. He had actually heard of both written languages but didn't know much about them. "It was an early form of Greek, right?" he asked.
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Post by griffin on Jul 17, 2006 13:36:26 GMT -5
Dorf frowned an ashamed smile and pulled out her note pad and favourite quill. "It's back, sir!" she mumbled, thinking about his question. She was about to speak when Drew piped up and answered instead. She looked at him, surprised by his comment, but then again, it was Drew. She looked back to the professor and waited for his response.
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Post by william on Jul 17, 2006 20:50:18 GMT -5
"Excellent," he said excitedly. How wonderful was it to have someone to know that. That alone made the professor forgot about the slight confusion and frustration. He quickly went around his desk and started writing on the board.
"Linear B does in fact come from Linear A, although the relationship between the two is unknown," he said, drawing an arrow pointing from one to another, with a question mark above.
"Archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans first discovered this language in 1900 at Knossos on Crete. The inscriptions were first called 'Minoan' since he initially believed he had found the palace of King Minos," he continued writing bits of pieces of words on the board.
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Post by griffin on Jul 19, 2006 15:56:17 GMT -5
Dorf looked at Alexis, glad he had not heard her comment. She looked to the board and saw how the professor was furiously scribbling on it. She read the words, listened to the words, and, making sense of the teachers words, began to make notes in her book. It was filled with pictures of dragons and far off places, she was good at drawing, but decided it would be better to keep her head from the clouds and concentrate on the work.
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Tristan Howard
Ministry of Magic
Auror-in-Training Wizard
Why So Serious??
Posts: 1,520
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Post by Tristan Howard on Jul 21, 2006 14:09:51 GMT -5
He raised his hand, "Wasn't this King Minos dude a legendary king of Crete, son of Zeus and the Phoenician princess Europa?" he asked him. He remembered of this Minos from somewhere, and he thought he liked to know if that was him. If not, why did he even bother to ask?
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Post by william on Jul 24, 2006 7:27:50 GMT -5
Names continued to be written on the board; The excited professor obviously did not see the funny looks of the students. "In 1939, a large number of clay tablets inscribed with Linear B writing were found at Pylos in Greek, much to the surprise of Evans, who thought Linear B was used only on Crete. Micheal Ventris was the person who eventually deciphered Linear B in 1953. Later, with the help of John Chadwick, an expert on early Greek, he showed beyond reasonable doubt the Linear B did Greek."
"So," the man rubbed his hands together in anticipation. "The script is classified into logograms and syllabograms. Any guess as to what they mean?"
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Drew Thornton
Ministry of Magic
Auror-in-Training
I didn't do it and you can't prove otherwise...
Posts: 14,114
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Post by Drew Thornton on Jul 24, 2006 13:04:39 GMT -5
"Absolutely no clue," Drew answered with a wide grin. "It's all Greek to me..."
He had been dying to say that ever since he found out what the day's topic was going to be.
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Tristan Howard
Ministry of Magic
Auror-in-Training Wizard
Why So Serious??
Posts: 1,520
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Post by Tristan Howard on Jul 24, 2006 14:03:39 GMT -5
"Uh, what was that 'L' word again?" Tristan asked with a confused look on his face. He didn't pay attention very well on that bit. And really he couldn't understand exactly who the guy they we're talking about. He understood the Professor's words but just not the whoever. And he forgot what a Linear B was. Boy, was he going to fail this class badly.
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Drew Thornton
Ministry of Magic
Auror-in-Training
I didn't do it and you can't prove otherwise...
Posts: 14,114
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Post by Drew Thornton on Jul 24, 2006 14:35:40 GMT -5
"Logogram," Drew answered, finishing off his notes so that he could continue when the professor did. "A symbol that stands for a whole word like the number sign or an amperstand. From Greek logo- meaning word and gram- meaning drawing. More Greek."
Maybe after he left Hogwarts, he'd check into taking a Greek and Latin course at a Muggle university. It might be useful.
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Post by william on Jul 26, 2006 9:20:39 GMT -5
"Excellent, 5 points to Ravenclaw," he turned around and smiled at the boy. "Before we move onto the actual symbols, we will talk about their numbers and calculations today." At that, he resumed writing on the board. 5 x 10^3 = 5000 8 x 10^2 = 800 1 x 10^1 = 10 0 x 10^0 = 0 => 5810 He turned around to look at the students again. "Like the system we are familiar with, the position of a digit determines the actual value of the digit, with a base power of 10. So with that in mind, and with just those symbols, anyone want to guess what the number should look like in Linear B?"
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Drew Thornton
Ministry of Magic
Auror-in-Training
I didn't do it and you can't prove otherwise...
Posts: 14,114
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Post by Drew Thornton on Jul 26, 2006 23:47:43 GMT -5
{I have an idea, but can't draw it out } Drew was pretty familiar with how numbers worked and had a pretty decent idea, so he raised his hand, but didnt' speak out as he usually would. He just wasn't sure it would really be as long as he was thinking. Maybe that was the whole point of NOT using Linear B to write numbers...
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Post by william on Jul 27, 2006 9:39:58 GMT -5
"Yes Mr Thornton?" He nodded at the boy, and held out a piece of chalk. "Would you like to draw it for us?"
(See if you can use these? 1: [ IMG ]http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g17/gulli11/LinearBNumber-1.jpg[ /IMG ] 10: [ IMG ]http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g17/gulli11/LinearBNumber-10.jpg[ /IMG ] 100: [ IMG ]http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g17/gulli11/LinearBNumber-100.jpg[ /IMG ] 1000: [ IMG ]http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g17/gulli11/LinearBNumber-1000.jpg[ /IMG ] 10000: [ IMG ]http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g17/gulli11/LinearBNumber-10000.jpg[ /IMG ])
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Drew Thornton
Ministry of Magic
Auror-in-Training
I didn't do it and you can't prove otherwise...
Posts: 14,114
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Post by Drew Thornton on Jul 27, 2006 13:24:46 GMT -5
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Post by william on Jul 30, 2006 15:09:12 GMT -5
"A correct assumption indeed, 5 points to Ravenclaw," he nodded with a big smile, and picked up another piece of chalk. "Although, to save a little bit of space, usually the symbols are stacked a little bit like this." "So 5th year, as homework, please review this class' materials," he said. "We will continue from here next time."
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