Harry Potter and the Prekalkulos Curse

((I wrote this last year for a Pre calculus project me and some of my friends had to do, which we got like a 106 or something on. We made a huge poster with a castle, and each numbered section was its own room. Inside the rooms the equations and worked-out problems were shown, so that's why they won't be shown here. And if you haven't taken PreCal, then you probably won't understand this at all. I did take it and I don't even understand half of it now that I look at it again. ^_^;; But to help you visualize, I've added a short description of each room next to the story.))

#1
Divination

The day began like any other day in Divination. Professor Trelawny had predicted Harry's death about three times in the first thirty minutes (she must not have felt generous) and had made a few other obscure comments pertaining to everything from broken nails to the end of the world. The usual. So no one was terribly surprised at first when, while the students were busily trying to figure out the position of Mercury in relation to the 23rd star north of Jupiter's smallest moon, Trelawny suddenly gasped and fell against the windowsill as she gazed up into the sun. I can't believe that I forgot that today was the day that... that... oh, we're doomed!

Harry, only slightly curious, walked over to her and asked, Exactly why are we doomed this time, Professor?

Because, 1,000 years ago, on this very day, a horrible curse was placed upon this castle by the evil Arcsisters, the Prekalkulos Curse. Until the curse is broken, everything in this school will be completely mathematically related. But there is a way to stop it, and, according to the position of the 453rd to largest rock in Saturn's ring in relation to Earth's sun's brightest ray, you, Harry Potter, are the only one who can break the curse! Oh dear! she cried suddenly, it is already begun! You must hurry, Harry, for the very sun is now at stake!

((Picture: Trelawny and Harry looking at the sun which now has a Unit Circle inside of it.))

#2
History

The Unit Circle in the sun certainly proved that Trelawny's prediction was actually true, but as Harry trudged on to Professor Binns' class, he had no clue how he would solve this problem. He decided to see if Binns had any suggestions. Binns was now a ghost, because he got up one morning to go teach and accidentally left his body behind.

Binns listened carefully to the dilemma, then said, The best way to solve this problem is with history! We will begin with the Greeks, for Greeks are usually the first with everything. The key people were Archimedes, Ptolemy, and especially Pythagoras. Pythagoras created the Pythagorean Theorem for right triangles, which states that the square of side A plus the square of side B is equal to the square of the hypotenuse. Later came other important figures, like Newton and Kepler, who contributed immensely to the formulas and laws of physics...

Binns continued on and on and on as he always did, so Harry was very grateful when class was released, especially since he had a Quidditch game to go to. Not just any game either, but Gryffindor against Slytherin.

((Picture: Binns drawn on a transparency (isn't that cute?) pointing to a chalkboard.))

#3
Quidditch

The game started out normally enough, until George Weasley flew by on his broomstick and shouted, You're never going to catch the Snitch that way! It's flying a tangent graph and you're sitting on your asymptote!


An asymptote??

Fred Weasley flew by and said, It means that there's a sort of barrier there which the Snitch will never cross!

As the game continued, Harry learned more about trigonometric graphs. This came in very useful when Harry noticed the Snitch flying a sine graph. As it flew down from the top of its curve at one, Harry raced to where he knew it would eventually meet the bottom of its curve at negative one. He easily took the Snitch and won the game for Gryffindor.

((Picture:
Draco: (crashed into a dotted line)
Harry: Um... Draco... that would be an asymptote....))

#4
Charms

Okay, so maybe trigonometry was helping Harry, but Quidditch just wasn't the same. He had to break this curse, and decided to ask Professor Flitwick about it as he entered Charms.

How much do you know about trigonometry? Flitwick asked. Harry told him about the graphs in the game. Ah ha! Then the next step would be to learn how to manipulate those graphs using four important charms: Amplitudos, Periodos, Phasus Shiftus, and Verticalis Displacementidis (known to Muggles as Amplitude, Period, Phase Shift, and Vertical Displacement). Amplitudos changes a graph's highest to lowest point, Periodos changes the horizontal distance, Phasus Shiftus moves it left or right, and Verticalis Displacementidis moves it up or down.

((Picture: A bunch of boring graphs.))

#5
Potions

Potions. A wonderful class. Harry's favorite. Right.

Harry trudged reluctantly in to the dungeon, where Professor Snape waited impatiently to get started.

Snape began, you will learn about various trigonometric identities, which show what the trigonometric functions are equal to. We will start with the Quotient Identities, he said as he began toying with bottles filled with potions. If you pour one unit of cosx in first, then pour sinx over cosx, you end up with tanx.

By the end of class, Harry had taken a lot of notes.

((Picture: We had potion bottles made of cellophane so they looked all potiony! And Snape and Harry were glaring at eachother... and all of his notes are supposed to be included, but they're not. ^_^;; ))

#6
Herbology

Herbology was usually an easy class between two difficult ones, but that day Professor Sprout wanted them to take one flower which bloomed at a 90 degree angle, and make two other sets of flowers, one blooming at half and the other at double the original angle. It was certainly a challenging task which none of the students knew how to solve.

I'll give you a little help, then, Sprout said. To get Double Angle flowers, you use one of three formulas, depending on if you have a sine, cosine, or tangent seed. You will use... ((insert equations here)).

Harry tried the spell and was relieved to end up with a collection of 180 degree flowers. Now for the Half Angle flowers, Sprout continued. Once again, you pick your seed. Then you use one of... ((insert equations here)).

Once again, the plant formula worked out, and Harry ended up with 45 degree flowers, 90 degree flowers, and 180 degree flowers.

((Picture: We did have a cute 3D effect with this where the flowers were sticking out in pots, but someone stole the flowers when the poster was in the hallway. Mirh.))

#7
Transfiguration

He knew Transfiguration class would probably end up being very different, but he little expected what Professor McGonagall dished out. As soon as he sat down, she walked over to him with a quill pen and an ink bottle and said, I want you to verify that this ink bottle is this quill pen, thus you should make the bottle equal (theta) tan as the quill pen does. Then she placed the bottle before him and crossed her arms as she watched.

The task turned out much more difficult than he first thought, because he hadn't worked much with the identities yet, but he managed. From the ink bottle he transfigured it into a hat, then a cat, then a book, then a leaf, then a toad, then a pair of glasses, then a bag of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans which Harry was quite reluctant to give up, then, finally, the quill pen.

((Picture: Boring verifications.))

#8
Arithmancy

Harry had never been to the Arithmancy room to see Professor Vector because he didn't take that class, but he hoped that the professor might be able to help him in solving the Prekalkulos Curse.

You must be able to solve these problems yourself, Vector said, swatting a fairy away. His room was on the first level, which allowed for many disruptions from magical creatures. That's precisely it. You must be able to solve the trigonometric equations.

Harry once again used the identities to solve the equations, and was finding that using them had become much easier. Is that all, Professor?

Yes, yes, he responded irritably. Now hurry along, I'm busy. Harry left quickly, trying to escape from a unicorn which rather liked the taste of Harry's hair.

((Picture: A unicorn had his head sticking in through the window and was eating Vector's hair, teehee.))

#9
Defense Against the Dark Arts

Harry peered into the Defense Against the Dark Arts room, where this year's professor, Tamarah Viridian, sat at her desk, writing. Excuse me, Professor, he said as he stepped in, I was wondering if you knew of any way I might be able to stop the Prekalkulos Curse.

She nodded as she stood and carried a box over to where he stood. You must travel through the Forbidden Forest to the castle of Oaoahh where the Arcsisters live. There, they will order you to solve a problem, and if you answer correctly, the curse is broken.

And if I don't...?

Then Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry will forever be haunted by this Prekalkulos Curse. But do not fear, for I have a weapon for you. Here she opened the box to reveal a graphing calculator which she handed to him. Use it wisely. If you are not careful, they will not accept your answer. You must show them how you arrived at what conclusion you came to, and only use the calculator if it is absolutely necessary for graphing or checking. Now go on, Harry Potter, and good luck... The future of Hogwarts rests on you shoulders.

((Picture: Viridian offering the box and a close-up of the calculator with a graph on it. Her room had the coolest wallpaper!))

#10
The Forbidden Forest and the Arcsisters

The Forbidden Forest at any time of day was not the safest of places to explore, but especially at night when one is searching for three 1,000-year-old witches with an ancient grudge against said one's school. Harry was quite relieved (and possibly a wee bit amused) when he came upon a sign post which read and pointed down to a tiny castle at his feet. He tapped the top of it lightly and asked, Are the Arcsisters in, by chance?

Three tiny women, none over a foot tall, peeked out from behind the castle... which they were a bit large for. Are you the one sent to stop of sisters Arcsine, Arccosine, and Arctangent from fulfilling the Prekalkulos Curse?

Harry blinked down at them and said, Are you them?

We are! another one shouted, and you will have to solve our impossible trigonometric equation of death to end our Prekalkulos Curse!

Harry nodded casually and said, Bring it on.

Perhaps all the trigonometry Harry had worked with all day came in handy, for the equation was not that difficult.

Curses on you, Harry Potter! Curses on you! one of the Arcsisters screamed in rage. Now we will forever be restricted! Curses! Curses! Curses!

Restricted? From what?

Don't you see how small our castle is? When Hogwarts was built, it took all the stone from our quarry, leaving us with just this much! It severely restricted our domain, thus restricting our range of growth.

Harry smiled and said, I'll fix that for you! Using his secret weapon, he was able to make a new home for them with graphs reaching out to infinity, giving the Arcsisters all the room they could ever want.

We've even got a sun roof! one of them exclaimed.

Don't you know? Harry said. That's an asymptote.

((Picture: As described, and we had mossy stuff hanging off of the poster which got absolutely everywhere!!!))