In 1997, JK Rowling published the first installment of the Harry Potter books, a series which would come to define a generation. From apparition to house elves, every detail about this wizarding world enthralls a reader, completely transporting them into the story, to live the excellent plot alongside beautifully written characters. Due to the success of the book series, Harry Potter’s world has been under examination across multiple academic fields, from literary experts to scientific enthusiasts.
Synthesis/ Argument
At first glance, it seems that an idea such as magic wholly contradicts the foundation of science, right down to Julius Mayer’s fundamental law of conservation of energy. However, Roger Highfield’s The Science of Harry Potter …show more content…
In this passage, Highfield commands a variety of rhetorical devices to inform his readers and supply this information with a pragmatic, yet inquisitive and awestruck tone. The purpose of this section of the book is to explore multiple approaches to the broomstick’s “problem”- how to make it fly like Harry Potter’s Nimbus 2000 or Firebolt. To start off, Highfield uses powerful imagery, with phrases like “cast off the bonds of gravity” and “zooming through the clouds with the wind rustling past” to capture the wonder of free flight, and to invoke the fundamental desire to experience it in his reader. Highfield then discusses the scientific account, using parallel syntax, as to why flight is not possible for humans. Following a rhetorical question, “Why then can’t we fly?”, that pulls a reader’s attention, three successive sentences begin as such, “The short answer is… The longer one is… The longest answer I intend to give is”. The parallel syntax here focuses a reader in on the human’s incapacity to fly, building a tension as the reader waits for a solution to this inhibitor. Highfield subsequently provides a range of conceptual approaches to the broomstick, from the balloon-assisted broomstick to the rocket-powered broomstick. Throughout his examples, Highfield weaves in multiple rhetorical questions, which draw a reader’s attention to the …show more content…
As a Harry Potter fan and science enthusiast, I have often wondered how the wizarding would hold its own against a scientific prosecution, since it has always been assumed that the two could not coexist. Because of this, it was refreshing to find a piece of literature that used science to perpetuate magic, rather than dispute it. It was easy to connect to the writing, as I have been reading about many of the concepts discussed for the past ten years. I knew all there was to know about the sorting hat, the hippogriff, and quidditch… or at least I thought I did. I ended up learning that the sorting hat could in fact comprise of superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs), which converts magnetic fields into a change in voltage over time, which simplifies the measurement brain waves. Scientific proposals such as this are fascinating, and make readers, including myself, feel so much more connected to the magical world, melding our dreams with
Synthesis/ Argument
At first glance, it seems that an idea such as magic wholly contradicts the foundation of science, right down to Julius Mayer’s fundamental law of conservation of energy. However, Roger Highfield’s The Science of Harry Potter …show more content…
In this passage, Highfield commands a variety of rhetorical devices to inform his readers and supply this information with a pragmatic, yet inquisitive and awestruck tone. The purpose of this section of the book is to explore multiple approaches to the broomstick’s “problem”- how to make it fly like Harry Potter’s Nimbus 2000 or Firebolt. To start off, Highfield uses powerful imagery, with phrases like “cast off the bonds of gravity” and “zooming through the clouds with the wind rustling past” to capture the wonder of free flight, and to invoke the fundamental desire to experience it in his reader. Highfield then discusses the scientific account, using parallel syntax, as to why flight is not possible for humans. Following a rhetorical question, “Why then can’t we fly?”, that pulls a reader’s attention, three successive sentences begin as such, “The short answer is… The longer one is… The longest answer I intend to give is”. The parallel syntax here focuses a reader in on the human’s incapacity to fly, building a tension as the reader waits for a solution to this inhibitor. Highfield subsequently provides a range of conceptual approaches to the broomstick, from the balloon-assisted broomstick to the rocket-powered broomstick. Throughout his examples, Highfield weaves in multiple rhetorical questions, which draw a reader’s attention to the …show more content…
As a Harry Potter fan and science enthusiast, I have often wondered how the wizarding would hold its own against a scientific prosecution, since it has always been assumed that the two could not coexist. Because of this, it was refreshing to find a piece of literature that used science to perpetuate magic, rather than dispute it. It was easy to connect to the writing, as I have been reading about many of the concepts discussed for the past ten years. I knew all there was to know about the sorting hat, the hippogriff, and quidditch… or at least I thought I did. I ended up learning that the sorting hat could in fact comprise of superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs), which converts magnetic fields into a change in voltage over time, which simplifies the measurement brain waves. Scientific proposals such as this are fascinating, and make readers, including myself, feel so much more connected to the magical world, melding our dreams with