dxu comments on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, March 2015, chapter 119 - Less Wrong

4 Post author: Gondolinian 10 March 2015 06:10PM

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Comment author: dxu 11 March 2015 03:50:17AM *  8 points [-]

A time limit of 3:54 does seem too arbitrary to be hard-coded.

3:54 is 234 seconds, which is exactly 1/400 of 26 hours, which happens to be Harry's extended sleep cycle. I have no idea if this is significant, but just throwing it out there.

Comment author: CellBioGuy 11 March 2015 06:16:20AM *  8 points [-]

It's also almost exactly 368 and 2/9 uses per siderial day, the actual period of rotation of the earth without reference to the sun.

It would've been exactly that figure about 5,300 years ago.

Comment author: William_Quixote 11 March 2015 03:41:53PM 9 points [-]

Based on that timing the stone was Gilgamesh's pearl

Comment author: gwern 11 March 2015 04:00:06PM 11 points [-]

And guess who steals Gilgamesh's How-the-Old-Man-Once-Again-Becomes-A-Young-Man plant? That's right, a snake.

Comment author: CellBioGuy 11 March 2015 04:08:00PM 4 points [-]

Ain't numerology grand?

Comment author: polymathwannabe 11 March 2015 04:02:14AM 0 points [-]

So the Stone was created to be used no more than 400 times a day. This allows for the prediction that someone with a normal cycle should be able to use it every 1/400 of our normal days, or 216 seconds.

Comment author: NancyLebovitz 11 March 2015 05:43:33AM 1 point [-]

The limit might be the result of limited capacity rather than design.