Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Magic/Brooms
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| Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter - Magic | |
| Broom | |
|---|---|
| Type | Magical device |
| Features | Allows wizard to fly |
| First Appearance | Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone |
Contents |
[edit] Overview
Brooms are just what they sound like: magical brooms that allow the witch or wizard to fly. Normally, first-years at Hogwarts are not allowed brooms of their own, although they can and do take flying lessons from Madam Hooch using the old and much-beaten school brooms.
[edit] Extended Description
Harry is one of the few people for whom the first-years rule is broken; in his first-ever flying lesson, he does so well that Professor McGonagall places him in the Gryffindor house Quidditch team. As Seeker, he needs a better broom than the ones provided by the school, so he receives a Nimbus 2000, then the top-of-the-line broom available.
From the descriptions of flying in the series, it appears that the key to using a broom is balance. The way you balance on the broom controls the direction in which it will fly, shifting your weight forward will bring the handle down and so make it descend. It seems that shifting your weight closer to the broom makes it speed up. Presumably shifting your weight left and right makes it turn. However, it is possible to spin one's body around the broom, and still have it continue traveling in more or less a straight line; this is apparently called a "sloth grip roll", and is mentioned in passing in book 5.
Several different broom makes and models are mentioned in the various books.
- Bluebottle: Advertised at the Quidditch World Cup in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. "A Broom for All the Family – safe, reliable and with In-built Anti-Burglar Buzzer ..."
- Cleansweep: One of the more utilitarian brands, the Cleansweep line are generally not the top of the speed list but are decent brooms all the same.
- In Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Wood says that they should get Harry a Nimbus 2000 or a Cleansweep Seven, the implication being that these are about equal quality.
- In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, as Draco Malfoy is making fun of the Gryffindors' brooms, he points out that the Twins' brooms, which are Cleansweep Fives, could be auctioned to raise money, and suggests a museum might like to bid on them. It is possible that they are only three years old at this point.
- In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, it is mentioned that Ravenclaw's Quidditch team are all mounted on Cleansweep Sevens – with the possible exception of their Seeker, Cho Chang, who is mentioned in the next chapter as having a Comet Two Sixty.
- In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Ron gets a broom as a reward for becoming a Prefect. The model of the broom is not stated at the time, but it is later mentioned that it is a Cleansweep Eleven. Rhapsodizing about it in the party later, Ron mentions that it will do 0 to 70 in ten seconds.
- Comet: The Comet line is regarded as a workmanlike but not over-speedy broom.
- Two Sixty: Cho Chang, Seeker for Ravenclaw in Harry's third year, rides a Comet Two Sixty, which "will look like a joke next to the Firebolt." If Comet brings out a new model every year, as the Nimbus and Cleansweep lines seem to, the Comet Two Sixty will have been the new model for Harry's Second year (Cho's third).
- Two Ninety: Mentioned only in passing, the Two Ninety is evidently the latest Comet model in Harry's fifth year. Ron, comparing it to his new Cleansweep Eleven, mentions that the Comet Two Ninety will do 0 to 60 in ten seconds.
- Firebolt: In Harry's third year, his Nimbus 2000 is destroyed by the Whomping Willow. It is replaced by a Firebolt, which is a world-class broom; in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, it is mentioned that the Irish National Quidditch team are all mounted on Firebolts. It is mentioned in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban that the Firebolt is capable of 0-150 mph (0-240Kph) acceleration in 10 seconds, which, for the physics geeks, is approximately 0.7G. Additionally, as 150 mph is near terminal velocity for a falling human, the wind force on the rider at the broom's top speed will be about the same as his body weight. This may have something to do with the appearance of footrests on the brooms in the Harry Potter movies.
- Nimbus:
- 2000: the Nimbus 2000 is the broom Harry receives in his first year at Hogwarts. At the time, it is the best broom available, and is ideally suited to the Seeker's job.
- 2001: In Harry's second year, the entire Slytherin Quidditch team are given Nimbus 2001 brooms by Lucius Malfoy, apparently in gratitude for their having put Draco Malfoy on the house Quidditch team as Seeker.
- Shooting Star: An older and cheaper broom, and not very fast; designed, one supposes, for learning riders, like the kid's brooms mentioned in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, that were designed to fly only high enough to lift the children's toes out of the grass.
- In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, it was mentioned that Ron's old Shooting Star was often outstripped by passing butterflies.
- In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry has to practice on a school broom after his Nimbus 2000 is destroyed; it is mentioned that this broom is an ancient Shooting Star which was very slow and jerky.
- Silver Arrow: mentioned in passing by Madam Hooch as being the type of broom she learned on, one no longer made.
There is also a publication devoted to the merits of the various broomsticks. Named Which Broomstick, it is obviously modeled after the British stereo enthusiasts' Which Hifi magazine and the more recent Which PC.
[edit] Analysis
Like muscle cars and roadsters in the 1950s through 1970s, and computers in the 1990s and 2000s for Muggles, brooms are the adolescent wizard's way of showing off. Because of this, there is a rapid turnover in the top of the line models, and a slower change in the more utilitarian models. For instance, the Nimbus 2000 is introduced with fanfare (including a static display at Quality Quidditch Supplies in Diagon Alley) in Harry's first year, but the follow-on model, the Nimbus 2001, is apparently available by the following year, and the Firebolt by his third year. The same turnover can be seen in the Cleansweep line; Ron apparently gets a Cleansweep Eleven, then the "new Cleansweep model", as reward for becoming a prefect in his fifth year, and the Seven is apparently the top of the line in Harry's first year, which means that if the model numbers are sequential, there has been a new Cleansweep each year. Interestingly, if that is the case, the Twin's Cleansweep Fives, which Draco Malfoy speaks of so disparagingly, are at the time only three years old.
As an aside, one wonders whether there is a brisk business in racing brooms sold to wizards trying to recapture their lost youth, similar to the Muggle sports-car market? As wizards generally live longer than Muggles, this would likely be wizards in their 70s and 80s...
