The Dresden Files > DF Spoilers

Time Travel in the Dresden Files

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g33k:

--- Quote from: Bad Alias on March 04, 2020, 05:24:37 AM --- What's the difference?
--- End quote ---

PentaGRAM is a 5pointed star.

PentaCLE is a pentagram inscribed in another figure, usually a circle.

PentaGON is a 5-sided shape, without any star/etc (like a hexagon is 6-sided (q.v. "hex paper, hex map")).

Pedantically yrs, etc.
- g33k
 

Bad Alias:

--- Quote ---pen·ta·cle
/ˈpen(t)ək(ə)l/
Learn to pronounce
noun
a talisman or magical object, typically disk-shaped and inscribed with a pentagram or other figure, and used as a symbol of the element of earth.
another term for pentagram.
--- End quote ---
This is the sort of thing I was talking about. I guess my point, if I even have one, is that unless Jim/Harry specifically described the shape or defined both terms (which I honestly can't recall if he did), there's enough usage variation that we can't be sure which it is.

I agree with g33k's definitions, but I'm generally uncertain of any speaker's definition (except for pentagon).

morriswalters:
This overlapping magic penta whatevers are a staple of anime about magic. 

toodeep:
You can't make a complex geometric structure out of a lot of circles with stars in them (it will have gaps).  The description of the structure of the island (I think) detailed the tips of stars meeting , and stars being placed inside stars, etc.  The inside of a star makes a pentagon.  If you directly connect the tips of stars, you make a pentagon.  So I assumed the basic structure of the prison is pentagons, thus the comment about the 12-sided die (dodecahedron).

Bad Alias:
@toodeep: If I recall correctly, the description of the Prison is an idiots guide description of the Prison for Harry's sake. Kind of like how they still used Niels Bohr's model of an atom when I was in school even though "everyone" knew it was a pretty big oversimplification of what's going on.

Or maybe an even better example is how they told me and my classmates that "you can't subtract a bigger number from a smaller number" e.g., you couldn't do 4-10=-6. No this isn't a better example because that's not an oversimplification; it's just wrong, but since I typed it, I feel like sharing this horror with the world.

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