Everybody's favorite wizard, Harry Potter, can weave a magical mathematical spell over young children, a Ball State University educator says.

        Cynthia Thomas, assistant professor of mathematical sciences at Ball State, says the hit series of books provides teachers with great opportunities to expand children's mathematical minds.

        “Once you get kids interested, the rest is easy,” says Ms. Thomas. “The media got everyone interested in Harry Potter, so that's done. Teachers can take some of the ideas and go from there.”

        Harry Potter is an orphan boy growing up with an aunt and uncle who, when he is 11 years old, learns he has been accepted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

        The odd currencies used by the book's characters can provide an opening to monetary systems.

        “Since, of course, there is no real conversion from Harry's currency to ours, students can create their own conversion rate to convert Harry's currency to our own money. This would also be a good time to learn what our money has to do with the Euro or what the value of our dollar is compared to the franc or mark.”

        Another character, Hagrid the giant, can teach lessons on ratio and proportions.

        “There are several references to his size, but not all of them come out the same. If students draw a figure of the giant, they first have to decide how tall he is. From there, they have to use ratios and proportions to create an "accurate' drawing of Hagrid. That's doing important mathematics for something interesting,” Ms. Thomas says.

        There are also lessons in logic, she says. Hermoine becomes the heroine by solving one of the most vexing problems.

        “I like that logic is so important to the story,” she says. “The math that I talk about is not new. I'm just using something that's exciting and interesting to kids as springboards to math that is also exciting and interesting.”

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