…that GCSE stuff’s not a “science paper”…THIS is a Science paper!

David Davis

A little time ago I published a recommended High School Science test paper, designed to better prepare those who were planning to pursue Natural Sciences of all kinds at a “University”. It’s been revisedf a little:-

Improved science paper for GCSE, devised by David Davis for the Libertarian Alliance, a free-market, civil liberties and Classical liberal education think-tank and publishing house in London, originally issued in Sept 2009.

PAPER ONE

TIME ALLOWED: THREE HOURS

1                                            Estimate the DC current, flowing in a one-turn copper coil which follows the earth’s equator, which would cancel the Earth’s magnetic field at either pole. (Take the horizontal component of field at lat 86^o 30` N and longitude approx 30^o W to be 0.18 gauss: vertical component = 0.9 gauss. State the relationship between the c.g.s Gauss unit and the MKS Telsa unit.)

2                                            Calculate the cross-sectional area of a square copper turn, smoothed and unblacked but not polished, and fully suspended, whose surface temperature will not exceed 800 K in dry air temperature of 310 K. Assume the specific conductivity of the supports to ground as being 0.2 Joule m-2 sec-1. If the young’s Modulus of the supporting material is 50GPa, calculate the minimum cross-sectional area of each support assuming you place one every five metres of copper conductor. State how many supports will need to be ordered to circle the Earth at your designated line, and, in still air, their minimum height to prevent the ground temperature rising more than 5 K.

3                                            Calculate the gravitational field strength existing between the Milky Way and a hypothetical galaxy 13 billion LY away. Use 2E42 Kg for the mass of the Milky Way: make an informed estimate of the mass of your further galaxy, stating clearly any assumptions you have made. Using your figures thus obtained, and your informed estimate of the mass of Galaxy M31 whose data regarding mass, position and relative speed you already will know, decide where approximately to place your spacecraft so that the resultant vector of gravitational forces from the three galaxies on it is zero, assuming no other interactions.

4                                            Estimate the cross-sectional area of each of two Duct-tape fixtures, (tape is of 48mm width and 0.5mm thickness) applied always parallel to the direction of force, which would be required to separate reliably two opposite charges of 1C each at a distance of one meter in free Space. (Young’s Modulus of Duck Tape is assumed to be 4E9 Pa.)

5                                            Estimate the number of moles of human DNA on the Earth as of now, its total estimated mass, and the molar mass of human DNA. (Assume that one haploid human genome, complete, = 1 molecule. Also assume that the mean volume of all human cells is about 1.9 picoLitres.)

Ignore human gametes in this answer, but also estimate the total number of human gametes present on the planet at any moment. Use your knowledge of human population trends and age-band-statistics to derive as accurate an estimate for this number as possible, differentiating male from female gametes. State the assumptions you have made about the relative frequency of each gamete.

6                                            Calculate the reduction in heat capacity of the Gulf Stream over a calendar year, caused by a wind farm of 10,000 turbines directly in the path of the airstreams above it at latitude 55^oN, each turbine having an installed generating output of 100Kw, at a height of 100M and operating at a 16% duty cycle. Use your own knowledge of geography, natural climate movements, astronomy, the heat capacities of water and moist air. (You may assume that the Sun’s radiated power output is about 3.92E26 Watts and is deemed for this question to be constant.) Estimate the extra mass, surface area and volume of North Polar ice that would build up in the Barents, Norwegian and Greenland Seas in one year, assuming that no other areas are affected, as a result of this set of turbines. (For quickness of solution, assume polar ice above latitude 65 radiates IR into space at 25 Watts/M² at all temperatures above 230K.) Specific heat capacity of water in liquid phase = 4.18KJ per Kg per degree K.

7                                            You are to deliver a shell weighing 1.5 imperial tons, at a range of 60 miles, from a barrel of diameter 460mm, at a target at the same elevation as the emplacement. (g = 9.81m/s²) Devise a suitable mathematical model from which the answers could be derived, and then calculate, in no particular order:

(a)   The barrel length

(b)  The time of flight

(c)  The maximum height reached by the projectile

(d)  The required muzzle velocity at 40^o barrel elevation

(e)   The mean gas pressure (assume uniform) in the barrel

(f)    The acceleration of the projectile in the barrel

(g)  The muzzle velocity (you may neglect air resistance for this question.)

8                                            Calculate the number of 25Kg sacks of rice that would be required, and also the total volume of rice grains in cubic miles, if the Great King had been able to grant the wish of the Resident-Court-Mathematician who had invented Chess for him. The inventor asked for “one grain of rice on the first square, two on the second, four on the third, eight on the fourth, sixteen on the fifth…..”. Assume a grain of rice is a cylinder of length 7mm and diameter 1.25mm and that they pack approximately efficiently. State your grain-packing-density assumptions in your answer.

If the sacks used above are made of polythene, and must be 850 microns thick, estimate the area of film to be manufactured including excess cutting-flash needed on the packing lines, this amount’s mass, and the number of barrels of Saudi Heavy Crude that may have been used to make it. Use your knowledge of thermal cracking procedures, the mean composition of linear alkanes in Saudi heavy Crude, and also of the average mass of a “barrel” and how much of this is realistically convertible into monomers for this question’s use. Density of polythene (MDPE type) is about 0.932 g/cm³.

9   Calculate the rate of change of mean global temperature, stating in which direction it will move, if unbroken polar ice caps cover the Earth down to latitudes 50 North and 50 South. Assume the boundary is a straight line in both cases. State what percentage (to 3sf) of the earth’s current land area would have to be moved by tectonic drifting to be below latitudes 50N/50S, to bring about the cooling you have calculated.

Prince Charles has been at the Philosopher-Juice, again

David Davis

I chanced upon this in the Times. Also, I find that Nick@CountingCats has done a good fisk of the silly old loon. Here’s a bit more detail about what the bugger said…

It’s a great pity really, for the poor British, who have striven mightily over the centuries to achieve something resembling the outer shell of a pre-capitalist-barbarian warlord-polity, but with “added freedom” and some goodish bolt-ons… This sort of social structure I guess gives comfort to some, if not most, people whose main past-time is trying to just get by while avoiding thinking too deeply about much.

But one of the goodish bolt-ons is that this model also delivers a modicum of personal liberty to the vast mass of the subjects – sadly often against their will. They will live to regret this lacuna in their perception of reality.

Now, however, although the British have at last painstakingly evolved, within this structure, the grand tradition of being able to get rid of their “king” and hire another one from somewhere else if they don’t like the first one, and so although they have now got a more-or-less-harmless strain of hereditary “Heads Of State”, the supposedly-chief male heir now proceeds to go batchy on Global Wireless Tele Vision – and he does it often as well, which is worse.

It’s all rather sad. If the concept of republicanism wasn’t so innately un-conservative and redolent of philosophical rootlessness, I might be more in favour of it for the British. I’ll have to reflect a bit.

Biased BBC: BBC EDITOR IS CLIMATE CHANGE ACTIVIST

BBC EDITOR IS CLIMATE CHANGE ACTIVIST

Sean Gabb

>> Monday, December 28, 2009

I’ve become increasingly convinced that the BBC is part of an international conspiracy about ‘climate change’. It isn’t simply that the reporting is so biased; it’s also because there seems to be a concerted effort to make sure that whatever so-called sceptics discover, for example over Climategate, the warmists bounce straight back with a new set of warped theories or bent facts to support their arguments. The feed of material is relentless, as if it is coming from an organised source. Over the holidays, I’ve been doing some digging on this, and I wanted to share one of my first findings.
A BBC journalist called Peter Thomson is not a household name in this country, but he’s the environment editor of the BBC programme (made jointly with WGBH Boston and RPI) The World, which on a daily basis pushes out climate scare stories to millions of people. Mr Thomson, it turns out, is also the secretary of the Society of Environmental Journalists, a US organisation, the main purpose of which is to spread alarmism through a ‘guide’ about ‘climate change’(masked of course, under the cloak of ‘objectivity’). There can be no doubt that this is a campaigining organisation which wants to achieve political change because it believes that the world needs to reduce CO2 emissions.
Mr Thomson’s activism does not stop there. He’s also a member of the advisory board of the Metcalf Institute for Marine and Environmental Reporting, yet another international organisation with alarmist goals. It, too, publishes a guide to how journalists should cover ‘climate change’; in truly chilling McCarthyite terms, the introduction explains how anyone who disagrees with “the consensus” should be ignored and that journalists should frantically pester editors to publish ‘climate change’ scare stories.
So, to recap. One of the BBC’s most senior editors responsible for environmental reporting has formal roles at the epicentre of a worldwide coinspiracy among ‘climate change’ alarmists. Not only that, he is assisting in the international propagation of so-called science communication guides, the main purpose of which are to enlist other journalists to spread the same lies in which he also believes. I suspect there’s a whole phalanx of Peter Thomsons, all feeding the BBC’s insatiable appetite to feed us with moonshine.
Update: Richard North, of EU Referendum, has kindly provided further information about BBC propagandists. Nik Gowing, a prominent – and rather humourless – BBC World Service presenter, has a no-doubt lucrative sideline in chairing ‘climate change’ conferences convened by the alarmist-in-chief, IPCC head Dr Ravendra Pachauri.

Biased BBC: BBC EDITOR IS CLIMATE CHANGE ACTIVIST

I have never read such a concentrated load of effing smoke-mirror-bollocks in my life

David Davis

I will really, really try to find the time to biophysically-deconstruct this fully-published nonsense, at some time.

But I will have to have pre-drafted the Libertarian Alliance Christmas message first, which is needed for the party on 22nd December at the National Liberal Club, London.

And I’ve really only just begun, and in a war, you have to focus on strategic objectives. Or else, you die.

The Geminids…today

Libertarian Alliance “Controller of The Science”***

(NB: I am NOT David Davis, or that other one!)

Tipped from The Englishman, you might be able to see some of these today, at around 16.45 GMT.

***We found The Science: it had fallen behind the sofa.

Climategate: James Deligpole does a good roundup to the hour, and Bishop Hill reviews progress

UPDATE:- Big roundup (seven+ posts…) over at The Devil.

David Davis

Here.

It had to be expected that some (mercifully not more than a few hundred) scientists are GramscoFabiaNazis. Although it is very very hard for a true scientist to be dishonest so as to promote deliberate wickedness, it is inevitable and a sadness that some of these people, while young and impressionable, will have gone through “The Institutions” in the epoch when these were under attack by the Fabian Grand Long-term Strategy. This is a waste of ordinary human talent on dark, dark projects, which are now even more reeking of fathomless evil.

Here’s Bishop Hill.

Who’d have thought it, then!

David Davis

“Women are getting more beautiful”.

Bet you 50p the stalinist buggers will find something to complain and whinge about as a result. Perhaps if various scumbags round the globe and in history didn’t kill so many, the process would be faster.

….But this is potentially much much worse…

David Davis

“Traditional” subjects are disappearing from the State end of the schools system.

Tuesday steam and Concord(e)

Here’s Green Arrow (you should learn about the V2s: there will be a short written test on them and their doings next week):-

And here’s that marvellous and improbable bird, created by two peoples who ought to have been friends always***, for you one more time:-

***If they might have listened, we might have saved them from their “revolution”, and much else besides.

What an interesting piece of writing

David Davis

Here’s old friend Brian Micklethwait at Samizdata. I just wanted to share this bit with those of you who might otherwise have missed it.

Is this Poetry? … More Like Sickeningly Pretentious Twaddle

Peter Davis

Some time ago, we posted some surprisingly easy, politically correct science papers on the blog HERE, HERE , HERE and HERE.

Now, I have, very unfortunately, had to do several poems from this book called the ‘anthology’ for GCSE English, and the poems I have to do are just disgusting: just take this one, by a “Simon Armitage”:

HITCHER

I’d been tired, under
the weather, but the ansaphone kept screaming:
One more sick-note, mister, and you’re finished. Fired.
I thumbed a lift to where the car was parked.
A Vauxhall Astra. It was hired.

I picked him up in Leeds.
He was following the Sun to west from east
with just a toothbrush and the good earth for a bed. The truth,
he said, was blowin’ in the wind,
or round the next bend.

I let him have it
on top of the road out of Harrogate – once
with the head, then six times with the krooklok
in the face – and didn’t even swerve.
I dropped it into third

and leant across
to let him out, and saw him in the mirror
bouncing off the kerb, then dissapearing down the verge.
We were the same age, give or take a week.
He’d said he liked the breeze

to run its fingers
through his hair. It was twwlve noon.
The outlook for the day was moderate and fair.
Stitch that, I remember thinking,
you can walk from there.

How can this be accepted at poetry?

Who was the smart-arse who put this and things like this into this book? What do you suppose 14- and 15-year-olds are supposed to write about this, commeniting on “how the author uses language to convey emotion and feeling”?

More examples of terrible poems like this are:

Havisham – Carol Ann Duffy

Vultures – Chimua Achebe

And many others that I can’t be bothered to write up. You can learn about the “anthology” here.

incredible: there’s hope yet

David Davis

I will have to get stuff to do one of these!

Pleased to see that someone else noticed it too. Good man, Timmy.

Reach for the stars, you buggers. All of you. You can do it. Then you won’t come up with a handful of mud shit socialism.

We’ve been fisked! (I didn’t think we were important enough.)

David Davis

I’ve just had a good telling-off from someone called John Band (presumably  _the_  John Band!) for publishing this Physics GCSE paper, and suggesting that “the science” it contains is worth less than the paper it’s printed on, when compared with supposedly similar-grade papers of some years ago.

His post too got a lot of comments, not all of them unfavourable to us. I guess I’ll just have to leave it to the fogeyish commentators etc to sort out a verdict.

And John B himself won’t be replying, ‘coz he knows that I know that he knows that I’m just doing this to get more attention to the LA’s blog. But at least I don’t “follow” two billion people on “Twitter”, like Derek Draper. What a sad guy without real flesh-and-blood friends, but only interests. (I follow nobody, and I have sent no tweets.)

A British State-directed Chemistry paper for intelligent 16-year-olds

David Davis

Here’s the chemistry. It’s called CHY1A (Higher).

http://store.aqa.org.uk/qual/gcse/qp-ms/AQA-CHY1AP-W-QP-MAR08.PDF

And here’s the “mark scheme”:-

http://store.aqa.org.uk/qual/gcse/qp-ms/AQA-CHY1AP-W-MS-MAR08.PDF

I’ll leave you all in suspense for a couple of hours about the physics.

If you go here, then you  _might be able to_ hack past the “secure download” username/password thingies, to get at “Edexcel” papers too. They won’t let you download these unless you are a British State Apparatchik teacher in a scumbag-school with a password. You see, the State does not want you to help your child do well, if your are a mere parent, or even if you are the independent child, looking for yourself.

Tony, can you get onto this one please, and crakc it maybe?

UPDATE2:- It’s no use merely moaning and whingeing as I am doing here. Even by bringing this more to people’s attention, we can change little in a hurry. The State has not only taken Nazi ownership of our children, but has also intellectually cast them adrift at the same time, and it’s all probably deliberate.

The remedy is to live with them in a houseful of books, use the said books liberally in front of them while making sure that these are text books about real stuff and not pretentiously awful Booker-novels, and discuss with them scientific discoveries and the history of same at mealtimes.

UPDATE1:- From Driver Rob, this is fine stuff and I agree totally. I also use “old” O-level (remember that?) text books to support A2-students of 18 in maths, and “old” GCSE science ones from the 80s and the pre-Blair-90s in general, to cover random GcSE/AS/A2 work from the ages of 15-19.

Corruption and politicizing of GCSE “science”, in favour of Gramsco-Marxianism.

David Davis

I am obliged to An Englishman’s Castle for bringing to wider notice some ideas I have been banging on about for some time: since the “New” GCSE science syllabuses his the schools in September 2006. The “updated and relevant” “syllabus” consists mostly of repetition of prevailing orthodoxy about issues such as GM foods, global warming, stem cell research, MMR vaccination, the placing of mobile phone masts, and the like.

It’s worth reading the entire thing by the student. preferably before Tomes Online takes it down, as it is wont to do with stuff that gets up the noses of the Enemy Class. In fact I will save it just in case, and it’s here to save time:-

 

February 26, 2009

Can we please have less politics in our GCSE’s: a plea from a 16 year old…..

XXXXXXX is 16. He’s about to do his GCSEs and hopes to study Latin, German, Further Maths and English or History at A Level (so he’s no slouch). After that, he’s thinking of studying Classics and Modern Languages at University. But he’s not happy with the school curriculum, and was inspired to write for School Gate after the Cambridge Primary Review criticised the restrictions for children at a younger age. He thinks that there’s too much politics, that these are pushing out proper learning, and that social issues are being pushed far too hard…

So, over to Joe:

“In recent years, it seems that the school curricula are featuring more and more in public debate. There was considerable press coverage of a study last week which revealed that in primary education, the focus has been steered away from the arts and humanities leaving children “tied to their desks” struggling with the nine times table. The report claims this has “squeezed out” other areas of learning, rendering children’s artistic capacities under-developed and neglected. Furthermore, the report claims not only that the curriculum has been narrowed, but that what remains has become heavily “politicised”.

As a current GCSE student, I can identify with this “politicisation”. It seems to me as if the GCSE curricula, above all for science, no longer focus on understanding the subject. The core biology science curriculum now calls for very little knowledge of the biology that we had studied in the years preceding GCSE, but seems to be a governmental attempt to raise awareness of current social issues. For example, section A of the core biology exam concentrates on contraception, drugs, alcohol, smoking, obesity, anorexia and the MMR vaccines, whilst section B tackles broader issues such as global warming, GM crops, creationism vs Darwinism and alternative energy sources.

Perhaps this is the best solution to the some of the social problems that Britain faces today. Maybe through education, education and education, Labour may finally succeed in reducing teenage pregnancies, child obesity and begin to steer Britain towards a greener way of life. 
Perhaps indeed, learning about the advantages and disadvantages of wind and solar power is vastly more useful to the average sixteen year old than a full understanding of the differences between prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells. In this way, the younger generation may begin to have a much clearer idea of current affairs, enabling us to partake more readily in the critical issues of the day, making us more informed voters and leaders of tomorrow.

An important aspect of the “politicisation” of the curriculum is the use of exams. Not only are the social issues agenda studied in class, but students must take exams on these topics, requiring an in depth analysis of the themes, and also meaning that students’ grades at GCSE depend on their knowledge of the subject in hand, encouraging a much more motivated and engaged learning process.

However, one of the key problems with sitting exams about topics of this nature is that the exam board are required to write mark schemes clearly detailing the answers that they want within a rigid framework. This leaves no room for debate on the part of the student, meaning that instead of producing insightful, perceptive and interesting answers, pupils tend towards putting down what they think the mark scheme is most likely to have as an acceptable response. For example, in a question about embryo screening, the advantage of screening embryos in accordance to the mark scheme was to reduce health care costs for the parents. I found it a little disconcerting, if not positively concerning, to discover that my answer that it would improve the quality of life for the child, did not feature. Is it right to present these issues to pupils in such a way that they are blinkered into one channel of thought? Is it not more productive to allow pupils to debate current affairs in such a way that they are able to access all viewpoints and form their own opinions? Arguably, the government is now more concerned with indoctrination than discussion.

In my view, it must be asked if the science curriculum is really the right place for these social issues to be debated and taught. Indeed, if education is really the process by which someone’s innate intelligence is led out, then perhaps topical issues should be addressed elsewhere. Arguably, in the hours that we spend in full time education, it is more important to develop an understanding of the basics of the world around us; to understand the science behind the issues as opposed to an awareness of the actual issues, and indeed problems, that science can both cause and solve.

Furthermore, those who are employed to teach Biology, Chemistry and Physics may well become frustrated by the deviance of the curriculum from their chosen subject. Thus, their passion for the subject, presumably because of which they chose teaching in the first place, diminishes. Can pupils really find a topic which frustrates their teachers engaging?

For the pupils, this intervention and politicisation can become annoyingly transparent. Having studied global warming in all three sciences, Geography, English, French, German and Spanish, I have found that its initial shock has now ceased to have an impact. The topic has become stale, and my will to change for the better has been weakened.

There is no doubt that there are a number of social issues, concerning young people, which need to be addressed in one way or another. My question is whether GCSE science is really the place for it. Maybe PSHE is a more obvious option, but the problem is that PSHE is not regarded with anywhere near the same level of importance. I think that as young people, we do need to understand the current topics being debated, but it is possibly more beneficial to be invited to participate seriously in balanced discussion, as opposed to having to show we know the effects of smoking in part b) of question nine.”

Read School Gate on:

How secondary schools stop kids from being creative

Should we have academic selection at 14?

Why do so many bright teenagers drop out of education?

POSTED AT 09:03 AM IN EXAMS, SECONDARY SCHOOL |PERMALINK

God help us if this is not an early April Fool wind-up

David Davis

This madman plans to fire trillions of mirrors into space, to “stop global warming. I really do begin to believe that some of these mountebanks are starting to believe their own witchcraft.

Read the whole thing: it’s eitherw ritten by an imaginative but scientifically-illiterate hobbledy-hoy, or else by some very evil and wicked men.

People who haven’t built a gun before ought not to be allowed anywhere near where extra-powerful ones are to be constructed.

At last! the Catholic buggers in Rome (where they ought to be doing some thinking and homework) twig that they’re actually fighting pagans! By which I mean not Wiccans (who are generally harmless and useful and charming) but Gramsco-Marxians (who really really need and want to and like to kill people over disputes regarding fine interpretation of ideas)

David Davis

As a scientist, (strictly speaking I think I’d today be called a molecular biophysicist) I have never had any difficulty in reconciling the first Book of Genesis and I. John i with what greenazis and other prostitutors of words call “the science”.

But it’s heartening to see that the Vatican’s team, however ineptly (and I don’t expect miracles) is now coming out on side.

They’d better get their act together, and fast. Pagans take no notice even of people as sharp as Richard Dawkins, in their manio-hystericalist-efforts to drag Man back to paleolithic barbarism.

The problem with pagans of course, is that they’ve got into the Governments of places which matter.

The Pagans’ god is of course totalitarian. What else can he be? He laid it all down at the start, at Year Zero, and all have to follow him no matter what, on pain of death or on pain of losing your research grant. Men, dinosaurs, fossils, stars? You name it, he did it then and he did it first. He also demands sacrifices: these are often the things we love most, such as liberty, or pretty young girls (just to rub it in….no pun intended but it’s a good one.)

The Christians’ God laid down nothing as vulgate and inviolate: in the beginning was the Word: the Word was God, and the Word was With – by which the translators must mean “created by” – ablative -  God. For the Word, I substitute “order” or “Logos”. He merely created Himself. Everything else was His Thought, which must evolve later. So evolution must follow, since God exists in All Time and All Space like the rest of us. All we do is discover His Mind, slowly, at first, like now.

But in our trying to do this, Evil and Wickedness try to beset us, such as via the phantasms of “Jacqui” “Smith”, Hitler, Stalin, Gramsci, Marx, Pol Pot, “Al” Gore (who looks increasingly like Hermann Goering – go google) Ed Balls, Jo Brand, Jonathan Ross, Hugo Chavez, Saddam Hussein, Shootinputin187, that woman on the telly whose name I can’t recall, and others.

It’s green now

Here’s Tornado, fully painted and lined-out in BR post-war livery:-

God versus Science: something for the commentariat to argue about over the weekend…

David Davis

This just floated in from somewhere. Personally I see no problem whatsoever with Science co-existing with religious belief. Many scientists I have known were devout Christians.

I think we all ought to read 1.John (1 and onwards a bit) and ask what it meant.

But the fella relates a nice story.

Citizen Tom obviously thinks about stuff. I might go back from time to time and see. But for now, here’s what Keeley Hazell thinks. We will continue to employ her for now, inspte of Gordon Brown and his “end to Tory boom and bust”…

Meccano … the 200-ton Brownhoist Wrecking Crane, and what do you think about children’s toys today?

Peter Davis

Ive a question for the commenters. Would more toys like this mean more people grow up to be libertarians? Today’s Meccano is a few types of small coloured plastic crap, for about £125 a box, compared with this which looks more like what my dad used to play with.

I think bigger sets with more ambitious instructions and more interesting parts, would make children more inventive.

This is a Canadian model.

If children were taught to think more and earlier, perhaps they would go more for liberty and not just get sucked into socialism? What do you think?   heres a poll:-