Simon Kelley
I'm an academic at the Open University responsible for the virtual microscope for Earth sciences and working on the Moons and Numbers MOOCs. I'm a geologist specialising in finding the age of rocks.
Location Milton Keynes
Activity
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Simon Kelley replied to Jack Gray
That's correct :-)
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Constantly questioning is the standard way science progresses Zsuzsanna, please don't mistake it for narrow mindedness. There is a huge ask to validate homoeopathy and it will only gain acceptance or be disproved by testing. The same is true of other sometimes controversial subjects. We could have chosen the numbers around climate change for this same exercise...
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Simon Kelley replied to David Ravi
But CO2 is heavier than air. If you fill a balloon with helium it floats up in air, but a balloon filled with CO2 lies on the ground.
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Simon Kelley replied to Norman Donachie
Interesting point about the cost of producing tap water Norman. I guess in areas where desalination is important that might be a key factor. The video illustrates how numbers are used to impress, it happens a lot in adverts too.
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Simon Kelley replied to Tina Harvey
Thats amazing I'd never have predicted the largest range would be in Hertfordrshire!
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Simon Kelley replied to Doris G
True, you'd get a slightly different answer but the weight of the pieces of fruit will be dominated by the water contents and there will be less water in the peel but it doesn't change the final result because the differences in the skin are small in comparison.
There's another MOOC that follows on from this one Basic science:understanding experiments and...
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Simon Kelley replied to Christine Grass
But not too far behind, there's a whole weekend before the last week starts !
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Scottish Isles are actually pretty rocky - Mull ad Skye have high mountains, so the Isles would be smaller but still there - Scottish whisky distilleries however are on worrying low ground ...
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The air (oxygen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide and argon) dissolved in water is very small compared with the water molecules. There are commonly bubbles of air in ice but still they are not a large proportion of the total mass.
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Simon Kelley replied to Princes Raymunda Gatan
The most important thing about the Greenland ice sheet is that it is on land. So while it is ice on land it has no effect on sea level, but when it melts and the water flows into the sea then the level rises.
For large ice sheets on the ocean then the low density does matter because it means the ice floats.
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Simon Kelley replied to Anne Macdonald
You can round up or down, depending on whether the number is greater or less than 5. We cover more on this later in the course.
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Simon Kelley replied to Dr.Salah Khalid AlSaleh
The Antarctic Ice is the much larger volume which is why the media tends to cover Antarctic ice sheet melting - the ice is melting fast there too.
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Simon Kelley replied to Nick Dods
You're right Nick but the volume doesn't change much, and there are lots of measurements of the annual variations - see the graphs in this article
http://www.reportingclimatescience.com/news-stories/article/greenlands-ice-sheet-winter-growth-above-average.html -
Agreed
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Simon Kelley replied to Raquel Velasco
If it makes you feel better Peter, you could try calculating how long it would take at the current rate of melting. Maybe you'll feel better, but our descendents may not.
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Simon Kelley replied to Shelagh Rogers
No polar bears were hurt in the calculation
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Simon Kelley replied to Mary Ritchie
The level doesn't get much more 'mathsy' than this Mary
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Simon Kelley replied to Angel Flores
Yes I still have mine in the loft too.
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Thanks Mary, honestly its not even necessary to understand every step, hope you enjoy the rest
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Simon Kelley replied to Declan Smith
Thats right - the number, I'm not sure about the total population...
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Yep that looks correct to me.
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For info the last time we ran this course in 2014 it had one of the highest retention rates on Futurelearn. Its relatively short (4 weeks) and as Sion says we aimed it at people wanting to refresh or improve their understanding of numbers. Most people use numbers all the time in their lives, they just don't think about it
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Its discussed later in the course, basically its now possible to work out the total volume of water in all the oceans and rivers based on satellite data.
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Simon Kelley replied to Audrey Simpson
Its like a lot of similar videos you see in the news Audrey, there are some headline numbers you remember and the rest just floats by. The number of swimming pools is the thing I remember, don't know why...
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Simon Kelley replied to Brian Y
42.00000000
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Simon Kelley replied to Sarah Swift
I never listened to my Physics teacher Sarah. I probably should have done :-)
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Simon Kelley replied to Warren Quinton
You have to wait until week three for the answer Karl - its there honest.
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Simon Kelley replied to Nick Dods
Good point Nick, now if I can just make my calculator do that it would be much easier.
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Simon Kelley replied to Sandra Goodall
Wearing my glasses, its very nearly correct, probably need an extra comma to break up those 6 zeros in the middle of the full number
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Scientists try to test any statement made about the world we live in, and to do that we use numbers.
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Simon Kelley replied to simon shannon
Thats a good summary Simon. It cooled slowly and has been hit by many meteorite impacts since it formed.
Making thin sections of rocks is a standard technique, there are some videos on YouTube but mostly put there by equipment manufacturers. Briefly a slice of rock about 2-3 mm thick - one face is polished and stuck to a small piece glass - then the rock...
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If you can view the thin section in Futurelearn it should work on the website too - its the same software. Perhaps its taking longer to appear, the white blank that appears should fill with the thin section view. The only thing I can suggest is that older versions of Internet Explorer don't handle it.
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Its here Michael
http://www.virtualmicroscope.org/content/basalt-giants-causeway
You can find it using the search facility - just type 'giant' into the search box on the front page. -
All the Moon rocks are stored and prepared at the Johnson Space Centre in Houston USA. They have special set of machines in clean labs dedicated to the Moon rocks so no chance of cross contamination by Earth rocks. The cutting is done by diamond impregnated saws and cooled by water. There are several videos on YouTube on making thin sections but mostly put...
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It will have been a metal saw with embedded small diamonds (industrial diamonds, no engagemetn rings were damaged in the process!). The cut is constantly bathed in water to provide cooling and also wash away the dust.
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The large minerals in the field of view are olivine, the colours vary because they are at different angles to the polarised light. There are some pyroxenes but not easy to see in this field of view and the background is mostly glass which appers black between crossed polars.
You can see more of this rock and abit more information on the virtual microscope...
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Simon Kelley replied to Mary Kelly
Hi Mary
Don't worry, no sample recognition in the tests !
Hope you enjoyed the Earth science module.
Simon
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Simon Kelley replied to Frédéric Hamel
Great observations, this is a rock that was once beautifully pristine and had clear crystals just like the basalt, although coarser grained because it cooled more slowly. However its been hit by large asteroid impacts over the last 4.3 billion years.
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Hi John
There isn't a direct link to identify every point in the thin sections, the site is intended to allow you to explore the rocks and learn to recognize the different minerals and textures.The easiest way to ask questions in the MOOC about any mineral or texture by using the SHARE button in each thin section in the main site (we didn't include all...
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Simon Kelley replied to Remco Huizer
No problem, its just the the link asks me to log into inforgr.am and the published graph should be visible without logging in. I'm beginning to wonder if the site sometimes doesn't work properly.
Hope you enjoyed the course.
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Simon Kelley replied to ben tamplin
...Shivers...
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You can revisit as many times as you like.
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Yes thats right !
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Simon Kelley replied to Ursula Landwehr-traxler
Some of the coldest natural places yet measured are craters of the Moon that have been permanently dark for billions of years. They are just a few degrees above absolute zero
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Simon Kelley replied to Sharon Edge
There are some great Carl Sagan videos on YouTube too.
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Simon Kelley replied to David Hernandez
Nice set of graphs to show the difference between north and south hemisphere
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Simon Kelley replied to Rachel Carper
Another curved bar graph... I'd never seen them before, but they're really effective
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Simon Kelley replied to Roy Williams
Can you just click the publish to web in inforgr.am and post the link so we can see it Roy
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Simon Kelley replied to Donna Cooper
Looks good to me
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Simon Kelley replied to Patrick Treloar
Amazing graph, I wanted to set it to move between the curves automatically and just watch them change. I've not seen a figure like this one before. Thanks
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Simon Kelley replied to Remco Huizer
Can you just click publish to web in infogr.am so we can see it too Remco.
Thanks. -
Like a lot of science questions it takes several years of study and data to test a hypothesis. There are lots of questions that might be answered with more time, I wonder if the link between mobile phone use and brain tumours will last, or perhaps everyone tweets and texts now ?
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Simon Kelley replied to Kathryn Price
I'm told that you'll actually have access for a lot longer but I think there will be people finishing over the next week at least
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Simon Kelley replied to Karen Morris
Yes you're correct the rainfall averages are rounded !
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Its a really interesting graph. My take on it is that the wages have lagged behind inflation for quite a while. Current wages growth is varying within the same band it has been for a while but not changing much overall, inflation looks like its at a longer term low.
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It sounds like the Telegraph have a story they are telling and they're using the 'graph' like a 'graphic' to illustrate their point rather than as a scientific tool. I think this is pretty common and you have to look at all graphs you see with an eye to what they are trying to communicate. You're obviously looking beyond the message which is good.
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Probably reflects the fact that we do like cake !
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Simon Kelley replied to Louise Wilson
Thats good, you're using the rounding to indicate confidence and precision.
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Simon Kelley replied to Diana Strasser
The amount of rounding gives an indication of the confidence in the result, and the precision of the measurements. So if we were less confident or the scales only measured to the nearest 10 g then we'd probably round to two sig figs.
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Coming right up...next few steps
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True, and that's why percentage water is a good way to express the water content of the fruit. The density is also largely controlled by water content
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Simon Kelley replied to Islam Ismail
You just need to complete the final action so we can see the graph
12. When finished, click on ‘Publish’. You will be given the option to share via Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest, or view the graph via the web.
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Simon Kelley replied to Sarah Stone
You just need to complete the final action so we can see it.
12. When finished, click on ‘Publish’. You will be given the option to share via Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest, or view the graph via the web.
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Simon Kelley replied to Paul Mulvihill
You just need to complete the final action so we can see the graph
12. When finished, click on ‘Publish’. You will be given the option to share via Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest, or view the graph via the web.
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Simon Kelley replied to Fiona Halliday
You just need to complete the last action so we can see the graph
12. When finished, click on ‘Publish’. You will be given the option to share via Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest, or view the graph via the web.
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Simon Kelley replied to Alexander Savory
I can't see any #FLSciNumber14 posts on twitter, try again using #FLSciNum14
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Simon Kelley replied to Mariana Salgueiro
Wow that's an amazing graph Marlana, I just stepped through all the years and it automatically redrew for each year.
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Simon Kelley replied to Russell Roworth
Be careful of PI, the fraction 22/7 is its self an approximation.
22/7 = 3.1428571
PI = 3.1415926
They are different in the third decimal place. -
Calculators don't lie - but human fingers miss the buttons
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Good point Nadarajah, I don't know why we use percentage but a quick check of Wikipedia shows its been around a long time.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percentage -
Simon Kelley replied to Hatef Nezami
In fact you can get a scientific calculator that handles fractions so lack of common demoninators is now no barrier!
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Simon Kelley replied to malcolm davis
Taking the example above 0.0340, its rounded to 3 significant figures. So the last figure is rounded and the unrounded number cold lie between 0.03395 and 0.03404. In other words the final number reflects a range of possible numbers so its 'somewhat uncertain' That is probably what was intended by the Maths skills site.
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Simon Kelley replied to Remco Huizer
I sympathise Remco - it makes transferring numbers in some spreadsheet formats between EU colleagues very difficult !
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Simon Kelley replied to Treena Fenwick
As an illustration at the OU we weigh mineral samples to fractions of a milligram, so we have scales that can read weights such as 10.22734 g. However if you reweigh the same material the result varies due to very very small changes in air pressure or added dust. So we quote the weight to the precision we know we can reproduce not the full number read off the...
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You're on the right track Amanda. But the Peach shrank to 13.5% of its original weight so the cucumber actually shrank the most to 5.8% of its original weight.
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The key thing is to work out the proportion of water in each of the fruit. Check out some of the posts in the forum. People are dividing the final weight by the original weight to work out the loss of water, or dividing the water contained by the original weight to find the proportion of water.
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Simon Kelley replied to Madison Griffin
You're half way through Madison, 0.5 or 5 x 10^-1, or 50% of the way.
...I think need to get out more. -
Simon Kelley replied to Martin Williamson
Great Video, thanks Martin
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You might be thinking of the Voyager missions or New Horizons Orla
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/voyager/#.VAK-S0CCOSM
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/newhorizons/main/#.VAK-fHeCOSM -
Simon Kelley replied to Ali B
The intention was to show just how well you can do without hte sophisticated equipment and computing power the Scott Polar scientists applied. If you use our calculation the conclusions on the importance for sea level rise very similar.
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Simon Kelley replied to Brian D Whittington
It does vary but there is such a huge mass of ice only the uppermost layers melt. Most of it remains ice and builds slowly over the millennia
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Simon Kelley replied to Karen Lawrance
There were once forests on Greenland, on the lower ground around the fjords. Some areas were colonised by the Norse and they did have agriculture during the medieval warm period but they disappeared later during the little ice age.
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Simon Kelley replied to Kenneth Ball
I had to look up planimeters - never come across them before. Thanks for that Kenneth.
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Simon Kelley replied to Jacqui Perrin
Yes thats correct Jacqui.
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Several people have mentioned them in the forums Peter. I still have one in the attic from my school days.
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I learned to use a slide rule and log tables before I got my first calculator. Now I feel very old :-)
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Simon Kelley made a comment
Great range of calculators. My first scientific calculator was one of the bild-it-yourself kits you could buy from Sinclair - a Sinclair Scientific. I still have it although one of the battery buttons broke after a year or two.
http://www.vintagecalculators.com/html/scientific___giant_scientific.htmlNow I use an app on my mobile but its designed to look...
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Simon Kelley replied to Martin Williamson
All those are correct and you can use them however you like. I think mL might be frowned upon in answers to questions in science courses.
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You're right Michael it would be less. However given the uncertainty already in the calculation its close. Even flooding of large areas of land like most of Bangladesh (much of that country is less than 5 m above sea level). The full calculations have been done using digital elevation models that take the land into account.
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Sometimes it takes a few reads through Christine, but there is plenty of time, come back to it in a couple of days.
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Simon Kelley replied to Kate Grant
The names go like this kilo-mega-giga-tera-peta-exa - each increasing by 1000. So the final number is 2.35 exagrams. I confess I had to look that up, my knowledge ends at peta :-)
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Simon Kelley replied to Albert Elias
You have to be careful about that Albert. Different atoms have different masses. So part of the density is the packing of the atoms and part is the atomic masses. You are right about the packing when you're talking about one substance like water. Other substances are different, so solid antifreeze would sink in liquid antifreeze.
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Simon Kelley replied to William Johnson
'e' stands for exponential. Many calculators use this so 2.352105e15 is 2.352105 x 10^15 (where the ^ is superscipt)
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Simon Kelley replied to david m itchell
Well done David, keep those figures in mind - average come later in the course. What this tells you is that there is some variation in the numbers because they are estimates. The surface of the ices is very well mapped but the base of the ice sheet is much less well known. If the number gets more precise we'll have to change it every year as it melts.
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Simon Kelley replied to Mohamed Faisal Al Hasan
PI is just the name given to this mathematical constant. There are others like e (2.718) which is used in natural logarithms.
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Simon Kelley replied to Shirley Asquith
The formula for the area is pi x radius x radius. Think of a square with all sides of length 1cm. So the area of the square is 1cm^2. Now imagine a circle inside the square, the circumference is also 1cm, so the radius is 0.5cm. The area of the circle is 3.14 x 0.5 x 0.5 = 0.785. So that makes sense - the area had to be a bit less than the area of the square...
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Simon Kelley replied to Sally Eaton
Thanks Sally, we'll note that. Perhaps a downloadable PDF with the diagram text would work.
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Exactly my problem Mark. Some manufacturers want you to press the % button in the middle of the calculation, some use Polish logic (press the button at the end having used the x button in the calculation. I can never remember which it is so I gave up and just divide by 1000
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I found my old slide-rule a few weeks ago - beautiful device but I'm not sure I could remember how to use it now.
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There are lots of calculator apps - some designed to look like calculators. That way you've already got it with you.
