Foreign Perspectives

Archive for the ‘Physics’ Category

When you’re trying to run a life in two different countries like we are at the moment there’s something of a nightmare in terms of administration load that can backup really fast.

This morning has been one of the days when I’ve tried to make major inroads with it all. Sadly the piles are still there but at least a number of important things have been sorted out this morning.

For a start there’s a heap of communication that needed done re selling our place in France. The combination of French administration plus time delays courtesy of the post mean that it’s sailing along at a snail’s pace and a month can easily go by with no visible signs of progress. Actually, a whole month did go by whilst we were waiting on a letter (nope, won’t fax, won’t email) from one place which I think was down to it being caught in the strikes in London.

Next up was sorting out some stuff re my OU courses. I’ve the flights booked for the residential now which leaves nothing more needing done with that until after the human biology exam in June. Also done was signing up for the Astronomy (S282) course which starts in February. That’s one that I’ve wanted to do for a very long time now but between one thing and another (well, mainly the modern languages degree), far too many years have gone by. That in turn should ease the path towards the astronomy residential in 2011 and indeed get my physics thinking back up to speed again in preparation for S207 in October.

Finally, there’s our Christmas letter which needed tidying up before we get all the cards away. As usual, the prompt for doing that has been the arrival of the Christmas card from Faye in Canada which has consistently been the first one that we’ve received ever since she started sending them.

You probably associate binoculars almost exclusively with birdwatching and indeed there are loads of people running around with “bird watching binoculars”.

What you probably don’t consider is that binoculars are ideal for a whole lot of different types of astronomy too. In fact, if you’re starting out with night sky observing, chances are that you’d be better off getting a decent pair of binoculars than a telescope. Every year, without fail, I get a little e-mail from the chief publicist in our astronomy club pointing out some massive saving to be had on Meade binoculars (that pair at the left is what I bought).

With the long nights, this is pretty much the ideal time to make your purchase, buy a nice warm coat and enjoy the night sky.

Thanks to the funding issues that the Open University are being hit with I find that I, among many others, am having to rejig my planned schedule of courses into something that can seem slightly crazy sometimes.

For instance, to pick up a physics degree I will need to do two summer schools between now and 2011. Those are Observing the universe (SXR208) and Physics by experiment (SXR207).

Of those SXR207 definitely requires you to do The physical world (S207) which means that I need to do it in October 2010. Unfortunately, it has some pre-requisites in the form of a certain amount of mathematical skills so I was originally planning on doing Using mathematics (MST121) starting this February to refresh my 30 year old maths skills from the degree. However, it seems sensible to do at least one of the related courses to SXR208 too which means that the February slot will be filled by one of them.

Fortunately, the OU realise that scientists don’t always want to do major maths courses so there’s Maths for science (S151). Whilst that should be way below my ability in maths it’s a 10 pointer so I could run with that from February to April or July or May to July or October (the 10 point courses can be done over 3 or 6 months). Normally they recommend that you only do that if you’re not going to be doing MST121 but it looks like an easy way to get that refresher that I might need for S207 and besides would add what should be a very easy 10 points towards the degree.

In the February slot I hope to do Astronomy (S282) which will provide half the background for SXR208. Ideally the other half would come from Planetary science and the search for life (S283) but I doing that at the same time as S207 doesn’t appear viable and so I can’t do it ’til November 2011 at the earliest which is after the final presentation of SXR208. Fortunately, the short courses come to the rescue yet again with Planets: an introduction (S196) which I should be able to do alongside S207.

So instead of my sensible sequence of MST121, S207+SXR207, S282, S283, SXR208 I’ve ended up with S282, S151, S207+SXR207, S196, SXR208, S283 and MST121. Slightly peculiar but at least it seems doable, unlike the sequences some other people have been forced into thanks to the funding issue.