tooquicktostop Posted December 10, 2016 Share Posted December 10, 2016 I help my sisters little one (11) with her homework from time to time, her grandad is helping her tonight and has asked me to check the questions as he is finding it challenging, we just had over an hour of discussion on the answers and how they are to be interpretated from the questions and I have to say it puzzles me why they are quite so complex for an 11 year old who is totally confused, I also still think the questions are open to interpretation and this is wrong in basic level maths/science Anyone else come across this quesion in the school year and had similar feelingsor have me and dad lost it !! 7Id/6 John Tyndall and the Matterhorn John Tyndall (1820–1893) was born in Ireland. He was a surveyor and a railway engineer before becoming a scientist. One of the things he was interested in was studying glaciers, and he went to the Alps nearly every year. He was the first person to reach the top of the Weisshorn (4505 m high), and climbed Mont Blanc (4807 m) several times. In 1860 he had attempted to climb the Matterhorn (4478 m) and reached nearly 4000 m before having to turn back – but that was the highest anyone had ever been at the time. There is a story that Tyndall calculated that the amount of energy needed to climb the Matterhorn was contained in a ham sandwich, so that was all the food he took with him! We can do some rough calculations to see if he was right, and if we think the story is true. FACT FILE • In theory, it takes 1 J of energy to lift a 1 N weight by 1 m. This is the amount of energy it would take for a machine to lift 1 N, if it didn’t waste any energy. • The nearest town to the Matterhorn is Zermatt, which is 1620m above sea level. • The Matterhorn can be climbed and descended in 2 days. • We don’t know how big Tyndall was, or how much he was carrying, but we can make some assumptions. He could have weighed 800 N, and his rucksack, boots and clothes could have weighed something like 200N. • An adult male needs to take in 10600kJ of energy a day just to stay alive, to keep warm and do normal things like eating and talking. • A modern mountaineering guide book recommends that the daily energy requirements should be increased by 10% for every 500m climbed, another 10% if the weather or the ground is snowy or icy, and another 10% if a heavy rucksack is being carried. • A thick slice of bread contains about 400 kJ, a portion of butter contains 200 kJ, and generous slice of ham contains 250 kJ. • 1 kJ = 1000 J. Page 1 of 2 Exploring Science for QCA Copymaster File 7 424 © Pearson Education Limited 2002 7Id Page 2 of 2 7Id/6 John Tyndall and the Matterhorn (continued) S numeracy 1 a How far would Tyndall have climbed if he started from Zermatt? Remember that he was aiming for the top! b How much energy would it take to lift his total weight this far? Give your answer in kilojoules. 2 a How much energy would Tyndall have needed just to stay alive for 2 days? b What is 10% of this amount of energy? c How much extra energy would Tyndall have needed for the climbing he was going to do? (Hint: round your answer to question 1a up to the nearest 1000 m, then divide by 500. Multiply this answer by your answer to part b.) d The Matterhorn usually has ice and snow on it, and Tyndall was probably carrying a rucksack. How much extra energy would he need for these reasons? e How much total energy would he have needed? 3 Now work out how much energy is stored in a ham sandwich. (Remember there are usually two slices of bread!) 4 a How does the energy in a ham sandwich compare with your answer to question 1? b How many sandwiches would Tyndall have had to take if he only needed the energy you calculated in question 1? 5 a How does the energy in a ham sandwich compare with your answer to question 2? b Do you think John Tyndall really set off up the Matterhorn with only a ham sandwich? Try to explain your answer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Digsy Posted December 10, 2016 Share Posted December 10, 2016 I also still think the questions are open to interpretation and this is wrong in basic level maths/science Its certainly complex, but as far as I could see from reading it through all the information is there to answer the questions. Some of them are not very well worded, however. For example, 1b does not specify if hie "total weight" includes his rucksack or not but the information suggests it would. Then 1d specifically mentions the rucksack as a separate item so it might be tempting to go back and remove the rucksack allowance from the answer to 1b and calculate it separately. 5b is the only part which is really open to interpretation and not strictly down to a calculation. Its been 34 years since I was 11 and for 24 of those I have been a professional engineer so I find it hard to look back and remember if I could have answered a question like this when I was 11. I do recall questions of similar complexity in my O-levels, though, which would have been 4 or 5 years later, so I suspect I would have struggled with this at 11. Then again I have no idea what an 11 year old is taught these days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tooquicktostop Posted December 10, 2016 Author Share Posted December 10, 2016 Its certainly complex, but as far as I could see from reading it through all the information is there to answer the questions. Some of them are not very well worded, however. For example, 1b does not specify if hie "total weight" includes his rucksack or not but the information suggests it would. Then 1d specifically mentions the rucksack as a separate item so it might be tempting to go back and remove the rucksack allowance from the answer to 1b and calculate it separately. 5b is the only part which is really open to interpretation and not strictly down to a calculation. Its been 34 years since I was 11 and for 24 of those I have been a professional engineer so I find it hard to look back and remember if I could have answered a question like this when I was 11. I do recall questions of similar complexity in my O-levels, though, which would have been 4 or 5 years later, so I suspect I would have struggled with this at 11. Then again I have no idea what an 11 year old is taught these days. Well that is a relief as we both agree that you answer questions 1a 1b etc and then 1d mentions adding 10% for a rucksack, we then both went back and removed the rucksack, mathmatics asise the "story" then makes no sense as he would have a rucksack and there would be ice on the Matterhorn, perhaps at my tender 45 years I am over thinking it but it does seem very complex and no single answer jumps out at me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Digsy Posted December 10, 2016 Share Posted December 10, 2016 I'm on the wrong side of a couple of pints of Guinness so its taking some time to sink in, but if you look at questions 1a to 1d the information needed to answer them is given in the same order in the paragraphs above. I think what they want is for 1b to include all the weight (i.e. with rucksack and everything) but just be the energy for the act of lifting the vertical distance calculated in 1a. 2a is a simple calc for the energy to stay alive without doing additional work. 2b is set up for 2c, calculating 10% of the basic "stay alive energy" which is the extra required to climb 500m. 2c itself is a let-up as they tell you how to do it, rounding up to the nearest 1000m to save on complex division problem. 2d is just calculating the "extra energy" required to survive when walking with a rucksack (+10%) over snow and ice (+10%) again using the answer from 2b. What is not clear here is whether these extra allowances are also dependent upon the height being climbed, or a constant. 2e is the sum of everything calculated so far. Anyway, I recommend you don't let your sister's girl have a couple of tinnies before she takes on the question Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Annabella Posted December 10, 2016 Share Posted December 10, 2016 You're spot on with interpretation, causes arguments and tantrums in this household as some of the questions are ambiguous at best! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex_GT Posted December 10, 2016 Share Posted December 10, 2016 Is this a test of abstracting the information down rather than actually figuring out the answer? What I mean is, 90% of the words that make up the question aren't actually relevant. Why is the birth and death year of John Tyndall, his work experience and where he liked to go on holiday germane to the actual question? Although with the copyright being 2002, it seems that this question has been around for a while. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Digsy Posted December 10, 2016 Share Posted December 10, 2016 It could also be that as long as you get the sums you attempt correct, it doesn't actually matter if they are the right sums, or if they actually correctly answer the question or not, but that's probably a dangerous assumption. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Digsy Posted December 10, 2016 Share Posted December 10, 2016 Incidentally, if you are looking for another badly worded question... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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