Comments on a simple research question... go figure.

[JF060392]

Any one else see anything wrong with this?

 

[TecHNooB]

plausible is spelled wrong

 

[CycloWizard]

With the thesis for the paper or the response to it? The response is fail, but the thesis is probably ok and could make an interesting paper. Also, as Technoob said, plausable!=plausible.

 

[PsiStar]

They are not English majors. EE PhD candidates that I worked with in the past couldn't spell "lassi" correctly so I am not surprised.

To the point, I understand the prof's point of view as the "paper" has to play to the understandings of the prof. which he is expressing. First is not being about to garner *any* detailed information outside the Milky Way. Or, what is the current thinking about what happens as living organisms approach the intense gravitational field of a black how ... assumed intense gravitational differential.

So I think that to get the grade, play to the prof's position ... else will require a lot of expertly written, indisputable, irrefutable argument to support your position that would be based on only your own "expert" opinion and "expert" thought experiments & logic. If you can do that, do that ... to get through a class with a good grade ... I personally would cave for the moment given that you can write an expert opinion & theory later in life. But that is just me. :hmm:

 

[jhu]

What was the "A" answer?

 

[fail]

"Why has humanity not explored and/or colonized regions in and beyond our own solar system?"



Is that "research question" for an elementary school science report? Or a "research question" for a science fiction writing class?

 

[maddie]

The question is valid to me.

Besides the English errors, the criticism and advice shows much ignorance of science & engineering.

Distance from sun as being the main factor for temperature. You can freeze in the shade near to Mercury and it's simple to heat objects in space. Hell, we can freeze easily in many places on earth.

The assumption and apparent belief that travel beyond our galaxy is barred. I guess photons are special, after all.

That the black hole question is a valid one and the original one implausible is quite frankly shocking.

 

[JF060392]

The question is valid to me.

Besides the English errors, the criticism and advice shows much ignorance of science & engineering.

Distance from sun as being the main factor for temperature. You can freeze in the shade near to Mercury and it's simple to heat objects in space. Hell, we can freeze easily in many places on earth.

The assumption and apparent belief that travel beyond our galaxy is barred. I guess photons are special, after all.

That the black hole question is a valid one and the original one implausible is quite frankly shocking.

I too was shocked by the criticism.

 

[Sunny129]

wow, by the specifics of the thesis, one would think that is a thesis fort a science course/science major. but if that were true, you never would have gotten such uninformed feedback from your professor. what course is this for, or, if not for a particular course, what degree?

 

[JF060392]

wow, by the specifics of the thesis, one would think that is a thesis fort a science course/science major. but if that were true, you never would have gotten such uninformed feedback from your professor. what course is this for, or, if not for a particular course, what degree?

Physics major taking English 101 for gen ed

 

[Murloc]

I don't understand what a research question is and what is he talking about.
Who's writing, and what did he have to say about the question? or did he have to answer it? Who wrote the question?

 

[JF060392]

I don't understand what a research question is and what is he talking about.
Who's writing, and what did he have to say about the question? or did he have to answer it? Who wrote the question?

I was assigned to write the question to guide my research in the topic of my choosing which was advancements in interstellar propulsion research. The comments under the typed question were by a peer editor who clearly is ignorant to say the least.

 

[fail]

I too was shocked by the criticism.

Can you clarify your little story? Why would you be "shocked" over "peer" comments made in a "English 101" class?

 

[fail]

..

 

[DrPizza]

I think I would write a very strong rebuttal that demonstrates that the response to the thesis question was... moronic. But would do so pleasantly while stating that you would take the professor's advice and direct the research question elsewhere.

And, the problem in space wouldn't be freezing to death - the professor is probably thinking about the movie Apollo13 where it got cold inside with everything turned off.

Oh, and I almost forgot - the response, on the outside, is correct - it's not feasible to have explored beyond our solar system. We haven't explored regions beyond our solar system because we can't get there. We've sent out satellites 3 or 4 decades ago to get close-ups of the gas giants in our solar system. None of those have made it out of the solar system yet. Not even close. They're only a couple percent of the way to the edge of our solar system. Planet "Tyche" might be out toward the outer edge of our solar system, 15,000 times the distance from the Sun to the Earth away from the Sun. The Earth is 93 million miles from the Sun. At even 40,000 miles per hour, well... you do the math.

 

[maddie]

Can you clarify your little story? Why would you be "shocked" over "peer" comments made in a "English 101" class?

I would assume that as inhabitants of a technological civilization we have a basic understanding of our world.

I know many scientific/engineering individuals who play musical instruments, participate in the arts as a hobby, etc, etc.

The reverse appears to be much rarer, sad to say.

 

[jhu]

I was assigned to write the question to guide my research in the topic of my choosing which was advancements in interstellar propulsion research. The comments under the typed question were by a peer editor who clearly is ignorant to say the least.

I see. Peer editor fail. The obvious answer is money.

 

[Paul98]

LOL at the "good" research ideas that are given in the reply. Are those serious questions that the teacher has?

But since it's more about the writing and research, maybe do something about the problems and solutions of human space travel. Or the problems and solutions of colonizing and alien world.

 

[silverpig]

I think I would write a very strong rebuttal that demonstrates that the response to the thesis question was... moronic. But would do so pleasantly while stating that you would take the professor's advice and direct the research question elsewhere.

And, the problem in space wouldn't be freezing to death - the professor is probably thinking about the movie Apollo13 where it got cold inside with everything turned off.

Oh, and I almost forgot - the response, on the outside, is correct - it's not feasible to have explored beyond our solar system. We haven't explored regions beyond our solar system because we can't get there. We've sent out satellites 3 or 4 decades ago to get close-ups of the gas giants in our solar system. None of those have made it out of the solar system yet. Not even close. They're only a couple percent of the way to the edge of our solar system. Planet "Tyche" might be out toward the outer edge of our solar system, 15,000 times the distance from the Sun to the Earth away from the Sun. The Earth is 93 million miles from the Sun. At even 40,000 miles per hour, well... you do the math.

I believe Voyager II and one of the Pioneers are past the heliopause now.

 

[jibberegg]

I think this would be quite interesting to talk about. The lack of extraterrestrial human colonies is a socio-political one as much as anything else. If the USSR hadn't taken it's foot off the gas in the 1970s as far as the space race goes then we could well have had them. The technological issues are only a small part of the problem; the real stumbling block is political will to commit resources. People tend to forget just how expensive the moon landings were. NASA's budget was a significant % of GDP. The Apollo program itself was 0.8% of GDP, a colossal amount when you consider the GDP of the USA is now $14.7 trillion. NASA believes that support for large programs would top out at 0.25% of GDP currently; no where near the amount required for setting up extraterrestrial colonies.

SOURCES:
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/apollo.epilog.html
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/us.html

 

[disappoint]

I believe Voyager II and one of the Pioneers are past the heliopause now.

As Voyager 1 heads for interstellar space, its instruments continue to study the solar system; Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientists are using the plasma wave experiments aboard Voyager 1 and 2 to look for the heliopause, the boundary at which the solar wind transitions into the interstellar medium.
Scientists at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory believe that Voyager 1 entered the termination shock in February 2003.[13] Some other scientists have expressed doubt, discussed in the journal Nature of November 6, 2003.[14] In a scientific session at the American Geophysical Union meeting in New Orleans on the morning of May 25, 2005, Dr. Ed Stone presented evidence that Voyager 1 crossed the termination shock in December 2004.
The issue will not be resolved until other data becomes available, since Voyager 1's solar-wind detector ceased functioning in 1990. This failure has meant that termination shock detection must be inferred from the data from the other instruments on board.[citation needed]
However, in May 2005 a NASA press release said that consensus was that Voyager 1 was now in the heliosheath.[15] Scientists anticipate that the craft will reach the heliopause in 2015.
Voyager 1 is the farthest human-made object from Earth, traveling away from both the Earth and the Sun at a relatively faster speed than any other probe.

 

[jibberegg]

Nice diagram there! So basically the furthest away a man made object has made it from Earth, in 33 years, is less than 0.1% of the way to our (2nd) nearest star. Ouch.

 

[maddie]

I think this would be quite interesting to talk about. The lack of extraterrestrial human colonies is a socio-political one as much as anything else. If the USSR hadn't taken it's foot off the gas in the 1970s as far as the space race goes then we could well have had them. The technological issues are only a small part of the problem; the real stumbling block is political will to commit resources. People tend to forget just how expensive the moon landings were. NASA's budget was a significant % of GDP. The Apollo program itself was 0.8% of GDP, a colossal amount when you consider the GDP of the USA is now $14.7 trillion. NASA believes that support for large programs would top out at 0.25% of GDP currently; no where near the amount required for setting up extraterrestrial colonies.

SOURCES:
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/apollo.epilog.html
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/us.html

I am not a believer in a one world government for personal reasons, but one obvious benefit would be the release of huge sums presently invested in the military complexes worldwide, to other human goals.

The expansion beyond earth comes to mind as a truly worthy exercise.

As is obvious, I am a SF fan and O'Neill is one of my hero visionaries.

 

[Ninjahedge]

Ignorant reply.

The question is too open ended, but the answer makes no sense.

I think what they are saying is that they think it would be too difficult to make a COLONY in many places of the galaxy do to the proximity or removal from the Sun or other star, but I think it is also a confused conglomeration of different ideas.

The Galaxy and Solar System seem to be used almost interchangably here which leads me to believe that they are thinking of Solar colonization (Mercury, Venus, Neptune) and not actual Galactic exploration.....


Maybe you need to bend your question to what his misconception is a bit.

His question seems to be more in line woth the shear distances involved and how you could overcome that, which is almost the answer to your own question.

Why have we not gone beyond our solar system? Well, why can't we go beyond our own Galaxy? Same question, really, just larger scale.

Start with his question, and then narrow it down to our own and the distances that MIGHt be attainable in our own tecnological level.

(Where can we go BEFORE we have a "warp drive" or "Stargate"...etc) and, more importantly, how.

I would talk to him in person first and try to expand on what was scribbled on your sheet. If you do not communicate, you will probably not give him what he wants. And one thing I learned in College, more than just the subject matter itself, is that when you are dealing with somethingthat is not hard and fast, somethnig that is based on opinion and conjecture, it is always better to find out what the person grading your paper things first and agree with them than to write something on your own and piss them off.

Life lesson. It sucks, but unless you have the next theory of relativity, there is no sense in losing a grade over something like "Why can't we go to other galaxies".....

 

[Jeff7]

I would assume that as inhabitants of a technological civilization we have a basic understanding of our world.

I know many scientific/engineering individuals who play musical instruments, participate in the arts as a hobby, etc, etc.

The reverse appears to be much rarer, sad to say.

Scientific ignorance in some cultures can be quite astonishing. Couple that with the culture in the US where being smart and well-educated is seen as a negative thing (nerd, elitist), and you've got yourself a recipe for a bunch of morons who know nothing of the basics of how their world works.



And yeah, that written response is......out there.
The idea of exploring and colonizing beyond the solar system is not a plausible idea, and yet the suggestion is for a paper on why exploring even farther away somehow is plausible, or asking about going "through" a black hole, as if it's some kind of wormhole.
That's a 1-sentence paper: The black hole's gravity will rip apart anything that attempts to approach or cross the event horizon, after which point our laws of physics go straight to hell.

Seems like this peer reviewer learned all he knows about science from bad 1950's movies on Sci-Fi.