Acknowledgements All written material contained within this unit originated at the Open University. Except for third party materials and otherwise stated (see terms and conditions), this content is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Licence 1. Join the 200,000 students currently studyi
3.2.1 Try some yourself 1 Use the method outlined in Example 9 to estimate each of the following, and then use yo 2.2.1 Try some yourself 1 Find the following powers by hand, as estimates for calculator work. (a) 107 (b) 108 (c) 34 (d) (−2)2 2.1 The impact of a power Here is a tale based on an ancient Eastern legend, which gives an idea of the impact of raising a number to a power. A long time ago there lived a very rich king whose son's life was saved by a poor old beggar woman. The king was naturally very grateful to the woman, so he offered to 1.3 Square roots Given any number, you now know how to find its square. But, given the squared number, how do you find the original number? If the gardener in Author(s): Learning outcomes By the end of this unit you should be able to: evaluate the squares, cubes and other powers of positive and negative numbers with or without your calculator; estimate square roots and calculate them using your calculator; describe the power notation for expressing numbers; use your calculator to find powers of numbers; multiply and divide powers of the same number; understand and apply negative powers, t 1 Modelling static problems The main teaching text of this unit is provided in the workbook below. The answers to the exercises that you'll find throughout the workbook are given in the answer book. You can access it by clicking on the link under the workbook. Once you have completed the workbook and exercises return to this page and watch the video below, ‘The arch never sleeps’, which discusses a practical application of some of the ideas in workbook. Click 'View document' to open the workbook (PDF, 0.8 2.2.2 Environmental economics and green consumerism In economic terms, green consumerism is typically expressed using measures based on the willingness to pay (WTP) principle. As mentioned above, this takes two main forms: eco-taxation, in which environmental costs are estimated and added to the price of commodities (e.g. vehicles with high carbon emissions); and eco-labelling, in which products are labelled with relevant environmental information, such as is now required by the food industry and governments in many industrialised count 5 Human influence? Evidence suggests that global temperature is beginning to rise. There are several factors that could cause this. Only one is affected by human activity. Click on 'View document' to view a chart showing the rates of energy gain and loss by the Earth's surface and atmosphere 5.1 Pollution and loss of biodiversity Unfortunately, halting the disappearance of species cannot be achieved simply by measures such as putting fences around special habitats and asking people not to pick the flowers or disturb the breeding birds. Many species are vanishing because of pollution. You probably have a good understanding of the meaning of this term, but it is variously defined. The Open University has a course on environmental control and public health, in which pollution is defined as the introduction into th 4.5 Global climate change I would like to turn now to the possible consequences of our use of energy for global climate change. Our pattern of energy use relies heavily on burning carbon-based fossil fuels, releasing carbon dioxide which spreads evenly around the globe and builds up slowly in the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, which means that it has the potential both to warm the atmosphere and to change our global climate. It is not the only greenhouse gas but is the most important of those e 2.1 Environment and technology A central concern of environmental studies is the relationship between technology and our environment: how people use technology to transform materials into forms which can meet our needs and wants. In the process of doing this we inevitably change the environment which provides these materials but which also supports all life. A few moments ago I went to my fridge and took some milk out to add to a cup of coffee. I used this common example of a modern domestic appliance without a secon 6.1 Introduction The international level can be viewed as an arena of politics in its own right and not just as a context for states and other actors. If we think of the international world in this way, how should relations between states, and other actors on the international stage, be constructed? To what extent should those relations be regulated? We can ask whether relations between states, and states' policy making, should be dictated by allegedly universally shared human rights principles, or by other o 2.1 Issues of responsibility The aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami saw an unprecedented aid effort to assist the affected regions. In the early days after the disaster, pledges of financial assistance from overseas governments were often outstripped by the generosity of their own populaces. This was a case when ordinary people around the world saw and were moved by the tragic circumstances of others far away (Rose, 2006), and they responded with gifts of money and provisions, and even with offers of their own sk Module team Gillian Rose, Professor of Cultural Geography Chris Brook, Senior Lecturer in Geography Peter Jackson, Professor of Human Geography, University of Sheffield 2.2 The purpose of this activity For these short video extracts we have chosen to focus on two main viewpoints. Try not to look beyond the outline of the debate, for we are not expecting you to come to a conclusion about who is right and who is wrong – the issues are far too intricate for that. All you need to do is to recognise what the issues are and to be able to identify what arguments each side puts forward in support of its case. The key skill being developed is identifying the arguments used by various individ 1.6 Defining global markets Global markets for manufactured goods, as opposed to, say, primary commodities such as oil and timber, arose largely in the second half of the twentieth century as trade between countries intensified. The lowering of transport costs and the relative fall in trade barriers enabled firms in one country to compete wit 1.1 Aim The activities and resources in this section engage you in an interdisciplinary investigation of your personal ecology by looking at a range of temporal, spatial, and organisational scales – from the personal to the global, from the short term to the long term. The aim is to gather evidence to he 2.4 Oral and written communication Humans use language to communicate. This is an obvious statement, but what is language and how do we use it? Language is basically a set of symbols with associated meanings. These symbols are delivered using a set of rules for stringing the symbols together to generate additional meaning. Humans use mostly sounds to represent these symbols, although as an Italian I can communicate common meanings by only using a range of hand gestures! We string together phonetic sounds to make words, and we 1.1 Aim This study unit introduces you to the proposition that our mental models change through learning, and
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