Naked Science Forum
On the Lighter Side => That CAN'T be true! => Topic started by: Hadrian on 14/03/2006 09:45:20
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Beaches all over the world have stuff washed up on them. Could Sherlock Homes tell us what part of the world these two beaches are from? I interested in the process of how you come up with the answer. And what was the first clue that started you thinking towards your answer?
You find the large images are with the links
(https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.activity4life.com%2Fphoto%2F3461.jpg&hash=599e905cd9ae00b0f02057572b104012)
http://www.activity4life.com/photo/346.jpg
(https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.activity4life.com%2Fphoto%2F3471.jpg&hash=9134c0acf8377506afd40c9c82a19d81)
http://www.activity4life.com/photo/347.jpg
What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say.
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im gonna guess ireland!
"your not paranoid if they're really after you"
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Ok…………… this is not about guessing it’s about revelling you method of deduction. It not about being right or wrong but how you got their.
NB they are from different countries.
What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say.
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I surprised that no one has give this a go!
What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say.
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i will guess the northern hemisphere!
ive got a 50% chance of that being right :)
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OK, I'm going to suggest china for the first one, because there seems to be a lot of bamboo in there, and UK for the second one, because it looks like some seagull feathers are in there. plus the pebbles are very smooth, so there must be some good currents out there.
any closer?
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come on Hadrian - am I right? am I? am I???!!!
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Don't you just hate people who leave you hanging[:)] come on hadrian is she right, i feel she deserves to be.
Michael
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quote:
Originally posted by fishytails
come on Hadrian - am I right? am I? am I???!!!
Sorry not china. I should also say one is from Ireland
What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say.
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Picture 1:
What do we see?
Very fine grained sand, almost silt sized.
Light coloured, but not white, so probably mainly silica rather than calcite. (Though a little niggle is saying there is some calcite here.)
A sealed plastic bottle about 1/3 full with condensed water droplets on the upper surface.
A selection of hollow twigs (bamboo? cane?)
A smooth tire track. (Why is it smooth? Smooth tire, or subsequent rain?)
The surface of the sand has been splattered by water. There are individual impact craters that could be raindrops, but the broad blanket of moist material in the lower left, coupled with the absence of any impacts in the upper left, indicate this has been splashed on the surface, possibly by a bather.
The twigs have been casually, but deliberately placed in this area.
There is a small piece of tissue (?) amongst the twigs and a fragment of blue plastic to the upper right.
The length of shadows cast by the twigs indicate the sun is around a thrity five to 40 degree elevation.
What does this tell us?
Frankly not a lot. These projections are highly speculative.
Assuming this is the height of the hemisphere summer, then this cannot be further north (or south) than 65 degrees.
Based upon the condensation in the bottle (a consequence of cooling), I think we are late afternoon, which limits us really to within the tropics. That mathches up with the cane.
The bike track is likely to run parallel to the beach. The splash marks from the bather come form the lower left. That places the beach on the left side of the picture. Since the sun is coming from right, and it is late afternoon, we have an easterly facing beach.
Conclusion:
A Caribbean island, possibly Trinidad, on the East side of the island, in the late afternoon, during the dry season. [There were two people with the photographer at the time.]
Picture 2:
What do we see?
This is a lot more informative.
Dull, overcast day.
Coarse sand - this one is silica.
Pebbles of quartz, jasper, gneiss and basic igneous rocks.
Bicycle track, this one with good treads. (Mountain bike?)
Seaweed - (fucus?)
The twigs have been partially burned. They are of dedciduous trees (and some driftwood). There is an anomalous green leaved fragment, that I suspect may have been placed deliberately.
What does this tell us?
The weather conditions, the deciduous trees tell us this is in the temperate zone.
The fucus (?) says west coast of Europe (Or North America?)
The mix of rock types screams out West Coast of Scotland, or at a pinch the north of Ireland.
ConclusionWest coast of the British Isles, possibly Kintyre.
Observe; collate; conjecture; analyse; hypothesise; test; validate; theorise. Repeat until complete.
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well, I said UK, of which Northern Ireland is a part!
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ok then it was taken in the Republic of Ireland. Not in the UK
What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say.
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So was it the north west part of the Republic?
Observe; collate; conjecture; analyse; hypothesise; test; validate; theorise. Repeat until complete.
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Close South East!!
What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say.
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I just read the earlier posts and I see someone got Ireland from the outset. At least I got the weather, the twigs and the seaweed right. I'm surprised by the pebbles. I need to take a look at the geology of the South East. Perhaps it has some Lower Ordivician material, or even a touch of precambrian. I thought I was looking at Dalradian metamorphics and Tertiary volcanics. Ah well.
What was the green plant?
Observe; collate; conjecture; analyse; hypothesise; test; validate; theorise. Repeat until complete.
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quote:
Originally posted by Ophiolite
I just read the earlier posts and I see someone got Ireland from the outset. At least I got the weather, the twigs and the seaweed right. I'm surprised by the pebbles. I need to take a look at the geology of the South East. Perhaps it has some Lower Ordivician material, or even a touch of precambrian. I thought I was looking at Dalradian metamorphics and Tertiary volcanics. Ah well.
What was the green plant?
The other (Ireland) was a guess. You’re doing very well. There are a lot of mixed beaches on the E to SE coast, fine sand and pure pebble beaches . Yes the green plant could tell you more.
What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say.
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The bluish stones could be confusing as I am sure you get that type of rock in beach defense boulders in Devon, I don't know where else...
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my guess was right and you lot couldnt work it out better using your mighty brains lol
"your not paranoid if they're really after you"
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Hadrian's objective, which he stated more than once, was to see how we went about getting to our answer, not whether the answer was right or not. We seem to have established that I use logic and you use blind chance. In the long haul which would be the more succesful survival strategy?
Observe; collate; conjecture; analyse; hypothesise; test; validate; theorise. Repeat until complete.
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i suppose it was an educated guess as hadrians from ireland and hence pics of the beach would be easiest to get there and as for the survivial prospects of blind chance the sheer luck involved in the mutations that came about over millions of years and evolving into humans then the chance of your ancestors meeting, mating and surviving are all odds of millions if not billions to one yet your here which kind of suggests blind chance can have very good survivial prospects dosent it.
"your not paranoid if they're really after you"
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Evolution does not rely on blind chance. Mutations may be random, but the selection process is anything but.
The only situation in which blind chance is a viable option is when there are zero data to input. This is an extremely rare occurences. People who go by their 'gut feel' are actually using the well established sub-conscious processing power of their brains to do much what it says in my signature below.
Observe; collate; conjecture; analyse; hypothesise; test; validate; theorise. Repeat until complete.
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quote:
Originally posted by Ophiolite
Evolution does not rely on blind chance. Mutations may be random, but the selection process is anything but.
The only situation in which blind chance is a viable option is when there are zero data to input. This is an extremely rare occurences. People who go by their 'gut feel' are actually using the well established sub-conscious processing power of their brains to do much what it says in my signature below.
How right you are Ophiolite. When we detach from our thinking brain and get in touch with our greater inner self we tap in all our knowledge without all the self doubt and fear of being wrong. This is were all true creatively comes from.
What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say.