Block 4 Part 2 complete

I've completed the study of Block 4 Part 2 (Road Transport). It was particularly interesting to read a little about how GPS works

It's beyond the scope of the T175 level 1 module, but it's also interesting (and somewhat bewildering) to note that GPS systems have to take into account effects predicted by the theories of special and general relativity - "time dilation" due to the relative motion of the satellites (they are not geostationary), and time compression due to closer proximity of Earth-bound clocks to a massive object (i.e., the Earth). The combined effect, according to this article published by the Ohio State University is that GPS satellites seem to gain about 38 microseconds per day compared with earth-bound clocks - and if the GPS system didn't account for this, it would have been hopelessly inaccurate within hours.

I don't have even a superficial understanding of special or general relativity (who does?) because every time I read about it, it makes no real sense - so I forget about it within minutes!

Block 4 Part 2 Started, TMA04 Started

I've completed question 4 of TMA04, which relates to work done in Block 3, thereby avoiding the need to revisit Block 3. Also question 1 relating to Block 4 part 1 is complete, so that I needed only a cursory glance at the part 1 material - I'd only just completed it. This does indeed seem to work better than saving up the whole TMA. Still took a surprising amount of time, though!

Pretty much halfway through the alarmingly thick Block 4 printed book now, which is an important psychological milestone :-)

Block 4 Part 1 completed

Just completed Block 4 Part 1 (Health). Whilst it isn't exceptionally difficult material, there are a lot of activities that I find very time consuming if I want to do them all properly, so I'm having to put the hours in!

I've made a start on CMA43, answering the questions that relate to Part 1 (and Block 3). I'm also likely to tackle TMA04 question 1, relating to Part 1 - thereby taking heed of the lesson learnt previously when leaving the whole TMA until after completing a whole block.

That's the theory, anyway.