TOPT Blog

Dr The Online Physics Tutor Gibson’s Blog

My personal blog on physics, online education, science and skepticism blog. I write this blog to clarify my own thoughts and opinions, and summarise the available evidence. If something interests me I’ll look into it with an open mind, I review the published scientific literature and I see where the evidence takes me. My blog posts are summary of that evidence. If you have something to add please

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How current number grades 9-1 align to old letter A*-U. TOPT translation

4/C and above is considered to be a passing grade. 
7/A and above is a higher pass

We believe part of the reason for the switch numerical grades, was to blur the lines between grades. Previous the cut off between C/D was considered as pass/fail respectively. Not that line is more indistinct, with some places considering 4 or 5 the cut off between pass and fail.

Also numerical grades should allow schools and colleges to be more flexible, or demanding when selecting students for A-level courses, depending on the circumstances of that school. Most school this cut off is a higher pass, but if that is considered 6, 7, or 8 will depend on the school.

There was also the ideal that adding a A** grade in future would not work. Now a grade 9 really translates to an A** and level the possibility of introducing a grade 10, and beyond in the future, with the idea of reflecting increasing standard of education and students.

Full Article, understanding GCSE

The Award winning
The Online Physics Tutor

We won an award, but it is nothing to celebrate

These awards companies are an interesting money making scheme. The way seem to work by giving out as many awards as possible and then getting people to buy their cheap tat at highly inflated prices.

I suspect that a new category is invented for every organisation that enters, therefore everyone wins. Potential more money incoming to these scammers

They say they do selection by making you fill in applications stating why you should be given the award, and these are analysed to select appropriate companies. The first time we were entered I did fill in an application. Subsequent times I became more skeptical, so I didn’t fill in the applications and we still won.

Full Article

Full Article

Good News, Everyone!

Worldwide improvements in education.

Things to be happy about in 2023. An update on my 2020 article.
Ways in which the world is becoming a better place
It’s not all bad, why the world is becoming a better place.

In this article I have focused on data concerning kids and education, to show that even during these tough time the world is becoming a better place, especially for the younger generations.

Science Based Long Covid

The Online Physics Tutor has been suffering from long covid, since first being infected back in November 2021. An anti vaxxer working at his son’s nursery, gave him covid November 2021, and he gave it to The Online Physics Tutor. Previously The Online Physics Tutor had been susceptible to post viral fatigue, but otherwise healthy. He could run 10miles routinely, and did a half iron man in September 2021. Since covid The Online Physics Tutor’s running days are over and he often struggles to leave the house.

He started science based long covid, because he was disappointed with the amount of pseudoscience that he found in long covid support groups, particularly acupuncture, anti vaccine disinformation and ivermectin. Since many long haulers are desperate for something to help, many of them are driven to try anything. The Online Physics Tutor realised this approach would do more harm than good, and wanted to push back. So started science based long covid.

Science Based Long Covid

50 Facts Rewritten

A big part of our job as tutors/teachers is to correct misconceptions. Find where a student is going wrong, explain why that is incorrect and offer a better way of thinking.

Here I have followed that ideal by rewritting fifty popular factiods, and turned them into facts. Click on the links to show why they are true, enjoy.

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What is the universe expanding into?

The universe started with the Big Bang about 13.77 Billion Years ago and has been expanding ever since. We can use telescopes such as Hubble to see the oldest galaxies near to the edge of the universe, some 13.25 light years away, and we can calculate that there are about 170 billion other galaxies occupy the observable universe. All of these Galaxies are moving away from us, which we know because the light from them appears red (aka red shift) and the faster they are moving away the more red they appear. The Andromeda Galaxy, (pictured), is the only exception since its is falling towards our galaxy, and will collide with us in approximately 4 billion years.

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The Myth of Lisa Birgit Holst

Have you heard the "fact" that the average person swallows eight spiders a year in your sleep? Well, it is not true, there is no evidence that it happens and it contradicts both human and spider biology.

But even the source of the original fact is not true. This demonstrates, not only that the internet spreads false facts, but also that false sources can be created, and most people will never check.

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Ghosts and the Laws of thermodynamics

“Ghosts are impossible since they break the laws of thermodynamics.”

Recently a student asked me about this quote by Prof. Brain Cox, asking why it is true, so here it goes: Nothing is ever proven in science, but some things have so much evidence supporting them that they are considered in laws; thermodynamics is one such set of laws. There are four laws of thermodynamics and they can be described as such:

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An introduction to rocket science, the Impossible EM drive and Newtons Laws

Here I will describe the basic principals of rocket science to show why the EM drive is considered impossible, and how Newtons laws can be used to explain the situation
When I first wrote this post back in 2016 NASA’s “impossible” EM drive had received a lot of publicity, after a peer reviewed paper(1) on it was published.