physics

Ghosts of the Tsunami

Ghosts of the Tsunami is a physics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Ghosts of the Tsunami rather than just read about it. In short: Ghosts Of The Tsunami: Death and Life in Japan's Disaster Zone is a 2017 non-fiction book written by Richard Lloyd Parry, an English reporter who lived in Japan and reported about events there for years before the 2011 Japanese tsunami, in particular, the fatal decision-making leading to the drowning of the 74 students and 10 teachers of Ogawa Elementary School (石巻市立大川小学校). In this book, Parry examines and recounts…

Key takeaways

Ghosts of the Tsunami belongs to physics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Ghosts of the Tsunami to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Ghosts of the Tsunami from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Ghosts Of The Tsunami: Death and Life in Japan's Disaster Zone is a 2017 non-fiction book written by Richard Lloyd Parry, an English reporter who lived in Japan and reported about events there for years before the 2011 Japanese tsunami, in particular, the fatal decision-making leading to the drowning of the 74 students and 10 teachers of Ogawa Elementary School (石巻市立大川小学校). In this book, Parry examines and recounts the devastating impact of the 2011 tsunami on Japanese survivors, communities and society at large, including years later. "It's a...chronicle of a disaster that, six years later, still seems incomprehensible."

Awards and honours

2018 Folio Prize

References

External links Publisher's book website on Google Books

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Ghosts of the Tsunami

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Ghosts of the Tsunami claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In physics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Ghosts of the Tsunami before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Ghosts of the Tsunami ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Ghosts of the Tsunami

In research: Ghosts of the Tsunami appears in physics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Ghosts of the Tsunami in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Ghosts of the Tsunami is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2017 non-fiction books, Books about nuclear issues, Books about the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Ghosts of the Tsunami outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Ghosts of the Tsunami in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Ghosts of the Tsunami means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Ghosts of the Tsunami out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Ghosts of the Tsunami in simple terms?

Why does Ghosts of the Tsunami matter?

Because it connects several physics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Ghosts of the Tsunami?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Ghosts of the Tsunami.