mathematics

Hansa Carrier

Hansa Carrier is a mathematics 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 Hansa Carrier rather than just read about it. In short: Hansa Carrier was a container ship. On 27 May 1990, en route from Korea to the United States, the ship encountered a storm which caused the loss of 21 40-foot cargo containers south of the Alaska Peninsula.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Hansa Carrier was a container ship. On 27 May 1990, en route from Korea to the United States, the ship encountered a storm which caused the loss of 21 40-foot cargo containers south of the Alaska Peninsula. Five of these cargo containers contained 61,000 Nike shoes, each of which carried a unique serial number which later made it possible to clearly identify them as part of the spilled cargo. The "Great Shoe Spill of 1990" was one of the several occasions when shipping accidents have contributed to the knowledge of ocean currents and aided scientists and amateur researchers in their endeavours.

Importance to oceanography After hearing of the accident, oceanic scientist Curtis Ebbesmeyer seized the opportunity: He established links with beachcombers and formed a network of people reporting the landfall of the contents of this and other spills. Using OSCURS (Ocean Surface Currents Simulation), a computer simulator developed by oceanographer Jim Ingraham, Ebbesmeyer tracked the oceanic movement of the Hansa Carrier spill and other flotsam, including 34,000 ice hockey gloves washed off the Hyundai Seattle in 1994. In the case of the Hansa Carrier spill, reports from beachcombers revealed that the first 200 shoes started arriving at the northern Washington coast around Thanksgiving 1990, about 6 months after the spill. Beachcomber finds in January–February 1991 off Vancouver Island and in March 1991 in Queen Charlotte Sound showed that the aggregate mass of shoes next floated northward with the winter Davidson Current. The normal spring wind transition from southerly winds of winter to northerly winds of summer off the Pacific northwest coast must have occurred at the end of March 1991, because the next batch of recoveries was reported to the south off Oregon in April and May, indicating that a sharp reversal of currents had moved the flotilla to the south.

See also The North Pacific Gyre is the part of the Pacific Ocean where the spill took place

References

Ebbesmeyer, Curtis C., and Ingraham, W. James Jr.; Shoe Spill in the North Pacific, Eos (Transactions of the American Geophysical Union), 73:361, 1992.

External links How Nikes, toys and hockey gear help ocean science If the Shoe Fits – Alaska Science Forum Archived 2006-09-01 at the Wayback Machine Beachcombers' Alert

48°N 161°W

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Hansa Carrier

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Hansa Carrier claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In mathematics, 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 Hansa Carrier 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 Hansa Carrier 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 Hansa Carrier

In research: Hansa Carrier appears in mathematics 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 Hansa Carrier 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: Hansa Carrier is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1988 ships, Container ships, IMO numbers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Hansa Carrier 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 Hansa Carrier in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Hansa Carrier 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 Hansa Carrier out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Hansa Carrier in simple terms?

Why does Hansa Carrier matter?

Because it connects several mathematics 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 Hansa Carrier?

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 Hansa Carrier.