science

RRS Discovery II

RRS Discovery II is a science 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 RRS Discovery II rather than just read about it. In short: RRS Discovery II was a British Royal Research Ship which, during her operational lifetime of about 30 years, carried out considerable hydrographical and marine biological survey work in Antarctic waters and the Southern Ocean in the course of the Discovery Investigations research program. Built in Port Glasgow, launched in 1928 and completed in 1929, she was the first purpose-built oceanographic research vessel and…

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

RRS Discovery II was a British Royal Research Ship which, during her operational lifetime of about 30 years, carried out considerable hydrographical and marine biological survey work in Antarctic waters and the Southern Ocean in the course of the Discovery Investigations research program. Built in Port Glasgow, launched in 1928 and completed in 1929, she was the first purpose-built oceanographic research vessel and was named after Robert Falcon Scott's 1901 ship, RRS Discovery.

Career The ship's maiden voyage took place from December 1929 to May 1931 and consisted of a hydrographic survey of the South Sandwich Islands. From October 1932 until May 1933 she operated in the Antarctic, calling at South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. Similar voyages took place from 1934 to 1939 during which she supplied the British Graham Land expedition. Her last voyage before the onset of war was from September 1937 to May 1939. In December 1935 and January 1936, the ship was involved in a successful rescue of American polar explorer and aviator Lincoln Ellsworth and his English copilot Herbert Hollick-Kenyon after their aircraft ditched in the Ross Sea near the Bay of Whales. During the Second World War she served with the Royal Fleet Auxiliary, mainly in the North Atlantic, before resuming her Antarctic survey work after the war ended. Her final Antarctic voyage in the Discovery Investigations series took place from May 1950 to December 1951, in the course of which she circumnavigated the Antarctic continent and discovered four seamounts, three in the Indian Ocean and one in the Pacific Ocean. From 1952 she mainly undertook oceanographical work in the North Atlantic. She was decommissioned in 1962 and broken up the following year.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with RRS Discovery II

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what RRS Discovery II claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, 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 RRS Discovery II 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 RRS Discovery II 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 RRS Discovery II

In research: RRS Discovery II appears in science 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 RRS Discovery II 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: RRS Discovery II is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1928 ships, Exploration of Antarctica, History of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for RRS Discovery II 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.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “RRS Discovery II” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study RRS Discovery II in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is RRS Discovery II in simple terms?

Why does RRS Discovery II matter?

Because it connects several science 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 RRS Discovery II?

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 RRS Discovery II.