mathematics

RV Polarstern

RV Polarstern 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 RV Polarstern rather than just read about it. In short: RV Polarstern (meaning Polaris) is a German research icebreaker of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) in Bremerhaven, Germany. Polarstern was built by Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft in Kiel and Nobiskrug in Rendsburg, was commissioned in 1982, and is mainly used for research in the Arctic and Antarctica.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

RV Polarstern (meaning Polaris) is a German research icebreaker of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) in Bremerhaven, Germany. Polarstern was built by Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft in Kiel and Nobiskrug in Rendsburg, was commissioned in 1982, and is mainly used for research in the Arctic and Antarctica. The ship has a length of 118 metres (387 feet) and is a double-hulled icebreaker. She is operational at temperatures as low as −50 °C (−58 °F). Polarstern can break through ice 1.5 m (4 ft 11 in) thick at a speed of 5 knots (9.3 km/h; 5.8 mph). Thicker ice of up to 3 m (9.8 ft) can be broken by ramming.

History On 7 September 1991, Polarstern, assisted by the Swedish arctic icebreaker Oden, reached the North Pole as the first conventional powered vessels. Both scientific parties and crew took oceanographic and geological samples and had a common tug of war and a football game on an ice floe. In 2001, Polarstern together with USCGC Healy reached the pole again. She returned for a third time on 22 August 2011. This time she reported the most frequently recurring ice thickness at 0.9 m (2 ft 11 in) compared with 2 m (6 ft 7 in) in 2001. On 2 March 2008, one of the vessel's helicopters crashed on a routine flight to the Antarctic Neumayer II base. The German pilot and a Dutch researcher were killed, and three other passengers were injured. On 17 October 2008, Polarstern was the first research ship ever to travel through both the Northeast Passage and the Northwest Passage in one cruise, thus circumnavigating the North Pole. The German government in 2015 issued a request for bids on the construction of a replacement for Polarstern, but did not award a contract and eventually withdrew the request in early 2020 as it no longer covered current technological demands for a long-term, efficient and economic vessel. On 20 September 2019 Polarstern sailed from Tromsø, Norway, for a 12 to 14 month-long Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) expedition across the Arctic. She settled in an ice floe on 4 October 2019. The aim was drifting with this floe, passing the North pole and eventually reaching open water in the Fram Strait. While stuck in the ice in March 2020, a member of the aircraft team who had not yet joined the ship in the Arctic tested positive for COVID-19. This resulted in the entire aircraft team being placed in isolation in Germany and caused delays in the retrieval of scientific data from around the ship to provide context to the data taken aboard. After 389 days, this 2019 – 2020 arctic expedition successfully ended on 12 October 2020 when the research vessel safely returned to its home port of Bremerhaven, Germany. A revised request for bids for a replacement, reflecting changes in technology since the first was issued, was expected, with Polarstern II possibly ordered in 2022 to enter service in 2026 or 2027. The new vessel could cost over €800m, and could include hybrid diesel-electric propulsion, integrated under-water robotic systems and several helicopter landing options. In 2025 TKMS won the bid and state that construction will begin in 2027, with a predicted enter to service in 2030. The new costs are estimated at €1.2b, the new Polarstern will be around 160 meter long and have an ice class of PC2.

Expeditions updates Current listings of all cruises on board Polarstern as well as associated contents (e.g., tracklines, weekly reports, cruise reports, publications and data) are presented on the platform portal of the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) for Polar and Marine Research.

In popular culture The ship plays a central role in German musician Schiller's 2010 album Atemlos (German for breathless). A track is titled after the ship. It is also featured in the DVD of the same title, showing the musician's expedition on the vessel.

Gallery

References

External links

Official website Current position of Polarstern List of all cruises with links to cruise reports and data Secrets of the seas: Jurassic shrimp, hairy crabs and giant microbes, news article featuring Polarstern

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with RV Polarstern

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what RV Polarstern 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 RV Polarstern 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 RV Polarstern 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 RV Polarstern

In research: RV Polarstern 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 RV Polarstern 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: RV Polarstern is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1982 ships, Bremerhaven, Exploration ships, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for RV Polarstern 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 RV Polarstern in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is RV Polarstern in simple terms?

Why does RV Polarstern 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 RV Polarstern?

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 RV Polarstern.