science

The Big Taboo

The Big Taboo 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 The Big Taboo rather than just read about it. In short: The Big Taboo is a variation on the board game Taboo. It incorporates elements from games like Pictionary, Charades, and 25 Words or Less to create a party game with "a little bit of everything".

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

The Big Taboo is a variation on the board game Taboo. It incorporates elements from games like Pictionary, Charades, and 25 Words or Less to create a party game with "a little bit of everything". The game was published in 2008 by Winning Moves Games USA and is no longer in production.

Gameplay To start the game, players divide into two teams. Through describing and correctly guessing keywords, teams advance their respective pawns around a spiraling track. Each round, one person on each team gives clues to his or her teammates, who try to guess as many correct words as they can in the time allotted. The method and rules of clue-giving change each round, depending on the space the pawn landed on. On some spaces, clues are given using the rules of the classic Taboo game. On other spaces, clues must be drawn, limited to 15 words, or acted out using "Bendy Bob", a purple plush character included with the game. Once the round's timer runs out, the team advances its pawn a number of spaces equal to the number of words they guessed correctly that turn. The turn then passes to the other team. Play continues until one team reaches the last space on the track.

References

External links Big Taboo page, Link to Big Taboo page on Winning Moves USA's website Rules, Link to the game's rules on the Winning Moves USA site BoardGameGeek Big Taboo page, Link to the game on Boardgamegeek.com

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with The Big Taboo

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what The Big Taboo 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 The Big Taboo 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 The Big Taboo 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 The Big Taboo

In research: The Big Taboo 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 The Big Taboo 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: The Big Taboo is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Board games introduced in 2008, Party games, Winning Moves games, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for The Big Taboo 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 The Big Taboo in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is The Big Taboo in simple terms?

The Big Taboo is a variation on the board game Taboo. It incorporates elements from games like Pictionary, Charades, and 25 Words or Less to create a party game with "a little bit of everything".

Why does The Big Taboo 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 The Big Taboo?

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 The Big Taboo.