science

The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists

The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists 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 Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists rather than just read about it. In short: The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists is the first book in The Pirates! series by Gideon Defoe dealing with a hapless crew of pirates.

Key takeaways

The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists 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 Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists is the first book in The Pirates! series by Gideon Defoe dealing with a hapless crew of pirates. It was published in 2004 by Orion Books (ISBN 0-297-84885-2). The book was adapted into a stop-motion film by Aardman Animations.

Plot The book is set in 1837, and follows the adventures of "The Pirate Captain" and his crew of unorthodox pirates. They meet a young Charles Darwin and Mister Bobo, a highly trained and sophisticated "man-panzee", who have been exiled from London by a rival scientist. Having sunk the Beagle, which he believed was a Bank of England treasure ship thanks to a tip-off from Black Bellamy, the Pirate Captain agrees to take Darwin home and help him defeat his enemies and the very evil and angry Bishop of Oxford.

Characters The Pirate Captain is arrogant, naive and mostly incompetent as a pirate and as a sea captain, but he's ultimately well-meaning and very much respected by his crew. He doesn't appear to possess any of the stereotypical pirate accoutrements, though he dresses in the traditional manner, and much is made of his luxuriant beard. He is said to have a "pleasant, open face", though he is quite successful at terrifying non-pirates. He is also – as are all the rest of his crew – rather obsessed with ham. His pirates are never given names, only descriptions, such as "the pirate with a scarf", "the pirate in green" and "the pirate with gout". These descriptions are used consistently throughout the series for each character, and the pirates occasionally refer to each other using them, but always use "The Pirate Captain" as if it were their captain's name. We are also introduced to Black Bellamy, the Pirate Captain's cunning and black-hearted nemesis, Jennifer, a sensible Victorian Lady who becomes an invaluable member of the crew, Charles Darwin as their helper and the mean Bishop of Oxford as the villain.

Series The book introduces many themes and devices that are revisited throughout the series, including the Pirate Captain's bizarre behaviour and ridiculous schemes; the pirates' love of ham, and in particular the Pirate Captain's prize honey-glazed ham; the relationship between the Pirate Captain and his crew; and the use of footnotes to introduce historical and scientific facts relevant to the narrative.

Film

Aardman Animations in cooperation with Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation has adapted the book into a 3D stop-motion animated film released on March 28, 2012, and directed by Peter Lord, the director of Chicken Run, with the script written by the book's author Gideon Defoe. The movie replaces the Bishop of Oxford with Queen Victoria as the main villain.

References

External links Book review (Archived) A blog written by the author as a continuation of the Pirate Captain's adventures Author's blog

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists 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 Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists 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 Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists 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 Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists

In research: The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists 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 Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists 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 Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2000s comedy novels, 2004 British novels, 2004 English-language novels, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists 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 Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists 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 Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists in simple terms?

The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists is the first book in The Pirates! series by Gideon Defoe dealing with a hapless crew of pirates.

Why does The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists 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 Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists?

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 Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists.