astronomy

Vicki Hyde

Vicki Hyde is a astronomy 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 Vicki Hyde rather than just read about it. In short: Vicki Cathryn Hyde (née Spong, born 1962) is a New Zealand science writer and editor, and former chair-entity of the New Zealand Skeptics. She is co-owner with her husband Peter of a New Zealand-based software and web development company, Webcentre Ltd.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Vicki Cathryn Hyde (née Spong, born 1962) is a New Zealand science writer and editor, and former chair-entity of the New Zealand Skeptics. She is co-owner with her husband Peter of a New Zealand-based software and web development company, Webcentre Ltd. Hyde resides in Christchurch. She gained a BSc in psychology and a BA in sociology from the University of Canterbury and represented her alma mater in the television series University Challenge in 1980. She was the team manager the following year in 1981, when Canterbury won the title. She was a founder of the KAOS (Killing As Organised Sport) club at the University of Canterbury in 1981. Following her studies she lived in Japan before returning to New Zealand in 1989. Hyde is best known as the managing editor of the popular science portal site SciTechDaily, which she began as a sister site to Arts & Letters Daily soon after the latter was launched in 1998 by her friend, Denis Dutton. Hyde's company also worked with Dutton in 1998 to launch the Cybereditions e-book and print-on-demand publishing operation, which Webcentre owns outright. Hyde was also founder and managing editor of New Zealand Science Monthly magazine which was published for the full decade from 1990 to 2000. During that time she authored Godzone Skies, Astronomy for New Zealanders and helped launch and market Webcentre's flagship TurboNote software. Hyde won the New Zealand Association of Scientists science journalism award in 1999. She was the long-standing Chair-Entity of the New Zealand Skeptics (NZ Committee for Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal, Inc). In her leisure time, Hyde can be found in an alternate persona as a Baroness of Southron Gaard, a branch of the international Society for Creative Anachronism.

In the 2013 New Year Honours, Hyde was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to science. She was elected a Companion of Royal Society Te Apārangi in 2001.

Publications Godzone Skies, Astronomy for New Zealanders, (1992) ISBN 0-908812-19-1 Night skies above New Zealand (2003) ISBN 1-86966-033-1 Oddzone: Paranormal Phenomena, Alien Abductions, Animal Mysteries, Psychics and Mediums and Other Weird Kiwi Stuff, (2006) ISBN 978-1-86966-143-4

References

External links ScitechDaily Webcentre New Zealand Science Monthly

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Vicki Hyde

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

In research: Vicki Hyde appears in astronomy 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 Vicki Hyde 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: Vicki Hyde is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1962 births, Companions of the Royal Society of New Zealand, Contestants on New Zealand game shows, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Vicki Hyde 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 Vicki Hyde in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Vicki Hyde in simple terms?

Why does Vicki Hyde matter?

Because it connects several astronomy 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 Vicki Hyde?

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 Vicki Hyde.