📓 Navigation Physics Logbook
Y10 Physics — Navigation & Ocean Sciences, Lessons 1–10

Lesson 1: Celestial Navigation — Star Compass (Kāpehu Whetū) & Waka Physics

During the lesson: record, from the anchor video, the evidence wayfinders read from each natural system — stars, sun, ocean, and living signs. Then turn those cues into a labelled Kāpehu Whetū star-compass map for tonight's sky.

Submit:

1. Your model star compass, with at least eight houses named and one star's rising and setting positions marked.
2. Three constellations identified, with the date and time observed or simulated.
3. Your latitude estimate from star altitude, with working and an honest estimate of your error — plus a note of which naming tradition your source followed.

Star names and their associations differ between iwi and across the Pacific. Naming your source is part of doing this accurately, not an optional extra.

Lesson 2: Ocean Wave Physics — Swell Intersections, Refraction & Interference

Submit:

1. Two wave-speed calculations from measured wavelength and frequency, with units.
2. A labelled sketch of refraction around your obstacle.
3. An explanation of how two crossing swells can indicate land beyond the horizon — and what conditions would make that signal hard or impossible to read.

Lesson 3: Hydrodynamics of Waka Hourua — Buoyancy, Drag & Displacement

Submit:

1. Displacement volumes and buoyant-force calculations for three hulls.
2. Your drag measurements, with the towing speed stated.
3. An explanation of why a double hull is more stable than a single hull of the same total volume, using the terms centre of mass and lever arm.

Equal mass means equal buoyant force at flotation. Check whether your three measurements agree — and if they do not, say which measurement you trust least and why.

Lesson 4: Aerodynamics of the Oceanic Crab-Claw Sail — Lift & Vector Forces

Submit:

1. Six force readings across two sails and three angles, with the wind speed stated.
2. A scale vector diagram resolving lift and drag into a driving component.
3. Your revised answer to the Do Now placed beside your first attempt, saying exactly what changed your mind.

Lesson 5: Ocean Currents & Fluid Dynamics — Coriolis Effect & Gyres

Submit:

1. Three turntable traces with rotation direction labelled, and the Southern Hemisphere case identified.
2. Your density-layering results, naming the stronger variable.
3. A mapped Pacific gyre showing the South Equatorial and East Australian currents, with an explanation of how a navigator uses a known current rather than fighting it.

Your hand moved in a straight line; the line on the disc is curved. Nothing pushed the pen sideways. Keep that in front of you — the Coriolis effect is not a force.

Lesson 6: Optical Physics of the Horizon — Atmospheric Refraction & Cloud Reflections

Submit:

1. Three refraction calculations with working, plus the critical angle you found.
2. A sketch of your gradient-tank beam path, explaining why it curves rather than kinks.
3. An explanation of how a stationary bright patch beneath a cloud can indicate a lagoon below the horizon — and what could produce a false positive.

Lesson 7: Bio-Navigation & Ecological Signals — Seabird Flight Ranges & Magnetoreception

Submit:

1. A scale drawing of two intersecting foraging circles, with the land estimate marked.
2. The same estimate recalculated with a crosswind correction, and the shift given in kilometres.
3. A short note on magnetoreception stating what the evidence currently supports and what remains genuinely open.

For (3), keep what is established separate from what is still contested. That distinction is the point of the task.

Lesson 8: Dead Reckoning & Vector Physics — Speed, Heading & Leeway Drift

Submit:

1. A scale vector diagram giving course over ground from heading, current and leeway.
2. Your twelve-hour reckoned position, with full working.
3. The error produced by a one-degree heading mistake in kilometres, with one sentence naming which independent check would catch it soonest.

That last distance is why no navigator trusts reckoning alone.

Lesson 9: Modern Physics vs Wayfinding — GPS Satellites, Atomic Clocks & Relativistic Physics

Submit:

1. Your trilateration construction with the receiver marked, and the fourth-satellite reason explained.
2. Both relativistic corrections with the net daily figure and the resulting position error.
3. A comparison of GPS with wayfinding — what each system needs in order to keep working, and what each one fails at. Note which of the two survives a flat battery.

Lesson 10: Capstone Voyage Simulation

Submit:

1. A complete voyage log with heading, speed, time, corrections and reckoned position for every leg.
2. The independent cross-check used on each leg, and what it told you.
3. An error analysis naming your largest single error, its cause, and the check that would have caught it — closing with one sentence on what a navigation system with no batteries and no satellites demands of the people using it.

This section is marked with the Capstone Voyage Rubric: five criteria across four levels. Year 10 sits at NZC Level 5, before NCEA — those four levels are this unit's own scale, not a national standard and not an NCEA grade.