physics

G. C. Danielson

G. C. Danielson is a physics 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 G. C. Danielson rather than just read about it. In short: Gordon Charles Danielson (October 28, 1912 - September 30, 1983) was a Distinguished Professor in Sciences and Humanities in 1964 at Iowa State University at Ames, Iowa. His name was added to the Distinguished Professor Award Wall in Beardsher Hall.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Gordon Charles Danielson (October 28, 1912 - September 30, 1983) was a Distinguished Professor in Sciences and Humanities in 1964 at Iowa State University at Ames, Iowa. His name was added to the Distinguished Professor Award Wall in Beardsher Hall. A scholarship fund, the Gordon C. Danielson Fund was established in his name. Danielson collaborated with Cornelius Lanczos to write the paper, Some Improvements in Practical Fourier Analysis and their Application to X-ray Scattering from Liquids (1942). The Danielson-Lanczos lemma, which appears in this paper, is the basis of the Cooley–Tukey FFT algorithm, an efficient algorithm for computing the discrete Fourier transform. During World War II, Danielson led the MIT Radiation Laboratory's beacon group, which developed navigation aids to improve the accuracy of Allied bombing raids over Europe. Working closely with the British Branch of the Radiation Laboratory (BBRL), a field station that tested and deployed radar into operations, Danielson's group created systems that allowed aircraft to determine their position using signals from ground-based beacons. In the summer of 1943, his team developed Micro-H, an enhancement to the H₂X airborne radar that enabled bombers to fix their position with greater precision by measuring the time delay of crystal-controlled beacon signals. Danielson also directed the crash program to build the Aspen beacon system, which his team completed in four months after it received top priority in August 1943; by October, the first equipped Liberator had arrived at Bedford Army Air Base for testing. Through 1944, he continued coordinating beacon development between Cambridge and the BBRL station in England. With L. D. Muhlstein he wrote Effects of Ordering on the Transport Properties of Sodium Tungsten Bronze (1967).

References

Effects of Ordering on the Transport Properties of Sodium Tungsten Bronze

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with G. C. Danielson

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what G. C. Danielson claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In physics, 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 G. C. Danielson 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 G. C. Danielson 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 G. C. Danielson

In research: G. C. Danielson appears in physics 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 G. C. Danielson 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: G. C. Danielson is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1912 births, 1983 deaths, 20th-century American physicists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for G. C. Danielson 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.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “G. C. Danielson” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study G. C. Danielson in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is G. C. Danielson in simple terms?

Why does G. C. Danielson matter?

Because it connects several physics 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 G. C. Danielson?

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 G. C. Danielson.