astronomy

George Barker Jeffery

George Barker Jeffery 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 George Barker Jeffery rather than just read about it. In short: George Barker Jeffery FRS (9 May 1891 – 27 April 1957) was a leading mathematical physicist in the early twentieth century. He is probably best known to the scientifically literate public as the translator of papers by Albert Einstein, Hendrik Lorentz, and other fathers of relativity theory.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

George Barker Jeffery FRS (9 May 1891 – 27 April 1957) was a leading mathematical physicist in the early twentieth century. He is probably best known to the scientifically literate public as the translator of papers by Albert Einstein, Hendrik Lorentz, and other fathers of relativity theory.

Career Jeffery was born in 1891 and educated at Strand School, Wilson's School and at King's College London. In 1909 he qualified as a teacher at the London Day Training College and graduated from University College London in 1911. From 1912 to 1921 Jeffery served as Assistant Lecturer in Applied Mathematics at University College, London. He was a research student and assistant of L. N. G. Filon. In 1921 he became University Reader in Mathematics at University College. In 1922 he was appointed Professor of Mathematics at King's College London. In 1924 he returned to University College as Astor Professor of Pure Mathematics (upon the retirement of M. J. M. Hill in 1923). In 1945 Jeffery was appointed Director of the newly established University of London Institute of Education, where he became interested in the problems of West African education. He also participated actively in the Secondary School Examinations Council, the National Advisory Council on the Training and Supply of Teachers, the New Education Fellowship, the Advisory Council on Education in the Colonies, and the Association of Teachers in Colleges and Departments of Education. He was also a member of the National Foundation for Educational Research. He retired from the Institute in 1957 and died the same year.

Contributions In 1922 Jeffery published a paper describing the motion of ellipsoidal particles in a viscous fluid and setting out what are now known as Jeffery's equations. In 1923, with W. Perrett, he published what has become the definitive English translation of the seminal papers on relativity by Einstein, Lorenz, Weyl and Minkowski. In connection with this work, he corresponded with Einstein and others. In 1926, together with O. Baldwin, he published a paper presenting the gravitational plane waves, which are widely regarded as one of the most important of all exact solutions of the Einstein field equation in general relativity. Jeffery was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1926 and served as Vice-President from 1938 to 1940. He was invited in October 1949 by the British Secretary of State for the Colonies to visit West Africa to study and advise on a "proposal that there should be instituted a West African School Examinations Council". He visited the Gambia, Sierra Leone, Ghana (then called The Gold Coast) and Nigeria from December 1949 to March 1950. His report (since known as the Jeffery Report), published in March 1950, strongly supported the proposal for a West African Examinations Council and made detailed recommendations on the composition and duties of the Council. The recommendations were adopted in full.

Personal life He was born on 9 May 1891. In 1916 he married Elizabeth Schofield. Jeffery was a Quaker, and in 1916 in the First World War spent a short time in prison as a conscientious objector, and further time at the Home Office Work Centre in Wakefield. In 1934 he gave the Swarthmore Lecture to the Yearly Meeting of Quakers, under the title Christ, Yesterday And Today. He died on 27 April 1957.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with George Barker Jeffery

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what George Barker Jeffery 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 George Barker Jeffery 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 George Barker Jeffery 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 George Barker Jeffery

In research: George Barker Jeffery 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 George Barker Jeffery 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: George Barker Jeffery is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1891 births, 1957 deaths, Academics of University College London, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for George Barker Jeffery 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 George Barker Jeffery in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is George Barker Jeffery in simple terms?

Why does George Barker Jeffery 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 George Barker Jeffery?

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 George Barker Jeffery.