physics

Gordon Shrum

Gordon Shrum 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 Gordon Shrum rather than just read about it. In short: Gordon Merritt Shrum (January 14, 1896 – June 20, 1985) was a Canadian scientist, teacher, administrator, and the first Chancellor of Simon Fraser University. Early life Shrum was born in Smithville, Ontario, the son of Emma Jane (née Merritt) and William Burton Shrum.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Gordon Merritt Shrum (January 14, 1896 – June 20, 1985) was a Canadian scientist, teacher, administrator, and the first Chancellor of Simon Fraser University.

Early life Shrum was born in Smithville, Ontario, the son of Emma Jane (née Merritt) and William Burton Shrum. His education at Victoria College at the University of Toronto, where he started in 1913, was interrupted by World War I. A friend of Lester (Mike) Pearson, he was in his Canadian Officers Training Corps (C.O.T.C.) unit starting in 1914. Their company commander was Vincent Massey.

Career

Military On April 1, 1916, he enlisted in the army. He was a gunner and fought at the Battle of Vimy Ridge. He received the Military Medal during the war.

Academia After the war, he continued his education and received a Bachelor of Arts in 1919, a Master of Arts in 1921. As a doctoral student in February 1923 he was the first to replicate Kamerlingh Onnes's 1908 Nobel Prize–winning feat of liquefying helium. Later that year he was awarded his Doctorate in physics for studies of the hydrogen spectrum. As a post-doctoral fellow he was the first to identify the prominent green line in the Aurora Borealis as due to oxygen.

In 1925, he joined the faculty at the University of British Columbia (UBC) where he taught physics. In 1935 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. From 1938 to 1961, he was the head of the Physics Department. Circa 1945-1950, he was also Director of Emergency Housing, allocating former WWII Army huts for faculty and staff housing on campus in Acadia Camp and Fort Camp. From 1957 to 1961, he was the Dean of Graduate Studies and served on the Senate of the University. However, he was forced to retire at the age of 65 due to their rules. In 1958, he was chairman of a royal commission investigating the BC Power Commission. He was also named a member of the Order of the British Empire. After retiring from UBC, he was appointed head of BC Electric by Premier W.A.C. Bennett and was involved with the Peace River hydro project. This project comprised the construction of the W.A.C. Bennett Dam, which impounds Williston Lake Reservoir, and the construction of a 2730 MW powerhouse (at that time the largest in the world) named after him: the G.M. Shrum Generating Station. In 1969, he was the recipient of Electrical Man of the Year. He stayed at BC Hydro until 1972. During this time, Shrum was also involved in establishing Simon Fraser University and served as its first chancellor from 1963 to 1968. During this time, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada. A few years later, in 1975, he was appointed Director of the Vancouver Museum and Planetarium Association. In 1986, he wrote his autobiography with Peter Stursberg, called Gordon Shrum: An Autobiography. Shrum died in Vancouver, British Columbia, at age 89.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Gordon Shrum

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Gordon Shrum 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 Gordon Shrum 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 Gordon Shrum 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 Gordon Shrum

In research: Gordon Shrum 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 Gordon Shrum 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: Gordon Shrum is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1896 births, 1985 deaths, 20th-century Canadian civil servants, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Gordon Shrum 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 Gordon Shrum in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Gordon Shrum in simple terms?

Gordon Merritt Shrum (January 14, 1896 – June 20, 1985) was a Canadian scientist, teacher, administrator, and the first Chancellor of Simon Fraser University. Early life Shrum was born in Smithville, Ontario, the son of Emma Jane (née Merritt) and William Burton Shrum.

Why does Gordon Shrum 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 Gordon Shrum?

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 Gordon Shrum.