chemistry

Grant M. Wilson

Grant M. Wilson is a chemistry 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 Grant M. Wilson rather than just read about it. In short: Grant McDonald Wilson (May 24, 1931 – September 10, 2012) was a notable American thermodynamicist. He is widely known to the fields of chemical engineering and physical chemistry for having developed the Wilson equation, one of the first attempts of practical importance to model nonideal behavior in liquid mixtures as observed in practice with common polar compounds such as alcohols, amines, etc.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Grant McDonald Wilson (May 24, 1931 – September 10, 2012) was a notable American thermodynamicist. He is widely known to the fields of chemical engineering and physical chemistry for having developed the Wilson equation, one of the first attempts of practical importance to model nonideal behavior in liquid mixtures as observed in practice with common polar compounds such as alcohols, amines, etc. The equation has been in use in all commercial chemical process simulators to predict phase behavior and produce safe process designs of commercial and environmental protection importance to the chemical industry. He founded the company Wilco (now Wiltec) in 1977 to research, measure, commercialize, and publish thermophysical property data for numerous chemical mixtures of interest to the industry. The Journal of Chemical & Engineering Data published a posthumous issue in honor of Wilson in April 2014 in recognition of his contributions to the field.

Biography Wilson was born in Colonia Pacheco, Chihuahua (one of the Mormon colonies in Mexico). He did his undergraduate work at BYU in 1953 and then attended and graduated from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) with a PhD in physical chemistry in 1957. While at MIT he began his career by developing one of the first computer-based activity coefficient equations. Known as the Wilson Equation, it is one of the most widely used equations in the field of industrial thermodynamics for the prediction of phase equilibria. Wilson has been a research scientist measuring and reporting physical properties and phase equilibria data for most of his career. He joined Shell Research and Development in California upon graduating from MIT, he then joined Air Products and later moved to PVT Inc. of Houston, Texas. While there he performed a number of Research Projects for the Gas Processors Association. At this time he also did work with cubic equations of state (EOS), he was one of the first to modify the alpha form of the Redlich-Kwong EOS to better represent pure component vapor pressures. He next taught at BYU in Provo, Utah, from 1970 to 1978 while there he was a part of the on-campus research group, the Thermochemical Institute founded by Profs. James J. Christensen and Reed M. Izatt. Wilson left BYU to create the company Wilco (now Wiltec) Research Company in 1977 which measured data for the Chemical Process Industries (CPI). The Wilson equation was published by Grant M. Wilson as "Vapor-Liquid Equilibrium. XI. A New Expression for the Excess Free Energy of Mixing" in the Journal of the American Chemical Society 86:127-130, 1964. Wilson and his wife, Reta Raphiel were married in the Logan Temple on September 18, 1950. Together in 2002, they served as missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Bangalore, India for two years. Wilson died on September 10, 2012, in Orem, Utah.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Grant M. Wilson

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Grant M. Wilson claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In chemistry, 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 Grant M. Wilson 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 Grant M. Wilson 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 Grant M. Wilson

In research: Grant M. Wilson appears in chemistry 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 Grant M. Wilson 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: Grant M. Wilson is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1931 births, 2012 deaths, 20th-century American chemists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Grant M. Wilson 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 Grant M. Wilson in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Grant M. Wilson in simple terms?

Why does Grant M. Wilson matter?

Because it connects several chemistry 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 Grant M. Wilson?

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 Grant M. Wilson.