astronomy

Greene Smith

Greene Smith 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 Greene Smith rather than just read about it. In short: Greene Smith (1842–1886) was an American amateur scientist and taxidermist with a specific interest in ornithology. His father was Gerrit Smith.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Greene Smith (1842–1886) was an American amateur scientist and taxidermist with a specific interest in ornithology. His father was Gerrit Smith.

Personal life Greene Smith was born in 1842. He was the son of Gerrit Smith. He started bird watching when he was nine. As a child he was educated by Angelina Grimke and Theodore Weld. Smith moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, to attend Harvard. After two years he was sent back to his hometown of Peterboro, New York, due to his smoking and drinking habits. He served in the Union Army from 1864 to 1865. In 1875, he was the president of the National Sportsmen's Association. He 1877 he was president of the New York State Association for Conservation of Fish and Game. His wife was Elizabeth "Bessie" Smith. Smith died of tuberculosis in 1886.

Ornithology and the Bird House Smith was a professor of ornithology at Cornell University. He built a museum in 1863, the Greene Smith Museum, which was three stories and housed his collection of bird specimens. The house is also nicknamed the Bird House. It was located in Peterboro, New York. The bird house had central heating, a rarity at that time for homes. The plumbing was made of marble, the paneling was birch and the windows were stained glass. It also had a staircase made of mahogany. He donated 362 bird specimens to Cornell in 1869. He did taxidermy work for the Smithsonian Institution. He was friends with Spencer Baird and J.G. Bell. Smith died in 1886 while trying to compile an annotated catalog for his taxidermy bird collection.

Legacy The majority of the birds, eggs, and nests in his museum collection—over 2,000 specimens—went to Harvard, Colgate University, or Cornell University. At the time of his death, his collection of hummingbird specimens were estimated to be worth $75,000. The collection was originally offered to the New York City Parks Department but was rejected due to what was described as by The Ornithologist at the time as "their ignorance of its value". His papers are held in the collection of Syracuse University Library. The house collapsed around 1975. The former ruins of the museum are located on the grounds of the Gerrit Smith Estate. The Greene Smith Society was founded in his memory. The Society focuses on citizen scientists in the United States.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Greene Smith

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Greene Smith 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 Greene Smith 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 Greene Smith 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 Greene Smith

In research: Greene Smith 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 Greene Smith 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: Greene Smith is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1842 births, 1886 deaths, 19th-century deaths from tuberculosis, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Greene Smith 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 Greene Smith in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Greene Smith in simple terms?

Greene Smith (1842–1886) was an American amateur scientist and taxidermist with a specific interest in ornithology. His father was Gerrit Smith.

Why does Greene Smith 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 Greene Smith?

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 Greene Smith.