mathematics

Henry B. Phillips

Henry B. Phillips is a mathematics 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 Henry B. Phillips rather than just read about it. In short: Henry Bayard Phillips (September 27, 1881 – 1973), often cited as H. B.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Henry Bayard Phillips (September 27, 1881 – 1973), often cited as H. B. Phillips, was an American mathematician.

Career Phillips studied at Erskine College, receiving his bachelor's degree in 1900, and earned his PhD in 1905 from Johns Hopkins University under Frank Morley with the dissertation Some Invariants and Covariants of Ternary Collineations. From 1905 to 1907 he was an instructor at the University of Cincinnati, then joined the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as an instructor, where he was promoted to professor in 1915. He served as head of the mathematics department from 1934 to 1947 and became emeritus in 1947. Phillips co-authored work on vector analysis with C. L. E. Moore and published several textbooks on calculus and geometry. With Norbert Wiener, he published on numerical solutions of partial differential equations. Phillips received an honorary doctorate (LL.D.) in 1939. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1918. In 1929 he married Charlotte T. Perry.

Selected works

Papers Moore, C. L. E.; Phillips, H. B. (1918). "The Dyadics Which Occur in a Point Space of Three Dimensions". Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. 53 (5): 387–438. JSTOR 20025652. Phillips, H. B.; Wiener, Norbert (1923). "Nets and the Dirichlet problem". Journal of Mathematical Physics. 2: 105. doi:10.1002/SAPM192321105.

Books Analytic Geometry. Wiley, 1915. Differential Calculus. Wiley, 1916. Differential Equations. Wiley, 1916 (revised edition 1922). Integral Calculus. Wiley, 1917. Vector Analysis. Wiley, 1933 (revised edition 1947). Analytic Geometry and Calculus. Addison-Wesley, 1942.

Essays Phillips, H. B. (October 1945). "On the Nature of Progress". American Scientist. 33 (4): 253–259. JSTOR 27826083.

References

External links Photos at MIT Museum Henry Bayard Phillips at zbMATH

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Henry B. Phillips

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Henry B. Phillips claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In mathematics, 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 Henry B. Phillips 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 Henry B. Phillips 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 Henry B. Phillips

In research: Henry B. Phillips appears in mathematics 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 Henry B. Phillips 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: Henry B. Phillips is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1881 births, 1973 deaths, 20th-century American mathematicians, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Henry B. Phillips 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 Henry B. Phillips in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Henry B. Phillips in simple terms?

Henry Bayard Phillips (September 27, 1881 – 1973), often cited as H. B.

Why does Henry B. Phillips matter?

Because it connects several mathematics 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 Henry B. Phillips?

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 Henry B. Phillips.