mathematics

Henry Charles McWeeney

Henry Charles McWeeney 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 Charles McWeeney rather than just read about it. In short: Henry Charles McWeeney (1867–1935) was an Irish mathematician, who was Professor of Mathematics at University College Dublin (UCD) from 1891 until his death in 1935. From 1909 on he served as vice president of UCD.

Key takeaways

Henry Charles McWeeney 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 Charles McWeeney to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Henry Charles McWeeney from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Henry Charles McWeeney (1867–1935) was an Irish mathematician, who was Professor of Mathematics at University College Dublin (UCD) from 1891 until his death in 1935. From 1909 on he served as vice president of UCD.

Education and career McWeeney was born in Dublin and was educated at University College Dublin (BSc 1887, MSc 1890) and Trinity College Dublin (BA 1889). He won a Royal University of Ireland Travelling Studentship award in 1891, and spent his entire career at UCD. He also taught at St Patrick's College, Drumcondra, from 1892 to 1910. Speaking of his days as a student at UCD in the mid 1880s, McWeeney remembers listening to the Professor of Mathematics there, John Casey, who had a mixed class of students. "Although the book-work which he communicated would not have been adequate for the training of a higher mathematician, yet his explanations, so far as they went, were marked by extreme lucidity."

It is an interesting fact that on McWeeney’s going first to the Catholic University he had been sent by M'Grath to attend some lectures by Robert Graham, a well-known and successful Tutor of Trinity College, who had joined Fr~Delany's staff. He was author of well-known handbooks of Algebra and of Factors, and was known to be a marvelous expert in preparing for examinations, being familiar with the sort of tricky questions that were often set. But McWeeney found him to be also a first-rate teacher, and attributes chiefly to him the foundation of his own mathematical career. In the article Mathematics in U.C.D. 1854 to 1974 by J. R. Timoney recalls McWeeney and Egan giving the traditional rite of passage lectures to brand new first year students in the autumn of 1927:

He started to do questions off the entrance scholarship paper, indeed the more outlandish bits of the toughest questions. Fr Egan gave the second lecture. He described it later as his most unintelligible lecture on irrational numbers. This was the honours class clearance act, of course, and things moderated for the hard necks who stuck it out. Timoney went on to say, "He was a magnificent teacher and a geometer of great elegance. A favourite expression of he was 'if you attack it judiciously it will come out in a line'."

References

External links "McWeeny, Henry C." . Thom's Irish Who's Who . Dublin: Alexander Thom and Son Ltd. 1923. p. 157 – via Wikisource.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Henry Charles McWeeney

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Henry Charles McWeeney 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 Charles McWeeney 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 Charles McWeeney 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 Charles McWeeney

In research: Henry Charles McWeeney 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 Charles McWeeney 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 Charles McWeeney is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1867 births, 1935 deaths, 19th-century Irish mathematicians, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Henry Charles McWeeney 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 Charles McWeeney in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Henry Charles McWeeney in simple terms?

Why does Henry Charles McWeeney 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 Charles McWeeney?

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 Charles McWeeney.