science

Hurry up and wait

Hurry up and wait is a science 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 Hurry up and wait rather than just read about it. In short: "Hurry up and wait" is a phrase used to refer to the situation in which one is forced to hurry in order to complete a certain task, or arrive at a certain destination, by a specified time; only for nothing to happen at that time, often because other required tasks are still awaiting completion. The phrase may have originated in the United States military in the 1940s.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

"Hurry up and wait" is a phrase used to refer to the situation in which one is forced to hurry in order to complete a certain task, or arrive at a certain destination, by a specified time; only for nothing to happen at that time, often because other required tasks are still awaiting completion. The phrase may have originated in the United States military in the 1940s. Many U.S. military veterans, in particular, consider this phrase to be synonymous with military culture.

See also Project management Parkinson's law – in other contexts, work expands to fill the time available

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Hurry up and wait

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Hurry up and wait claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, 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 Hurry up and wait 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 Hurry up and wait 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 Hurry up and wait

In research: Hurry up and wait appears in science 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 Hurry up and wait 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: Hurry up and wait is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1940s neologisms, English phrases, Military slang and jargon, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Hurry up and wait 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 Hurry up and wait in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Hurry up and wait in simple terms?

Why does Hurry up and wait matter?

Because it connects several science 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 Hurry up and wait?

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 Hurry up and wait.