physics

Irving Langmuir Award

Irving Langmuir Award is a physics 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 Irving Langmuir Award rather than just read about it. In short: The Irving Langmuir Prize in Chemical Physics is awarded annually, in even years by the American Chemical Society and in odd years by the American Physical Society. The award is meant to recognize and encourage outstanding interdisciplinary research in chemistry and physics, in the spirit of Irving Langmuir.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

The Irving Langmuir Prize in Chemical Physics is awarded annually, in even years by the American Chemical Society and in odd years by the American Physical Society. The award is meant to recognize and encourage outstanding interdisciplinary research in chemistry and physics, in the spirit of Irving Langmuir. A nominee must have made an outstanding contribution to chemical physics or physical chemistry within the 10 years preceding the year in which the award is made. The award will be granted without restriction, except that the recipient must be a resident of the United States. The award was established in 1931 by Dr. A.C. Langmuir, brother of Nobel Prize-winning chemist Irving Langmuir, to recognize the best young chemist in the United States. A $10,000 prize was to be awarded annually by the American Chemical Society. The first recipient was Linus Pauling. In 1964, the General Electric Foundation took over the financial backing of the prize, which was renamed the Irving Langmuir Award and the modern selection process was created. In 2006 the GE Global Research took over sponsorship of the award, and since 2009 the award has been co-sponsored between GE Global Research and the ACS Division of Physical Chemistry.

Past recipients Source: American Physical Society and American Chemical Society

See also List of physics awards List of chemistry awards

References

External links Irving Langmuir Page at the American Chemical Society Site Irving Langmuir Page at the American Physical Society Site

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Irving Langmuir Award

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Irving Langmuir Award claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In physics, 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 Irving Langmuir Award 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 Irving Langmuir Award 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 Irving Langmuir Award

In research: Irving Langmuir Award appears in physics 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 Irving Langmuir Award 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: Irving Langmuir Award is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Awards established in 1931, Awards of the American Chemical Society, Awards of the American Physical Society, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Irving Langmuir Award 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 Irving Langmuir Award in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Irving Langmuir Award in simple terms?

Why does Irving Langmuir Award matter?

Because it connects several physics 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 Irving Langmuir Award?

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 Irving Langmuir Award.