science

John Aasen

John Aasen 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 John Aasen rather than just read about it. In short: John Aasen (March 5, 1890 – August 1, 1938) was an American silent film actor and sideshow performer who was one of the tallest actors in history. Early life Aasen was born on March 5, 1890, in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

John Aasen (March 5, 1890 – August 1, 1938) was an American silent film actor and sideshow performer who was one of the tallest actors in history.

Early life Aasen was born on March 5, 1890, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His mother, Kristi (Danielsen) from Rollag in Numedal, was an extremely tall Norwegian woman of around 2.20 m (almost 7 ft 3 inches) in height (latest information from September 2008, sets her height to 188 cm, almost 6 ft 2 inches). It is not certain who his father was, but according to Aasen's sister Evelyn (who died in 1988), his father was Alfred Aasen. When Aasen was 10 years old, he and his mother moved from Ridgeway, Iowa (where his uncle Sam/Sevre lived with his wife Cornelia), to Sheyenne, North Dakota, with his two younger siblings. Aasen was a Freemason. He rose to the degree of Master Mason at Highland Park Lodge No. 382, Los Angeles on July 14, 1924. When in Sheyenne, Aasen's mother operated a restaurant. He attended school and helped out in the family business. In 1902, Aasen's mother died. He was taken into many homes and families. When a family he was staying with started to operate a hotel in Leeds, North Dakota, he moved with them there. Aasen's growth started slowly. When he was confirmed in the Lutheran faith in Grandfield Lutheran Church near Sheyenne, North Dakota, he was the shortest in his class. According to some sources, Aasen was around 2.74 m or 8 feet, 11½ inches (which, if true, would make him even taller than Robert Wadlow, the tallest verified person in history). The Top 10 of Everything 2010 edition states his height at 8 feet, 9.7 inches (2.68 m).

True height According to the 1978 edition of Guinness World Records he was only 7 feet (213.4 cm). Just before his death, at age 46, he was medically measured at 7 feet 0.9 inches, however he had lost some height due to age and could not stand completely straight anymore. In June 2008, Loma Linda University confirmed that the 7-foot-2.4-inch (219 cm) skeleton they had in their collection was John Aasen. A Norwegian man named Bent Lønrusten spent 13 years of his life trying to find out Aasen's true height. He found out that John/Johan was 226 cm / 7' 5" tall. His mother's (Kirsti) coffin was 186 cm / 6' 1" long, which made her approximately 183 cm – 184 cm / 6 feet tall. And his sister (Evelyn) was maybe around 175 cm –180 cm / 5' 9" – 5' 11" tall. Bent was a guest on a Norwegian podcast called "Rekommandert", talking about Aasen's history and how he found out his true height.

Career Aasen worked for Midway Chemical, a company based in St. Paul, in 1917–1918. After that, he worked in various shows, including Barnum & Bailey and C. A. Wortham's World's Best Shows. The death of giant George Auger led to Aasen's working in the film Why Worry? (1923). Later, he acted in several other films like Bengal Tiger, Charlie Chan at the Circus, Growing Pains, Should Married Men Go Home?, Legionnaires in Paris, Two Flaming Youths, The Sting of Stings, Long Fliv the King and the Tod Browning film Freaks, in a small uncredited cameo appearance.

Filmography

Film

Television

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with John Aasen

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what John Aasen 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 John Aasen 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 John Aasen 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 John Aasen

In research: John Aasen 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 John Aasen 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: John Aasen is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1890 births, 1938 deaths, 20th-century American male actors, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for John Aasen 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 John Aasen in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is John Aasen in simple terms?

John Aasen (March 5, 1890 – August 1, 1938) was an American silent film actor and sideshow performer who was one of the tallest actors in history. Early life Aasen was born on March 5, 1890, in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Why does John Aasen 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 John Aasen?

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 John Aasen.