engineering

John G. Frayne

John G. Frayne is a engineering 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 G. Frayne rather than just read about it. In short: John G. Frayne (July 8, 1894, in Ireland – October 31, 1990, in Pasadena, California) was a physicist and sound engineer.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

John G. Frayne (July 8, 1894, in Ireland – October 31, 1990, in Pasadena, California) was a physicist and sound engineer.

Career Frayne received his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Minnesota while working at the Bell Laboratories. In 1918 he helped develop wireless telephone communications between airplanes and the ground while a member of the US Army Signal Corps. In 1928, he went to California Institute of Technology as a National Research Fellow in Physics. In 1929 he moved from Bell Laboratories to Electrical Research Products, where he worked for 30 years developing the light valve, noise reduction, 70m magnetic film recording and reproduction systems. In 1949, with Halley Wolfe, he wrote the classic textbook Elements of Sound Recording. Among his technical achievements were the development of sound recording techniques and their reproduction for optical sound recording systems, which led to stereo-optical formats used by films in the 1970s and '80s. He was a co-inventor of the sphere densitometer, which won a Scientific or Technical Academy Award in 1941. He was also the co-inventor of the stereo disc cutter which was standard in the recording industry, and the co-inventor of the intermodulation techniques of distortion measurements, which won him an Academy Award in 1953.

Awards Dr. Frayne, a Fellow of the Audio Engineering Society (AES), received its Gold Medal Award for Outstanding Achievement in advancing the art of audio engineering in 1976. He received the SMPTE Progress Medal in 1947. He was awarded the third Gordon E. Sawyer Award (Oscar statuette) by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1983.

References

External links An Afternoon with John G. Frayne In Memoriam, AES Journal

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with John G. Frayne

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what John G. Frayne claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, 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 G. Frayne 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 G. Frayne 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 G. Frayne

In research: John G. Frayne appears in engineering 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 G. Frayne 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 G. Frayne is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1894 births, 1990 deaths, 20th-century American engineers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for John G. Frayne 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 G. Frayne in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is John G. Frayne in simple terms?

John G. Frayne (July 8, 1894, in Ireland – October 31, 1990, in Pasadena, California) was a physicist and sound engineer.

Why does John G. Frayne matter?

Because it connects several engineering 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 G. Frayne?

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 G. Frayne.