astronomy

John McCraw

John McCraw is a astronomy 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 McCraw rather than just read about it. In short: John Davidson McCraw (13 March 1925 – 14 December 2014) was a New Zealand pedologist, academic, and local historian, particularly of the Central Otago area. The McCraw Glacier in Antarctica is named for him.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

John Davidson McCraw (13 March 1925 – 14 December 2014) was a New Zealand pedologist, academic, and local historian, particularly of the Central Otago area. The McCraw Glacier in Antarctica is named for him.

Biography Born in Dunedin in 1925, McCraw was interested in science from an early age, becoming a member the junior group of the Otago branch of the Royal Society of New Zealand when he was 10 years old. He attended the University of Otago, from where he graduated with a Master of Science with second-class honours in geology in 1948. McCraw then had a 20-year career as a pedologist with the Soil Bureau of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, based first in Alexandra in Central Otago from 1949 to 1963 and then in Hamilton. He led the Soil Bureau's first Antarctic expedition in 1959–60, undertaking soil surveys in the Taylor Valley and on the Ross Sea coast. In 1968 McCraw earned a Doctor of Science degree from Victoria University of Wellington on the basis of 13 papers on soils in New Zealand and Antarctica. McCraw was appointed as the foundation professor in the newly established Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Waikato in 1970, and served as the university's dean of science between 1975 and 1984. On his retirement from Waikato in 1988, McCraw was granted the title of emeritus professor. In retirement, McCraw found the time to devote to researching the history of Central Otago, in which he had become interested during his time at the Soil Bureau in Alexandra. He went on to publish about a dozen books on the history of the area and the wider Otago region, and was acknowledged as the leading authority on the Alexandra district. He also wrote the 1998 book Dunedin holocaust: the tragic fire in the Octagon Buildings, Dunedin, 1879 about the 1879 Octagon fire, and The wandering river: landforms and geological history of the Hamilton basin, published in 2011. Throughout his life, McCraw served on a range of community, professional and public committees, organisations and inquiries. In 1957 he was a member of the organizing committee for the inaugural Alexandra Blossom Festival. He served as president of the Waikato branch of the Royal Society of New Zealand between 1965 and 1966 and was a member of the society's geology and quaternary national committees from 1975 to 1982. In 1968 he chaired the Waikato branch of the Geological Society of New Zealand. He also served on the National Water and Soil Authority from 1976 to 1985, and the commission of inquiry into the Abbotsford landslip disaster between 1979 and 1980. He chaired the government's 1988 Rabbit and Land Management Task Force and the public consultation committee for the Hamilton City Council pollution control scheme from 1994 to 1996. He was patron of the Waikato Geological and Lapidary Society. McCraw died in Hamilton in 2014 and was buried at Hamilton Park Cemetery.

Honours and awards In the 1992 Queen's Birthday Honours, McCraw was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire, for services to earth sciences. He was made a Fellow of the New Zealand Society of Soil Science in 1995, and in 2005 he was elected as a Companion of the Royal Society of New Zealand in recognition of his promotion and encouragement of science and technology. In 2008, he received a special award at the Central Otago Community Awards for his vital role in the preservation of knowledge and understanding of the history of Alexandra and the surrounding districts.

Honorific eponym In 1979, a glacier in the Britannia Range in Antarctica was named McCraw Glacier, in honour of McCraw, by a geological field party from the University of Waikato led by Michael Selby. The John McCraw Research Room at the Central Stories Museum and Art Gallery in Alexandra is also named for him.

Selected works McCraw, John (2011). The wandering river: landforms and geological history of the Hamilton basin. Lower Hutt: Geoscience Society of New Zealand. ISBN 9781877480126. McCraw, John (2009). The gold baron: John Ewing, Central Otago's mining entrepreneur. Alexandra: Central Stories. ISBN 9780473156701. McCraw, John (2007). Early days on the Dunstan. Dunedin: Square One. ISBN 9780958270922. McCraw, John (2005). A fruitful land: the story of fruitgrowing and irrigation in the Alexandra–Clyde district. Dunedin: Square One. ISBN 9780908562015. McCraw, John (2003). Gold on the Dunstan. Dunedin: Square One. ISBN 9780908562596. McCraw, John (2002). The golden junction: episodes in Alexandra's history. Dunedin: Square One. ISBN 9780908562381. McCraw, John (2001). Harbour horror. Dunedin: Square One. ISBN 9780908562244. McCraw, John (2000). Mountain water & river gold: stories of gold mining in the Alexandra district. Dunedin: Square One. ISBN 9780908562046. McCraw, John (1999). Coastmaster: the story of Captain James B. Greig. Hamilton: Silverdale. ISBN 9780473062002. McCraw, John (1998). Dunedin holocaust: the tragic fire in the Octagon Buildings, Dunedin, 1879. Dunedin: Square One. ISBN 9780908562572. McCraw, John (1992). Mine fire: the 1906 coal-mine fire at Alexandra. Dunedin: Otago Heritage. ISBN 9780908774517. McCraw, John (1991). The siren's call: experiences in a volunteer fire brigade. Hamilton: Silverdale. ISBN 9780473011543. McCraw, John (1966). Soils of Ida Valley, Central Otago, N.Z. Soil Bureau, DSIR.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with John McCraw

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

In research: John McCraw appears in astronomy 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 McCraw 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 McCraw is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1925 births, 2014 deaths, 20th-century New Zealand geologists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for John McCraw 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 McCraw in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is John McCraw in simple terms?

Why does John McCraw matter?

Because it connects several astronomy 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 McCraw?

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 McCraw.