chemistry

John Motley Morehead III

John Motley Morehead III is a chemistry 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 Motley Morehead III rather than just read about it. In short: John Motley Morehead III (November 3, 1870 – January 7, 1965) was an American chemist, politician, and diplomat. As a chemist, his work provided much of the foundation for the business of Union Carbide Corporation.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

John Motley Morehead III (November 3, 1870 – January 7, 1965) was an American chemist, politician, and diplomat. As a chemist, his work provided much of the foundation for the business of Union Carbide Corporation. The Union Carbide and Carbon Corporation was formed in 1917 from the merger of the former Union Carbide founded in 1898 by Morehead's father; and the National Carbon Company founded in 1886. He was a noted philanthropist who made major gifts to his alma mater, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He also served as mayor of Rye, New York and United States Ambassador to Sweden.

Early life Morehead came from an illustrious North Carolina family: his father was James Turner Morehead; his grandparents, John Motley Morehead and Ann Eliza Lindsay Morehead, served as Governor and First Lady of North Carolina. His sister, Lily Morehead Mebane, was decorated by the governments of France and Serbia for her relief work after World War I; she later served two terms in the North Carolina state legislature. Direct descendants through the paternal line of James Turner Morehead include W. Harris Nelson and William H.M. Nelson III. Non-lineal descendants include Jean Motley Morehead Larkin and John L. Morehead. Morehead graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill in 1891 and was a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity.

Career One of his notable early scientific discoveries was the development of an economical process for the manufacture of calcium carbide. He was also an authority on the analysis of gases, having invented a device for the purpose and written a book on the subject. One of Morehead's particular interests was in providing financial assistance to students attending UNC Chapel Hill. To that end he endowed the John Motley Morehead Foundation, which each year awards undergraduate scholarships covering the full cost of attendance at UNC Chapel Hill to applicants chosen through an extensive and competitive screening process. The Morehead-Cain Scholarship is the oldest merit-based scholarship in the United States. During the First World War, Morehead served as a major in the United States Army; he later became a colonel in the United States Army Reserve. From 1925 to 1930, Morehead served as the mayor of Rye, New York, and also gave money for the establishment of a new city hall; his nomination as minister to Sweden, from which he served from 1930 to 1933, came during his mayoralty.

Personal life Morehead married Genevieve Margaret Birkhoff. A few years after her death, he married Leila Duckworth Houghton. He had no children. He devoted his considerable fortune to philanthropy, especially to the benefit of UNC-Chapel Hill. With a college classmate and fraternity brother, Rufus Lenoir Patterson, he donated the Morehead-Patterson Bell Tower on the campus. He also gave the University the Morehead Planetarium, later renamed the Morehead Planetarium and Science Center.

Honors and legacy He was awarded the North Carolina Award, the highest civilian award bestowed by the U.S. state of North Carolina in the category of Public Service in 1964. There is a section of Interstate 40 named after him, called the John Motley Morehead III Freeway, that passes through Chapel Hill, North Carolina and most of the eastern end of Orange County. In 1958, John Motley Morehead High School in Eden, North Carolina was named for him.

References

External links

John Motley Morehead : 200th birthday celebration, 1796-1996 / Robert Lindsay Morehead, Anne Fulcher Nelson, Charles E. Lovelace, Jr. The Morehead Foundation North Carolina Business Hall of Fame Laureate John Motley Morehead III Morehead Planetarium and Science Center American Chemical Society National Historic Chemical Landmark, Spray Cotton Mills, Eden, NC

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with John Motley Morehead III

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

In research: John Motley Morehead III appears in chemistry 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 Motley Morehead III 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 Motley Morehead III is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1870 births, 1965 deaths, Ambassadors of the United States to Sweden, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for John Motley Morehead III 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 Motley Morehead III in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is John Motley Morehead III in simple terms?

Why does John Motley Morehead III matter?

Because it connects several chemistry 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 Motley Morehead III?

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 Motley Morehead III.