astronomy

John N. Warfield

John N. Warfield 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 N. Warfield rather than just read about it. In short: John Nelson Warfield (November 21, 1925 – November 17, 2009) was an American systems scientist, who was professor and director of the Institute for Advanced Study in the Integrative Sciences (IASIS) at George Mason University, and president of the Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society. Biography Warfield was born November 21, 1925, and grew up in Missouri, and studied at the University of Missouri in Columbia.

Key takeaways

John N. Warfield 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 N. Warfield to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of John N. Warfield from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

John Nelson Warfield (November 21, 1925 – November 17, 2009) was an American systems scientist, who was professor and director of the Institute for Advanced Study in the Integrative Sciences (IASIS) at George Mason University, and president of the Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society.

Biography Warfield was born November 21, 1925, and grew up in Missouri, and studied at the University of Missouri in Columbia. Originally he majored in chemistry and minored in mathematics, but his studies were interrupted by World War II. After basic training in the U. S. Army Infantry, the Army put him in a specialized training program to study electrical engineering, which he found very interesting, especially electronics and communications. After the war he completed his original undergraduate program and continued on to get advanced degrees in electrical engineering. He received the Bachelor of Arts in 1948, Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering in 1948, and Master of Science in Electrical Engineering in 1949 from the University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri. He received the Doctor of Philosophy degree from Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, in 1952. His major was electrical engineering with a specialty in communications engineering. He gained about 10 years of industrial experience with the firms: Wilcox Electric Company, Battelle Memorial Institute, and Burroughs Corporation. His industrial experience included theoretical and experimental research, electronic development and reliability testing of navigational equipment for jet aircraft. His longest service in this group was with the Battelle Memorial Institute from 1968 to 1974, where he held the title Senior Research Leader. At Battelle, and later at Virginia and George Mason universities, he developed the sociotechnology of interpretive structural modeling (ISM) and developed interactive management in collaboration with Alexander Christakis from 1979 till 1989. He was elected President of the Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers IEEE, and of the International Society for the Systems Sciences (formerly called the Society for General Systems Research). He served as Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics from 1968 to 1971, and as founding Editor-in-Chief of the Pergamon journal Systems Research, during the period 1981–1990. Warfield was a member of the Academic Committee of the International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics. He was a Life Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and holds that organization's Centennial Medal. He was a member of the Association for Integrative Studies, and in the Board of Governors of the International Society for Panetics. In 2006 John N. Warfield was awarded the Joseph G. Wohl Award for Career Achievement at the 2006 annual meeting of the IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society. This is the highest award given by the society, and is not awarded every year. He was awarded for his contributions to systems engineering concepts, methodology, design, education and management. Warfield was also awarded the IEEE Third Millennium Medal.

Publications Warfield was the author of more than 10 books and 100 papers. His books:

1958. Synthesis of Linear Communications Networks. with G. E. Knausenberger, New York: McGraw-Hill. 1959. Introduction to Electronic Analog Computers. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall. 1963. Principles of Logic Design. Boston: Ginn and Company. 1976. Societal Systems: Planning, Policy, and Complexity. New York: Wiley Interscience. 1990. A Science of Generic Design: Managing Complexity through Systems Design. Ames, IA: Iowa State University Press 1994. 1994. A Handbook of Interactive Management. With Roxana Cárdenas, Ames, IA: Iowa State University Press 1994. 2002. Understanding Complexity: Thought and Behavior. AJAR Publishing Company, Palm Harbor, FL. 2003. The Mathematics of Structure. AJAR Publishing Company, Palm Harbor, FL. 2006. An Introduction to Systems Sciences. World Scientific, Singapore Articles, papers and monographs, a selection:

1956. Systems Engineering. United States Department of Commerce PB111801. 1957. "How to Improve Systems Engineering". Aeronautical Engineering Review, 16(7), July, 1957, 50–51. 1969. "What is System Planning?". With R.W. House, in: Automatica Vol. 5, 1969, pp. 151–157. 1972. A Unified Systems Engineering Concept. With J. D. Hill, et al., Columbus: Battelle Memorial Institute, Monograph No. 1, June, 1972. 1974. Structuring Complex Systems. Columbus: Battelle Memorial Institute Monograph No. 4, April, 1974 1987. "Dimensionality" with Alexander Christakis Systems Research 4, pp. 127–137 2003. "A Proposal for Systems Science". In: Systems Research and Behavioral Science, Vol. 20 (2003), pp. 507–520. 2003. "Autobiographical Retrospectives: Discovering Systems Science". In: International Journal of General Systems, December 2003 Vol 32 (6), pp. 525–563.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with John N. Warfield

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what John N. Warfield 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 N. Warfield 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 N. Warfield 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 N. Warfield

In research: John N. Warfield 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 N. Warfield 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 N. Warfield is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1925 births, 2009 deaths, American systems engineers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for John N. Warfield 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 N. Warfield in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is John N. Warfield in simple terms?

Why does John N. Warfield 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 N. Warfield?

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 N. Warfield.