engineering

Julius Adams Stratton

Julius Adams Stratton 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 Julius Adams Stratton rather than just read about it. In short: Julius Adams Stratton (May 18, 1901 – June 22, 1994) was an American electrical engineer, physicist, and university administrator known for his contributions in applied electromagnetism. He attended the University of Washington for one year, where he was admitted to the Zeta Psi fraternity, then transferred to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), from which he graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1923 a…

Key takeaways

Julius Adams Stratton belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
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Connect Julius Adams Stratton to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Julius Adams Stratton from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Julius Adams Stratton (May 18, 1901 – June 22, 1994) was an American electrical engineer, physicist, and university administrator known for his contributions in applied electromagnetism. He attended the University of Washington for one year, where he was admitted to the Zeta Psi fraternity, then transferred to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), from which he graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1923 and a master's degree in 1926 both in electrical engineering. He then followed graduate studies in Europe and the Technische Hochschule of Zürich (ETH Zurich), Switzerland, awarded him the degree of Doctor of Science in 1928.

Professional biography Stratton was appointed Assistant Professor in Electrical Engineering Department at MIT after his PhD. In 1930 his appointment was transferred to the Physics Department. He was promoted to Professor in 1941. He was one of the first staff members of the MIT Radiation Laboratory who joined the Laboratory in 1940. In 1946 he was appointed founding director of the Research Laboratory of Electronics which continued the interdisciplinary model of research started at the Radiation Laboratory. He published the classic book Electromagnetic Theory as part of the McGraw Hill series in Pure and Applied Physics in 1941. Stratton's book was one of the most influential electromagnetic textbooks which had formed an integral part of the graduate electromagnetic educations of both physics and electrical engineering communities since its publication. John David Jackson described Stratton's book as his bible and said that he used Stratton's book to learn advanced electromagnetism. Stratton's book was also described by Julian Schwinger as one of the essential electromagnetic textbooks. In 2007 Stratton's book had been reissued by the IEEE as one of its classic reissues in the collection of The IEEE Press Series on Electromagnetic Wave Theory. Stratton's book was one of the most requested classic electromagnetic textbook for reissuing in electrical engineering community. According to Donald G. Dudley then series editor of The IEEE Press Series on Electromagnetic Wave Theory, over twelve years before reissued publication of textbook in 2007, he had received many requests worldwide to reissue Stratton's book. Stratton was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1946. In the same year he was awarded the Medal for Merit for his services. He was elected to the United States National Academy of Sciences in 1950 and the American Philosophical Society in 1956. He served as the president of MIT between 1959 and 1966, after serving the university in several lesser posts, notably appointments to provost in 1949, vice president in 1951, and chancellor in 1956. In the 1955–1965 he served as member of Board of Trustees, RAND Corporation. He also served as the chairman of the Ford Foundation between 1964 and 1971. In 1967, Stratton was seconded to chair a Congressionally established "Commission on Marine Sciences, Engineering and Resources" whose work culminated in a report, "Our Nation and the Sea", published in 1969, that had a major influence on ocean sciences and management in the United States and abroad. The commission itself became commonly referred to as the Stratton Commission. Stratton was also a founding member of the National Academy of Engineering. Stratton collected his speeches in a 1966 book titled Science and the Educated Man: Selected Speeches of Julius A. Stratton (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1966), with a foreword by the historian of technology Elting E. Morison who had been on the faculty of MIT as a professor of humanities in the Sloan School of Industrial Management from 1946 to 1966. MIT's Julius Adams Stratton Student Center at 84 Massachusetts Avenue is named in his honor.

Publications

Books Stratton JA, Electromagnetic Theory, Wiley-IEEE, 2007. Stratton JA, Morse PM, Chu LJ, Hunter RA, Elliptic Cylinder and Spheroidal Wave Functions: Including Tables of Separation Constants and Coefficients, Wiley-MIT, 1941. Stratton JA, Morse PM, Chu LJ, Little JDC, Corbató FJ, Spheroidal Wave Functions: Including Tables of Separation Constants and Coefficients, MIT, 1956.

Articles Stratton, J. A. (1926). "A High Frequency Bridge". Journal of the Optical Society of America. 13 (4): 471. Bibcode:1926JOSA...13..471S. doi:10.1364/JOSA.13.000471. ——; Houghton, H. G. (1931). "A Theoretical Investigation of the Transmission of Light through Fog". Physical Review. 38 (1): 159–165. Bibcode:1931PhRv...38..159S. doi:10.1103/PhysRev.38.159. —— (1935). "Spheroidal Functions". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 21 (1): 51–56. Bibcode:1935PNAS...21...51S. doi:10.1073/pnas.21.1.51. PMC 1076527. PMID 16577657. —— (1935). "Spheroidal Functions of the Second Kind". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 21 (6): 316–321. Bibcode:1935PNAS...21..316S. doi:10.1073/pnas.21.6.316. PMC 1076595. PMID 16587971. ——; Chu, L. J. (1939). "Diffraction Theory of Electromagnetic Waves". Physical Review. 56 (1): 99–107. Bibcode:1939PhRv...56...99S. doi:10.1103/PhysRev.56.99. ——; Chu, L. J. (1941). "Steady-State Solutions of Electromagnetic Field Problems. I. Forced Oscillations of a Cylindrical Conductor". Journal of Applied Physics. 12 (3): 230–235. Bibcode:1941JAP....12..230S. doi:10.1063/1.1712899. ——; Chu, L. J. (1941). "Steady-State Solutions of Electromagnetic Field Problems. II. Forced Oscillations of a Conducting Sphere". Journal of Applied Physics. 12 (3): 236–240. Bibcode:1941JAP....12..236S. doi:10.1063/1.1712900. —— (1956). "Science and the educated man". Physics Today. 9 (4): 17–20. Bibcode:1956PhT.....9d..17S. doi:10.1063/1.3059932. —— (1965). "Advice to a New Academy". Science. 149 (3689): 1206–1208. Bibcode:1965Sci...149.1206S. doi:10.1126/science.149.3689.1206. PMID 17747445.

Other books Stratton JA, Science and the Educated Man: Selected Speeches of Julius A. Stratton, MIT, 1966. Stratton JA, Mannix LH, Mind and Hand: The Birth of MIT, MIT, 2005.

See also List of textbooks in electromagnetism

Notes

References

Sources Johnson, Howard W. (March 1996). "Julius Adams Stratton (18 May 1901–22 June 1994)". Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. 140 (1): 116–121. JSTOR 987282.

External links IEEE History Center – IEEE minibio of Julius Stratton Full text of the final Stratton Commission report, "Our Nation and the Sea" Julius Adams Stratton at the Mathematics Genealogy Project

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Julius Adams Stratton

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Julius Adams Stratton 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 Julius Adams Stratton 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 Julius Adams Stratton 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 Julius Adams Stratton

In research: Julius Adams Stratton 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 Julius Adams Stratton 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: Julius Adams Stratton is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1901 births, 1994 deaths, 20th-century American academics, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Julius Adams Stratton 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 Julius Adams Stratton in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Julius Adams Stratton in simple terms?

Why does Julius Adams Stratton 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 Julius Adams Stratton?

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 Julius Adams Stratton.