astronomy

Karl Hugo Strunz

Karl Hugo Strunz 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 Karl Hugo Strunz rather than just read about it. In short: Karl Hugo Strunz (24 February 1910 – 19 April 2006) was a German mineralogist. He is best known for creating the Nickel-Strunz classification, the ninth edition of which was published together with Ernest Henry Nickel.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Karl Hugo Strunz (24 February 1910 – 19 April 2006) was a German mineralogist. He is best known for creating the Nickel-Strunz classification, the ninth edition of which was published together with Ernest Henry Nickel.

Biography Strunz was born on 24 February 1910 in Weiden in der Oberpfalz (Upper Palatinate, Bavaria, Germany). He attended the 'Goethe-Oberrealschule Regensburg', a high school with a strong scientific background in Regensburg. In 1929, he began his studies in natural sciences at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München and specialized in Mineralogy. He received his doctorate degree in philosophy in 1933 from the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München and two years later his doctorate degree in technical sciences from the Technical University of Munich. After he graduated he was granted a research scholarship at the Victoria University (Manchester, England) where he worked with William Lawrence Bragg. He then went on to the ETH Zurich (Switzerland), where he was an assistant to Paul Niggli. In 1937 Strunz went on to the Mineralogical Museum of the Museum für Naturkunde (Berlin, Germany), where he was Paul Ramdohr's assistant. Two years later, in 1939, he was appointed professor to the 'Friedrich-Wilhelm University', now the Humboldt University of Berlin. He held that position beyond the end of the second world war in 1946. In 1946, he moved on to the University of Regensburg where he established a department for mineralogy and geology. In 1951, he was appointed to Technische Universität Berlin as a professor, where he established a department for mineralogy. He would keep this position until becoming a professor emeritus in 1978. Strunz died on 19 April 2006 in Unterwössen (Bavaria, Germany).

Work Strunz developed a classification for minerals that is based on their chemical composition and their crystal structure, now known as Nickel-Strunz classification. It was first published in 1941. A major revision was published in 1966 together with Christel Tennyson. The 9th edition was published 2001 together with Ernest Henry Nickel. Strunz was a founding member of the International Mineralogical Association, and was the head of the Mineral Data Commission between 1958 and 1970. He published over 200 scientific papers and multiple books, mostly about mineral classification and crystal chemistry. He made many scientific expeditions to most of Europe's countries, Madagascar, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Tanzania. He discovered 14 new minerals including chudobaite, fleischerite, hagendorfite, laueite, liandradite, petscheckite and stranskiite.

Honors In 1985 Strunz received the 'Bundesverdienstkreuz 1. Klasse' (Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, 1st class). He was an honorary member of over 20 national and international scientific organizations, a member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, and holder of the Emanuel Bořický medal, which is awarded by the Charles University in Prague. The minerals strunzite, ferristrunzite, and ferrostrunzite are named after him.

Selected publications Strunz, Karl Hugo (1937). "Zur Klassifikation der Silikate". Fortschritte der Mineralogie. 22. Strunz, Karl Hugo (1941). Mineralogische Tabellen. Becker und Erler. p. 295. Strunz, Karl Hugo (1948). "Zur Klassifizierung der Mineralien auf kristallchemischer Grundlage". Fortschritte der Mineralogie. 27: 32. Strunz, Hugo; Nickel, Ernest H. (2001). Strunz mineralogical tables : chemical-structural mineral classification system (9. ed.). Stuttgart: Schweizerbart. ISBN 978-3-510-65188-7.

References

"Karl Hugo Strunz (Obituary)" (PDF) (in German). dmg-home.de. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 January 2012. Retrieved 20 January 2013. "Prof. Dr. Hugo Strunz verstorben" (in German). vfmg-weiden.de. Retrieved 20 January 2013. "Hugo Strunz (Obituary)" (PDF) (in German). badw.de. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 October 2014. Retrieved 20 January 2013.

External links Media related to Karl Hugo Strunz at Wikimedia Commons

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Karl Hugo Strunz

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Karl Hugo Strunz 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 Karl Hugo Strunz 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 Karl Hugo Strunz 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 Karl Hugo Strunz

In research: Karl Hugo Strunz 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 Karl Hugo Strunz 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: Karl Hugo Strunz is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1910 births, 2006 deaths, Academic staff of Technische Universität Berlin, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Karl Hugo Strunz 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 Karl Hugo Strunz in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Karl Hugo Strunz in simple terms?

Why does Karl Hugo Strunz 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 Karl Hugo Strunz?

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 Karl Hugo Strunz.