chemistry

Ladislaus Farkas

Ladislaus Farkas 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 Ladislaus Farkas rather than just read about it. In short: Ladislaus Farkas (Hungarian: Farkas László, Hebrew: לדיסלאוס פרקש) (May 10, 1904 – December 31, 1948, in Monte Argentario, Italy) was an Israeli chemist, of Austro-Hungarian origin, he was the founder of the Department of Physical Chemistry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Education and career Farkas was born in Dunajská Streda, Slovakia as the son of a pharmacist.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Ladislaus Farkas (Hungarian: Farkas László, Hebrew: לדיסלאוס פרקש) (May 10, 1904 – December 31, 1948, in Monte Argentario, Italy) was an Israeli chemist, of Austro-Hungarian origin, he was the founder of the Department of Physical Chemistry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Education and career Farkas was born in Dunajská Streda, Slovakia as the son of a pharmacist. In 1908, the family moved to Nagyvárad in Transylvania (today Oradea in Romania), where his father ran a pharmacy. The family attended a synagogue affiliated with Neolog Judaism. Farkas studied at the Gymnasium in Oradea, then spent two years at the Technische Hochschule in Vienna (now TU Wien). He continued his studies in Berlin where he entered the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Chemistry in 1924. His thesis supervisor was Karl Friedrich Bonhoeffer, with whom he established strong friendships. He obtained his doctorate in 1928 and was appointed personal assistant to the German chemist Fritz Haber that same year. Pursuant to the German law on the restoration of the civil service of April 7, 1933, aimed at ridding the civil service of Jews, Farkas was dismissed by the director of the institute, Fritz Haber, on April 29, 1933. Haber submitted his own letter of resignation the following day and helped his Jewish colleagues settle abroad. In 1935, he made Aliyah to Palestine and in 1936 founded a department of physical chemistry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem which he directed until his death. During World War II, the group, led by Farkas, contributed to the British war effort. Farkas was secretary of the scientific advisory committee of the War Supply Council established by the British in 1942, coordinating all scientific research and development carried out in the country in the service of the British and the Allies in general during the war.

Personal life In 1940, Farkas married Hannah Aharoni (Aharonovich), a Moscow native and trained microbiologist. He was the father of two daughters, Liora and Ruth. His parents and young niece were murdered in the Holocaust. Her daughter Liora married David Kroyanker, an Israeli architect and architectural historian. On December 31, 1948, Farkas embarked on a mission to the United States to buy equipment for the Israeli university and army. The special flight, which took off from Haifa, crashed at Monte Argentario in Tuscany. All 13 passengers and crew members, including Farkas, were killed. In Italy, a memorial service was held in their memory, and then Farkas was buried on the Har HaMenuchot cemetery in Jerusalem. His personal archives are kept at the National Library of Israel.

External links Ladislaus Farkas, photos at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Dismissal letter to Ladislas Farkas by Fritz Haber

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Ladislaus Farkas

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Ladislaus Farkas 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 Ladislaus Farkas 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 Ladislaus Farkas 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 Ladislaus Farkas

In research: Ladislaus Farkas 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 Ladislaus Farkas 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: Ladislaus Farkas is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1904 births, 1948 deaths, 20th-century chemists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Ladislaus Farkas 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 Ladislaus Farkas in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Ladislaus Farkas in simple terms?

Why does Ladislaus Farkas 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 Ladislaus Farkas?

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 Ladislaus Farkas.