engineering

Larry Simms

Larry Simms 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 Larry Simms rather than just read about it. In short: Larry Lee Simms (October 1, 1934 – June 17, 2009) was an American aerospace engineer and former child actor who appeared in 36 films between 1937 and 1951. Early life Larry Simms was born October 1, 1934, in Santa Monica, California.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Larry Lee Simms (October 1, 1934 – June 17, 2009) was an American aerospace engineer and former child actor who appeared in 36 films between 1937 and 1951.

Early life Larry Simms was born October 1, 1934, in Santa Monica, California. His mother was Mrs. Margaret Mildred Simms. He worked as a child model from the age of two and was discovered by a Hollywood talent scout when he appeared in a 1937 Saturday Evening Post advertisement. When Simms was 5 years old a judge rejected his maternal grandmother's request that she receive 10 percent of his salary for serving as his business manager. The judge approved a contract of $200 per week with Columbia Pictures. His ruling allowed $55 per week to be allocated for Simms's maintenance and support and for taxes to be taken out of the salary. The rest was to be divided between his mother and a trust fund.

Career His first film was The Last Gangster (1937), where he played Edward G. Robinson's young son. Simms became known for his appearances as Alexander "Baby Dumpling" Bumstead in the popular Blondie film series starring Penny Singleton and Arthur Lake. Between 1938 and the end of the series in 1950, Simms appeared as Alexander in 28 films earning at one point $750 a week. In 1946, Simms joined the cast of the Blondie radio program, portraying Alexander there as he had in movies. Simms occasionally acted outside of the Blondie series, most notably in two Frank Capra films. He played one of the sons of Governor Hopper (Guy Kibbee) in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) and Pete Bailey, the oldest child of James Stewart's George Bailey in It's a Wonderful Life (1946). He retired from show business to join the Navy (he appeared in uniform as himself in the Columbia Screen Snaphots short Hollywood Grows Up), then studied aeronautical engineering at California Polytech. He later worked at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California and around the world as an engineer until his retirement from aeronautical engineering.

Death Simms and his wife resided in Thailand prior to his death (on June 17 at age 74) in 2009.

Filmography

References

Bibliography John Holmstrom, The Moving Picture Boy: An International Encyclopaedia from 1895 to 1995, Norwich, Michael Russell, 1996, p. 190.

External links Larry Simms at IMDb

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Larry Simms

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Larry Simms 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 Larry Simms 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 Larry Simms 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 Larry Simms

In research: Larry Simms 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 Larry Simms 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: Larry Simms is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1934 births, 2009 deaths, 20th-century American male actors, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Larry Simms 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 Larry Simms in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Larry Simms in simple terms?

Larry Lee Simms (October 1, 1934 – June 17, 2009) was an American aerospace engineer and former child actor who appeared in 36 films between 1937 and 1951. Early life Larry Simms was born October 1, 1934, in Santa Monica, California.

Why does Larry Simms 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 Larry Simms?

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 Larry Simms.