biology

Larry Stevenson

Larry Stevenson is a biology 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 Stevenson rather than just read about it. In short: Richard Lawrence "Larry" Stevenson (December 22, 1930 – March 25, 2012) was an American Skateboarder. He was the inventor of the kicktail, the bent-upwards end of a skateboard, which made most of today's skateboarding tricks possible and essentially revolutionized the sport.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Richard Lawrence "Larry" Stevenson (December 22, 1930 – March 25, 2012) was an American Skateboarder. He was the inventor of the kicktail, the bent-upwards end of a skateboard, which made most of today's skateboarding tricks possible and essentially revolutionized the sport.

Early life Stevenson was born in 1930 in Los Angeles, California; his mother was Inez Kiem and his father was Leonard Stevenson. After high school Larry Stevenson joined the U.S. Navy as a fighter mechanic. He served for two years in the Korean War. After that, he went on to Santa Monica College in California and became a swimmer. He played water polo and swam for Coach John Josephs. Stevenson won the all American award for fastest time for the breast stroke. The record was only recently broken, and he was given a lifetime allowance into any Santa Monica College event, if he wished to attend. After SMC, Stevenson went to USC, on a swimming scholarship, where he majored in business. During the middle to late part of the 1950s, Stevenson became a Venice Beach lifeguard for the city of Los Angeles. While sitting watching surfers he noticed they would skate on crude skateboards back in the parking lots at the beach. This was true especially when there was no surf. Stevenson, while visiting Hawaii en route to Korea, during the war noticed a great surfing beach called "Makaha". All those years later he remembered how much he liked the beach in Hawaii, but he also loved the name Makaha. After a short period of time, Stevenson started MAKAHA skateboards. He is credited with being the man who made the first high-quality skateboard. He patented the double kicktail in 1969, had the first skate team in 1963, and held the first skateboard contest in 1963. Stevenson also published Surfguide magazine during the 1960s, and Poweredge skateboarding magazine during the 1980s and 1990s. He was involved with Makaha and Poweredge; both have been reborn with new editors. He was inducted into the Skateboarding Hall of Fame in 2010.

Death Stevenson died on March 25, 2012, from complications of pneumonia due to Parkinson's disease in his Santa Monica home. He died in the age of 81.

References

External links Makaha Skateboards - Larry Stevenson history & information

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Larry Stevenson

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Larry Stevenson claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, 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 Stevenson 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 Stevenson 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 Stevenson

In research: Larry Stevenson appears in biology 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 Stevenson 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 Stevenson is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1930 births, 2012 deaths, American inventor stubs, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Larry Stevenson 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 Stevenson in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Larry Stevenson in simple terms?

Why does Larry Stevenson matter?

Because it connects several biology 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 Stevenson?

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 Stevenson.