astronomy

Laurie Wirt

Laurie Wirt 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 Laurie Wirt rather than just read about it. In short: Laurie Wirt (1958–2006) was an American scientist working in the fields of hydrology and aquatic geochemistry. She was an activist for water conservation, and was particularly known for her advocacy in the Upper Verde River in Arizona, where she fought against groundwater pumping that threatened river flows.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Laurie Wirt (1958–2006) was an American scientist working in the fields of hydrology and aquatic geochemistry. She was an activist for water conservation, and was particularly known for her advocacy in the Upper Verde River in Arizona, where she fought against groundwater pumping that threatened river flows. Her research at the U.S. Geological Survey laid out the impacts of pipeline development on aquifers and river flows, and was described as a "Bible for opponents of the pipeline plan ".

Life Laurie Wirt was born in 1958 and raised in Boylston, Massachusetts. From 1997, she lived in Boulder, Colorado, with her husband, Kirk Vincent. She died on June 26, 2006, in a kayaking accident on the Cache la Poudre River in Colorado. The American Whitewater Accident Database provides a record of the accident. Her death was reported by Southwest Hydrology magazine.

Education Wirt gained her bachelor's degree in geology from Amherst College and her master's degree in geosciences from the University of Arizona. Her senior research thesis was on the topic of how the Connecticut River was affected by artificial water flow patterns introduced by hydroelectric pump storage and release.

Research and advocacy Wirt worked as a hydrologist at the U.S. Geological Survey, in Tucson, Arizona, and Denver, Colorado. Shw was best known for her activist approach, supported by her research findings, and her advocacy included regularly meeting with citizen groups. In particular, she campaigned to preserve the Upper Verde River in Arizona, where river flows were at risk from a planned pipeline project to pump water from the Big Chino basin to provide water to the city of Prescott, Arizona. Wirt's research at USGS laid out the impacts of the pipeline on the Upper Verde River. Her 2005 report "Sources of Base Flow in the Upper Verde River", was described as the "Bible for opponents of the pipeline plan" by The Arizona Republic newspaper. The report used chemical analysis of the water in the springs feeding the river to conclude that up to 86 percent of the Upper Verde comes from the Big Chino. The report drew on Wirt's previous report, co-authored with retired USGS hydrologist Win Hjalmarson, that established the figure as approximately 80 percent. Wirt's work and conclusions that drawing down the aquifer would devastate the river were disputed and opposed by developers. A detailed account of her part in the campaign is given in the High Country News article "The Battle for the Verde".

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Laurie Wirt

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Laurie Wirt 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 Laurie Wirt 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 Laurie Wirt 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 Laurie Wirt

In research: Laurie Wirt 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 Laurie Wirt 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: Laurie Wirt is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1958 births, 2006 deaths, American hydrologists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Laurie Wirt 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 Laurie Wirt in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Laurie Wirt in simple terms?

Why does Laurie Wirt 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 Laurie Wirt?

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 Laurie Wirt.