science

Lawns in the United States

Lawns in the United States is a science 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 Lawns in the United States rather than just read about it. In short: In a 2005 NASA-sponsored study, it was estimated that the area covered by lawns in the United States to be about 128,000 square kilometres (49,000 sq mi). In her book The Lawn: A History of an American Obsession (1994) Virginia Scott Jenkins traces the historic desire to kill weeds.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

In a 2005 NASA-sponsored study, it was estimated that the area covered by lawns in the United States to be about 128,000 square kilometres (49,000 sq mi). In her book The Lawn: A History of an American Obsession (1994) Virginia Scott Jenkins traces the historic desire to kill weeds. She notes that the current rage for a chemically dependent lawn emerged after World War II and argues that "American front lawns are a symbol of man's control of, or superiority over, his environment." According to the EPA in 2012, "of the 26 billion gallons of water consumed daily in the United States, approximately 7.8 billion gallons, or 30 percent, is devoted to outdoor uses. The majority of this is used for irrigation."

Industry Lawn care is a popular business in the United States; proper maintenance, construction and management of lawns of various kinds being the focus of much of the modern horticulture industry. Estimates of the amount spent on professional lawn care services vary, but a Harris Survey put the total at $28.9 billion in 2002 (approximately $1,200 per household using such services). In 2019, the total amount spent on lawn care had increased to approximately $36 billion a year. Some companies and brands of lawnmowers in the US include:

The Grasshopper Company Sensation Lawn Mowers, a commercial lawnmower brand Beginning as early as 1861 and continuing through the present day, many US patents have been issued for lawn mowers or mowing machines.

Pesticides The idea of lawn landscaping is fairly new with the turfgrass species used in lawns coming to the Americas in the last century. The idea of using chemicals to control a lawn is even newer. Around the 1930s, the use of chemicals to maintain a lawn was advised against. The most common way to control a yard during this time was to either hand pull the weeds or keep chickens. Chemical use became popular in the post-WWII era and has grown significantly since then. In 1999 a study by the United States Geological Survey found that 99% of urban water streams contained pesticides. Surprisingly, pesticides are commonly used by people who understand the negative effects of the chemicals, but they continue to use them due to the immense pressure they feel to maintain their lawn for their neighborhood’s sake. People often view their lawns as a social responsibility that speaks to their character which is why they are willing to use chemicals on their lawns despite the negative effects they may have. Many local governments also do not help this scenario because they have enacted “weed laws” that restrict grass growth over a certain number of inches. According to Robbins and Sharp, these laws are not necessarily the reason many people use chemicals, but they can be a barrier to those who wish to use alternative means of maintaining their lawns.

See also History of the lawn Lawn, a town in Taylor County, Texas

References

Further reading Virginia Scott Jenkins (1994) The Lawn: A History of an American Obsession

External links A motor lawn mower - Scientific American 13 November 1897

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Lawns in the United States

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Lawns in the United States claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, 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 Lawns in the United States 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 Lawns in the United States 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 Lawns in the United States

In research: Lawns in the United States appears in science 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 Lawns in the United States 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: Lawns in the United States is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Gardening in the United States, Lawns, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Lawns in the United States 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 Lawns in the United States in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Lawns in the United States in simple terms?

Why does Lawns in the United States matter?

Because it connects several science 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 Lawns in the United States?

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 Lawns in the United States.