physics

Lawrence Badash

Lawrence Badash is a physics 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 Lawrence Badash rather than just read about it. In short: Lawrence Badash (May 8, 1934, Brooklyn – August 23, 2010, Santa Barbara, California) was an American professor of the history of physical sciences, specializing in the history of physics, particularly the history of nuclear physics and nuclear weapons. Education and career Badash graduated in 1956 with a B.S. in physics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where he was a Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) stu…

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Lawrence Badash (May 8, 1934, Brooklyn – August 23, 2010, Santa Barbara, California) was an American professor of the history of physical sciences, specializing in the history of physics, particularly the history of nuclear physics and nuclear weapons.

Education and career Badash graduated in 1956 with a B.S. in physics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where he was a Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) student. After serving three years as a naval aviator, he became a graduate in the physics department of Yale University but soon switched to the history of science. He became Derek de Solla Price's first doctoral student. Badash received his Ph.D. in 1964 and his Ph.D. thesis was eventually published in 1979 as the monograph Radioactivity in America: Growth and Decay of a Science. He was a NATO Postdoctoral Science Fellow at the University of Cambridge. In the history department of the University of California, Santa Barbara, he taught the history of the physical sciences. He joined the department in 1966 and retired as professor emeritus in 2002. Badash was a Guggenheim Fellow for the academic year 1984–1985. He was elected in 1984 a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and in 1987 a Fellow of the American Physical Society. He served as president of the Santa Barbara chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union ACLU from 1982 to 1988 and from 1996 to 1999. His doctoral students include Jacob Darwin Hamblin.

Selected publications

Articles Badash, Lawrence (1965). "Radioactivity before the Curies". American Journal of Physics. 33 (2): 128–135. Bibcode:1965AmJPh..33..128B. doi:10.1119/1.1971267. Badash, Lawrence (1971). "The Importance of Being Ernest Rutherford". Science. 173 (4000): 873. Bibcode:1971Sci...173..873B. doi:10.1126/science.173.4000.873. Badash, Lawrence (1972). "The Completeness of Nineteenth-Century Science". Isis. 63: 48–58. doi:10.1086/350840. S2CID 144042306. Badash, Lawrence; Hodes, Elizabeth; Tiddens, Adolph (1986). "Nuclear Fission: Reaction to the Discovery in 1939". Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. 130 (2): 196–231. JSTOR 987181. Badash, Lawrence (1989). "The Age-of-the-Earth Debate". Scientific American. 261 (2): 90–97. Bibcode:1989SciAm.261b..90B. doi:10.1038/scientificamerican0889-90. JSTOR 24987366. Badash, Lawrence (2003). "Marie Curie: In the Laboratory and on the Battlefield". Physics Today. 56 (7): 37–43. Bibcode:2003PhT....56g..37B. doi:10.1063/1.1603078.

Books Badash, L., ed. (1969). Rutherford and Boltwood: letters on radioactivity. New Haven: Yale University Press. Badash, L. (1979). Radioactivity in America: growth and decay of a science. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. Badash, Lawrence; Hirschfelder, Joseph O.; Broida, Herbert P., eds. (6 December 2012). Reminiscences of Los Alamos, 1943–1945. Springer. ISBN 9789400990227. (pbk reprint of 1980 original) Badash, L. (1985). Kapitza, Rutherford, and the Kremlin. New Haven: Yale University Press. Badash, L.; Hodes, Elizabeth; Tiddens, Adolph (1985). Nuclear fission: reaction to the discovery in 1939. La Jolla, California: Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation, University of California, San Diego. Badash, L. (1995). Scientists and the development of nuclear weapons: from fission to the Limited Test Ban Treaty, 1939-1963. Atlantic Highlands, N.J.: Humanities Press. ISBN 9780391038738. Badash, L. (10 July 2009). A Nuclear Winter's Tale: Science and Politics in the 1980s. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. ISBN 9780262257992.

References

External links "Portrait of Badash". Niels Bohr Library & Archives, American Institute of Physics (AIP). Badash, Lawrence (April 27, 2005). "Albert Einstein the Peacenik, a KITP public lecture co-sponsored by the Ncuelar Age Peace Foundation". ucsb.edu. Archived from the original on January 12, 2020. Retrieved December 1, 2022. (audio)

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Lawrence Badash

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

In research: Lawrence Badash appears in physics 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 Lawrence Badash 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: Lawrence Badash is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1934 births, 2010 deaths, American historians of science, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Lawrence Badash 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 Lawrence Badash in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Lawrence Badash in simple terms?

Why does Lawrence Badash matter?

Because it connects several physics 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 Lawrence Badash?

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 Lawrence Badash.