mathematics

Les Hatton

Les Hatton is a mathematics 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 Les Hatton rather than just read about it. In short: Les Hatton (born 5 February 1948) is a British-born computer scientist and mathematician most notable for his work on failures and vulnerabilities in software controlled systems. He was educated at King's College, Cambridge 1967–1970 and the University of Manchester where he received a Master of Science degree in electrostatic waves in relativistic plasma and a Doctor of Philosophy in 1973 for his work on computatio…

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Les Hatton (born 5 February 1948) is a British-born computer scientist and mathematician most notable for his work on failures and vulnerabilities in software controlled systems. He was educated at King's College, Cambridge 1967–1970 and the University of Manchester where he received a Master of Science degree in electrostatic waves in relativistic plasma and a Doctor of Philosophy in 1973 for his work on computational fluid dynamics in tornadoes. Although originally a geophysicist, a career for which he was awarded the 1987 Conrad Schlumberger Award for his work in computational geophysics, he switched careers in the early 1990s to study software and systems failure. He has published 4 books and over 100 refereed journal publications and his theoretical and experimental work on software systems failure can be found in IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, IEEE Computer, IEEE Software, Nature, and IEEE Computational Science and Engineering. His book Safer C pioneered the use of safer language subsets in commercial embedded control systems. He was also cited amongst the leading scholars of systems and software engineering by the Journal of Systems and Software for the period 1997–2001. Primarily a computer scientist nowadays, he retains wide interests and has published recently on artificial complexity in mobile phone charging, the aerodynamics of javelins and novel bibliographic search algorithms for unstructured text to extract patterns from defect databases. After spending most of his career in industry working for Oakwood Computing Associates, he is currently a professor of Forensic Software Engineering at Kingston University, London.

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Les Hatton

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

In research: Les Hatton appears in mathematics 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 Les Hatton 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: Les Hatton is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1948 births, 20th-century British mathematicians, 21st-century British mathematicians, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Les Hatton 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 Les Hatton in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Les Hatton in simple terms?

Why does Les Hatton matter?

Because it connects several mathematics 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 Les Hatton?

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 Les Hatton.