science

Letters from High Latitudes

Letters from High Latitudes 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 Letters from High Latitudes rather than just read about it. In short: Letters From High Latitudes is a travel book written by Lord Dufferin in 1856, recounting the young lord's journey to Iceland, Jan Mayen and Spitzbergen in the schooner Foam. When Dufferin was only 15 his father died.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Letters From High Latitudes is a travel book written by Lord Dufferin in 1856, recounting the young lord's journey to Iceland, Jan Mayen and Spitzbergen in the schooner Foam. When Dufferin was only 15 his father died. In consequence he developed a very close relationship with his mother. In the course of the voyage Dufferin created a diary in the form of letters nominally written to his mother. On his return, Lord Dufferin used those letters to write a book about his travels entitled Letters From High Latitudes. Lord Dufferin commissioned the schooner Foam with the first objective of visiting Iceland. He visited the then-minuscule Reykjavík, the plains of Þingvellir, and Geysir. While Dufferin was at Geysir Prince Napoleon arrived on the yacht Reine Hortense with his entourage. Upon his return to Reykjavík Dufferin was invited to join Prince Napoleon aboard his royal steamer La Reine Hortense. Prince Napoleon offered that the Foam be towed north as the French were on an expedition to the same region. The collier traveling with La Reine Hortense was damaged which required the French to abandon their investigations. Dufferin then set sail for Jan Mayen Island where he had to land by small boat. He wrote that he left a tin of trinkets on the island. From Jan Mayen, the Foam sailed to northern Norway, stopping at Hammerfest, before sailing for Spitzbergen.

With its irreverent style, lively pace, and witty commentary, the book became extremely successful. It can be regarded as the prototype of the comic travelogue. It remained in print for many years with editions published in both the United Kingdom and the United States. A Canadian edition was published while Dufferin was Governor General of Canada. An abridged edition was published under the title A Cruise in Northern Seas. Translations were made into French, German and Urdu. Despite his book's great success Lord Dufferin did not pursue a career in writing. Instead, he became a diplomat, later serving as British ambassador to Russia and the Ottoman Empire. Subsequently, he was appointed Governor General of Canada and after that term became Viceroy of India. Frost On My Moustache by Tim Moore is an account of a journey in which the author attempts to emulate Lord Dufferin's fearless spirit and enthusiastic adventuring, but comes to identify far more with Dufferin's permanently miserable butler, Wilson.

Publication history Editions of Letters from High Latitudes include:

John Murray, London, 1857 (1st edition half-leather) John Murray, London, 1857 (2nd edition) John Murray, London, 1857 (3rd edition) John Murray, London, 1858 (4th edition) Ticknor and Fields, Boston, 1859 (1st edition) R. Worthington, New York, 1878 (3rd edition) Adam, Stevenson & Co., Toronto, 1872 (1st Canadian edition) John Murray, London, 1873 (6th edition) Lovell, Adam, Wesson. & Company, New York, 1873 Lovell, Adam, Wesson & Company, New York, 1878 (edition contains a Preface to the Third edition, as well as preface to Canadian edition) R. Worthington, New York, 1882 John Murray, London, 1883 (7th edition) John Murray, London, 1887 (8th edition) John Murray, London, 1891 (9th edition) Bernhard Tauchnitz, Leipzig, 1891 Wm. L. Allison Company, New York, 1895 John Murray, London, 1895 (10th edition) John Murray, London, 1902 (11th edition) John Murray, London, 1903 (Canadian edition) J.M. Dent & Sons, Ltd., London, 1910 John Murray, London, 1913 (Canadian edition; reprint) Humphrey Milford Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1924. Introduction by R.W. Macan Dent, London, 1925. Everyman's Library Volume 399 Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1934 (The World's Classics) J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd., London, 1940 The Merlin Press, London. 1989 (paperback reprint of Canadian edition) Seafarer Books, 1991 (paperback facsimile of 1856 edition) Kessinger Publishing, 2004 (paperback) Lightning Source Inc, 2006 Edition of A Cruise in Northern Seas

Henry Frowde, London 1920

External links Online version available from Project Gutenberg.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Letters from High Latitudes

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Letters from High Latitudes 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 Letters from High Latitudes 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 Letters from High Latitudes 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 Letters from High Latitudes

In research: Letters from High Latitudes 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 Letters from High Latitudes 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: Letters from High Latitudes is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1856 books, Books about the Arctic, Travel books, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Letters from High Latitudes 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 Letters from High Latitudes in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Letters from High Latitudes in simple terms?

Why does Letters from High Latitudes 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 Letters from High Latitudes?

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 Letters from High Latitudes.