astronomy

Lloyd Montgomery Pidgeon

Lloyd Montgomery Pidgeon 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 Lloyd Montgomery Pidgeon rather than just read about it. In short: Lloyd Montgomery Pidgeon, (December 3, 1903 – December 9, 1999) was a Canadian chemist who developed the Pidgeon process, one of the methods of magnesium metal production, via a silicothermic reduction. He is considered the "father" of academic metallurgical research in Canada.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Lloyd Montgomery Pidgeon, (December 3, 1903 – December 9, 1999) was a Canadian chemist who developed the Pidgeon process, one of the methods of magnesium metal production, via a silicothermic reduction. He is considered the "father" of academic metallurgical research in Canada.

Biography Born in Markham, Ontario, the son of E. Leslie Pidgeon, a United Church of Canada minister, and Edith Gilker, he received a Bachelor of Arts in science from the University of Manitoba in 1925, a Master of Science from McGill University in 1927, and a Ph.D. in chemistry from McGill University in 1929. In 1929, Pidgeon was awarded a Sir William Ramsay Memorial Fellowship from Oxford University and worked under Sir Alfred Egerton until 1931. In 1931, he joined the National Research Council, where he discovered the process that bears his name. Because of the demand for magnesium during the Second World War, a magnesium plant was built by Dominion Magnesium Limited (DML) near Ottawa, and five more magnesium plants were built during the war in the US to his design. Pidgeon was appointed Director of Research by DML in 1941. In 1943, he was appointed chairman of the department of metallurgy at the University of Toronto. He retired from that post in 1969. Pidgeon died in Kingston, Ontario at the age of 96, the author of over 50 original scientific papers as well as the holder of a number of patents in the field of chemical metallurgy.

Honours and awards In 1996, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1943, at the same time as he was awarded the Inco Medal for contributions to Extractive Metallurgy. The next year, he was given the Civil Service Professional Association Medal and the McCharles Prize, from the University of Toronto for outstanding work in Canadian Metallurgy. In 1946, he became a Member of the Order of the British Empire. In 1967, he received the Alcan Medal for his contribution to the field of Metallurgy. He also received the Monel Medal from Columbia University for distinguished achievements in Mineral Technology. He was inducted into the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame.

Family Pidgeon married Frances Rundle. They had two children.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Lloyd Montgomery Pidgeon

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Lloyd Montgomery Pidgeon 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 Lloyd Montgomery Pidgeon 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 Lloyd Montgomery Pidgeon 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 Lloyd Montgomery Pidgeon

In research: Lloyd Montgomery Pidgeon 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 Lloyd Montgomery Pidgeon 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: Lloyd Montgomery Pidgeon is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1903 births, 1999 deaths, 20th-century Canadian chemists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Lloyd Montgomery Pidgeon 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 Lloyd Montgomery Pidgeon in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Lloyd Montgomery Pidgeon in simple terms?

Why does Lloyd Montgomery Pidgeon 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 Lloyd Montgomery Pidgeon?

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 Lloyd Montgomery Pidgeon.