astronomy

Lois Tripp Slocum

Lois Tripp Slocum 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 Lois Tripp Slocum rather than just read about it. In short: Lois Tripp Slocum (May 8, 1899 – May 25, 1951) was an American astronomer. She taught astronomy at Wellesley College, Smith College, and Wilson College during her career.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Lois Tripp Slocum (May 8, 1899 – May 25, 1951) was an American astronomer. She taught astronomy at Wellesley College, Smith College, and Wilson College during her career.

Early life Lois Tripp Slocum was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts, the daughter of Edward Manchester Slocum and Eleanor Victoria Tripp Slocum. She graduated from Smith College in 1921, adding a master's degree in 1924. She held a Lick Observatory fellowship, and earned a Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley in 1930, completing a dissertation titled "A study of color indices of faint stars in five selected areas in the Milky Way" under advisor Robert J. Trumpler. Fred Whipple was in the same astronomy cohort at California, finishing in the same year as Slocum. Her uncle was astronomer Frederick Slocum, who was a professor at Brown University in Rhode Island, and at Wesleyan University in Connecticut.

Career Lois Slocum taught at Wellesley College with Leah B. Allen early in her career. She was a member of the astronomy department at Smith College from 1932 to 1943, and in 1944 joined the faculty at Wilson College. During World War II, she worked at the Radio Research Laboratory at Harvard. She was an active member of the American Astronomical Society (elected 1922) and the American Association of Variable Star Observers. Her research focused on dark nebulae and the Milky Way galaxy. In 1932, she joined Annie Jump Cannon, Margaret Harwood, and Vibert Douglas in studying a solar eclipse at different locations across New England and Canada. "Miss Slocum has been working arduously with the other scientists at the delicate job of adjusting and checking the elaborate instruments which are to be focused on the sun at the time of the eclipse," reported The Boston Globe. She was also involved in the study of C/1939 V1 Friend (named after its discoverer, Clarence Lewis Friend) in 1939. Publications by Slocum included "Occultations of the Pleiades by the moon on February 14, 1932" (Astronomical Journal 1932), and "The eclipsing binary WW Aurigae" (Lick Observatory Bulletin 1942).

Personal life Lois Tripp Slocum died in 1951, aged 52 years, in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. In 1967, an endowment from her mother's estate established the annual Lois T. Slocum Lecture at Wilson College, named in her memory.

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Lois Tripp Slocum

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Lois Tripp Slocum 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 Lois Tripp Slocum 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 Lois Tripp Slocum 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 Lois Tripp Slocum

In research: Lois Tripp Slocum 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 Lois Tripp Slocum 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: Lois Tripp Slocum is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1899 births, 1951 deaths, 20th-century American people, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Lois Tripp Slocum 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 Lois Tripp Slocum in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Lois Tripp Slocum in simple terms?

Lois Tripp Slocum (May 8, 1899 – May 25, 1951) was an American astronomer. She taught astronomy at Wellesley College, Smith College, and Wilson College during her career.

Why does Lois Tripp Slocum 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 Lois Tripp Slocum?

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 Lois Tripp Slocum.