astronomy

Marland P. Billings

Marland P. Billings 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 Marland P. Billings rather than just read about it. In short: Marland Pratt Billings (March 11, 1902 – October 9, 1996) was an American structural geologist who was considered one of the greatest authorities on North American geology. Billings was Professor of Geology at Harvard University for almost his entire career, having joined the faculty in 1930 and retired to emeritus status in 1972.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Marland Pratt Billings (March 11, 1902 – October 9, 1996) was an American structural geologist who was considered one of the greatest authorities on North American geology. Billings was Professor of Geology at Harvard University for almost his entire career, having joined the faculty in 1930 and retired to emeritus status in 1972. He also taught for a brief time at Bryn Mawr College.

Biography Billings was educated at Roxbury Latin School. He received his A.B. (1923), his A.M. (1925), and his Ph.D. (1927) from Harvard University. In the 1950s, Billings studied the geology exposed by some of the bedrock tunnels being constructed in the Boston area by the Metropolitan District Commission for water supply and drainage disposal. He also investigated the geology of many parts of the world, including Iceland, Japan, and Australia. Marland was married to Katharine Fowler-Billings an accomplished naturalist and geologist. Marland Billings died Wednesday, October 9, 1996, in Peterborough, New Hampshire. He was 94.

Involvement in the closing of the Harvard geography department in 1948 In the 1940s, geography at Harvard was expanding, and part of the Department of Geology. During a dispute over a faculty promotion and worried that geography was taking resources from geology at Harvard, Billings wrote a series of letters questioning the importance of human geography and argued that resources would be better spent on geology than in geography. These letters led to administrative debates on the future of geography at Harvard. As a result of events set in motion by these letters, in 1948, the Harvard geography department was dissolved, and its faculty members were reassigned to other departments or retired. The teaching of geography was integrated into other departments, such as the Department of Geology. The closure of the geography department at Harvard was not solely due to Marland P. Billings' personal views or actions; however, his letters are seen as the initiation of the discussion around geography. The closure of geography at Harvard had cascading effects on the discipline across the country and is viewed as a major event in the history of the discipline from which it has never fully recovered.

Awards and honors Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1938) Penrose Medal (1987) Member of the United States National Academy of Sciences

Associations Geological Society of America, President 1959 American Geophysical Union Mineralogical Society of America Seismological Society of America

Bibliography A partial list of books:

Origin of the Appalachian Highlands (1932) Geology of the Littleton and Moosilauke quadrangles (1935) Geology of the Franconia quadrangle (1935) Structural Geology (1942) ISBN 0-87692-059-8 The Geology of the Mt. Washington Quadrangle (1946) A Geological Map of New Hampshire (1955) Geology of New Hampshire (1956) Chemical analyses of rocks and rock-minerals from New Hampshire (1965) Geology of the Gorham Quadrangle: New Hampshire-Maine (1965) Geology of the Malden tunnel, Massachusetts (1966) Geology of the North Metropolitan Relief Tunnel, great Boston, Massachusetts (1975) Bedrock geology (The Geology of New Hampshire) (1980)

References

External links Marland P. Billings 1902-1996, A Remembrance by Brian K. Fowler, Windswept, The Quarterly Bulletin of the Mount Washington Observatory, Vol. 38. No. 1, Spring 1997, pp. 53–54. Mount Washington Observatory Mineralogical Museum at Harvard University

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Marland P. Billings

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Marland P. Billings 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 Marland P. Billings 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 Marland P. Billings 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 Marland P. Billings

In research: Marland P. Billings 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 Marland P. Billings 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: Marland P. Billings is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1902 births, 1996 deaths, 20th-century American geologists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Marland P. Billings 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 Marland P. Billings in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Marland P. Billings in simple terms?

Why does Marland P. Billings 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 Marland P. Billings?

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 Marland P. Billings.