physics

Mary Ruwart

Mary Ruwart is a physics 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 Mary Ruwart rather than just read about it. In short: Mary J. Ruwart (born October 16, 1949) is an American retired biomedical researcher and a libertarian speaker, writer, and activist.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Mary J. Ruwart (born October 16, 1949) is an American retired biomedical researcher and a libertarian speaker, writer, and activist. She was a leading candidate for the 2008 Libertarian Party presidential nomination and is the author of the book Healing Our World.

Early life, education, and medical career Ruwart was born in Detroit, Michigan. She holds a Bachelor of Science with a major in biochemistry (1970), and a doctorate in biophysics (1974) from Michigan State University. After a 2½ year term on the faculty of the Department of Surgery at Saint Louis University School of Medicine, Ruwart spent 19 years as a pharmaceutical research scientist for Upjohn Pharmaceuticals, and has written extensively on the subjects of government regulation of the drug industry and on libertarian communication.

Libertarian activism and candidacies A member of the Libertarian Party, Ruwart campaigned unsuccessfully for the party's presidential nomination in 1984 and for the vice-presidential nomination in 1992. Ruwart was the Libertarian Party of Texas's nominee for U.S. Senate in 2000, where she faced incumbent Republican Kay Bailey Hutchison; Ruwart polled 1.16% of the popular vote (72,798 votes), finishing fourth of four candidates behind Green Party candidate Douglas Sandage. Ruwart has served on the Libertarian National Committee, and was a keynote speaker at the 2004 Libertarian National Convention. In 2002, libertarians launched an unsuccessful lobbying campaign to get Dr. Ruwart appointed Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner. Additionally, Ruwart has served on the boards of the International Society for Individual Liberty, the Fully Informed Jury Association, and the Michigan chapter of the Heartland Institute. Ruwart is a longtime supporter of the Free State Project and officially endorsed it on May 17, 2008 while on-air on Free Talk Live. Ruwart unsuccessfully ran for Texas Comptroller in 2010 against incumbent Republican Susan Combs. She received 417,523 votes (10.5%) in a race that had no Democrat.

2008 presidential campaign

In March 2008, in response to an informal draft effort by a group of Libertarian Party activists, Ruwart announced her candidacy for the Libertarian presidential nomination in the 2008 election. She ran on a platform of ending military intervention overseas and nation-building, ending torture, ending foreign aid, promoting free trade, eliminating welfare entitlements and creating jobs by slashing government spending. She lost the nomination to Bob Barr on the sixth ballot at the 2008 Libertarian National Convention on May 25, 2008. Despite tying with Barr on the third and fourth ballots and taking the lead on the fifth, she ultimately lost after third-placed candidate Wayne Allyn Root threw his support behind Barr. Root later received the vice-presidential nomination.

Child pornography comment Leading to the 2008 Libertarian Party nomination, Ruwart replied to the question of "How can a libertarian argue against child pornography?": "Children who willingly participate in sexual acts have the right to make that decision as well, even if it’s distasteful to us personally. Some children will make poor choices just as some adults do in smoking and drinking to excess. When we outlaw child pornography, the prices paid for child performers rise, increasing the incentives for parents to use children against their will."

Bibliography Ruwart, Mary (1993). Healing Our World: The Other Piece of the Puzzle. Kendall, Frances; Louw, Leon (foreword). SunStar Press. ISBN 978-0-9632336-2-2. Ruwart, Mary (1998). Short Answers to the Tough Questions: How to Answer the Questions Libertarians Are Often Asked. SunStar Press. ISBN 978-0-9632336-5-3. Ruwart, Mary (2003). Healing Our World: In An Age of Aggression. Kendall, Frances; Louw, Leon (foreword). SunStar Press. ISBN 978-0-9632336-6-0. Ruwart, Mary (2015). Healing Our World: The Compassion of Libertarianism. Paul, Ron (foreword). SunStar Press. ISBN 978-0-9632336-7-7. Ruwart, Mary (2018). Death by Regulation: How We Were Robbed of a Golden Age of Health and How We Can Reclaim It. Paul, Ron (foreword); Wright, Jonathan (preface); Gamble, Foster (afterword). SunStar Press. ISBN 978-0-9632336-1-5.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Mary Ruwart

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

In research: Mary Ruwart appears in physics 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 Mary Ruwart 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: Mary Ruwart is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1949 births, 1992 United States vice-presidential candidates, 20th-century American non-fiction writers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Mary Ruwart 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 Mary Ruwart in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Mary Ruwart in simple terms?

Mary J. Ruwart (born October 16, 1949) is an American retired biomedical researcher and a libertarian speaker, writer, and activist.

Why does Mary Ruwart matter?

Because it connects several physics 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 Mary Ruwart?

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 Mary Ruwart.