physics

Maurice Pryce

Maurice Pryce 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 Maurice Pryce rather than just read about it. In short: Maurice Henry Lecorney Pryce (24 January 1913 – 24 July 2003) was a British physicist. Life Pryce was born in Croydon to an Anglo-Welsh father and French mother, and in his teens attended the Royal Grammar School, Guildford.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Maurice Henry Lecorney Pryce (24 January 1913 – 24 July 2003) was a British physicist.

Life Pryce was born in Croydon to an Anglo-Welsh father and French mother, and in his teens attended the Royal Grammar School, Guildford. After a few months in Heidelberg to add German to the French that had been his first language at home, he went to Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1935, he went to Princeton University, supported by a Commonwealth Fund Fellowship (now Harkness Fellowship) where he worked with Wolfgang Pauli and John von Neumann, obtaining his Ph.D. with a thesis on The wave mechanics of the photon under the supervision of Max Born and Ralph Fowler. In 1937, he returned to England as a Fellow of Trinity, until, in 1939, he was appointed Reader in Theoretical Physics at Liverpool University under James Chadwick. In 1941, he joined the Admiralty Signals Establishment (now part of the Admiralty Research Establishment) to work on radar. In 1944, he joined the British atomic energy team in Montreal designing nuclear reactors, but, in 1945, returned to England, first to Cambridge and then, in 1946, to Oxford, where he was appointed Wykeham Professor of Physics. Among his doctoral students were Anatole Abragam and John Clive Ward. In 1947, in collaboration with John Ward, he co-authored a paper that originated on the probability amplitude of two entangled quanta propagating in opposite directions. In 1950, Klaus Fuchs was head of the theoretical physics group at AERE, Harwell. When Fuchs was arrested for supplying atomic secrets to the USSR, Pryce served part-time as his replacement. In 1954, he moved to the University of Bristol as Head of the Physics Department. In 1964, he returned to North America, first to the University of Southern California and then, in 1968, to the University of British Columbia. From 1968 to 1978, he served on the Technical Advisory Committee (for nuclear waste management) of Atomic Energy of Canada Limited.

Distinctions 1935 Fellow, Cambridge Philosophical Society 1936 Member, American Physical Society 1938 Fellow, Royal Astronomical Society 1946 Fellow, Physical Society (London); Member of Council 1959–61 1951 Fellow of the Royal Society 1957 Member of Radar and Signals Advisory Board, Ministry of Supply 1958 Member of Electronics Research Council, Ministry of Aviation 1959 Member (later Chairman) Advisory Council, Royal Military College of Science, Shrivenham 1960 Honorary Member of Council, Société de Physique, Paris

Personal life In 1939, Pryce married Max Born's daughter Susanne Margarete.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Maurice Pryce

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Maurice Pryce 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 Maurice Pryce 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 Maurice Pryce 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 Maurice Pryce

In research: Maurice Pryce 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 Maurice Pryce 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: Maurice Pryce is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1913 births, 2003 deaths, Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Maurice Pryce 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.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “Maurice Pryce” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Maurice Pryce in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Maurice Pryce in simple terms?

Maurice Henry Lecorney Pryce (24 January 1913 – 24 July 2003) was a British physicist. Life Pryce was born in Croydon to an Anglo-Welsh father and French mother, and in his teens attended the Royal Grammar School, Guildford.

Why does Maurice Pryce 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 Maurice Pryce?

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 Maurice Pryce.