physics

Melville Eastham

Melville Eastham 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 Melville Eastham rather than just read about it. In short: Melville Eastham (June 26, 1885 – May 6, 1964) was a noted American radio pioneer and business executive. Eastham was born in Oregon City, Oregon.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Melville Eastham (June 26, 1885 – May 6, 1964) was a noted American radio pioneer and business executive. Eastham was born in Oregon City, Oregon. After high school graduation from Portland Academy, he worked as electrician for a Portland street railway, then moved to New York City in 1905 where he worked for the Ovington X-ray Company. After noticing that the high-voltage spark coils used to excite X-ray tubes were becoming popular as transmitters for radio amateurs, he joined two other employees in 1906 to start the Clapp, Eddy, and Eastham Company (subsequently Clapp-Eastham) in Boston, to sell spark coils, variable capacitors, and other radio devices. In 1915 Eastham left Clapp-Eastham to form the General Radio Company, first located on the third floor of a small flatiron building still standing at the corner of Massachusetts Avenue and Windsor Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It provided radio components such as a Precision Variable Air Condenser ($25.00), a Decade Resistance Box ($19.00), a Precision Variable Inductance ($24.00), and an Absorption Wavemeter ($60.00), and quickly profited from strong demand for military radios during World War I and the subsequent radio broadcasting boom. During World War II, Eastham led the LORAN radio navigation development efforts at MIT's Radiation Laboratory. He stepped down as president of General Radio in 1944 but retained the title of chief engineer until his retirement in 1950. Eastham was named a Fellow of the Institute of Radio Engineers in 1925 and served as its treasurer from 1927 to 1940. He received the IRE Medal of Honor in 1937 "for his pioneer work in the field of radio measurements, his constructive influence on laboratory practice in communication engineering, and his unfailing support of the aims and ideals of the Institute."

References

Further reading The General Radio Story; Frederick Van Veen; 262 pages; 2006; ISBN 978-0615176659. (archive) A History of the General Radio Company 1915-1965; Arthur Thiessen; 116 pages; 1965; ASIN B0006CAQII. (archive)

External links IEEE History Center biography

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Melville Eastham

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Melville Eastham 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 Melville Eastham 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 Melville Eastham 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 Melville Eastham

In research: Melville Eastham 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 Melville Eastham 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: Melville Eastham is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1885 births, 1964 deaths, 20th-century American people, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Melville Eastham 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 Melville Eastham in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Melville Eastham in simple terms?

Melville Eastham (June 26, 1885 – May 6, 1964) was a noted American radio pioneer and business executive. Eastham was born in Oregon City, Oregon.

Why does Melville Eastham 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 Melville Eastham?

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 Melville Eastham.