chemistry

Michael Hartshorn

Michael Hartshorn is a chemistry 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 Michael Hartshorn rather than just read about it. In short: Michael Philip Hartshorn (10 September 1936 – 15 December 2017) was a British-born New Zealand organic chemist. He was awarded the Hector Memorial Medal by the Royal Society of New Zealand in 1973.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Michael Philip Hartshorn (10 September 1936 – 15 December 2017) was a British-born New Zealand organic chemist. He was awarded the Hector Memorial Medal by the Royal Society of New Zealand in 1973.

Early life and education Born in Keresley on the outskirts of Coventry, Warwickshire, England, on 10 September 1936, Hartshorn was the son of Bernard Hartshorn and Christine Evelyn Hartshorn (née Bennett). He studied at Imperial College London, from where he graduated BSc and ARCS, and at University College, Oxford, where he obtained a DPhil in 1960. His doctoral thesis was titled Steroid hormone analogues. Hartshorn married Jacqueline Joll in 1963, and the couple went on to have four sons. He became a naturalised New Zealand citizen in 1965.

Academic and research career Hartshorn was appointed as a lecturer in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch in 1960, and rose to become a professor in 1972. When he retired in 1996 he was made a professor emeritus. Hartshorn's research centred on reaction mechanisms. He investigated the chemical rearrangement of steroids, cyclic sulfites, monoterpenes and acetylenic alcohols. His research included the ipso nitration of aromatic hydrocarbons and phenols, and their reactions with fuming nitric acid and nitrogen dioxide, as well as the chlorination of polysubstituted phenols. He also studied the reactions of cation radicals arising from the photolysis of aromatic hydrocarbons. Hartshorn was elected a fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Chemistry in 1969, and a fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand the following year. In 1973, he received the Hector Memorial Medal, at that time the highest honour for scientific excellence awarded by the Royal Society of New Zealand.

Death Hartshorn died in Christchurch on 15 December 2017.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Michael Hartshorn

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

In research: Michael Hartshorn appears in chemistry 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 Michael Hartshorn 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: Michael Hartshorn is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1936 births, 2017 deaths, Academic staff of the University of Canterbury, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Michael Hartshorn 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 Michael Hartshorn in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Michael Hartshorn in simple terms?

Michael Philip Hartshorn (10 September 1936 – 15 December 2017) was a British-born New Zealand organic chemist. He was awarded the Hector Memorial Medal by the Royal Society of New Zealand in 1973.

Why does Michael Hartshorn matter?

Because it connects several chemistry 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 Michael Hartshorn?

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 Michael Hartshorn.