astronomy

Michael J. C. Gordon

Michael J. C. Gordon 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 Michael J. C. Gordon rather than just read about it. In short: Michael John Caldwell Gordon (28 February 1948 – 22 August 2017) was a British computer scientist. Life Mike Gordon was born in Ripon, Yorkshire, England.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Michael John Caldwell Gordon (28 February 1948 – 22 August 2017) was a British computer scientist.

Life Mike Gordon was born in Ripon, Yorkshire, England. He attended Dartington Hall School and Bedales School. In 1966, he was accepted to study engineering at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, but transferred to mathematics. During his studies, in 1969 he worked at the National Physical Laboratory in London during the summer, gaining his first exposure to computers. Gordon studied for his PhD degree at the University of Edinburgh, supervised by Rod Burstall, finishing in 1973 with a thesis entitled Evaluation and Denotation of Pure LISP Programs. He was invited to Stanford University in California by John McCarthy, the inventor of LISP, to work in his Artificial Intelligence Laboratory there. Gordon worked at the Cambridge University Computer Laboratory from 1981, initially as a lecturer, promoted to Reader in 1988 and Professor in 1996. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1994, and in 2008 a two-day research meeting on Tools and Techniques for Verification of System Infrastructure was held there in honour of his 60th birthday. Mike Gordon was married to Avra Cohn, a PhD student of Robin Milner at the University of Edinburgh, and they undertook research together. He died in Cambridge after a brief illness and is survived by his wife and two sons.

Work Gordon led the development of the HOL theorem prover. The HOL system is an environment for interactive theorem proving in a higher-order logic. Its most outstanding feature is its high degree of programmability through the meta-language ML. The system has a wide variety of uses, from formalising pure mathematics to the verification of industrial hardware. There has been a series of international conferences on the HOL system, TPHOLs. The first three were informal users' meetings with no published proceedings. The tradition now is for an annual conference on a different continent from the location of the previous meeting. From 1996, the scope broadened to cover all theorem proving in higher-order logics.

References

External links Mike Gordon home page

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Michael J. C. Gordon

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Michael J. C. Gordon 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 Michael J. C. Gordon 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 J. C. Gordon 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 J. C. Gordon

In research: Michael J. C. Gordon 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 Michael J. C. Gordon 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 J. C. Gordon is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1948 births, 2017 deaths, Alumni of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Michael J. C. Gordon 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 J. C. Gordon in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Michael J. C. Gordon in simple terms?

Michael John Caldwell Gordon (28 February 1948 – 22 August 2017) was a British computer scientist. Life Mike Gordon was born in Ripon, Yorkshire, England.

Why does Michael J. C. Gordon 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 Michael J. C. Gordon?

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 J. C. Gordon.