astronomy

Miriam Burland

Miriam Burland 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 Miriam Burland rather than just read about it. In short: Miriam Seymour Burland (1902 – April 1, 1996) was a Canadian astronomer. She was the first woman on staff at the Dominion Observatory, when she joined the Astrophysics Division in 1927.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Miriam Seymour Burland (1902 – April 1, 1996) was a Canadian astronomer. She was the first woman on staff at the Dominion Observatory, when she joined the Astrophysics Division in 1927.

Early life Miriam Seymour Burland was born in Montreal, the daughter of Benjamin Burland and Bertha Belasco Burland. Her mother was active in the social life of Saint-Lambert, as founder of the town's Tuesday Musical Club and the Christmas Tree League. Miriam Burland attended Longueuil High School in Montreal, and studied mathematics and physics at McGill University, where she was also an avid ice hockey player. She trained as an astronomer at McGill, under Vibert Douglas.

Career

Burland joined the Astrophysics Division at the Dominion Observatory in 1927, and was the first woman on staff at the Observatory. In the 1930s she served in leadership positions at the Ottawa Centre of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (RASC), including a term as president. She worked on photoelectric photometry of Cepheid variables, and later studied meteors. She was on three teams of scientists observing major solar eclipses in Canada, in 1932, 1954, and 1962. From the mid-1950s, still the only woman astrophysicist on staff, she served as the observatory's education and information liaison, compiling reports, arranging public tours, and answering inquiries. She and Peter Millman coordinated a meteor observation program in Canada for the International Geophysical Year (1957-1958). In 1960, she was among the observatory's representatives at the opening of the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory in British Columbia. In the 1960s, she served on the National Committee for Canada in the International Astronomical Union. She was a regular contributor to the Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. She was received the RASC's Service Award in 1963. "I know there are five PhDs who became scientists because of visits to the Observatory and my interest in their careers," she noted on the occasion of her retirement from the Dominion Observatory in 1967.

Publications Publications by Burland included "Combined Radar, Photographic and Visual Observations of the Perseid Meteor Shower of 1947" (Nature 1948, with Peter Millman and D. W. R. McKinley), and "Wave Lengths, Equivalent Widths, and Line Profiles in the Spectrum of the Star H. D. 190073" (Canadian Journal of Research 1949, with C. S. Beals).

Personal life Miriam Seymour Burland was active in the Zonta Club in Ottawa, and served as its president in 1941. She died in 1996, aged 93 years, in Ottawa.

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Miriam Burland

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Miriam Burland 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 Miriam Burland 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 Miriam Burland 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 Miriam Burland

In research: Miriam Burland 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 Miriam Burland 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: Miriam Burland is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1902 births, 1996 deaths, 20th-century Canadian astronomers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Miriam Burland 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 Miriam Burland in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Miriam Burland in simple terms?

Miriam Seymour Burland (1902 – April 1, 1996) was a Canadian astronomer. She was the first woman on staff at the Dominion Observatory, when she joined the Astrophysics Division in 1927.

Why does Miriam Burland 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 Miriam Burland?

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 Miriam Burland.