science

Mr. Darwin's Shooter

Mr. Darwin's Shooter is a science 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 Mr. Darwin's Shooter rather than just read about it. In short: Mr Darwin's Shooter is a 1998 novel by Roger McDonald. It describes the life of Syms Covington, manservant to Charles Darwin during Darwin's voyage aboard HMS Beagle.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Mr Darwin's Shooter is a 1998 novel by Roger McDonald. It describes the life of Syms Covington, manservant to Charles Darwin during Darwin's voyage aboard HMS Beagle. The book deals with three periods of Covington's life: childhood, adolescence while on HMS Beagle, and middle age, where Covington is struggling to deal with the conflict between his religious views and his role in the formulation of the theory of natural selection. Among the many animals Syms Covington shot and prepared for Charles Darwin were the Galápagos finches, which became crucial for his theory.

Notes Dedication: To Elinor, Anna and Stella with love and to Susie with your spirit shining.

Publication history After the novel's initial publication by Random House Australia in 1998 it was republished as follows:

1998, Anchor, UK 1998, Atlantic Monthly Press, USA 1999, Vintage, Australia 1999, Grove Press, USA 2009, Vintage, Australia The novel was also translated into Spanish, in 2001 and German in 2002.

Awards and nominations 1999 NSW Premier's Literary Awards for Fiction, winner 1999 Victorian Premier's Literary Awards for Fiction, winner 2000 Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature, winner

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Mr. Darwin's Shooter

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Mr. Darwin's Shooter claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, 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 Mr. Darwin's Shooter 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 Mr. Darwin's Shooter 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 Mr. Darwin's Shooter

In research: Mr. Darwin's Shooter appears in science 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 Mr. Darwin's Shooter 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: Mr. Darwin's Shooter is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1990s historical novel stubs, 1998 Australian novels, 1998 English-language novels, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Mr. Darwin's Shooter 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 Mr. Darwin's Shooter in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Mr. Darwin's Shooter in simple terms?

Mr Darwin's Shooter is a 1998 novel by Roger McDonald. It describes the life of Syms Covington, manservant to Charles Darwin during Darwin's voyage aboard HMS Beagle.

Why does Mr. Darwin's Shooter matter?

Because it connects several science 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 Mr. Darwin's Shooter?

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 Mr. Darwin's Shooter.