science

Mrs. Bixby and the Colonel's Coat

Mrs. Bixby and the Colonel's Coat 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 Mrs. Bixby and the Colonel's Coat rather than just read about it. In short: "Mrs Bixby and the Colonel's Coat" is a short story by Roald Dahl that first appeared in a 1959 issue of Nugget. The story is Dahl's variation on a popular anecdote dating back at least to 1939: a married woman receives a glamorous mink coat from a man with whom she had an affair.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

"Mrs Bixby and the Colonel's Coat" is a short story by Roald Dahl that first appeared in a 1959 issue of Nugget. The story is Dahl's variation on a popular anecdote dating back at least to 1939: a married woman receives a glamorous mink coat from a man with whom she had an affair. She hopes to sneak the coat into her home without arousing her husband's suspicions, but soon discovers her husband has his own plans.

Summary Mrs Bixby and her dentist husband live in a New York apartment. Once a month, Mrs Bixby travels from New York City to Baltimore, supposedly visiting her elderly aunt; in fact, she is having an affair with the Colonel. As she is preparing to leave after one of these visits to Baltimore, Mrs Bixby receives a package from the Colonel containing a letter and an expensive gift: a dark mink coat. The Colonel's letter informs Mrs Bixby they can no longer see each other, and suggests she tell her husband the mink coat is a Christmas present from her aunt. Mrs Bixby is in despair as she reads the letter: her aunt is far too poor to be given credit for the gift. However, Mrs Bixby is intent on keeping the coat and devises a plan. On her return to New York she visits a pawnbroker and pawns the coat for $50. The pawnbroker gives her a pawn ticket, which she declines to mark with any kind of name or description. The ticket guarantees her right to claim the coat at any time. She tells her husband she found the pawn ticket in the taxi. He decides it would be best if he redeemed the ticket, in spite of Mrs Bixby's objections. The next day, Dr Bixby goes to the pawn shop to redeem the ticket and claim the item it stands for. Mrs Bixby is excited and rushes to her husband's office after he has collected it. She is horrified when he proudly holds up a small, mangy stole, and not her coat. He announces it is real mink and that she should consider it her Christmas present. Mrs Bixby initially believes the pawnbroker has cheated her of her coat and intends to confront him. But as she leaves her husband's office, Dr Bixby's secretary, Miss Pulteney, walks proudly past her, wearing the mink coat. It is implied that Dr Bixby is having an affair with Miss Pulteney, gave her the coat, and purchased a cheap stole for his wife instead. As Mrs Bixby cannot demand the coat back without revealing her own affair, she is hoist with her own petard.

Adaptations Television

Film Dus Kahaniyaan (English: Ten stories), a 2007 Indian Hindi-language anthology film comprising ten short films by different directors, includes Matrimony by Sanjay Gupta which is based on this short story.

References

External links "Mrs. Bixby and the Colonel's Coat" title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Mrs. Bixby and the Colonel's Coat

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Mrs. Bixby and the Colonel's Coat 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 Mrs. Bixby and the Colonel's Coat 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 Mrs. Bixby and the Colonel's Coat 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 Mrs. Bixby and the Colonel's Coat

In research: Mrs. Bixby and the Colonel's Coat 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 Mrs. Bixby and the Colonel's Coat 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: Mrs. Bixby and the Colonel's Coat is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1959 English-language short stories, 1959 short stories, British short stories adapted into films, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Mrs. Bixby and the Colonel's Coat 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 Mrs. Bixby and the Colonel's Coat in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Mrs. Bixby and the Colonel's Coat in simple terms?

Why does Mrs. Bixby and the Colonel's Coat 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 Mrs. Bixby and the Colonel's Coat?

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 Mrs. Bixby and the Colonel's Coat.