science

My Uncle Oswald

My Uncle Oswald 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 My Uncle Oswald rather than just read about it. In short: My Uncle Oswald is a 1979 sex comedy novel written by Roald Dahl. The novel stars Uncle Oswald, a character who previously appeared in "The Visitor" and "Bitch", two short stories also written by Roald Dahl (and which can both be found in the 1974 book Switch Bitch).

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

My Uncle Oswald is a 1979 sex comedy novel written by Roald Dahl. The novel stars Uncle Oswald, a character who previously appeared in "The Visitor" and "Bitch", two short stories also written by Roald Dahl (and which can both be found in the 1974 book Switch Bitch).

Plot summary When Uncle Oswald discovers the sexually invigorating properties of the "Sudanese Blister Beetle", he devises a plan to steal the semen of great men and sell it to women who want to have children fathered by geniuses.

Victims Victims of Oswald's plot in order of appearance in the book:

Reception In his 1980 review, Vance Bourjaily said: What can be said is that My Uncle Oswald provides four or five hours of effortless reading and some amusing scenes, mostly of the kind film makers have taught us to call soft porn—so soft, indeed, that at times they turn out almost fluffy. The tone is that of a gentleman telling ribald anecdotes to his male guests after dinner. The leer is civilized... the dialog gets mean and raunchy, but the physical detail is kept decorous.... Mr. Dahl's guests are not invited to vicarious orgy, then, nor will they hear a disguised lecture by a wicked satirist of morals and manners.... Summer reading. Christopher Lehmann-Haupt called it "a festival of bad taste that is at heart so innocent that we soon forgive it and enjoy ourselves," "thoroughly juvenile fun," and said "I haven't had so much fun of this sort since my last all-night joke-telling session at summer camp." Movieweb named it as one of 8 Roald Dahl books that need a screen adaptation.

References

External links My Uncle Oswald title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with My Uncle Oswald

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what My Uncle Oswald 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 My Uncle Oswald 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 My Uncle Oswald 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 My Uncle Oswald

In research: My Uncle Oswald 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 My Uncle Oswald 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: My Uncle Oswald is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1979 British novels, 1979 English-language novels, Cultural depictions of Albert Einstein, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for My Uncle Oswald 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 My Uncle Oswald in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is My Uncle Oswald in simple terms?

Why does My Uncle Oswald 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 My Uncle Oswald?

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 My Uncle Oswald.