science

Niklas Westring

Niklas Westring 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 Niklas Westring rather than just read about it. In short: Niklas Westring (13 November 1797, in Gothenburg – 28 January 1882) was a Swedish entomologist and arachnologist. He started out with the intention to study medicine but this was frustrated by the death of his father.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Niklas Westring (13 November 1797, in Gothenburg – 28 January 1882) was a Swedish entomologist and arachnologist. He started out with the intention to study medicine but this was frustrated by the death of his father. His full-time profession from 1816 was as a customs officer in Gothenburg, where he was customs administrator from 1834 to 1856. When he retired he spent most of his time working on natural history, especially from 1840 to 1862, during which time he also became a conservator at the Göteborg Natural History Museum. He is best known for his book Araneae suecicae descriptae in 1862 in which he described 308 species of spider found in Sweden. Of these, 124 had already been described by Carl Linnaeus, Charles De Geer and Carl Jakob Sundevall. He appears to have been something of a mentor to Tamerlan Thorell who lived in Gothernborg until he went to university at Uppsala and was familiar with Westring's collection of spiders and how to identify them since he had been a schoolboy. He was one of the founders and most active promoters of the Göteborg City Museum, serving on its board from 1840 to 1874. He became a member of the Royal Society of Sciences and Letters in Gothenburg in 1843, a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1863 and several foreign entomological associations. Westring was married to Bridget Christina Thorsell but was a widower when he died. He did not have any children but appears to have fostered a relative of his wife, Johan Peterson, to whom he left the bulk of his estate. When he died he bequeathed his collections of specimens and library to the Göteborg Natural History Museum. He also left a cabinet made of mahogany which contained some specimens, including many type specimens, to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, this cabinet is now in the Swedish Museum of Natural History.

Publications This is an incomplete list.

Westring (N.) (Nicolas), 1843. - (Om' Stridulationsorganet hos Asagena serratipes Schrk.). Nat. Tidsskr., 4, pp. 349–360. Westring (N.), 1847. - Bidrag till Historien om Insekternes Stridulations-Organer. Nat. Tidsskr., (2) 2 (4), pp. 334–345. Westring, N. (1851). Förteckning öfver de till närvarande tid Kände, i Sverige förekommande Spindlarter, utgörande ett antal af 253, deraf 132 äro nya för svenska Faunan. Göteborgs Kungliga Vetenskaps och Vitterhets Samhälles Handlingar 2: 25-62 Westring, N. (1861). Araneae svecieae. Göteborgs Kungliga Vetenskaps och Vitterhets Samhälles Handlingar 7: 1-615 Westring, Niklaus (1862), Araneae Suecicae descriptae. Bonnier, ISBN 978-1130275674 Westring, N. (1874). Bemerkungen über die Arachnologischen Abhandlungen von Dr T. Thorell unter dem Titel: 1°, On European Spiders, pts 1 et 2, Upsala, 1869-70. 2°, Remarks on Synonyms of European Spiders, Upsala, 1872-73. Göteborgs Kungliga Vetenskaps och Vitterhets Samhälles Handlingar 14: 1-68

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Niklas Westring

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Niklas Westring 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 Niklas Westring 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 Niklas Westring 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 Niklas Westring

In research: Niklas Westring 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 Niklas Westring 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: Niklas Westring is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1797 births, 1882 deaths, 19th-century Swedish zoologists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Niklas Westring 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 Niklas Westring in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Niklas Westring in simple terms?

Why does Niklas Westring 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 Niklas Westring?

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 Niklas Westring.