physics

Otto Laporte Award

Otto Laporte Award is a physics 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 Otto Laporte Award rather than just read about it. In short: The Otto Laporte Award (1972–2003) was an annual award by the American Physical Society (APS) to "recognize outstanding contributions to fluid dynamics" and to honour Otto Laporte (1902–1971). It was established as the Otto Laporte Memorial Lectureship by the APS Division of Fluid Dynamics in 1972, and became an APS award in 1985.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

The Otto Laporte Award (1972–2003) was an annual award by the American Physical Society (APS) to "recognize outstanding contributions to fluid dynamics" and to honour Otto Laporte (1902–1971). It was established as the Otto Laporte Memorial Lectureship by the APS Division of Fluid Dynamics in 1972, and became an APS award in 1985. The Otto Laporte Award was merged into the Fluid Dynamics Prize in 2004, in order to obtain one major prize in fluid dynamics by the APS.

Recipients 2003: Norman J. Zabusky 2002: Andrea Prosperetti 2001: John Kim 2000: Hassan Aref 1999: Eli Reshotko 1998: David G. Crighton 1997: Marvin Emanuel Goldstein 1996: Donald Coles 1995: Katepalli R. Sreenivasan 1994: Philip G. Saffman 1993: Robert Kraichnan 1992: William C. Reynolds 1991: Steven A. Orszag 1990: Tony Maxworthy 1989: Chia-Shun Yih 1988: Akiva Yaglom 1987: John Trevor Stuart 1986: Milton Van Dyke 1985: Hans W. Liepmann 1984: Sir James Lighthill 1983: John W. Miles 1982: Peter Wegener 1981: H. W. Emmons 1980: R. Byron Bird 1979: Stanley Corrsin 1978: Cecil E. Leith, Jr. 1977: Y. C. Fung 1976: George F. Carrier 1975: Russell J. Donnelly 1974: J. M. Burgers 1973: Chia C. Lin 1972: Richard G. Fowler

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Otto Laporte Award

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Otto Laporte Award claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In physics, 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 Otto Laporte Award 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 Otto Laporte Award 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 Otto Laporte Award

In research: Otto Laporte Award appears in physics 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 Otto Laporte Award 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: Otto Laporte Award is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Awards established in 1972, Awards of the American Physical Society, Fluid dynamics, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Otto Laporte Award 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 Otto Laporte Award in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Otto Laporte Award in simple terms?

Why does Otto Laporte Award matter?

Because it connects several physics 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 Otto Laporte Award?

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 Otto Laporte Award.