astronomy

Percy Raymond

Percy Raymond is a astronomy 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 Percy Raymond rather than just read about it. In short: Percy Edward Raymond (30 May 1879 – 17 May 1952) was an American geologist, paleontologist, and professor at Harvard University who specialized in the evolution of trilobites and studied fossils from the Burgess Shale. Life and scientific career Raymond was born in New Canaan, Connecticut, son of George Edward and Harriet Frances née Beers.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Percy Edward Raymond (30 May 1879 – 17 May 1952) was an American geologist, paleontologist, and professor at Harvard University who specialized in the evolution of trilobites and studied fossils from the Burgess Shale.

Life and scientific career Raymond was born in New Canaan, Connecticut, son of George Edward and Harriet Frances née Beers. He studied at Cornell University and although aiming to become an engineer, became fascinated by lectures of Gilbert Dennison Harris. He then went on to study paleontology, receiving a PhD from Yale University in 1904 under the supervision of Charles Emerson Beecher. He worked at the Carnegie Museum and the Geological Survey of Canada before becoming an assistant professor at Harvard University and its Museum of Comparative Zoology in 1910. He worked there until his retirement in 1945, rising to the rank of full professor by 1929 and continuing on as an emeritus professor. Raymond's major work was based on a rediscovery of the specimens in the Burgess Shale. The largest fossil collections had been made by Charles Doolittle Walcott and after his death in 1927, his collections, then thought to be exhaustive, were not allowed to be examined by his widow Mary Vaux Walcott. Raymond then re-examined the same region and found a major bed higher up which has been called the Raymond Quarry. Raymond examined trilobite evolution over time through morphology of specimens from various points in time. He especially looked at variations in the appendages and examined similarities with other groups including the insects, crustaceans and arachnids, exploring the apparent explosion of life forms in the Cambrian period. Raymond was a Fellow of the Geological Society of America. He received a Walker Grand Prize of the Boston Society of Natural History in 1928 for his monograph on trilobites.

Personal life Raymond collected pewter and studied the history of early American pewterers and their methods. He co-founded the Pewter Collectors Club of America. His pewter-related research papers are held by the Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library. Raymond died at Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, Massachusetts, at the age of 72. His wife Eva Grace (née Goodenough) and daughter Ruth Elspeth survived him.

References

External links The appendages, anatomy and relationships of trilobites (1920) Prehistoric Life (1947) Biography

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Percy Raymond

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Percy Raymond claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, 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 Percy Raymond 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 Percy Raymond 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 Percy Raymond

In research: Percy Raymond appears in astronomy 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 Percy Raymond 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: Percy Raymond is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1879 births, 1952 deaths, American collectors, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Percy Raymond 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 Percy Raymond in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Percy Raymond in simple terms?

Why does Percy Raymond matter?

Because it connects several astronomy 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 Percy Raymond?

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 Percy Raymond.