physics

Peter Sorokin

Peter Sorokin 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 Peter Sorokin rather than just read about it. In short: Peter Pitirimovich Sorokin (Russian: Пётр Питиримович Сорокин, 10 July 1931 – 24 September 2015) was an American Russian physicist and co-inventor of the dye laser. He was born in Boston and grew up in Winchester, Massachusetts.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Peter Pitirimovich Sorokin (Russian: Пётр Питиримович Сорокин, 10 July 1931 – 24 September 2015) was an American Russian physicist and co-inventor of the dye laser. He was born in Boston and grew up in Winchester, Massachusetts. He attended Harvard University, receiving a BA degree in 1952 and a PhD in Applied Physics in 1958; his PhD thesis advisor was Nicolaas Bloembergen.

Personal life Peter Sorokin was a son of a prominent Russian sociologist Pitirim Sorokin and his wife Microbiologist Dr. Elena Baratynskaya, who belonged to Russian nobility (see: Baratynsky). Sorokin died at the age of 84 on 24 September 2015 from injuries incurred in a fall in August.

Career Sorokin joined IBM research labs in 1958. In 1960 the first laser, the ruby laser, was developed at Hughes Research Labs by Theodore Maiman. In 1962 Sorokin and Mirek Stevenson produced the second kind of laser using calcium fluoride doped with uranium. Sorokin and his colleague J. R. Lankard, at IBM, used a ruby laser to excite a near infrared laser dye. Their report was quickly followed by that of F. P. Schäfer. In 1974 Sorokin received the Albert A. Michelson Medal from the Franklin Institute. In 1983 Sorokin was awarded the Comstock Prize in Physics from the National Academy of Sciences and in 1984 the Harvey Prize from Israel's Technion. In 1991 he received the first Arthur L. Schawlow Prize in Laser Science from the American Physical Society. Sorokin became an IBM Fellow in 1968. He was also a Fellow of the Optical Society of America. Toward the end of his career he became interested in astronomy.

References

Illustrations

Peter Sorokin: Sorokin in 2015 — Sorokin in 2015

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Peter Sorokin

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Peter Sorokin 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 Peter Sorokin 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 Peter Sorokin 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 Peter Sorokin

In research: Peter Sorokin 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 Peter Sorokin 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: Peter Sorokin is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1931 births, 2015 deaths, American people of Komi descent, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Peter Sorokin 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 Peter Sorokin in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Peter Sorokin in simple terms?

Why does Peter Sorokin 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 Peter Sorokin?

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 Peter Sorokin.