astronomy

Phillip Louw

Phillip Louw 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 Phillip Louw rather than just read about it. In short: Phillipus Adriaan Louw (born 31 May 1974) is a South African linguist and executive director of the Woordeboek van die Afrikaanse Taal. He earned a D.Litt in Lexicography (with a focus on school dictionaries) from Stellenbosch University.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Phillipus Adriaan Louw (born 31 May 1974) is a South African linguist and executive director of the Woordeboek van die Afrikaanse Taal. He earned a D.Litt in Lexicography (with a focus on school dictionaries) from Stellenbosch University. He began his career as a part-time lecturer in the Department of Afrikaans and Dutch at Stellenbosch University, after which he joined the editorial staff of the Woordeboek van die Afrikaanse Taal (WAT). After seven years as co-editor of the WAT, he joined Oxford University Press Southern Africa in 2005 as senior editor. His first project for OUP, the Oxford Afrikaans–English / English–Afrikaans School Dictionary, received the ATKV Word Award in 2008. He was also the chief editor of the monolingual Oxford Afrikaanse Skoolwoordeboek, published in 2012. Until December 2022, he served as Publishing Manager: Dictionaries and Literature at OUPSA, with an additional support role for the rest of Africa, India, and Australia. In January 2023 he returned to the WAT as editor-in-chief and executive director. From 2013 to 2019 he was a member of the Afrikaans Language Commission of the South African Academy of Science and Arts (Suid-Afrikaanse Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns) and contributed to the 11th edition of the Afrikaanse Woordelys en Spelreëls (Afrikaans Word List and Spelling Rules). Since 2019, he has served as a board member of the African Association for Lexicography (AFRILEX), and since 2024 he has been a research fellow in Stellenbosch University's Department of Afrikaans and Dutch.

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Phillip Louw

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Phillip Louw 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 Phillip Louw 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 Phillip Louw 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 Phillip Louw

In research: Phillip Louw 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 Phillip Louw 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: Phillip Louw is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1974 births, Lexicographers, Linguists from South Africa, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Phillip Louw 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.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “Phillip Louw” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Phillip Louw in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Phillip Louw in simple terms?

Why does Phillip Louw 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 Phillip Louw?

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 Phillip Louw.