science

Polygoon

Polygoon 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 Polygoon rather than just read about it. In short: The Dutch Polygoon-Profilti was a cinema newsreel company in the Netherlands from 1919 to 1987. It started with weekly news items in the Dutch movie theaters and lasted until 1987 when it finally surrendered to television news shows.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

The Dutch Polygoon-Profilti was a cinema newsreel company in the Netherlands from 1919 to 1987. It started with weekly news items in the Dutch movie theaters and lasted until 1987 when it finally surrendered to television news shows. The company was founded in 1919 and then made in-between movies for the silent movies of that time. Starting from 1921, it made ordered custom movies like 'the winning of brown coal "Carisborg"' (name translated) or 'Steam wheat mill "Holland" in Amsterdam' (name translated). Then in 1924 it started with cinema newsreel Hollands Nieuws, first bi-weekly, from the 1930s weekly. "Where they are not, nothing is happening" was the motto of the cameramen of Polygoon who traveled up and down the Dutch countryside to capture news and local culture. There was a lot of competition at that time from other companies like Profilti and Haghefilm. Contracts for sport events, cameramen trying to cheat each other or fighting, aggressive sales methods and vague acquisitions were common.

After World War II, the Polygoon-journal had its glory days; 400 different cinemas weekly showed Neêrlands Nieuws and Wereldnieuws. In 1946, the editor Philip Bloemendal (1918–1999) started as commentator; his particular voice became synonymous with Polygoon. Because of the emergence of the television in the Netherlands by the late 1950s, the Polygoon journals lost much attention, but the service lasted until 1987 before it finally ended. Cameramen employed by Polygoon had orders to fill their reels, no matter what. If not for news, then with the local celebrity or even shots of famous buildings or locations. Because of this, Polygoon's archive is now a valuable source of historical stock footage available for other productions. It is currently being digitalized by the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision located in Hilversum. Several Polygoon newsreels can also be found on YouTube. One such example is the arrival of Thomas Cook's Rugby Club the first visiting team to play against Hilversum in 1958, filmed by Polygoon at the AGOVV Apeldoorn stadium in Apeldoorn.

External links

The Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision selection of Polygoon newsreels viewable online

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Polygoon

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Polygoon 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 Polygoon 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 Polygoon 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 Polygoon

In research: Polygoon 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 Polygoon 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: Polygoon is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics History of film, Newsreels, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Polygoon 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 Polygoon in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Polygoon in simple terms?

Why does Polygoon 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 Polygoon?

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 Polygoon.