engineering

Ralph Harper McKee

Ralph Harper McKee is a engineering 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 Ralph Harper McKee rather than just read about it. In short: Ralph Harper McKee (June 20, 1874 – February 24, 1967) was an American chemical engineer, inventor, and college football coach. He was professor at the department of chemical engineering at Columbia University.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Ralph Harper McKee (June 20, 1874 – February 24, 1967) was an American chemical engineer, inventor, and college football coach. He was professor at the department of chemical engineering at Columbia University. McKee was the first person to be awarded a patent for a novel plant.

Biography McKee was born on June 20, 1874, in Missouri, to James T. McKee and Mary Frances Ricketts. A native of Clinton, Missouri, he graduated from the University of Wooster—now known as the College of Wooster—in 1895. That year, he was hired as the chair of mathematics and astronomy at Carthage College, located in Carthage, Illinois. McKee was the first head football coach at Carthage, serving for six seasons, from 1895 to 1900, and compiling a record of 19–6–1. He earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of Chicago, in 1901. He was a professor of chemistry at Lake Forest College from 1902 until 1909, when he moved to the University of Maine. In 1923 he and Max Kahn developed a novel fat substitute, called intarvin. He was married, and in 1928 he and his wife divorced. By 1932 he was in the department of chemical engineering at Columbia University where he was able to manufacture diamonds "larger than ever before produced artificially" and was able to produce artificial wool from jute. In 1938, he received the first patent issued for a novel plant variety. McKee died on February 24, 1967, in Manhattan.

Head coaching record

References

External links Ralph Harper McKee at Find a Grave

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Ralph Harper McKee

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Ralph Harper McKee claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, 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 Ralph Harper McKee 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 Ralph Harper McKee 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 Ralph Harper McKee

In research: Ralph Harper McKee appears in engineering 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 Ralph Harper McKee 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: Ralph Harper McKee is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1874 births, 1967 deaths, 19th-century American engineers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Ralph Harper McKee 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 Ralph Harper McKee in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Ralph Harper McKee in simple terms?

Why does Ralph Harper McKee matter?

Because it connects several engineering 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 Ralph Harper McKee?

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 Ralph Harper McKee.