astronomy

Richard C. Lord

Richard C. Lord 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 Richard C. Lord rather than just read about it. In short: Richard C. Lord (1910–1989) was an American chemist best known for his work in the field of spectroscopy.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Richard C. Lord (1910–1989) was an American chemist best known for his work in the field of spectroscopy.

Academic career Richard Collins Lord was born in Louisville, Kentucky on October 10, 1910. He received his Ph.D. in physical chemistry from Johns Hopkins University in 1936. He spent two years, from 1936 to 1938, as a Fellow of the United States National Research Council, first at the University of Michigan and then at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. In 1942, Lord began work at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) when the National Defense Research Committee called him to serve as a technical aide and later as deputy chief in the Committee's optics division. During World War II, he was involved in the development of guided missiles as well as with military applications of infrared radiation. In 1946, MIT appointed him Director of the Spectroscopy Laboratory and in 1954, Professor of Chemistry. In collaboration with George R. Harrison and J.R. Loofbourow, Lord published the widely used text Practical Spectroscopy in 1948. Lord is considered a pioneer in the use of infrared radiation for the study of molecular structure. He is widely recognized for developments in the interpretation of infrared spectra of molecules in terms of their vibrational motion. He also contributed to the understanding of the cohesion of molecules by means of hydrogen bonding. His studies of the laser Raman spectroscopy of proteins and nucleic acids opened a new field of research.

Awards and non-academic positions Lord was awarded the President's Certificate of Merit in 1948 by Harry S. Truman in recognition of his work during WWII. From 1957 to 1961, he served as a member and president of the Commission of Molecular Spectroscopy of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), and during 1964 was president of the Optical Society of America. In 1966, he received the Award in Spectroscopy from the Pittsburgh Spectroscopy Society, and in 1967, he was made an honorary member of the Society of Applied Spectroscopy. In 1976, he was awarded the Ellis R. Lippincott Award sponsored by the Optical Society, the Coblentz Society and the Society for Applied Spectroscopy in honor of Ellis R. Lippincott, one of Lord's early post-doctoral students. Lord served as a consultant to the Central Research Department of DuPont between 1948 and 1980, and as editor in the field of optics for the McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science & Technology. He was a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He died on April 29, 1989.

See also Optical Society of America#Past Presidents of the OSA

References

External links Articles Published by early OSA Presidents Archived 2015-03-20 at the Wayback Machine Journal of the Optical Society of America Richard C. Lord's obituary

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Richard C. Lord

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Richard C. Lord 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 Richard C. Lord 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 Richard C. Lord 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 Richard C. Lord

In research: Richard C. Lord 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 Richard C. Lord 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: Richard C. Lord is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1910 births, 1989 deaths, 20th-century American chemists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Richard C. Lord 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 Richard C. Lord in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Richard C. Lord in simple terms?

Richard C. Lord (1910–1989) was an American chemist best known for his work in the field of spectroscopy.

Why does Richard C. Lord 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 Richard C. Lord?

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 Richard C. Lord.