astronomy

Richard Henry Yapp

Richard Henry Yapp 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 Henry Yapp rather than just read about it. In short: Richard Henry Yapp (8 October 1871 – 22 January 1929) was an English botanist and an early ecologist, who held the Chair of Botany in Queen's University, Belfast, and the Mason Professorship of Botany at the University of Birmingham. Early life and education Yapp was born on 8 October 1871 at Orleton, Herefordshire, England, the son of Jane (née Gammidge) and Richard Keysall Yapp, a landowner and farmer.

Key takeaways

Richard Henry Yapp 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 Henry Yapp to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Richard Henry Yapp from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Richard Henry Yapp (8 October 1871 – 22 January 1929) was an English botanist and an early ecologist, who held the Chair of Botany in Queen's University, Belfast, and the Mason Professorship of Botany at the University of Birmingham.

Early life and education Yapp was born on 8 October 1871 at Orleton, Herefordshire, England, the son of Jane (née Gammidge) and Richard Keysall Yapp, a landowner and farmer. After attending a private school at Leominster he was educated at Hereford's County School, but his education ended when he was 15 due to the death of his father. Although working, his thirst for knowledge led him to attend a variety of classes, including some at University College, Nottingham, and in 1895 he was awarded a scholarship and entered St John's College, Cambridge. He studied botany under Harry Marshall Ward, Albert Seward and Frederick Blackman, graduating with First Class Honours. He was awarded the Frank Smart Studentship by Gonville and Caius College at the University of Cambridge, to which he transferred in June 1899. He was captain of the university's lacrosse team for the year 1898–1899.

Career Yapp was appointed botanist to Cambridge University's 1899–1900 expedition to the North-Eastern Malay States, led by Walter William Skeat. Specimens he collected on the expedition went to the Cambridge University Herbarium, with some in the National Collection at Kew. The expedition also resulted in his paper, "Two Malayan Myrmecophilous Ferns". On his return to Cambridge, he was curator of the university's herbarium from 1900 to 1903, and took up the study of the local fens, publishing a paper on Wicken Fen. He was appointed Professor of Botany at Aberystwyth University in 1904, adding to the university's museum collection specimens he collected in South Africa in 1905. While in Wales he studied the ecology of the Dovey Estuary. He served on the central committee of the Study and Survey of British Vegetation, later renamed the British Vegetation Committee. This group evolved, in 1913, into the British Ecological Society, the first such society in the world. In 1914, he became Chair of Botany at Queen's University, Belfast. He was also assistant to Sir Arthur Yapp, his older brother, in the Ministry of Food during World War I. Yapp was appointed as the University of Birmingham's Mason Professor of Botany in 1919, succeeding George Stephen West and overseeing the department's move from the city centre to the new campus at Edgbaston, with laboratories arranged to his design. For the year 1920–1921, he was President of the British Ecological Society. His 1923 textbook, "Botany: A Junior Book For Schools" was published in eighteen editions, the latest in 2013. An adapted edition was also produced for Australian schools, in 1934.

Illness and death By the time the new laboratories at Edgbaston were opened, in October 1927, Yapp was showing signs of ill health, and was soon unable to attend conferences. Nonetheless, in 1928 he was appointed President of the Botanical Section of the British Association. He died in Birmingham on 22 January 1929, aged 57. Obituaries, noting the unfinished work which he had planned, were published in The Times, Nature and the Journal of Ecology. He was survived by his wife, Sofia Karolina (née Klintberg; 1886–1941) a Swedish woman whom he married in 1913, and a son and a daughter.

Notes

References

External links

Yapp's entry at Herbaria United

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Richard Henry Yapp

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Richard Henry Yapp 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 Henry Yapp 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 Henry Yapp 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 Henry Yapp

In research: Richard Henry Yapp 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 Henry Yapp 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 Henry Yapp is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1871 births, 1929 deaths, 19th-century English botanists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Richard Henry Yapp 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 Henry Yapp in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Richard Henry Yapp in simple terms?

Why does Richard Henry Yapp 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 Henry Yapp?

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 Henry Yapp.