science

Richard Kendall Brooke

Richard Kendall Brooke 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 Richard Kendall Brooke rather than just read about it. In short: Richard Kendall Brooke (1930 – 12 May 1996) was an Indian-born British ornithologist who mostly worked in Zimbabwe. Biography Brooke was born in India where his father served in the British Army.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Richard Kendall Brooke (1930 – 12 May 1996) was an Indian-born British ornithologist who mostly worked in Zimbabwe.

Biography Brooke was born in India where his father served in the British Army. His academic career began at Rhodes University in Grahamstown where he took a bachelor's degree in theology. Later he pursued a career as a minor civil servant with a government department in Southern Rhodesia. His real interests, however, already lay with ornithology. In 1972 he accepted an invitation to join the staff of the Durban Natural Science Museum, aware that he needed to obtain a higher degree, either a master's or a doctorate, to maintain the position. His submitted thesis was queried by a prominent United States ornithologist who offered to assist him in working on it. Brooke could have made the changes suggested but he was vehemently opposed to revising any part of his text, insisting that it was more than adequate. He then left the Durban Museum and returned to Zimbabwe, where he worked with the Rhodesian Railways for a short time. His experiences with ornithology resulted in an invitation to join the staff of the Percy FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology at the University of Cape Town. Here he spent many fulfilling years of his productive life. After a long illness he returned to Zimbabwe in 1996 where he died in the house of his brother. Richard Brooke never married.

Scientific work Brooke's early work with birds focussed the taxonomy of the swifts (Apodidae) of the Old World. Soon he acquired a solid background and became a world expert on the topic. Besides a wide range of papers he proposed new subspecies of the palm swifts, of mottled and African swift and introduced the genus Hydrochous. Already 1971 Brooke served as a member of a panel of four specialists dealing with the birds of Zambia. Later, in particular after he joined the Percy FitzPatrick Institute, he widened his field of expertise, especially regarding the taxonomy and other biological aspects of various seabird groups. One of his major works is the "South African red data book – birds", for which he was awarded the Gill Memorial Medal. One of his last papers reflect his findings on the possible difference of the South African pied avocet, which he thought was a distinct subspecies. However, due to the limited available material he did not give it a scientific name.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Richard Kendall Brooke

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Richard Kendall Brooke 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 Richard Kendall Brooke 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 Kendall Brooke 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 Kendall Brooke

In research: Richard Kendall Brooke 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 Richard Kendall Brooke 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 Kendall Brooke is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1930 births, 1996 deaths, 20th-century South African zoologists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Richard Kendall Brooke 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 Kendall Brooke in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Richard Kendall Brooke in simple terms?

Richard Kendall Brooke (1930 – 12 May 1996) was an Indian-born British ornithologist who mostly worked in Zimbabwe. Biography Brooke was born in India where his father served in the British Army.

Why does Richard Kendall Brooke 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 Richard Kendall Brooke?

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 Kendall Brooke.