physics

Richard M. Goody

Richard M. Goody is a physics 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 M. Goody rather than just read about it. In short: Richard Mead Goody (19 June 1921 – 3 August 2023) was a British-American atmospheric physicist and professor of planetary physics at Harvard University. He was inducted into the National Academy of Sciences in 1970.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Richard Mead Goody (19 June 1921 – 3 August 2023) was a British-American atmospheric physicist and professor of planetary physics at Harvard University. He was inducted into the National Academy of Sciences in 1970.

Early life and education A native of Hertfordshire, Goody attended Cambridge University, from which he received a bachelor's degree in physics in 1942. He then worked at the Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment until October 1946, when he returned to Cambridge to receive his PhD, doing so in 1949. While there, he was instructed to build an infrared spectrometer for use in an airplane to measure stratospheric dryness. He also made important discoveries into the structure of the stratosphere during this time, which led him to study radiative transfer in planetary atmospheres. Related to this work, the best known and widely used model of absorption bands in atmospheric opacity is due to the work of Goody in 1952, and the model was initially known as the Goody random model. It was later discovered that Harris Mayer's work under the supervision of Edward Teller at Los Alamos National Laboratory published in 1947 had made similar calculations and many sources now call the model the Mayer-Goody model or the Mayer-Goody statistical model.

Scientific career Goody was appointed the Abbott Lawrence Rotch Professor of Dynamic Meteorology and director of the Blue Hill Observatory at Harvard in 1958 and elected into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences the following year. He became a US citizen in 1965. His 1964 book Atmospheric Radiation has been described as "classic". He served as the director of the Blue Hill Observatory until 1970, and the chair of the Space Studies Board of the National Academy of Sciences from 1974 to 1976. In 1970, Goody was the co-chair of a National Academy of Sciences study of Venus entitled "Venus: Strategy for Exploration", and he was partly responsible for launching the Pioneer Venus project, which launched probes to Venus in 1978. He underwent compulsory retirement from Harvard in 1991. Goody was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1997.

Death Goody died on 3 August 2023, at the age of 102.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Richard M. Goody

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Richard M. Goody claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In physics, 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 M. Goody 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 M. Goody 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 M. Goody

In research: Richard M. Goody appears in physics 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 M. Goody 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 M. Goody is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1921 births, 2023 deaths, 21st-century American physicists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Richard M. Goody 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 M. Goody in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Richard M. Goody in simple terms?

Why does Richard M. Goody matter?

Because it connects several physics 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 M. Goody?

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 M. Goody.