science

Richard Maack

Richard Maack 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 Maack rather than just read about it. In short: Richard Otto Maack (Russian: Ричард Карлович Маак, romanized: Richard Karlovich Maak; 4 September 1825 – 25 November 1886) was a Russian naturalist, geographer, and anthropologist. He is most known for his exploration of the Russian Far East and Siberia, particularly the Ussuri and Amur River valleys.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Richard Otto Maack (Russian: Ричард Карлович Маак, romanized: Richard Karlovich Maak; 4 September 1825 – 25 November 1886) was a Russian naturalist, geographer, and anthropologist. He is most known for his exploration of the Russian Far East and Siberia, particularly the Ussuri and Amur River valleys. He wrote some of the first scientific descriptions of the natural history of remote Siberia and collected many biological specimens, many of which were original type specimens of previously unknown species. Ethnically Maack was a Baltic German from Estonia; however, the Russian Empire controlled this country during his lifetime. He was a member of the Siberian branch of the Russian Geographical Society.

Biography

Maack was born in Kuressaare, Estonia and studied natural sciences at the University of St. Petersburg. In 1852 he became a professor of natural sciences at the Gymnasium in Irkutsk and later director of the school. From 1868 to 1879, he was the superintendent of all schools of northern Siberia. During the 1850s he undertook a number of expeditions in Siberia including those to the Amur River valley (1855–1856) and the Ussuri River (1859). He also participated in the Russian Geographical Society's first expedition (1853–55) to describe the orography, geology and population of the Vilyuy and Chona River basins. He is credited with discovering Syringa reticulata var. amurensis simultaneously and independently of Carl Maximowicz.

Plants named after him Maack is most famous for collecting previously unknown species and sending specimens back for scientific descriptions and naming. A number of those he found on his Amur River expedition bear his name.

Maackia amurensis — Amur maackia Lonicera maackii — Amur Honeysuckle Prunus maackii — Amur choke cherry Iris maackii — water tolerant Iris Aster maackii

Animals named after him Pelodiscus maackii (Brandt, 1857) — Amur softshell turtle Papilio maackii (Ménétries, 1859) — Alpine black swallowtail

Plants named by him

Nymphaea tetragona var. wenzelii (Maack) F.Henkel et al. Pleopeltis ussuriensis Regel & Maack Rubia chinensis Regel & Maack

Selected publications Puteshestvie na Amur/Путешествие на Амур (Travels on the Amur). 1859. St. Petersburg. Puteshestvie v dolinu reki Ussuri/Путешествие в долину реки Уссури (Journey through the Ussuri river valley). 1861. St. Petersburg. Вилюйский округ Якутской области (Vilyuysky District of Yakutsk Oblast) (1877–86) Очерк флоры Уссурийской страны (Essay about flora of Ussuri land). 1862. Енисейская губерния (Yenisei province) in the "List of settlements Russian Empire".

References

Sources "Маак, Ричард Карлович" . Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary (in Russian). 1906.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Richard Maack

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Richard Maack 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 Maack 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 Maack 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 Maack

In research: Richard Maack 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 Maack 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 Maack is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1825 births, 1861 deaths, 19th-century Estonian botanists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Richard Maack 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 Maack in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Richard Maack in simple terms?

Why does Richard Maack 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 Maack?

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 Maack.