astronomy

Roger W. Barbour

Roger W. Barbour 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 Roger W. Barbour rather than just read about it. In short: Roger William Barbour (April 5, 1919 – August 26, 1993) was an American vertebrate zoologist, herpetologist, naturalist, and wildlife photographer. His main research interest focused on the amphibians and reptiles of Kentucky.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Roger William Barbour (April 5, 1919 – August 26, 1993) was an American vertebrate zoologist, herpetologist, naturalist, and wildlife photographer. His main research interest focused on the amphibians and reptiles of Kentucky.

Biography Barbour was born in Morehead, Kentucky to John William and Laura (née Hall) Barbour and came from a farming family. He spent most of his youth exploring the nearby hills and forests of his hometown in northeastern Kentucky. At age fifteen, he enrolled at Morehead State Teachers College (now Morehead State University), where he received his Bachelor of Science degree in 1938. His mentor was zoology professor Wilfred A. Welter (1906–1939), who introduced him to the study of ornithology and herpetology; Barbour later named the salamander Desmognathus welteri in his honor in 1950. In December 1938, Barbour married Bernice Lewis, and the couple had one daughter and two sons. In 1939, he earned his Master of Science degree in ornithology at Cornell University under Arthur Augustus Allen. Soon after, he began doctoral studies under Albert H. Wright (1879–1970) at Cornell, which were interrupted by World War II. While waiting for his military draft, Barbour taught at various colleges in Kentucky. From 1945 to 1946, he served in the United States Army, and upon returning to Cornell, he changed advisors to mammalogist William J. Hamilton, Jr. Barbour completed his Ph.D. in 1949 with a dissertation on the mammals, amphibians, and reptiles of Big Black Mountain in Harlan County, a coal region in southeastern Kentucky. From 1949 to 1950, Barbour taught natural sciences in Wheeling, West Virginia, before joining the University of Kentucky in Lexington. He served there as an instructor until 1952, assistant professor until 1956, associate professor until 1968, and full professor until his retirement in 1984. Although primarily a herpetologist and mammalogist, Barbour also wrote extensively on other wildlife topics. His non-herpetological books covered North American bats, Kentucky's shrubs and trees, wildflowers and ferns, mammals, birds, and darters (family Percidae). Between 1940 and 1994, he published more than 90 scholarly articles, 35 of which focused on amphibians and reptiles. His twelve books include Amphibians and Reptiles of Kentucky (1971), Turtles of the United States (1972, with Carl H. Ernst), Snakes of Eastern North America (1989, with Ernst), Turtles of the World (1989, with Ernst), and Turtles of the United States and Canada (1994, with Ernst and Jeffrey E. Lovich). Barbour was also an accomplished nature photographer whose color and black-and-white wildlife and plant photographs appear throughout his works.

Eponyms In 1989, Fred Kraus and James W. Petranka honored Barbour by naming the salamander species Ambystoma barbouri, which occurs in the Midwestern United States, after him.

Selected works with Wayne H. Davis: Bats of America, University Press of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, 1969. Amphibians and Reptiles of Kentucky, University Press of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, 1971. with Mary E. Wharton: A Guide to the Wildflowers and Ferns of Kentucky, University Press of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, 1971. with Carl H. Ernst: Turtles of the United States, University Press of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, 1972. with Clell T. Peterson, Delbert Rust, Herbert E. Shadowen, and A. L. Whitt, Jr.: Kentucky Birds: A Finding Guide, University Press of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, 1973. with Mary E. Wharton: Trees and Shrubs of Kentucky, University Press of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, 1973. with Wayne H. Davis: Mammals of Kentucky, University Press of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, 1974. with Robert A. Kuehne: The American Darters, University Press of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, 1983. with Carl H. Ernst: Turtles of the World, Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C., 1989. with Carl H. Ernst: Snakes of Eastern North America, George Mason University Press, Fairfax, VA, 1989. with Mary E. Wharton: Bluegrass Land and Life: Land Character, Plants, and Animals of the Inner Bluegrass Region of Kentucky, Past, Present, and Future, University Press of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, 1991. with Carl H. Ernst and Jeffrey E. Lovich: Turtles of the United States and Canada, Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C., 1994.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Roger W. Barbour

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Roger W. Barbour 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 Roger W. Barbour 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 Roger W. Barbour 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 Roger W. Barbour

In research: Roger W. Barbour 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 Roger W. Barbour 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: Roger W. Barbour is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1919 births, 1993 deaths, 20th-century American male photographers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Roger W. Barbour 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 Roger W. Barbour in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Roger W. Barbour in simple terms?

Why does Roger W. Barbour 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 Roger W. Barbour?

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 Roger W. Barbour.