physics

Shang-Yi Ch'en

Shang-Yi Ch'en 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 Shang-Yi Ch'en rather than just read about it. In short: Shang-Yi Ch'en (4 March 1910 – 23 February 1997) was a Chinese-born American physicist who was professor emeritus of Physics at the University of Oregon. His field was optical spectroscopy, and his research interests included spectral line shifts and collision-induced absorption and emission of atoms.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Shang-Yi Ch'en (4 March 1910 – 23 February 1997) was a Chinese-born American physicist who was professor emeritus of Physics at the University of Oregon. His field was optical spectroscopy, and his research interests included spectral line shifts and collision-induced absorption and emission of atoms. He was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 1963.

Early life and education Ch'en was born 4 March 1910 in Hebei, China. In Beijing at Yenching University he earned a B.S. degree in 1932 and an M.S. degree in 1934. As a research assistant at the National Academy of the Beijing Institute of Physics, he studied pressure broadening of spectral lines. He received a fellowship from the China Foundation to study at the California Institute of Technology, where in 1940 his Ph.D. dissertation was published, supervised by Ira S. Bowen, titled The broadening of the resonance lines of rubidium under different homogenous pressures of its own vapor. The broadening, asymmetry and drift of rubidium resonance lines under homogenous pressures of helium and argon up to 100 atmospheres.

Career When Ch'en completed his final exams in 1939, he returned to Yenching University in China to be near his family; he did not attend his Caltech graduation, thus missing recognition due for his cum laude honors. He conducted research at Yenching, establishing a spectroscopy lab there until the beginning of World War II, when he fled to Chengtu in southwestern China. Following the war, in 1949 Ch'en joined the faculty at the University of Oregon, where he taught and conducted research until his retirement in 1975. According to his colleagues Bernd Craseman and David McDaniels, "Among his most widely known work is a survey of the field... written with Makoto Takeo and published in the Reviews of Modern Physics" in 1957. He also served as an associate editor of Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy and Radiative Transfer.

Shang-Yi Ch'en Professorship Robert A. Millikan wrote encouraging letters to Ch'en that his son Eugene found after his father's death. According to his son, "When he came to Caltech, it was really, truly a foreign environment for him... There was nobody he knew here. He had very limited resources..." His son has established a trust to support the Shang-Yi Ch'en Professorship at Caltech.

Selected publications Ch'en, Shang-yi; Takeo, Makoto (1 January 1957). "Broadening and Shift of Spectral Lines Due to the Presence of Foreign Gases". Reviews of Modern Physics. 29 (1): 20–73. doi:10.1103/RevModPhys.29.20. Ch'en, Shang Yi; Garrett, Robert O. (8 April 1966). "Pressure Effects of Foreign Gases on the Absorption Lines of Cesium. I. The Effects of Argon on the First Two Members of the Principal Series". Physical Review. 144 (1): 59–65. doi:10.1103/PhysRev.144.59. Garrett, Robert O.; Ch'en, Shang Yi (8 April 1966). "Pressure Effects of Foreign Gases on the Absorption Lines of Cesium. II. The Effects of Helium on the First Two Members of the Principal Series". Physical Review. 144 (1): 66–70. doi:10.1103/PhysRev.144.66. Ch'en, Shang Yi; Looi, Eng Choon; Garrett, Robert O. (5 March 1967). "Pressure Effects of Foreign Gases on the Absorption Lines of Cesium. III. The Effects of Krypton". Physical Review. 155 (1): 38–45. doi:10.1103/PhysRev.155.38.

Awards and honors 1963, Fellow of the American Physical Society

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Shang-Yi Ch'en

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Shang-Yi Ch'en 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 Shang-Yi Ch'en 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 Shang-Yi Ch'en 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 Shang-Yi Ch'en

In research: Shang-Yi Ch'en 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 Shang-Yi Ch'en 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: Shang-Yi Ch'en is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1910 births, 1997 deaths, 20th-century American physicists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Shang-Yi Ch'en 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 Shang-Yi Ch'en in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Shang-Yi Ch'en 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 Shang-Yi Ch'en out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Shang-Yi Ch'en in simple terms?

Why does Shang-Yi Ch'en 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 Shang-Yi Ch'en?

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 Shang-Yi Ch'en.