science

Small's Pond

Small's Pond 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 Small's Pond rather than just read about it. In short: Small's Pond was a pond located near Queen Street East and Kingston Road in Toronto, Canada. Some accounts say it was twelve feet deep, others that it was twelve meters deep.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Small's Pond was a pond located near Queen Street East and Kingston Road in Toronto, Canada. Some accounts say it was twelve feet deep, others that it was twelve meters deep. While some accounts say it was a natural feature, Jane Fairburn, in "Along the Shore: Rediscovering Toronto's Waterfront Heritage", wrote that gentleman farmer Charles Coxwell Small, owner of 472 acres (191 hectares), dammed a creek then called Serpentine Creek, to form the dam, for the water-power for sawmills.

History In late-19th-century winters its ice was harvested and stored, in slabs, as its waters remained clean, when the nearby Don River had become polluted. Stored slabs of ice were used to keep food cool before artificial refrigeration had been invented. The farmland surrounding the lake, and the small creeks that fed it, were annexed into the growing city of Toronto around the turn of the 20th century. By 1909 those creeks had become polluted, and were buried and converted into sewers. In 1919, a 9-year-old boy drowned in the pond. In 1935, after the creeks that fed it had been diverted, the pond had become stagnant, and was drained and filled in.

References

External links Media related to Smalls Pond at Wikimedia Commons

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Small's Pond

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Small's Pond 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 Small's Pond 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 Small's Pond 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 Small's Pond

In research: Small's Pond 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 Small's Pond 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: Small's Pond is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1935 disestablishments in Ontario, Former bodies of water, Ponds of Toronto, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Small's Pond 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 Small's Pond in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Small's Pond in simple terms?

Small's Pond was a pond located near Queen Street East and Kingston Road in Toronto, Canada. Some accounts say it was twelve feet deep, others that it was twelve meters deep.

Why does Small's Pond 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 Small's Pond?

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 Small's Pond.