science

Smith Sound

Smith Sound 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 Smith Sound rather than just read about it. In short: Smith Sound (Danish: Smith Sund; French: Détroit de Smith) is an Arctic sea passage between Greenland and Nunavut's northernmost island, Ellesmere Island. It links Baffin Bay with Kane Basin and forms part of the Nares Strait.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Smith Sound (Danish: Smith Sund; French: Détroit de Smith) is an Arctic sea passage between Greenland and Nunavut's northernmost island, Ellesmere Island. It links Baffin Bay with Kane Basin and forms part of the Nares Strait. On the Canadian side it extends from Cape Sabine in the north to Cape Isabella in the south. On the Greenland side of the sound were the now abandoned settlements of Etah and Annoatok.

History The first known visit to the area by Europeans was in 1616 when the Discovery, captained by Robert Bylot and piloted by William Baffin, sailed into this region. The sound was originally named Sir Thomas Smith's Bay after the English diplomat Sir Thomas Smythe. By the 1750s it regularly appeared on maps as Sir Thomas Smith's Sound, though no further exploration of the area would be recorded until John Ross' 1818 expedition. By this time it had begun to be known simply as Smith Sound. In 1852 Edward Augustus Inglefield penetrated a little further than Baffin, establishing a new furthest north in North America.

References

Further reading Blake, W. 1999. "Glaciated Landscapes Along Smith Sound, Ellesmere Island, Canada and Greenland". Annals of Glaciology. 28: 40–46. Elton, Charles S. Movements of Arctic Fox Populations in the Region of Baffin Bay and Smith Sound. The Polar Record. [Offprint], no. 37–38. [Cambridge: University Press], 1949. Grist, Alexander, and Marcos Zentilli. 2005. "The Thermal History of the Nares Strait, Kane Basin, and Smith Sound Region in Canada and Greenland: Constraints from Apatite Fission-Track and (U Th Sm)/He Dating". Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences. 42: 1547–1569. Kroeber, A. L. The Eskimo of Smith Sound. [New York: Knickerbocker Press], 1900. Peary, Robert E. Northward Over the "Great Ice" A Narrative of Life and Work Along the Shores and Upon the Interior Ice-Cap of Northern Greenland in the Years 1886 and 1891-1897 : with a Description of the Little Tribe of Smith-Sound Eskimos, the Most Northerly Human Beings in the World, and an Account of the Discovery and Bringing Home of the "Saviksue," or Great Cape-York Meteorites. London: Methuen, 1898.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Smith Sound

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Smith Sound 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 Smith Sound 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 Smith Sound 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 Smith Sound

In research: Smith Sound 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 Smith Sound 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: Smith Sound is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Bodies of water of Baffin Bay, Canada–Greenland border, Ellesmere Island, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Smith Sound 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 Smith Sound in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Smith Sound in simple terms?

Why does Smith Sound 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 Smith Sound?

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 Smith Sound.