physics

Solomon J. Buchsbaum

Solomon J. Buchsbaum 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 Solomon J. Buchsbaum rather than just read about it. In short: Solomon J. Buchsbaum (December 4, 1929 – March 8, 1993) was a Polish American physicist and technologist, best known as chair of the White House Science Council under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Solomon J. Buchsbaum (December 4, 1929 – March 8, 1993) was a Polish American physicist and technologist, best known as chair of the White House Science Council under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush, and as a senior executive at Bell Laboratories.

Biography Born in Stryj, Poland, Buchsbaum's parents and youngest sister were murdered in the Holocaust. He and his other sister escaped capture by the Nazis and made their way to Warsaw, where he was protected in a Catholic orphanage. There he recited Mass and became an altar boy. After the war, as a teenager, Buchsbaum made his way to Canada where he learned English and found a job in a hat factory. With no previous formal training, he won a scholarship to McGill University in physics and mathematics, there earning a bachelor's degree in 1952, and a master's degree a year later. He received his Ph.D. from MIT in 1957. Buchsbaum's career at Bell began as a researcher on gaseous and solid plasmas in 1958. Rising through the ranks, he became vice president in charge of technology systems in 1979. In his 35 years at Bell Labs, he published 50 articles and was awarded 8 patents. Nobel Laureate Arno Penzias called him the "vice president in charge of everything else," meaning everything that was not directly phone company business. Buchsbaum's career as a Presidential advisor began with his membership on President Nixon's Science Advisory Committee and continued with President Ford's Committee on Science and Technology. Under Presidents Reagan and George H. W. Bush he was chair of the corresponding committees. He was chairman of the Defense Science Board from 1972 to 1977. Among other boards, Buchsbaum served on those of MIT, Stanford University, the Rand Corporation, Draper Laboratory, and the Argonne and Sandia National Laboratories. Buchsbaum's honors included the National Medal of Science (from President Reagan) and various defense and energy department medals. He died in 1993, in New Jersey, of multiple myeloma, after receiving a bone marrow transplant and spending more than a month in a germ-free "bubble", equipped with a telephone and fax machine so that he could conduct "business as usual".

References

External links Kenneth G. Mckay, "Solomon J. Buchsbaum", Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences (1996)

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Solomon J. Buchsbaum

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Solomon J. Buchsbaum 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 Solomon J. Buchsbaum 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 Solomon J. Buchsbaum 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 Solomon J. Buchsbaum

In research: Solomon J. Buchsbaum 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 Solomon J. Buchsbaum 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: Solomon J. Buchsbaum is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1929 births, 1993 deaths, 20th-century American physicists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Solomon J. Buchsbaum 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 Solomon J. Buchsbaum in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Solomon J. Buchsbaum in simple terms?

Why does Solomon J. Buchsbaum 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 Solomon J. Buchsbaum?

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 Solomon J. Buchsbaum.