physics

Stanley Schmidt

Stanley Schmidt 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 Stanley Schmidt rather than just read about it. In short: Stanley Albert Schmidt (born March 7, 1944) is an American science fiction author and editor. Between 1978 and 2012 he served as editor of Analog Science Fiction and Fact.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Stanley Albert Schmidt (born March 7, 1944) is an American science fiction author and editor. Between 1978 and 2012 he served as editor of Analog Science Fiction and Fact.

Biography Schmidt was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. He graduated from the University of Cincinnati in 1966. He then attended Case Western Reserve University, where he completed his PhD in physics in 1969. After receiving his degree, he became a professor at Heidelberg College in Tiffin, Ohio, teaching physics, astronomy, biology, and science fiction. Schmidt was editor of Analog Science Fiction and Fact magazine from 1978 to his retirement on 29 August 2012. Additionally, he has served as a member of the Board of Advisers for the National Space Society and the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame and was Guest of Honor at BucConeer, the 1998 Worldcon in Baltimore, Maryland.

Literary career His first publication was "A Flash of Darkness" (Analog, September 1968); his first novel was The Sins of the Fathers (serialized in Analog from November 1973 to January 1974); and his first book was Newton and the Quasi-Apple in 1975. One of his most recent novels, Argonaut (2002), shows an alien invasion from a new angle.

Awards and honors He was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Professional Editor every year from 1980 through 2006 (its final year), and for the Hugo Award for Best Editor Short Form every year from 2007 (its first year) through 2013. He won the Hugo for the first time in 2013. In 2013 he was awarded a Special Committee Award for his editorial work. He was awarded a 2014 Solstice Award, since renamed Kate Wilhelm Solstice Award.

Bibliography

Novels Newton and the Quasi-apple. Garden City, N. Y.: Doubleday. 1975. ISBN 9780385055987. Tweedlioop. 1986. Argonaut. 2002. Night Ride and Sunrise. 2017.

Kyyra series The Sins of the Fathers. 1976. See also the Lifeboat Earth collection of stories below.

Short fiction collections Lifeboat Earth. New York: Berkley Books. 1978. ISBN 9780425038208. Generation Gap and Other Stories. New York: Berkley Books. 2002.

Stories Short stories unless otherwise noted.

The Reluctant Ambassadors (1968) . . . And Comfort to the Enemy (1969) Lost Newton (1970) May the Best Man Win (1971) The Unreachable Stars (1971) The Prophet (1972) His Loyal Opposition (1976) Panic (1978) A Midsummer Newt's Dream (1979) Camouflage (1981) Tweedlioop (1981) Mascots (1982) War of Independence (1982) The Folks Who Live on the Hill (1984) Floodgate (1988) The Man on the Cover (1990) Worthsayer (1992) Not Even a Chimney (1993) Johnny Birdseed (1993) The Parallels of Penzance (1998) with Michael A. Burstein Good Intentions (1998) with Jack McDevitt Generation Gap (2000) The Emperor's Revenge (2002) Lifeboat Earth series A Thrust of Greatness (1976) Caesar Clark (1977) Pinocchio (1977) Dark Age (1977) The Promised Land (1978) Second Interlude (1978) First Interlude (1978) Third Interlude (1978) Fourth Interlude (1978)

Anthologies (edited) Unknown (1988) Unknown Worlds: Tales from Beyond (1988) with Martin H. Greenberg Islands in the Sky: Bold New Ideas for Colonizing Space (1996) with Robert M. Zubrin Roads Not Taken: Tales of Alternate History (1998) with Gardner Dozois Analog anthologies Analog Yearbook II (1981) The Analog Anthology #1 (1980) also appeared as: Analog's Golden Anniversary Anthology (1981) and Fifty Years of the Best Science Fiction From Analog (1981) The Analog Anthology #2 (1982) also appeared as: Analog: Readers' Choice (1982) Analog's Children of the Future (1982) Analog's Lighter Side (1982) Analog: Writers' Choice (1983) Analog's War and Peace (1983) Aliens from Analog (1983) Analog: Writers' Choice, Volume II (1984) Analog's From Mind to Mind: Tales of Communication (1984) Analog's Expanding Universe (1986) 6 Decades: The Best of Analog (1986)

Nonfiction Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy (1991) with Ian Randal Strock and Gardner Dozois and Tina Lee and Sheila Williams Aliens and Alien Societies: A Writer's Guide to Creating Extraterrestrial Life-Forms (1996) Schmidt, Stanley (2001). Which way to the future? Selected essays from Analog. — (2008). The Coming Convergence: Surprising Ways Diverse Technologies Interact to Shape our World and Change the Future. — (July–August 2008). "Choosing Tools". Editorial. Analog Science Fiction and Fact. 128 (7–8): 4–8. — (October 2008). "RSVP". Editorial. Analog Science Fiction and Fact. 128 (10): 4–7. — (April 2014). "Meditation on a Bar Stool". Guest Editorial. Analog Science Fiction and Fact. 134 (4): 4–7. — (January–February 2015). "Orbits to Order". Science Fact. Analog Science Fiction and Fact. 135 (1&2): 30–36. — (April 2015). "Hiding the Info-Dump, or: Feeding Information Without Choking the Reader". Special Feature. Analog Science Fiction and Fact. 135 (4): 54–61. — (June 2015). "A Future for Analog". Special Feature. Analog Science Fiction and Fact. 135 (6): 7–9. — (December 2015). "The science of Night ride and sunrise". Science Fact. Analog Science Fiction and Fact. 135 (12): 38–44. — (July–August 2016). "The end or leaving the reader satisfied". Special Feature. Analog Science Fiction and Fact. 136 (7&8): 118–124.

Interviews Zinos-Amaro, Alvaro (December 2015). "Backpack and packrat : an interview with Stanley Schmidt". Analog Science Fiction and Fact. 135 (12): 45–47.

Notes

References

External links Stanley Schmidt's SFWA biography Analog Science Fiction and Fact magazine Stanley Schmidt's homepage at SFWA.org 2012 interview at Locus 20-minute interview with Stanley Schmidt, 12/08 Stanley Schmidt at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Stanley Schmidt

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Stanley Schmidt 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 Stanley Schmidt 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 Stanley Schmidt 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 Stanley Schmidt

In research: Stanley Schmidt 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 Stanley Schmidt 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: Stanley Schmidt is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1944 births, 20th-century American male novelists, 20th-century American novelists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Stanley Schmidt 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 Stanley Schmidt in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Stanley Schmidt in simple terms?

Stanley Albert Schmidt (born March 7, 1944) is an American science fiction author and editor. Between 1978 and 2012 he served as editor of Analog Science Fiction and Fact.

Why does Stanley Schmidt 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 Stanley Schmidt?

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 Stanley Schmidt.