science

Superior Person's Book of Words

Superior Person's Book of Words 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 Superior Person's Book of Words rather than just read about it. In short: The Superior Person's Book of Words is a non-fiction book by Australian lexicographer Peter Bowler. It was first published in Australia as The Superior Person's Little Book of Words in 1979 and subsequently re-published under its current title.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

The Superior Person's Book of Words is a non-fiction book by Australian lexicographer Peter Bowler. It was first published in Australia as The Superior Person's Little Book of Words in 1979 and subsequently re-published under its current title. The work collects several bizarre, obsolete and supposedly very useful words from the English language. Bowler followed the book up with five companion books, including the 2009 work The Completely Superior Person's Book of Words which included his original book and two others. Godine has reported that the work is one of their bestselling titles and sells between "25,000 to 30,000" copies a year.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Superior Person's Book of Words

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Superior Person's Book of Words 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 Superior Person's Book of Words 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 Superior Person's Book of Words 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 Superior Person's Book of Words

In research: Superior Person's Book of Words 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 Superior Person's Book of Words 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: Superior Person's Book of Words is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1979 non-fiction books, Books about the English language, Godine books, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Superior Person's Book of Words 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 Superior Person's Book of Words in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Superior Person's Book of Words in simple terms?

Why does Superior Person's Book of Words 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 Superior Person's Book of Words?

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 Superior Person's Book of Words.