astronomy

Tanakadate Aikitsu

Tanakadate Aikitsu is a astronomy 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 Tanakadate Aikitsu rather than just read about it. In short: Baron Tanakadate Aikitsu (田中舘愛橘; 18 September 1856 – 21 May 1952) was a Japanese physicist with diverse interests and effect. His given name was also written as Aikitu.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Baron Tanakadate Aikitsu (田中舘愛橘; 18 September 1856 – 21 May 1952) was a Japanese physicist with diverse interests and effect. His given name was also written as Aikitu.

Biography

Tanakadate was born in Fukuoka hamlet, in what is now part of the city of Ninohe in the northern Iwate Prefecture, Japan. He was the son of Tanakadate Inazo, a teacher of Jitsuyo, a martial art, and his wife, Kisei. Tanakadate studied English at Keio-Gijuku University starting in 1884, and graduated from Tokyo Imperial University in 1882 with a degree in physics. He developed a way to write Japanese in the Latin alphabet called Nihon-shiki or Nippon-shiki in 1885, later becoming president of the Japanese Romanization Society. In the lead up to the World War II, he advocated directly for Nippon-shiki over Hepburn, eventually resulting in its adoption as the official Romanization standard by the wartime government. He visited Europe many times, and from 1888 to 1890 worked with Lord Kelvin at Glasgow University in Scotland, and with others in Berlin in Germany. Whilst in Scotland he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were Lord Kelvin, James Thomson Bottomley, James Alfred Ewing and Magnus Maclean. Tanakadate travelled widely in Japan from 1893 to 1896, making a survey of gravity and geomagnetism for geophysical research with Cargill Gilston Knott. He founded the Institute of Seismology at Tokyo Imperial University. The International Latitude Observatory (sometimes called the Astro-Geodynamics Observatory) at Mizusawa was founded in 1899 as he had proposed. Tanakadate was also an early proponent of military aviation. In the Russo-Japanese War, he was an advisor to the Imperial Japanese army on the use of hot air balloons for military reconnaissance purposes. This led to the establishment of an aviation laboratory at Tokyo Imperial University. At a 1907 conference in Paris on the metric system, Tanakadate saw a model of early fixed-wing airplane, and extended his stay in Paris to study further. In his Japanese laboratory he built a wind tunnel. Tanakadate published dozens of articles on aeronautics and aviation from 1910 to 1916 in both Japanese and in French. He appears to have been the most-published Japanese aeronautical scientist of that period. He founded a department on aviation at Tokyo University. Tanakadate was the first Japanese member of the International Committee for Weights and Measures and helped arrange the official adoption of the metric system of weights and measures in Japan. From 1925 to 1947, he served as a member of the House of Peers of the Diet of Japan. In 1944, he was awarded the Asahi Prize. He died in Tokyo on 21 May 1952. Some of his papers are kept at Glasgow University.

Recognition 1902 – Order of the Rising Sun, 4th class 1906 – Order of the Rising Sun, 2nd class 1916 – Grand Cordon of the Order of the Sacred Treasure 1944 – Order of Culture, Member 1952 – Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun (posthumous) An asteroid, 10300 Tanakadate, was named for him in 1989. A commemorative postage stamp was issued in his honor in 2002.

Gallery

References

External links Pulvers, Roger (13 March 2021). "A tribute to Japan's father of seismology". The Science Show. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Radio National.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Tanakadate Aikitsu

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Tanakadate Aikitsu claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, 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 Tanakadate Aikitsu 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 Tanakadate Aikitsu 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 Tanakadate Aikitsu

In research: Tanakadate Aikitsu appears in astronomy 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 Tanakadate Aikitsu 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: Tanakadate Aikitsu is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1856 births, 1952 deaths, Academic staff of the University of Tokyo, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Tanakadate Aikitsu 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 Tanakadate Aikitsu in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Tanakadate Aikitsu in simple terms?

Baron Tanakadate Aikitsu (田中舘愛橘; 18 September 1856 – 21 May 1952) was a Japanese physicist with diverse interests and effect. His given name was also written as Aikitu.

Why does Tanakadate Aikitsu matter?

Because it connects several astronomy 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 Tanakadate Aikitsu?

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 Tanakadate Aikitsu.