science

The Last Man Who Knew Everything

The Last Man Who Knew Everything 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 The Last Man Who Knew Everything rather than just read about it. In short: The Last Man Who Knew Everything (2006), written by Andrew Robinson, is a biography of the British polymath Thomas Young (1773–1829). This biography is subtitled Thomas Young, the Anonymous Polymath Who Proved Newton Wrong, Explained How We See, Cured the Sick, and Deciphered the Rosetta Stone, Among Other Feats of Genius, which gives a very brief idea of Young's polymathic career.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

The Last Man Who Knew Everything (2006), written by Andrew Robinson, is a biography of the British polymath Thomas Young (1773–1829). This biography is subtitled Thomas Young, the Anonymous Polymath Who Proved Newton Wrong, Explained How We See, Cured the Sick, and Deciphered the Rosetta Stone, Among Other Feats of Genius, which gives a very brief idea of Young's polymathic career. It is divided into an introduction followed by 16 chapters describing Young's life and work in approximate chronological order. Particular emphasis is given to Young's achievements in physics (e.g., Young's interference experiment), mathematics, physiology, medicine (e.g., Young's rule), linguistics, and Egyptology.

The book was published in hardback by Pi Press in the United States and by Oneworld Publications in the United Kingdom. It subsequently appeared in paperback editions. It has been featured on the BBC. The book has been reviewed in a number of publications, including The Guardian, The Independent, The Lancet, Publishers Weekly, The Spectator, and The Telegraph. P. D. Smith, writing for The Guardian, praised Robinson for taking on the challenge of researching such a polymath's life and calls the book "an excellent introduction to one of the most versatile minds of the 19th century". In 2023, the 250th anniversary of Thomas Young's birth, a new edition with a foreword by the scientist Martin Rees and a new postscript entitled “Polymathy Then — and Now?” was published by Open Book Publishers. An associated article by Martin Rees reviewing the book appeared in Physics World A blog article by the editor of Physics World also discussed the book.

Illustrations

The Last Man Who Knew Everything illustration

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with The Last Man Who Knew Everything

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what The Last Man Who Knew Everything 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 The Last Man Who Knew Everything 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 The Last Man Who Knew Everything 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 The Last Man Who Knew Everything

In research: The Last Man Who Knew Everything 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 The Last Man Who Knew Everything 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: The Last Man Who Knew Everything is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2006 English-language non-fiction books, 2006 non-fiction books, 21st-century history books, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for The Last Man Who Knew Everything 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 The Last Man Who Knew Everything in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is The Last Man Who Knew Everything in simple terms?

Why does The Last Man Who Knew Everything 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 The Last Man Who Knew Everything?

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 The Last Man Who Knew Everything.