science

The Long Search

The Long Search 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 Long Search rather than just read about it. In short: The Long Search is a 1977 BBC documentary television series spanning 13 episodes. Presented by theatre director Ronald Eyre, the series surveys several major world religions, including Protestant, Orthodox, and Catholic Christianity.

Key takeaways

The Long Search 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 Long Search to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of The Long Search from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Long Search is a 1977 BBC documentary television series spanning 13 episodes. Presented by theatre director Ronald Eyre, the series surveys several major world religions, including Protestant, Orthodox, and Catholic Christianity. Other episodes survey Theravada and Zen Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, and the New Age movement. Location filming took place in India, England, Italy, Japan, Israel, Romania, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, the United States, Egypt, Indonesia, and South Africa. Scholar of religion Ninian Smart acted as editorial consultant to the show, and also authored a companion book of the same name. The series was re-issued on DVD, and is currently distributed by Ambrose Video.

Episode listing Protestant Spirit USA (Indiana) Hinduism: 330 Million gods Buddhism: Footprint of the Buddha (Sri Lanka) Catholicism: Rome, Leeds and the Desert Islam: There is no God but God (Egypt) Orthodox Christianity: The Romanian Solution Judaism: The Chosen People Religion In Indonesia: The Way of the Ancestors (Toraja) Buddhism: The Land of the Disappearing Buddha (Japan) African Religions: Zulu Zion (South Africa) Taoism: A Question of Balance (Taiwan) Alternative Lifestyles in California: West Meets East Reflections on the Long Search

External links Archive.org collection Ambrose Video Amazon.com customer reviews of the BBC television series Link to Ninian Smart's companion book for the BBC television series Survey of series as published in 6(1) Religious Studies Review 17 (Jan. 1980)

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with The Long Search

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what The Long Search 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 Long Search 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 Long Search 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 Long Search

In research: The Long Search 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 Long Search 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 Long Search is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1970s British documentary television series, 1970s British television miniseries, 1977 British television series debuts, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for The Long Search 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 Long Search in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is The Long Search in simple terms?

Why does The Long Search 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 Long Search?

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 Long Search.