science

Vermonica

Vermonica 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 Vermonica rather than just read about it. In short: Vermonica is a public art installation initiated by artist Sheila Klein in May 1993, uninstalled in November 2017 and reinstalled in a new location in December 2020. Vermonica is now located on Santa Monica Boulevard at Lyman Place, opposite the Cahuenga Branch Library.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Vermonica is a public art installation initiated by artist Sheila Klein in May 1993, uninstalled in November 2017 and reinstalled in a new location in December 2020. Vermonica is now located on Santa Monica Boulevard at Lyman Place, opposite the Cahuenga Branch Library. The sculpture is named for the intersection of Santa Monica Boulevard and Vermont Avenue in East Hollywood. Some of the artwork's 25 lamp poles date to 1925, the year Los Angeles's Bureau of Street Lighting opened. Placed in front of a Rite Aid, the lights glow to illuminate the mini-mall parking lot where it was located at specific times during the night. Sheila Klein cooperated with Los Angeles businesses, bureaus, departments and neighborhoods to erect what she describes as a "formal composition" and a "drive-in museum" of street lighting. Vermonica was envisioned initially as a temporary installation with borrowed poles from the nearby streetlight yard on Santa Monica Boulevard. The sculpture was so popular that it remained in place. Vermonica precedes Chris Burden's Urban Light by 15 years.

Work destroyed On November 21, 2017, artist Sheila Klein was informed by a member of the public that her artwork had been removed without her knowledge. The elements of the work had been moved to the front lawn of the Bureau of Street Lighting, and reinstalled in a curved line. In a statement, Sheila Klein announced that the reinstalled work is not Vermonica. An assistant director with the Bureau of Street Lighting said the move is not permanent and was necessitated by construction work in the parking lot where the sculpture was originally located. "Our sense of urgency was to protect and preserve the streetlights so that they wouldn't be damaged or removed by someone other than us," Assistant Director Megan Hackney told The Los Angeles Times.

City emails discovered, petition launched, restoration announced and completed On June 6, 2019, artist Sheila Klein launched a petition seeking restoration of Vermonica in light of newly discovered emails from Bureau of Street Lighting staff that show that BSL intentionally dismantled Vermonica to create a new city staff designed work they called "Virmonica" (as the installation is now near the corner of Santa Monica Boulevard and Virgil Avenue). On January 1, 2020, artist Sheila Klein announced on Instagram that an agreement had been reached with the City of Los Angeles for her to restore Vermonica. The newly reinstalled sculpture was completed and re-lit by the artist on December 1, 2020.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Vermonica

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Vermonica 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 Vermonica 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 Vermonica 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 Vermonica

In research: Vermonica 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 Vermonica 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: Vermonica is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1993 establishments in California, 1993 sculptures, Art in Greater Los Angeles, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Vermonica 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 Vermonica in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Vermonica in simple terms?

Why does Vermonica 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 Vermonica?

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 Vermonica.