mathematics

Warren Weaver

Warren Weaver is a mathematics 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 Warren Weaver rather than just read about it. In short: Warren Weaver (July 17, 1894 – November 24, 1978) was an American scientist, mathematician, and science administrator. He is widely recognized as one of the pioneers of machine translation and as an important figure in creating support for science in the United States.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Warren Weaver (July 17, 1894 – November 24, 1978) was an American scientist, mathematician, and science administrator. He is widely recognized as one of the pioneers of machine translation and as an important figure in creating support for science in the United States.

Career Weaver received three degrees from the University of Wisconsin–Madison: a Bachelor of Science in 1916, a civil engineering degree in 1917, and a Ph.D. in 1921. He became an assistant professor of mathematics at Throop College (now California Institute of Technology). He served as a second lieutenant in the Air Service during World War I. After the war, he returned to teach mathematics at Wisconsin (1920–32). Weaver was also given an honorary LLD degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Doctor of Science degree from the University of São Paulo. Weaver was director of the Division of Natural Sciences at the Rockefeller Foundation (1932–55), and was science consultant (1947–51), trustee (1954), and vice president (from 1958) at the Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research. His chief researches were in the problems of communication in science and in the mathematical theory of probability and statistics. At the Rockefeller Foundation, he was responsible for approving grants for major projects in molecular engineering and genetics, in agriculture (particularly for developing new strains of wheat and rice), and in medical research. During World War II, he was seconded from the foundation to head the Applied Mathematics Panel at the U.S. Office of Scientific Research and Development, directing the work of mathematicians in operations research with the assistance of Mina Rees. He was familiar with the development of electronic calculating machines and the successful application of mathematical and statistical techniques in cryptography. He has served as a member of the Department of War's Research Advisory Panel and the Naval Research Advisory Committee. Weaver was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1944. He was president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1954 and chairman of the board in 1955, a member or chairman of numerous boards and committees, and the primary author of the Arden House Statement, a 1951 declaration of principle and guide to setting the association's goals, plans, and procedures. He also served as vice-president of the board of trustees of the Academy of Religion and Mental Health and chairman of the board of the Salk Institute of Biological Studies. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1958. The National Academy of Sciences chose him to be a member in 1969. When Claude Shannon's 1948 articles on communication theory were republished in 1949 as The Mathematical Theory of Communication, the book also republished a much shorter article authored by Weaver, which discusses the implications of Shannon's more technical work for a general audience. With Max Mason, he co-authored the book The Electromagnetic Field, first published in 1929 and re-issued in 1959. He also authored the books Lady Luck: The Theory of Probability, first published in 1963 and republished in 1982, Elementary Mathematical Analysis, and an autobiography called Scene of Change. The home of the Courant Institute at New York University is Warren Weaver Hall.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Warren Weaver

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

In research: Warren Weaver appears in mathematics 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 Warren Weaver 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: Warren Weaver is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1894 births, 1978 deaths, 20th-century American mathematicians, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Warren Weaver 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 Warren Weaver in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Warren Weaver in simple terms?

Why does Warren Weaver matter?

Because it connects several mathematics 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 Warren Weaver?

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 Warren Weaver.