science

West Virginia lunar sample displays

West Virginia lunar sample displays 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 West Virginia lunar sample displays rather than just read about it. In short: The West Virginia lunar sample displays are two commemorative plaques consisting of small fragments of Moon specimen brought back with the Apollo 11 and Apollo 17 lunar missions and given in the 1970s to the people of the state of West Virginia by United States President Richard Nixon as goodwill gifts. Description Apollo 11 At the request of Nixon, NASA had about 250 presentation plaques made following Apollo 11 in…

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

The West Virginia lunar sample displays are two commemorative plaques consisting of small fragments of Moon specimen brought back with the Apollo 11 and Apollo 17 lunar missions and given in the 1970s to the people of the state of West Virginia by United States President Richard Nixon as goodwill gifts.

Description

Apollo 11

At the request of Nixon, NASA had about 250 presentation plaques made following Apollo 11 in 1969. Each included about four rice-sized particles of Moon dust from the mission totaling about 50 mg. The Apollo 11 lunar sample display has an acrylic plastic button containing the Moon dust mounted with the recipient's country or state flag that had been to the Moon and back. All 135 countries received the display, as did the 50 states of the United States and the U.S. provinces and the United Nations. The plaques were given as gifts by Nixon in 1970.

Apollo 17

The sample Moon rock collected during the Apollo 17 mission was later named lunar basalt 70017, and dubbed the Goodwill rock. Pieces of the rock weighing about 1.14 grams were placed inside a piece of acrylic lucite, and mounted, along with a flag of the country which would receive it, that had flown on Apollo 17. In 1973 Nixon had the plaques sent to 135 countries, and to the United States with its territories, as a goodwill gesture.

History The West Virginia Apollo 17 "goodwill Moon rocks" plaque display was presented to the people of the state of West Virginia in 1973 but went missing. In June 2010 a graduate student of Joseph Gutheinz, former special agent with NASA and self-appointed investigator of missing "Moon rocks" displays, tracked the West Virginia Apollo 17 lunar sample display to the home of a retired dentist, Robert Conner, in Morgantown, West Virginia. Conner had acquired the display from his late brother. Conner speculated that the West Virginia Apollo 17 "goodwill Moon rocks" plaque display was received by his late brother, Troy Blaine Conner, Jr. of Moundsville, West Virginia. Conner believes the Apollo 17 lunar sample plaque came by way of former Governor Arch A. Moore Jr. through his connection with Troy's Washington law firm. Moore said he "might have given it to Troy 'to observe'." Conner pointed out that the plaque was so plain and obscure sitting on a shelf at his home that he put no value on it. He didn't realize that the state of West Virginia was looking for it. As of 2012, the state had both the Apollo 11 and Apollo 17 lunar plaque displays.

See also List of Apollo lunar sample displays

References

Further reading Kloc, Joe (February 19, 2012). The Case of the Missing Moon Rocks. The Atavist/Amazon Digital Services, Inc. p. 47. ASIN B007BGZNZ8.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with West Virginia lunar sample displays

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what West Virginia lunar sample displays 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 West Virginia lunar sample displays 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 West Virginia lunar sample displays 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 West Virginia lunar sample displays

In research: West Virginia lunar sample displays 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 West Virginia lunar sample displays 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: West Virginia lunar sample displays is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Apollo 17, Apollo program lunar sample displays, Lunar samples, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for West Virginia lunar sample displays 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 West Virginia lunar sample displays in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is West Virginia lunar sample displays in simple terms?

Why does West Virginia lunar sample displays 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 West Virginia lunar sample displays?

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 West Virginia lunar sample displays.