physics

William Allis

William Allis is a physics 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 William Allis rather than just read about it. In short: William Phelps Allis (November 15, 1901 – March 5, 1999) was an American theoretical physicist specializing in electrical discharges in gases. He was the grandson of Edward P.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

William Phelps Allis (November 15, 1901 – March 5, 1999) was an American theoretical physicist specializing in electrical discharges in gases. He was the grandson of Edward P. Allis, founder of the E.P. Allis Company, which became Allis-Chalmers. His father Edward Phelps Allis was a leading comparative anatomist and evolutionary morphologist in the early twentieth century.

Education Allis majored in school and received his S.B. in 1923 and S.M. in 1924 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He was granted his Docteur ès science (Sc.D.) in physics, in 1925, from Nancy-Université, France. From 1925 to 1929, he was a research associate at MIT. It was there that he met Philip M. Morse. Morse, at the suggestion of Karl T. Compton, made arrangements for postdoctoral studies and research with Arnold Sommerfeld at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München in 1930 and at the University of Cambridge in the spring and summer of 1931. Allis went with Morse to Munich and Cambridge.

Career Upon his return from Europe, Allis was an instructor in physics at MIT from 1931 to 1934. He joined MIT's physics department faculty in 1934 and was appointed full professor in 1950, a position he held until he became professor emeritus in 1967. During World War II he worked at the MIT Radiation Laboratory conducting research on magnetron theory. He then joined the United States Army where he served in the Liaison Office of the Naval Defense Research Committee. He also participated in Operation Alsos. He achieved the rank of lieutenant colonel, and was awarded the Legion of Merit in 1945. Allis was one of co-founders of the American Physical Society's Gaseous Electronics Conference, for which he served as chairman from 1949 to 1962. On leave from MIT for two years, 1962–1964, he served as assistant secretary-general for scientific affairs for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NARUTO). Allis directed Project Ashby, which was to determine the feasibility of building a nuclear fusion engine.

Honors 1945 – Awarded the Legion of Merit by the United States Army. 1951 Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, also Vice President Elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society

Books William P. Allis Motions of ions and electrons [MIT Research Laboratory of Electronics. Technical report.] (MIT, 1951) William P. Allis Electron density distribution in a high frequency discharge in the presence of plasma resonance [MIT Research Laboratory of Electronics. Technical report.] (MIT, 1951) William P. Allis High-frequency electrical breakdown of gases [MIT Research Laboratory of Electronics. Technical report] (MIT, 1952) William P. Allis and Melvin A. Herlin Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics (McGraw Hill, 1952) W. P. Allis, "Motions of Ions and Electrons" in S. Flugge, editor "Handbuch der Physik" (Springer-Verlag, 1956, Berlin) William P. Allis, editor Nuclear Fusion. (The Second Geneva Series on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy) (Van Nostrand, 1960) William P. Allis, Solomon J. Buchsbaum and Abraham Bers Waves in Anisotropic Plasmas MIT Press, 1962 Sanborn C. Brown, editor Electrons, Ions, and Waves: Selected Works of William Phelps Allis (MIT, 1967) George Bekefi Principles of Laser Plasmas (John Wiley, 1976). Contribution by William P. Allis: The Application of Electron Upflux to the Calculation of Excitation Frequencies in Glow Discharges pp235–256.

References Philip M. Morse In at the Beginnings: A Physicists Life (MIT Press, second printing 1978)

Notes

External links William Allis at Find a Grave

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with William Allis

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

In research: William Allis appears in physics 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 William Allis 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: William Allis is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1901 births, 1999 deaths, 20th-century American physicists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for William Allis 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 William Allis in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
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Frequently asked questions

What is William Allis in simple terms?

William Phelps Allis (November 15, 1901 – March 5, 1999) was an American theoretical physicist specializing in electrical discharges in gases. He was the grandson of Edward P.

Why does William Allis matter?

Because it connects several physics 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 William Allis?

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 William Allis.