astronomy

William L. Burke

William L. Burke is a astronomy 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 L. Burke rather than just read about it. In short: William Lionel Burke (July 1941 – July 1996) was an astronomy, astrophysics, and physics professor at UC Santa Cruz. He is also the author of Spacetime, Geometry, Cosmology (ISBN 0-935702-01-6) (out of print but recently scanned into the Internet Archive), and of Applied differential geometry (ISBN 0-521-26929-6), a text expounding the virtues of differential forms over vector calculus for theoretical physics.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

William Lionel Burke (July 1941 – July 1996) was an astronomy, astrophysics, and physics professor at UC Santa Cruz. He is also the author of Spacetime, Geometry, Cosmology (ISBN 0-935702-01-6) (out of print but recently scanned into the Internet Archive), and of Applied differential geometry (ISBN 0-521-26929-6), a text expounding the virtues of differential forms over vector calculus for theoretical physics. Bill also has a draft of a 3rd book reachable on the web [1]|Div, Grad, Curl are Dead]. Born in Bennington, Vermont, Burke obtained his Bachelor of Science degree from Caltech in 1963. His 1969 doctoral thesis, also at Caltech and supervised by Richard Feynman (chair), John Wheeler and Kip Thorne (3rd PhD student), was entitled The Coupling of Gravitational Radiation to Nonrelativistic Sources. His discovery of the Burke Potential, an aspect of gravitation overlooked by Einstein himself, dates from this period. He became a full professor at UCSC in 1988. Burke is also known as the godfather of the Santa Cruz "Chaos Cabal" also known as the dynamical systems collective, that nurtured the seminal work of MacArthur Fellow Robert Shaw, Norman Packard, Doyne Farmer and James P. Crutchfield. In Tom Bass' book The Eudaemonic Pie, Burke prided himself for his Rubik's Cube costume at the end of the book which kept his identity concealed from his students. Among other Burke PhD students was astronaut Steven Hawley who was briefly married to astronaut Sally Ride. An avid hiker, climber, skier, sailor, wind surfer, and Go player, Bill Burke died from complications due to a cervical fracture sustained in an automobile accident. Bill's understanding of science is paraphrased by his thinking: "Never descend the Grand Canyon with less than two geologists." Bill was married and then divorced from his wife Pat (Patricia).

See also Tom Bass, The Eudaemonic Pie James Gleick, Chaos: Making a New Science

External links Burke's home page at UCSC Photograph of William L. Burke from the UC Santa Cruz Library's Digital Collections William L. Burke obituary

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with William L. Burke

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

In research: William L. Burke appears in astronomy 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 L. Burke 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 L. Burke is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1941 births, 1996 deaths, 20th-century American physicists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for William L. Burke 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 L. Burke in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is William L. Burke in simple terms?

Why does William L. Burke matter?

Because it connects several astronomy 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 L. Burke?

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 L. Burke.