science

William Lewis Maury

William Lewis Maury 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 William Lewis Maury rather than just read about it. In short: William Lewis Maury (c. 1813 – November 27, 1878) was an American explorer and naval officer who served in the United States Navy for over 32 years, assisting Charles Wilkes' exploration of the Pacific Ocean and served in Matthew C. Perry's 1854 naval mission to Japan.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

William Lewis Maury (c. 1813 – November 27, 1878) was an American explorer and naval officer who served in the United States Navy for over 32 years, assisting Charles Wilkes' exploration of the Pacific Ocean and served in Matthew C. Perry's 1854 naval mission to Japan. He later served as a Captain in the Confederate States Navy during the American Civil War.

Biography William Lewis Maury was born in Virginia, the son of William Grymes Maury and Ann Hoomes Woolfolk, and became a midshipman in the United States Navy in 1829. Maury served in the United States Naval Observatory under his cousin, superintendent Matthew Fontaine Maury; in charting the seas, cartography, and in recording astronomical observations. In the famed United States Exploring Expedition then Lieutenant Maury served under Charles Wilkes from 1838-1842. He served on the ships Vincennes; joined the Peacock at Orange Bay, and the Porpoise at Callao. It was during the Exploring Expedition's survey of Puget Sound that Commodore Wilkes named Maury Island after William Lewis Maury. Maury continued in Navy service serving on the Navy Efficiency Board. In 1860 he served as a member of the Japanese Treaty Commission. When the American Civil War began he resigned his commission and joined the Confederate States Navy. He was initially assigned to a coastal defense battery at Sewell's Point, Virginia. His talent for coastline defense was recognized early on and he was reassigned to the Confederate Torpedo Service. Serving first at Wilmington Station and Charlotte, North Carolina, he was soon transferred to Charleston Station. Later, as commander of the ship CSS Georgia, a commerce raider, he captured and sank several ships carrying war materials while letting others with commerce not for war go free.

Legacy As a member of Wilkes' expedition, the Maury name was applied to a discovered feature of Puget Sound, Maury Island. In the 20th century, an ice-filled bay east of Cape Lewis, Antarctica, Maury Bay, was named after this explorer.

References

Sources Morgan, James Morris (1917). Recollections of a Rebel Reefer. Houghton Mifflin Company.

External links Media related to William Lewis Maury at Wikimedia Commons William Lewis Maury at Find a Grave

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with William Lewis Maury

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what William Lewis Maury 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 William Lewis Maury 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 Lewis Maury 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 Lewis Maury

In research: William Lewis Maury 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 William Lewis Maury 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 Lewis Maury is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1810s births, 1878 deaths, 19th-century American naval officers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for William Lewis Maury 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 Lewis Maury in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is William Lewis Maury in simple terms?

Why does William Lewis Maury 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 William Lewis Maury?

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 Lewis Maury.