earth science

William Pinch

William Pinch is a earth 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 Pinch rather than just read about it. In short: William "Bill" Wallace Pinch (August 15, 1940 – April 1, 2017) was a mineralogist from Rochester, New York. The Mineralogical Association of Canada has an award named after him, the Pinch Medal, "to recognize major and sustained contributions to the advancement of mineralogy by members of the collector-dealer community." The Pinch Medal has been awarded to a deserving mineralogist every other year since it was first…

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

William "Bill" Wallace Pinch (August 15, 1940 – April 1, 2017) was a mineralogist from Rochester, New York. The Mineralogical Association of Canada has an award named after him, the Pinch Medal, "to recognize major and sustained contributions to the advancement of mineralogy by members of the collector-dealer community." The Pinch Medal has been awarded to a deserving mineralogist every other year since it was first awarded to Pinch in 2001, and is given at the Tucson Mineral Show in February.

Pinch was also a notable mineral collector. His collection was sold in 1989 to the Canadian Museum of Nature for $US 3.5 million, and will be documented in a book to be published in 2018. The oxyhalide mineral pinchite was named in his honour. In June 1993, when the film Jurassic Park premiered at Loew's Theater in Pittsford, New York, Mr. Pinch loaned many fossils of dinosaurs and plants, as well as the display cases for the lobby to help educate the public.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with William Pinch

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

In research: William Pinch appears in earth 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 Pinch 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 Pinch is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1940 births, 2017 deaths, 20th-century American earth scientists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for William Pinch 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 Pinch in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is William Pinch in simple terms?

Why does William Pinch matter?

Because it connects several earth 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 Pinch?

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 Pinch.