AcharyaChanakya/simple-wikipedia huggingface dataset:
The diameter is the largest chord which can be fitted inside a circle. It passes through the center of the circle. The distance around a circle is known as the circumference. Even though the diameter and circumference are different for different circles, the number pi remains constant: its value never changes. This is because the relationship between the circumference and diameter is always the same.
is commonly defined as the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter :
Pi is often written as , or the Greek letter π as a shortcut. Pi is also an irrational number, meaning it cannot be written as a fraction (formula_2), where 'a' and 'b' are integers (whole numbers). This basically means that the digits of pi that are to the right of the decimal go forever—without repeating in a pattern, and that it is impossible to write the exact value of pi as a number. Pi can only be approximated, or measured to a value that is close enough for practical purposes.
A value close to pi is 3.141592653589793238462643... A common fraction approximation of pi is formula_3, which yields approximately 3.14285714. This approximation is 0.04% away from the true value of pi. While this approximation is accepted for most of its use in real life, the fraction formula_4 is more accurate (giving about 3.14159292), and can be used when a value closer to pi is needed. Computers can be used to get better approximations of pi.
In March 2019, Emma Haruka Iwao calculated the value of pi to 31.4 trillion digits.
Mathematicians have known about pi for thousands of years, because they have been working with circles for the same amount of time. Civilizations as old as the Babylonians have been able to approximate pi to many digits, such as the fraction 25/8 and 256/81. Most historians believe that ancient Egyptians had no concept of π, and that the correspondence is a coincidence.
The first written reference to pi dates to 1900 . Around 1650 , the Egyptian Ahmes gave a value in the "Rhind Papyrus". The Babylonians were able to find that the value of pi was slightly greater than 3, by simply making a big circle and then sticking a piece of rope onto the circumference and the diameter, taking note of their distances, and then dividing the circumference by the diameter.
Knowledge of the number pi passed back into Europe and into the hands of the Hebrews, who made the number important in a section of the Bible called the Old Testament. After this, the most common way of trying to find pi was to draw a shape of many sides inside any circle, and use the area of the shape to find pi. The Greek philosopher Archimedes, for example, used a polygon shape that had 96 sides in order to find the value of pi, but the Chinese in 500 were able to use a polygon with 16,384 sides to find the value of pi. The Greeks, like Anaxagoras of Clazomenae, were also busy with finding out other properties of the circle, such as how to make squares of circles and squaring the number pi. Since then, many people have been trying to find out more and more exact values of pi.
In the 16th century, better and better ways of finding pi became available, such as the complicated formula that the French lawyer François Viète developed. The first use of the Greek symbol "π" was in an essay written in 1706 by William Jones.
A mathematician named Lambert also showed in 1761 that the number pi was irrational; that is, it cannot be written as a fraction by normal standards. Another mathematician named Lindeman was also able to show in 1882 that pi was part of the group of numbers known as transcendentals, which are numbers that cannot be the solution to a polynomial equation.
Pi can also be used for figuring out many other things beside circles. The properties of pi have allowed it to be used in many other areas of math besides geometry, the study of shapes. Some of these areas are complex analysis, trigonometry, and series.
There are different ways to calculate many digits of π. This is of limited use though.
Pi can sometimes be used to work out the area or the circumference of any circle. To find the circumference of a circle, use the formula C (circumference) = π × (diameter). To find the area of a circle, use the formula π (radius²). This formula is sometimes written as formula_5, where "r" is the variable for the radius of any circle and "A" is the variable for the area of that circle.
To calculate the circumference of a circle with an error of 1 mm:
People generally celebrate March 14 as Pi Day, because March 14 is also written as 3/14, which represents the first three numbers 3.14 in the approximation of pi. Pi day started during 2001.
A proper noun or proper name is a noun representing a unique thing (such as "London", "Jupiter", "John Hunter", or "Toyota"), as opposed to a common noun, which represents a class of things (for example, "city", "planet", "person" or "corporation"). Proper nouns are the only nouns in English which have the first letter capitalized.
In English, proper nouns are not normally preceded by an article or other limiting modifier (such as "any" or "some"), and are used to denote a particular person, place, or object without regard to any descriptive meaning the word or phrase may have (for example, a town called "Newtown" may be, but does not necessarily have to be, a new [recently built] town).
Which nouns are considered proper names depends on language. For example, names of days and months are considered proper names in English, but not in Spanish, French, Swedish, Slovenian or Finnish, where they are not capitalized.
A plastic is a material that can change its shape easily. Many things are made of plastics, usually because making them to the right shape is easy. There are many types of plastic. Some can be shaped only when they are freshly made; then they become hard. Others are thermoplastic and can be softened by heating them. These plastics can be used for 3D printing, because the plastic will become soft enough to form into different shapes, and then become hard again when they cool down.
Most plastics are man-made; they do not occur in nature. The process of making plastics is usually quite complicated. Most of the materials that are called "plastic" are polymers. Polymers are long chains of atoms bonded to each other. In most plastics, the long chain is a chain of carbon atoms with other atoms attached to them. The different atoms and the shape and length of the chains change how the plastic looks and works.
People experimented with plastics based on natural polymers for a very long time. Alexander Parkes, an English inventor (1813-1890), created an early form of plastic in 1855. It was hard but flexible and transparent. He called it "Parkesine" but now it is called "Celluloid."
Old plastics are usually thrown away and put in landfills. Some plastics release toxic fumes when heated. Some plastics are recycled so they won't become waste. Some plastics have other materials added to them, like glass, because they make the plastic stronger and stiffer.
Plastics are mostly petrochemicals, made from natural gas or from petroleum, a type of oil. Chemical engineers refine the petroleum which goes through a heating process. It develops ethylene and propylene, which are the chemical building blocks for many plastics. These chemicals are then combined with other chemicals to produce a polymer.
Today, some of these plastics are also being made without oil. Instead, other sources like plants and bacteria are used to make the plastic. These plastics are called bioplastics. They are useful because they can be eaten by other bacteria instead of throwing them away.
Product stewardship
Product stewardship includes waste disposal measures in the distribution of an industrial product. That is, paying for the safe and proper disposal when you pay for the product, and relying on those who sold it to you, to dispose of it.
The slightly more specific idea of product take-back means that the service of waste disposal is paid for at time of purchase. It is often applied to paint, tires, and other goods that become toxic waste if not disposed of properly. It is most familiar as the deposit bottle - where one pays for the loan of the bottle at the same time as one purchases what is inside it. The container deposit charged for a deposit bottle may be a fee to "buy" the bottle, separately from the fee to buy what it contains. If one returns the bottle, the fee is returned, and the supplier must return the bottle for re-use or recycling. If not, one has paid the fee, and presumably this can pay for landfill or litter control measures that dispose of say a broken bottle. Also, since the same fee can be collected by anyone finding and returning the bottle, it is common for people to collect these and return them as a means of surviving. This is quite common for instance among homeless people.
Legal requirements vary: the bottle itself may be considered simple property of the purchaser of the contents, or, the purchaser may have some obligation to return the bottle to some depot so it can be recycled or re-used. For the more toxic items, it is more likely that returning it is required:
This principle is applied very broadly beyond bottles to paint and automobile parts such as tires. When purchasing paint or tires in many places, one simultaneously pays for the disposal of the toxic waste they become. In some countries, such as Germany, law requires attention to the comprehensive outcome of the whole extraction, production, distribution, use and waste of a product, and holds those profiting from these legally responsible for any outcome along the way. This is also the trend in the UK and EU generally. In the United States, there have been many class action suits that are effectively product stewardship liability - holding companies responsible for things the product does, which it was never advertised to do.
Rather than let liability for these problems be taken up by the public sector or be haphazardly assigned one issue at a time to companies via lawsuits, many accounting reform efforts focus on achieving full cost accounting. This is the financial reflection of the comprehensive outcome - noting the gains and losses to all parties involved, not just those investing or purchasing. Such moves have made moral purchasing more attractive, as it avoids liability and future lawsuits.
So these are partial implementations of a strict service economy ideal.
Those who advocate these measures are concerned with the later phases of product lifecycle and the comprehensive outcome of the whole production process. It is considered a pre-requisite to a strict service economy interpretation of (fictional, national, legal) "commodity" and "product" relationships.
Peace is a time without any fights or wars. In a larger sense, peace (or peacefulness) can mean a state of harmony, quiet or calm that is not disturbed by anything at all, like a still pond with no ripples.
Many people and organizations want peace. One organization that was set up to bring peace among the nations and try to make war a thing of the past was the League of Nations after World War I. When it did not stop World War II, it was replaced by the United Nations which tries to make the world peaceful. This means that if any member is attacked or invaded by another country without attacking that country first, the other members will come to help the country that was attacked first. This idea was used by the United Nations to defend both South Korea and Kuwait when they were attacked.
Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote in a letter he sent from the Birmingham jail that, "True peace is not merely the absence of tension: it is the presence of justice." In other words, Real peace is more than just problems being gone: there must be fairness to have peace.
Alfred Nobel created an annual award, the Nobel Peace Prize, for the person who had done the most to bring peace to the world.
Buddhists think that peace can be gotten once all suffering ends.To get rid of suffering and get this peace, many try to follow a set of teachings called the Four Noble Truths
Jews and Christians believe that true peace comes from a personal relationship with God. Jesus Christ (also called the "Prince of Peace" in the Book of Isaiah) said: "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid." ()
Inner peace (or peace of mind) refers to a state of being mentally and spiritually at peace, with enough knowledge and understanding to keep oneself strong in the face of stress. Being "at peace" is considered by many to be healthy and the opposite of being stressed or anxious. Peace of mind is generally associated with bliss and happiness.
Peace of mind, serenity, and calmness are descriptions of a disposition free from the effects of stress. In some cultures, inner peace is considered a state of consciousness or enlightenment that may be cultivated by various forms of training, such as prayer, meditation, Tai chi chuan or yoga, for example. Many spiritual practices refer to this peace as an experience of knowing oneself.
A movement that seeks to get ideals such as the ending of a particular war, minimize inter-human violence in a particular place or type of situation, often linked to the goal of achieving world peace. Means to achieve these ends usually include advocacy of pacifism, non-violent resistance, conscientious objector, diplomacy, boycotts, moral purchasing, supporting anti-war political candidates, demonstrations, and lobbying to create legislation on human rights or of international law.
Many different theories of "peace" exist in the world of peace studies, which involves the study of conflict transformation. The definition of "peace" can vary with religion, culture, or subject of study.
Peace is a state of balance and understanding in yourself and between others, where respect is gained by the acceptance of differences, tolerance persists, conflicts are resolved through dialog, people's rights are respected and their voices are heard, and everyone is at their highest point of serenity without social tension.
Quebec ( or ; ) is a province in the eastern part Canada situated between the Hudson Bay and the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. It is the largest of Canada's ten provinces by size. It also has the second-highest number of people, after Ontario. Most of Quebec's inhabitants live along or close to the banks of the Saint Lawrence River. Not many people live in the north part of the province.
Unlike the other provinces, most people in Quebec speak French (Canadian French) and French is the only official language. There is a strong French-language culture, which includes French-language newspapers, magazines, movies, television and radio shows. Their culture and language, though, is different from that of France mainly because of anglicisation, having words that come from the larger English-speaking parts of Canada.
The government of Quebec has its offices in the capital, Quebec City, which is one of the oldest cities in North America. But the city with the most people in the province is Montreal, which is also the second-largest city in all of Canada.
Quebec has many natural resources that are used to create jobs. Quebec also has many companies that create products for information and communication technologies, aerospace, biotechnology, and health industries. It has also developed close relations with the Northeastern United States.
Quebec was part of New France until 1760, then under British control. Quebec became a province in the Canadian Confederation in 1867. Since then, some people in Quebec have wanted to leave Canada. Since Quebec is a mainly French-speaking province, most of the people there feel that it is very different from the rest of Canada, and want to keep it that way. Some feel that for this to happen, Quebec must leave Canada and become its own country. However, the people of Quebec are still divided as to its place in Canada.
Quebec held democratic votes in 1980 and 1995 to decide whether to leave Canada. In 1995, the people of Quebec chose to stay in Canada by a 1% margin.
Aboriginal people and Inuit groups were the first peoples who lived in what is now Québec. These Aboriginal people lived by hunting, gathering, and fishing. Some of the Aboriginal people, called Iroquoians, planted squash and maize. The Inuit fished and hunted whales and seals for fur and food. Sometimes they warred with each other.
Vikings came in longboats from Scandinavia in 1000 AD. Basque whalers and fishermen traded furs with Aboriginal people throughout the 1500s.
The first French explorer to reach Quebec was Jacques Cartier. He sailed into the St. Lawrence River in 1534 and established a colony near present-day Quebec City.
Samuel de Champlain came from France and traveled into the St. Lawrence River. In 1608, he founded Quebec City as a permanent fur trading outpost. Champlain signed trading and military agreements with the Aboriginal people. Voyageurs, coureurs des bois, and Catholic missionaries used river canoes to explore the interior of the North American continent.
After 1627, King Louis XIII of France made a rule that only Roman Catholics could go to live in New France. Jesuit clerics tried to convert New France's Aboriginal people to Catholicism. New France became a Royal Province of France in 1663. The population grew from about 3,000 to 60,000 people between 1666 and 1760. Colonists built farms on the banks of St. Lawrence River.
In 1753 France began building a series of forts in the British Ohio Country. Britain asked the French to remove the forts, and the French refused. By 1756, France and Britain were at war. In 1758, the British attacked New France by sea and captured the French fort at Louisbourg.
In 1759, British General James Wolfe defeated General Louis-Joseph de Montcalm outside Quebec City. France gave its North American land to Great Britain in 1763. In 1764, New France was renamed the Province of Quebec.
In 1774, the British Parliament passed the Quebec Act, giving recognition to French law, Catholic religion, and French language in the colony. The Quebec Act gave the Quebec people their first Charter of rights. The Quebec Act made American colonists angry, so they launched the American Revolution. A 1775 invasion by the American Continental Army was stopped at Quebec City. In 1783, Quebec gave the territory south of the Great Lakes to the new United States of America. In 1867 the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed the British North America Act, which brought most of the provinces together.
The conservative government of Maurice Duplessis dominated Quebec politics from 1944 to 1960 with the support of the Catholic Church. The Quiet Revolution was a period of social and political change. During the Quiet Revolution, English Canadians lost their control over the Quebec economy, the Roman Catholic Church became less important, and the Quebec government took over the hydro-electric companies.
In 1963, a terrorist group that became known as the Front de Libération du Québec (FLQ) began doing bombings, robberies and attacks on government offices. In 1970 the FLQ kidnapped James Cross, the British trade commissioner to Canada. The FLQ also kidnapped and assassinated Pierre Laporte, Minister of Labour and Deputy Premier of Québec. Laporte's body was found in the trunk of Paul Rose's car, on the South Shore of Montreal on October 17 1970. Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau invoked the War Measures Act, and 497 people were arrested.
The Quiet Revolution was so named because it was not marked by protests or violence.
In 1977, the newly elected Parti Québécois government of René Lévesque introduced the Charter of the French Language. Often known as Bill 101, it defined French as the only official language of Quebec.
The government is based in the provincial capital, Quebec City. The government is led by a lieutenant-governor (pronounced "lef-") who represents the Crown. As of 2019, he is Michel Doyon. The political leader of the province is the premier. He is François Legault of the Coalition Avenir de Quebec (CAQ), elected in 2018.
Reading is what we do when we understand writing.
More fully, it a cognitive process of understanding information represented by printed or written language. It is a way of getting information and insights about something that is written. Reading involves understanding the symbols in that language. It can only be done if one knows the language. Reading and hearing are the two most common ways to get information. Information gained from reading can include entertainment, especially when reading fiction or humor.
"Proofreading" is a kind of reading that is done to find mistakes in a piece of writing
Directed Reading-Thinking Activity is a method which aims to develop better reading.
A religion is a set of beliefs that is passionately held by a group of people that is reflected in a and in expected beliefs and actions (which are often ritualized).
There are many different religions, each with a different set of beliefs. The beliefs are about the world and the people in it, about how they came into being, and what their purpose is. These beliefs according to some religious sects, are often linked to supernatural beings such as God, a number of gods or spirits. They may also be linked to an idea such as a path that the spirit of each person should take towards goodness, truth and duty. This they called spirituality.
Each religion has different ideas about these things. Each religion also has a "moral code" which is a set of beliefs about how humans should act. Each religion usually has their own type of "devotions" when people worship or pray. They often have rituals (special things that are always done in the same way) for certain times of the year or certain times of a person's life. Other words that are used for religion are "faith" and "belief system". Altogether, followers of religion can be known as 'believers', or 'the faithful'. Few people follow more than one religion at a time.
The largest religions are Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Sikhism, Judaism and Jainism. There are many other religions. People who do not believe in any gods are called atheists. People who say that there is no evidence are called agnostics.
In many religions, one of the main beliefs is that there is a "deity" (or god) who is a great creator spirit. In many religions, there is just one deity that the people believe in. In other religions, there are many deities who each have different roles in the universe. In many religions, there are other types of spirits. These may include angels, devils and other such things which can be both good and bad.
Giving honour to God, the gods or the spirits is an important part of most religions. While this may often be done privately, it is also often done with gatherings of people and rituals. These rituals are often based on old traditions, and may have been done in almost the same way for hundreds, or even thousands of years.
Another main belief is that humans have a "soul" or spirit which lives on after their body has died.And they believe that they must kill thou to any one in the earths name. The person's spirit is on a journey through life that continues after death. Most religions believe that what a person does during their lifetime will affect what happens to their spirit in the afterlife. Many religions teach that a good person's spirit can reach a special place of peace and happiness such as Heaven or Nirvana, and that a bad person's spirit can travel to a place of pain and suffering such as Hell. Still other religions believe in reincarnation - that instead of going either to Heaven or Hell, spirits of the dead return to earth in a new body.
"Morals" are the way a human behaves to other humans. Most religions make rules about human morals. The rules of how people should act to each other are different in different religions.
For some religions, following a "path" of goodness, truth and duty is very important. This is called Tao in China. In the teachings of Judaism, people were told to "love your neighbour as yourself". In the teachings of Jesus, people were told to think of every single person as their "neighbour" and treat them with love.
Not every religion teaches people to be kind to all other people. In many religions, it has been common for people to believe that they have to act kindly only to some people and not to others. In some religions, people believed that they could please a god by killing or sacrificing another person.
A religion is passed on from one person to another through teachings and stories (which are often called "myths") which may be written down like the Bible, or told from memory like the Dreamtime stories of Australian Aboriginal people. In many religions, there are people who take the role of "priest" and spend their lives teaching others about the religion. There are also people who take the role of "pastor" and spend their life caring for other people. A person may be both a priest and a pastor. They are called by different names in different religions.
Symbols are used to remind people of their religious beliefs. They are also used or worn as a sign to other people that the person belongs to a particular religion. A symbol might be something that is drawn or written, it might be a piece of clothing or jewellery, it might be a sign that a person makes with their body, or it might be a building or monument or artwork. Picture symbols for different religions are shown in the box in the introduction to this article.
In many religions, it is thought important that people should show other people that they are following a particular religion. This might be done in a general way by wearing a symbol or a type of clothing. Many people believe that it is important to tell other people about their religion, so that they can believe as well. This is called "witnessing".
There are many ways to witness. A young person might simply say to their friends "I do not use drugs or get drunk because of my religion". This is a witness. A person may tell their classmates, workmates and friends about their beliefs. A person might go to other people's houses and talk about their beliefs, or invite the people to join in the rituals of the religion, such as going to church or to a religious festival. A person might have printed material such as books or leaflets that they give to other people to read. A person might travel to a different country to teach, to work in a health service or to help people in some other way. (People who do this are called "missionaries".) These are different ways that people witness to their religion.
When a person hears a witness and decides that they will join the religion, this is called a "conversion". Usually a person decides to join a religion because they like what they have read or been told, and they believe that they are hearing the truth. They join the religion because they choose. However, throughout history there have been many times when people have been forced to join a religion by violence and threats. This is still happening today.
In most countries of the world, people are free to belong to whatever religion they choose. This is generally thought of as a basic human right. However, there are parts of the world where it is illegal (against the law) to witness to any religion except the one accepted by the government of the country. People who belong to other religions may be threatened, put in jail or murdered.
Rituals are an important part of the tradition of many religions. In many religions, it is the tradition for people to meet for a celebration on one day in every week. There are also major celebrations that may be held only at certain times of the year, for example, on the birthday of a person who is honoured in that religion. Some religions have celebrations for different seasons of the year, or when the sun or moon is in a certain part of the sky.
In nearly every religion, the important stages of a person's life have a religious celebration. Birth, naming, reaching an age to think for oneself, reaching adulthood, marriage, childbirth, sickness and death are all celebrated by some religions. Having a celebration or special traditions when a person dies is very common.
It is the traditions that are about death that give the earliest evidence of religious beliefs. Scientists have discovered that 120,000 years ago, Neanderthal people started burying their dead. Early Homo sapiens put tools and other things into graves with the bodies, as if they could use them in the afterlife. From 40,000 years ago, many of the objects in graves are small artworks. Scientists believe that these objects were put there for religious reasons.
An institution is one name for an organization. Many religions have organizations that manage the way that people who follow the religion are to act. The organization might employ religious leaders, educate people into the ideas of the religion, manage money, own buildings and make rules. Many religions have sub-groups which are called denominations. In Islam, for example, there is Ahmadiyya, Sunnism, Shi'ism and Sufism.
Most religions have special buildings where people meet. They are often called temples. In Judaism, they are called synagogues. In Christianity, they are called churches. In Islam, they are called mosques. In Buddhism there are pagodas, temples and monasteries. In Hinduism they are called Mandirs. People often try to make their religious building as beautiful as possible. Some religious buildings are great works of architecture.
People often make artworks that are about their religion, or that are used in religious celebration, or are put in a religious building. Religious art comes in all shapes and sizes, from tiny pieces of jewellery to huge statues and paintings. Artworks often give important clues to historians about different ancient religions that are not well understood.
Music is often important in religious celebrations. Singing, chanting and playing musical instruments are often part of regular religious gatherings of people. Special music is often used on special occasions. Many famous composers have written religious music. The words of songs that are 3,000 years old are used every day in Christian churches and Jewish synagogues.
Roman or Romans may refer to:
Joseph Rudyard Kipling (30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936) was an British author and poet. He was born in Bombay, India. He wrote children's fiction, like "Kim", "The Jungle Book" and "Puck of Pook's Hill". He also wrote the well-known poems, "If —" and "Gunga Din", and many short stories set in India. He was awarded the 1907 Nobel Prize in Literature. He spent part of his life living and writing in New England with his American wife but returned to England to live in Sussex.
Kipling died of a perforated duodenal ulcer in Fitzrovia, London in 1936 and is buried in Westminster Abbey, London.
Recreation or fun is a person's time of refreshing his or her body and mind.
There are many different forms of recreation which are shaped by individual interests and by environment; a few examples being reading, playing or listening to music, watching movies or TV, gardening, hunting, hobbies, sports, studies, and travel. These activities are just some of a wide variety of recreation activity available in day to day life.
Public places such as parks and beaches are very important for many recreational activities. Tourism profession has recognized long ago that many of their clients are specifically attracted by recreational offerings.
Red is the color that is on the outside edge of the rainbow. It is one of the three primary colors, along with blue and yellow. Red light has a wavelength between 630-740 nanometers.
It is sometimes used to mark things that are wrong, important or dangerous.
Red is also commonly used as a warning to stop.
Raw food
Foods are raw when they are not cooked.
Most things are good to eat raw, but some can be poisonous.
There's currently no solid evidence to suggest that raw food is more healthy than cooked food.
Raw food can sometimes make people sick because of bacteria which would otherwise be destroyed by cooking.
Ram can mean:
The Roman Empire was the largest empire of the ancient world. Its capital was Rome, and its empire was based in the Mediterranean. The Empire dates from 27 BC, when Octavian became the Emperor, or Augustus, until it fell in 476 AD, marking the end of the Ancient World and the beginning of the Middle Ages, or Dark Ages.
The empire was the third stage of Ancient Rome. Rome was first ruled by Roman kings, then by the Roman Republic, then by an emperor.
Augustus Caesar ruled the Roman Republic and Roman Empire so Rome was a republic before it was an empire.
Tiberius Caesar ruled Rome as also and appointed Pontius Pilate.
Many modern lands were once part of the Roman Empire, for example Britain (not Scotland), Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Germany, Egypt, Levant, Crimea, Switzerland, and the north coast of Africa. The main language of the Roman Empire was Latin with Greek as an important secondary language, especially in the Eastern provinces of the Empire.
The western half of the Roman Empire lasted for about 500 years till the barbarian general Odoacer deposed its final emperor Romulus Augustus. On the other hand, the eastern half, consisting of the Balkans, Anatolia, The Levant and Egypt, continued for about a thousand years more (the Levant and Egypt were lost to the Arabs in the 8th century). The eastern part was called the Byzantine Empire. Its capital was Constantinople, now called Istanbul.
In order to control their large empire, the Romans developed important ideas about law and government. They developed the best army in the world at that time, and ruled by force. They had fine engineering, and built roads, cities, and outstanding buildings. The Empire was divided into provinces, each with a governor plus civil and military support. Letters, both official and private, would constantly go to and from Rome.
Trade was most important for Rome, a city of more than a million people, by far the largest city in the world. They needed, and got, wheat from Egypt, tin from Britannia, grapes from Gaul, and so on. In return, the Romans built provincial capitals into fine cities, protected them from raids by barbarians, and provided education and career opportunities for young people in the provinces, such as jobs in the Roman Army.
In principle, emperors had absolute control, and could do as they pleased. In practice, they faced many difficult problems. They had a staff of what we call 'civil servants' and the advice of the Roman Senate. The emperor had to decide what were the most important issues facing the Empire, and what should be done about them. Most of them tried to do two sorts of thing. One was to do things to improve the life of Romans in peacetime. The other was to fight and defeat Rome's enemies. A wealthy empire always has enemies.
With kings and emperors, a big problem is the order of succession. Kings were sometimes followed by their eldest son, if he was capable of ruling. For Roman emperors, more often it would be an adopted son. It worked like this. The emperor would notice an outstanding young man from one of the best families. He would adopt him as his son. Before he died he would make clear whom he thought should succeed him, by making him a Roman consul, or by stating in his will that the younger man should succeed him. Sometimes this worked; sometimes it did not. Every now and then there would be a civil war between claimants to the throne.
An adopted son or two gave the emperor more choices. Some emperors had no son; some had sons who did not survive. Later on, emperors grew so weak that the Roman army would just pick one of their generals to be the next emperor. This often led to civil war. The life stories of the emperors can be found in List of Roman emperors.
The Romans fought many wars against other countries, and enjoyed watching violent sports. They enjoyed watching races between chariots pulled by horses, and fights between men using weapons (gladiators). Unlike in modern sports, the fighters were often killed in fights. Romans enjoyed these shows in the Colosseum.
The Romans had great civil engineering. They built many large public buildings and villas, aqueducts to carry water, stone bridges and roads. Some of these things can still be seen today. Many famous writers were Romans, including Cicero and Virgil.
The New Testament of the Bible tells about the Romans in the life of Jesus Christ. During Jesus' life, the Romans, who were pagans, ruled his country. Later, several emperors tried to destroy Christianity but they did not succeed. By 312 the emperor Galerius allowed people freedom to follow Christianity, and the next year, a general, Constantine, became emperor and converted to Christianity.
The city of Rome was taken over several times by barbarians, notably in 410 when the Goths sacked the city (looting). The last Western Roman emperor, Romulus Augustus, resigned in 476 . The Roman Empire would last another 1,000 years as the Byzantine Empire in the east.
The main coin of the Roman Empire was the silver denarius. Later denarii were smaller.
Various reasons have been given for the fall of Rome. Edward Gibbon wrote "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" in which he investigated various ideas. Chief among them was (in his opinion) was the effect of Christianity on the ability of the Empire to defend itself militarily.
Other historians blame the unstable system of leadership. In a 50-year period, only 2 out of 22 emperors died a natural death. Most of the emperors were assassinated.
Regime
A regime is the leader and other people who run a government of a sovereign state.
There are many kinds of regimes. They can achieve power in many ways. Depending on the time and place and local civics like the electoral system, they can lose power in many ways too. The most common way for a regime to lose power was a coup, invasion or revolution until the 20th century. After that it became very dangerous and difficult to use these methods. Peaceful regime change is usually by an election - this method is now used by more than half the people on the Earth. It is called representative democracy. Such regimes are often called administrations to make it clear they are not dictators, and since the executive branch does not have all the power itself - it may share it with a legislative branch. Also the judicial branch is separate. The courts are not usually considered part of the regime.
However, some things are the same no matter how the regime achieved power:
When many regimes negotiate at the United Nations or World Trade Organization, it does not matter at all how each regime got its power. It matters only that they can agree and make everyone in their country do as the agreement says.
When someone wants a regime to change in another country, they usually are not able to do this by any means other than violence or interfering in its election. This is common if a regime is threatened by another regime.
A river is a stream of water that flows through a channel in the surface of the ground. The passage where the river flows is called the river bed and the earth on each side is called a river bank. A river begins on high ground or in hills or mountains and flows down from the high ground to the lower ground, because of gravity. A river begins as a small stream, and gets bigger the farther it flows.
The start of a river is called the "source" or "head water". The part of the river that is near the source is called a 'young' river. A young river is often in a V-shaped river bed, and flows quickly downhill over stones, and around big rocks. Young rivers often have lots of small waterfalls and rapids. As the rivers travel downhill they begin to erode the ground taking small bits of soft rock and soil.
The middle part of a river is called a mature river. A mature river makes a riverbed that is U-shaped. It might be very deep and run fast. It sweeps over small rocks and boulders, and makes big turns around hills and mountains. It is much wider than a young river, but not as wide as an old river. To cross over a mature river, people use bridges. Many cities and towns are built on the banks of mature rivers. Many farms that keep animals such as dairy cows, horses and sheep are along mature rivers because the animals can drink from the river every day.
A river usually ends by flowing into an ocean, a lake or a bigger river. The place where the river flows out into a bigger body of water is called the 'mouth' of the river.
As a river flows towards its mouth, the countryside around the river often changes from hilly to flat. As it flows over the flat land the river becomes wider and slower. A wide slow river is called an 'old river'. An old river often floods across the land after there is lots of rain at the headwaters. An old river slowly builds up its banks on either side; the high banks are called levees. An old river often meanders (twists and turns), and sometimes, after a flood, it leaves lakes behind which are called ox-bows or billabongs. Old rivers are the most useful type of river for growing crops. Corn, rice, fruit, cotton, hay, tobacco and sugar are some of the crops that are grown near old rivers.
The shape of the mouth depends on the conditions of the sea where it flows. If there is a strong tide where the river meets the sea, the river forms an estuary. An estuary is a wide, funnel-like mouth of the river. The fresh water of the river mixes slowly with the salt water, becoming brackish water – somewhat salty water. Many kinds of fish, clams, molluscs and other sealife live at estuaries. Many of the world's largest cities and harbours are at estuaries.
Where a river flows out to the sea, it sometimes flows very slowly through sandy or muddy land, making lots of little islands as it flows. The main stream of the river gets broken into many parts that spread out into a triangle shape like the Greek letter delta. When this happens, it is called the delta of the river. Deltas are often places that are not good for towns or farms but are very good for birds and other wildlife and fishing. Deltas are often made into wildlife reserves. Not all rivers have deltas. There are deltas on the Nile River, the Amazon River, the Mekong River, the Mississippi River and the Danube River.
Some rivers flow underground through caves. Underground rivers form in places where there are lots of cracks in the rocks above, so that in rainy weather, the water runs downs and collects in small underground streams. Sometimes the underground water trickles or gushes out of the ground to form a small spring of water. In other places, where there are caves, the small underground streams run together to form a river. The river can sometimes run through deep wide underground caverns. While many underground rivers flow gently, some underground rivers flow fast and have rapids, particularly after heavy rain. Many underground rivers flow out through a cave mouth to become an ordinary river.
The water in rivers is "fresh water" that has come from rain, snow and from underground streams. It can usually be drunk safely by people unless it is too dirty because of mud or human pollution. People and animals need fresh water to drink, so they often live by the side of a river.
Right angle
A right angle is an angle with a measurement of 90 degrees. When two lines cross each other so that all the angles have the same size, the result is four right angles. The top of the letter T is at right angles to the vertical line. Walls of buildings are usually at right angles to the floor. Two things that are at right angles are called "perpendicular" or "orthogonal". This is expressed using the formula_1 symbol (such as in formula_2).
Planes (flat surfaces) can also meet at right angles. In a building, a wall and a floor are said to be perpendicular to each other, and they have a right angle. It also can be called a square angle.
A reward is getting something good for doing a given task. It needs someone who has the power to give the good thing. It is the opposite of punishment.
Ideas like risk and reward, reward and punishment are based on the idea that people do things, or avoid doing things, to get rewards. In psychology there is another idea that this is not true. This other idea says that training (conditioning) and emotions (affective factors) are much more important than the rewards or punishments given by others.
In trying to catch criminals and other bad people, the government often offers money to people. This money is given to people who may capture the criminal, or give information that helps the police catch them. For example, after the Eureka Stockade rebellion in Ballarat, Victoria in 1854, the government offered a big reward of 400 pounds for the capture of the people who had started it.
In 2001, the US government offered a big reward of 2.5 million dollars for help in capturing the person who had sent anthrax in letters to a newspaper journalist and 2 senators. Anthrax is a disease which can kill people.
A ranch is a large farm for raising cows, horses, sheep or other livestock. The word "ranch" is from the Spanish word "rancho". It is used in American and Canadian English.
A ranch may be on private or public land. The desert areas of the western United States have many ranches, because there is much land that is not very good for crops. There are also many in desert areas of Australia, where they are called stations. Someone who takes care of the livestock may be called a stockman or cowboy.
Sport utility vehicle
A sport utility vehicle (SUV) is a type of vehicle. It is built as a rugged vehicle for cargo and passenger carrying. Originally SUVs were not designed to be fuel efficient but modern designs are getting better fuel mileage. In 2014 US sales of SUVs were over five million vehicles.
The typical SUV is a two-box design. Unlike a pickup truck (US term) that has an open cargo box the SUV has an enclosed cargo/passenger compartment. It has upright seating for five to seven passengers. It has an open interior with no trunk. It is often built on a pickup truck chassis for towing capacity, and usually has four wheel drive. Only about 15% of SUV owners ever go off-road. According to Jeep Wrangler brand manager Kevin Metz, 60% of Jeep Wrangler owners go off-road while around 80% of Rubicon owners do.
A similar class of vehicle is the CUV crossover, a common UK term. That is built on a car chassis. Often it uses a Unibody chassis instead of the heavier body-on-frame design of SUVs. Crossover vehicles often have all-wheel-drive instead of four-wheel drive. Crossovers are usually lighter than SUVs and get better fuel mileage. In general, when referring to an SUV, many include crossovers. However it is incorrect to refer to an SUV on a truck frame as a crossover.
Early SUVs were built like light commercial and light wheeled military utility vehicles. Famous examples were the World War Jeep (US), and the Land Rover (UK).
The term "sport utility vehicle" came into popular use in the late 1980s. Until then, they were marketed as station wagons. An early example of marketing a civilian off-roader as a "sports utility" is the two-door pickup version of the 1966 Ford Bronco. In 1974 Jeep used the term "sport(s) utility vehicle" exactly in their brochures for the 1st generation Jeep Cherokee.
Many kinds of off-roading in the USA are centered around SUVs.
There are many reasons why SUVs have become popular. One reason is the comfort of their large cabins. Many models can carry almost as much as a minivan. Another reason is the driver sits higher than other cars, giving better all-round vision. SUVs with truck frames are heavier (sometimes much heavier) than standard cars. Their size gives them an image of safety.
Men aren't the only targets of SUV and CUV ads. For example, some ads for the Subaru Forester are deliberately aimed at women buyers. Roughly 35 to 40 percent of SUV buyers are women. Ads commonly show SUVs driving across boulders or perched on a mountain peak. Advertisers know that one important reason many people buy SUVs is image.
Practicality for larger families is a consideration. Not only can the vehicle take a family of five or six, plus luggage, but also the family dog (who often has a special compartment at the back). On the other hand, the vehicle doesn't fit standard parking spaces. That can be quite a problem in, for example, the UK. The alternative, when groups of more than four travel, is to take more than one standard size car.