title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: The Byzantines observed strange and ominous signs in the days leading up to the final Ottoman assault on the city. On 22 May, there was a lunar eclipse for three hours, harkening to a prophecy that Constantinople would fall when the moon was on wane. In order to encourage the defenders, Constantine commanded that the icon of Mary, the city's protector, was to be carried in a procession through the streets. The procession was abandoned when the icon slipped from its frame and the weather turned to rain and hail. Carrying out the procession on the next day was impossible as the city became engulfed in a thick fog.


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: On 26 May, the Ottomans held a war council. Çandarlı Halil Pasha, who believed western military aid to the city was imminent, counseled Mehmed to compromise with the Byzantines and withdraw whereas Zagan Pasha, a military officer, urged the sultan to push on and pointed out that Alexander the Great had conquered almost the entire known world when he was young. Perhaps knowing that they would support a final assault, Mehmed ordered Zagan to tour the camp and gather the opinions of the soldiers. On the evening of 26 May, the dome of the Hagia Sophia was lit up by a strange and mysterious light phenomenon, also spotted by the Ottomans from their camp outside the city. The Ottomans saw it as a great omen for their victory and the Byzantines saw it as a sign of impending doom. 28 May was calm, as Mehmed had ordered a day of rest before his final assault. The citizens who had not been put to work on repairing the crumbling walls or manning them prayed in the streets. On Constantine's orders, icons and relics from all the monasteries and churches in the city were carried along the walls. Both Catholics and Orthodox defenders joined together in prayers and hymns and Constantine led the procession himself. Giustiniani sent word to Loukas Notaras to request that Notaras' artillery be brought to defend the land walls, which Notaras refused. Giustiniani accused Notaras of treachery and they almost fought each other before Constantine intervened.


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: In the evening, the crowds moved to the Hagia Sophia, with Orthodox and Catholic Christians joining together and praying, the fear of impending doom having done more to unite them than the councils ever could. Cardinal Isidore was in attendance, as was Emperor Constantine. Constantine prayed and asked for forgiveness and remission of his sins from all the bishops there before he received communion at the church's altar. The emperor then left the church, going to the imperial palace and asking his household there for forgiveness and saying farewell to them before again disappearing into the night, going to make a final inspection of the soldiers manning the city walls.


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: Without warning, the Ottomans began their final assault in the early hours of 29 May. The service in the Hagia Sophia was interrupted, with fighting-age men rushing to the walls to defend the city and the other men and women helping the parts of the army stationed within the city. Waves of Mehmed's troops charged at Constantinople's land walls, hammering at the weakest section for more than two hours. Despite the relentless attack, the defense, led by Giustiniani and supported by Constantine, held firm. Unbeknownst to anyone, after six hours of fighting, just before sunrise, Giustiniani was mortally wounded. Constantine begged Giustiniani to stay and continue fighting, allegedly saying:


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: Giustiniani was too weak, however, and his bodyguards carried him to the harbor and escaped the city on a Genoese ship. The Genoese troops wavered when they saw their commander leave them, and though the Byzantine defenders fought on, the Ottomans soon gained control of both the outer and inner walls. About fifty Ottoman soldiers made it through one of the gates, the "Kerkoporta", and were the first of the enemy to enter Constantinople; it had been left unlocked and ajar by a Venetian party the night before. Ascending up the tower above the "Kerkoporta", they managed to raise an Ottoman flag above the wall. The Ottomans stormed through the wall and many of the defenders panicked with no means of escape. Constantinople had fallen. Giustiniani died of his wounds on his way home. Loukas Notaras was initially captured alive before being executed shortly after. Cardinal Isidore disguised himself as a slave and escaped across the Golden Horn to Galata. Orhan, Mehmed's cousin, disguised himself as a monk in an attempt to escape, but was identified and killed.


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: Constantine died the day Constantinople fell. There were no known surviving eyewitnesses to the death of the emperor and none of his entourage survived to offer any credible account of his death. The Greek historian Michael Critobulus, who later worked in the service of Mehmed, wrote that Constantine died fighting the Ottomans. Later Greek historians accepted Critobulus's account, never doubting that Constantine died as a hero and martyr, an idea never seriously questioned in the Greek-speaking world. Though none of the authors were eyewitnesses, a vast majority of those who wrote of Constantinople's fall, both Christians and Muslims, agree that Constantine died in the battle, with only three accounts claiming that the emperor escaped the city. It also seems probable that his body was later found and decapitated. According to Critobulus, the last words of Constantine before he charged at the Ottomans were "the city is fallen and I am still alive".


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: There were other conflicting contemporary accounts of Constantine's demise. Leonard of Chios, who was taken prisoner by the Ottomans but later managed to escape, wrote that once Giustiniani had fled the battle, Constantine's courage failed and the emperor implored his young officers to kill him so that he would not be captured alive by the Ottomans. None of the soldiers were brave enough to kill the emperor and once the Ottomans broke through, Constantine fell in the ensuing fight, only to briefly get up before falling again and being trampled. The Venetian physician Niccolò Barbaro, who was present at the siege, wrote that no one knew if the emperor had died or escaped the city alive, noting that some said that his corpse had been seen among the dead while others claimed that he had hanged himself as soon as the Ottomans had broken through at the St. Romanus gate. Cardinal Isidore wrote, like Critobulus, that Constantine had died fighting at the St. Romanus gate. Isidore also added that he had heard that the Ottomans had found his body, cut off his head and presented it to Mehmed as a gift, who was delighted and showered the head with insults before taking it with him to Adrianople as a trophy. Jacopo Tedaldi, a merchant from Florence who participated in the final fight, wrote that "some say that his head was cut off; others that he perished in the crush at the gate. Both stories may well be true".


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: Ottoman accounts of Constantine's demise all agree that the emperor was decapitated. Tursun Beg, who was part of Mehmed's army at the battle, wrote a less heroic account of Constantine's death than the Christian authors. According to Tursun, Constantine panicked and fled, making for the harbor in hopes of finding a ship to escape the city. On his way there, he came across a band of Turkish marines, and after charging and nearly killing one of them, was decapitated. A later account by Ottoman historian Ibn Kemal is similar to Tursun's account, but states that the emperor's head was cut off by a giant marine, who killed him without realizing who he was.


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: Nicola Sagundino, a Venetian who had once been a prisoner of the Ottomans following their conquest of Thessaloniki decades before, gave an account of Constantine's death to Alfonso V of Aragon and Naples in 1454 since he believed that the emperor's fate "deserved to be recorded and remembered for all time". Sagundino stated that although Giustiniani implored the emperor to escape as he was carried away after falling on the battlefield, Constantine refused and preferred to die with his empire. Constantine went to where the fighting appeared to be thickest and, as it would be unworthy of him to be captured alive, implored his officers to kill him. When none of them obeyed his command, Constantine threw off his imperial regalia, as to not let himself be distinguished from the other soldiers, and disappeared into the fray, sword in hand. When Mehmed wanted the defeated Constantine to be brought to him, he was told it was too late as the emperor was dead. A search for the body was conducted, and when it was found, the emperor's head was cut off and paraded through Constantinople before it was sent to the Sultan of Egypt as a gift, alongside twenty captured women and forty captured men.


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: Constantine's death marked the end of the Byzantine Empire, an institution tracing its origin to Constantine the Great's foundation of Constantinople as the Roman Empire's new capital in 330. Even as their realm gradually became more restricted to only Greek-speaking lands, the people of the Byzantine Empire continually maintained that they were "Romaioi" (Romans), not "Hellenes" (Greeks); as such, Constantine's death also marked the definitive end of the Roman Empire that was founded by Augustus 1,480 years earlier. Constantine's death and the Fall of Constantinople also marked the true birth of the Ottoman Empire, which dominated much of the eastern Mediterranean until its fall in 1922. The conquest of Constantinople had been a dream of Islamic armies since the 8th century and through its possession, Mehmed II and his successors were able to claim to be the heirs of the Roman emperors.


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: There is no evidence that Constantine ever rejected the hated union of the Churches achieved at Florence in 1439 after spending a lot of energy to realize it. Many of his subjects had chastised him as a traitor and heretic while he lived and he, like many of his predecessors before him, died in communion with the Church of Rome. Nevertheless, Constantine's actions during the Fall of Constantinople and his death fighting the Turks redeemed the popular view of him. The Greeks forgot or ignored that Constantine had died a "heretic", and many considered him a martyr. In the eyes of the Orthodox Church, Constantine's death sanctified him and he died a hero. In Athens, the modern capital of Greece, there are two statues of Constantine: a colossal monument depicting the emperor on horseback on the waterfront of Palaio Faliro, and a smaller statue in the city's cathedral square, which portrays the emperor on foot with a drawn sword. There are no statues of emperors such as Basil II or Alexios I Komnenos, who were significantly more successful and died of natural causes after long and glorious reigns.


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: Scholarly works on Constantine and the fall of Constantinople tend to portray Constantine, his advisors, and companions as victims of the events that surrounded the city's fall. There are three main works that deal with Constantine and his life: the earliest is Čedomilj Mijatović's "Constantine Palaeologus (1448–1453) or The Conquest of Constantinople by the Turks" (1892), written at a time when tensions were rising between the relatively new Kingdom of Greece and the Ottoman Empire. War appeared imminent and Mijatović's work was intended to serve as propaganda for the Greek cause by portraying Constantine as a tragic victim of events he had no possibility of affecting. The text is dedicated to the young Prince Constantine, of the same name as the old emperor and the heir to the Greek throne, and its preface states that "Constantinople may soon again change masters", alluding to the possibility that Greece might conquer the ancient city.


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: The second major work on Constantine, Steven Runciman's "The Fall of Constantinople 1453" (1965), also characterizes Constantine through Constantinople's fall, portraying Constantine as tragic figure who did everything to save his empire from the Ottomans. However, Runciman partly blames Constantine for antagonizing Mehmed II through his threats concerning Orhan. The third major work, Donald Nicol's "The Immortal Emperor: The Life and Legend of Constantine Palaiologos, Last Emperor of the Romans" (1992), examines Constantine's entire life and analyzes the trials and hardships he faced not only as emperor, but as Despot of the Morea as well. Nicol's work places considerably less emphasis on the importance of individuals than the preceding works do, though Constantine is again portrayed as a mostly tragic figure.


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: A less positive assessment of Constantine was given by Marios Philippides in "Constantine XI Dragaš Palaeologus (1404–1453): The Last Emperor of Byzantium" (2019). Philippides sees no evidence that Constantine was a great statesman or a great soldier. Although the emperor had visions for his reign, Philippides deems him as diplomatically ineffective and unable to inspire the support of his people to achieve his goals. Philippides is highly critical of Nicol's "The Immortal Emperor", which he sees as unbalanced. In his book, Philippides points out that Constantine's reconquest of the Morea from the Latins had mostly been achieved through marriages and not military victories. Though much of Philippides' work relies on primary sources, some of his negative assessment seems speculative; he suggests that Constantine's campaigns in the Morea made the peninsula "easier prey for the Turks", something that cannot be substantiated through the actual events that unfolded.


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: Constantine's two marriages were brief and though he had attempted to find a third wife before the Fall of Constantinople, he died unmarried and without children. His closest surviving relatives were his surviving brothers in the Morea: Thomas and Demetrios. Despite this, there was a persistent story that Constantine had left a widow and several daughters. The earliest documented evidence of this idea can be found in a letter by Aeneas Silvius (the future Pope Pius II) to Pope Nicholas V, dated July 1453. In Aeneas's "Cosmographia" (1456–1457), the story is elaborated upon: Mehmed II supposedly defiled and murdered the empress and Constantine's daughters in the celebrations after his victory. Aeneas also wrote of an imaginary son of Constantine who escaped to Galata, across the Golden Horn. The story of Constantine's wife and daughters might have been further propagated through the spread of the late 15th-century or early 16th-century Russian tale Nestor Iskander's Tale on the Taking of Tsargrad, where a similar account appears. 16th-century French chronicler Mathieu d'Escouchy wrote that Mehmed raped the empress in the Hagia Sophia and then confined her to his harem.


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: The story of Constantine's supposed family survived into modern Greek folklore. One story, propagated until as late as the 20th century, was that Constantine's supposed empress had been six months pregnant at the time of Constantinople's fall and that a son had been born to her while Mehmed was warring in the north. The empress raised the boy, and though he was well-versed in the Christian faith and the Greek language in his youth, he turned to Islam as an adult and eventually became sultan himself, which meant that all Ottoman sultans after him would have been Constantine's descendants. Though the circumstances are completely fictional, the story might carry a shred of the truth; a grandson of Constantine's brother Thomas, Andreas Palaiologos, lived in Constantinople in the 16th century, converted to Islam and served as an Ottoman court official.


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: Another late folk story said that Constantine's empress had shut herself in the imperial palace after Mehmed's victory. After the Ottomans failed to break her barricades and enter the palace, Mehmed had to agree to give her three concessions: that all coins minted by the sultans in the city would bear the names of Constantinople or Constantine, that there would be a street reserved for Greeks alone, and that the bodies of the Christian dead would be given funerals according to Christian custom.


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: The Fall of Constantinople shocked Christians throughout Europe. In Orthodox Christianity, Constantinople and the Hagia Sophia became symbols of lost grandeur. In the Russian Nestor Iskander tale, the foundation of Constantinople (the New Rome) by Constantine the Great and its loss under an emperor by the same name was not seen as a coincidence, but as the fulfilling of the city's destiny, just as Old Rome had been founded by Romulus and lost under Romulus Augustulus.


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: Andronikos Kallistos, a prominent 15th-century Greek scholar and Byzantine refugee to Italy, wrote a text entitled "Monodia" in which he laments the fall of Constantinople and mourns Constantine Palaiologos, whom he refers to as "a ruler more perceptive than Themistocles, more fluent than Nestor, wiser than Cyrus, more just than Rhadamanthus and braver than Hercules".


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: The 1453 Greek long poem "Capture of the City", of uncertain authorship, laments the bad luck of Constantine, which the author blames on Constantine's ill-advised destruction of Glarentza (including its churches) in the 1420s. According to the author, all of Constantine's other misfortunes—the destruction of the Hexamilion wall, the death of his brother John VIII, and the Fall of Constantinople—were the result of what happened at Glarentza. Even then, Constantine was not to blame for Constantinople's fall: he had done what he could and ultimately relied on help from Western Europe that never came. The poem concludes that people say Constantine died by his own sword, and ends with personally addressing the dead emperor:


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: In 15th-century Byzantine historian Laonikos Chalkokondyles's "The Histories", Chalkokondyles finished his account of Byzantine history with hope for a time when a Christian emperor would rule over the Greeks again. In the late 15th century, a legend originated among the Greeks that Constantine had not actually died, but was merely asleep and was waiting on a call from heaven to come and rescue his people. This legend eventually became the legend of the "Marble Emperor" (Greek: "Marmaromenos Vasilias", lit. the "Emperor/King turned into Marble"). Constantine Palaiologos, hero of the final Christian days of Constantinople, had not died, but had been rescued, turned into marble and immortalized by an angel moments before he was to be killed by the Ottomans. The angel then hid him in a secret cave beneath the Golden Gate of Constantinople (where emperors in the past had marched during triumphs), where he awaits the angel's call to awaken and retake the city. The Turks later walled up the Golden Gate, explained by the story as a precaution against Constantine's eventual resurrection: when God wills Constantinople to be restored, the angel will descend from heaven, resurrect Constantine, give him the sword he used in the final battle and Constantine will then march into his city and restore his fallen empire, driving the Turks as far away as the "Red Apple Tree", their legendary homeland. According to the legend, Constantine's resurrection would be heralded by the bellowing of a great ox.


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: The story can be seen depicted in a series of seventeen miniatures in a 1590 chronicle by Cretan historian and painter George Klontzas. Klontzas' miniatures show the emperor sleeping beneath Constantinople and guarded by angels, being crowned once more in the Hagia Sophia, entering the imperial palace and then fighting a string of battles against the Turks. Following his inevitable victories, Constantine prays at Kayseri, marches on Palestine and returns triumphant to Constantinople before entering Jerusalem. At Jerusalem, Constantine delivers his crown and the True Cross to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and finally travels to Calvary, where he dies, his mission completed. In the final miniature, Constantine is buried in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: In 1625, Thomas Roe, an English diplomat, sought permission from the Ottoman government to remove some of the stones from the walled-up Golden Gate to send them to his friend, George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, who was collecting antiquities. Roe was denied permission and observed that the Turks had some sort of superstitious dread of the gate, recording that the statues placed on it by the Turks were enchanted and that if they were destroyed or taken down, a "great alteration" would occur to the city.


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: The prophecy of the Marble Emperor endured until the Greek War of Independence in the 19th century and beyond. It was fuelled when the King of the Hellenes, George I, named his firstborn son and heir Constantine in 1868. His name echoed the emperors of old, proclaiming his succession not just to the new Greek kings, but to the Byzantine emperors before them as well. Once he acceded to the throne as Constantine I of Greece, many in Greece hailed him as "Constantine XII" instead. Constantine I's conquest of Thessaloniki from the Turks in 1912 and his leadership in the Balkan Wars 1912–1913 seemed to be evidence that the prophecy was about to be realized; Constantinople and the Red Apple Tree were believed to be Constantine's next goals. When Constantine was forced to abdicate in 1917, many believed he had been unjustly removed before completing his sacred destiny. The hope of capturing Constantinople would not be completely dashed until the Greek defeat in the Greco-Turkish War in 1922.


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: Constantine Palaiologos is generally reckoned to have been the eleventh emperor with that name. As such, he is typically referred to as "Constantine XI", with 'XI' being a regnal number, used in monarchies since the Middle Ages to differentiate among rulers with the same name in the same office, reigning of the same territory. Regnal numbers were never used in the Roman Empire and despite an increase in emperors of the same name during the Middle Ages, such as the many emperors named Michael, Leo, John or Constantine, the practice was never introduced in the Byzantine Empire. Instead, the Byzantines used nicknames (for instance "Michael "the Drunkard"", now given the number Michael III) or patronymics (for instance "Constantine, "son of Manuel"" rather than Constantine XI) to distinguish emperors of the same name. The modern numbering of the Byzantine emperors is a purely historiographical invention, created by historians beginning with Edward Gibbon in his "The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" (1776–1789).


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: Since the name Constantine connected an emperor with the founder of Constantinople and the first Christian Roman emperor, Constantine the Great, the name was particularly popular among emperors. Whilst modern historiography generally recognizes eleven emperors by the name, older works have occasionally numbered Constantine Palaiologos differently. Gibbon numbered him as "Constantine XIII" after counting two junior co-emperors, Constantine Lekapenos (co-emperor 924–945) and Constantine Doukas (co-emperor 1074–1078 and 1081–1087). The modern number, "XI", was established with the publication of the revised edition of Charles le Beau's "Histoire du Bas-Empire en commençant à Constantin le Grand" in 1836. Early numismatic (coin-related) works typically assigned Constantine Palaiologos higher numerals since there were numerous coins minted by junior co-emperors of the name Constantine as well.


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: There is particular confusion in the correct number of Constantines since there are two different Roman emperors commonly numbered as Constantine III":" the Western usurper Constantine III (407–411) of the early 5th century and the briefly reigning Byzantine Constantine III (641) of the 7th century. In addition to them, the emperor commonly known today as Constans II (641–668) actually reigned under the name Constantine, and has sometimes been referred to as Constantine III. A difficult case is Constantine Laskaris, who might have been the first, albeit ephemeral, emperor of the Empire of Nicaea, one of the Byzantine successor states after the Fourth Crusade. It is unclear whether Constantine Laskaris ruled as emperor or not and he is sometimes counted as "Constantine XI", which would make Constantine Palaiologos "Constantine XII". Constantine Laskaris is sometimes referred to as "Constantine (XI)", with Constantine Palaiologos numbered "Constantine XI (XII)".


title: Constantine XI Palaiologos

text: Counting comprehensively those who were officially recognized as rulers under the name Constantine, including those that only ruled nominally as co-emperors but with the supreme title, the total number of emperors named Constantine would be 18. By counting and numbering all previous co-emperors with that name, including Constantine (son of Leo V), Constantine (son of Basil I), Constantine Lekapenos and Constantine Doukas, in addition to Constans II, Constantine Laskaris and the western Constantine III, Constantine Palaiologos would most appropriately be numbered as "Constantine XVIII". Scholars commonly do not number co-emperors as the extent of their rule was mostly nominal and, unless they inherited the throne later, did not hold independent supreme power. By counting the western Constantine III, Constans II and Constantine Laskaris—all emperors reigning with supreme power under the name of Constantine (though it is questionable in Laskaris's case)—the numbering of Constantine Palaiologos would be "Constantine XIV".


title: Sound

text: In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave, through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid.


title: Sound

text: In human physiology and psychology, sound is the "reception" of such waves and their "perception" by the brain. Only acoustic waves that have frequencies lying between about 20 Hz and 20 kHz, the audio frequency range, elicit an auditory percept in humans. In air at atmospheric pressure, these represent sound waves with wavelengths of to . Sound waves above 20 kHz are known as ultrasound and are not audible to humans. Sound waves below 20 Hz are known as infrasound. Different animal species have varying hearing ranges.


title: Sound

text: Acoustics is the interdisciplinary science that deals with the study of mechanical waves in gasses, liquids, and solids including vibration, sound, ultrasound, and infrasound. A scientist who works in the field of acoustics is an "acoustician", while someone working in the field of acoustical engineering may be called an "acoustical engineer". An audio engineer, on the other hand, is concerned with the recording, manipulation, mixing, and reproduction of sound.


title: Sound

text: Applications of acoustics are found in almost all aspects of modern society, subdisciplines include aeroacoustics, audio signal processing, architectural acoustics, bioacoustics, electro-acoustics, environmental noise, musical acoustics, noise control, psychoacoustics, speech, ultrasound, underwater acoustics, and vibration.


title: Sound

text: Sound is defined as "(a) Oscillation in pressure, stress, particle displacement, particle velocity, etc., propagated in a medium with internal forces (e.g., elastic or viscous), or the superposition of such propagated oscillation. (b) Auditory sensation evoked by the oscillation described in (a)." Sound can be viewed as a wave motion in air or other elastic media. In this case, sound is a stimulus. Sound can also be viewed as an excitation of the hearing mechanism that results in the perception of sound. In this case, sound is a sensation.


title: Sound

text: Sound can propagate through a medium such as air, water and solids as longitudinal waves and also as a transverse wave in solids. The sound waves are generated by a sound source, such as the vibrating diaphragm of a stereo speaker. The sound source creates vibrations in the surrounding medium. As the source continues to vibrate the medium, the vibrations propagate away from the source at the speed of sound, thus forming the sound wave. At a fixed distance from the source, the pressure, velocity, and displacement of the medium vary in time. At an instant in time, the pressure, velocity, and displacement vary in space. Note that the particles of the medium do not travel with the sound wave. This is intuitively obvious for a solid, and the same is true for liquids and gases (that is, the vibrations of particles in the gas or liquid transport the vibrations, while the "average" position of the particles over time does not change). During propagation, waves can be reflected, refracted, or attenuated by the medium.


title: Sound

text: When sound is moving through a medium that does not have constant physical properties, it may be refracted (either dispersed or focused).


title: Sound

text: The mechanical vibrations that can be interpreted as sound can travel through all forms of matter: gases, liquids, solids, and plasmas. The matter that supports the sound is called the medium. Sound cannot travel through a vacuum.


title: Sound

text: Sound is transmitted through gases, plasma, and liquids as longitudinal waves, also called compression waves. It requires a medium to propagate. Through solids, however, it can be transmitted as both longitudinal waves and transverse waves. Longitudinal sound waves are waves of alternating pressure deviations from the equilibrium pressure, causing local regions of compression and rarefaction, while transverse waves (in solids) are waves of alternating shear stress at right angle to the direction of propagation.


title: Sound

text: The energy carried by an oscillating sound wave converts back and forth between the potential energy of the extra compression (in case of longitudinal waves) or lateral displacement strain (in case of transverse waves) of the matter, and the kinetic energy of the displacement velocity of particles of the medium.


title: Sound

text: Although there are many complexities relating to the transmission of sounds, at the point of reception (i.e. the ears), sound is readily dividable into two simple elements: pressure and time. These fundamental elements form the basis of all sound waves. They can be used to describe, in absolute terms, every sound we hear.


title: Sound

text: In order to understand the sound more fully, a complex wave such as the one shown in a blue background on the right of this text, is usually separated into its component parts, which are a combination of various sound wave frequencies (and noise).


title: Sound

text: Sound waves are often simplified to a description in terms of sinusoidal plane waves, which are characterized by these generic properties:


title: Sound

text: Sound that is perceptible by humans has frequencies from about 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz. In air at standard temperature and pressure, the corresponding wavelengths of sound waves range from to . Sometimes speed and direction are combined as a velocity vector; wave number and direction are combined as a wave vector.


title: Sound

text: Transverse waves, also known as shear waves, have the additional property, "polarization", and are not a characteristic of sound waves.


title: Sound

text: The speed of sound depends on the medium the waves pass through, and is a fundamental property of the material. The first significant effort towards measurement of the speed of sound was made by Isaac Newton. He believed the speed of sound in a particular substance was equal to the square root of the pressure acting on it divided by its density:


title: Sound

text: This was later proven wrong and the French mathematician Laplace corrected the formula by deducing that the phenomenon of sound travelling is not isothermal, as believed by Newton, but adiabatic. He added another factor to the equation—"gamma"—and multiplied


title: Sound

text: which is also known as the Newton–Laplace equation. In this equation, "K" is the elastic bulk modulus, "c" is the velocity of sound, and formula_7 is the density. Thus, the speed of sound is proportional to the square root of the ratio of the bulk modulus of the medium to its density.


title: Sound

text: Those physical properties and the speed of sound change with ambient conditions. For example, the speed of sound in gases depends on temperature. In air at sea level, the speed of sound is approximately using the formula . The speed of sound is also slightly sensitive, being subject to a second-order anharmonic effect, to the sound amplitude, which means there are non-linear propagation effects, such as the production of harmonics and mixed tones not present in the original sound (see parametric array). If relativistic effects are important, the speed of sound is calculated from the relativistic Euler equations.


title: Sound

text: In fresh water the speed of sound is approximately . In steel, the speed of sound is about . Sound moves the fastest in solid atomic hydrogen at about .


title: Sound

text: "Sound pressure" is the difference, in a given medium, between average local pressure and the pressure in the sound wave. A square of this difference (i.e., a square of the deviation from the equilibrium pressure) is usually averaged over time and/or space, and a square root of this average provides a root mean square (RMS) value. For example, 1 Pa RMS sound pressure (94 dBSPL) in atmospheric air implies that the actual pressure in the sound wave oscillates between (1 atm formula_8 Pa) and (1 atm formula_9 Pa), that is between 101323.6 and 101326.4 Pa.


title: Sound

text: As the human ear can detect sounds with a wide range of amplitudes, sound pressure is often measured as a level on a logarithmic decibel scale. The "sound pressure level" (SPL) or "L" is defined as


title: Sound

text: Since the human ear does not have a flat spectral response, sound pressures are often frequency weighted so that the measured level matches perceived levels more closely. The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) has defined several weighting schemes. A-weighting attempts to match the response of the human ear to noise and A-weighted sound pressure levels are labeled dBA. C-weighting is used to measure peak levels.


title: Sound

text: A distinct use of the term "sound" from its use in physics is that in physiology and psychology, where the term refers to the subject of "perception" by the brain. The field of psychoacoustics is dedicated to such studies. Webster's 1936 dictionary defined sound as: "1. The sensation of hearing, that which is heard; specif.: a. Psychophysics. Sensation due to stimulation of the auditory nerves and auditory centers of the brain, usually by vibrations transmitted in a material medium, commonly air, affecting the organ of hearing. b. Physics. Vibrational energy which occasions such a sensation. Sound is propagated by progressive longitudinal vibratory disturbances (sound waves)." This means that the correct response to the question: "if a tree falls in the forest with no one to hear it fall, does it make a sound?" is "yes", and "no", dependent on whether being answered using the physical, or the psychophysical definition, respectively.


title: Sound

text: The physical reception of sound in any hearing organism is limited to a range of frequencies. Humans normally hear sound frequencies between approximately 20 Hz and 20,000 Hz (20 kHz), The upper limit decreases with age. Sometimes "sound" refers to only those vibrations with frequencies that are within the hearing range for humans or sometimes it relates to a particular animal. Other species have different ranges of hearing. For example, dogs can perceive vibrations higher than 20 kHz.


title: Sound

text: As a signal perceived by one of the major senses, sound is used by many species for detecting danger, navigation, predation, and communication. Earth's atmosphere, water, and virtually any physical phenomenon, such as fire, rain, wind, surf, or earthquake, produces (and is characterized by) its unique sounds. Many species, such as frogs, birds, marine and terrestrial mammals, have also developed special organs to produce sound. In some species, these produce song and speech. Furthermore, humans have developed culture and technology (such as music, telephone and radio) that allows them to generate, record, transmit, and broadcast sound.


title: Sound

text: Noise is a term often used to refer to an unwanted sound. In science and engineering, noise is an undesirable component that obscures a wanted signal. However, in sound perception it can often be used to identify the source of a sound and is an important component of timbre perception (see above).


title: Sound

text: Soundscape is the component of the acoustic environment that can be perceived by humans. The acoustic environment is the combination of all sounds (whether audible to humans or not) within a given area as modified by the environment and understood by people, in context of the surrounding environment.


title: Sound

text: There are, historically, six experimentally separable ways in which sound waves are analysed. They are: pitch, duration, loudness, timbre, sonic texture and spatial location. Some of these terms have a standardised definition (for instance in the ANSI Acoustical Terminology ANSI/ASA S1.1-2013). More recent approaches have also considered temporal envelope and temporal fine structure as perceptually relevant analyses.


title: Sound

text: Pitch is perceived as how "low" or "high" a sound is and represents the cyclic, repetitive nature of the vibrations that make up sound. For simple sounds, pitch relates to the frequency of the slowest vibration in the sound (called the fundamental harmonic). In the case of complex sounds, pitch perception can vary. Sometimes individuals identify different pitches for the same sound, based on their personal experience of particular sound patterns. Selection of a particular pitch is determined by pre-conscious examination of vibrations, including their frequencies and the balance between them. Specific attention is given to recognising potential harmonics. Every sound is placed on a pitch continuum from low to high. For example: white noise (random noise spread evenly across all frequencies) sounds higher in pitch than pink noise (random noise spread evenly across octaves) as white noise has more high frequency content. Figure 1 shows an example of pitch recognition. During the listening process, each sound is analysed for a repeating pattern (See Figure 1: orange arrows) and the results forwarded to the auditory cortex as a single pitch of a certain height (octave) and chroma (note name).


title: Sound

text: Duration is perceived as how "long" or "short" a sound is and relates to onset and offset signals created by nerve responses to sounds. The duration of a sound usually lasts from the time the sound is first noticed until the sound is identified as having changed or ceased. Sometimes this is not directly related to the physical duration of a sound. For example; in a noisy environment, gapped sounds (sounds that stop and start) can sound as if they are continuous because the offset messages are missed owing to disruptions from noises in the same general bandwidth. This can be of great benefit in understanding distorted messages such as radio signals that suffer from interference, as (owing to this effect) the message is heard as if it was continuous. Figure 2 gives an example of duration identification. When a new sound is noticed (see Figure 2, Green arrows), a sound onset message is sent to the auditory cortex. When the repeating pattern is missed, a sound offset messages is sent.


title: Sound

text: Loudness is perceived as how "loud" or "soft" a sound is and relates to the totalled number of auditory nerve stimulations over short cyclic time periods, most likely over the duration of theta wave cycles. This means that at short durations, a very short sound can sound softer than a longer sound even though they are presented at the same intensity level. Past around 200 ms this is no longer the case and the duration of the sound no longer affects the apparent loudness of the sound. Figure 3 gives an impression of how loudness information is summed over a period of about 200 ms before being sent to the auditory cortex. Louder signals create a greater 'push' on the Basilar membrane and thus stimulate more nerves, creating a stronger loudness signal. A more complex signal also creates more nerve firings and so sounds louder (for the same wave amplitude) than a simpler sound, such as a sine wave.


title: Sound

text: Timbre is perceived as the quality of different sounds (e.g. the thud of a fallen rock, the whir of a drill, the tone of a musical instrument or the quality of a voice) and represents the pre-conscious allocation of a sonic identity to a sound (e.g. “it's an oboe!"). This identity is based on information gained from frequency transients, noisiness, unsteadiness, perceived pitch and the spread and intensity of overtones in the sound over an extended time frame. The way a sound changes over time (see figure 4) provides most of the information for timbre identification. Even though a small section of the wave form from each instrument looks very similar (see the expanded sections indicated by the orange arrows in figure 4), differences in changes over time between the clarinet and the piano are evident in both loudness and harmonic content. Less noticeable are the different noises heard, such as air hisses for the clarinet and hammer strikes for the piano.


title: Sound

text: Sonic texture relates to the number of sound sources and the interaction between them. The word "texture", in this context, relates to the cognitive separation of auditory objects. In music, texture is often referred to as the difference between unison, polyphony and homophony, but it can also relate (for example) to a busy cafe; a sound which might be referred to as "cacophony".


title: Sound

text: Spatial location represents the cognitive placement of a sound in an environmental context; including the placement of a sound on both the horizontal and vertical plane, the distance from the sound source and the characteristics of the sonic environment. In a thick texture, it is possible to identify multiple sound sources using a combination of spatial location and timbre identification.


title: Sound

text: Ultrasound is sound waves with frequencies higher than 20,000 Hz. Ultrasound is not different from audible sound in its physical properties it just cannot be heard by humans. Ultrasound devices operate with frequencies from 20 kHz up to several gigahertz.


title: Sound

text: Infrasound is sound waves with frequencies lower than 20 Hz. Although sounds of such low frequency are too low for humans to hear, whales, elephants and other animals can detect infrasound and use it to communicate. It can be used to detect volcanic eruptions and is used in some types of music.


title: Street Fighter

text: , commonly abbreviated as "SF" or スト ("Suto"), is a Japanese media franchise centered on a series of fighting video and arcade games developed and published by Capcom. The first game in the series was released in 1987, followed by six other main series games, various spin-offs and crossovers, and numerous appearances in other media. Its best-selling 1991 release "Street Fighter II" established many of the conventions of the one-on-one fighting genre.


title: Street Fighter

text: "Street Fighter" is one of the highest-grossing video game franchises of all time and is one of Capcom's flagship series with total sales of 49 million units worldwide . It is the highest-grossing fighting game media franchise of all time at , including 500,000 arcade unit sales.


title: Street Fighter

text: "Street Fighter", designed by Takashi Nishiyama and Hiroshi Matsumoto, debuted in arcades in 1987. The player controls martial artist Ryu to compete in a worldwide martial arts tournament spanning five countries and 10 opponents. A second player can control Ryu's friendly American rival, Ken Masters. The player can perform three punch and kick attacks, each varying in speed and strength, and three special attacks: the "Hadōken", "Shōryūken", and "Tatsumaki Senpūkyaku", performed by executing special joystick and button combinations.


title: Street Fighter

text: "Street Fighter" was ported to many popular home computers, including MS-DOS. In 1987, it was released on the TurboGrafx-CD console as "Fighting Street". "Street Fighter" was later included in "" for the PlayStation Portable and "Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 2" for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox. It is in the "Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection" for eighth generation consoles and Windows.


title: Street Fighter

text: "Street Fighter II" was released in 1991 following an unsuccessful attempt to brand the 1989 beat 'em up game "Final Fight" as the "Street Fighter" sequel. It is one of the earliest arcade games for Capcom's CP System hardware and was designed by Akira Nishitani and Akira Yasuda, who also made "Final Fight" and "Forgotten Worlds".


title: Street Fighter

text: "Street Fighter II: The World Warrior" is the first one-on-one fighting game to give players a choice from a variety of player characters with different moves, allowing for more varied matches. Each player character has a unique fighting style with approximately 30 or more moves, including new grappling moves and throws, and two or three special attacks. In the single-player mode, the player character is pitted sequentially against the seven other main characters before confronting the final four bosses, exclusively CPU-controlled. As in the original, a second player can join anytime for competitive matches.


title: Street Fighter

text: The original Japanese version of "Street Fighter II" introduced an African-American boxer boss character that shared the physical characteristics and likeness of real-life boxer Mike Tyson. To avoid a likeness infringement lawsuit, Capcom rotated the names of three of the boss characters for international versions of the game. The final boss, named Vega in the Japanese version, was given the M. Bison name, the talon-wielding Spanish warrior, named Balrog in the Japanese version, was renamed Vega and the boxer became Balrog.


title: Street Fighter

text: "Street Fighter II" eclipsed its predecessor in popularity, eventually turning "Street Fighter" into a multimedia franchise. It had an unexpectedly phenomenal impact on gaming. More than $10 billion in inflation-adjusted revenue as of 2017 was grossed from all versions, mostly from arcades. More than 14 million cartridges were sold for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and Sega Genesis/Mega Drive.


title: Street Fighter

text: The first official update to the series was "", pronounced "Street Fighter II Dash" in Japan, as noted by the prime notation on the logo. The four computer-controlled boss characters are human-playable and two players can choose the same character, leaving one character with an alternate color pattern. It has slightly improved graphics, including differently colored backgrounds and refined gameplay. A second upgrade, "" ("Street Fighter II Dash Turbo" in Japan), was produced in response to the various bootleg editions of the game. "Hyper Fighting" offers faster gameplay than its predecessors, different character costume colors and new special techniques. "Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers", the third revision, gives the game a complete graphical and musical overhaul and introduces four new playable characters. It is also the first game for Capcom's CP System II arcade hardware. The fifth arcade installment, "Super Street Fighter II Turbo", "Super Street Fighter II X" in Japan, brings back the faster gameplay of "Hyper Fighting", a new type of special techniques known as "Super Combos" and a hidden character, Akuma.


title: Street Fighter

text: Numerous home versions of the "Street Fighter II" games have been produced following the release of the original game. The original version, "Street Fighter II: The World Warrior", was ported to the Super NES in 1992, which is Capcom's best-selling game . A Japanese-only port of "Street Fighter II Dash" for the PC Engine came in 1993. That year, two home versions of "Hyper Fighting" were released: "Street Fighter II Turbo" for Super NES and "Street Fighter II: Special Champion Edition" ("Street Fighter II Dash Plus" in Japan) for Genesis. The following game, "Super Street Fighter II", was also ported to the Super NES and Genesis in 1994. That year, "Super Street Fighter II Turbo" was released for the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer and for Windows, released by the now-defunct GameTek.


title: Street Fighter

text: In 1997, Capcom released the "Street Fighter Collection" for the PlayStation and Sega Saturn. This is a compilation including "Super" and "Super Turbo", and "Street Fighter Alpha 2 Gold" ("Street Fighter Zero 2′ (Dash)" in Japan), an updated version of "Street Fighter Alpha 2". It was followed by "Street Fighter Collection 2" ("Capcom Generation Vol. 5" in Japan), also released for the PlayStation and Saturn, which includes the original "Street Fighter II", "Champion Edition", and "Hyper Fighting". In 2000, Capcom released "Super Street Fighter II X for Matching Service" exclusively in Japan for the Dreamcast. This version of the game features an online two-player versus mode. In 2003, Capcom released "Hyper Street Fighter II: The Anniversary Edition" for the arcades in Japan and Asia to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the series. As the final arcade installment, the game is a hybrid version of "Super Turbo", which allows players to select between versions of characters from all five previous "Street Fighter II" games. "Hyper" was released in North America and the PAL region via its ports for the PlayStation 2 and the Xbox, released as part of the "Street Fighter Anniversary Collection" along with "Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike". In 2005, the three games in "Street Fighter Collection 2" were included in "Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 1" for PlayStation 2 and Xbox. A version of "Super Turbo", along with the original "Street Fighter", was later included in the 2007 compilation "Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 2", also released for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox. "Street Fighter II" and "Super Street Fighter II" are also available as downloadable games for select cellular phone services.


title: Street Fighter

text: An updated version of "Super Street Fighter II Turbo" came to the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade services in 2008. The game, "Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix", has fully redrawn artwork, including HD sprites 4.5x the original size, drawn by artists from UDON. This is the first time the "Street Fighter" characters have had new sprites, drawn by Capcom, since "Capcom vs. SNK 2" in 2001. The game has several changes which address character balancing issues, but also features the original arcade version gameplay so that players can choose between the two.


title: Street Fighter

text: "" is an updated version of 1994's "Super Street Fighter II Turbo" for the Nintendo Switch. The game features two graphical styles—classic pixel art and updated high-definition art. New gameplay mechanics and modes have been introduced and tweaks have been made to the game's balance. It has two more characters, who are classic alternate evil form of the classic characters Ryu and Ken, Evil Ryu and Violent Ken, and Akuma is now playable.


title: Street Fighter

text: "Street Fighter Alpha: Warriors' Dreams" ("Street Fighter Zero" in Asia), was released in 1995. It uses the same character designs Capcom previously employed in "Darkstalkers" and "", with settings and character designs heavily influenced by "". "Alpha" expands on the Super Combo system from "Super Turbo" by extending Super Combo meter into three levels, allowing for super combos to be stored up and introducing Alpha Counters and Chain Combos, also from "Darkstalkers". The plot of "Alpha" is set between the first two "Street Fighter" games and fleshes out the backstories and grudges held by many of the classic "Street Fighter II" characters. It has a playable roster of ten immediately playable characters and three unlockable fighters, comprising not only younger versions of established characters, but also characters from the original "Street Fighter" and "Final Fight", such as Adon and Guy.


title: Street Fighter

text: "Street Fighter Alpha 2" has all-new stages, music, and endings for some characters, some of which overlap with those from the original "Alpha". It also discards the Chain Combo system in favor of Custom Combos, which requires a portion of the Super Combo meter to be used. "Alpha 2" retains all 13 characters from the original and adds five new characters to the roster along with hidden versions of returning characters. "Alpha 2" is followed by a slightly enhanced arcade release, "Street Fighter Zero 2 Alpha," released in Japan and Brazil, ported to home consoles as "Street Fighter Alpha 2 Gold" and "Zero 2′ Dash" in Japan.


title: Street Fighter

text: The third and final "Alpha" game, "Street Fighter Alpha 3", was released in 1998 following the release of the original "" and "Street Fighter EX". "Alpha 3" introduces three selectable fighting styles and further expands the playable roster to 28 characters. Console versions of the three games, including the original "Alpha 2" and "Alpha 2 Gold", were released for the PlayStation and Sega Saturn, although versions of specific games in the series were also released for the Game Boy Color, Super NES, Dreamcast, and Windows. The home console versions of "Alpha 3" further expands the character roster by adding the remaining "New Challengers" from "Super Street Fighter II". The Dreamcast version of the game was backported to the arcades in Japan as "Street Fighter Zero 3 Upper". A version of "Upper", titled "Alpha 3" outside Japan, was released for the Game Boy Advance and added three characters from "Capcom vs. SNK 2". A PlayStation Portable version, "Alpha 3 MAX", or "Zero 3 Double Upper" in Japan, contains the added characters from the GBA version and Ingrid from "Capcom Fighting Jam".


title: Street Fighter

text: In 1996, Capcom co-produced a 3D fighting game "Street Fighter EX" with Arika, a company founded by "Street Fighter II" planner Akira Nishitani. It was developed for the PlayStation-based ZN-1 hardware. "EX" combined the established "Street Fighter" cast with original characters created and owned by Arika. It was followed by an upgraded version, "Street Fighter EX Plus," in 1997, which expanded the character roster. A home version with additional features and characters, "Street Fighter EX Plus Alpha", was released for the PlayStation during the same year.


title: Street Fighter

text: A sequel was released in 1998, "Street Fighter EX2", developed for the ZN-2 hardware. Custom combos were reintroduced and the character roster was expanded upon even further. In 1999, "EX2" also received an upgraded version, "Street Fighter EX2 Plus". A port of "EX2 Plus" was released for the PlayStation in 1999.


title: Street Fighter

text: The third game in the series, "Street Fighter EX3", was released as a launch game for the PlayStation 2 in 2000. This game included a tag team system, a mode that let a single player fight up to three opponents simultaneously, and another mode that allowed players to give the new character, Ace, a selection of special and super moves after purchasing them with experience points. The cast included many characters from the previous game.


title: Street Fighter

text: Some of the Arika-owned characters from the series were later featured in other games developed by the company. The Namco-distributed arcade game "Fighting Layer" featured Allen Snider and Blair Dame from the original "EX", while Skullomania would reappear in the PlayStation game "Fighter Maker". A spiritual successor to "Fighting Layer", featuring an initial roster consisting entirely of Arika-owned "EX" characters, "Fighting EX Layer", was released in 2018.


title: Street Fighter

text: Capcom produced fighting games involving licensed characters from other companies and their own properties. In 1994, Capcom released the Marvel-licensed fighting game "", which features Akuma from "Super Turbo" as a hidden character. It was followed by "Marvel Super Heroes" in 1995, which features Anita from "Night Warriors".


title: Street Fighter

text: Capcom released a third Marvel-licensed game, "X-Men vs. Street Fighter", in 1996, a full-fledged crossover between characters from "X-Men" and the "Street Fighter Alpha" games with a two-on-two tag team-based system. It was followed by "Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter" in 1997, which expanded the roster to include characters from "Marvel Super Heroes"; "" in 1998, which features characters from "Street Fighter" and other Capcom properties; and "" in 2000, which was produced from the Dreamcast-based NAOMI hardware.


title: Street Fighter

text: Capcom produced a series of similar crossover fighting games with rival fighting game developer SNK Playmore. They include "" in 2000, which features characters primarily from the "Street Fighter" and "King of Fighters" series. It was followed by a minor upgrade, "Capcom vs. SNK Pro", and a sequel, "Capcom vs. SNK 2", both released in 2001. All three games were produced for the NAOMI hardware as well. The SNK-produced fighting games of this crossover include the Dimps-developed portable fighting game "" for the Neo Geo Pocket Color in 1999 and "" for the Neo Geo in 2003.


title: Street Fighter

text: From 2003 to 2008, the "Versus" series of Capcom fighting games had no new releases, though Capcom and Namco produced the crossover tactical role-playing game "Namco × Capcom" for the PlayStation 2 exclusively in Japan in 2005. Ryu and Ken are playable in 2012's "Project X Zone", a tactical role-playing game that draws characters from various Sega, Namco-Bandai, and Capcom franchises.


title: Street Fighter

text: "", released in 2008, features characters from both Tatsunoko Production and Capcom properties, including "Street Fighter" characters Ryu, Chun-Li, and Alex as well as characters like Ken the Eagle of "Gatchaman" and Casshern of "Neo-Human Casshern" on Tatsunoko's side. Initially released only in Japan, the game received an updated international release, "Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars," in 2010 in response to fan demand.


title: Street Fighter

text: "" was released in 2011 and includes Akuma, Chun-Li, Crimson Viper, and Ryu. The game features completely new visuals and audio, three-on-three gameplay, and online play. The game was also intended to have downloadable content, but the content was disrupted due to an earthquake and tsunami in Tōhoku and was released along with additional new content in a separate game, "Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3".


title: Street Fighter

text: "Street Fighter X Tekken" was released in 2012, featuring over 50 playable characters from both the "Street Fighter" and "Tekken" fighting franchises. "Street Fighter X Tekken" was developed by Capcom, and Namco developed a crossover game, "Tekken X Street Fighter". Akuma has a guest appearance in "Tekken 7".


title: Street Fighter

text: "Street Fighter X Mega Man" is an all-star platform game that was originally supposed to be a fan game developed by Seow Zong Hui, but Capcom distributed and released the game for the PC in 2012. Based on the classic "Mega Man" games, the free game has players control Mega Man as he battles against various "Street Fighter" characters and obtain their techniques.


title: Street Fighter

text: "" was released in 2017. "Infinite" features two-on-two fights, as opposed to the three-on-three format used in its preceding games. The series' traditional character assists have been removed; instead, the game incorporates a tag-based combo system, which allows players to instantly switch between their two characters to form continuous combos. It introduces a new gameplay mechanic in the form of the Infinity Stones, which temporarily bestow players with unique abilities and stat boosts depending on the type of stone selected.


title: Street Fighter

text: Beyond "Street Fighter", Capcom franchises make guest appearances in the 2014 Nintendo crossover-fighting games "Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS" and "Wii U", with protagonist Ryu appearing alongside fellow Capcom representative Mega Man. The "Street Fighter" content was released as extra in-game downloadable content in 2015 and includes Ryu and Suzaku Castle, a stage inspired by Ryu's stage from the "Street Fighter II" series. Ryu returned in the following game, "Super Smash Bros. Ultimate", with Ken as his Echo Fighter.


title: Street Fighter

text: "Street Fighter III: New Generation" debuted in the arcades on the CPS3 hardware in 1997. "Street Fighter III" discards most of the character roster from previous games, keeping only Ryu and Ken, introducing several new characters in their place including the grappler Alex, who was designed to be the new lead character of the game, and Gill, who replaced Bison as main antagonist. "Street Fighter III" introduced the "Super Arts" selection system and the ability to parry an opponent's attack.


title: Street Fighter

text: Several months after "Street Fighter III: New Generation"s release came "", adjusting the gameplay, adding two new characters, and returning Akuma as a playable character. "", released in 1999 as the third and last iteration of "Street Fighter III", brings back Chun-Li and adds four new characters.


title: Street Fighter

text: The first two "Street Fighter III" games were ported to the Dreamcast as a compilation, "Double Impact". Ports of "3rd Strike" were released for the Dreamcast as a standalone game, then included in the compilation "Street Fighter Anniversary Collection" for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox. Gill became a playable secret character in the console versions. In 2010, Capcom announced "Street Fighter III Third Strike: Online Edition".


title: Street Fighter

text: The original "Street Fighter IV" game concept, "Street Fighter IV Flashback", never made it past the proposal stage. In 2007, more than eight years since the release of "Street Fighter III 3rd Strike" for the arcades, Capcom unveiled "Street Fighter IV" at a Capcom Gamers Day event in London. Conceived as a direct sequel to the early "Street Fighter II" games (particularly "Super Street Fighter II Turbo"), "Street Fighter IV" features the return of the original twelve world warriors and recurring hidden character Akuma, along with four new characters (as well as a new boss character) in a storyline chronologically set between "Street Fighter II" and "Street Fighter III". The gameplay, while still 2D, features cel-shaded 3D graphics inspired by Japanese "sumi-e" paintings. The Super Combo system, a "Street Fighter" mainstay since "Super Turbo", returns along with new counter-attacking techniques called "Focus Attacks" ("Saving Attacks" in Japan), as well as new "Ultra Combo" moves, similar to the "Rage Gauge" seen in games from SNK Playmore.


title: Street Fighter

text: The arcade version, which runs on the Taito Type X2 hardware, was distributed in Japan in 2008, with a limited release in North America and the United Kingdom. A home version was released in 2009 for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Windows PC. This features an expanded character roster, as well as all-new animated segments that show each character's backstory, and a training mode similar to the Expert Challenges in "Street Fighter EX". The cast includes six characters new to the "Street Fighter" series.


title: Street Fighter

text: "Super Street Fighter IV" includes ten additional characters including two characters new to the franchise: Juri and Hakan. Capcom implemented character balance adjustments and added second Ultra moves for each character. The game features an improved online experience with new modes of play. The game was released in 2010 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 at a discounted price point. A portable conversion of "Super Street Fighter IV" for the Nintendo 3DS, "", features 3D stereoscopic technology, multiplayer, and all 35 characters from the original "Super Street Fighter IV" release. "Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition" was released in 2010, containing all of the content from the console release, and featuring four additional characters: Yun and Yang from "Street Fighter III", as well as Evil Ryu and Oni, an alternate version of Ryu and Akuma, respectively.


title: Street Fighter

text: A new update for "Street Fighter IV," "Ultra Street Fighter IV," was released in 2014 as an arcade game, a DLC add-on for existing console versions of "Super Street Fighter IV", and as a standalone game containing DLC from previous iterations. Along with various tweaks and additional modes and stages, the update adds five additional characters, consisting of Rolento, Elena, Poison and Hugo, who previously appeared in "Street Fighter x Tekken", plus an all-new character, Decapre. The game arrived on next generation consoles with a PlayStation 4 version releasing in 2015.


title: Street Fighter

text: "Street Fighter V" was released exclusive to the PlayStation 4 and PC, enabling cross platform gameplay, in 2016 with a roster of 16 characters including Ryu, Ken, and Chun-Li. In 2018, the game received a major update, "". In 2020, "Street Fighter V: Champion Edition" was released as downloadable content with several characters progressively added and totaling 46.


title: Street Fighter

text: "Street Fighter 6" is currently being developed for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S, and is set for release in 2023. The game will be powered by the RE Engine and include multiple new features, including in-game commentary and a single-player adventure mode with customizable player avatars.


title: Street Fighter

text: The main games have introduced a varied cast of around 90 characters into video game lore, plus around another 30 in spin-off games. The playable roster of international characters each have a unique fighting style.


title: Street Fighter

text: Since the release of the first "Street Fighter" game in August 1987, the series had total home software sales of 35 million units by 2014, and 46million units , in addition to arcade cabinet sales of over 500,000 units generating more than $1 billion in revenue in video game arcade cabinet sales, qualifying it for the list of best-selling video game franchises. "Street Fighter" has remained Capcom's second-biggest franchise behind "Resident Evil" , and is Capcom's third-best-selling software franchise behind "Resident Evil" and "Monster Hunter".


title: Street Fighter

text: The best-selling game in the series is "Street Fighter II", with more than $10 billion in total gross revenue from all versions, mostly from arcades. More than 14 million Super NES and Sega Mega Drive/Genesis cartridges were sold. , "Street Fighter II" is one of the world's top three highest-grossing Japan-made arcade blockbusters of all time, after Taito's "Space Invaders" and Namco's "Pac-Man".


title: Street Fighter

text: In 1994, Capcom referred to "Street Fighter" as "the most successful video game series of the decade" while promoting "Super Street Fighter II".


title: Street Fighter

text: Daigo Umehara, known as "Daigo" or "The Beast" in the West and "Umehara" or "Ume" in Japan, is the world's most famous "Street Fighter" player and is often considered its greatest. He currently holds a world record of "the most successful player in major tournaments of "Street Fighter"" in the "Guinness World Records".


title: Street Fighter

text: "Evo Moment 37", also known as the "Daigo Parry", refers to a portion of a "" semi-final match held at Evolution Championship Series 2004 (Evo 2004) between Daigo Umehara and Justin Wong. During this match, Umehara made an unexpected comeback by parrying 15 consecutive hits of Wong's "Super Art" move while having only one pixel of vitality. Umehara subsequently won the match. "Evo Moment #37" is frequently described as the most iconic and memorable moment in the history of competitive video gaming. Being at one point the most-watched competitive gaming moment of all time, it has been compared to sports moments such as Babe Ruth's called shot and the Miracle on Ice.


title: Street Fighter

text: Hajime "Tokido" Taniguchi is currently ranked as the #1 "Street Fighter V" eSports player in the world per SRK Data eSports player rankings. Hailing from Japan, he is a three time EVO champion and generally recognized one of the best fighters that ever played the game.


title: Street Fighter

text: Mike "Brolylegs" Begum is also a well known "disabled" player who has been ranked as high as 378 in the world and has been featured on ESPN "E:60" for operating the game controller with only his mouth.


title: Street Fighter

text: "Street Fighter" influenced mixed martial arts (MMA) combat sports. The first Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) MMA event. During the 1993 release of "UFC 1" while "Super Street Fighter II" and "Mortal Kombat II" were best sellers, both were initially pitched by UFC promoters as a real-life fighting video game tournament.


title: Street Fighter

text: "Street Fighter II" has been sampled and referenced video game in hip hop music, including The Lady of Rage, Nicki Minaj, Lupe Fiasco, Dizzee Rascal, Lil B, Sean Price, and Madlib. This started with Hi-C's "Swing'n" (1993) and DJ Qbert's "Track 10" (1994) which sampled "Street Fighter II", and the "Street Fighter" film soundtrack (1994) which is the first major film soundtrack to consist almost entirely of hip hop music. According to DJ Qbert, "I think hip-hop is a cool thing, I think "Street Fighter" is a cool thing". According to "Vice" magazine, ""Street Fighter"s mixture of competition, bravado, and individualism easily translate into the trials and travails of a rapper." Grime DJ Logan Sama saying, ""Street Fighter" is just a huge cultural thing that everyone experienced growing up [with] such a huge impact that it has just stayed in everyone's consciousness." According to Jake Hawkes of Soapbox, "grime was built around lyrical clashes [and] the 1v1 setup of these clashes was easily equated with "Street Fighter"s 1 on 1 battles." Grime MCs such as Dizzee Rascal were sampling "Street Fighter II" in 2002, and "Street Fighter II" has been sampled "by almost every grime MC". It became an integral part of BBC Radio 1Xtra DJ Charlie Sloth's "Fire in the Booth" freestyle segments, using samples such as "Hadouken", "Shoryuken", and the "Perfect" announcer sound.


title: 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification (CONCACAF)

text: The North, Central American and Caribbean section of the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification acted as the qualifiers for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, to be held in Qatar, for national teams which are members of the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF). Three direct slots and one inter-confederation play-off slot in the final tournament were available for CONCACAF teams.


text: On 10 July 2019, CONCACAF announced a restructured qualifying format for the World Cup. After CONCACAF initially announced in March 2018 that they would use the CONCACAF Ranking Index to determine the seeding of CONCACAF teams for qualifying to international tournaments, it was determined that FIFA Rankings would be used instead.


text: However, on 25 June 2020, following FIFA's decision to postpone the September 2020 international window because of the COVID-19 pandemic, CONCACAF noted that "the challenges presented by postponements to the football calendar, and the incomplete FIFA rankings cycle in our confederation, means our current World Cup qualifying process has been compromised and will be changed."


text: All 35 FIFA-affiliated national teams from CONCACAF originally entered qualification. Teams were seeded based on their July 2020 FIFA rankings. However, Saint Lucia later withdrew, reducing the total number of teams to 34.


text: On 25 June 2020, FIFA announced that the inter-confederation play-offs, originally scheduled to be played in March 2022, were moved to June 2022, and that the June 2021 window would be extended from two matchdays to four for CONCACAF. On 8 September 2020, CONCACAF announced that the matches scheduled for October and November 2020 would be rescheduled to 2021. On 4 December 2020, FIFA announced that the September 2021, October 2021, January 2022 and March 2022 windows in the FIFA International Match Calendar would each be extended by one day to allow for three matchdays to be played per window. On the same day, CONCACAF announced the revised qualification schedule, which was updated on 16 June 2021.


text: The six highest ranked teams of the first round were pre-seeded into groups A through F. Teams in their groups played each other once, a total of four matches; two home and two away matches. The draw for the first round was held on 19 August 2020, 19:00 CEST (), at the FIFA headquarters in Zürich. The top team from each group advanced to the second round. The COVID-19 pandemic caused many "home" games to be played at neutral venues.


text: The second round saw the six group winners from the first round playing in three home-and-away ties of predetermined pairings. The winners advanced to the third round.


text: As a result of CONCACAF's revision to their World Cup qualifying format, the traditional Hexagonal with six teams and ten games per team was expanded to eight teams and fourteen games per team for the final and decisive round. The top five CONCACAF teams in the July 2020 FIFA rankings entered in the third round, joining the three winners of the second round. The draw to determine the schedule for the third round was held on 19 August 2020, 19:00 CEST (), at the FIFA headquarters in Zürich.


text: The inter-confederation play-off was determined by a draw held on 26 November 2021. The fourth-placed team from CONCACAF third round was drawn against the representative team from the OFC. The play-off was played as a single match in Qatar on 14 June 2022.


title: Sam Kerr

text: Samantha May Kerr (born 10 September 1993) is an Australian professional soccer player who plays as a forward for Chelsea in the FA Women's Super League and the Australia women's national team (the "Matildas"), which she has captained since 2019. As of 2022, Kerr is the all-time leading Australian international scorer, and is the all-time leading scorer in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) in the United States. She is the only female football player to have won the Golden Boot in three different leagues and three different continents – the W-League (Australia/New Zealand) in 2017–18 and 2018–19, the NWSL (North America) in 2017, 2018, 2019 and the FAWSL (Europe) in 2020–21 and 2021–22.


title: Sam Kerr

text: Kerr started her career at the age of 15 with Perth Glory where she played from 2008 to 2012, before moving to Sydney FC. In 2013, she joined the Western New York Flash for the inaugural season of the NWSL and helped lead the team to win the NWSL Shield. She later played for Sky Blue FC and the Chicago Red Stars in the same league. In 2019, Kerr indicated her interest to play in Europe, and having fielded multiple offers from clubs such as Olympique Lyonnais, Kerr ultimately signed with Chelsea, so far winning 8 trophies with the club, including back-to-back-to-back Women's Super League titles, as well as helping the team reach the UEFA Women's Champions League final for the first time in 2021.


title: Sam Kerr

text: Kerr earned her first senior international cap in 2009 at the age of 15 and has since represented Australia at the 2010, 2014, 2018 and 2022 AFC Women's Asian Cup tournaments, the 2011, 2015, and 2019 FIFA Women's World Cups, and the 2016 and 2020 Summer Olympics. During the 2019 World Cup, she became the first Australian player (male or female) to score a hat trick at a World Cup tournament. In 2021, she captained the team to their historic first ever semi-final of a major tournament during the delayed 2020 Summer Olympics, resulting in their best ever 4th-place finish.


title: Sam Kerr

text: Kerr was named the 2018 Young Australian of the Year as part of the 2018 Australia Day Honours, and as part of the 2022 Australia Day Honours, was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for her "services to football," becoming only the second Australian female footballer to receive such an honour after the inaugural Matildas' captain, Julie Dolan. She was awarded the 2017 and 2018 Julie Dolan Medal as the best player in Australia, is a four-time recipient of the PFA's Women's Footballer of the Year Award, awarded it in 2013, 2017, 2018 and 2019, and was named International Player of the Year by the Football Media Association in 2013 and 2014. She received the ESPY Award for Best International Women's Soccer Player in 2018 and 2019, 2022 and was nominated for the award in 2021. She also won the ESPY Award for Best NWSL Soccer Player in 2019, and was nominated for the award in 2018. In 2022, Kerr was awarded the FWA Women's Footballer of the Year. She is the first and only Australian women's footballer to be named to the shortlist for the Ballon d'Or Féminin, and one of only two players (alongside France international Wendie Renard) to have been nominated in all editions of the award since its inception in 2018, ranking 5th, 7th, 3rd and 3rd respectively. She has also been shortlisted for The Best FIFA Women's Player consistently since 2017, ranking 10th, 9th, 11th, 7th, and 2nd, respectively. Kerr has also been nominated for the BBC Women's Footballer of the Year award from 2018 to 2021 and has been named to the Top 10 of "The Guardian"'s The 100 Best Female Footballers In The World from 2017 to 2021, ranking 3rd, 2nd, 1st, 6th and 3rd, respectively.


title: Sam Kerr

text: Kerr is known for her "speed, skill, tenacity," and backflip goal celebrations, and is widely considered one of the best female footballers, and strikers, in the world, and one of Australia's greatest athletes.


title: Sam Kerr

text: Kerr was born in East Fremantle, a suburb of Perth, Western Australia. Her mother, Roxanne ("" Regan), comes from an athletic family: her father and uncles were professional footballers in the West Australian Football League (WAFL) and another uncle J. J. Miller was a champion jockey who won the Melbourne Cup in 1966 with Galilee. Sam's father, Roger Kerr, was born in Calcutta to an English father (a featherweight boxer) and an Indian mother who played basketball.


title: Sam Kerr

text: Kerr played Australian rules football when she was young. Both her father and older brother, Daniel Kerr, were professional Australian rules footballers. She played the sport until switching to association football at the age of 12, mostly due to gender restrictions.


title: Sam Kerr

text: Despite facing some struggles transitioning from Australian rules football to association football, at age 13, she was spotted by Perth Glory striker Bobby Despotovski who described her athleticism and raw talent as "exceptional". At age 15, she made her W-League and international debuts.


title: Sam Kerr

text: Kerr first started playing football as a junior at Western Knights in Mosman Park. After three years at the Western Knights, she trialled for the Western Australian State Team before moving to Perth Glory.


title: Sam Kerr

text: Kerr made her debut for Perth Glory at the age of 15 during the 2009 W-League season. She was voted Players' Player at the 2009 W-League Awards and awarded Goal of the Year for her long–range goal against Sydney FC in round 8. During the 2010–11 season, Kerr started in all 10 matches and scored three goals. She scored a brace in the first half of a match against Adelaide United on 14 January 2011 lifting Perth to a 2–1 victory.


title: Sam Kerr

text: In 2013, Kerr signed with the Western New York Flash. She made 19 starts in her 21 appearances for the club and scored six goals. After defeating Sky Blue FC 2–0 in the semi-finals, the Flash lost 2–0 to Portland in the final.


title: Sam Kerr

text: Kerr returned to the Flash for the 2014 season. Head coach Aaran Lines said of Kerr, "With her attributes – her speed, athleticism and instincts – if she continues to develop at the rate she is, Sam can become one of the best strikers in the world." Kerr started in all 20 matches and was the team's leading scorer with 9 goals. She was named NWSL Player of the Week for week 9 after recording a brace and assist against Portland. Following the 2014 season, Kerr was traded to Sky Blue FC in exchange for Elizabeth Eddy and a first-round pick—fourth overall—in the 2015 NWSL College Draft. The Flash used that pick to draft Sam Mewis.


title: Sam Kerr

text: In August 2014, Kerr returned to Perth Glory on a one-year deal as one of six Matildas to sign for Perth. She would open her account in Perth's second match against Adelaide United to give Perth the lead in the second half which they would win. The following match she scored a double in her team's 10–1 rout of Western Sydney Wanderers. After missing out in the next four games, Kerr would go and score eight goals in the final four games of the regular season which included a hat-trick against her former team in Sydney FC.


title: Sam Kerr

text: She continued her regular season form in the following season when she scored the winning goal in a 2–1 victory over Melbourne Victory in the opening round of the competition. That would be the only goal that she would score in the season with her leg giving way in a non-contact ankle injury which forced her out for the rest of the season. This wouldn't stop Perth from giving her a one-year contract extension before the start of that season. In the 2016–17 W-League season she scored ten goals, led the team to the Grand Final, and earned the Julie Dolan Medal and the Penny Tanner Media MVP Award. In October 2018, she became the first marquee player of the W-League when she was reportedly offered $400,000 contract to stay in Perth instead of going overseas where she was offered $100,000 less. The marquee signing delivered in the 2018–19 W-League season, when she finished top of the goal scoring charts with 17 goals at above a goal a game. This included a hat-trick in the semi-final against Melbourne Victory which booked Perth's spot into the grand final.


title: Sam Kerr

text: In 2015, Kerr joined Matildas teammate Caitlin Foord at Sky Blue FC following their participation at the FIFA Women's World Cup in Canada. Kerr's six goals in her nine appearances ranked first on the team.


title: Sam Kerr

text: During the 2016 season, Kerr made nine appearances for Sky Blue after being away with the national team in preparation for the 2016 Rio Olympics. She scored five goals during the regular season. Kerr was named NWSL Player of the week for Week 18 after scoring two goals: an 80th-minute equaliser against the Orlando Pride and a game-winning goal against the Pride a few days later.


title: Sam Kerr

text: In the 2017 season, Kerr set a new NWSL record when she scored 4 goals in a single game after being down 3–0 to Seattle Reign at halftime. Sky Blue eventually won the match 5–4. At the age of 23, Kerr sat atop the all-time NWSL goalscoring table. Kerr won the NWSL Golden Boot and MVP award after finishing the 2017 season with a record-breaking 17 goals.


title: Sam Kerr

text: On 18 January 2018, Kerr was traded to the Chicago Red Stars along with Nikki Stanton by the Sky Blue FC in a three-team trade with the Chicago Red Stars and Houston Dash. She got off to a slow start in the 2018 season, not scoring until the eighth match of the season when she contributed to a 1–1 draw against North Carolina Courage. In August, she was named as NWSL Player of the Month for the third time in her career as she scored five goals throughout the month of August which included two goals against Portland Thorns FC and Orlando Pride. At the end of the 2018 season, Kerr scored 16 goals and won the Golden Boot for the second consecutive season, leading to her becoming the first player to win the NWSL Golden Boot more than once, and was elected into the NWSL Best XI as a forward.


title: Sam Kerr

text: At the end of the 2019 season, Kerr and the Chicago Red Stars made their first appearance in the NWSL Championship, losing 4–0 to North Carolina Courage. Several days prior to the championship game, Kerr was named the 2019 NWSL MVP, the first, and currently only, NWSL player to ever receive the award twice. Kerr also received, for the third year in a row, the NWSL Golden Boot, leading the league with 18 goals and five assists, despite missing some games over the summer to play with Australia in the World Cup. Kerr was also named Player of the Year by the National Women's Soccer League Players Association, who presented their own awards for the first time.


title: Sam Kerr

text: At the end of the 2019 season Kerr announced that she was considering moving to a European team and had multiple offers.


title: Sam Kerr

text: On 13 November 2019, Chelsea announced Kerr would be joining the club for the second half of the 2019–20 FA WSL season on a two-and-a-half year contract. Kerr made her Chelsea debut against Reading on 5 January 2020 and scored her first goal two weeks later against Arsenal. She won her first trophy with Chelsea in their 2–1 win over Arsenal in the 2019–20 Continental League Cup Final. Chelsea went on to win the 2019–20 league title despite a curtailed season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, based on a points-per-match basis.


title: Sam Kerr

text: At the 2020 Women's FA Community Shield on 29 August 2020, Kerr created a series of goal scoring opportunities before being substituted in Chelsea's 2–0 win over Manchester City. She scored a hat-trick in the 6–0 win over Bristol City in Chelsea's defence of the Continental League Cup title, and lead goalscoring for Chelsea during the season, ultimately helping her win her second Women's Super League title during the 2020–21 FA WSL season. She scored 21 goals in 22 games, winning the "Golden Boot", making her the first player to win it in three different leagues. That same season, Kerr helped Chelsea reach the final of the UEFA Women's Champions League for the first time, before being defeated by Barcelona.


title: Sam Kerr

text: During the 2021–2022 WSL season, Kerr continued exhibiting fine form and was nominated for the Barclays Player of the Month for September. On 16 November 2021, Kerr signed a two-year contract extension, keeping her at the club until the end of the 2023/24 season, saying "I can't see myself going anywhere else in the world or leaving Europe, having what I have at Chelsea." The following week, Kerr scored the winning goal in Chelsea's Champions League group stage match against Servette, and scored her third league hat-trick, against Birmingham City, within 26 minutes, as well as providing the assist for team-mate Fran Kirby's 100th Chelsea goal, with Kerr celebrating her achievement with her signature back-flip, the first time she performed it at Chelsea's homeground of Kingsmeadow. On 5 December, Kerr scored a brace in the delayed FA Cup final against Arsenal, winning Player of the Match, and helping her team lift the trophy and secure the domestic quadruple of the 2020–21 season, the first English women's club to achieve the feat. Kerr ended the 2021 calendar year as the leading goalscorer in the WSL, with 23 goals, and was second in total assists with 10, behind only team-mate Fran Kirby.


title: Sam Kerr

text: Upon returning to Chelsea after being eliminated in the Asian Cup at the beginning of 2022, Sam continued with a fine run of goal-scoring, scoring 10 goals in 7 consecutive matches, the first Chelsea player to do so. She scored the lone Chelsea goal in a 3–1 defeat at the hands of Manchester City in the League Cup final and in Chelsea's 0–9 record-breaking win against Leicester City in the WSL on 27 March, Sam scored a brace, repeating the feat the following week in a match against Reading, the 5th consecutive WSL match she had scored in. On 24 April, in a league game against Tottenham Hotspur, Kerr scored in her 6th consecutive WSL match, and in doing so, broke her own record set the previous season of scoring against the most opposing teams, by scoring against all opponents bar Arsenal. In April 2022, Kerr was awarded the FWA Women's Footballer of the Year, receiving 40% of the vote ahead of Vivianne Miedema and Lauren Hemp, and won the FA WSL April Player of the Month. Kerr ended the season with 32 goals (including 3 goals of FA Cup 2020–21 held during 2021–22 season period) and 9 assists across all competitions, winning the FA Women's Super League for the third consecutive time, and the FA Women's Cup for the second consecutive time. After a formidable season in front of goal for the Blues, the 2021–22 Golden Boot winner was voted Chelsea Women's Player of the Year by Chelsea supporters with over 70 per cent of the vote and was also voted FA Women's Super League Player of the Season. She also received the PFA Players' Player of the Year, in addition to being named in the PFA WSL Team of the Year for second consecutive year. Kerr played a pivotal role in Emma Hayes’ team, netting at vital times to ensure the Blues won the WSL three times running and the Vitality Women's FA Cup back-to-back. The No.20 finished top goal scorer, netting 32 times in all competitions. Kerr retained the Golden Boot award for the second consecutive year, having scored 20 times in the Barclays FA Women's Super League in 2021–22 season. The striker scored a number of important goals this season, including a crucial 92nd-minute winner against Aston Villa at Kingsmeadow in March 2022 to keep the Blues’ title hopes alive. Kerr also scored twice as Chelsea beat Manchester United on the final day of the season, with her well-taken volley against the Red Devils being voted FA Women's Super League Goal of the Season. The No.20 also scored the winning goal at Wembley as the Blues secured their second consecutive FA Cup.


title: Sam Kerr

text: In February 2009, at the age of 15, Kerr made her international debut for Australia's senior national team in Canberra as a 76th minute substitute in a friendly against Italy, which Australia lost 5–1. She scored her first international goal at the age of 16 during the 2010 AFC Women's Asian Cup final against North Korea, helping Australia draw 1–1 in full-time, which led to Kerr's first international trophy.


title: Sam Kerr

text: In May 2010, Kerr was named to the Matildas squad to compete at the 2010 AFC Women's Asian Cup, the qualifying tournament for the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup in Germany. After scoring in the second match of the group against South Korea, she scored the opening goal of the final against North Korea before seeing Australia taking out the title via a penalty shoot-out. The same year, she represented Australia at the 2010 Peace Queen Cup.


title: Sam Kerr

text: In 2011 at age 17, Kerr was named to Australia's 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup squad by head coach Tom Sermanni as one of seven players who were under twenty years of age. She made her World Cup debut coming on as a substitute in the 79th minute of Australia's first group stage match against Brazil. She was a starter for the team's second group stage match against Equatorial Guinea helping Australia win 3–2 and the team's final group stage match and 2–1 win against Norway. Australia finished second place in their group and advanced to the knockout stage where they were defeated 3–1 by Sweden.


title: Sam Kerr

text: After injuring her knee in December 2014 and undergoing surgery, Kerr worked hard with fitness coach Aaron Holt to recover ahead of the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup in Canada. Kerr was the team's starting striker during Australia's first group stage match against the United States, which Australia lost 3–1. During the team's second group stage match, she helped Australia defeat Nigeria 2–0. During the match, Kerr was elbowed in the face by Ugo Njoku, which ultimately resulted in a three-game suspension for Njoku. Kerr recovered and started during Australia's final group stage match against Sweden, a 1–1 draw. Australia's finished second in their group and advanced to the round of 16 where Kerr played in the team that defeated Brazil 1–0. She also started the quarterfinal match in the first time Australia reached this stage, but they were defeated by 2011 champions Japan 1–0.


title: Sam Kerr

text: In July 2017, Kerr was the top goalscorer at the inaugural Tournament of Nations in the United States. She scored a hat-trick in Australia's 4–2 victory over Japan, and also scored a goal against Brazil, leading Australia to win the tournament. Prior to this tournament, Kerr had scored eight goals in her first 49 games for the national team. Her hat-trick against Japan was the beginning of a run of 11 goals in six games. Kerr was named 2017 AFC Women's Footballer of the Year.


title: Sam Kerr

text: In February 2019, Kerr was named captain of the Matildas by newly appointed head coach Ante Milicic. Two months later, she was one of five nominees for the BBC Women's Footballer of the Year award. During the team's first group stage match at the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup in France, she opened up an early lead against Italy after scoring a goal off a penalty kick rebound, though Australia ultimately lost 2–1 in stoppage time. Kerr's goal was her first at a World Cup tournament and she celebrated by punching the corner flag to honor Tim Cahill, the all-time leading goalscorer for the Socceroos. During the team's second group stage match against Brazil, though Kerr was in an offside position when Monica Hickmann Alves headed the ball into her own goal, the video assistant referee (VAR) deemed that Kerr wasn't interfering and the goal was counted for Australia. Australia won 3–2. Kerr scored four goals in the team's 4–1 win against Jamaica and was named Player of the Match. She is the first Australian footballer — male or female — to score a hat-trick at a World Cup tournament and the tenth footballer to score four goals. Australia finished second in their group and advanced to the knockout stage where they were defeated by Norway in a penalty shoot-out. Kerr's five goals at the tournament ranked fourth highest behind Ellen White of England and Americans Alex Morgan and Megan Rapinoe, who all scored six.


title: Sam Kerr

text: At 2020 Tokyo Olympics held in 2021, Australia was grouped with United States, Sweden and New Zealand. Kerr scored in the opening game, in which they beat New Zealand 2–1. In the second game against Sweden, Kerr scored a brace but missed a penalty and ended up losing 4–2. Progressing to the quarter-finals against Great Britain, Kerr scored an 89th-minute equaliser to see the game into extra time, before getting a brace to help Australia secure a 4–3 victory and progress to the semi-finals against Sweden. During this match, Kerr scored a goal that was controversially disallowed, and Australia ultimately lost 1–0. In the bronze medal match against the United States, she scored a goal in a 4–3 defeat, to become the all-time top scorer for the Matildas, surpassing Lisa De Vanna, with 48 goals.


title: Sam Kerr

text: On 21 September, in their first match after their Olympics defeat, and in Australia's first ever match against the Republic of Ireland, Kerr won her 100th cap, the 10th Matilda in history to do so. She returned with Australia to play two friendly matches against Brazil on home soil in October, the first time doing so since before the COVID-19 pandemic, and scored her 49th international goal in the second match.


title: Sam Kerr

text: At the 2022 AFC Women's Asian Cup, Sam scored 5 goals in Australia's opening match of the group stage against Indonesia, and in the process, equalled and surpassed the Australian international goal-scoring record, amongst both male and female Australian internationals, previously set by Tim Cahill (50 international goals). She was also able to achieve the feat within fewer matches, needing 105 matches to equal the 50 goals set by Cahill, who set the record within 108 international appearances. Despite being eliminated in the quarter-finals by South Korea, Sam won the Golden Boot, scoring 7 goals in only 4 matches.


title: Sam Kerr

text: In 2013, Kerr was featured in an hour-long episode of ESPN's "Aussies Abroad" entitled, "The Matildas", which profiled four Australian national team players (Kerr, Lisa De Vanna, Kyah Simon, and Caitlin Foord) and their experience playing internationally. She was featured along with her national teammates in the EA Sports' FIFA video game series starting in "FIFA 16", the first time women players were included in the game.


title: Sam Kerr

text: Kerr was featured on the cover of the July 2011 issue of "Australian FourFourTwo" along with four of her national team teammates: Melissa Barbieri, Kyah Simon, Thea Slatyer, and Sarah Walsh. In March 2018, she was featured in "Vogue Australia" as a 2018 Game Changer. In 2019, she was featured on the cover of the Australian version of the "FIFA 19" video game. In September 2020, she was announced as the second-highest rated female player in "FIFA 21" with a 92-rated card, which was only beat by Megan Rapinoe's 93 rating.


title: Sam Kerr

text: Kerr has an endorsement deal with Nike. In 2019, she starred in a commercial, "Dream Further", that aired during the Champions League Final and 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup and also featured Gerard Piqué, Alex Scott, Neymar Jr., Crystal Dunn, and Lieke Martens. The same year, her trademark backflip was featured in the Nike ad, "Dream Crazier" along with other women athletes like Serena Williams, Megan Rapinoe, and Diana Taurasi and aired during the 91st Academy Awards. She is a brand ambassador for Powerade. In 2021, she published her first book (The Flip Out) in her autobiographical football themed children's book series, 'Kicking Goals.'