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818 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Readability | Readability | Readability, or textual difficulty, means how easy or hard a text is to read. Research has shown that two main factors affect the ease with which texts are read.
How difficult the words are: this is lexical difficulty. Rare words are less well known than common words. Rare, difficult words are often longer than common, easy words.
How difficult the sentences are: this is syntactical difficulty. Long, complicated sentences cause more difficulty than short, simple sentences.
Readability predictions
A readability test is a way to measure a text for how easy it is to read. Readability tests give a prediction as to how difficult readers will find a particular text. They do this by measuring one or both of the two main causes, as follows:
Word difficulty
Word difficulty is usually measured by vocabulary lists or word length.
In 1923, Bertha A. Lively and Sidney L. Pressey published the first reading ease formula. They had been concerned that science textbooks in junior high school had so many technical words. They felt that teachers spent all class time explaining their meaning. They argued that their formula would help to measure and reduce the “vocabulary burden” of textbooks. Their formula used the Thorndike word list as a basis. Manually, it took three hours to apply the formula to a book.
Vocabulary lists
Several vocabulary lists have been published by researchers. These lists are based on samples of published texts in English, and (less often) samples of recorded spoken language. The lists differ slightly according to the sources chosen, but they are very reliable. The items listed may represent more than one actual word; they are lemmas. For instance the entry "be" contains within it the occurrences of "is", "was", "be" and "are". The top 100 lemmas account for 50% of all the words in the Oxford English Corpus.
The Reading Teachers Book of Lists claims that the first 25 words make up about one-third of all printed material in English, and that the first 100 make up about one-half of all written material.
One of the first readability tests, the Dale–Chall formula, used a vocabulary list. It counted the number of listed words in a passage, and applied a formula which gave a grade level. It was used to rate textbooks for grade levels in US school districts.
It is easy, in principle, to use a vocabulary list as part of a computer-based readability measure. The list is organised as a look-up table. The percentage of listed words in a passage gives the data for the formula, and the user is presented with a grade level.
Word length
This is called an index, or a proxy. This is because word length is correlated with word frequency, and word frequency is correlated with word difficulty. Longer words are, on average, harder than short words.
Word length is measured by counting the letters in each word, or by counting syllables. Since most syllables have one vowel, some computer programs count vowels per average word. A few tests measure the percentage of words on a list; the list is based on the known frequency of words in a language.
Sentence difficulty
Sentence difficulty is usually measured by sentence length. This again is an index, because longer sentences are, on average, harder than short sentences. Computers count the number of words between full stops, but this is a second-best method. Humans can judge whether a semi-colon or colon should count as the end of a sentence for testing purposes.
Since both factors may vary independently of each other, the best prediction is gained by devising a formula with makes use of both indices. What this means is that a single score is produced for a text, and that score is looked up on a table or graph. That tells you how difficult the text is in terms of either a) an American school grade level, or b) an artificial scale of 0% to 100%. Either way is effective. What really makes a difference is:
Methods using both indices are more reliable than methods using only one index.
Direct measurement
It is possible to get a good prediction by getting a group of subjects to read through a passage, followed by multiple-choice questions. Even better is a method called cloze, where subjects fill in blanks on a text they have not seen before. The percentage of correctly completed blanks is an outstandingly good predictor of text difficulty.
Naturally, this kind of direct measure requires subjects and a skilled experimenter. It also requires the prior preparation of texts suitable for the chosen sample of subjects. The method is therefore too expensive for widespread use.
Types of tests
A person can perform readability tests himself by counting and doing some math, or by using word-processing software.
Tests on subjects
Multiple-choice questions
Cloze test
Test on texts
Two-variable formulae
Dale–Chall readability formula
Flesch Reading Ease (Flesch Readability Test)
Flesch–Kincaid Reading Level (Flesch-Kincaid Grade Index)
Fry readability formula
Gunning Fog Index
Spache
One-variable formulae
Fog Index
SMOG Index
Use on Wikipedia
Wikipedia Signposts 2015-06-24 surveyed recent studies of web information on medical topics, including articles in English wiki.
Their summary was:
"The authors concluded that the readability of online patient information for ‘liposuction’ and ‘breast reconstruction’ is ‘too difficult’ for many patients as the readability scores of all 20 websites (10 each) far exceeds that of a 6th-grade reading level. The average score for the most popular ‘liposuction’ websites was determined equal to 13.6-grade level. As a comparison ‘tattoo information’ scored at the 7.8-grade level".
"Health care information available at the most popular websites for ‘breast reconstruction’ had an average readability score of 13.4, with 100% of the top 10 websites providing content far above the recommended 6th grade reading level. Wikipedia.org readability scores aligned at the higher readability range for both terms, with scores above the 14 grade level for ‘liposuction’, and above grade 15 for ‘breast reconstruction’".
That shows these articles, and presumably many other medical articles on English wiki, are written in prose far too difficult for the average member of the public.
Related pages
Most common words in English
References
Other websites
Is Wikipedia too difficult? comparative analysis of Wikipedia, Simple Wikipedia and Britannica.
Writing Sample Analyzer , reports on the Flesch Reading Ease, Fog Scale Level, and Flesch–Kincaid Grade Level for a given piece of text.
Online Textual Difficulty Calculator - reports ARI, SMOG, Flesch–Kincaid Readability Test, Coleman–Liau Index, Gunning–Fog Index, etc.
BYU Words and phrases: highlights text. and
Written communication
Linguistics |
819 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theatre | Theatre | Theatre (British English and also American English), or Theater (mostly American English), has several meanings.
The word comes originally from the Greek Theatron, meaning roughly, 'a place to behold'. In American English, the word 'theater' can mean either a place where films are shown (this is also called a cinema) or a place where live stage plays are performed. In British English, 'theatre' means a place where live plays are performed. Some people, both English and American, use the spelling 'theatre' to mean a place where live plays are performed, and the spelling 'theater' to mean a cinema.
'Theatre' can also mean the business of putting on plays. An actor might say "I am in the theatre business", or a writer might say "I write for the theatre", meaning that they write plays, rather than writing for movies or television shows.
History
Ancient Greece
The first people we know created plays were the Ancient Greeks, about the year 500 B.C. They divided plays into two kinds: tragedy and comedy. This division is still used today. The best known Ancient Greek writers of plays are Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides and Aristophanes. Some of their plays survived, and are still performed today.
These ancient Greek plays were performed outdoors in large amphitheatres, so that many people could see them. There were contests among the playwrights (people who write plays are called playwrights) and the winner would get a prize.
The Greeks had many brilliant ideas. They used mechanical devices like trap doors and the machina: a crane for winching gods on and off the stage (hence 'Deus ex machina'). They had a Greek chorus that offered information to help the audience follow the performance. The chorus comments on themes, and shows how an audience might react to the drama. The players wore masks. Illustrations on vases show helmet-like masks, covering the entire face and head, with holes for the eyes and a small aperture for the mouth, plus a wig. The mask was to ‘melt’ into the face and allow the actor to vanish into the role. Therefore, onlookers did not think about the actor, but thought about the character.
Middle Ages
In the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church began to use theatre as a way of telling the stories from the Bible to people who did not know how to read. They wrote Mystery Plays, where each part of the Bible story would be a play put on by a different group of people. They wrote miracle plays which were about the lives of the saints. They wrote morality plays which taught the audiences how to live a good Christian life.
Commedia dell'arte plays
In the 1500s, groups of actors toured around Italy performing comic plays to entertain townspeople. These plays were called Commedia dell'arte, and different stories would be created around the same group of characters. Often the spoken lines would be made up by the actors for each performance.
Other kinds of plays called Neoclassical Dramas and Neoclassical Comedies were also popular in Italy and in France at this time. These plays were written to copy the style of the plays from Ancient Greece and Rome.
Elizabethan theatre
At the end of the sixteenth century (before 1600), the traveling actors began to perform in fixed theatre buildings. This was the period when William Shakespeare wrote. He lived from 1564 to 1616. At that time, in England, women were not allowed to perform, so male actors would play female characters.
His theatre was in London, England. It was called The Globe Theatre. It was an outdoor theatre and plays were performed in the daytime for large audiences. His plays were very popular and many are still performed today. Many people believe Shakespeare was one of the best playwrights (a writer of plays).
Plays including Shakespeare's were banned during the Protectorate'. After that, many more were written and acted.
Plays from the 1900s
After World War II, playwrights in Europe and the United States began doing plays in a new style called "Theatre of the Absurd." After seeing the horrors of war, these playwrights felt that all their old values had been destroyed. Playwrights such as Samuel Beckett, Eugène Ionesco, Harold Pinter, and Jean Genet wrote plays that are considered to be "Theatre of the Absurd."
The "Theatre of the Absurd" plays have some of the same ideas that are found in the philosophy (a way of thinking) called existentialism. Existentialism is very different from many other philosophies. Most religions and philosopies say that human life has a meaning (or a purpose). The philosophy of existentialism is that human life does not have a meaning (or a purpose). When something has no meaning, it is "absurd". (absurd means means silly and meaningless.)
The plays written in this style make people think about questions like "what is it like to be a person in the world?" and "what does it mean for a person to be free?" They are often filled with sad emotions, such as worry, fear, and thoughts about death.
Theatre breaks
Theatre breaks are a form of short holiday, based around viewing a theatrical convention show. Theatre breaks tend to include a nights hotel accommodation included in the price.
References |
823 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Test | Test | A test is a way of checking something to see if it is true, or false, or if it is edible or not. If something can be tested, or finishes the tests correctly, it is testable. The Concise Oxford English Dictionary defines a test as: "a procedure intended to establish the quality, performance, or reliability of something".
A test is different from an experiment: Before a test is done, there is an expected result. The test is performed, to show this result. In an experiment, the outcome is open. Very often, tests are performed as part of an experiment.
Products
Products are usually tested for quality, so customers will get good products.
In software engineering, a test is used to see if the software system can do what it should. Software is tested before it is released. Alpha testing is where software developers check the software for bugs. Software can also be checked for quality and usability. Beta testing is done by groups of users.
Tests of cars and other vehicles include a crash test. The car is put under severe conditions to see what will make it fail, or deliberately crashed to measure the damage. Other machines can also be crash tested. Crash test dummies can be used instead of humans. They are placed in the car seat to see if a human in the crash would have been injured or killed.
People
People are tested to see what they have learned. This is often called an assessment or examination. In learning, a test item is a question, or set of questions.
Many people think tests are valuable. They believe tests:
are a quick and fair way of judging a test taker's performance
enable predictions about test takers to be made
allow selection
improve performance by highlighting areas that need work.
However, academic tests are not perfect measures. Tests could only partly measure a student’s memory and maybe their understanding. The test would only be about a small part of the subject, and only at that moment in time.
People, animals and plants can also be tested for illnesses. For example, a blood test can be used to check for disease.
Science
In science, tests can done to check for a presence of a substance, or to check the quality of something.
References
Other websites
Tests and Experiments: Similarities and Differences
Basic English 850 words |
827 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time%20horizon | Time horizon | A time horizon is a future point in time when something must be "done" (a "deadline") or will be "over" (a "time limit"). Either way, the matter will be closed when the time horizon is reached.
Common time horizons people use are:
end of day, usually meaning the working day;
the weekend;
end of month;
fiscal quarter;
end of school term;
end of calendar year
and end of fiscal year.
It is very important to know at what time horizon something you are doing will be scored, evaluated, marked or paid for.
Sports, for example football (soccer) and basketball, often have time limits. Baseball and others do not, which sometimes causes problems.
Time |
828 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time%20limit | Time limit | A time limit is a time horizon that is imposed on everyone at once.
It may be used to try to achieve fairness in some system of ethics. For instance, if poor people and rich people are debating something, a time limit may be imposed so that the rich people cannot keep debating until the poor people have to go to work, and lose.
Time limits are very important in accounting so that everyone can report their results (for tax and investment purposes) at the same time. This in turn creates deadlines for the accountant and those reporting.
However, the deadline is imposed by an authority, whereas the time limit is imposed by a system. So there can be slack in a deadline, so that results do not have to be reported always very fast.
For example, in the United States of America, the end of the calendar year on December 31 is the time limit for taxes, but the deadline for reporting is April 15. Sometimes the government allows more time, as it did for the families of those who were killed in the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Related pages
Time horizon
Deadline
Time |
833 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiwan | Taiwan | Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC; Chinese: 中華民國; pinyin: Zhōnghuá Mínguó), is a country in East Asia. Not to be confused with the People's Republic of China (PRC), the Republic of China (Taiwan) once governed all of China (from 1911 - 1949), but relocated to the island of Taiwan following a Chinese civil war. In the years since, the PRC has become the recognized government of China (replacing the ROC at the United Nations in 1971), and the status of the ROC has been left unclear.
The region of China of Taiwan comprises the island of Taiwan plus nearby islands (Pescadores islands and parts of Fujian). Taiwan is located southeast of the People's Republic of China's mainland, south of Japan, and north of the Philippines. The capital is Taipei.
Taiwan has also been called Formosa, a Portuguese name which means "beautiful" in Portuguese.
Most people living in Taiwan (called Taiwanese) are Han. Taiwan has three large Han groups. They speak different dialects of Chinese and their ancestors came from different places: the Southern Fujianese (from China's Fujian Province), the Hakka (from China), and Mainlanders (from Mainland China after 1948).
There are also Taiwanese Aborigines who have lived in Taiwan before the Han came to live there.
History
In 1517, A discovery ship of Portuguese saw this island and names it "Ilha Formosa", or "Beautiful Island" in Portuguese.
17th century: From 1624 until 1661 Dutch colonize the southern part of Formosa and established a colonial administration in Fort Zeelandia, and the Spanish colonize the north and established a colonial administration in Fuerte Santo Domingo or Fort Santo Domingo. The Dutch eventually defeated the Spaniards and took full control of Formosa. A Chinese general named Koxinga, defeated the Dutch at the Siege of Fort Zeelandia.
1860: Taiwan becomes a treaty port following the Treaty of Tientsin, opening the island to contact with the world.
1874: Japan invaded southern Taiwan, seemingly to "punish" the aborigines there for the murder of ship-wrecked Okinawan fishermen in 1871, but actually to establish a colony. Japanese forces withdraw later in the year after the Meiji and Qing empires nearly went to war.
1884-1885: Taiwan is blockaded by French navy during the Sino-Franco War.
1895: Qing China lost the First Sino-Japanese War and gave Taiwan to Japan permanently.
1911: The Xinhai Revolution ended China's last imperial dynasty, the Qing dynasty, and led to the establishment of the Republic of China.
1927: Start of the Chinese Civil War between the Kuomintang (KMT) party and the Communist Party of China (CCP). The war would later be put on hold, so the two sides could fight Japan together during World War II.
1945: Japan lost in World War II to U.S. and gave up Taiwan permanently.
1947: Taiwanese widely protest governmental corruption under the Nationalists. Chiang Kai-shek sends in the army to restore order, killing tens of thousands. Some Taiwanese began the Taiwan independence movement.
1949:
The Nationalists (KMT) lose the civil war, which resumed after World War II, and escape to the island of Taiwan. They set up Taipei as the temporary capital of Republic of China (ROC).
The Communist Party of China (CCP) establishes Beijing as the capital of The People's Republic of China (PRC).
1951: Japan signs the Treaty of San Francisco (1951) with U.S.
1971: Taiwan is expelled from the United Nations and replaced with the PRC
1979: The KMT government jails many democracy activists who opposed it (Kaohsiung Incident).
1986: The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is formed; it is the first party to form in the ROC other than the KMT. It remains illegal for the first year, but the KMT government does not try to ban it.
1987: The KMT government lifts the martial law after almost 40 years.
1988: Lee Teng-hui (KMT) became president after Chiang Ching-kuo is dead.
1995: Lee Teng-hui (KMT) became the first president elected by people.
2000: Li Shui-bian (DPP) became president.
2000: Chen Shui-bian (DPP) became president.
2004: Chen Shui-bian is re-elected after a controversial assassination attempt, in which many KMT-supporters believed, was staged by Chen. However, after unwillingness to cooperate about his medical records the investigation was inconclusive.
2008: Former president Chen Sui-bian and his wife are arrested for corruption and money laundering.
2008: Ma Ying-jeou (KMT) was elected as the president of the Republic of China and thus creating a change of political parties for the second time.
2009: Kaohsiung hosts the 2009 World Games.
2016: Tsai Ing-wen (DPP) was elected as the first female president of Taiwan.
2019: same sex marriage was legalized
Status of Taiwan
There are two Chinese governments in the world: The People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Republic of China (ROC). Today, in reality, the PRC government controls mainland China, and the ROC government governs Taiwan. The ROC government governed most of China mainland from 1911 to 1949, before losing control of China mainland to the PRC. The ROC constitution still claims ownership of all of China, however in recent years this is rarely mentioned.
Although Taiwan's status prevents it from participating in some international organizations, polls show that most Taiwanese prefer to keep things as they are (referred to as the status quo), rather than declare formal independence (and risk inviting an attack by communist China), or to be "reunified" with China.
Most countries of the world recognize the People's Republic of China as China. Although Taiwan is not recognized by the UN as a sovereign nation, most countries still have close economic and cultural relations with Taiwan. Countries often set up de-facto embassies in Taiwan—officially non-government organizations—that perform the same functions as an embassy.
In 1992, the ROC and PRC agreed to a Consensus that there was only "one China" but that both sides could continue to disagree on what that meant.
In March 2004, China's government passed a law called the Anti-Secession Law. The law requires the Chinese military to invade Taiwan immediately if they declare independence. Tsai Ing-wen, the elected President of Taiwan, says Taiwan is already an independent country and does not need to declare independence.
President of communist China, President Xi Jinping, has vowed "reunification" with Taiwan by any means, including through military force. Joe Biden, President of The United States, has said that the US will defend Taiwan from Chinese attack. Australia has said they would join the USA, and Japan has indicated they may as well.
Geography
The island of Taiwan is about 180 kilometers off the southeastern coast of China. It is across the Taiwan Strait. It has an area of .
The East China Sea is to the north, the Philippine Sea to the east, the Luzon Strait directly to the south and the South China Sea to the southwest.
Taiwan's highest point is Yu Shan (Jade Mountain). It is 3,952 meters high (12,966 ft). There are five other peaks over 3,500 meters.
The Penghu Islands are west of the main island. They have an area of . More distant islands controlled by the Republic of China are the Kinmen, Wuchiu and Matsu Islands off the coast of Fujian. They have a total area of . The Pratas Islands and Taiping Island in the South China Sea have a total area of . They have no permanent inhabitants.
Cities
The largest cities in Taiwan are:
Related pages
Political status of Taiwan
Notes
References |
838 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trademark | Trademark | A trademark (or trade mark) is a way for a business to help people identify the products that the business makes from the products made by another business. A trademark can be a name, word, phrase, symbol, logo, design, or picture. It can only be used on things made by the business that owns the trademark.
For example, Coca-Cola and Coke are trademark names for a certain drink made by the Coca-Cola Company. No other business can use these names or any names similar to them. Other businesses can make a drink that is similar, like colas soft drinks, but they have to use a different name for their drink, such as Pepsi.
Another example is the Nike company which makes sporting goods like shoes and clothes. The "swoosh" symbol used on their products is a trademark.
Famous trademarks like Coca-Cola and Nike are used for branding whole families of products.
Trademark and law
Trademarks for bakers were first included in a law in the 13th century in England. France expanded trademark laws in the late 19th century and other countries followed.
In the United States, the governing law for trademarks is the Lanham Act, in Germany the Markengesetz.
Getting a trademark
Trademarks are protected by law. In some countries, a person or company can get a trademark simply by using the name, word, phrase, symbol, logo, design, or picture on its products.
Trademarks can also be registered. In that case, the business tells the government of its country that it wants to use a certain name, word, phrase, symbol, logo, design or picture as a trademark for the products it sells. If no other person or business is using the trademark to sell those products, then the government will list that trademark. Once it is listed, no one else can use that trademark for those products. This is called "registering" the trademark.
Using another person's trademark
If someone uses the trademark in a wrong way, the trademark owner can sue the other person. If a court decides that the other person was not allowed to use the trademark, they might have to pay damages to the trademark owner.
If another person wants to use a trademark that they do not own, they can ask the trademark owner for permission. The trademark owner can grant the other person a license. The other person usually must pay some money to the trademark owner for the license. This can be in the form of a percentage of the cost of the product that the other person sells called a royalty. For example, a person might pay Nike ten percent (10%) of the cost of each pair of shoes it sells for the right to include the Swoosh.
Marking products with trademarks
When people write a word that is a trademark or show a picture or symbol that is a trademark, they should say that it is a trademark. If a trademark is not registered, they can write the word "Trademark", use the abbreviation "TM", or use the symbol ™ on their products.
If a trademark is registered, they can use the letter R in a circle symbol: "®". People can also say it is a "registered trademark" or use the abbreviation "Reg.".
Service marks
Trademarks are used for products. Businesses that do things for people instead of making things are called service providers. They can get a service mark instead of a trademark. When people write or show a service mark, they can use the service mark symbol: "℠".
Symbols
Intellectual property law
Business |
845 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten%20Commandments | Ten Commandments | The Ten Commandments are a set of rules or laws. The Bible says that God gave them to the people of Israel. The commandments exist in different versions. One version can be found in the Book of Exodus of the Bible. Another version can be found in the Book of Deuteronomy. In the Book of Exodus, the mountain where they were given is called Mount Sinai, the Book of Deuteronomy talks about Mount Horeb (the same Mt. Horeb where God called Moses from the burning bush, Exodus 3:1-3). Both are probably different names for the same mountain. The laws were written on stone tablets. These laws are important for Judaism and Christianity. Countries which follow those religions often have some of the commandments as part of their Civil laws.
Sometimes these rules are also called Decalogue (from Greek, can be translated as ten statements). The name decalogue first occurs in the Septuagint. The Israelites received the commandments after they had left Egypt during the reign of Pharaoh Thutmose III. There are different texts talking about the commandments. Most of them are in the Bible: The Book of Exodus, Chapter 20 and the book of Deuteronomy, Chapter 5. The Qu'ran mentions the tablets but does not list exactly the same commandments. For instance Quran 17:23-39 starts with worshipping God alone and honouring your parents.
The Exodus version (from the ESV BIBLE)
“You shall have no other gods before me."
“You shall not make yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God are only worthy of worship, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments."
“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, or your servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy."
“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you."
“You shall not murder."
“You shall not commit adultery."
“You shall not steal."
“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor."
“You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's.”
Ten Commandments in the Old Testament Torah
The Ten Commandments in Deuteronomy Chapter 5: verses 1-22 NKJV
5 And Moses called all Israel, and said to them: “Hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments which I speak in your hearing today, that you may learn them and be careful to observe them. 2 The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. 3 The Lord did not make this covenant with our fathers, but with us, those who are here today, all of us who are alive. 4 The Lord talked with you face to face on the mountain from the midst of the fire. 5 I stood between the Lord and you at that time, to declare to you the word of the Lord; for you were afraid because of the fire, and you did not go up the mountain. He said:
6 ‘I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
7 ‘You shall have no other gods before Me.
8 ‘You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; 9 you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, 10 but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
11 ‘You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.
12 ‘Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. 13 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 14 but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your ox, nor your donkey, nor any of your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. 15 And remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.
16 ‘Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God has commanded you, that your days may be long, and that it may be well with you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you.
17 ‘You shall not murder.
18 ‘You shall not commit adultery with somebody’s spouse.
19 ‘You shall not steal.
20 ‘You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
21 ‘You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife; and you shall not desire your neighbor’s house, his field, his male servant, his female servant, his ox, his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.’
22 “These words the Lord spoke to all your assembly, in the mountain from the midst of the fire, the cloud, and the thick darkness, with a loud voice; and He added no more. And He wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me.
Differences in teachings and interpretation
These commandments are translated from ancient Hebrew to Basic English, so the exact words chosen may not mean to us exactly what they meant to the Hebrews. There are a variety of interpretations of these commandments:
Images
The Roman Catholics understanding of the commandment to not make "any image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above" means that "likenesses" may be built and used, as long as the object is not worshipped as an idol.
The Eastern Orthodox Church has a very similar position. Eastern Orthodoxy teaches that the incarnation of an invisible God as a visible human, Jesus, makes it alright to use flat images in worship (see Iconoclasm).
Most other Christians allow statues of religious figures, provided there is no "veneration" of them. They are not commonly found in Protestant Churches, but may be found nearby or in Museums. Historical figures or busts may be used for educational purposes. Stained glass windows may contain depictions of honored historical or Biblical persons.
Judaism in its various forms usually takes a position somewhere between the Protestant view and that of Islam. Synagogues would not have any statues in them. Images of God are forbidden anywhere.
Islam forbids any images whatsoever of Allah (God) or persons, including Mohammad. That is why their buildings are generally decorated with calligraphy but never depictions of living beings.
Jehovah's Witnesses criticize the use of all of the above, as well as the use of the cross.
The Amish forbid any sort of image, such as photos.
Using God's name improperly
This can be understood to mean cursing or using profanity which includes the name of God.
Many languages have expressions of anger or dismay that include the word "God". In addition, many times people "swear to God" to try to convince others they are telling the truth. Another offense might be to say that "God told me" to do something when He didn't. The actual name of God in the Old Testament was YHWH, sometimes pronounced Yahweh or Jehovah. Pious Jews refrain from using this name or even the word God, for which they substitute G_d. This is to avoid using God's name in a way that might break this commandment.
Sabbath day
Jews honor the Sabbath (Shabbat) from sundown on Friday until the appearance of three stars in the sky on Saturday night, the seventh day of the week on the Jewish calendar.
In the New Testament Jesus did things that made the Sabbath command different from the other nine. Jesus seemed to reduce its demands, unlike some other commandments where he made them stronger. Jesus was often criticized for healing on the Sabbath or doing other things. He said that "the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath". Doing good on the Sabbath seemed to be praised and practiced by Jesus. In that way he disobeyed some of the strict interpretations that had become common in His day.
Most Christians honor the Sabbath on Sunday to remember the Resurrection of Jesus on the first day of the week on the Jewish calendar.
Some conservative Christians are "Sabbatarians" (most of these follow the Reformed traditions). Sabbatarians think the first day of the week or Lord's Day is the new Sabbath, because the 4th commandment has never been removed. They also say that the Sabbath law was given when the world was made. It came before the ten commandments were given.
Others believe that the Sabbath remains as a day of rest on Saturday, while Sunday as a day of worship, in reference to Acts 20:7: the disciples came together on the first day of the week to break bread and to hear the preaching of the apostle Paul. Also, Jesus appeared to his followers on the "first day of the week" while they were in hiding.
The Seventh-day Adventist Church, and some others, believe that the custom of meeting for worship on Sunday originated in paganism, specifically Sol Invictus and Mithraism (in which sun god worship took place on Sunday). Instead, Adventists keep Saturday as the Sabbath as a memorial to God's work of creation believing that none of the Ten Commandments can ever be destroyed. Seventh-day Sabbatarians claim that the seventh day Sabbath was kept by the majority of Christian groups until the 2nd and 3rd century, but because of opposition to Judaism after the Jewish-Roman wars, the original custom was gradually replaced by Sunday as the day of worship.
Married relations
To "be false to the married relation", called adultery, is when a married person has sexual relations with a person other than his or her spouse. Having sex outside of marriage is fornication and is also sin. It is condemned in other places in the Bible, but not specifically in the Ten Commandments. Jesus taught his audience that the outward act of adultery does not happen apart from sins of the heart: "From within people, from their hearts, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. All these evils come from within and they defile.” In The New Testament Jesus says "But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart."
Killing or murder
There are different translations of this commandment; the Hebrew words are translated either as "thou shalt not kill" or "thou shalt not murder". Older Protestant translations of the Bible, those based on the Vulgate and Roman Catholic translations usually translate it "Thou shalt not kill". The Catholic Church believes that endangerment of human life or safety is a mortal sin that breaks The Fifth Commandment. Furthermore, the Catholic Church does not believe in a difference between murder and manslaughter the way the law does. With the exceptions of killing in self-defense (a form of manslaughter in many nations' laws) and killing in war, the Catholic Church believes all other forms of killing or attempting to kill violate The Fifth Commandment. Unsafe driving could also lead to unintentional killing. Jewish and newer Protestant versions tend to use "You shall not murder". There are different opinions as to which translation is more faithful to the original.
The many examples in the Old Testament of killing sanctioned by God, are quoted in defense of the view that "murder" is more accurate. Furthermore, the Hebrew word for "kill" is "" - "harog", while the Hebrew word for "murder" is "" - "retzach", which is found in the Ten Commandments "" - "lo tirtzach".
Stealing
Many theologians (such as German Old Testament scholar A. Alt: Das Verbot des Diebstahls im Dekalog (1953)) suggest that commandment "you shall not steal" was originally intended against stealing people—abductions and slavery. This would be the same as the Jewish interpretation of the statement as "you shall not kidnap" (e.g. as stated by Rashi). Civil laws in most countries list many types of stealing. These include burglary, embezzlement, looting, robbery, shoplifting or fraud. The penalties depend on the value of the thing stolen, and if violence was used to take it.
In some places stealing horses brought a death penalty. That is because it could cause danger or even death to the horse's owner who could no longer do necessary travel. Poaching is the illegal killing of wild animals. Especially in modern times, money is often stolen by trickery or keeping false bank or debt records. In the 21st century this can be done using computers. This is called "White-collar crime".
Some societies have attempted to say that no property is "private" but everything belongs to the whole society. If this were ever put in practice, it would make stealing impossible, but it has not been fully practiced anywhere.
False witness
To "give false witness" would include lying in court which is called perjury. Telling false gossip which harms someone is similar. Some think this commandment includes all lying. It is to knowingly give any false statement. Others allow a white lie. Some Jewish teachers said that not all lying is false witness (perjury). They say that lying is sometimes "permissible or even commendable". This would include changing the truth to be modest or to avoid harm to someone. Saint Augustine believed that some lies could be pardoned, and that there were in fact occasions when lying would be the right thing to do. He says that lies which hurt nobody and benefit someone may be forgiven. These need to used with great caution, however.
Different numbering
The Bible does not number the commandments. Different religious groups have numbered them in different ways. The Jews, followed by Christian Protestants, end the first commandment with "You are to have no other gods but me." as above. Catholics and Lutherans end the first commandment at "I will have mercy through a thousand generations on those who have love for me and keep my laws." and separate in their last two commandments the desire for a man's wife from the desire for other things he owns.
The commandments passage in Exodus has more than ten important statements, there are 14 or 15 in all. While the Bible itself gives the count as "10", using the Hebrew phrase ʻaseret had'varim—translated as the 10 words, statements or things, this phrase does not appear in the passages usually presented as being "the Ten Commandments". Various religions divide the commandments differently. The table below shows those differences.
Notes:
Old Testament |
846 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table | Table | Table may mean one of these:
Table (furniture)
Table (information)
Periodic table
Lookup table |
847 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree | Tree | A tree is a tall plant with a trunk and branches made of wood. Trees can live for many years. The oldest tree ever discovered is approximately 5,000 years old and the oldest tree from the UK is about 1,000. The four main parts of a tree are the roots, the trunk, the branches, and the leaves.
The roots of a tree are usually under the ground. However, this is not always true. The roots of the mangrove tree are often under water. A single tree has many roots. The roots carry nutrients and water from the ground through the trunk and branches to the leaves of the tree. They can also breathe in air. Sometimes, roots are specialized into aerial roots, which can also provide support, as is the case with the banyan tree.
The trunk is the main body of the tree. The trunk is covered with bark which protects it from damage. Branches grow from the trunk. They spread out so that the leaves can get more sunlight.
The leaves of a tree are green most of the time, but they can come in many colors, shapes and sizes. The leaves take in sunlight and use water and food from the roots to make the tree grow, and to reproduce.
Trees and shrubs take in water and carbon dioxide and give out oxygen with sunlight to form sugars. This is the opposite of what animals do in respiration. Plants also do some respiration using oxygen the way animals do. They need oxygen as well as carbon dioxide to live. Trees are renewable resources because, if cut down, other trees can grow in their place.
Parts of trees
The parts of a tree are the roots, trunk(s), branches, twigs and leaves. Tree stems are mainly made of support and transport tissues (xylem and phloem). Wood consists of xylem cells, and bark is made of phloem and other tissues external to the vascular cambium.
Growth of the trunk
As a tree grows, it may produce growth rings as new wood is laid down around the old wood. In areas with seasonal climate, wood produced at different times of the year may alternate light and dark rings. In temperate climates, and tropical climates with a single wet-dry season alternation, the growth rings are annual, each pair of light and dark rings being one year of growth. In areas with two wet and dry seasons each year, there may be two pairs of light and dark rings each year; and in some (mainly semi-desert regions with irregular rainfall), there may be a new growth ring with each rainfall.
In tropical rainforest regions, with constant year-round climate, growth is continuous. Growth rings are not visible and there is no change in the wood texture. In species with annual rings, these rings can be counted to find the age of the tree. This way, wood taken from trees in the past can be dated, because the patterns of ring thickness are very distinctive. This is dendrochronology. Very few tropical trees can be accurately dated in this manner.
Roots
The roots of a tree are almost always underground, usually in a ball shaped region centered under the trunk, and extending no deeper than the tree is high. Roots can also be above ground, or deep underground. Some roots are short, some are meters long.
Roots provide support for the parts above ground, holding the tree upright, and keeping it from falling over in high wind.
Roots take in water, and nutrients, from the soil. Without help from fungus for better uptake of nutrients, trees would be small or would die. Most trees have a favorite species of fungus that they associate with for this purpose.
Branches
Above ground, the trunk gives height to the leaf-bearing branches, competing with other plant species for sunlight. In all trees the shape of the branches improves the exposure of the leaves to sunlight. Branches start at the trunk, big and thick, and get progressively smaller the farther they grow from the trunk. Branches themselves split into smaller branches, sometime very many times, until at the end they are quite small. The small ends are called twigs.
Leaves
The leaves of a tree are held by the branches. Leaves are usually held at the ends of the branches. The, although some have leaves along the branches. The main functions of leaves are photosynthesis and gas exchange. A leaf is often flat, so it absorbs the most light, and thin, so that the sunlight can get to the green parts in the cells, which convert sunlight, carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and water from the roots, into glucose and oxygen. Most of a tree's biomass comes from this process.
Most leaves have stomata, which open and close, and regulate carbon dioxide, oxygen, and water vapour exchange with the atmosphere.
Trees with leaves all year round are evergreens, and those that shed their leaves are deciduous. Deciduous trees and shrubs generally lose their leaves in autumn as it gets cold. Before this happens, the leaves change colour. The leaves will grow back in spring.
Exceptions
The word "tree" in English means a long lived plant having obvious main stem, and growing to a considerable height and size. Thus not all trees have all the organs or parts as mentioned above. For example, most (tree-like) palms are not branched, and tree ferns do not produce bark. There are also more exceptions.
Based on their general shape and size, all of these are nonetheless generally regarded as trees. Trees can vary a lot. A plant that is similar to a tree, but generally smaller, and may have multiple trunks, or have branches that arise near the ground, is called a "shrub", or a "bush". Since these are common English words there is no precise differentiation between shrubs and trees. Given their small size, bonsai plants would not technically be "trees", but are indeed "trees". Do not confuse the use of tree for a species of plant, with the size or shape of individual specimens. A spruce seedling does not fit the definition of a tree, but all spruces are trees.
Classification
A tree is a plant form that can be found in many different orders and families of plants. Trees show many growth forms, leaf type and shape, bark traits and organs.
The tree form has changed separately in classes of plants that are not related, in response to similar problems (for the tree). With about 100,000 types of trees, the number of tree types in the whole world might be one fourth of all living plant types. Most tree species grow in tropical parts of the world and many of these areas have not been surveyed yet by botanists (they study plants), making species difference and ranges not well understood.
The earliest trees were tree ferns, horsetails and lycophytes, which grew in forests in the Carboniferous period; tree ferns still survive, but the only surviving horsetails and lycophytes are not of tree form. Later, in the Triassic Period, conifers, ginkgos, cycads and other gymnosperms appeared, and subsequently flowering plants in the Cretaceous period. Most species of trees today are flowering plants (Angiosperms) and conifers.
A small group of trees growing together is called a grove or copse, and a landscape covered by a dense growth of trees is called a forest. Several biotopes are defined largely by the trees that inhabit them; examples are rainforest and taiga (see ecozones). A landscape of trees scattered or spaced across grassland (usually grazed or burned over periodically) is called a savanna. A forest of great age is called old growth forest or ancient woodland (in the UK). A very young tree is called a sapling.
Records
Height
Scientists in the UK and Malaysia say they have discovered the world's tallest tropical tree measuring more than 100m (328ft) high.
A coast redwood: , in Redwood National Park, California had been measured as tallest, but may no longer be standing.
The tallest trees in Australia are all eucalypts, of which there are more than 700 species. The so-called 'mountain ash'. with a slim, straight trunk, grows to over 300 feet.
Stoutest trees
The stoutest living single-trunk species in diameter is the African baobab: , Glencoe baobab (measured near the ground), Limpopo Province, South Africa. This tree split up in November 2009 and now the stoutest baobab could be Sunland Baobab (South Africa) with diameter 10.64 m and circumference of 33.4 m.
Some trees develop multiple trunks (whether from an individual tree or multiple trees) which grow together. The sacred fig is a notable example of this, forming additional 'trunks' by growing adventitious roots down from the branches, which then thicken up when the root reaches the ground to form new trunks; a single sacred fig tree can have hundreds of such trunks.
Age of individual trees
The life-span of trees is determined by growth rings. These can be seen if the tree is cut down or in cores taken from the edge to the center of the tree. Correct determination is only possible for trees which make growth rings, generally those which occur in seasonal climates. Trees in uniform non-seasonal tropical climates are always growing and do not have distinct growth rings. It is also only possible for trees which are solid to the center of the tree; many very old trees become hollow as the dead heartwood decays away. For some of these species, age estimates have been made on the basis of extrapolating current growth rates, but the results are usually little better than guesses or speculation. White proposed a method of estimating the age of large and veteran trees in the United Kingdom by correlation between a tree's stem diameter, growth character and age.
The verified oldest measured ages of living trees are:
Great Basin bristlecone pine (Methuselah) Pinus longaeva: 4,852 years
Patagonian cypress: Fitzroya cupressoides: 3,649 years in Cordillera Pelada, Los Rios, Chile
Other species suspected of reaching exceptional age include European Yew Taxus baccata (probably over 2,000 years) and western redcedar Thuja plicata. The oldest known European yew is the Llangernyw yew in the Churchyard of Llangernyw village in North Wales which is estimated to be between 4,000 and 5,000 years old.
The oldest reported age for an Angiosperm tree is 2,305 years for the Sri Maha Bodhi sacred fig (Ficus religiosa) planted in 288 BC at Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka; this is said to be the oldest human-planted tree with a known planting date.
Oldest forests
The earliest fossilised trees date to 386 million years ago in the Devonian period. They have been found at an abandoned quarry in Cairo, New York. The forest was so vast it originally stretched beyond Pennsylvania.
This discovery is two or three million years older than the previous oldest forest at Gilboa, also in New York State.
Tree value estimation
Studies have shown that trees contribute as much as 27% of the appraised land value in certain markets.
These most likely use diameter measured at breast height (dbh), 4.5 feet (140 cm) above ground—not the larger base diameter. A general model for any year and diameter is:
assuming 2.2% inflation per year.
Tree climbing
Tree climbing is an activity where one moves around in the crown of trees.
Use of a rope, helmet, and harness are the minimum requirements to ensure the safety of the climber. Other equipment can also be used depending on the experience and skill of the tree climber. Some tree climbers take special hammocks called "Treeboats" and Portaledges with them into the tree canopies where they can enjoy a picnic or nap, or spend the night.
Tree climbing is an "on rope" activity that puts together many different tricks and gear originally derived from rock climbing and caving. These techniques are used to climb trees for many purposes, including tree care (arborists), animal rescue, recreation, sport, research, and activism.
Damage
The three big sources of tree damage are biotic (from living sources), abiotic (from non-living sources) and deforestation (cutting trees down). Biotic sources would include insects which might bore into the tree, deer which might rub bark off the trunk, or fungi, which might attach themselves to the tree.
Abiotic sources include lightning, vehicles impacts, and construction activities. Construction activities can involve a number of damage sources, including grade changes that prevent aeration to roots, spills involving toxic chemicals such as cement or petroleum products, or severing of branches or roots. People can damage trees also.
Both damage sources can result in trees becoming dangerous, and the term "hazard trees" is commonly used by arborists, and industry groups such as power line operators. Hazard trees are trees which due to disease or other factors are more susceptible to falling during windstorms, or having parts of the tree fall.
The process of finding the danger a tree presents is based on a process called the quantified tree risk assessment.
Trees are similar to people. Both can take a lot of some types of damage and survive, but even small amounts of certain types of trauma can result in death. Arborists are very aware that established trees will not tolerate any appreciable disturbance of the root system. Even though that is true, most people and construction professionals do not realize how easily a tree can be killed.
One reason for confusion about tree damage from construction involves the dormancy of trees during winter. Another factor is that trees may not show symptoms of damage until 24 months or longer after damage has occurred. For that reason, persons who do not know about caring for trees may not link the actual cause with the later damaged effect.
Various organizations have long recognized the importance of construction activities that may damage tree health. This can result in monetary losses due to tree damage and replacement costs. As a result, standard methods of tree management for building activities are well established and tested.
Developing a tree protection plan
Developing a remediation plan (making damage good)
Setting up tree protection zones (TPZs)
Assessing tree damage, after building
Doing the remediation plan
Trees in culture
The tree has always been a cultural symbol. Common icons are the World tree, for instance Yggdrasil, and the tree of life. The tree is often used to represent nature or the environment itself. A common mistake (wrong thing) is that trees get most of their mass from the ground. In fact, 99% of a tree's mass comes from the air.
Wishing trees
A Wish Tree (or wishing tree) is a single tree, usually distinguished by species, position or appearance, which is used as an object of wishes and offerings. Such trees are identified as possessing a special religious or spiritual value. By tradition, believers make votive offerings in order to gain from that nature spirit, saint or goddess fulfillment of a wish.
Tree worship
Tree worship refers to the tendency of many societies in all of history to worship or otherwise mythologize trees. Trees have played a very important role in many of the world's mythologies and religions, and have been given deep and sacred meanings throughout the ages. Human beings, seeing the growth and death of trees, the elasticity of their branches, the sensitiveness and the annual (every year) decay and revival of their foliage, see them as powerful symbols of growth, decay and resurrection. The most ancient cross-cultural symbolic representation of the universe's construction is the 'world tree'.
World tree
The tree, with its branches reaching up into the sky, and roots deep into the earth, can be seen to dwell in three worlds - a link between heaven, the earth, and the underworld, uniting above and below. It is also both a feminine symbol, bearing sustenance; and a masculine, phallic symbol - another union.
For this reason, many mythologies around the world have the concept of the World tree, a great tree that acts as an Axis mundi, holding up the cosmos, and providing a link between the heavens, earth and underworld. In European mythology the best known example is the tree Yggdrasil from Norse mythology.
The world tree is also an important part of Mesoamerican mythologies, where it represents the four cardinal directions (north, south, east, and west). The concept of the world tree is also closely linked to the motif of the Tree of life.
In literature
In literature, a mythology was notably developed by J.R.R. Tolkien, his Two Trees of Valinor playing a central role in his 1964 Tree and Leaf. William Butler Yeats describes a "holy tree" in his poem The Two Trees (1893).
List of trees
There are many types of trees. Here is a list of some of them:
Apple tree
Coconut palm
Cottonwood
Eucalyptus
Fir
Horse chestnut
Mangrove
Maple
Oak
Palm
Pine
Redwood
Rubber tree
Willow
Yew
Birch
Toona ciliata
Related pages
Wattezia is the earliest tree in the fossil record.
References
Other websites
Global Trees Campaign website
Botanic Gardens Conservation International website
Basic English 850 words |
848 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy | Tragedy | In theatre, a tragedy as defined by Aristotle is a play that ends badly for the hero or heroine or others. A tragedy is usually about a person who has many good qualities, but also has one poor quality (called a "tragic flaw") that causes trouble for him, and maybe his family or friends.
Often in a tragedy, there is one possible event that the hero fears and tries to prevent, but no matter what he does, it makes this thing more and more sure to happen. Tragedies originated in Ancient Greek theatre, where they were performed at religious festivals. The three most famous Greek tragedy writers were Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides. Later famous writers include Shakespeare and Jean Racine.
Sometimes the word tragedy is also used to mean something with a bad outcome in real life e.g. crime or death.
Related pages
English Renaissance drama
Henrik Ibsen
Arthur Miller
Theatrical forms |
849 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxonomy | Taxonomy | Taxonomy is a branch of science. It is about the laws and principles of classifying things. From one type of taxonomy, many classifications might be produced.
Classification
The best-known kind of taxonomy is used for the classification of lifeforms (living and extinct). Each organism has a scientific name. This name is part of the biological classification of that species. The name is the same all over the world, so scientists from different places can understand each other. In addition, a species has a position in the tree of life. Thus the crow is Corvus corone, a member of the Corvidae family, and they are passerine birds. That is well agreed, but the classification of some groups is not agreed at present, and often several classifications are being discussed.
Living things are classified into three domains: bacteria, archaea and eukaryotes. The highest rank in a domain is the kingdom. Each kingdom has many smaller groups in it, called phyla. Each phylum has more smaller groups in it, called classes. This pattern looks like branches on a tree with smaller branches growing from them. Each species is put into a group because of what it does, how and what it eats, special body parts, and so on. At the end of the pattern, the groups (genera) are very small. Then each species in the genus is given its own name.
Binomial nomenclature
When someone writes about a living thing and its formal scientific name, they write the genus and species name. This is known as binomial nomenclature, because it uses two names for each organism. The first is the genus name, and the second is the species in that genus. The scientific name of the domestic cat is Felis catus. Sometimes it is enough to write F. catus.
These are the major groups (ranks) used in taxonomy:
Kingdom --> Phylum --> Class --> Order --> Family --> Genus --> Species
Usage of Latin
When people started naming species, Latin was a language widely used in Europe. All species names are still written in Latin. This has some advantages. Since Latin is no longer spoken, it is unchanging, and is owned by no-one. It gets over the problem of every language having its own names for animals and plants.
Scientists used to write the official description of each new species in Latin. On 1 January 2012, the International Botanical Congress changed to allow English (as well as Latin) for describing new plant species. The International Code of Zoological Nomenclature recommends choosing a language that is widely used, and that is used in the places where the species lives.
Cladism
An important modern approach to taxonomy is cladism. This approach is based on the branching (tree-like) course of evolution. Like traditional Linnaean classification, it uses traits to decide on the branches of the classification. It insists on groups being monophyletic. This has the effect that birds are not a class but a sub-group of dinosaurs. It also means the ranking system described above would be abolished.
So cladism has different principles of taxonomy, and produces a different kind of taxonomy. Decisions, where possible, are supported by DNA sequence analysis. Present-day biological classification is a mixture of the old Linnaean and the modern cladistic principles of taxonomy. In parts, it is changing rapidly. The classifications presented in Wikipedia at present are often a compromise between the two systems. The details are regularly discussed.
Turmoil in taxonomy
Today, there are many changes in the classification of living things. This turmoil in taxonomy has led to many alternative classifications. It is caused partly from the move from Linnaean to cladistic principles, and partly by the use of DNA sequence data in taxonomy. An example is: the way derived groups like birds should not be classified at the same level as the group they evolved from. Yet birds have traditionally been a class under the Linnaean system.
The turmoil sometimes results in differences between related pages. Pages may rely on different references and different authors' opinions as to the present best arrangement.
The following source is good on the differences between cladistic and taxonomic classification systems:
Grant, Verne 2003. Incongruence between cladistic and taxonomic systems. American Journal of Botany. 90 (9) 1263-1270.
Related pages
Cladistics
Molecular clock
Molecular evolution
Sequence analysis
Biological classification
Military taxonomy
References
Other websites
Taxonomy Citizendium |
851 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/The%20Sun | The Sun | The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System.
The Sun may also mean:
Publications
United Kingdom
The Sun (United Kingdom), a current daily national tabloid
The Sun (1792–1806), a defunct British newspaper
The Sun (1893–1906), a defunct British newspaper
United States
The Sun (magazine), a monthly literary and photography magazine
The Sun (Lowell), a daily newspaper in Massachusetts
The Sun (New York City), a defunct daily newspaper in New York (1833–1950)
The New York Sun, 2002–2008
The Sun (Sheridan), a defunct weekly newspaper in Oregon (1890–2014)
Sun, later the Ann Arbor Sun, a defunct underground newspaper in Michigan
The Sun, later called Peck's Sun, a Wisconsin newspaper founded by George Wilbur Peck
The U.S. Sun, the U.S. online edition of The Sun (United Kingdom)
Elsewhere
Sun Newspapers (Northern Territory), community newspapers in Darwin, Australia
The Sun (Hong Kong), a defunct Chinese-language newspaper (1999–2016)
The SUN (Hong Kong), an English-language newspaper for Filipinos
The Sun (Malaysia), a daily Malaysian tabloid
The Sun (New Zealand), a defunct New Zealand newspaper
The Sun (Nigeria), a daily Nigerian newspaper
The Sun (Rangoon), a defunct Burmese newspaper (1911–1954)
The Sun (Sydney), a defunct Australian tabloid (1910–1988)
Arts and entertainment
Movies
The Sun (movie), a 2005 Russian biographical movie
Music
Artists
The Sun (American band)
The Sun (Estonian band)
The Sun (Italian band), previously under the name Sun Eats Hours
Albums
The Sun (Cat Empire album)
The Sun (Fridge album)
The Sun, an album by FanFan
Songs
"The Sun", by Maroon 5 from the 2002 album Songs About Jane
"The Sun", a 2014 single by Parov Stelar
"The Sun", an original Barney song from Barney in Outer Space
Fictional and literary uses
The Sun (Tarot card), a trump card in the tarot deck
The Sun (wordless novel), a 1919 book of woodcut prints by Frans Masereel
Ash-Shams ("The Sun"), the ninety-first sura of the Qur'an
The Sun, a The House of the Dead III character
Other
The Sun (St. Paul's Churchyard), a historical bookseller in London
Related pages
Sun (disambiguation)
Sun (newspaper)
The Sunday Sun (disambiguation), name of various newspapers
Le Soleil (French for "The Sun"), name of various newspapers
Die Son (Afrikaans for "The Sun"), a daily South African tabloid |
852 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple | Temple | A temple is a building where people go to practice their religion. In a temple people may perform religious rituals, ceremonies, and pray. Thus, a temple is a general term for a house of worship. Christians usually call their religious buildings churches.
Some examples of temples from different religions:
Hinduism (Mandir)
Buddhism (Shaolin)
Temples at Uppsala
Greek temple
Temple in Jerusalem
Mormon temple
Roman temple
Reform Judaism's synagogues.
Baha'i (Mashriqu'l-Adhkar)
Temples in Bangkok
Other websites |
853 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theft | Theft | Theft is when one person or group takes from another persons or state any object, money, or information without permission. A person who has been convicted of theft may be called a thief. However, the practice of engaging in theft is also called stealing. There are many different types of theft, such as pickpocketing and shoplifting. Burglary and robbery are separate crimes which involve theft.
Stealing is basic and is illegal almost everywhere. Thieves steal things sometimes because they want to have something for themselves, or because they want to sell something for money. Sometimes thieves will make plans to rob a store, bank, house, or person, and sometimes they will just see a chance to steal something and take it. Some thieves have kleptomania.
When thieves steal things for money, they usually pick cars, electronics, laptops, or other things they can sell easily. Sometimes thieves use pawn shops to sell things easily to someone who will not ask questions. |
856 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/United%20Kingdom | United Kingdom | The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland or simply the United Kingdom (UK) is a sovereign country in Western Europe. It is a constitutional monarchy that is made up of four separate countries: England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. It is a member of the United Nations, the Commonwealth, NATO, the G8, and formerly the EU. It had the sixth largest economy in the world by nominal GDP in 2019.
Around 66 million people live in the UK (2018). They can be divided into four big nationalities based on the countries where they live (or where they were born or their ancestry).
England is the biggest country, where most people in the UK live. People who live in England are called English. Their native language is called English, which is spoken by most people in England.
Scotland, north of England, is the second biggest country. People who live there are called Scottish, and a Scottish person may be called a Scottish. Some speak a language other than English: Scottish Gaelic, a Gaelic language. Scottish English, on the other hand, is a version of English.
Wales is to the west of England. Its people are called Welsh and they have their own Celtic language which is also called Welsh. Not everyone in Wales can speak Welsh, but almost everyone can speak English.
Northern Ireland is the smallest country. Unlike the other three countries, it is not on the island of Great Britain: it is part of the island called Ireland. Northern Ireland takes up about a sixth of Ireland (with the Republic of Ireland taking up the remainder). People who live in Northern Ireland are either Irish, British, or Northern Irish. The people who live here usually speak English.
About 95 per cent of the UK's population are English speakers. 5.5 per cent of the population speak languages brought to the UK as a result of relatively recent immigration.
The UK has many cities. London is the biggest city in the UK and is the nation's capital city. There are also other big cities in England including Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Bristol and Newcastle upon Tyne. Scotland has the big cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow. Cardiff and Swansea are in Wales and Derry and Belfast is in Northern Ireland.
Between the 17th and mid 20th-centuries, Britain was a world power. It became a colonial empire that controlled large areas of Africa, Asia, North America and Oceania. At its height in 1922, more than 458 million people lived in the British Empire, one-fifth of the Earth's population. Its area was 13,012,000 square miles: almost a quarter of the Earth's land area. The empire was sometimes called 'the empire on which the sun never sets', meaning the sun is always shining on at least one of its territories. Almost all countries left and became independent from the empire in the 20th century, although Britain keeps links with most countries of its former empire.
Etymology
The "UK" is a common abbreviation of United Kingdom, which derives from when its Kingdom had been United.
Prehistory
Species of humans have lived in Britain, for almost a million years. The occupation was not continuous, probably because the climate was too extreme at times for people to live there.
Archaeological remains show that the first group of modern people to live in the British Isles were hunter-gatherers after the last ice age ended. The date is not known: perhaps as early as 8000BC but certainly by 5000BC. They built mesolithic wood and stone monuments. Stonehenge was built between 3000 and 1600BC. Celtic tribes arrived from mainland Europe. Britain was a changing collection of tribal areas, with no overall leader. Julius Caesar tried to invade (take over) the island in 55BC but was not able to do so. The Romans successfully invaded in 43AD.
History
Written history began in Britain when writing was brought to Britain by the Romans. Rome ruled in Britain from 44AD to 410AD. They ruled the southern two-thirds of Great Britain. The Romans never took over Ireland and never fully controlled Caledonia, the land north of the valleys of the River Forth and River Clyde. Their northern border varied from time to time and was marked sometimes at Hadrian's Wall (in modern England), sometimes at the Antonine Wall (in modern Scotland).
After the Romans, waves of immigrants came to Britain. Some were German tribes: the Angles, Saxons and Jutes. Others were Celts, like the Scoti, who came to Great Britain from Ireland. English and Scots are Germanic languages. They developed from Old English, the language spoken by the Anglo-Saxons of Anglo-Saxon England, an area stretching from the River Forth to the River Tamar.
Middle Ages
A later wave of immigration was that of the Vikings, during the Early Middle Ages' Viking Age. During the Viking invasion of Britain, they set up their own kingdom in north-western England, which the Anglo-Saxons named the "Danelaw", after the Danes who lived there and controlled the land. Vikings from Scandinavia also controlled most of the islands which are now part of Scotland, including the Outer Hebrides, the Inner Hebrides, and the Northern Isles (the Shetland Islands and the Orkney Islands).After a long period when Anglo-Saxon England was split into various kingdoms, it was made into one kingdom by Æthelstan (Athelstan) in 945AD. In the 13th century, the lands of Wales were unified by force with England by the wars of Edward I of England ("Edward Longshanks").
Early modern history
Union of the Crowns
There were hundreds of years of fighting between both kingdoms of Great Britain. In 1603, when Queen Elizabeth I of England died, her closest relative was King James VI of Scotland. He became king of England and Ireland as well as the king of Scotland. The kingdoms of England, Ireland, and Scotland had the same monarch ever since. James VI and I was the first to be named "King of Great Britain", and he ordered the design of the Union Jack. The Union Jack has been the British national flag ever since.
Union of 1707
In 1707, the Parliaments of England and Scotland agreed on the Treaty of Union, which joined the two countries into one country called the United Kingdom of Great Britain under Queen Anne with the Acts of Union 1707. This union merged Scotland and England into one kingdom. England and Scotland kept their own laws, with English law in England and Wales and Scots law in Scotland. The division between the Church of Scotland and the Church of England continued. Ireland and Great Britain continued to have the same king, but Ireland did not become part of the new kingdom in 1707.
Modern history
Union of 1801
Scotland and England had already independently had much influence over Ireland since 1200. In 1800 laws were passed in the parliaments of Great Britain and Ireland to merge the two kingdoms and their two parliaments. The country was then called the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The Union Jack was changed so that the flag of Saint Patrick (a red saltire) shows Ireland to be a part of the country.
In 1922 much of Ireland became independent from the United Kingdom as the Irish Free State (now called Ireland). However, six northern counties (called Northern Ireland) are part of the United Kingdom. The country was renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in 1927.
The new Parliament of Northern Ireland set up in the 1920s stopped working in the 1970s, because of The Troubles. However, devolution started again with the Northern Ireland Assembly after the Belfast Agreement (the "Good Friday Agreement") in 1998. Devolution in Scotland and Wales started the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Parliament the same year.
The United Kingdom was a member state of the European Union (EU) and an older organization, the European Economic Community (EEC), from 1973 until Brexit in 2020.
Geography
The UK is northwest off the coast of mainland Europe. Around the UK are the North Sea, the English Channel and the Atlantic Ocean. The UK also rules, usually indirectly, a number of smaller places (mostly islands) around the world, which are known as British Overseas Territories. They were once part of the British Empire. Examples are Gibraltar (on the Iberian Peninsula next to the Strait of Gibraltar) and the Falkland Islands (in the south Atlantic Ocean).
In the British Isles, the UK is made up of four different countries: Wales, England and Scotland and Northern Ireland. The capital city of Wales is Cardiff. The capital city of England is London. The capital city of Scotland is Edinburgh and the capital city of Northern Ireland is Belfast. Other large cities in the UK are Birmingham, Bristol, Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle upon Tyne, Leeds, Sheffield, Glasgow, Southampton, Leicester, Coventry, Bradford and Nottingham.
The physical geography of the UK varies greatly. England consists of mostly lowland terrain, with upland or mountainous terrain only found north-west of the River Tees-River Exe line. The upland areas include the Lake District, the Pennines, the North York Moors, Exmoor, and Dartmoor. The lowland areas are typically traversed by ranges of low hills, frequently composed of chalk, and flat plains. Scotland is the most mountainous country in the UK and its physical geography is distinguished by the Highland Boundary Fault which goes across the Scottish mainland from Helensburgh to Stonehaven. The Royal Observatory, Greenwich is the defining point of the Prime Meridian.
The weather of the United Kingdom is changeable and unpredictable. Summers are moderately warm, winters are cool to cold. Rain falls throughout the year, and more on the west than the east because of its northerly latitude and the warm water from the Atlantic Ocean's Gulf Stream. The usually moderate prevailing winds from the Atlantic may be interrupted by Arctic air from the northeast or hot air from the Sahara.
The United Kingdom is reducing greenhouse gas emissions. It has met some Kyoto Protocol targets. It has signed the Paris Agreement. The British government want the UK to be carbon neutral by the year 2050.
Politics
The United Kingdom is a parliamentary democracy based on a constitutional monarchy. The people of the United Kingdom vote for a members of Parliament to speak for them and to make laws for them. Queen Elizabeth II is the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and is the head of state. The government, led by the Prime Minister, governs the country and appoints cabinet ministers. Today, the Prime Minister is Boris Johnson, who is the leader of the centre-right Conservative Party.
Parliament is where laws are made. It has three parts: the House of Commons, the House of Lords, and the Queen. The House of Commons is the most powerful part. It is where Members of Parliament sit. The Prime Minister sits here as well because they are a Member of Parliament.
Scotland has its own devolved Parliament with the power to make laws on things like education, health and Scottish law. Northern Ireland and Wales have their own devolved legislatures which have some powers but less than the Scottish parliament. The Parliament of the United Kingdom is sovereign and it could end the devolved administrations at any time. The UK is a unitary state and not a federation of states.
Parliament
The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the legislature, the political assembly that makes laws and decides tax. The British people are represented by members of parliament (MPs) in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. MPs are chosen in elections. The MPs in the House of Commons decide who will be the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. The prime minister decides who will be in the British Government (Her Majesty's Government). The government is not controlled by the king or queen, but by Parliament. In Britain, Parliament is made up of the House of Commons and the House of Lords.
Unlike the House of Commons, the people in the House of Lords are not elected. The people who sit in the House of Lords are called peers. Most peers are appointed by the government. There are some who are hereditary peers (who inherit their peerages from ancestors or other family members). Certain bishops in the established Church of England also attend the House of Lords. (The Church of England is the national church in England. The Church of Scotland does not have bishops, and neither Wales nor Northern Ireland has an established national church.) Together, the two houses make a bicameral legislature, in which the House of Commons has more power. In the past, the House of Lords had more power. Before the 20th century, the prime minister was often a member of the House of Lords. As the House of Lords lost its powers, as political reforms tried to improve democracy, the House of Commons became more powerful and the prime minister started always to be a member of the House of Commons.
After the English Civil War during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, Oliver Cromwell became Lord Protector, and the monarchy ended for a time. The British Isles were a republic, which Cromwell named the "Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland". Although the monarchy was restored after his death, the Crown slowly became the secondary power, and Parliament the first. Until the early twentieth century, only men who owned property could vote to choose MPs. In the nineteenth century, more people were given suffrage. In 1928, all men and women got the vote: this is called universal suffrage.
Almost all members of Parliament belong to political parties. The biggest parties are the Conservative Party, Labour Party, the Scottish National Party and the Liberal Democrats. Members of the same party agree to work together. A party with more than half the seats (a majority) forms the government. The leader of the party becomes the prime minister, who then chooses the other ministers. Because the government has a majority in Parliament, it can normally control what laws are passed.
The British parliament is in Westminster, in London, but it has power over the whole of the United Kingdom. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland each have their own parliaments as well, and these have more limited powers. (England does not have a separate parliament.) Scotland has the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood in Edinburgh. Wales has the Welsh Parliament in Cardiff. Northern Ireland has the Northern Ireland Assembly at Stormont in Belfast. There are also parliaments in the Isle of Man and in Jersey and Guernsey (the Channel Islands), which are all island states for which the UK has some responsibility in international law. Man, Jersey, and Guernsey are "crown dependencies". Some British Overseas Territories have their own legislatures.
Military
The United Kingdom has one of the most advanced militaries in the world, alongside such countries such as the USA and France, and operates a large navy (Royal Navy), a sizable army, (British Army) and an air force (Royal Air Force).
From the 18th century to the early 20th century, the United Kingdom was one of the most powerful nations in the world, with a large and powerful navy (due to the fact it was surrounded by sea, so a large navy was the most practical option). This status has faded in recent times, but it remains a member of various military groups such as the UN Security Council and NATO. It is also still seen as a great military power.
Economy
The United Kingdom is a developed country with the sixth-largest economy in the world. It was a superpower during the 18th, 19th and early 20th century and was considered since the early 1800s to be the most powerful and influential nation in the world, in politics, economics (For it was the wealthiest country at the time.) and in military strength.
Britain continued to be the biggest manufacturing economy in the world until 1908 and the largest economy until the 1920s. The economic cost of two world wars and the decline of the British Empire in the 1950s and 1960s reduced its leading role in global affairs. The United Kingdom has strong economic, cultural, military and political influence and is a nuclear power. The United Kingdom holds a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council, and is a member of the G8, NATO, World Trade Organization and the Commonwealth of Nations. The City of London, in the capital, is famous for being the largest centre of finance in the world.
Literature
William Shakespeare was an English playwright. He wrote plays in the late 16th century. Some of his plays were Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth. In the 19th century, Jane Austen and Charles Dickens were novelists. Twentieth-century writers include the science-fiction novelist H. G. Wells and J. R. R. Tolkien. The children's fantasy Harry Potter series was written by J. K. Rowling. Aldous Huxley was also from the United Kingdom.
English language literature is written by authors from many countries. Eight people from the United Kingdom have won the Nobel Prize in Literature. Seamus Heaney is a writer who was born in Northern Ireland.
Arthur Conan Doyle from Scotland wrote the Sherlock Holmes detective novels. He was from Edinburgh. The poet Dylan Thomas brought Welsh culture to international attention.
Education
The nature of education is a devolved matter in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. They, and England, have separate, but similar, systems of education. They all have laws that a broad education is required from ages five to eighteen, except for in Scotland where school departure is allowed from the age of sixteen. Pupils attend state funded schools (academy schools, faith schools, grammar schools, city technology colleges, studio schools) and other children attend independent schools (known as public schools).
There have been universities in Britain since the Middle Ages. The "ancient universities" started in this time and in the Renaissance. They are: the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge, the University of St Andrews, the University of Glasgow, the University of Aberdeen, and the University of Edinburgh. These are the oldest universities in the English-speaking world.
The University of Cambridge, the University of Oxford, and London universities (University College London, the London School of Economics, King's College London and Imperial College London) collectively form the Golden Triangle of universities in the south-east of England. A broader group of twenty universities from the Russell Group of research universities.
Media
The BBC is an organisation in the United Kingdom. It broadcasts in the United Kingdom and other countries on television, radio and the Internet. The BBC also sells its programs to other broadcasting companies around the world. The organisation is run by a group of twelve governors who have been given the job by the Queen, on the advice of government ministers.
Transport
Road traffic in the United Kingdom drives on the left-hand side of the road (unlike the Americas and most of Europe), and the driver steers from the right-hand side of the vehicle. The road network on the island of Great Britain is extensive, with most local and rural roads having evolved from Roman and Medieval times. Major routes developed in the mid 20th Century were made to the needs of the motor car. The high speed motorway (freeway) network was mostly constructed in the 1960s and 1970s and links together major towns and cities.
The system of rail transport was invented in England and Wales, so the United Kingdom has the oldest railway network in the world. It was built mostly during the Victorian era. At the heart of the network are five long-distance main lines which radiate from London to the major cities and secondary population centres with dense commuter networks within the regions. The newest part of the network connects London to the Channel Tunnel from St Pancras station. The British Rail network is partly privatized, with privately-owned train operating companies providing service along particular lines or regions, whilst the tracks, signals, and stations are owned by a Government controlled company called Network Rail. In Northern Ireland, the NI Railways is the national railway. The system of underground railways in London, known as the Tube, has been copied by many other cities.
Most domestic air travel in the United Kingdom is between London and the major cities in Scotland and the North of England and Belfast. London-Heathrow is the nation’s largest airport and is one of the most important international hubs in the world. Other major airports with principal international service include London-Gatwick, Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow. An extensive system of ferry networks operates.
Languages
Major languages spoken in the United Kingdom other than English include Polish (500,000 approximate number of speakers in the United Kingdom), Eastern Panjabi or Punjabi (471,000), Bengali (400,000), Urdu (400,000), Cantonese (300,000), Greek (200,000), Southwestern Caribbean Creole English (170,000).
Native languages include:
Celtic languages
Brittonic or Bythonic languages
Welsh
Cornish
Goidelic or Gaelic languages
Irish Gaelic
Scottish Gaelic
Manx language
Germanic languages
English
Scots
Ulster Scots
Notes
References
Commonwealth realms
Current monarchies
English-speaking countries
G8 nations
G7 nations |
858 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universe | Universe | The Universe is all of time and space and its contents. It is made of many millions of billions of stars and planets and enormous clouds of gas separated by a big space.
Astronomers can use telescopes to look at very distant galaxies. This is how they see what the Universe looked like a long time ago. This is because the light from distant parts of the Universe takes a very long time to reach us. From these observations, it seems the physical laws and constants of the Universe have not changed.
Physicists are currently unsure if anything existed before the Big Bang. They are also unsure whether the size of the Universe is infinite, meaning it’s size never ends as it has been expanding since the Big Bang.
History
People have long had ideas to explain the Universe. Most early models had the Earth at the centre of the Universe. This is known as geocentrism. Some ancient Greeks thought that the Universe has infinite space and has existed forever. They thought it had a set of celestial spheres which corresponded to the fixed stars, the Sun and various planets. The spheres circled about a round but unmoving Earth.
Over hundreds of years, better observations led to Copernicus's Sun-centred model, known as heliocentrism. This was very controversial at the time, and was fought by religious authorities, most famously by the Christian church (see Giordano Bruno and Galileo).
The invention of the telescope in the Netherlands, 1608, was a very important moment in astronomy. By the middle of the 1800s, telescopes were good enough for other galaxies to be seen. The modern optical (uses visible light) telescope is still more advanced. Meanwhile, Isaac Newton improved the ideas of gravity and dynamics (equations) and showed how the Solar System worked.
In the 1900s, even better telescopes led astronomers to realize that the Solar System is in a galaxy made of billions of stars, which we call the Milky Way. They also realized that other galaxies exist outside it, as far as we can see. This started a new kind of astronomy called cosmology, in which astronomers study what these galaxies are made of and how they are spread out through so they can learn more about the history of the Universe and how it works. By measuring the redshift of galaxies, cosmologists soon discovered that the Universe is expanding (see: Hubble).
Big Bang
The most used scientific model of the Universe is known as the Big Bang theory, which says the Universe expanded from a single point that held all the matter and energy of the Universe. There are many kinds of scientific evidence that support the Big Bang idea. Astronomers think that the Big Bang happened about 13.73 billion years ago, making the Universe 13.73 billion years old. Since then, the universe has expanded to be at least 93 billion light years, or 8.80 metres, in diameter. It is still expanding right now, and the expansion is getting faster.
However, astronomers are still not sure what is causing the universe to expand. Because of this, astronomers call the mysterious energy causing the expansion dark energy. By studying the expansion of the Universe, astronomers have also realized most of the matter in the Universe may be in a form which cannot be observed by any scientific equipment we have. This matter has been named dark matter. Just to be clear, dark matter and energy have not been observed directly (that is why they are called 'dark'). However, many astronomers think they must exist, because many astronomical observations would be hard to explain if they didn't.
Some parts of the universe are expanding even faster than the speed of light. This means the light will never be able to reach us here on Earth, so we will never be able to see these parts of the universe. We call the part of the universe we can see the observable universe.
Myths
The word Universe comes from the Old French word Univers, which comes from the Latin word universum. The Latin word was used by Cicero and later Latin authors in many of the same senses as the modern English word is used.
A different interpretation (way to interpret) of unvorsum is "everything rotated as one" or "everything rotated by one". This refers to an early Greek model of the Universe. In that model, all matter was in rotating spheres centered on the Earth; according to Aristotle, the rotation of the outermost sphere was responsible for the motion and change of everything within. It was natural for the Greeks to assume that the Earth was stationary and that the heavens rotated about the Earth, because careful astronomical and physical measurements (such as the Foucault pendulum) are required to prove otherwise.
The most common term for "Universe" among the ancient Greek philosophers from Pythagoras onwards was το παν (The All), defined as all matter (το ολον) and all space (το κενον).
Broadest meaning
The broadest word meaning of the Universe is found in De divisione naturae by the medieval philosopher Johannes Scotus Eriugena, who defined it as simply everything: everything that exists and everything that does not exist.
Time is not considered in Eriugena's definition; thus, his definition includes everything that exists, has existed and will exist, as well as everything that does not exist, has never existed and will never exist. This all-embracing definition was not adopted by most later philosophers, but something similar is in quantum physics.
Definition as reality
Usually the Universe is thought to be everything that exists, has existed, and will exist. This definition says that the Universe is made of two elements: space and time, together known as space-time or the vacuum; and matter and different forms of energy and momentum occupying space-time. The two kinds of elements behave according to physical laws, in which we describe how the elements interact.
A similar definition of the term universe is everything that exists at a single moment of time, such as the present or the beginning of time, as in the sentence "The Universe was of size 0".
In Aristotle's book The Physics, Aristotle divided το παν (everything) into three roughly analogous elements: matter (the stuff of which the Universe is made), form (the arrangement of that matter in space) and change (how matter is created, destroyed or altered in its properties, and similarly, how form is altered). Physical laws were the rules governing the properties of matter, form and their changes. Later philosophers such as Lucretius, Averroes, Avicenna and Baruch Spinoza altered or refined these divisions. For example, Averroes and Spinoza have active principles governing the Universe which act on passive elements.
Space-time definitions
It is possible to form space-times, each existing but not able to touch, move, or change (interact with each other. An easy way to think of this is a group of separate soap bubbles, in which people living on one soap bubble cannot interact with those on other soap bubbles. According to one common terminology, each "soap bubble" of space-time is denoted as a universe, whereas our particular space-time is denoted as the Universe, just as we call our moon the Moon. The entire collection of these separate space-times is denoted as the multiverse. In principle, the other unconnected universes may have different dimensionalities and topologies of space-time, different forms of matter and energy, and different physical laws and physical constants, although such possibilities are speculations.
Observable reality
According to a still-more-restrictive definition, the Universe is everything within our connected space-time that could have a chance to interact with us and vice versa.
According to the general idea of relativity, some regions of space may never interact with ours even in the lifetime of the Universe, due to the finite speed of light and the ongoing expansion of space. For example, radio messages sent from Earth may never reach some regions of space, even if the Universe would exist forever; space may expand faster than light can traverse it.
It is worth emphasizing that those distant regions of space are taken to exist and be part of reality as much as we are; yet we can never interact with them, even in principle. The spatial region within which we can affect and be affected is denoted as the observable universe.
Strictly speaking, the observable Universe depends on the location of the observer. By travelling, an observer can come into contact with a greater region of space-time than an observer who remains still, so that the observable Universe for the former is larger than for the latter. Nevertheless, even the most rapid traveler may not be able to interact with all of space. Typically, the 'observable Universe' means the Universe seen from our vantage point in the Milky Way Galaxy.
Basic data on the Universe
The Universe is huge and possibly infinite in volume. The matter which can be seen is spread over a space at least 93 billion light years across. For comparison, the diameter of a typical galaxy is only 30,000 light-years, and the typical distance between two neighboring galaxies is only 3 million light-years. As an example, our Milky Way Galaxy is roughly 100,000 light years in diameter, and our nearest sister galaxy, the Andromeda Galaxy, is located roughly 2.5 million light years away. The observable Universe contains more than 2 trillion (1012) galaxies and, overall, as many as an estimated stars (more stars than all the grains of sand on planet Earth).
Typical galaxies range from dwarf galaxies with as few as ten million (107) stars up to giants with one trillion (1012) stars, all orbiting the galaxy's center of mass. Thus, a very rough estimate from these numbers would suggest there are around one sextillion (1021) stars in the observable Universe; though a 2003 study by Australian National University astronomers resulted in a figure of 70 sextillion (7 x 1022).
The matter that can be seen is spread throughout the Universe when averaged over distances longer than 300 million light-years. However, on smaller length-scales, matter is observed to form 'clumps', many atoms are condensed into stars, most stars into galaxies, most galaxies into galaxy groups and clusters and, lastly, the largest-scale structures such as the Great Wall of galaxies.
The present overall density of the Universe is very low, roughly 9.9 × 10−30 grams per cubic centimetre. This mass-energy appears to consist of 73% dark energy, 23% cold dark matter and 4% ordinary matter. The density of atoms is about a single hydrogen atom for every four cubic meters of volume. The properties of dark energy and dark matter are not known. Dark matter slows the expansion of the Universe. Dark energy makes its expansion faster.
The Universe is old, and changing. The best good guess of the Universe's age is 13.798±0.037 billion years old, based on what was seen of the cosmic microwave background radiation. Independent estimates (based on measurements such as radioactive dating) agree, although they are less precise, ranging from 11–20 billion years.
to 13–15 billion years.
The Universe has not been the same at all times in its history. This getting bigger accounts for how Earth-bound people can see the light from a galaxy 30 billion light-years away, even if that light has traveled for only 13 billion years; the very space between them has expanded. This expansion is consistent with the observation that the light from distant galaxies has been redshifted; the photons emitted have been stretched to longer wavelengths and lower frequency during their journey. The rate of this spatial expansion is accelerating, based on studies of Type Ia supernovae and other data.
The relative amounts of different chemical elements — especially the lightest atoms such as hydrogen, deuterium and helium — seem to be identical in all of the Universe and throughout all of the history of it that we know of. The Universe seems to have much more matter than antimatter. The Universe appears to have no net electric charge. Gravity is the dominant interaction at cosmological distances. The Universe also seems to have no net momentum or angular momentum. The absence of net charge and momentum is expected if the Universe is finite.
The Universe appears to have a smooth space-time continuum made of three spatial dimensions and one temporal (time) dimension. On the average, space is very nearly flat (close to zero curvature), meaning that Euclidean geometry is experimentally true with high accuracy throughout most of the Universe. However, the Universe may have more dimensions, and its spacetime may have a multiply connected global topology.
The Universe has the same physical laws and physical constants throughout. According to the prevailing Standard Model of physics, all matter is composed of three generations of leptons and quarks, both of which are fermions. These elementary particles interact via at most three fundamental interactions: the electroweak interaction which includes electromagnetism and the weak nuclear force; the strong nuclear force described by quantum chromodynamics; and gravity, which is best described at present by general relativity.
Special relativity holds in all the Universe in local space and time. Otherwise, general relativity holds. There is no explanation for the particular values that physical constants appear to have throughout our Universe, such as Planck's constant h or the gravitational constant G. Several conservation laws have been identified, such as the conservation of charge, conservation of momentum, conservation of angular momentum and conservation of energy.
Theoretical models
General theory of relativity
Accurate predictions of the Universe's past and future require an accurate theory of gravitation. The best theory available is Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity, which has passed all experimental tests so far. However, since rigorous experiments have not been carried out on cosmological length scales, general relativity could conceivably be inaccurate. Nevertheless, its predictions appear to be consistent with observations, so there is no reason to adopt another theory.
General relativity provides of a set of ten nonlinear partial differential equations for the spacetime metric (Einstein's field equations) that must be solved from the distribution of mass-energy and momentum throughout the Universe. Since these are unknown in exact detail, cosmological models have been based on the cosmological principle, which states that the Universe is homogeneous and isotropic. In effect, this principle asserts that the gravitational effects of the various galaxies making up the Universe are equivalent to those of a fine dust distributed uniformly throughout the Universe with the same average density. The assumption of a uniform dust makes it easy to solve Einstein's field equations and predict the past and future of the Universe on cosmological time scales.
Einstein's field equations include a cosmological constant (Lamda: Λ), that is related to an energy density of empty space. Depending on its sign, the cosmological constant can either slow (negative Λ) or accelerate (positive Λ) the expansion of the Universe. Although many scientists, including Einstein, had speculated that Λ was zero, recent astronomical observations of type Ia supernovae have detected a large amount of dark energy that is accelerating the Universe's expansion. Preliminary studies suggest that this dark energy is related to a positive Λ, although alternative theories cannot be ruled out as yet.
Big Bang model
The prevailing Big Bang model accounts for many of the experimental observations described above, such as the correlation of distance and redshift of galaxies, the universal ratio of hydrogen:helium atoms, and the ubiquitous, isotropic microwave radiation background. As noted above, the redshift arises from the metric expansion of space; as the space itself expands, the wavelength of a photon traveling through space likewise increases, decreasing its energy. The longer a photon has been traveling, the more expansion it has undergone; hence, older photons from more distant galaxies are the most red-shifted. Determining the correlation between distance and redshift is an important problem in experimental physical cosmology.
Other experimental observations can be explained by combining the overall expansion of space with nuclear physics and atomic physics. As the Universe expands, the energy density of the electromagnetic radiation decreases more quickly than does that of matter, since the energy of a photon decreases with its wavelength. Thus, although the energy density of the Universe is now dominated by matter, it was once dominated by radiation; poetically speaking, all was light. As the Universe expanded, its energy density decreased and it became cooler; as it did so, the elementary particles of matter could associate stably into ever larger combinations. Thus, in the early part of the matter-dominated era, stable protons and neutrons formed, which then associated into atomic nuclei. At this stage, the matter in the Universe was mainly a hot, dense plasma of negative electrons, neutral neutrinos and positive nuclei. Nuclear reactions among the nuclei led to the present abundances of the lighter nuclei, particularly hydrogen, deuterium, and helium. Eventually, the electrons and nuclei combined to form stable atoms, which are transparent to most wavelengths of radiation; at this point, the radiation decoupled from the matter, forming the ubiquitous, isotropic background of microwave radiation observed today.
Other observations are not clearly answered by known physics. According to the prevailing theory, a slight imbalance of matter over antimatter was present in the Universe's creation, or developed very shortly thereafter. Although the matter and antimatter mostly annihilated one another, producing photons, a small residue of matter survived, giving the present matter-dominated Universe.
Several lines of evidence also suggest that a rapid cosmic inflation of the Universe occurred very early in its history (roughly 10−35 seconds after its creation). Recent observations also suggest that the cosmological constant (Λ) is not zero, and that the net mass-energy content of the Universe is dominated by a dark energy and dark matter that have not been characterized scientifically. They differ in their gravitational effects. Dark matter gravitates as ordinary matter does, and thus slows the expansion of the Universe; by contrast, dark energy serves to accelerate the Universe's expansion.
Multiverse hypothesis
Some people think that there is more than one universe. They think that there is a set of universes called the multiverse. By definition, there is no way for anything in one universe to affect something in another.
The multiverse is not yet a scientific idea because there is no way to test it. An idea that cannot be tested or is not based on logic is not science. So it is not known if the multiverse is a scientific idea.
Future
The future of the Universe is a mystery. However, there has a couple of theories based on the possible shapes of the Universe:
If the Universe is a closed sphere, it will stop expanding. The Universe will do the opposite of that and become a singularity for another Big Bang. This is the Big Crunch or Big Bounce theory.
If the Universe is an opened sphere, it will speed up the expansion. After 22,000,000,000 (22 billion) years, the Universe will rip apart with the force. This is the Big Rip theory.
If the Universe is flat, it will expand forever. All stars will lose their energy for that and become a dwarf star.
After a googol years, the black holes will also be gone. This is the Heat Death or Big Freeze theory.
A chance "Boltzmann's brain" may appear, and random quantum fluctuations and quantum tunnelling could generate a new Big Bang after an incredible amount of time. Over an infinite time there could also be an entropy decrease by Poincaré recurrence theorem or by thermal fluctuations.
Further reading
Edward Robert Harrison 2000. Cosmology 2nd ed. Cambridge University Press.
The classic text for a generation.
For lay readers.
-------- 2008. Cosmology. Oxford University Press. Challenging.
Related pages
Anthropic principle
Big Bang
Cosmology
Multiverse
Omniverse
Reality
Antiverse
References
Other websites
Age of the Universe at Space.Com
Stephen Hawking's Universe – Why is the universe the way it is?
Cosmology FAQ
Cosmos – An "illustrated dimensional journey from microcosmos to macrocosmos"
Illustration comparing the sizes of the planets, the sun, and other stars
Logarithmic Maps of the Universe
My So-Called Universe – Arguments for and against an infinite and parallel universes
Parallel Universes by Max Tegmark
The Dark Side and the Bright Side of the Universe Princeton University, Shirley Ho
Richard Powell: An Atlas of the Universe – Images at various scales, with explanations
Multiple Big Bangs
Universe – Space Information Centre
Exploring the Universe at Nasa.gov
Videos
The Known Universe created by the American Museum of Natural History
Reality |
872 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit%20of%20measurement | Unit of measurement | Units of measurement give standards so that the numbers from our measurements refer to the same thing. Measurement is a process that uses numbers to describe a physical quantity. We can measure how big things are, how warm they are, how heavy they are, and many other features.
For example, the metre is a standard unit to measure length. Before 1982, one meter was defined as the distance between two markers on a special metal rod. During that time, saying that something had a length of two meters meant that it was exactly twice as long as the rod used to define the meter. Now scientists define the meter by using the speed of light.
In the past, different units were used in different countries. Today, most units of measure fall into one of three systems:
The older two, the British imperial system and the closely related US customary system use the foot as a measure of length, the pound as a measure for weight, and the second as a measure for time. They use other units as well. The number of smaller units that make the bigger units in these two systems varies: For example, there are 12 inches in a foot and 16 ounces in a pound.
The newest and most used of the three systems is the metric system or SI system which use 10, 100 or 1000 of a smaller unit to make a bigger one. For instance, there are 100 centimetres in one metre or 1000 grams in one kilogram. This system uses the metre for length and kilogram for mass.
The common, non-metric measurement of time does not follow this pattern. The second is the basis for time measurement, and it is based on the sexagesimal system: 60 seconds make one minute, and 60 minutes make one hour.
Number and unit of measurement
The property of the thing being measured is given as a number of units of measure. The number only has sense when the unit of measurement is also given. By that number it represents a measurement of something.
For example, The Eiffel Tower in Paris, France is tall. That is, the distance from the top to the bottom of the Eiffel Tower is 300 metres. The property of the Eiffel Tower being measured is a distance. The number measured is 300. 300 of what? The unit of measurement is the metre.
Measurement standards
Standards are usually special objects used to make measurements. A metre stick is an example of a standard. When you measure something with a metre stick, you can compare that measurement to anything else that is also measured with a metre stick. This makes measurement easier and comparisons between measurements easier.
Science, medicine and engineering use smaller units of measurement to measure small things with less error. It is easy to measure large things using larger units of measurement. Astronomical measurements like the width of a galaxy use light years and parsecs.
Small measurements like the mass of an atom use special units of measurement.
Systems of units of measurement
There are many different standards and units used all over the world. Some became less used during the 19th and 20th centuries.
Metric System
The metric system is a system of measurement used in most of the world. It is also called the International System of Units, or SI.
Units of measure in the metric system include:
The units of length or linear size are based on the metre. They include the kilometre (km) which is 1,000 metres, the centimetre (cm), and the millimetre (mm) which is 1/1,000th of a metre.
The unit of volume is the litre. It is used for measuring an amount of liquid. A millilitre (abbreviated as mL) is the amount of liquid that would fill up a cube that measures 1 centimetre on each side. One litre of liquid would fill up a cube that is 10 cm on each side.
The unit of mass is the kilogram. A kilogram (kg) is the mass of 1 litre of water (at temperature and pressure). 1 gram (g) is the mass of 1 millilitre of water at . The metric tonne is 1,000 kilograms or a million grams.
Imperial units
Imperial units were defined in the United Kingdom in 1824. These units were based on similar units that were in use before 1824. Imperial units were used in countries that were part of the British Empire. While many of these countries, including the United Kingdom, have officially adopted SI, the older system of units are still used.
US customary units
US customary units are the official units used in the US. These are similar to the British imperial units and also based on the units used in the United Kingdom from before American Independence. Some of the units are different to the British ones. For example, there are 20 imperial fluid ounces in an imperial pint, but 16 US fluid ounces in a US pint. Additionally, the US fluid ounce is slightly bigger than the imperial fluid ounce. The result is that US pints and gallons are smaller than imperial pints and gallons. In the United States, the metric system has been legal for trade since 1866 but other measurements such as the gallon, inch, and the pound are still widely used.
Imperial and US units of measurement include:
Length - inch (in), foot (ft), yard (yd), and mile.
1 foot = 12 inches
1 yard = 3 feet (plural of foot) = 36 inches
1 mile = 1760 yards = 5280 feet
Imperial volume - imperial fluid ounce (fl oz), imperial pint (pt), and imperial gallon (gal).
1 imperial pint = 20 imperial fluid ounces
1 imperial gallon = 8 imperial pints
US volume - US fluid ounce (fl oz), US cup (cp), US pint (pt), US quart (qt), and US gallon (gal).
1 US cup = 8 US fluid ounces
1 US pint = 2 US cups = 16 US fluid ounces
1 US quart = 2 US pints = 4 US cups = 32 US fluid ounces
1 US gallon = 4 US quarts = 8 US pints = 16 US cups
Weight and mass - ounce (oz), pound (lb), and stone (st).
1 pound = 16 ounces
1 stone = 14 pounds
The ounces for weight and volume are different. Even when measuring water, the number of ounces of weight is not the same as the number of fluid ounces.
Converting between systems
Metric to US
1 metre = 1.09 yards = 39.37 inches.
1 litre = 33.3 fluid ounces = 1.76 pints = .26 US gallons.
1 kilogram = 35.32 ounces = 2.2 pounds
US to metric
Length
1 inch = 2.54 centimetres
1 foot = 30.48 centimetres
1 yard = 0.9144 metres
1 mile = 1.609344 kilometres
Volume
1 fluid ounce = 29.6 millilitres
1 pint = 473.1 millilitres
1 gallon = 3.79 litres
1 cup = 236.55 millilitres
Mass
1 ounce = 28.35 grams
1 pound = 0.45359237 kilograms
Other units of measurement
The unit of time is the second. The minute (60 seconds) and hour (60 minutes or 3600 seconds) are larger units. A day is defined as 24 hours, but the Earth’s rotation has slowed. The difference is corrected at the end of some years with what is called a leap second. A week (7 days) and month are also standard units.
A unit of measurement that applies to money is called a unit of account. This is normally a currency issued by a country. For instance, the United States use dollars. Each dollar is 100 cents. The United Kingdom uses pounds. Each pound is 100 pennies or pence. The European Union uses the Euro. There are 100 cents in the Euro.
The units for electricity, magnetism and radiation were mostly invented in the 19th century when scientists learned how to measure them. Most were originally given imperial systems, but it is usual to use metric systems for them today.
References
ar:قياسات
tr:Ölçüm |
876 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/United%20States%20customary%20units | United States customary units | U.S. customary units is the system of units of measurement used to measure things in the United States and U.S. territories. The system of Imperial units is similar and in some parts identical.
Length or distance units include the inch, foot, yard and mile.
Land units include square miles (2589998.47032 square meter) and acres (4046.8726 square meter).
Common volume units are the teaspoon, tablespoon (3 teaspoons), fluid ounce (two tablespoons), cup (8 ounces), pint (2 cups, or 16 fluid ounces), quart (2 pints, or 32 fluid ounces), US gallon (16 cups, 128 fluid ounces, or 3.8 liters).
A barrel is the unit to measure oil.
Temperature is measured in degrees Fahrenheit (°F). Here is a formula to convert from °C to °F:
Units of weight and mass include the pound (453.6 grams), which contains 16 ounces. This should not be confused with the British pound which is a type of money. The different uses of the word pound can cause confusion. Different sizes of ounce are also in use.
Some people have been trying to replace these units with the metric system since the 1820s. Much infrastructure in the United States and British Empire was built in past centuries using the old measures. During the 20th century some sectors such as science, medicine and the military of the United States converted to metric but Americans still use the old units for daily purposes. On the other hand, world trade is conducted using the metric system and except for the US, the world uses the metric system for almost all purposes.
Length
Area
Volume
Mass and weight
Related pages
Units of measurement
Notes
Measurement |
882 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranus | Uranus | Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun in the Solar System. It is an ice giant as Neptune. It is the third largest planet in the solar system.
The planet is made of ice, gases and liquid metal. Its atmosphere contains hydrogen (1H), helium (2He) and methane. The temperature on Uranus is near the top of its atmosphere, but its small solid core (about 55% the mass of Earth) is probably about .
The planet is tilted on its axis so much that it is sideways. It has five big moons, many small ones, and a small system of 13 planetary rings.
The distance between Uranus and the Sun is about 2.8 billion km. Uranus completes its orbit around the Sun in 84 earth years. It completes a spin around itself in 17 hours and 14 minutes. This means there are about 43,000 Uranian days in one Uranian year.
Uranus was discovered in 1781. This planet can be seen with the naked eye under perfect conditions. John Flamsteed saw it decades earlier but mistook it for a star (34 Tauri).
Uranus is named after Uranus, the Greek name of the Sumerian god Anu, who was a god of the sky.
History
Discovery
Uranus has been observed many times through a telescope, and even through the naked eye, but was mistaken for a star due to its slow orbit. Sir William Herschel observed Uranus on 13 March 1781 from the garden of his house at 19 New King Street in Bath, Somerset, England (now the Herschel Museum of Astronomy), and first reported it (on 26 April 1781) as a comet. With a homemade 6.2-inch reflecting telescope, Herschel "engaged in a series of observations on the parallax of the fixed stars."
Herschel wrote in his journal: "In the quartile near ζ Tauri ... either [a] Nebulous star or perhaps a comet." On 17 March he noted: "I looked for the Comet or Nebulous Star and found that it is a Comet, for it has changed its place." When he presented his discovery to the Royal Society, he continued to assert that he had found a comet, but also implicitly compared it to a planet:
Herschel notified the Astronomer Royal Nevil Maskelyne of his discovery and received this reply from him on 23 April 1781: "I don't know what to call it. It is as likely to be a regular planet moving in an orbit nearly circular to the sun as a Comet moving in a very eccentric ellipsis. I have not yet seen any coma or tail to it."
Although Herschel continued to describe his new object as a comet, other astronomers had already begun to think otherwise. Finnish-Swedish astronomer Anders Johan Lexell, working in Russia, was the first to calculate the orbit of the new object. Its nearly circular orbit led him to a conclusion that it was a planet rather than a comet. Berlin astronomer Johann Elert Bode described Herschel's discovery as "a moving star that can be deemed a hitherto unknown planet-like object circulating beyond the orbit of Saturn". Bode concluded that its near-circular orbit was more like a planet's than a comet's.
The object was soon universally accepted as a new planet. By 1783, Herschel acknowledged this to Royal Society president Joseph Banks: "By the observation of the most eminent Astronomers in Europe it appears that the new star, which I had the honour of pointing out to them in March 1781, is a Primary Planet of our Solar System." In recognition of his achievement, King George III gave Herschel an annual stipend of £200 on condition that he move to Windsor so that the Royal Family could look through his telescopes ().
Moons
Uranus has 27 known moons. They are named for characters from the works of Shakespeare and Alexander Pope. The five biggest moons are Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania and Oberon. Many moons have yet to be discovered.
Exploring
In 1986, NASA's Voyager 2 visited Uranus. This is the only space probe that tried to investigate the planet from a short distance. The spacecraft studied the atmosphere of the planet.
Clouds
Uranus is covered in blue clouds. The top clouds, made of methane, are difficult to see. Lower clouds are thought to be frozen water. There are also violent storms. Wind speeds can reach . Scientists are studying the clouds to try to understand the storms on the planet.
Rings
The planet Uranus has a system made of 13 rings which is far fewer than the rings of Saturn but more than those around Jupiter and Neptune. The rings of Uranus were discovered in 1977. More than 200 years ago, William Herschel also reported observing rings, but modern astronomers do not believe that he saw them, because they are very dark and faint. Two additional rings were discovered in 1986 in images taken by Voyager 2, and two outer rings were found in 2003–2005 by the Hubble Space Telescope. The rings are probably mainly composed of frozen water.
The rings of Uranus are thought to be relatively young, not more than 600 million years old. The Uranian ring system probably began from the collisional fragmentation of moons that once existed around the planet. After colliding, the moons probably broke up into many particles, which survived as narrow, optically dense rings only in zones of maximum stability.
General properties
The ring system of Uranus has thirteen distinct rings. In order of increasing distance from the planet they are: 1986U2R/ζ, 6, 5, 4, α, β, η, γ, δ, λ, ε, ν, μ rings. They can be divided into three groups: nine narrow main rings (6, 5, 4, α, β, η, γ, δ, ε), two dusty rings (1986U2R/ζ, λ) and two outer rings (μ, ν). The rings of Uranus consist mainly of macroscopic particles and little dust, although dust is known to be present in 1986U2R/ζ, η, δ, λ, ν and μ rings.
In addition to these well-known rings, there may be numerous optically thin dust bands and faint rings between them. These faint rings and dust bands may exist only temporarily. Some of them became visible during a series of ring plane-crossing events in 2007. A number of dust bands between the rings were observed in forward-scattering geometry by Voyager 2. All rings of Uranus show azimuthal brightness variations.
The rings are made of an extremely dark material. The rings are slightly red in the ultraviolet and visible parts of the spectrum and grey in near-infrared. They show no identifiable spectral features. The chemical composition of the ring particles is not known. However, they cannot be made of pure water ice like the rings of Saturn because they are too dark, darker than the inner moons of Uranus. This shows that they are probably a mixture of the ice and a dark material. The nature of this material is not clear, but it may be organic compounds considerably darkened by the charged particle irradiation from the Uranian magnetosphere. The rings' particles may consist of a heavily processed material which was initially similar to that of the inner moons.
As a whole, the ring system of Uranus is unlike either the faint dusty rings of Jupiter or the broad and complex rings of Saturn, some of which are composed of very bright material—water ice. However, there are similarities with some parts of the latter ring system; the Saturnian F ring and the ε ring are both narrow, relatively dark and are shepherded by a pair of moons. The newly discovered outer rings of Uranus are similar to the outer G and E rings of Saturn. Narrow ringlets existing in the broad Saturnian rings also resemble the narrow rings of Uranus. In addition, dust bands observed between the main rings of Uranus may be similar to the rings of Jupiter. In contrast, the Neptunian ring system is quite similar to that of Uranus, although it is less complex, darker and contains more dust. The Neptunian rings are also positioned further from the planet.
Orbit and rotation
Uranus revolves around the Sun once every 84 Earth years. Its average distance from the Sun is roughly 3 billion km (about 20 AU). The intensity of sunlight on Uranus is about 1/400 that on Earth. Its orbital elements were first calculated in 1783 by Pierre-Simon Laplace. With time, discrepancies began to appear between the predicted and observed orbits, and in 1841, John Couch Adams first proposed that the differences might be due to the gravitational tug of an unseen planet. In 1845, Urbain Le Verrier began his own independent research into Uranus's orbit. On September 23, 1846, Johann Gottfried Galle found a new planet, later called Neptune, at nearly the position predicted by Le Verrier.
The rotational period of the interior of Uranus is 17 hours, 14 minutes, clockwise (retrograde). As on all giant planets, its upper atmosphere experiences very strong winds in the direction of rotation. At some latitudes, such as about two-thirds of the way from the equator to the south pole, visible features of the atmosphere move much faster, making a full rotation in as little as 14 hours.
Related pages
List of planets
References
Notes
Other websites
NASA's Uranus fact sheet
Uranus Profile by NASA's Solar System Exploration
Keck pictures of Uranus show best view from the ground — Press release with some photographs showing rings, satellites and clouds
News reports of December 22, 2005 rings and moons discovery
New Moons and Rings found at Uranus, SPACE.com
Two more rings discovered around Uranus , MSNBC
Planets—Uranus A kid's guide to Uranus.
Uranus (planet) -Citizendium |
884 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/University | University | A university is a higher learning institution. The word university comes from the Latin universitas magistrorum et scholarium, roughly meaning "community of teachers and scholars". Students can go to university to get an academic degree. Unlike the schooling they have done before, the courses at university are specialised. A person studying biology at university has many courses about biology and fewer courses in other fields such as languages or history. To get a higher degree, people must do some research.
Not all subjects are offered at universities. Mainly, universities offer courses which are about knowledge. They usually do not offer courses in practical trades. In some cases such as law, where there are both knowledge and practical issues, the university does mainly the theoretical side of the subject. Practical qualifications are done elsewhere.
History
The universities were born in Europe during the Middle Ages. The first institution of this type was the University of Bologna, which later became a model for other centres of education.
At first, the universities had formed themselves according to the model of the professional groups and like almost everything in the Middle Ages, they remained tied to the Catholic Church. At the beginning, they had worked to teach the so-called "seven liberal arts" (the trivium and the quadrivium):
Trivium: grammar, logic and rhetoric.
Quadrivium: arithmetic and geometry, astronomy and music.
That earliest division caused the present divisions between literary and scientific fields. From one point of view, the world's oldest university is Qarawiyyin university. However, teaching religion is not the definition used by most people. A university should in theory teach every subject.
The university is generally regarded as a formal institution that has its origin in the Medieval Christian tradition. European higher education took place for hundreds of years in cathedral schools or monastic schools (scholae monasticae). There, monks and nuns taught classes: evidence of these dates back to the 6th century.
The Universities of Paris and Oxford were founded by members of the church. Later universities were founded by kings.
In the early medieval period, most new universities were founded from pre-existing schools, usually when these schools became mainly sites of higher education. Pope Gregory VII promoted the concept of modern university as his 1079 Papal Decree. He ordered the establishment of cathedral schools, which eventually turned into the first European universities.
Organisation
A university can include several campuses or different places where classes are taught by professors. In each campus there are several faculties and university schools (mainly for teaching), and also laboratories, departments and institutes of research. Many campuses also have housing for students in buildings called dormitories and structures like libraries, study rooms and gymnasiums for students that live there. Each school offers many courses that students take to earn a degree. The person with the highest right to control and to command in a university is the rector, who governs the university with the help of the party of vice-rectors and of other organs such as the social council and the governing body.
Notable universities
Australia
The Australian National University
University of Melbourne
Deakin University
University of New South Wales
Canada
Carleton University
McGill University
McMaster University
Queen's University
University of British Columbia
University of New Brunswick
University of Ottawa
University of Toronto
University of Waterloo
University of Western Ontario
Chile
University of Chile (Universidad de Chile)
Catholic University of Chile (Universidad Católica de Chile)
Metropolitan Technologic University (Universidad Tecnológica Metropolitana)
China
Peking University
Tsinghua University
University of Hong Kong
Finland
Åbo Akademi University
Aalto University
University of Helsinki
Germany
Free University of Berlin
Goethe University Frankfurt
University of Tübingen
Italy
University of Bologna
Japan
University of Tokyo
University of Kyoto
Waseda University
University of Osaka
Malaysia
University of Malaya
Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman
Mexico
UNAM, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. The biggest and most important university in Mexico and Latin America
UdG, University of Guadalajara.It is the second oldest university in Mexico, regarded as one of the most significant universities in Mexico.
IPN, Instituto Politécnico Nacional
ITESM, Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey
ITAM, Instituto Tecnoloógico Autónomo de México
Netherlands
Delft University of Technology
Eindhoven University of Technology
Erasmus University Rotterdam
Free University Amsterdam
Leiden University
Maastricht University
Nyenrode Business University
Open University of the Netherlands
Radboud University Nijmegen
Tilburg University
University of Amsterdam
University of Groningen
University of Twente
Utrecht University
Wageningen University & Research
Poland
University of Warsaw
Jagiellonian University
Romania
Naval Academy "Mircea cel Batran" (ANMB)
South Korea
Seoul National University
Yonsei University
Korea University
Sweden
Chalmers University
Karolinska Institute
Lund University
Royal Institute of Technology
Stockholm School of Economics
Uppsala University
Umeå University
Turkey
Galatasaray University (İstanbul)
United Kingdom
University of Aberdeen
Aston University
University of Birmingham
University of Bristol
Queens University, Belfast
University of Cambridge
Coventry University
University of Dundee
Durham University
University of Edinburgh
University of Exeter
University of Glasgow
University of Leeds
University of London
King's College London
University College London
University of Manchester
Open University
University of Oxford
University of St Andrews
University of Wales
United States
There is a group of famous universities called the Ivy League. They are:
Harvard University
Princeton University
Yale University
Brown University
Cornell University
Dartmouth College
Columbia University
University of Pennsylvania
Some other famous universities are:
California Institute of Technology
Duke University
Massachusetts Institute Of Technology
Stanford University
University of Chicago
Georgetown University
University of California, Berkeley
Ohio State University
Illinois State University
Related pages
College
Education
Higher education
Laboratory
Public university
References
Other websites
History of the Universities |
886 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Value | Value | Value is how much something is worth. Often the best way to find the value of something is to use the price that it can be sold for. However Oscar Wilde wrote that 'people know the price of everything but the value of nothing'- in other words true value does not depend on money alone.
In math, a value is a number which is concrete, something everyone can agree upon. However people may disagree on the value of water, depending if you live in a desert or next to a river. Disagreements on the value of things can create fights between nations, political parties, religions, etc.
Basic English 850 words
Economics |
887 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volap%C3%BCk | Volapük | Volapük is a constructed language created in 1880 by Johann Martin Schleyer. Schleyer was a Catholic priest from Germany. He felt that God had told him in a dream to make an international language. Volapük conventions took place in 1884, 1887, and 1889. The aim was to help people from different cultures speak to each other.
Volapük became less popular after 1887 when Esperanto was published. Part of the reason was that Esperanto is easier to learn with a simpler grammar. There are believed to only be 20-30 Volapük speakers in the world today.
The vocabulary of Volapük is mostly English, with some words from German and French.
"Vol" and "pük" come from the English words "world" and "speech". The grammar is based on Indo-European languages.
An example of Volapük is the translation of the Lord's prayer:
References
Other websites
Basic course in Volapük, in English
Basic grammar of Volapük, in Esperanto
Volapop: A site about popular culture written in Volapük
Discussion group on the vocabulary and grammar of Volapük
A complete Italian grammar of Volapük (1888) by V. Amoretti
Una grammatica completa di Volapük in lingua italiana (1888) a cura di V. Amoretti
General Volapük discussion group
Flenef bevünetik Volapüka / International Friendship of The World Language
Constructed languages |
889 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vocabulary | Vocabulary | A vocabulary is a list of words.
The vocabulary a person uses is all the words that person knows and uses. In general, a person who is five knows about 4,000 to 5,000 words. Adults who have gone to college may know 20,000 words. A hearing vocabulary and reading vocabulary are bigger than a speaking vocabulary or writing vocabulary, as people understand some words that they do not use.
The number of words in a language is more than the words listed in one dictionary. One dictionary may have a list of 500,000 (half a million) words. Another dictionary may have some other words that the other dictionary does not have. When you add all the words in those dictionaries, there are about 750,000 words in English. There may be more words than that.
You may think to yourself, "If there are 750,000 words, how can we talk with only 3000 words?" Because, we do not need to know all the words. You can say most things with around 3,000 words.
The most used words are short words. That is true in all languages. The 50 most common words in English have fewer than seven letters. Half of these words have fewer than four letters.
The vocabulary of a language is always changing. New words are made or words change their meaning. Words about computers, like "download" are new to the English language. The new word "bling" came from hip hop. Words like "cool" have developed new meanings.
Related pages
Grammar
References
Other websites
Complicated vocabulary detector
Simplevocab - A multi-word dictionary |
892 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegetable%20oil | Vegetable oil | Vegetable oils are triglyceride oils made from plants. They are used in food and for cooking. In past centuries they were much used as fuel in oil lamps. Some kinds of plant oils that people use are palm oil, maize, olive, peanut, rapeseed, soy, and sunflower.
Margarine is an artificial butter made from vegetable oil.
Related pages
Cooking oil
Cooking oils |
893 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verb | Verb | A verb is a kind of word (part of speech) that tells about an action or a state. It is the main part of a sentence: every sentence has a verb. In English, verbs are the only kind of word that changes to show past or present tense.
Every language in the world has verbs, but they are not always used in the same ways. They also can have different properties in different languages. In some other languages (Chinese & Indonesian, for example) verbs do not change for past and present tense. This means the definition above only works well for English verbs.
There are sixteen verbs used in Basic English. They are: be, do, have, come, go, see, seem, give, take, keep, make, put, send, say, let, get.
The word 'verb'
The word verb originally comes from *were-, a Proto-Indo-European word meaning "a word". It comes to English through the Latin verbum and the Old French verbe.
Verbal phrase
In simple sentences, the verb may be one word: The cat sat on the mat. However, the verb may be a phrase: The cat will sit on the mat.
Verbal phrases can be extremely difficult to analyse: I'm afraid I will need to be going soon. There seem to be three verbal phrases here, which mean something like Sorry, I must go soon.
Verb forms
In English and many other languages, verbs change their form. This is called inflection. Most English verbs have six inflected forms (see the table), but be has eight different forms.
You should notice that some of the verb forms look the same. You can say they have the same shape. For example, the plain present and the plain form of walk have the same shape. The same is true for the past and the past participle. But these different forms can have different shapes in other verbs. For example, the plain present of be is usually are but the plain form is be. Also, the past of eat is ate, but the past participle is eaten. When you look for a verb in the dictionary, it is usually the plain form that you look for.
An English sentence must have at least one primary-form verb. Each main clause can only have one primary-form verb.
Kinds of Verbs
English has two main kinds of verbs: normal verbs (called lexical verbs) and auxiliary verbs. The difference between them is mainly in where they can go in a sentence. Some verbs are in both groups, but there are very few auxiliary verbs in English. There are also two kinds of auxiliary verbs: modal verbs and non-modal verbs. The table below shows most of the English auxiliaries and a small number of other verbs.
There are several auxiliary verbs:
To do (do, does, did)
To be (am, is, are, was, were): Creates a progressive tense
To have (have, has, had): Creates a perfect tense
The following verbs are modal auxiliaries.
Can
Could
May
Might
Must
Should
Auxiliary verbs also inflect for negation. Usually this is done by adding not or n't.
You shouldn't be here.
He isn't at home.
We haven't started yet.
Use of the auxiliary do
Sometimes the verb do is used with other verbs. It does not really change the meaning, but it can be used to make a strong statement.
I do talk (Present)
I did go (Past)
It is also used in the negative when no other auxiliary verbs are used.
I don't talk (Present)
I didn't go (Past)
Sometimes it comes before the subject. This is called inversion and it usually means the sentence is a question.
Do you talk? (Present)
Did you go? (Past)
Many other languages do not use the verb do as an auxiliary verb. They use the simple present for do, and the simple past or perfect for did.
Tense, aspect, and mood
There are three main systems related to the verb: tense, aspect, and mood.
Tense
Tense is mainly used to say when the verb happens: in the past, present, or future. In order to explain and understand tense, it is useful to imagine time as a line on which past tense, present tense and future tense are positioned.
Some languages have all three tenses, some have only two, and some have no tenses at all. English and Japanese for example have only two tenses: past and present. Chinese and Indonesian verbs do not show tense. Instead they use other words in the sentence to show when the verb happens.
Aspect
Aspect usually shows us things like whether the action is finished or not, or if something happens regularly. English has two aspects: progressive and perfect. In English, aspect is usually shown by using participle verb forms. Aspect can combine with present or past tense.
Progressive aspect
English uses the gerund-participle, usually together with the auxiliary be (and its forms am, is, are, was, and were) to show the progressive aspect.
I'm sleeping. (present progressive)
He was studying English last night. (past progressive)
He will be going to the store tomorrow (future progressive)
Many other languages, such as French, do not use progressive tenses.
I've seen him twice. (present perfect)
I had lived there for three years. (past perfect)
The past perfect can be used to express an unrealized hope, wish, etc.
He had intended to bake a cake but ran out of flour.
She had wanted to buy him a gift but he refused.
After If, wish and would rather, the past perfect can be used to talk about past events that never happened.
If only I had been born standing up!
I wish you had told me that before.
I would rather you had gone somewhere else.
Mood
Finally, English mood is now usually shown by using modal verbs. In the past, English had a full mood system but that has almost completely disappeared. The subjunctive mood now uses the plain form. There is also a form of be that is used in conditionals to show that something is not true (e.g., If I were a bird, I would fly to California.)
Sentence parts that go with verbs
Certain parts of a sentence naturally come before verbs or after them, but these are not always the same for all verbs. The main sentence parts are: subject, object, complement, and modifier.
Subjects
Almost all English sentences have subjects, but sentences that are orders (called imperatives) usually do not have any subjects. A subject usually comes before a verb, but it can also come after auxiliary verbs. In the following examples, the subject is underlined and the primary verb is in bold.
We need you.
The food was good.
The small boy with red hair is sleeping.
Can you see the car?
Come here. (no subject)
Objects
Many verbs can be followed by an object. These verbs are called transitive verbs. In fact, some verbs must have an object (e.g., take), but some verbs never take an object (e.g., sleep). Verbs that do not take an object are called intransitive verbs. Some verbs can even have two objects. They are called ditransitive verbs. In the following examples, the object is underlined and the primary verb is in bold.
I'm sleeping. (no object)
I took the book from him.
I gave him the book. (2 objects)
I am happy. (no object)
I became a teacher. (complement, no object)
I slept in my bed (1 object)
Complements
Some verbs can or must be followed by a complement. These verbs are called linking verbs or copula. In the following examples, the complement is underlined and the verb is in bold.
He is good.
He is a boy.
She became sick.
She became a manager.
It looks nice.
Modifiers
Verbs can be modified by various modifiers, mainly adverbs. Note that verbs generally do not need modifiers; it's usually a choice. In the following examples, the adverb is underlined and the verb is in bold.
The boy ran quickly.
The freely swinging rope hit him.
Verbs also commonly take a variety of other modifiers including prepositions.
Differences between verbs and other words
Sometimes a verb and another word can have the same shape. In these cases you can usually see the difference by looking at various properties of the words.
Verbs vs. adjectives
Sometimes a verb and an adjective can have the same shape. Usually this happens with participles. For example, the present participle interesting and the adjective interesting look the same. Verbs are different from adjectives, though, because they cannot be modified by very, more, or most. For example, you can say "That is very interesting," so you know interesting is an adjective here. But you cannot say "My teacher is very interesting me in math" because in this sentence interesting is a verb. On the other hand, if you cannot change the 'be' verb to 'seem' or 'become', it is probably a verb.
He was isolated / He became isolated (isolated is an adjective)
The door was opening / *The door became opening (opening is a verb)
Verbs vs. nouns
The gerund-particle sometimes looks like a noun. This is especially true when it is used as a subject, as in the following example:
Running is good for you.
The main differences between these verbs and nouns are: modifiers, number, and object/complement
Modifiers
Verbs cannot generally be modified by adjectives and nouns cannot generally be modified by adverbs. So, in "Running regularly is good for you", running is a verb because it is modified by regularly, an adverb.
Number
Verbs cannot change for number, so if you can make the word plural, it is a noun, not a verb. For example, "this drawing is nice" can change to "these drawings are nice", so drawing is a noun. But "drawing trees is fun" cannot change to "drawings trees is fun", so it is a verb here.
Object/complement
Many verbs can take objects or complements, but nouns cannot. So, in "parking the car is hard", parking is a verb because it takes the object the car. But, if you say, "there's no parking", parking may be a noun because it does not have an object.
Verbs vs. prepositions
Some verbs have become prepositions. Again, usually these share a shape with participles. Here are some examples:
Given the problems, I do not think we should go.
We have many helpers, including John.
According to the map, we are here.
He went to hospital following the fight.
The main difference between verbs and prepositions is that verbs have a subject. Even if the subject is not written, you can understand what it is. Prepositions do not have a subject.
References
Grammar |
895 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volume | Volume | This article is about physical object; for meaning from audio field, see loudness.
The volume of an object is a measure of the amount of space occupied by that object, and is not to be confused with mass. The volume of a mountain is much larger than the volume of a rock, for instance.
By convention, the word volume implies a three-dimensional context where:
The length is the longest distance between the object's extremities.
The width (or breadth) refers to the size of the object in a direction perpendicular to its length.
The height (or depth) stands for the size of that object in the direction perpendicular to both the length and the width.
For objects at or near the Earth's surface, height or depth often refers to the dimension of the object along the local vertical. All physical objects occupy a volume, even if some are so thin that they appear to be two-dimensional, like a sheet of paper.
Units of volume
The unit of volume in the International System of Units is the cubic meter, which is represented by the symbol m3.
In some fields or applications, one often uses different units to simplify the discussions or writings. For instance:
Everyday quantities of liquids are often measured in units of a litre, written as L, which is the volume occupied by a cubic decimetre.
Large quantities of liquids, such as oil, and sometimes other materials, may be measured and traded in units of barrels. There are many different reference volumes called barrels, depending on the nature of the content.
Traditional units are still in encountered in some countries: Imperial units such as the gallon or the fluid ounce were in widespread use within the British Empire. Some of them are still popular in the United States, which also uses units like the bushel, the quart, the cup and the teaspoon (in cooking recipes, for example). See U.S. customary units for more examples.
Non-conservation of volume
The volume of an object is not a fundamental property of that object: it can change with environmental conditions such as pressure and temperature, especially if the object is highly compressible.
The volume of a mixture of fluids (liquids, gases) may or may not be equal to the sum of their volumes before they were mixed.
Measuring a volume
In mathematics, the volume of simple geometric objects, written , can often be calculated on the basis of their shape and dimensions:
The volume of a perfect cube of side c is c3.
The volume of a rectangular box is the product of its three linear dimensions: length, width and length.
The volume of a parallelepiped of sides a, b and c is a × b × c.
The volume of a sphere of radius r is (4/3) π r3.
The volume of a gas is typically that of its container, but it could be ill-defined, as in the case of the atmosphere, which has no clear upper limit. The volume of a liquid is often measured by pouring it into a graduated container. The volume of a small solid can be estimated by immersing it into a graduated container partially filled with a known amount of liquid, provided the solid is not soluble in the liquid.
Related pages
Geometry
Surface area to volume ratio
References
Physical quantity
Geometry |
896 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus | Venus | Venus is the second planet from the sun. It has a day longer than a year. The year length of Venus is 225 Earth days. The day length of Venus is 243 Earth days.
Venus is a terrestrial planet because it has a solid, rocky surface like other planets in the inner solar system. Astronomers have known Venus for thousands of years. The ancient Romans named it after their goddess Venus, goddess of love and beauty.
Venus is the brightest thing in the night sky except for the Moon. It is sometimes called the morning star or the evening star as at some elongations it is easily seen just before the sun comes up in the morning. At other times, it can be seen just after the sun goes down in the evening. Venus comes closer to the Earth than any other planet does.
Venus is sometimes called the sister planet of Earth as they are quite similar in size and gravity. In other ways the planets are very different. Venus' atmosphere (air) is mostly carbon dioxide with clouds of sulphuric acid. Sulphuric acid is a chemical that is poisonous to life.
The thick atmosphere makes it hard to see the surface. Until the late twentieth century many thought there might be life there. The pressure on Venus' surface is 92 times that of Earth. Venus has no moons. Venus spins very slowly on its axis and it spins in the opposite direction to the other planets.
It is also sometimes known as the Earth's "evil twin".
Physical properties
Venus is a terrestrial planet so, like the Earth, its surface is made of rock. Venus is much hotter than Earth. All the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere acts like a blanket, trapping heat from the Sun. This effect is called the greenhouse effect and it is very strong on Venus. This makes the surface of Venus the hottest of any planet's surface in the Solar System with an estimated average temperature of . This is hot enough to melt lead or zinc.
Geography
Venus has no oceans because it is much too hot for water. Venus' surface is a dry desert. Because of the clouds, only radar can map the surface. It is about 80% smooth, rocky plains, made mostly of basalt. Two higher areas called continents make up the north and south of the planet. The north is called Ishtar Terra and the south is called Aphrodite Terra. They are named after the Babylonian and Greek goddesses of love.
The surface of Venus looks like it has been shaped by volcanic activity. Venus has a lots of volcanoes. The surface of Venus is estimated to be 300–600 million years old.
Unlike Earth or Mars, Venus does not have defined highlands or lowlands, and it does not have tectonic plates.
Atmosphere
Venus' atmosphere is mostly carbon dioxide and nitrogen gas with clouds of sulphuric acid. Because the atmosphere is so thick or dense the pressure is very high. The pressure is 92 times the pressure on Earth, enough to crush many things.
It is impossible to see the planet's surface from space as the thick cloud layer reflects 60% of the light that hits it. The only way scientists are able to see it is by using infrared and ultraviolet cameras and radar.
Scientists believe that billions of years ago, the atmosphere of Venus could have been like Earth's atmosphere. There may have been lots of water on the surface of Venus. But after 600 million to several billion years, the evaporation of the water put greenhouse gases into its atmosphere.
Magnetic field
In 1967, Venera 4 found that the magnetic field of Venus was much weaker than that of Earth. This magnetic field is induced by an interaction between the ionosphere and the solar wind. Venus' magnetosphere is not strong enough to protect the atmosphere from cosmic rays.
Transit of Venus
Venus can sometimes be seen passing between the Sun and Earth. Venus looks like a black dot when seen through a special telescope. These passages are called "transits". These "transits" happen in pairs eight years apart. Then it is more than a hundred years to the next pair.
Orbit and rotation
Venus orbits the Sun at an average distance of about 108 million km (67 million mi). It completes an orbit every 224.7 days. The rotation of Venus is slow. A Venusian sidereal day is longer than a Venusian year.
List of satellites sent to Venus
Many man-made satellites have been sent to Venus to study it. They are:
Mariner 2
Mariner 2 was launched on August 27, 1962. It was made to study the atmosphere of Venus, its magnetic field, and mass. The last radio signal from Mariner 2 was received on January 3, 1963. Mariner 2 is still orbiting around the Sun today.
Venera 4
Venera 4 was a probe made by the Soviet Union to explore Venus. The probe had a two probes. One was designed to enter the atmosphere of Venus and use a parachute to land on the surface. Another received the information from the probe on Venus to mission controllers on Earth. Venera 4 was launched on June 12, 1967. The last radio signal from Venera 4 was received on October 18, 1967.
Mariner 5
Mariner 5 was a spacecraft of the Mariner program. Mariner 5 was launched on June 14, 1967. The last radio signal from Mariner 5 was on October 14, 1968. Mariner 5 was made to study the magnetic field of Venus and to measure the hard ultraviolet spectrum, of the Venusian atmosphere.
Venera 9
Venera 9 was a spacecraft made by the Soviet Union. It consisted of a probe to orbit Venus which was called an orbiter and another probe that will land on Venus which was called a lander. It was launched on June 8, 1975. The last radio signal from the orbiter was on March 22, 1976. The last radio signal was on October 22, 1975. The orbiter was the first spacecraft to orbit Venus, while the lander was the first to return pictures from the surface of another planet.
Venera 10
Venera 10 was a spacecraft made by the Soviet Union. It consisted of an orbiter and a lander. It was launched on June 14, 1975.
Venera 13
Venera 13 was a probe in the Soviet Venera program. It was made to explore Venus. It was launched on October 30, 1981. The last radio signal from the lander was on March 1, 1982. The last radio signal from the spacecraft that took the lander to Venus was on April 25, 1983.
Venera 14
Venera 14 was a probe in the Soviet Venera program. It was made to explore Venus. It was launched on November 4, 1981. The last radio signal from the lander was on March 5, 1982. The last radio signal from the spacecraft that took the lander to Venus was on April 9, 1983.
Venera 15
Venera 15 was a spacecraft sent to Venus by the Soviet Union. It was made to map the surface of Venus. It was launched on June 2, 1983. The last radio signal from Venera 15 was on January 5, 1985.
Venera 16
Venera 16 was a spacecraft sent to Venus by the Soviet Union. It was made to map the surface of Venus. It was launched on June 7, 1983. Its last radio signal from Venera 16 was on June 13, 1985.
Related pages
List of planets
References and Notes
Other websites
Nine Planets: Venus
The Planet Venus
Images of Venus
Venus
Terrestrial planets |
897 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vatican%20City | Vatican City | Vatican City (; officially Vatican City State, ) is an independent sovereign state and the smallest country in the world by size, at 0.49 km². Its territory is completely surrounded by Italy and it is only one of three countries in the world that are enclaves of another country (the others being San Marino, also in Italy, and Lesotho in southern Africa). Also, it is the only country in the world that is an enclave of a city, as all of the land around it is part of Rome, the capital of Italy. The Vatican City is a city-state, because all its territory is urban and built-up.
The Vatican City is the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church and its government, the Holy See. Its head of state is the Pope which is, religiously speaking, the Bishop of Rome and head of the Roman Catholic Church. The current Pope, Pope Francis, former cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, was elected on 13 March 2013.
Established on 11 February 1929 with the Lateran Agreement (Patti Lateranensi) signed by Benito Mussolini and Pope Pius XI, the Vatican City is also important for its culture and art. The Vatican's masterpieces are very well known in the world: St. Peter's Square, St. Peter's Basilica, the Sistine Chapel, the Vatican Museums and the Apostolic Palace, where the Pope lives. There are also hundreds of other sculptures and pictures.
History
The Pope used to rule the Papal States, which included most of Italy. Catholic popes had generally tried to stop Italy from becoming one country because they feared they would lose their control of at least one of the Papal States. In 1861 Italy was unified under the King of Savoy, but Rome and Latium remained unconquered. On September 20, 1870 Italian troops invaded. Rome became capital of the new kingdom.
The Pope claimed he was a prisoner of the Italian state and excommunicated all the people who helped invade the Papal state. This stopped Catholics from taking part in public life under Catholic government.
In 1929 Benito Mussolini, decided to sign an agreement with the Holy See, called the Lateran Treaty, which created the Vatican State. Another treaty gave the Vatican money each year to compensate for the lost territories.
Politics and Government
The government structure is theocracy with the pontifical leader being the highest authority. The pope is elected by the College of Cardinals which can lead the Roman Catholic Church and the city-state itself. The Pope also holds the title of "Bishop of Rome".
People
Population
Vatican City has a population of 453 people, and 246 of them are citizens. The citizens of the Vatican include the Pope, all the cardinals, all the ambassadors (who are called nuncios) and other diplomats, all the Swiss Guards, and other important people. Also, there are 372 Vatican citizens who live in other countries, including cardinals and nuncios. Vatican citizenship cannot be passed to children and spouses; and, except for the Pope and cardinals, Vatican citizenship is lost when the term of office comes to an end, for the Swiss Guards, nuncios and diplomats, and other people working for the Vatican.
Language
The Vatican does not have a law declaring an official language. Italian is the main language used. The Holy See's official language is Latin.
Religion
The official religion of the Vatican is Roman Catholic Christianity, and because the state is ruled by a Pope, it is a theocracy.
Gallery
References
Notes
Current monarchies
1929 establishments in Italy |
898 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velocity | Velocity | Velocity is a measure of how fast something moves in a particular direction. To define it needs both magnitude and direction. If an object moves east at 9 metres per second (9 m/s), then its velocity is 9 m/s to the east.
The idea behind this is that speed doesn't tell us in which direction the object moves in a given frame of reference. Speed is one part of velocity, direction is the other part. Depending on the frame of reference, the velocity can be defined with many mathematical concepts required for making the correct analysis.
Velocity in one-dimensional motion
Average velocity
To calculate the average velocity of an object, we divide its displacement (its change of position) by the time it took to change position.
For example, if an object moves 20 meters (m) to the left in 1 seconds (s), its velocity (v) would be equal to:
Instantaneous velocity
Unlike average velocity, the instantaneous velocity tells us how fast something is moving at only one time, because velocity can only change with time.
Velocity in two-dimensional motion
The concept of velocity allows us to consider two different means of calculating the velocity. Two-dimensional motion requires us to use vector notation to define the physical quantities found throughout the kinematics.
Distinction between average velocity and instantaneous velocity regarding two dimensional motion
Average velocity
To calculate the average velocity of an object, we divide its displacement (its change of position) by the time it took to change position.
where: is the total distance traveled in a given time interval . Each of these quantities can be calculated by substracting two different values intertwined within the given quantity, hence give the desired .
Instantaneous velocity
Contrary to average velocity, the instantaneous velocity tells us the rate of change at which a given object is moving along a certain path at a given instance of time, which usually tends to be infinitesimally small.
When , we can see that . Taking that into consideration we can conceptualize this rate of change between displacement vector and interval of time using mathematical analysis (most notably- Calculus)
Relative velocity
Velocity can also be measured by comparing the motion of two objects. This is called relative velocity. The second object is called the reference frame. To find the relative velocity, subtract the velocity of the reference frame from the velocity of the first object. For example, Earth moves at 67,000 miles per hour around the Sun. Usually, we do not care about this motion. So we subtract the vector that represents Earth's motion from the total motion.
References
Measurement |
899 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual%20community | Virtual community | A virtual community is a group of people who share an interest, hobby or set of views.
The people in it may come from many different places.
They talk with each other using technology, such as the Internet, telephone calls, texting, video calls and email.
How virtual communities communicate
Virtual communities may use any of the following to communicate:
Internet
Chat rooms
Email
Instant messengers
Internet Forums (message boards)
Websites like social network services
Wiki
Telephone
Conference calls (where more than 2 people can talk at one time)
Mail
A newsletter
A magazine
Internet |
905 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/World%20Wide%20Web | World Wide Web | "The Web" redirects here. For other uses, see Web (disambiguation).
The World Wide Web ("WWW" or "The Web") is the part of the Internet that contains websites and webpages. It was invented in 1989 by Tim Berners-Lee at CERN, Geneva, Switzerland. Sir Tim Berners-Lee created a new markup language called HTML. Websites are composed of pages linked by hypertext links that are written in HTML.
The software to see the World Wide Web is called a web browser. One also needs a connection to the Internet.
Many companies nowadays offer limited website hosting allowing one to make websites that can be displayed on the World Wide Web like any other domain (www.stuff.com) site. These sites usually make money from advertisments instead of fees.
Invention of WWW
While working at CERN in 1989, Sir Timothy John Berners-Lee developed the World Wide Web. He was a computer scientist from England. Tim Berners-Lee was a Professorial Fellow of Computer Science at Oxford University and a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Related pages
Minitel
References
Internet |
907 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki | Wiki | A wiki is a type of a website that lets anyone who can access the wiki create and change its pages. The word is Internet slang. The word wiki is short for WikiWikiWeb. Wikiwiki is a word from the Hawaiian language, meaning "fast" or "speed". Examples of wikis include Wikipedia, Everipedia, Citizendium, Scholarpedia Conservapedia, Wiktionary and Wikibooks.
Every wiki can be changed, or edited, by anyone who has an account on the wiki, or by everyone in the world if the wiki allows it. Some important pages can only be changed by certain users. Wikis are central places where we all can share information, people can add new information, and then people read them. Wikis allow information from all around the world to be collected.
On a wiki, people can write pages by collaboration. Pages are watched closely to see whether changes are good or bad. If one person writes something wrong, another can correct it. Other users can also add something new to the page. Because of this, the page gets better when people change it. Administrators can block someone from editing if they vandalize, or for other reasons.
T
Users can also discuss things on wikis. Discussion can help people understand things better and get a chance to tell their views. In Wikipedia the talk pages are for that, but in some wikis, the article and the discussion are in the same page.
Wikis can be used for different things; not all wikis follow the same rules for using them. For example, the purpose of Wikipedia is to write articles for an encyclopedia. That is why in Wikipedia, people do not want general discussion that does not help in writing articles.
Ward Cunningham started the first wiki in March 1995. Many people liked it, and wrote there, after which they started similar websites such as Wikipedia. MediaWiki is the most used software for wikis and is the software used for Wikipedia and many other Wikis. JSPWiki is one of many others. "Wiki" is also sometimes an abbreviation for Wikipedia.
Vandalism
Most wikis can be edited by anyone and everyone. Some wikis are even available to people without an account, so sometimes wikis will become a target for vandals to add unwelcome, disruptive or even misleading content. There are many ways to prevent this. Individual pages can be protected to allow only certain users, or only those with an account, to edit them. Administrators can also block users who make repeated vandalous edits after a minimum of a single warning. Vandalism may not be stopped totally, but regular, careful checking can limit the amount of disruptive edits you will see in a day.
Related pages
Simple English Wikipedia
References
Other websites
Internet slang
Software
Wikis |
908 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Website | Website | A website is a set of webpages that are joined together. People look at websites with a computer of some kind, sometimes including the computer inside mobile phones and televisions. The websites are kept on computers called web servers.
Overview
There is almost always a single homepage which has links to other pages that are part of that "site". Sometimes it has links to pages that are part of other "sites" as well. (Note that net jargon uses the word site, which also means a physical place in the real world, to mean a web URL). A home page serves as the introduction page of a website.
Websites can be used to advertise or sell things. They can also be used to talk to other people. A blog is a website where the location of the material is less relevant than who writes it, and which is more focused on dialogue. Very often the people who use blogs dislike the word "site" since it implies a controlled place. Sites are good for looking up information on the computer.
Types
There are many different types of website based on their purpose and the type of organisation they are created for.
Weblog (also known as blog).
Wiki (A website where anyone can edit the pages).
Content Management System (Software that can edit web pages through a WYSIWYG editor).
Search engine (A website like Google, Bing and DuckDuckGo which you can use to search the web).
Social networking sites (Like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram which allows you to interact with people on the internet).
Quiz websites like Quotev, Buzzfeed, Allthetests and GoToQuiz are websites used to look at Quizzes, fan-fictions and Surveys about Television, Radio and Music and other things done in Society.
Video Websites like YouTube exist to look at Videos of people and things.
Online forum, discussion, Q&A, and community website.
Membership website
Application Websites, Nowadays simply known as Apps are Websites that are Square shaped and require more difficulty to access and usually ask you to download their App to access specific things.
.org websites are websites that are organisations.
.uk, .au and .us are types of websites that are only available in the United kingdom, Australia and the United States, but some can be used outside of these countries.
.io websites are usually online game websites that run on an internet thing called an IO, which has some kind of meaning, but they can be accessed like any other website through the internet.
There are other types of websites that aren't available to the public that end in a . followed by random letters but there are too many to list.
Access
Users can access any website by using a URL. This is the website address which is shown near the top of the web browser. The homepage and the rest of the site usually have the same words at the start of the URL — for instance, pages at the Simple English Wikipedia always start "http://simple.wikipedia.org/..." but are different after that. However, if a person does not buy a domain name, the website could be an IP Address. An example of an IP address is 172.217.13.228.
Appearance
Web sites are usually shown in HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) but are not always written or kept that way - some use WAP and others use XML.
Website builder software is usually a collection of software tools that allow the construction of websites without manual code editing. Several hosted website services have website builder software built-in.
References |
911 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Word | Word | A word is something spoken by the mouth, that can be pronounced. In alphabetic writing, it is a collection of letters used together to communicate a meaning. These can also usually be pronounced. A logogram is also a word.
Some words have more than one meaning, for example 'spring' can refer to the season, the device, or a conjugation of the verb. These are homonyms. Some words have different pronunciation, for example, 'wind' (the noun) and 'wind' (the verb) are pronounced differently.
Some words have different spelling for example 'color' and 'colour', which are both correct. Color is used in American English and colour is used in British English. Some words can be only one letter, for example "a" and "I" in English. Besides English, other languages have their own words. When written with an alphabet, words are usually separated by a space. When written with ideograms, each word is usually a separate symbol.
Words can be invented. This is called neologism. For example, radar was originally an acronym but became an actual word. Two words may be joined to make a compound word.
Fuller definition
A word is the smallest thing which can be said with meaning. For example, hello is a word.
This contrasts with a morpheme, which is the smallest unit of meaning but may not stand on its own. A word may consist of a single morpheme (for example: oh!, rock, red, quick, run, expect), or several (rocks, redness, quickly, running, unexpected), whereas a morpheme may not be able to stand on its own as a word (in the words just given, these are -s, -ness, -ly, -ing, un-, -ed).
The meaning of a word can be found in a dictionary.
Related pages
Lexeme
Parts of speech
Basic English 850 words |
912 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web%20browser | Web browser | A web browser is a computer program application for reading pages of the World Wide Web. Since the late 1990s, most personal computers and mobile phones and other mobile devices have a browser.
Web browsers are used by people to find and look at websites on the Internet. The first web browser was created in 1990. Many web browsers are available for free. All web browsers can go to websites but each browser has good things and bad things about it. For example, some browsers focus on data security and keeping computers safe from viruses. Other browsers are made so that web pages appear on-screen faster.
Some popular web browsers include:
Mozilla Firefox
Google Chrome
Opera
Safari
Internet Explorer included with Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Edge, a more modernized version of Internet Explorer, included with Windows 10
Other browsers are:
Flock
Epiphany
Web browsers and HTML
A webpage is one page of a website. Every web page has a web address.
A web browser goes to a web page using a web address. It downloads the HTML file stored at that address. Its browser engine then reads and translates the HTML file. The browser will then show the webpage on the screen as text, images and clickable links.
Other websites
What is browser? Video by Google
How browsers work
Web Browser -Citizendium |
914 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web | Web | Web can mean several things
Spider webs are woven traps usually used by spiders to catch insects
Web is a common short name for the World Wide Web
Web is a word for the tissue (biological) between fingers and toes, such as the webbed feet of ducks and other waterfowl, or material with a similar purpose, such as between the thumb and finger of a baseball glove |
924 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webpage | Webpage | A webpage (or web page) is a document from the internet which can be seen with a web browser. Web pages each have a URL or address, which is how a page is found, and is different for every page. When a webpage is part of a larger group of pages managed by a company, person, or organization, it is part of a website.
Pages can have words, pictures, videos, and links. Links are ways to get to other web pages.
For example, this article is a webpage. It has the URL https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webpage, and is part of the Wikipedia website. It has words and links. The links in this page are shown in blue and can be clicked to go to other webpages.
Technology
Web pages are usually stored in HTML code which describes what to show on the page like words or pictures. Web pages also use two other types of code to tell the page how to work:
Cascading Style Sheets (or CSS) is a code used to tell the page how to look.
JavaScript (or JS) is used to change the words, style, or pictures on the page.
Internet |
926 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiktionary | Wiktionary | Wiktionary is a wiki-based project to develop a multilingual online dictionary, or a group of meanings for words, in the form of a wiki. There are many languages of Wiktionary. Wiktionary is also a thesaurus. Wiktionary is run by the Wikimedia Foundation, which also runs Wikipedia. The English Wiktionary currently has over 6.1 million pages and 3.5 million users. Much like Wikipedia, the Wiktionary is run in several different languages that can be selected from its main page.
Logo
In 2006, there was a vote for the change of the logo of Wiktionary. The original logo of only words was replaced. However, there were very few people who voted in this contest. Therefore, smaller wikis used the newer logo but the English Wiktionary stayed with the same logo.
In 2009, there was a second contest for a newer logo (pictured). This was a step to make all the Wiktionaries to have the same logo on all projects. However, the English Wiktionary still did not use the new logo. The Simple English Wiktionary voted on the new logo on November 30, 2010 and the community decided the new logo to use it as their logo. However, no changes were made to the logo and the discussion was thus forgotten.
Sources
Other websites
Simple English Wiktionary main page
English Wiktionary main page
Simple English Wiktionary mobile version
English Wiktionary mobile
Dictionaries
Wikimedia
Wikis
Websites established in 2002 |
927 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft%20Windows | Microsoft Windows | Microsoft Windows is an operating system for computers made by the United States-based company Microsoft. Windows is used by almost 90% of desktop and laptop computers.
History
The first version of Windows, Windows 1.0, came out on November 20, 1985. The newest version, Windows 11, came out October 5, 2021. Most personal computers made after 2015 come with Windows 10. However, some older or cheaper personal computers may come with Windows 8.1 or Windows 7.
Windows makes it easier to run programs (applications) than MS-DOS did. DOS required typed commands to make the computer do something. DOS required correct syntax of each command. Making mistakes caused the computer to usually give an error message and do nothing.
Design
Users control their Windows computer by its graphical user interface (or GUI for short). It only needs a keyboard or a mouse to work. In later versions, a touch screen works as well. However, using both a keyboard and a mouse makes many tasks easier. By clicking a few buttons on the screen, Windows helps keep your files safe, and easier to change and move. Versions of Windows after 2005 make it even easier for some users with disabilities because these versions have touch screens. For use of a touch screen, some mobile devices come with Windows. Tablet computers and smartphones such as Microsoft Surface and Microsoft Lumia use Windows.
Programs
The following programs are included with Windows:
WordPad – to write simple documents, typically using words/text.
Windows Photo Viewer – to look at pictures.
Microsoft Paint – to make simple drawings or change pictures.
Microsoft Edge web browser – to use the Internet to look at web pages and download files.
Windows DVD Player to watch videos.
Windows Groove to play and listen to music
Windows has several kinds of applications/programs available. Popular applications include games, word processors (to write words) or additional programs like Adobe Flash Player (to watch some videos and play many games on internet sites). Adding new applications to Windows is called "installing". Applications can be bought/purchased on a CD or DVD. Applications can also be downloaded from the Internet. Some internet applications can be downloaded for free, and others can be bought using the internet.
Versions
Criticism
Many users complain that Windows creates problems for them. Some users complain that Windows made their computers slower when they changed from DOS. Many people also complain about problems that make their computer less safe to use, even though Microsoft tries to fix these problems. Many computer viruses are created to infect computers running Windows since it is such a popular operating system. Windows was the most popular operating system until recently (today mobile operating systems such as Android are more popular).
References
Other websites
The Microsoft Windows website
The Windows Team Blog – Official blog of the Windows Team at Microsoft
Microsoft operating systems |
928 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Window | Window | A window is an opening in a wall or roof of a building, in a car etc., to let air and light in. It is usually filled with a sheet of glass. There can be many different shapes and sizes, including rectangular, square, circular, or irregular shapes. Some windows include coloured glass. Windows are usually transparent so that people can see through them.
Before glass was used in windows, people in Asia used paper to fill the hole in the wall. The paper would let light in.
Types of window
These are different types of windows. They are:
Cross-window
A cross-window is a window that has a mullion and a transom, that makes a cross.
Fixed window
A fixed window is a window that cannot be opened. It is made to allow light to enter. The windows in churches are usually fixed.
Single-hung sash
A single-hung sash window is a window that has one horizontal sash at the bottom that can move up and down.
Double-hung sash
A double-hung sash is a window that has two horizontal sash at the top and bottom that can move up and down.
Casement window
A casement window is a window with a sash that has a hinge that swings in or out like a door. Casement windows are usually held open using a casement stay.
Skylight
A skylight is a window built into a roof. This type of window allows natural daylight and moonlight to enter.
Roof lantern
A roof lantern is a glass structure that has lots of different colors. It looks like a small building. It is built on a roof for day or moon light.
Stained glass window
A stained glass window is a window that is made up of pieces of colored glass. The colored glass can be transparent, translucent or opaque. It usually shows people or places. Usually the glass in these windows is separated by lead rods. Stained glass windows are very common in churches.
How they are made
Different materials are used when making a window. For the frame of the window wood, polyvinyl chloride, composite, aluminium, steel, fiberglass are used.
Many windows have movable window coverings such as blinds or curtains. They keep out light, give extra insulation. It also ensure privacy. Windows allow natural light to enter. But too much can have bad effects such as glare and heat gain.
References
Basic English 850 words
Windows (architecture) |
935 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wine | Wine | Wine is an alcoholic drink. The word wine is usually used to talk about drinks made from the juice of grapes, although people sometimes call alcoholic drinks made from the juice of other fruits (such as plums or blackberries) "wine". This article only deals with wine made from grapes.
Different types of wine
There are two main types of wine, red wine and white wine. Red wine is made using the skins of the grapes. The skins give the wine a dark color, and chemicals called tannins that taste bitter. Red wine can be sweet or "dry", meaning low in sugar.
White wine is made without the grape skins at all, so it is usually less bitter and more acidic. Like red wines, they can be sweet or dry.
Rosé wine (a French word meaning "pink") is in between: it has some flavor and color from the skins, but not as much as a red wine.
Wine sometimes has bubbles in it, called sparkling wine. Sparkling wine can be red, white, or rosé, but is usually white. It can be made in any country, but the best-known sparkling wines are champagne, which comes from France, and prosecco, from Italy.
Wine making
Wine making begins with growing red or white grapes. Wine grapes have thicker skins and bigger seeds compared to table grapes for eating. After the grapes are ripe, they are picked off the plants. There are different ways of picking (for example, using machines, or picking by hand, in the day, or at night).
After harvest, the grapes are crushed to release their juice, which is very sugary. Before, this was done by people stomping on grapes with their bare feet. Today, machines are used, but people sometimes use their bare feet in festivals. The person making the wine also decides now if the wine will be red, white, or rose:
If the grape skins sit in the juice a long time, the wine will be red.
If the grape skins sit in the juice a short time, the wine will be rosé.
If the grape skins do not sit in the juice at all, the wine will be white.
Next, the sweet grape juice is fermented, by adding yeast. In a few days, the yeast turns the sugar into alcohol, and also releases carbon dioxide.
After fermenting, the wine is stored for a while (called "aging"). The person making the wine can make different choices, which will change the flavor of the wine. They can choose to store the wine in a steel container, or a barrel made of oak wood. If they choose wood, the wine will absorb some of the wood flavor, which wine drinkers call "oakiness". This process can take only a couple of weeks, up to several years, depending on what kind of flavor the wine maker wants.
Lastly, the wine is bottled and sent to a customer, restaurant or store to be enjoyed.
Wine and people
People have been making wine for about 5000 years.
Wine is a popular drink in many countries. The countries that drink the most wine (using numbers from the year 2000) are:
France
Italy
USA
Germany
Spain
Argentina
United Kingdom
China
Russia
Romania
Lebanon.
However, if you make a list of countries where the average person drinks the most wine, the list is different:
Luxembourg, France, Italy, Portugal, Croatia, Switzerland, Spain, Argentina, Uruguay, and Slovenia.
Wine is made in many countries. The countries that make the most wine (using 2015 numbers) are:
Italy, France, Spain, USA, Argentina, Chile, Australia, South Africa, China and Germany.
Related pages
Eucharist
Basic English 850 words
Wine |
937 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Width | Width | Width or breadth is the side-to-side length, measuring across the object at right angles to the height.
For example, the distance between the left side and right side of a chair is its width.
Related pages
Height
Depth
Physical quantity |
939 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water | Water | Water () is a transparent, tasteless, odorless, and almost colorless chemical substance and covers over 70% of Earth's surface. No known life can live without it.
Lakes, oceans, seas, and rivers are made of water. Precipitation is water that falls from clouds in the sky. It may be rain (liquid) if it is warm, or it may be frozen if it is cold. If water gets very cold (below ), it freezes and becomes ice, the frozen variant of water. If water gets very hot (above ), it boils and becomes steam or water vapor. It is moved around in the water cycle. Water is essential for life.
Physical chemistry of water
Water is a fluid. Water is the only chemical substance on Earth that exists naturally in three states. There are over 40 anomalies (strange things) about water. Unlike most other liquids such as alcohol or oil, when water freezes, it expands by about 9%. This expansion can cause pipes to break if the water inside them freezes.
Water is a molecule made of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. Its chemical formula is H2O.
Like other liquids, water has a surface tension, so a little water can make drops on a surface, rather than always spreading out to wet the surface.
Things having something to do with water may have "hydro" or "aqua" in their name, such as hydropower or aquarium, from the Greek and Latin names for water. It is also called the "universal solvent", because it dissolves many other compounds.
In small amounts, water appears to have no colour but in large amounts (such as seas or lakes), it has a very light blue color.
Uses of water
Plants and animals (including people) are mostly water inside, and must drink water to live. It gives a medium for chemical reactions to take place, and is the main part of blood. It keeps the body temperature the same by sweating from the skin. Water helps blood carry nutrients from the stomach to all parts of the body to keep the body alive. Water also helps the blood carry oxygen from the lungs to the body. Saliva, which helps animals and people digest food, is mostly water. Water helps make urine. Urine helps remove bad chemicals from the body. The human body is between 60% and 70% water, but this value differs with age; i.e. a foetus is 95% water inside.
Water is the main component of drinks like milk, juice, and wine. Each type of drink also has other things that add flavor or nutrients, things like sugar, fruit, and sometimes alcohol. Water that a person can drink is called "potable water" (or "drinking water"). The water in oceans is salt water, but lakes and rivers usually have unsalted water. Only about 3% of all the water on earth is fresh water. The rest is salt water.
Many places, including cities and deserts, don't have as much water as people want. They build aqueducts to bring water there.
Though people can survive a few months without food, they can only survive for a day or two without water. A few desert animals can get enough water from their food, but the others must drink.
Water has no smell, taste, or color.
Water is also used for recreational purposes, see list of water sports.
Water is used as both the coolant and the neutron moderator in most nuclear reactors. This may be ordinary water (called light water in the nuclear industry) or heavy water.
Water is also used for washing a lot of objects. Goods, services and people are transported to other countries in watercrafts on bodies of water.
Water is used in chemical reactions as a solvent or reactant. Water is also used in fire fighting. Water is also used for cooking.
Dihydrogen monoxide parody
The dihydrogen monoxide parody involves calling water by the unfamiliar chemical name "dihydrogen monoxide" (DHMO) and listing some of its harmful effects in an alarming way. Some examples include talking about how "it causes burning, suffocation and corrosion," when it is actually just talking about hot water, drowning and rust. Sometimes the parody calls for it to be banned and/or labelled as dangerous.
The prank works because it takes advantage of people's misunderstanding. Calling water by an unfamiliar name and making it sound like a harmful chemical can make people think it is dangerous.
"Dihydrogen monoxide" is an alternative chemical name for water, but nobody uses it. The word "dihydrogen" means two hydrogens, and "monoxide" means one oxygen. The chemical formula of water has two hydrogens and one oxygen.
The parody gained most of its popularity in the 1990s, when a 14-year-old named Nathan Zohner collected anti-DHMO petitions for a science project about gullibility. Zohner fooled a lot of people, which has led to his project being used in lessons about critical thinking and the scientific method.
The website DHMO.org is a joke website which lists the harmful effects of water (DHMO), answers questions, and calls for it to be banned, among other things.
Origin of the Earth's water
The weirdness of water
A BBC short item explains that every molecule on Earth has existed for billions of years, and all of them came from elsewhere. Water is alien because it arrived on asteroids and comets. It is the second most common molecule in the universe. Why is it not a gas? It is made of two very light elements. Ice floating on water is also an oddity. Also, hot water freezes faster than cold, and no-one knows why this is. Molecules of water can move up against the force of gravity (that is due to surface adhesion).
Water in the universe
Much of the universe's water is produced as a by-product of star formation.
On 22 July 2011, a report described the discovery of a gigantic cloud of water vapor containing "140 trillion times more water than all of Earth's oceans combined" around a quasar located 12 billion light years from Earth. According to the researchers, the "discovery shows that water has been prevalent in the universe for nearly its entire existence".
Water has been detected in interstellar clouds in our galaxy, the Milky Way. Water probably exists in abundance in other galaxies, too. Its components, hydrogen and oxygen, are among the most abundant elements in the universe. Most other planetary systems are likely to have similar ingredients.
Origin of water on Earth: Possibilities
We do not know exactly how the Earth came to have so much water. It is everywhere in the Universe, but it is uncommon for a place to have so much. Reasoning from first principles, every element except hydrogen has been formed in stars. Therefore oxygen was originally formed in stars. The formation of water is not a problem: it is exothermic, so forming the molecule from its atoms does not need outside energy. But to explain why the Earth has so much compared to, for example, Mars, is not easy. It is an undecided problem in planetary geology.
For a while, people thought Earth’s water did not come from the planet’s region of the protoplanetary disk. Instead, it was thought that water and other volatiles must have been delivered to Earth from the outer Solar System later in its history. But hydrogen inside the Earth did play some role in the formation of the ocean. The two ideas may each be partly right. Water was delivered to Earth by impacts from icy planetesimals (asteroids) in the outer edges of the asteroid belt. How much is not known.
Water Vapor
Water vapor is the gas form of water and is found in:
Atmosphere of the Sun: It has small amounts of water.
Atmosphere of Mercury: It is composed of 3.4% of water. Mercury has large amounts of water in its exosphere.
Atmosphere of Venus: It is composed of 0.002% of water.
Atmosphere of Earth: It is composed of 0.4% of water all over the atmosphere. There is usually around 1–4% of water at the surface of the Earth. Water vapor is also found in the extremely thin atmosphere of the Moon in small amounts.
Atmosphere of Mars: It is composed of 0.03% of water.
Atmosphere of Ceres.
Atmosphere of Jupiter: It is composed of 0.0004% ice. There is also water in its moon Europa.
Atmosphere of Saturn: It is has water in the form of ice. Enceladus is composed of 91% of ice and ice is also in Dione's exosphere.
Atmosphere of Uranus: Ice is found in small amounts.
Atmosphere of Neptune: Ice is also found deep in the atmosphere of Neptune.
The atmosphere of extrasolar planets such as HD 189733 b and HD 209458 b, Tau Boötis b, HAT-P-11b, XO-1b, WASP-12b, WASP-17b, and WASP-19b.
Stellar atmospheres: Water vapor is found in giant hot stars such as Betelgeuse, Mu Cephei, Antares and Arcturus.
Liquid Water
Liquid water is found on Earth. It covers about 71% of the surface of the Earth. Liquid water is sometimes found in small amounts on Mars. Scientists believe that liquid water is in the moons Enceladus, Titan, Europa and Ganymede.
Frozen Water
The frozen form of water (ice) is found in:
Mars: Water ice is found at the north and south poles of Mars.
Earth and the Moon: It is mainly found as ice sheets on Earth and in craters and volcanic rocks in the Moon.
Ceres
Jupiter's moons: It is found on Europa, Ganymede and Callisto.
Saturn: It is found in the planetary rings of Saturn. It is also found in Titan and Enceladus.
Pluto and Charon
Comets and other objects in the Kuiper belt and Oort cloud.
Related pages
Ice
Lake
Life timeline
Nature timeline
Pond
Rain
River
Sea
Steam
Water cycle
Waterway
References
Other websites
Water Citizendium
Importance of Water
Natural resources
Hydrogen compounds
Oxygen compounds
Oxides
Water |
940 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Want | Want | A want is a wish or a desire for something. If a person would like to have something, but can choose not to have it, that thing is wanted or can be called a want. To want is not the same as to need, which is when someone must have something.
People often talk about needing a thing, when they really just want it. Wants can be for the same things as needs. For example, a person can need to eat food and can want to eat cake. If there is no cake then he or she may have to eat something else, perhaps bread. The need is no longer so important (the person is no longer hungry) although the want may still be there. If there is cake, then the person's needs and wants can both be met.
In economics, a want is about goods or services. Choice is how to satisfy a want, when there are different ways to do this.
Want can also be the idea of what it means to be poor, hungry or with no money. Charles Dickens wrote a famous book called A Christmas Carol in which there are two children, named Want and Ignorance. |
942 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/War | War | War is a situation or a period of fighting between countries or groups of people. A war generally involves the use of weapons, a military organization and soldiers. War is a situation in which a nation enforces its rights by using force. Not every armed conflict is a war. A fight between individuals, between gangs, drug cartels, etc. is not considered a war. However, most wars are called armed conflicts. International humanitarian law is a set of rules that tries to limit the effects of wars. International Humanitarian Law recognizes two kinds of wars. These are:
"International armed conflicts" between two or more states.
"Non-international armed conflicts" as being between a government and a group that is not a government or one that is between two such groups.
Karl von Clausewitz wrote in his classic book, On War, that "war is a mere continuation of policy with other means.” Clausewitz viewed war as a political instrument. His book about military philosophy remains the most influential work on the history and strategy of war. An earlier authority on war was Sun Tzu. In his book The Art of War, Sun Tzu saw war as a necessary evil. It was something people do.
Wars have been fought to control natural resources, for religious or cultural reasons and over political balances of power. They have been fought over legitimacy (correctness) of particular laws. They have been fought to settle arguments about land or money, and many other issues. The reasons behind any war are often very complex. While a war can start for just about any reason, there is usually more than one cause.
War and the beginning of nations
From the earliest times, individual states or political factions have used war to gain sovereignty over regions. In one of the earliest civilizations in history, Mesopotamia, they were in a near constant state of war. Ancient Egypt during its Early Dynastic Period came about by war when Lower and Upper Egypt were joined together as one country, about 3100 BC. The Zhou Dynasty ruled Ancient China came to power in 1046 through war. Scipio Africanus (236-183 BCE) defeated Carthage leading Ancient Rome to begin a conquest of the known world. Philip II of Macedon (382-336 BCE) united a group of city-states to become Ancient Greece.
Kinds of war
Sometimes, people don't see a difference between fighting between countries or people, and the formal declaration of a state of war. Those who do see this difference usually only use the word "war" for the fighting where the countries' governments have officially declared war on each other. Smaller armed conflicts are often called riots, rebellions, coups, etc.
One country may send forces to another country for a variety of reasons. Sometimes it is to help keep order or prevent killings of innocents or other crimes against humanity. It may be to protect a friendly government against an uprising. Here it may be called a police action or humanitarian intervention instead of a war. Some people think it's still a war.
Another kind of war existed from 1947 until 1991 called the Cold War. This started when diplomatic relations between the United States and the Soviet Union broke down. Both countries had nuclear weapons and both stood ready to use them against the other. But there was no actual war between the two. It ended with the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. The cold war was also called a containment where the United States tried to prevent the spread of communism to other countries. During the cold war, the major powers did not fight themselves, but often backed third parties in what was called a proxy war. The Vietnam War is often given as an example of a proxy war. But proxy wars happened long before the cold war and are still happening.
A war between peoples and groups in the same country is known as a civil war. It is generally agreed there are two things that make a war a civil war. It must be a struggle between groups in the same country or state over political control or to force a major change in the government's policy. The second criterion is that more than 1000 people have to have been killed, with a minimum of 100 from each side. The American Civil War is an example of a civil war. While the figures are mere estimates, the total casualties are thought to be about 750,000.
Laws of war
Only in the last 150 years or so, have states agreed on international laws to limit warfare. This has been mainly for humanitarian reasons. The Geneva conventions and the Hague Conventions are two examples of agreements that establish laws governing wars. Collectively, these are usually called International humanitarian law (IHL). Because these are established laws, they restrict those engaged in armed conflicts to follow the IHL. Also, a country must not only respect the law but they also need to make sure other countries respect it as well. They cannot turn a blind eye (meaning pretend they do not see a thing) to countries who are not following IHC. The first of these was the Geneva Convention in 1864. It became international law with the signatures of 100 countries.
Statistical analysis
The statistical analysis of war was started by Lewis Fry Richardson following World War I. More recent databases of wars have been assembled by the Correlates of War Project and Peter Brecke.
Related pages
Peace, the word which is its opposite meaning - where there is peace, this means that there is no war.
List of wars
List of battles
Notes
References
Other websites
Correlates of War Project
War and Civilization - Episode 1: First Blood (History Documentary); YouTube
History Channel Documentary - Sun Tzu The Art of War:YouTube
Basic English 850 words |
943 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yiddish | Yiddish | Yiddish is a language used by some Jews. At first, it was a dialect of German that Jews began to use in Europe about 1000 years ago. It was and still is used in the United States, especially in New York City, and other countries that now have Jews.
Most Yiddish words come from German, but many words are also from Hebrew and Slavic languages, especially Polish, and some from French, Hungarian and Latin. Yiddish is written usually by the Hebrew alphabet.
In the world, Yiddish is spoken by about 3 million people, mainly Hasidic Jews.
European Charter
In the Netherlands and Sweden, Yiddish is protected by the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.
Related pages
Ladino language
References
Other websites
Di Velt fun Yidish: Audio Stories |
944 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year | Year | One year is about 365 days long (except in a leap year). It is the time it takes the Earth to go completely around (orbit) the sun once. A year is actually 365.25 days long, but a calendar has 365 days, except in a leap year.
The year starts on January 1 and ends on December 31 in the Gregorian calendar, but a fiscal year or a school year can start on a different day of the year.
There are several ways used to measure the length of a year.
a solar year is based on the seasons. The Gregorian calendar is based on the solar year. The solar year is 365 days long.
A tropical year (also known as a solar year) is the time that the Sun takes to return to the same position in the cycle of seasons, as seen from Earth; for example, the time from vernal equinox to vernal equinox, or from summer solstice to summer solstice. The word "tropical" in this sense comes from the Greek tropikos meaning "turn".
a lunar year is based on the moon and is usually 12 lunar months (29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes each) or 354 days long.
a sidereal year measures the time between when a selected fixed star is highest in the night sky.
an anomalistic year is the difference between the times when the Earth gets closest to the sun.
an eclipse year is the time between node passages. This is when the sun moves through a part of the sky where it is possible for the sun, Earth and moon to be in a line. It is also when eclipses can happen.
Solar and lunar years are used by different calendars for daily life. The other measurements are used by astronomers.
Ma (for meganum) — a unit of time equal to one million years. The suffix "Ma" is often used in scientific disciplines such as geology, paleontology, and astronomy to signify very long time periods into the past or future. The simpler term "mya" for "million years ago" is generally preferred on this wiki as being intuitively more simple for non-technical readers.
Basic English 850 words
Units of time |
945 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/You | You | You is a second-person English pronoun. The word can be singular or plural. It is what a person says when he or she is addressing another person in second person. Sometimes, just using the English letter "u" is acceptable, and "ur" for the words "you're" and "your". This is very informal, and is mostly used in texting.
Basic English 850 words
VOA Special English words |
946 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yard%20%28disambiguation%29 | Yard (disambiguation) | A yard is a unit of length in some measuring systems.
Yard can also mean:
Yard (land), an open space around a building. For instance, the space around a school is called a school yard. A yard is used by humans and their pets. If there is wild space next to it, like forest land, swamp land, a beach or a lake, this will not normally be considered "part of" the yard – the yard ends at the edge of it.
Yard (sailing), a spar on a traditional sailing ship
Brickyard, a place where bricks are made or stored |
949 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese%20language | Chinese language | The Chinese language is the group of languages used by Chinese people in China and elsewhere. It forms part of a language family called the Sino-Tibetan family of languages.
Chinese includes many regional language varieties, the main ones being Mandarin, Wu, Yue and Min. These are not mutually intelligible and many of the regional varieties are themselves a number of non-mutually-intelligible subvarieties. As a result, many linguists refer to these varieties as separate languages.
'Chinese' can refer to the written or the spoken languages. Although there are many spoken Chinese languages, they use the same writing system. Differences in speaking are reflected in differences in writing. Official China adopts a similar policy to the one in the Soviet Union, using one official language so people can understand each other. The Standard Chinese language is referred to as Mandarin in English, "Pǔtōnghuà" or "common to everybody speech" in mainland China and "Guóyǔ" or "language of the whole country" in Taiwan. All official documents in Pinyin are written in Mandarin and Mandarin is taught all over China. It is also a standard for language teaching in some other countries.
Chinese is used by the Han people in China and other ethnic groups in China who are declared Chinese by the Chinese government. Many people in autonomous regions of China speak other languages. Chinese is almost always written in Chinese characters. They are symbols that have meaning, called logograms. They also give some indication of pronunciation, but the same character can get very different pronunciations among the different kinds of Chinese. Since Chinese characters have been around for at least 3500 years, people in places far from each other say them differently, just as "1, 2, 3" can be read differently in different languages.
Chinese people needed to write down pronunciations in dictionaries. Chinese does not have an alphabet, so how to write down sounds was a big problem in the beginning. Nowadays the Mandarin language uses Hanyu Pinyin to represent the sounds in Roman letters.
All the Chinese languages (or dialects) use tones. This means that they use high and low pitches to help make differences in meaning clear.
Different languages or dialects of Chinese
The Chinese language is like a big tree. The base of the tree started thousands of years ago. It now has several main limbs. Some people call "just a branch" what other people call a main limb, so you can say there are six or seven main limbs. Each of these main limbs splits off into branches about the way there are branches of English spoken in Great Britain, the United States, Australia, India, and so forth. Just as the Romance languages all come from the area around Rome and are based on Latin, the Chinese languages all have some common source, so they keep many common things among them.
Here are the main seven main groups of languages/dialects of Chinese by size:
Guan ("Northern" or Mandarin), 北方話/北方话 or 官話/官话 (about 850 million speakers),
Wu, 吳/吴, which includes Shanghainese (about 90 million speakers),
Yue (Cantonese), 粵/粤 (about 80 million speakers),
Min (Hokkien, which includes Taiwanese), 閩/闽 (about 50 million speakers),
Xiang, 湘 (about 35 million speakers),
Hakka, 客家 or 客 or "guest family" speech (about 35 million speakers),
Gan, 贛/赣 (about 20 million speakers)
Traditional and simplified characters
In 1956, the government of the People's Republic of China made public a set of simplified Chinese characters to make learning, reading and writing the Chinese language easier. In Mainland China and Singapore, people use these simpler characters. In Hong Kong, Taiwan and other places where they speak Chinese, people still use the more traditional characters. The Korean language also uses Chinese characters to represent certain words. The Japanese language uses them even more often. These characters are known in Korean as Hanja and in Japanese as Kanji.
A Chinese person with a good education today knows 6,000-7,000 characters. About 3,000 Chinese characters are needed to read a Mainland newspaper. However, people who have learned only the 400 most frequently used characters can read a newspaper—but they will have to guess some less-used words.
Examples
Here are some samples of some words and sentences in Mandarin Chinese. Simplified Characters are on the left, and Traditional characters are on the right. The pronunciation is given in the pinyin system, which may not always be as simple as it looks for those who have not studied it.
The Traditional Characters are now used in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Chinese from Mainland China uses the Simplified Characters, but may recognize Traditional Characters.
Before 1956, Chinese was written using only Traditional Characters. At that time most Chinese people could not read or write at all. The government of the People's Republic of China thought that the Traditional characters were very hard to understand. They also thought that if they made the characters simpler more people could learn how to read and write. Today, many people in China can read and write with the new Simplified Characters.
Related pages
Standard Chinese
Mandarin Chinese
Cantonese language
References
Other websites
Chinese Flashcard Website Learn Chinese Online
I Love Chinese Learning Chinese Magazine
Learn Chinese Free Chinese Learning Lessons and mp3
Free Chinese Character Input Software Google Pinyin Input Software
Chinese Pinyin a brief introduction to standard Chinese phonetic system
Day Day Up Chinese Online Chinese textbook
Direct method of learning Chinese—no English translation. A wok is just a wok.
Study More Chinese social network for Mandarin learners with videos, blogs, forum.
iChineseLearning A site for learning Chinese through skype Chinese lessons.
yimusanfendi Fact About yimusanfendi
Tonal languages |
950 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero | Zero | Zero (0) is a special number. If there are zero things, then there is nothing at all. For example, if a person has zero hats, that means they do not have any hats.
Symbol
The symbol for the number zero is "0". It is the additive identity of common numbers. This means that if a number is added to 0, then that number would remain unchanged.
Math with zero
Adding a number to zero results in that number. For example, adding zero to three gives three. In symbols:
3 + 0 = 3
Subtracting zero from a number always gives that number. For example, subtracting zero from three gives three. In symbols:
3 − 0 = 3
Subtracting a positive number from zero always makes that number negative (or, if a negative number is subtracted from zero, it makes the number positive). In symbols:
0 − 3 = −3
Multiplying a number by zero always gives zero. For example, multiplying forty-three by zero gives zero. In symbols:
43 × 0 = 0
Dividing zero by a number always gives zero. For example, dividing zero by forty-three gives zero. In symbols:
0 ÷ 43 = 0
Any number divided by zero has no answer. In symbols:
43 ÷ 0 has an undefined answer.
In particular, zero divided by zero has no answer. In symbols:
0 ÷ 0 has no answer.
The following table includes all of the above examples along with other operations in a condensed, generalized form (where x represents any number).
History of zero
The idea of zero was first thought about in Babylon, India and in Central America at different times. Some places and countries did not know about zero, which may have made it harder for those people to do mathematics. For example, the year after 1 BC is AD 1 (there is no year zero). In India, zero was theorized in the seventh century by the mathematician Brahmagupta.
Over hundreds of years, the idea of zero was passed from country to country, from India and Babylon to other places, like Greece, Persia and the Arab world. The Europeans learned about zero from the Arabs, and stopped using Roman math. This is why numbers are called "Arabic numerals".
The place of zero as a number
Zero is almost never used as a place number (ordinal number). This means that it is not used like 1, 2, or 3 to indicate the order, or place, of something, like 1st, 2nd, or 3rd. An exception to this is seen in many programming languages.
Some other things about zero:
The number zero is a whole number (counting number).
The number zero is not a positive number.
The number zero is not a negative number, either.
The number zero is a neutral number.
Any number divided by itself equals one, except if that number is zero. In symbols:
0 ÷ 0 = "not a number."
In time, zero means "now". For example, when a person is counting down the time to the start of something, such as a foot race or when a rocket takes off, the count is: "three, two, one, zero (or go)". Zero is the exact time of the start of the race or when the rocket takes off into the sky.
0 as a number
0 is the integer that precedes the positive 1, and follows −1. In most (if not all) numerical systems, 0 was identified before the idea of 'negative integers' was accepted. It means "courageous one" in hieroglyphics.
Zero is a number which means an amount of null size; that is, if the number of brothers is zero, that means the same thing as having no brothers, and if something has a weight of zero, it has no weight. If the difference between the numbers of pieces in two piles is zero, it means the two piles have an equal number of pieces. Before counting starts, the result can be assumed to be zero; that is the number of items counted before one counts the first item, and counting the first item brings the result to one. And if there are no items to be counted, zero remains the final result.
While mathematicians all accept zero as a number, some non-mathematicians would say that zero is not a number, arguing that one cannot have zero of something. Others say that if one has a bank balance of zero, one has a specific quantity of money in that account, namely none. It is that latter view which is accepted by mathematicians and most others.
Normally speaking, there was no year zero between 1 BC and 1 AD. More specifically, almost all historians leave out the year zero from the proleptic Gregorian and Julian calendars (that is, from the normal calendar used in English-speaking countries), but astronomers include it in these same calendars. However, the phrase Year Zero may be used to describe any event considered so important, that someone might want to start counting years all over again from zero.
0 as a numeral
The modern numeral 0 is normally written as a circle or (rounded) rectangle. In old-style fonts with text figures, 0 is usually the same height as a lowercase x.
On the seven-segment displays of calculators, watches, etc., 0 is usually written with six line segments, though on some historical calculator models, it was written with four line segments. The four-segment 0 is not common.
The number zero (as in the "zero brothers" example above) is not the same as the numeral or digit zero, used in numeral systems using positional notation. Successive positions of digits have higher values, so the digit zero is used to skip a position and give appropriate value to the preceding and following digits. A zero digit is not always necessary in a different positional number system. Something called bijective numeration is a possible example of a system without zeroes.
The numerical digit zero
0 (zero) is also used as a numerical digit used to represent that number in numerals. It is used to hold the place of that digit, because correct placing of digits affects a numeral's value.
Examples:
In the numeral 10, which stands for one times ten and zero units (or ones).
In the numeral 100, which stands for one times a hundred plus zero tens plus zero units.
Telling zero and the letter O apart
The number 0 and the letter O are both round, though of different widths. The difference is important on a computer. For one thing, a computer will not do arithmetic with the letter O, because it does not know that it should have been a zero.
The oval-shaped zero and circular letter O came into use together on modern character displays. The zero with a dot in the centre seems to have begun as a choice on IBM 3270 controllers (this has the problem that it looks like the Greek letter theta). The slashed zero, looking like the letter O with a diagonal line drawn inside it, is used in old-style ASCII graphic sets that came from the default typewheel on the well-known ASR-33 Teletype. This format causes problems because it looks like the symbol , representing the empty set, as well as for certain Scandinavian languages which use Ø as a letter.
The rule which has the letter O with a slash and the zero without was used at IBM and a few other early mainframe makers; this is even more of a problem for Scandinavians, because it looks like two of their letters at the same time. Some Burroughs/Unisys computers display a zero with a backwards slash. And yet another convention common on early line printers left zero without any extra dots or slashes but added a tail or hook to the letter O so that it resembled an inverted Q or cursive capital letter O.
The letters used on some European number plates for cars make the two symbols look different. This is done by making the zero rather egg-shaped and the O more circular, but most of all by cutting open the zero on the upper right side, so the circle is not closed any more (as in German plates). The style of letters chosen is called fälschungserschwerende Schrift (abbr.: FE Schrift), meaning "script which is harder to falsify". But those used in the United Kingdom do not make the letter o and the number 0 look different from each other, because there can never be any mistake if the letters are correctly spaced.
In paper writing you do not have to make the 0 (zero) and O (letter O) look different at all. Or you may add a slash across the zero in order to show the difference.
Zeroes of a function
Functions are explained in the Function (mathematics) article. If the function f(x) = 0, then x is called a zero (or root) of the function f. For example, if the function f(x) is x2 − 1, then the zeroes of the function are +1 and −1, because f(+1) = (+1)2 − 1 = 0, and f(−1) = (−1)2 − 1 = 0.
Zeroes of a function are used because they are another way to talk about solving an equation, which is a main goal in algebra. If we want to solve an equation like x2 = 1, then we can subtract the right-hand side of the equation from both sides, in this case 1. Whatever we get on the left-hand side, in this case x2 − 1, can be called a function f(x). The right-hand side has to be zero, because we subtracted it from itself. So f(x) = 0. Finding the zeroes of this function is the same as solving this equation. In the paragraph before, the zeroes of this function are +1 and −1, so they are the solutions of this equation. We got this equation by subtracting the same thing from both sides, so we also have solutions to the equation we started with, in this case x2 = 1. More generally, if we could find zeroes of functions, we could solve any equation.
Related pages
Absolute zero
Bakhshali manuscript
Division by zero
Number theory
Nothing
References
Citations
Sources
Barrow, John D. (2001) The Book of Nothing, Vintage. .
Diehl, Richard A. (2004) The Olmecs: America's First Civilization, Thames & Hudson, London.
Ifrah, Georges (2000) The Universal History of Numbers: From Prehistory to the Invention of the Computer, Wiley. .
Kaplan, Robert (2000) The Nothing That Is: A Natural History of Zero, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Seife, Charles (2000) Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea, Penguin USA (Paper). .
Tapan Kumar Das Gupta: "Der Ursprung des neuzeitlichen Zahlensystems - Entstehung und Verbreitung." Norderstedt 2013. .
Other websites
A History of Zero
Zero Saga
The Discovery of the Zero
The History of Algebra
Why numbering should start at zero by Edsger Dijkstra
Numbering Starts with Zero same topic as Dijkstra's article, including some more aspects
Integers |
954 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoology | Zoology | Zoology is the science of studying animal life. It is part of biology. The word is pronounced Zō-ölogy, not Zoo-ology. Animal life is classified into groups called phyla, of which there are at least thirty.
Zoologists are scientists who study animals. They may work in laboratories, or do field research. The methods are many and various. At the heart, they cover the structure, function, ecology and evolution of animals. The structure is investigated by dissection, and microscopic examination. The function is investigated by observation and experiment. Palaeontology supplies information about extinct animals. Zoologists may be employed by universities, museums, or by zoos.
Short-list of zoologists
Some zoologists:
Louis Agassiz (malacology, ichthyology)
Aristotle
Henry Walter Bates
Buffon
Jennifer Clack
Charles Darwin
Theodosius Dobzhansky
Dian Fossey (primatology)
Conrad Gessner
Geoffroy
Jane Goodall (primatology)
John Gould, ornithology
Stephen Jay Gould
Ernst Haeckel
Julian Huxley
Thomas Henry Huxley
Libbie Hyman (invertebrate zoology)
William Kirby (father of entomology)
Lamarck
Louis Leakey (palaeoanthropology)
Linnaeus (father of systematics)
Konrad Lorenz (ethology)
John Maynard Smith
Fritz Müller
Richard Owen (Natural History Museum)
John Ray
E.O. Wilson, (entomology, founder of sociobiology)
Jakob van Uexküll (animal behavior, invertebrate zoology)
Alfred Russel Wallace
James Watson
August Weismann
Gilbert White
Animal phylum
List of animal phylum
Related pages
Ecology
Other websites
References |
955 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zinc | Zinc | Zinc, sometimes called spelter, is a chemical element. It is a transition metal, a group of metals. It is sometimes considered a post-transition metal. Its symbol on the periodic table is "Zn". Zinc is the 30th element on the periodic table, and has an atomic number of 30. Zinc has a mass number of 65.38. It contains 30 protons and 30 electrons. In total, 29 isotopes of zinc are known, and five of these occur in nature. Some isotopes are radioactive. Their half-lives are between 40 milliseconds for 57Zn and 5x1018 years for 70Zn.
Zinc is a metal that is mostly used for galvanizing and batteries. It is the fourth most common metal.
Properties
Physical properties
Zinc is a shiny bluish grey metal. When it has just been cut, zinc has a whitish-grey color. If it is exposed to air, it will not stay shiny for long. Its melting point is at (), boiling point is (), cooling point is at , and freezing point is at . This temperature is lower than most transition metals but higher than tin or lead. It can be melted on a cooking stove. It boils at a low temperature for a metal. It is not magnetic. When heated a little, it becomes very flexible. If it is heated more, it becomes very brittle. It forms alloys easily with other metals.
Chemical properties
Zinc is a reactive metal. It is about as reactive as aluminium and more reactive than most of the more common metals, such as iron, copper, nickel, and chrome. It is less reactive than magnesium. Zinc can react with acids, bases, and nonmetals. It does not rust in air, though. A coating of zinc oxide and zinc carbonate forms on the surface of the zinc when it is in air. This coating stops corrosion. Acids can dissolve this coating and react with the zinc metal. This reaction of zinc with an acid makes a zinc(II) salt such as zinc chloride and hydrogen gas. This is a very common chemical reaction. The reaction below is the reaction with hydrochloric acid.
Zn + 2HCl → ZnCl2 + H2
Zinc can burn when powdered or in small pieces to make zinc oxide, a white powder. The flame is bright blue-green.
2 Zn + O2 → 2 ZnO
Zinc oxide can dissolve in strong bases. This reaction happens in some batteries that have zinc in them.
ZnO + H2O + 2 OH- → Zn(OH)42-.
Zinc is a chalcophile. This means that it would rather react with sulfur and elements below it on the periodic table than oxygen. That is why zinc sulfide is the most common zinc ore, not zinc oxide.
Chemical compounds
Zinc can make chemical compounds with other elements. These chemical compounds are only in one oxidation state: +2. A +1 compound has been found but it is hard to make. There are no other oxidation states other than +1 or +2. Most of these compounds have no color. If they have a color, it is not the zinc that is making the color.
Zinc chloride is one of the most common zinc compounds. They are quite unreactive. They are a little acidic when dissolved in water. They make a green flame when heated in a fire.
Other zinc compounds are:
Zinc antimonide, gray semiconductor
Zinc arsenide, orange semiconductor
Zinc bromide, a shield against radiation
Zinc carbonate, ore of zinc
Zinc fluoride
Zinc hydroxide, used in surgical bandages
Zinc iodide, used in X-ray picture-taking
Zinc nitrate, used as a mordant
Zinc oxide, used in sunscreen
Zinc phosphate, used in dentistry
Zinc sulfate, used in pigments
Zinc sulfide, common zinc ore
Occurence
Five isotopes of zinc are found in nature. 64Zn is the most common isotope, with 48.63% of naturally occurring Zinc. This isotope has a half-life of 4.3x1018 years. This is so long, that its radioactivity can be ignored. Similarly, (0.6%), with a half life of 1.3x1016 years is usually considered to not be radioactive. The other isotopes found in nature are (28%), (4%) and (19%).
Zinc is not found as a metal in the earth's crust. Zinc is only found as zinc compounds. Sphalerite, a mineral that is made of zinc sulfide, is a main ore of zinc. Very little zinc is in the ocean. Zinc ore is normally found with copper and lead ores.
There are some other zinc ores, such as smithsonite (zinc carbonate) and a zinc silicate mineral. They are less common.
Preparation
The zinc sulfide is concentrated by flotation. There is a detergent that collects the zinc sulfide. The impurities sink to the bottom and are removed. Then the zinc sulfide is heated in air to make zinc oxide and sulfur dioxide.
2 ZnS + 3 O2 → 2 ZnO + 2 SO2
The sulfur dioxide is oxidized to sulfur trioxide.
2 SO2 + O2 → 2 SO3
The sulfur trioxide reacts with the zinc oxide to make zinc sulfate. This makes a soluble form of zinc which can be processed more.
SO3 + ZnO → ZnSO4
The zinc sulfate is purified and electrolyzed. This electrolysis makes oxygen, zinc, and sulfuric acid. This makes a pure zinc that is known as "SHG" or special high grade.
2 ZnSO4 + 2 H2O → 2 Zn + 2 H2SO4 + O2
The sulfuric acid is reused in place of the sulfur trioxide to leach more zinc oxide.
Zinc oxide can also be reduced by carbon to zinc metal and carbon dioxide at high temperatures. This is a blast furnace process similar to how iron is made.
2 ZnO + C → 2 Zn + CO2
This form of zinc is cheaper but is not pure.
Zinc is the fourth most common metal in the world. About 10 million tons are made every year.
Uses
As a metal
Zinc is used in electrical batteries. The alkaline cell and the Leclanche cell are the ones that use zinc the most. It becomes oxidized and provides electrons for the battery to run.
About 59% of zinc is used for corrosion prevention, which includes galvanizing. 47% of the world's zinc is used for galvanizing. This is used to protect another metal, usually iron, from rusting. The zinc coating corrodes instead of the iron. The zinc coating can be placed on the metal in two ways. The metal can be dipped into a pot of melted zinc. The zinc can also be electroplated on to the metal. Dipping lasts longer but has a patchy surface that some do not think looks nice. It is also used in motorboats and pipelines to slow rusting. The motor of a motorboat often has a "bullet" of zinc, that will corrode easily, but will help other metal parts of the motor to stay rust free.
Zinc is used in alloys. Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc. Brass is the most common zinc alloy. Zinc can form alloys with many other metals. Zinc aluminium is an alloy of zinc and aluminium, which makes good bearings. Commercial bronze has zinc in it. Sometimes cadmium telluride is reacted with zinc to make cadmium zinc telluride, a semiconductor. Nickel silver is another zinc alloy.
Zinc can be used in the pipes of a pipe organ. An alloy of tin and lead was used in the past. Zinc is used in the US penny, where it only has a thin layer of copper. The core is zinc. Older pennies were made completely out of bronze.
A mixture of powdered zinc and sulfur can be used to propel a model rocket. This reaction makes zinc sulfide, heat, light, and gases. Zinc sheet metal is used to make zinc bars.
As zinc compounds
About 1/4 of zinc is used to make zinc compounds. Zinc oxide can be used for sunscreen or paint pigment. Zinc oxide also is a semiconductor. Zinc chloride is used to preserve wood so it does not rot. Some fungicides have zinc in them. Zinc sulfate is used in dyes and pigments. Zinc sulfide is used in fluorescent bulbs to convert the ultraviolet light to visible light.
In biology
Humans need a little bit of zinc to help their body run well. If they do not get enough zinc in their food, they can get a mineral deficiency. Almost two billion people have a zinc deficiency. Zinc deficiency makes one more easily get infections. Some people say that when we get colds, we should take more zinc. Others say that zinc does not make a difference. There are medicines that one can use when they have a cold. People add tiny amounts of zinc compounds to vitamin pills and cereals to make sure that they get enough zinc. Most single-tablet vitamins have zinc in them. Zinc is found in at least 100 enzymes. It is the second most common transition metal other than iron. Zinc also is used by the brain. The human body contains 2 to 4 grams of zinc. A zinc enzyme helps remove carbon dioxide from blood. Whole wheat has much zinc in it.
Safety
Large amounts of zinc metal are toxic. It can dissolve in stomach acid. When too much zinc is eaten, copper and iron levels go down in the body. Zinc compounds can be corrosive in the stomach. Zinc compounds put in the nose can ruin the sense of smell.
Zinc ions are very toxic to fish and many things that live in water.
References
Chemical elements
Transition metals |
956 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zebra | Zebra | Zebras are mammals of the family Equidae. Zebras are African horses. They are in the same genus as the common horse, Equus caballus, and donkeys. Zebras are known for having many black and white stripes. There are three main species of zebra, Grevy's Zebra, the Plains Zebra, and the Mountain Zebra.
Species
Genus Equus
Grevy's Zebra (Equus grevyi)
Plains Zebra (Equus quagga)
Crawshay’s Zebra (Equus quagga crawshaii)
Selous' Zebra (Equus quagga borensis)
Grant’s Zebra or Boehm's Zebra, (Equus quagga boehmi)
Chapman's Zebra (Equus quagga chapmani)
Burchell's Zebra (Equus quagga burchellii)
Quagga (Equus quagga quagga)
Mountain Zebra (Equus zebra)
Appearance
All zebras have very short fur because they live in hot areas. Their fur has black and white stripes. The main part of the body has mostly vertical stripes, and the legs have horizontal stripes. They also have a dark line directly down their spine. Each of the different zebra species has different type of stripes. Each zebra has a unique pattern.
Despite many attempts, we do not really know what the advantage is of having those characteristic stripes. There are different species and sub-species of zebra, and they all have stripes, so scientists think it must be important.
Life
Zebras are social animals that spend time in herds, they graze together and sometimes even groom each other. They can have babies (foals) when they are about five years old and can have one every year. Zebras mainly eat grass, but they also eat fruit, leaves and some vegetables. They always live near water and are an endangered species.
Zebras live in Africa, south of the Sahara desert.
References |
957 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoo | Zoo | A zoological garden, zoological park, or zoo is a place where many different species types of animals are kept so people can see and watch them.
Modern zoos try not only to be for people's entertainment, but for education, research, and the conservation and protection of animals. Many zoos are centers where rare animals are preserved when they are in danger of dying out. These modern zoos also want to give the animals a natural life, so that they are healthy and behave normal. This is done for the animals, but also that people can see the animals as if they were in nature, and not in a zoo.
Zoos cost money. They educate the public on the biological diversity that makes up the world. They help people and wildlife successfully coexist. They pursue continuing research and education for people. They preserve crucial natural resources. They work to ensure zoos can provide the most natural environment possible for wildlife in its care. Without enough money they cannot do these things.
Many zoos are not like the modern type of zoo. There the animals are held in bad conditions. They are kept in small cages, and they are bored and get sick.
Types
There are different types of zoo all over the world. They are:
Safari park
A safari park is a type of zoo where visitors can drive their own vehicles or ride in vehicles given by the park to see the animals. Sometimes, visitors can feed the animals through the car windows. The first safari park was Whipsnade Park in Bedfordshire, England. It was opened by the Zoological Society of London in 1931.
Public aquarium
A public aquarium is a type of zoo which has lots of aquatic animals and plants for people to see. Most public aquariums have very large tanks. They may also have smaller tanks. The first public aquariums were made in the mid-19th century.
Petting zoo
A petting zoo is a type of zoo that has domestic animals and some wild animals that are very calm so that the visitors can touch and feed them. Most petting zoos usually have very calm herbivorous domesticated animals, such as: sheep, goats, pigs, rabbits or ponies, to feed and touch them safely. Few petting zoos have wild animals (such as pythons or baby big cats) touch. These are rare and usually found outside Western countries.
Animal theme park
An animal theme park is a combination of a theme park and a zoo. It mainly built for entertainment, amusement, and commercial reasons. Many animal theme parks combine theme park elements, like entertainment and amusement rides, with zoo elements such as live animals kept inside cages so that visitors can see them.
Pictures
References |
1586 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright | Copyright | Copyright is a law that gives the owner of a work (for example, a book, movie, picture, song or website) the right to say how other people can use it. Copyright laws make it easier for authors to make money by selling their works. It is one part of a group of laws about intellectual property (the others being trademark and patent law). It helps protect authors from other people copying their works without permission and/or for commercial purposes.
With copyright, a work can only be copied if the owner gives permission. If someone copies a work without permission, the owner can say they infringed their copyright. When this happens, the owner may sue for the amount that should have been paid. Most cases are handled by civil law. In more serious cases, a person who copies a work that is protected under copyright could be arrested, fined or even go to prison. Commonly, the copy-right law will protect the authors and their heirs from 50 to 100 years since the first day of the authors' deaths.
In many countries, the governments tried to modify copyright law to meet international standards. However, there are still some differences, according to the law culture each country. In some countries, someone violating copyright law will be sued only to the civil law courts but other countries they can also be charged by criminal courts.
History of
Copyright was originally made in the 18th century for books. Before printing presses were made, books could only be copied by hand, which would take time. But when printing presses were made, books could be copied faster and easier. Because of this, some books were copied by people who did not own the book themselves. So lawmakers gave only owners the right to copy. National laws were somewhat standardized by international treaties.
Because technology got better over time, copyright began to cover other types of media such as pictures, sound, and film. Commonly, copyright violation warning would be shown at the beginning of the media to warn audiences against violating copyright law.
Who owns copyright?
In most countries, authors automatically own the copyright to any work they make or create, as long as they do not give the copyright to someone else.
In most countries, there is no need to register the copyright, and some countries do not even have procedures to register copyrights. But, where registration is available, many authors register anyway, especially for works that are sold for money. That is because registration helps to prove that the copyright of a work belongs to a certain author.
If an author gets paid to make a work for someone else, the person who pays for making the work (for example, the author's employer) will often get to own the copyright instead of the author themselves. For example, if a person working for a company, Microsoft creates a new computer software program at work, the Microsoft company would own the copyright. It is very common that the company will instead register the copyright to avoid their employees from claiming their works.
Length of copyright protection
Copyright laws usually protect owners of copyright beyond their lifetime. In some countries, such as Canada and New Zealand, works are protected for 50 years after the last living author dies. In other countries, like the United States and the European Union, the protection lasts for 70 years after death. When the period of copyright protection has ended, the written document, musical composition, book, picture, or other creative work is in the public domain. This means that no one owns the copyright and everyone is free to copy, use and change them without having to ask for permission or pay the owner.
Fair use
There is an exception to the rules of copyright, called fair use. This means that people can copy a very small amount of a work to use in reviews or in research reports.
An example of fair use is when newspaper writers quote several sentences from a copyright-protected document to tell the story. Another example of "fair use" is when a university professor quotes several sentences from a copyright-protected book in a review of the book, or in a research report.
Copyright in different countries
Different countries have different copyright laws. Most of the differences are about:
whether or not the government's work falls under copyright,
how much longer copyright lasts after the author dies or after the work is created or published, and
what is and what is not fair use.
Because of these differences, a certain piece of work may be under copyright in one country, and in the public domain in another.
Problems with copyright
Creativity
Some people argue that copyright laws make it easier for people to make new works and think of new ideas. After all, if authors get to make money for the time, effort and money they put in, then they will want to make more works later, and make more money.
But others believe that copyright laws make it harder to be creative. Without copyright, other people could reuse existing work, and copyright law often stops that.
Publisher control
If an author wants to sell a work, it's often easiest to give the copyright to a publisher. The publisher will do all the selling, and in return for that service, will keep part of the money. But the publisher has many different things to sell, and they may not want to sell the work the author made. Authors often find it very hard to find a publisher willing to sell their work.
But without a publisher, it can be even harder for an author to sell his or her work. In many markets, a few big publishers own the copyrights to almost everything available, and stores will not want to sell works published by small authors themselves. Many people say copyright law helps big publishers stay in control, and keeps smaller authors out of the market. (tragedy of the anticommons).
Open content
As a solution to these problems, groups of authors have come up with the idea of open content. With open content, authors give everyone permission to copy, change and give away or sell their works, as long as they follow certain rules. These rules are explained in an open content license. Some possible open content rules are:
If a person changes the work, or if a person makes a new derivative work based on it, they must give the original author credit (they must say who wrote it).
If a person publishes the changed or derivative piece of work, they must let others use it under the same free license.
Under some licenses, a person cannot sell the piece of work or use it to make money.
The term for Open Content is sometimes called Copyleft.
Related pages
Patent
References
World Intellectual Property Organisation. "Understanding Copyright and Related Rights " (PDF). WIPO. pp. 6–7. Retrieved August 2008.
Garfinkle, Ann M; Fries, Janet; Lopez, Daniel; Possessky, Laura (1997). "Art conservation and the legal obligation to preserve artistic intent". JAIC 36 (2): 165–179.
17 U.S.C. § 201(b); Cmty. for Creative Non-Violence v. Reid, 490 U.S. 730 (1989)
"Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the United States 1 January 2008.", Cornell University. |
1718 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic%20of%20China | Republic of China | {{Infobox country
| native_name = <div class="center">Chunghwa Minkuo'ㄓㄨㄥㄏㄨㄚˊㄇㄣˊㄍㄨㄛˊZhōnghuá Mínguó</div>
| conventional_long_name = Republic of China
| common_name = Taiwan
| image_flag = Flag of the Republic of China.svg
| alt_flag = A red flag, with a small blue rectangle in the top left hand corner on which sits a white sun composed of a circle surrounded by 12 rays.
| image_coat = National Emblem of the Republic of China.svg
| symbol_type = Emblem
| alt_coat = A blue circular emblem on which sits a white sun composed of a circle surrounded by 12 rays.
| image_map = LocationTaiwan.svg
| map_caption = red area shows territories controlled by ROC
| national flower = plumflower.jpg
| alt_map = A map depicting the location of the Republic of China in East Asia and in the World.
| national_anthem = "National Anthem of the Republic of China"《中華民國國歌》
“National Flag Anthem of the Republic of China”《中華民國國旗歌》
| capital = Taipei
| latd = 25
| latm = 02
| lats = 00
| latNS = N
| longd = 121
| longm = 38
| longs = 00
| longEW = E
| largest_city = New Taipei
| official_languages = none
| ethnic_groups =
| government_type = Presidential republic
| leader_title1 = President
| leader_name1 = Tsai Ing-wen
| leader_title2 = Vice President
| leader_name2 = Chen Chien-jen
| leader_title3 = Premier
| leader_name3 = Su Tseng-chang
| area_km2 = 36,191.4667
| area_sq_mi = 13,973.6
| area_rank = 136th
| percent_water = 10.34
| population_estimate = 23,174,528
| population_estimate_year = 2011
| population_estimate_rank = 49th
| population_density_km2 = 640
| population_density_sq_mi = 1,658
| population_density_rank = 16th
| demonym = Taiwanese or Chinese or both
| GDP_PPP = $900,210 billion
| GDP_PPP_rank = 19th
| GDP_PPP_year = 2011
| GDP_PPP_per_capita = $39,245
| GDP_PPP_per_capita_rank = 20th
| GDP_nominal = $489.387 billion
| GDP_nominal_rank = 24th
| GDP_nominal_year = 2011
| GDP_nominal_per_capita = $21,832
| GDP_nominal_per_capita_rank = 37th
| sovereignty_type = Establishment
| sovereignty_note = Xinhai Revolution
| established_event1 = Wuchang Uprising
| established_date1 = 10 October 1911
| established_event2 = Republic established
| established_date2 = 1 January 1912
| established_event3 = End of Japanese rule in Taiwan
| established_date3 = 25 October 1945
| established_event4 = Constitution
| established_date4 = 25 December 1947
| established_event5 = Government relocated to Taipei
| established_date5 = 7 December 1949
| established_event6 = Withdrawal from the UN
| established_date6 = 29 January 1962
| established_event7 = First direct presidential election
| established_date7 = 23 March 1996
| HDI = 0.868
| HDI_change = increase
| HDI_ref = http://www.dgbas.gov.tw/public/Attachment/11715383471.doc
| HDI_year = 2010
| HD1_rank = 18
| HDI_category =
| Gini = 34.1
| Gini_ref =
| Gini_year = 2008
| Gini_category = medium
| currency = New Taiwan dollar (NT$)
| currency_code = TWD
| country_code = TPE
| time_zone = CST
| utc_offset = +8
| time_zone_DST = not observed
| utc_offset_DST = +8
| date_format = yyyy-mm-dd yyyy年m月d日 (CE; CE+2697) or 民國yy年m月d日
| drives_on = right
| cctld = .tw, .台灣, .台湾
| calling_code = +886
| footnotes = a. See also Names of China.
b. Nanking (now Nanjing) was the seat of the government from 1928 until 1949 except during wars, when the government retreated to Taipei.
c. Population and density ranks based on 2008 figures.
}}
The Republic of China (), also known as Taiwan, is a island country in East Asia. The People's Republic of China (PRC) is located to the northwest; Japan is to the northeast; the Philippines is to the south. The Chinese Nationalists lost the Chinese Civil War to the Communists in 1949 and moved the government of the Republic of China from Nanjing to Taipei. Constitutionally, it still claims the ownership of all of China, including Mainland China, however this is rarely noted in recent years.
Territory
The territory the Republic of China (ROC) controls is known by most people as the island of Taiwan. Most places on Taiwan Island are called "Taiwan Province" by the government of the Republic of China for official business, except the two largest cities of Taipei and Kaohsiung. West of Taiwan Island, there are three small groups of islands that also belong to ROC. They are:
The Pescadores (Penghu, 澎湖列島): They also are part of Taiwan Province.
Quemoy (Kinmen, 金門): A part of Fujian province, called Kinmen County(金門縣).
Matsu (馬祖列島): the smallest county, called Lienchiang County(連江縣), also part of Fujian province
Diaoyutai Islands:The Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚臺列嶼|Diàoyútái Lièyû|ㄉㄧㄠˋㄩˊㄊㄞˊㄌㄧㄝˋㄩˊ) are a group of islands where nobody lives that the Republic of China (ROC) claims it belong to them, but also claimed by the People's Republic of China (PRC) and Japan. In Japanese, the islands are known as the Senkaku Islands (尖閣諸島, Senkaku Shotō?). The islands are now under the control of Japan.
Dong-Sha Islands:The Pratas Islands or Dong-Sha Islands (東沙羣島) consists of three islands in the northeastern South China Sea, 340 km southeast of Hong Kong.
Taiping (Traditional Chinese: 太平島|Tàipíngdǎo|ㄊㄞˋㄆㄧㄥˊㄉㄠˇ), also known as Itu Aba, is the largest of the Nansha Islands (Spratly Islands) in the South China Sea.
The ROC used to govern Mainland China too, from 1911 - 1949, and was a founding member of the UN (as China) in 1945. Today, Mainland China is governed by the Communist People's Republic of China; see History and Political problems of China. However, ROC still declares Mainland China as its territory officially. The Republic of China also used to govern Mongolia.
Administrative divisions
There are administrative divisions in different levels and types.
Provinces (省 shěng ㄕㄥˇ)(1st level):
Taiwan Province
Fujian Province
Special municipalities (直轄市 zhíxiáshì ㄓˊㄒㄧㄚˊㄕˋ)(1st and 2nd level):
Kaohsiung City
New Taipei City
Taipei City
Taichung City
Tainan City
Taoyuan City
Provincial cities (市 shì ㄕˋ)(2nd level):
Keelung City
Hsinchu City
Chiayi City
Counties (縣 xiàn ㄒㄧㄢˋ)(2nd level):
Changhua County
Chiayi County
Hsinchu County
Hualien County
Kinmen County
Lienchiang County
Miaoli County
Yilan County
Yunlin County
157 Districts (區 qū ㄑㄩ), 17 Country-controlled cities (縣轄市 xiànxiáshì ㄒㄧㄢˋㄒㄧㄚˊㄕˋ), 41 Urban Townships (鎮 zhèn ㄓㄣˋ), and 153 Rural Townships (鄉 xiāng ㄒㄧㄤ) stand the 3rd level. Districts stand under either Special municipalities or Provincial cities; Country-controlled cities, Urban Townships, and Rural Townships stand under Counties.
Villages (里 lǐ ㄌㄧˇ or 村 cūn ㄘㄨㄣ) stand the 4th level, and Neighborhoods (鄰 lín ㄌㄧㄣˊ) stand the 5th level.
History
The Nationalists, led by Dr. Sun Yat-sen, got rid of the Qing Dynasty ruled by the Manchus, then they established the ROC and ended Imperial Dynastic Rule in late-1911. The ROC at that time had Mainland China and all of what is now called Mongolia.
After the Japanese were defeated by the Allies during World War II, Taiwan was controlled by the ROC.
In 1949, the Chinese Communists fought a war against the Nationalists and won. They established the People's Republic of China. The Nationalists left mainland China and arrived in Taiwan.
Politics
After the ROC created a base on Taiwan, it hoped one day to capture the Mainland. But Chinese Communists grew stronger, so the Nationalists never did go back. The Communists say they replaced the ROC as the only government of China and also calls Taiwan their own.
Polls show a majority of people in Taiwan want to never be a part of the People's Republic of China. Some of these people believe in complete Taiwan independence and want to rename the ROC (Taiwan) to "Republic of Taiwan" so Taiwan can participate in international affairs. Most others want the status quo'', which means keeping everything the way it is now. A small minority wish to someday unite with the People's Republic of China; they want Chinese reunification.
Language
Most Taiwanese people speak the Standard Chinese language known as Mandarin, and others speak local dialects such as Min Nan (Taiwanese) or Hakka. The Cantonese language, spoken in parts of southern China (for example, the province of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau), is not spoken in Taiwan. A small percentage of Aboriginal Taiwanese speak aboriginal languages, but the rest of the Chinese people have treated them badly, and many of these people, and their languages, struggle to survive. Some older Taiwanese people who went to school while the country was under Japanese rule can speak Japanese.
After the Nationalist government fled the Mainland in 1949, they brought Mandarin and promoted it in Taiwan. Then everyone in the ROC had to learn Mandarin. But, unlike the people in Mainland China, the Taiwanese never changed to simplified Chinese characters and so they have always used traditional Chinese characters. In the past, students were not allowed to speak their mother tongue in school and were expected to speak only Mandarin. Taiwanese, Hakka, and native languages were considered bad until the early 1990s, when education in these languages began to be taught in some school systems. They were promoted, but by this time, many young people could speak only Mandarin.
Currently, nearly one third of Taiwanese report knowing some amount of English. Full English fluency is not common, however. The government plans to expand English education and make it an official language by 2030.
Notes
References
1949 establishments in Asia |
1831 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simple%20English | Simple English | Simple English might mean:
Basic English
Simple English Wikipedia gives information about a certain subject using fewer words and simpler grammar than the normal English Wikipedia.
Simple English Wiktionary
Plain English Campaign: a commercial advocate for the use of simple ("plain") English to communicate with the public.
Special English: the Voice of America form of simple English used for public radio news items for a large audience.
Specialized English SPOTLIGHT word list for broadcasting in a controlled version of the English language.
Simplified English word list of ASD Simplified Technical English. This is for the European Association of Aerospace Industries (AECMA, now ASD www.asd-europe.org).
Globish (Nerrière) by Jean-Paul Nerrière.
References |
1934 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prison | Prison | A prison or jail is a building where people are forced to live if their freedom has been taken away. The main use for prisons is as a punishment for breaking the law. Those who break the law and are convicted (found guilty) in court can receive a prison sentence, which is an order to spend an amount of time in prison. Prisons are usually run by the government.
There are other reasons why someone might be held in prison. Sometimes, people can be held in prison before their trial (known as pre-trial detention or remand). In times of war, captured soldiers may become prisoners of war and civilians (non-soldiers) may be placed in an internment camp. In some countries, prisons are also used for political prisoners (people who disagree with the country's leader or government).
Other words for a prison include a gaol (pronounced like "jail"), penitentiary or correctional facility. In the US, the words "prison" and "jail" mean separate things. A US "jail" is run by a local government and holds people who have not yet had their trial or who have been convicted for a minor crime. A US "prison" or "penitentiary" is run by the state or federal government and holds people who are serving a long sentence for a serious crime. Outside of North America, "prison" and "jail" mean the same thing. There are lots of slang words for prisons.
Prison buildings and facilities
Prisons are usually surrounded by walls and gates. There are usually many locked gates inside the prison to control the inmates.
The inmates sleep in small locked rooms called cells. Cells have a bunk bed, a toilet, and a sink. Inmates are allowed to leave their cell every day for exercise. Some inmates work in the prison during the day, either in a factory or doing cooking or cleaning. Law enforcement officers called prison guards watch the inmates. The manager of a prison is called the warden (US, Canada), superintendent (some parts of the US, India) or governor (UK, Australia).
Prisons usually also include other buildings and facilities, such as a chapel, a library, an exercise yard, a gymnasium, an infirmary (small hospital), visiting rooms (for visits from family and lawyers), kitchens, and accommodation for prison staff.
The level of security a prison has depends on the type of prison. A "maximum security prison" has even more protection than a regular prison. Some prisons in the United States have a section called "death row", where people who have been sentenced to death are kept in prison until their execution. On the other hand, an "open prison" is a prison where inmates can often travel out of the prison. These are used for prisoners who have been convicted of minor crimes, or who will soon be released.
The United Nations made the "Standard Minimum Rule" for human treatment for prisoners in 1955. Also the Article 10 of International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights also affirm the treatment with humanity for them in prison. In some prisons, people imprisoned for child sexual abuse are separated from other prisoners for their own safety.
Purpose
There are four main ideas about what prisons should be used for:
Rehabilitation: Prisons should be places that turn the prisoners into good people.
Deterrence: People should be scared by the thought of going to prison, so they will not want to commit crimes.
Incapacitation: Locking criminals up stops them from committing more crimes.
Retribution: By forcing them to spend time in prison, society is taking revenge against people who break the law.
Pre-trial detention
A person who has been charged with a crime, but has not yet been convicted for it in a court, may be sent to prison if:
the court thinks that the person may not come to their trial,
the court thinks that the person may be a danger to the community, or
(mainly in the US) the court has asked for bail money but the person cannot pay the amount.
In some parts of the US, a person who is arrested may be held at a county jail until they decide whether to charge or release the person. In other places, a person who is arrested will be held at a police station, not a prison.
Special prisons
Male and female inmates are usually kept in separate locations, and often in separate prisons.
There are special prisons for people under the age of 18 who commit crimes. These inmates are called young offenders or juvenile offenders. These places will not always have the word "prison" in their name, instead having names like "Young Offenders' Institution".
Controversy
Prisons are a controversial topic that people have different views about.
People who think that we should have prisons say that removing people who commit crimes from society prevents them from committing more crimes and punishes them for their behavior. They also say that putting people in prison may also prevent others who are likely to commit similar crimes from committing them.
People who think that we should not put people in prisons say that being put in prison makes people more violent and angry. People who commit minor crimes that are sent to prison meet violent criminals. As well, when people are sent to prison, they cannot see their family or children, which can cause problems for their family. Sometimes people are put in prison who have done nothing wrong. An American theory that is critical of prisons is called the prison industrial complex. People who believe in the prison industrial complex think that private prison companies want lots of people to be put in prison in order to make money.
Number of people in prison
As of 2006, there are currently nine million people in prison in the world. The United States currently has the most people in prison; it has more than 2 million people in prison. In 2002, both Russia and China also had over 1 million people in prison. In 2003, the United Kingdom had 73,000 people in prison; France and Germany had a similar number of people in prison.
Famous prisons in history
Alcatraz, San Francisco (historical)
Attica Correctional Facility, Attica, New York, scene of the most infamous prison riot in United States history
The Bastille, Paris, France (historical) In French
Devil's Island French Guiana (historical)
Leavenworth, Kansas, site of a federal prison and the military's primary prison, the United States Disciplinary Barracks.
Rikers Island, New York City, US (since 1884)
Sing Sing Correctional Facility, Ossining, New York, U.S. (since 1828)
The Tower of London, London, England (historical)
Cultural references to prisons and prison life
There are many books and poems about prisons or prison life, such as The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, père and The Ballad of Reading Gaol by Oscar Wilde.
There are also movies that depict prison life, including:
A Clockwork Orange (1971) directed by Stanley Kubrick
Papillon (1973) directed by Franklin J Schaffner
Stir Crazy (1975) directed by Sidney Poitier
Midnight Express (1978) directed by Alan Parker
Escape from Alcatraz (1979) directed by Don Siegel
The Shawshank Redemption (1994) directed by Frank Darabont
Dead Man Walking (1995) directed by Tim Robbins
The Green Mile (1999) directed by Frank Darabont
Lockdown (2000) directed by John Luessenhop
There have also been television programs, such as Prisoner: Cell Block H (1979–1986), Prison Break (2005–2009), Lockup (2005 - present) and Lockdown: Americas Hardest Prisons (2006 - present). A current TV show about a women's prison is Orange Is the New Black.
Related pages
County jail is a term used for local administrative security prisons that are in each county of the United States and for those awaiting trial as well those serving short sentences. Some of these institutions can also hold sentenced maximum security immates and some who are awaiting transport to state prisons if they're convicted of crimes.
state prisons is a term used for prisons that are in each state of the United States and for criminals convicted of crimes that land them in these institutions.
federal prison is a term for special prisons that are in each state of the United States, run by the Federal Bureau Of Prisons and for criminals who committed federal crimes that land them in these institutuions.
military prisons is a term for special prisons that are in each state of the United States, run by the miltary and for criminals who are convicted of war crimes that land them in these institutions.
References
Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish: the Birth of the Prison, New York: Random House 1975.
Basic English 850 words |
1935 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexico | Mexico | Mexico (; official name: United Mexican States , ) is a country in North America. Mexico is south of Texas, California and other American states. Guatemala and Belize are south of Mexico. Mexico is between the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico.
People living in Mexico or who are from there are called Mexicans. Most Mexican people speak Spanish. There are also Mexicans who speak Native American languages, like Nahuatl, Mayan, and Zapotec. The capital of Mexico is Mexico City.
History
Before the Europeans came, many Native American cultures existed in Mexico. The earliest was the Olmec culture in the south. The Olmecs are famous for the large stone heads they made. On the Yucatán peninsula lived the Mayans. The Mayans lived in city states ruled by kings. The Mayans were most powerful between 200 and 900 A.D. Another powerful empire belonged to Teotihuacan. Teotihuacan was a very large city, one of the largest at that time. After Teotihuacan declined the Toltecs became powerful. Things made by the Toltecs have been found from the southern parts of the U.S. all the way to Costa Rica. A famous Toltec god is Quetzalcoatl. The Toltec culture declined too, and it was succeeded by the Aztecs. The Aztecs called their own empire Mexico. A famous Aztec king was Moctezuma II.
In 1519 the Spanish explorer Hernán Cortés came to Mexico. The Aztecs thought he was the returned Quetzalcoatl, so they did not want to fight against him. Cortes allied himself with the enemies of the Aztecs. In 1521 they conquered the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan. The Aztec Empire became part of Spain. It was called New Spain.
In 1810 the Mexican priest Miguel Hidalgo started the Mexican war of independence. In 1821 the Spanish finally retreated and Mexico became independent. The first leader of independent Mexico was Agustin de Iturbide. He set up the First Mexican Empire and became emperor. But the Mexicans were not happy with him, and in 1823 the country became a republic.
A man who was very important in Mexico in the early 19th century was Antonio López de Santa Anna. He was the president of Mexico 11 times. When he became a dictator, Texas declared independence (1836). The Battle of the Alamo was part of this Texas Revolution. Between 1846 and 1848 there was war between Mexico and the United States. In this war Mexico lost its large northern areas, which became the southwestern United States. After this war Santa Anna was sent away to Venezuela.
Between 1858 and 1861 there was war again, between liberals and conservatives. The liberal Benito Juárez won the war and became president afterwards. Juarez stayed president until France invaded Mexico and made Maximilian of Habsburg emperor of the Second Mexican Empire. But Maximilian was very unpopular. After more war he was executed in 1867, and Juarez became president again.
Conservatives thought Juarez had too much power. In 1876 they ousted him, and made Porfirio Díaz, a general who had won a battle against the French, president. Porfirio Díaz made the country wealthier, but the poor people became poorer. Franciso I. Madero started the Mexican Revolution in 1910.
The next 10 years the country was in chaos. There were many presidents who ruled for a short time and all kinds of people fought against each other. Famous people from this period are Emiliano Zapata, Pancho Villa and Francisco I. Madero. When Álvaro Obregón became president in 1920 the fighting calmed down.
In 1929 President Plutarco Elías Calles founded the National Mexican Party, PNM. The party was later renamed Institutional Revolutionary Party, PRI. The party would rule for a very long time. Most PRI presidents were not popular, it was said that they were only president to become richer themselves. An exception was president Lázaro Cárdenas. He was president between 1934 and 1940.
After several decades more and more people became unhappy with the PRI. In 1968 security forces shot at protesters, this caused several hundred deaths and became known as the Tlatelolco massacre. Another uprising was in 1994 when Zapatistas rebelled in the province Chiapas.
Mainly through ballot box fraud the PRI managed to stay into power until 2000, when Vicente Fox of the National Action Party, PAN, was elected president. In total the PRI had governed Mexico for 71 years.
Politics
Mexico is a constitutional federal democracy ruled by a president. The president is elected every 6 years. The current president is Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Parliament has a Senate and House of Deputies.
States
Geography
Mexico is in the southern part of North America. It is roughly shaped like a triangle. Mexico is more than 3000 km (1,850 miles) long from northwest to southeast. Mexico is between two large seas: the Pacific Ocean in the West and the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea in the East. Mexico has two large peninsulas. Baja California in the northwest, and Yucatán in the southeast. In central and western Mexico are the Sierra Madre mountains. In the Sierra Madre is the Pico de Orizaba, the highest mountain of Mexico. In central Mexico there are also a few volcanoes like the Popocatépetl and the Iztaccíhuatl. The Pico de Orizaba is also a volcano. In the north of Mexico are deserts. In the south are tropical rainforests. Some rivers in Mexico are the Río Bravo (known in the US as the Rio Grande), the Río Balsas, the Río Pánuco, and the Río Yaqui.
People
Mexico is the most populous Spanish-speaking country in the world. It is also the second most populous country in Latin America (after Brazil). 60% of Mexicans have Native American and European forefathers; these are called mestizos. Almost 30% of Mexicans are pure Native American and 10% are European. Most Mexicans (90%) speak Spanish. 10% of the Mexicans speak a Native American language, like Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs, Maya or Zapotec. Non-indigenous ethnic groups in Mexico speak another foreign language such as Arabic or Japanese. Most people in Mexico are Catholic (89%) and 6% are Protestant.
Related page
North America
Mexican food
References
Spanish-speaking countries
1821 establishments in North America |
1936 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic%20Ocean | Atlantic Ocean | The Atlantic Ocean is the world's second largest ocean. It covers a total area of about . It covers about 20 percent of the Earth's surface. It is named after the god Atlas from Greek mythology.
Geologic history
The Atlantic formed when the Americas moved west from Eurasia and Africa. This began sometime in the Cretaceous period, roughly 135 million years ago. It was part of the break-up of the supercontinent Pangaea.
The east coast of South America is shaped somewhat like the west coast of Africa, and this gave a clue that continents moved over long periods of time (continental drift). The Atlantic Ocean is still growing now, because of sea-floor spreading from the mid-Atlantic Ridge, while the Pacific Ocean is said to be shrinking because the sea floor is folding under itself or subducting into the mantle.
Geography
The Atlantic Ocean is bounded on the west by North and South America. It connects to the Arctic Ocean through the Denmark Strait, Greenland Sea, Norwegian Sea and Barents Sea. It connects with the Mediterranean Sea through the Strait of Gibraltar.
In the southeast, the Atlantic merges into the Indian Ocean. The 20° East meridian defines its border.
In the southwest, the Drake Passage connects it to the Pacific Ocean. The Panama Canal links the Atlantic and Pacific.
The Atlantic Ocean is second in size to the Pacific. It occupies an area of about . The volume of the Atlantic, along with its adjacent seas (the seas next to it), is 354,700,000 cubic kilometres.
The average depth of the Atlantic, along with its adjacent seas, is . The greatest depth is Milwaukee Deep near Puerto Rico, where the Ocean is deep.
Gulf Stream
The Atlantic Ocean has important ocean currents. One of these, called the Gulf Stream, flows across the North Atlantic. Water gets heated by the sun in the Caribbean Sea and then moves northwest toward the North Pole. This makes France, the British Isles, Iceland, and Norway in Europe much warmer in winter than Newfoundland and Nova Scotia in Canada. Without the Gulf Stream, the climates of northeast Canada and northwest Europe might be the same, because these places are about the same distance from the North Pole.
There are currents in the South Atlantic too, but the shape of this sea means that it has less effect on South Africa.
Geology
The main feature of the Atlantic Ocean's seabed is a large underwater mountain chain called the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. It runs from north to south under the Ocean. This is at the boundary of four tectonic plates: Eurasian, North American, South American and African. The ridge extends from Iceland in the north to about 58° south.
The salinity of the surface waters of the open ocean ranges from 3337 parts per thousand and varies with latitude and season.
References
Other websites
LA Times special Altered Oceans
Oceanography Image of the Day, from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
NOAA In-situ Ocean Data Viewer Plot and download ocean observations
www.cartage.org.lb
www.mnsu.edu |
1937 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury | Mercury | Mercury may mean:
Mercury (mythology), the Roman god
Mercury (planet), the first planet from the Sun in our solar system
Mercury (element), the chemical element or atom
Project Mercury, the first human spaceflight program by the United States' NASA
Mercury (programming language), a programming language
Mercury automobile, a make of car owned by the Ford Motor Company
Mercury, France, a local government in the Savoie département of France
Bristol Mercury, a 9-cylinder aircraft engine
Freddie Mercury, singer of the group Queen |
1938 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury%20%28element%29 | Mercury (element) | Mercury, also known as quicksilver or hydrargyrum, is a chemical element. Its symbol on the periodic table is Hg, and its atomic number is 80. Its atomic mass is 200.59.
The symbol Hg stands for its Latinized Greek name hydrargyrum, meaning watery or liquid silver.
History
No one has the credit for finding mercury. It was known in ancient times. Mercury was found in Egyptian tombs that are from 2000 BC.
Chinese people also knew it from long ago. In China and Tibet, people thought using mercury would make them live longer and have better health. One of China's emperors, Qín Shǐ Huáng Dì, is said to have been buried in a tomb with rivers of flowing mercury. He died from drinking a mixture of mercury and powdered jade because he wanted to live forever. However, this only made him die of liver failure, poisoning, and brain death. The ancient Greeks used mercury in ointments. The Egyptians and the Romans used it in cosmetics. These cosmetics sometimes hurt and made faces uglier.
Properties
Physical properties
Mercury is a silvery-white liquid post-transition metal. The reason for mercury being a liquid is complex. It is heavy; a chunk of iron can float on mercury. Compared to other metals, it does not conduct heat well. However, it conducts electricity fairly well. Mercury is the only metal with a known melting point (−38.83 °C) lower than caesium. Mercury is one of the two elements that are liquids at standard temperature and pressure. Bromine is the other one.
Mercury may be seen as a transition metal, but it is normally seen as a post-transition metal. It is in Group 12 of the periodic table. Mercury has seven stable (nonradioactive) isotopes. 202Hg is the most common isotope. Mercury makes a blue to ultraviolet color in a tube when a spark is passed through it. The ultraviolet light can kill germs or light fluorescent lamps.
Chemical properties
Mercury is an unreactive metal. It does not corrode in air unless hydrogen sulfide is also there, similar to silver. Mercury can oxidize to mercury(II) oxide when heated in air. If it is heated further, it decomposes into mercury and oxygen again. It does not dissolve in ordinary acids, but can dissolve in oxidizing acids to make mercury salts. It can make amalgams when mixed with most metals, like aluminium, gold, and zinc. Iron, tantalum, tungsten, and platinum do not make amalgams with mercury. Iron flasks were used to trade mercury because of this.
Mercury can dissolve large amounts of aluminium metal, making it dangerous to transport in aluminium containers. The thin layer of oxide on aluminium stops it from amalgamating (making an amalgam with) aluminium, but the oxide coating can be damaged to expose the metal. Then the aluminium metal is dissolved and oxidizes to aluminium oxide. The aluminium oxide forms a solid and releases the mercury, which amalgamates more aluminium. This process keeps repeating until a large amount of aluminium is dissolved.
Chemical compounds
Mercury forms chemical compounds in 2 oxidation states: +1 and +2. Mercury(I) compounds are weak oxidizing agents and weak reducing agents. Most of them are colorless. They easily disproportionate to mercury(II) compounds and mercury metal. They react with oxygen in the air to make mercury(II) compounds. Many mercury(I) compounds do not dissolve in water. Mercury(I) chloride is one of the most common mercury(I) compounds. Mercury(II) compounds are strong oxidizing agents and very corrosive. Mercury(II) compounds are red, yellow, or colorless. Mercury(II) oxide and mercury(II) chloride are the most common mercury(II) compounds in the laboratory.
One thing they have in common is that they are all toxic. The soluble ones are more toxic than the insoluble ones.
Mercury(I) compounds
Also known as mercurous compounds, these are weak reducing agents and weak oxidizing agents. Most of them do not dissolve in water, making them less toxic than mercury(II) compounds. Most of them are colorless or yellow.
Mercury(I) bromide, insouble white solid
Mercury(I) chloride, calomel, insoluble, white
Mercury(I) fluoride, light yellow
Mercury(I) iodide, a little soluble, unstable, yellow
Mercury(I) nitrate, very slightly soluble, white
Mercury(I) sulfate, light yellow solid
Mercury(II) compounds
Also known as mercuric compounds, these are strong oxidizing agents. Most of them dissolve in water, making them very toxic. They are colorless or red.
Mercury(II) bromide, white solid
Mercury(II) chloride, white solid, corrosive sublimate
Mercury(II) fluoride, white solid
Mercury(II) iodide, somewhat soluble, bright red
Mercury(II) oxide, orange, yellow or red, does not dissolve in water like most oxides
Mercury(II) nitrate, soluble, white, used to make hats
Mercury(II) sulfate, white solid
Mercury(II) sulfide, red solid
Organomercury compounds
These contain mercury reacted with a organic molecule. They are even more toxic than other mercury compounds since they get absorbed very easily.
Dimethylmercury, colorless, extremely toxic liquid
Occurrence
Mercury is a rare metal. It is about as common as silver. Mercury is not expensive like silver because the mercury is very easy to get from the places where it is found. Mercury can be found in elemental (liquid) form in nature, but this is not common. Mercury as an element is the only liquid that is recognized as a mineral by the International Mineralogical Association. It is most often found in the form of cinnabar, a mercury(II) sulfide mineral. The biggest deposits of cinnabar used to be found in Spain, but now are found in China. It also occurs in other minerals like calomel, a mercury(I) chloride mineral.
Preparation
China and Kyrgyzstan are the two main makers of mercury. Mines in Italy, the United States, and Mexico have been closed. China is opening more mines because the European Union wants to use fluorescent lights, which need mercury.
Mercury is made by roasting cinnabar in a furnace. The sulfide is oxidized to sulfur dioxide, leaving mercury behind.
Uses of mercury
Medical uses
Mercury has been used in dental fillings until it was replaced with safer materials. They are an amalgam of mercury with another element. An organic mercury compound called thiomersal is used to preserve vaccines. Merbromin, another organic mercury compound, is used as an antiseptic. It has been banned in some countries like the US.
Mercury(I) chloride (also known as calomel or mercurous chloride) has been used as a diuretic, skin disinfectant, and laxative. Together with other mercury compounds, Mercury(II) chloride (also known as mercuric chloride or corrosive sublimate) was used to treat syphilis. The problem with this was that mercury(II) chloride is very toxic. Sometimes the symptoms of its toxicity were confused with those of the syphilis it was believed to treat. It is also used as a disinfectant. Blue mass, a pill or syrup in which mercury is the main ingredient, was prescribed throughout the 1800s for different conditions such as constipation, depression, child-bearing and toothaches. In the early 20th century, mercury was given to children once a year as a laxative and dewormer. Teething powders for infants also had it in them.
Since the 1930s some vaccines have contained the preservative thiomersal. In the body, this is changed to ethylmercury. At first it was thought that this mercury-based preservative can cause or trigger autism in children, but scientific studies could not show such a link. Because of this, thiomersal has been removed from most U.S. vaccines recommended for children six years of age and under. There are certain exceptions to this rule for influenza vaccines. In some cases, vaccines may still have very small amounts of thiomersal in them.
Cinnabar is still an important component of traditional Chinese, Tibetan, and Ayurvedic medicine. Certain countries do not allow the use of mercury or its compounds in drugs. For this reason, cinnabar has recently been replaced with less toxic products.
Today, the use of mercury in medicine has greatly declined in all respects, especially in developed countries. Thermometers and blood pressure devices using mercury were invented in the early 18th and late 19th centuries, respectively. Now their use is declining and has been banned in some countries, states and medical institutions. In 2002, the U.S. Senate passed legislation to phase out the sale of non-prescription mercury thermometers. In 2003, Washington and Maine became the first states to ban mercury blood pressure devices. Mercury compounds are in some over-the-counter drugs, including topical antiseptics, stimulant laxatives, diaper rash ointment, eye drops, and nasal sprays. The FDA has “inadequate data to establish general recognition of the safety and effectiveness” of the mercury in these products. Mercury is still used in some diuretics, although other things can be used for most therapeutic uses.
Other uses
Mercury is also used:
In cosmetics, (thiomersal is widely used to make mascara.)
As a liquid electrolyte in a variant of the chloralkali process.
In mining, especially of gold and silver.
In mercury-vapor lamps and fluorescent lamps.
Certain thermometers, barometers and manometers. Because of its toxicity, it can be replaced by alcohol for most of these uses.
Certain electrical switches that turn on or off when tilted.
In 2017 the worldwide use of mercury was less than half of what it was in 1980.
Toxicity
Mercury is liquid at room temperature, and fumes of mercury are very poisonous. Ingested elemental mercury is less dangerous. The biggest problems are organic mercury compounds which are eaten with food. As with other heavy metals, inorganic compounds such as mercury(II) nitrate are also highly toxic by ingestion (eating) or inhalation (breathing in) of the dust. Mercury can cause both chronic and acute poisoning.
In the year 1810, over 200 people died of mercury poisoning on the ship Triumph because a barrel of mercury had leaked.
Mercury is extremely poisonous and has to be used carefully. When mercury is spilled, there are special ways to clean it up. Smaller drops should be combined to a larger drop on hard surfaces to be removed more easily (for example, being pushed into a bag that can be thrown away). Vacuum cleaners and brooms should not be used. This is because they can spread mercury even more. Afterwards, elements such as sulfur or zinc powder should be sprinkled over the place, then collected and cleaned away. It is not easy to clean mercury entirely off clothing, so it is better not to use them anymore. Breathing in mercury vapor is also very dangerous.
Related pages
Mercury compounds
List of common elements
Periodic table
References
Metals
Chemical elements |
1942 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Africa | Africa | Africa is the second largest continent in the world. It makes up about a fifth of the world's land. It is surrounded by large areas of water. There are 54 fully recognised and independent countries in Africa, and 14.7% (1.216 billion) of the world's population lives there. It is thought to be the continent where the first humans evolved.
History
The history of Africa begins with the first modern human beings and continues to its present difficult state as a politically developing continent.
Africa's ancient historic period includes the rise of Egyptian civilization. It also includes the development of other societies outside the Nile River Valley, and the interaction between these societies and civilizations outside of Africa. In the late 7th century, North and East Africa were heavily influenced by the spread of Islam. That led to the appearance of new cultures, like the Swahili people and the Mali Empire, whose king, Musa Keita I, became one of the richest and most influential people of the early 14th century. This also led to an increase in the slave trade, which had a very bad influence on Africa’s development until the 19th century.
Slavery
Slavery has long been practiced in Africa, just like the rest of the world. But two new slave trades would create a much bigger and more violent version of slavery.
Between the 7th and 20th centuries, the Arab slave trade took 18 million slaves from Africa via trans-Saharan routes and the Indian Ocean. Between the 15th and 20th centuries (a period of 500 years), the Atlantic slave trade took an estimated 7–12 million slaves to the Americas. While some Africans collaborated with European and Asian slave traders, many were strongly opposed to slavery and avoided, protested, or fought it violently.
Africans who had been captured and sent to the French colony of Saint Domingue on slave ships played an important role in ending the Atlantic slave trade. They began the Haitian Revolution, which created Haiti, the first country to permanently ban slavery. After this revolution, European empires began to reduce slave trading and abolitionism became more popular. Between 1808 and 1860, the British Navy captured approximately 1,600 slave ships and freed 150,000 Africans who were aboard.
Colonialism
In the late 19th century, the European powers occupied much of the continent, creating many colonial and dependent territories. They left only two fully independent states: Liberia and Ethiopia (which the Europeans called “Abyssinia").
Egypt and Sudan were never formally made a part of any European colonial empire. However, after the British occupation of 1882, Egypt was effectively under British administration until 1922.
Modern history
African independence movements had their first success in 1951, when Libya became the first former colony to become independent. Modern African history is full of revolutions and wars, as well as the growth of modern African economies and democratization across the continent.
A civil war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire) began in 1998. Neighbouring African countries have become involved. Since the conflict began, it has killed an estimated 5.5 million people.
Political associations such as the African Union offer hope for greater co-operation and peace between the continent's many countries.
Climate
From north to south, Africa has most types of climate. In sequence from the north:
Alpine and mediterranean climate
Dry sandy desert
Fairly dry savannah (grassland)
Rain forest
More grassland
More deserts
Table Mountain
Running north-east to the south is the East African Great Rift Valley. This has mountains, volcanoes, deep rifts and valleys, rivers and lakes.
In fact, Africa has examples of most of the Earth's climate types.
Rainfall
Much of North Africa is dry and hot: it is dominated by the Sahara Desert and does not receive much rain. In Saharan Africa, there are few rivers or other water sources. Underground water sources are very important in the desert. These often form oases. An oasis is an area of vegetation (plant life) surrounded by desert.
In that part of the world, the wind comes mostly from the east. That does bring rain, but the Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau block the monsoon rain and prevent it from getting to North Africa. Also, the Atlas Mountains near the north coast
of Africa prevent rain from coming in from the north. That is another rain shadow.
These two rain shadows are mainly responsible for the Sahara desert.
Conditions and winds are different further south, where huge amounts of rainfall near the equator. The equator runs across the middle of Africa (see red line drawn on map). That means much of Africa is between the two tropics:
Tropic of Cancer
Tropic of Capricorn
Plants and animals
Africa has a lot of wildlife. There are many types of animals there. In particular, it is now the only continent that has many native species of large mammals. Some of them occur in very large numbers. There are antelope, buffalo, zebra, cheetah, elephant, lion, giraffe, rhinoceros, apes, hyaena, and a lot more. Over 2,000 types of fish live in African lakes and rivers.
Politics
The African Union (AU) is an international organisation. It aims to transform the African Economic Community, a federated commonwealth, into a state under established international conventions. The African Union has a parliamentary government, known as the African Union Government, consisting of legislative, judicial, and executive organs. It is led by the African Union President and Head of State, who is also the President of the Pan African Parliament. A person becomes President of the AU by being elected to the PAP and then gaining majority support in the PAP.
Extensive human rights abuses still occur in several parts of Africa, often under the oversight of the state. Most of such violations occur for political reasons, often as a side effect of civil war. Countries where major human rights violations have been reported in recent times include Uganda, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Sudan, Zimbabwe, and Côte d'Ivoire. There are 54 UN member states in Africa.
People
Africa was the homeland for the first people.
People who come from Africa are called Africans. People in the north are called North Africans and people in the south are called South Africans. Languages in eastern Africa include Swahili, Oromo and Amharic. Languages in western Africa include Lingala, Igbo, Hausa and Fulani. The most popular language in Northern Africa is Arabic.
The most populated country in Africa is Nigeria.
Countries
African diaspora
Countries with significant African descendents outside Africa:
Haiti: 98%
Saint Kitts and Nevis: 96.9%
Anguilla: 91.4%
Bahamas: 86.1%
Barbados: 81.1%
Jamaica: 76.3%
Dominican Republic: 71.1%
Cayman Islands: 60.0%
Trinidad and Tobago: 39.5%
Cuba: 34.9%
Turks and Caicos: 34.0%
Belize: 29.8%
Venezuela: 24.0%
Panama: 22.0%
Colombia: 21.0%
Brazil: 13-19%
United States: 12.9%
Puerto Rico: 6.9%
Argentina: less than 2%
References
Other websites
African & Middle Eastern Reading Room from the United States Library of Congress
Africa South of the Sahara from Stanford University
The Index on Africa from The Norwegian Council for Africa
Aluka Digital library of scholarly resources from and about Africa
Africa Interactive Map from the United States Army Africa
History
African Kingdoms
The Story of Africa from BBC World Service
Africa Policy Information Center (APIC)
Hungarian military forces in Africa
News media
allAfrica.com current news, events and statistics
Focus on Africa magazine from BBC World Service
Gondwana |
1943 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butter | Butter | Butter is a dairy food. It is made by moving the cream from whole milk for a long time. The fat in the milk separates from the liquid. The fat is butter.
Butter is often put on on bread, as a main ingredient in biscuits, as a shortening agent in some baking and cooking recipes, and for frying foods.
Often, butter is made from cows' milk, butter can also be made from the milk of other mammals, like sheep, goats, bison, and yaks. Salt, flavorings and preservatives are sometimes added to butter.
Many people use butter in their foods instead of oil.
It has a melting point of about .
There are 717 calories in of butter.
Types
Cultured butter is a butter made from fermented cream. Sweet cream butter is butter made from pasteurized fresh cream. Raw cream butter is butter made from fresh or cultured unpasteurized cream.
References
Other websites
Basic English 850 words
Dairy products
Spreads
Cooking fats |
1949 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold%20War | Cold War | The Cold War was the tense fighting between the United States and its allies and the Soviet Union (also called the USSR) and its allies between the end of World War II and the fall of the Soviet Union. It is called the "Cold" War because the Americans and the Soviet Union never actually fought each other directly. Instead, they attacked each other in conflicts known as proxy wars where a powerful country starts a war that they don't fight in.
Conflicting countries
Most of the countries on one side were allied by NATO, whose most powerful country was the United States. Most of the countries on the other side were allied by the Warsaw Pact, whose most powerful country was the Soviet Union.
The Western Bloc was the name of the capitalist countries led by the United States. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is an alliance created in 1949 and included the United States, the United Kingdom, France, West Germany, Canada, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Norway, Denmark, Greece, and Turkey. Other countries allied with the Western Bloc include Israel, Brazil, South Korea, Kenya (1960-1991), Bangladesh (1964-1968), Pakistan, North Yemen, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Philippines, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.
The Eastern Bloc was the group of socialist countries led by the Soviet Union. The Warsaw Pact was an alliance created in 1955 and included the USSR, Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary (until 1976), Poland, and Romania. Other countries allied with the Eastern Bloc included Angola (1975–1991), Cuba, Bolivia, Cambodia (1977–1979), South Yemen, Tunisia, Nepal, Bhutan, Libya (1974–1991), Mongolia (1976–1988), Jamaica, North Korea, China and Laos (1975–1991).
Background
In February 1917, Tsar Nicholas II of the Russian Empire was overthrown because people were unhappy with their living conditions (like being a serf), especially during World War I. The new government in Russia was a democratic socialist government. Unfortunately, it was ineffective, and people were still unhappy. In November 1917, a communist group called the Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, overthrew the new government and were supported by groups of workers called Soviets. The Bolsheviks created a new communist government called the Russian Soviet Federation Socialist Republic (also called simply Soviet Russia or the Russian SFSR).
However, not everyone supported the communists. Many countries that had been part of the Russian Empire had left, such as Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, and Belarus. The Russian Civil War began, with the Soviet Russian Red Army fighting against the White Army of anticommunist Russians. The White Army was not very united or organized. The Allied Powers of World War I, such as the United States, the United Kingdom, and France, invaded Russia to support the White Army and stop the Red Army. The Red Army eventually won the war in 1922, and established the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (also called the Soviet Union), along with the newly-formed Socialist Republics of Ukraine, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia.
The start of the Cold War in 1947 was caused by a belief that all governments would become either communist or capitalist. The Western Allies feared that the Soviet Union would spread communism to the rest of Europe and was very concerned that Soviet agents had learnt how to make atomic bombs after the war.
Both nations had opposed Nazi Germany although the United States worked with Nazi scientists and Soviet Union had chosen not to fight with Germany in the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact and the two occupied Poland in 1939. However, Germany turned against the Soviet Union in June 1941 and invaded it during Operation Barbarossa.
After World War II
After World War II, Germany was left in ruins. The victorious Allies that occupied it split it into four parts. in the western half of Germany, one part was given to the United States, one to the United Kingdom, and one to France. The eastern half was occupied by the USSR. The city of Berlin was also split among the four countries even though it was entirely within the eastern half.
The Federal Republic of Germany (Bundesrepublik Deutschland or BRD), or West Germany, was recognized by the Western Allies in June 1949 and was a capitalist democracy. West Berlin was considered a part of the country. The Soviets named their section of Germany the German Democratic Republic (Deutsche Demokratische Republik or DDR), or East Germany, later in 1949; it was a communist dictatorship.
From April 1948 to May 1949, the Soviets blockaded West Berlin to prevent the city from using West Germany's currency. The United States and its allies supplied the city by airplanes until September 1949 in what became known as the Berlin Airlift. Many East Germans wanted to live in West Germany for having greater quality of life and political freedom. In 1961, the East German government built the Berlin Wall, dividing the two halves of the city, and heavily guarded it to prevent more people from escaping to the west. The wall was considered a symbol of the Cold War and the Iron Curtain that divided Europe.
1950s
Espionage, or "spying," has been around for a long time and was very important during the Cold War. After its successful nuclear espionage in the Manhattan Project, the Soviets created their spy organs, especially the KGB. The CIA led Americans efforts abroad, and the FBI led counterespionage. Catching foreign spies and fighting domestic subversion were KGB functions.
In 1953, the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin died, and Nikolai Bulganin and Nikita Khrushchev took his place. Khrushchev later took sole control of the Soviet Union. Khrushchev's Secret Speech marked a period of de-Stalinization, and Khrushchev tried to undo many of the things done by Stalin (such as the Gulag prisons and Stalin's cult of personality).
In the United States, there was a "Red Scare", and when the Soviets detonated their own atom bomb, there was a big political fallout and the United States government made everybody scared about communists. Famous people in many fields who had been Communist sympathizers like in the past like Larry Adler lost their positions. Many actors were 'blacklisted' and so were not hired to act in movies, which ruined their careers. US Senator Joseph McCarthy was believed by many when he accused some important Americans of being communists, including some high government officials.
The 1950s were the beginning of the Space Race between the United States and the Soviet Union. It began with the Soviets putting the Sputnik 1 satellite into orbit around the Earth as the first country in space. The United States responded by starting NASA and soon sent up its own satellites. The Soviets also sent the first man (Yuri Gagarin) into Earth orbit and claimed that proved communism to be the better ideology.
In the 1950s, the United States (under President Dwight Eisenhower) created a policy called "New Look" to cut defense spending and to increase the number of nuclear weapons as a deterrent in order to prevent the Soviet Union from attacking the West. The Soviets also increased their nuclear force, which resulted in mutual assured destruction.
In the Suez Crisis of 1956, the Cold War alliances were broken in an important way for the first time with the Soviet Union and United States favoring one side and Britain and France the other. The Western Allies also decided to let Soviet troops suppress the Hungarian Revolution of 1956.
US Vice-President Richard Nixon engaged in several talks with Khrushchev during the 1950s. One of these was the 1959 "Kitchen Debate" in a model kitchen in Moscow. The debates highlighted the political and economic differences between the Americans and the Soviets. The following year, the United States U-2 spy plane crashed in the Soviet Union. Tensions between the two countries increased.
Cuban Missile Crisis (1962)
After the United States had invaded Cuba and failed in the Bay of Pigs, the Soviet Union attempted to supply Cuba with nuclear missiles. The missiles in Cuba would have allowed the Soviet Union to target almost the entire United States effectively. In response the United States sent a large number of ships to blockade Cuba to prevent the Soviet Union from sharing the weapons. The United States and Soviet Union agreed that the Soviet Union would no longer give nuclear weapons to Cuba if the United States didn't invade Cuba again. That was the highest period of tension during the Cold War and was the closest the world came to a nuclear war, with possible global conflict to follow.
Détente (1962–1981)
After the agreement that ended the Cuban Missile Crisis, relations between both sides eased up. Several treaties, designed to reduce the number of nuclear weapons, were signed. In 1964, the US under President Lyndon Johnson invaded North Vietnam, which resulted in a humiliating defeat for the Americans and South Vietnam in 1975. During this period of détente, the United States began building a good relationship with the People's Republic of China, which had once been an ally of the Soviet Union.
End
The policy of détente ended in 1981, when US Pesident Ronald Reagan ordered a massive military buildup to challenge Soviet influence around the world. The United States began to support anticommunists all over the world with money and weapons. The idea was to help them overthrow their communist governments.
The Soviets had a slow economy during this decade because military spending was at an all-time high. They tried to keep up with the United States in military spending but could not do so. In the Soviet war in Afghanistan, which started in 1979, the Soviets had a difficult time fighting resistance groups, with some of them armed and trained by the United States. The Soviets' failed invasion of Afghanistan is often compared to the American failure during the Vietnam War.
In the late 1980s, the new Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, made an effort to make an ally of the United States to fix world problems caused by the war, with the ultimate aim of eliminating nuclear weapons. However, that did not take place because Reagan insisted on having a nuclear missile defense system. The people of the Soviet Union were divided. Some wanted Gorbachev to fight harder to eliminate nuclear weapons, but others did not want him to be talking to the United States at all. The mixed feelings created an atmosphere of political infighting, and the people were no longer united behind one goal. Also, the Communist Party started to crumble.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and without communist rule holding together the countries that comprised the Soviet Union, it was divided into smaller countries in 1991 like Russia, Ukraine, Lithuania and Georgia. Eastern Europe got very poor and broken and returned to capitalism. The Cold War was over.
Not all historians agree on when the Cold War ended. Some think it ended when the Berlin Wall fell, but others think it ended when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.
References
Other websites
Cold War -Citizendium
Cold War |
1961 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mainland%20China | Mainland China | Mainland China, also called the Chinese Mainland, is the part of China not including the Republic of China controlling Taiwan, Kinmen, Matsu, and the Pescadores. The term also excludes Hong Kong and Macau.
In the Qing Dynasty (Manchu Dynasty), all of Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Kinmen, Matsu, the Pescadores, and Mongolia were part of the Manchu Empire. Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau were colonized by foreigners for some years (Taiwan to the Japanese, Hong Kong to the British, and Macau to the Portuguese).
By the end the Qing Empire, China became Nationalist China (the Republic of China) and it got Taiwan back in 1945. After the Communists (the People's Republic of China) took over most of China, the Nationalists kept only Taiwan, Kinmen, Matsu, and the Pescadores. Mongolia became an independent state later.
Since then, Communist China only includes the part on the continent (mainland) and some small islands that are very near (the largest communist island is Hainan). This region is Mainland China.
Later Hong Kong and Macau were returned to the government of China, but because the government calls them "special administrative regions" under a "one country, two systems" idea, they are still not thought of as part of Mainland China.
China |
1968 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital%20city | Capital city | A capital city, or capital town or capital, is a city or town, specified by law or constitution, by the government of a country, or part of a country, such as a state, province, or county. It usually serves as the location of the government's central meeting place and offices. Most of the country's leaders, embassy and officials work in the capital city. This doesn't have to be the case though: Monaco, Nauru, Switzerland and Vatican City are examples of countries that do not have a capital city. Israel said Jerusalem was its capital: Most countries don't recognise this, and most embassies are in Tel Aviv. In Japan, the city of Tokyo, which was the capital, was disbanded in 1943. Today, the 23 city districts (called wards) have the role of capital city. Each district is a city of its own, though.
Size
Capitals are usually among the largest cities in their regions and often are the biggest. For example, Montevideo is Uruguay's capital and its biggest city. The capital may also be the most important center of commerce, as in London or Bangkok.
However, a capital is not always the largest city in a country. For example, the capital of India is New Delhi, which is smaller than Mumbai.
In countries with subdivisions like the United States, the capitals of the federated states are often not the biggest cities. For example, New York City is the biggest city in the United States and in New York State, but is not the capital of either. The capital the country is Washington, DC, and the capital of the state is Albany.
An unusual case exists in Canada since the federal capital, Ottawa, is not the largest city in its province, Ontario, which is Toronto. However, Toronto is the capital of Ontario, so Toronto is a provincial capital but not a federal one.
Number
Some countries have more than one capital for different purposes. For example, Bolivia has two (Sucre and La Paz) and South Africa has three (Pretoria, Cape Town, and Bloemfontein). In a city-state like Singapore, Monaco, and the Vatican City, the capital is the country.
Not all countries have capitals. Nauru is a country that does not officially have a capital, but the district of Yaren, which is where the government is, can be called the de facto capital. Also, although many people consider the city of Bern in Switzerland to be the capital of the country, it is by law not the capital but the "federal city."
Location
Capitals can be in cities that are already there like Athens or Rome, or a new town can be built and made the capital like Canberra and Alexandria. Countries can change capitals from time to time. Several cities have been the capital of China. The United States once had its capital in Philadelphia and later in New York City but moved to the new city of Washington, D.C. in 1800. Rio de Janeiro was the capital of Brazil until the new city of Brasilia was built between 1956 and 1960.
Reykjavík, the capital of Iceland, is the world's northernmost capital city.
Seat of government
Most countries have their seat of government within their capital. However, Malaysia has its capital at Kuala Lumpur, but its seat of government is at Putrajaya. In the Netherlands, the constitution calls Amsterdam the capital, but the seat of government is The Hague.
References |
1970 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate | Climate | Climate means the usual condition of the temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind, rainfall, and other Meteorology|meteorological Weather|elements in an area of the Earth's surface for a long time. In simple terms climate is the average condition for about thirty years. Climate and weather are different. Weather is the day to day conditions in the atmosphere. The types of climates are: Tropical, Desert/dry, Temperate, Polar, Mediterranean.
Polar climate (also called boreal climate), has long, usually very cold winters, and short summers.
Temperate climates have four seasons. Some of the countries which have a temperate climate are: most of the European countries.
Deserts. They just have one or two seasons such as: Saudi Arabia and most of the African countries.
Tropical climates have warm temperature and only two seasons; wet and dry. An example of a place with a tropical climate is the Amazon Rainforest in Brazil.
The Mediterranean climate is usually hot and dry in summer, and is cool and wet in winter. An example of a country with a Mediterranean climate is Spain.
The latitude, ground, and height can change the climate of a location. It is also important to note if oceans or other large bodies of water are nearby. Climates are most commonly classified by temperature and precipitation. The most commonly used classification was the Köppen climate classification, first made by Wladimir Köppen. The Thornthwaite system, which was used from 1948, not only uses temperature and precipitation information, but evapotranspiration too. This makes it useful for studying how many different kinds of animal species there are, and about the things that could happen when climates change. The Bergeron and Spatial Synoptic Classification systems focus more on where the air masses which help make climates come from.
Climates can change after a long time. Nowadays people are making the world warmer.
Related pages
Climatology
Köppen climate classification
References |
1971 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fold%20%28geology%29 | Fold (geology) | Rock often deforms in such a way that it bends instead of breaking. This is called a fold. The term fold is used in geology when one or a stack of originally flat, level surfaces, such as sedimentary strata, are bent or curved as a result of pressure and high temperature. The basic cause is likely to be some aspect of plate tectonics.
When two forces act towards each other from opposite sides, rock layers are bent into folds. The process by which folds are formed due to compression is known as folding. Folding is one of the endogenetic processes; it takes place within the Earth's crust.
Folds in rocks vary in size from microscopic crinkles to mountain-sized folds. They occur singly as isolated folds and in extensive fold trains of different sizes, on a variety of scales. A set of folds distributed on a regional scale constitutes a fold belt, a common feature of orogenic zones.
There are large-scale and small-scale folds. Large-scale folds are found mainly along a collision boundary between two tectonic plates.
Structure of a fold
The upfold is called an anticline. The downfold is called a syncline.
The imaginary line joining the highest points along the upfold is called the crest line.
The flanks of a fold are known as the limbs.
The central line from which the rock strata dip away in opposing directions is called the axis of fold.
According to the degree of folding of the layers, folds can be classified into five main types.
symmetrical fold: two limbs are of equal steepness
Asymmetrical fold: one limb is steeper than the other
Overfold: one limb is pushed over the other
Recumbent fold: two limbs are nearly parallel
Overthrust fold: compressional force is so great that the rock strata are broken and slide over the other.
Formation of a fold mountain
Large depressions called geosynclines form between plates. Seas filled the geosynclines and rivers flowing into them carried sediments (sand and silt) which build up on the sea bed.
Over millions of years the sediments were compressed, by their own weight, into sedimentary rocks, e.g. sandstone, limestone etc.
Landforms formed by folding
Large-scale folding will develop parallel ranges of round-top mountains along destructive plate boundaries. These mountains are known as fold mountains.
Examples of fold mountain ranges:
Himalayas
Alps
Andes
Rocky Mountains
Geology |
1972 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volcanism | Volcanism | Volcanism (or vulcan activity) is the eruption of magma onto the surface of the Earth.
Magma under the crust is under very great pressure. When folding and faulting occur, cracks or fractures appear. These are lines of weakness.
When these lines of weakness develop downward in the crust and reach the magma, they will release the pressure in the magma. This allows magma to rise up along the lines of weakness and intrude into the crust. Some magma may even reach the Earth's surface as lava.
Volcanoes
Volcanoes are the places where magma reaches the earth's surface. The type of volcano depends on the location of the eruption and the consistency of the magma.
Intrusions
Intrusive volcanism is when magma is forced into the rocks that make up the Earth's crust. When it cools and become solid while still underground, different features called plutons are formed. The rock formed is intrusive igneous rock.
These plutons will be exposed at the surface of land when the overlying rocks are removed after a long time of denudation (laid bare by erosion).
Major features formed by intrusive volcanicity include: batholith, laccolith, dyke, pipe and sill.
Batholiths: Have large scale magma that has been solidified at the base of the mountain.
Dyke: Is a small scale magma cooled within the earths crust that stands vertically to the existing rocks.
Sill: Is a small scale magma cooled near the earths surface that lies horizontally to the existing rocks.
Laccolith: A small scale magma that pushes the overlying layers of rocks to form a dome shaped structure.
Extrusions
The molten magma under great pressure forces its way through the fissure of underground rocks and reaches the Earth's surface to form "igneous extrusion".
Major extruded materials include gas, liquid and solid.
Gas - sulphur, hydrogen, carbon dioxide and hot steam (geysers). When uprising magma decreases in pressure suddenly, gases within magma explode to the Earth's surface and cause destruction.
Solid - pyroclast. Mainly composed of: country rock, fragments of solidified lava and fine materials (volcanic ash and dust). It can be classified by size into volcanic bombs, volcanic blocks, lapilli, volcanic ash and volcanic dust.
Liquid - lava, hot springs.
Features formed are:
Caldera: a large depression in a former volcanic site. When it is filled with water it is called a 'caldera lake'.
Composite cones: a large volcanic mountain formed by solidified lava on the surface.
Geysers: eruption of hot water and steam shooting into the air at regular intervals.
Hot springs: springs of hot water that flow out continuously without shooting up into the air.
Notes
Other websites
Volcanology |
1975 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific%20Ocean | Pacific Ocean | The Pacific Ocean is the body of water between Asia and Australia in the west, the Americas in the east, the Southern Ocean to the south, and the Arctic Ocean to the north. It is the largest named ocean and it covers one-third of the surface of the entire world. It joins the Atlantic Ocean at a line drawn south from Cape Horn, Chile/Argentina to Antarctica, and joins the Indian Ocean at a line drawn south from Tasmania, Australia to Antarctica.
As the Atlantic slowly gets wider, the Pacific is slowly shrinking. It does this by folding the sea floor in towards the centre of the Earth - this is called subduction. This bumping and grinding is hard so there are many earthquakes and volcanoes when the pressure builds up and is quickly released as large explosions of hot rocks and dust. When an earthquake happens under the sea, the quick jerk causes a tsunami. This is why tsunamis are more common around the edge of the Pacific than anywhere else. Many of the Earth's volcanoes are either islands in the Pacific, or are on continents within a few hundred kilometers of the ocean's edge. Plate tectonics are another reason which makes Pacific Ocean smaller.
Other websites
EPIC Pacific Ocean Data Collection Viewable on-line collection of observational data
NOAA In-situ Ocean Data Viewer plot and download ocean observations
NOAA PMEL Argo profiling floats Realtime Pacific Ocean data
NOAA TAO El Niño data Realtime Pacific Ocean El Niño buoy data
NOAA Ocean Surface Current Analyses – Realtime (OSCAR) Near-realtime Pacific Ocean Surface Currents derived from satellite altimeter and scatterometer data |
1976 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antarctica | Antarctica | Antarctica is the Earth's southernmost continent. It is on the South Pole. It is almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle. Around Antarctica is the Southern Ocean. It is the fifth-largest continent in area after Asia, Africa, North America, and South America. About 99% of Antarctica is covered by ice. This ice averages at least 1.6 kilometers (1.0 miles) thick.
Antarctica is the coldest, driest and windiest continent. It is also, on average, the highest of all the continents. Antarctica is considered a desert. It has yearly precipitation of only 200 mm (8 inches) near the sea and far less inland. No humans live in Antarctica permanently. However, about 1,000 to 5,000 people live through the year at the science stations in Antarctica. Only plants and animals that can live in cold live there. The animals include penguins, seals, nematodes, tardigrades and mites. Plant life includes some grass and shrubs, algae, lichen, fungi, and bacteria.
The first known sighting of the continent was in 1820. Antarctica was mostly forgotten for the rest of the 19th century. This was because of its hostile environment, few resources, and isolation. The first official use of the name Antarctica as a continental name in the 1890s is said to have been used by Scottish cartographer John George Bartholomew.
The Antarctic Treaty was signed in 1959 by 12 countries. More countries have signed the treaty since then. So far, 46 countries have signed the treaty. The treaty declares that military activities and mineral mining are against the law. However, it supports scientific research. It also helps the continent's ecozone. More than 4,000 scientists from different nations and different interests experiment together.
Geography and geology
Antarctica is covered by an ice sheet about four kilometres thick. Under the ice it is mostly land, although the ice shelves are over the ocean. The Transantarctic Mountains divide the land between East Antarctica in the Eastern Hemisphere and West Antarctica in the Western Hemisphere.
Antarctica has some important features hidden by the ice. One is Lake Vostok, which has been covered by ice for at least 15 million years. The lake is 250 km long and 50 km wide. Another is the huge Gamburtsev mountain chain, which are the size of the Alps, yet entirely buried under the ice. The Gamburtsev range has a nearby massive rift valley similar to the East African Great Rift Valley. It is called the Lambert system. Scientists used radar that can work under ice to survey the whole of Antarctica.
Ancient Antarctica
Scientists say Antarctica used to be much further north and much warmer, moving to where it is now through continental drift. From 2011 to 2013, scientists collected fossils of frogs, water lilies, and shark and ray teeth, showing that these life forms used to live on Antarctica. The frog fossils were about 40 million years old. Scientists say marsupials, animals that keep their babies in pouches, could have started in South America, migrated to a warm ancient Antarctica, and gone to Australia from there.
Life in Antarctica
Plants
Few land plants grow in Antarctica. This is because Antarctica does not have much moisture (water), sunlight, good soil, or a warm temperature. Plants usually only grow for a few weeks in the summer. However, moss, lichen and algae do grow. The most important organisms in Antarctica are the plankton which grow in the ocean.
Animals
One important source of food in the Antarctic is the krill, which is a general term for the small shrimp-like marine crustaceans. Krill are near the bottom of the food chain: they feed on phytoplankton and to a lesser extent zooplankton. Krill are a food form suitable for the larger animals for whom krill makes up the largest part of their diet. Whales, penguins, seals, and even some of the birds that live in Antarctica, all depend on krill.
Whales are the largest animals in the ocean, and in Antarctica. They are mammals, not fish. That means that they breathe air and do not lay eggs. Many different kinds of whales live in the oceans around Antarctica.
Whalers have hunted whales for hundreds of years, for meat and blubber. Nowadays most whaling is done in the Antarctic area.
Penguins only live south of the equator. Several different kinds live in and around Antarctica. The biggest ones can stand nearly 4 feet (1.2m) tall and can weigh almost 100 pounds (40 kg). The smallest kinds are only about one foot (30 cm) tall. Penguins are large birds that swim very well but cannot fly. They have black backs and wings with white fronts. Their feathers are very tightly packed and make a thick cover. They also have a layer of woolly down under the feathers. The feathers themselves are coated with a type of oil that makes them waterproof. A thick layer of blubber also keeps them warm. Penguins eat fish and are at home in the ocean. They come up on the land or ice to lay their eggs and raise the chicks. They nest together in a huge group.
Largest land animal
The largest animal in Antarctica that lives entirely on land is a wingless midge.
History of its discovery
For a long time, people had believed that there was a great continent in the far south of Earth. They thought this Terra Australis would "balance" the lands in the north like Europe, Asia and North Africa. People have believed this from the times of Ptolemy (1st century AD). He suggested this idea to keep the balance of all known lands in the world. Pictures of a large land in the south were common in maps. In the late 17th century, people discovered that South America and Australia were not part of the mythical "Antarctica". However, geographers still believed that Antarctica was much bigger than it really was.
European maps continued to show this unknown land until Captain James Cook's ships, HMS Resolution and Adventure, crossed the Antarctic Circle on 17 January 1773, in December 1773. They crossed it again in January 1774. In fact, Cook did come within about of the Antarctic coast. However, he was forced to go back because of ice in January 1773.
The first confirmed sighting of Antarctica were by three different men. According to different organizations, ships captained by three men saw Antarctica in 1820. The three men were Fabian von Bellingshausen (a captain in the Russian Imperial Navy), Edward Bransfield (a captain in the Royal Navy), and Nathaniel Palmer (an American seal hunter out of Stonington, Connecticut). The first recorded landing on mainland Antarctica was by the American sealer John Davis. He landed on West Antarctica on 7 February 1821. However, some historians are not sure about this claim.
People began discovering different parts of Antarctica and mapping them. This was slow work because they could only work in the summer. At last a map was made, and people began to talk about exploring the land, not only the sea. However, this would have been very hard work. They would have to break through the ice that was around Antarctica. Then they would have to land on it and bring in enough things to live on while they explored the land.
The first serious exploration of the Antarctic land was the Nimrod Expedition led by Ernest Shackleton in 1907–09. They were the first to climb Mount Erebus and to reach the South Magnetic Pole. Shackleton himself and three other members of his expedition made several firsts in December 1908 – February 1909. They were the first humans to cross the Ross Ice Shelf, and the Transantarctic Mountain Range (via the Beardmore Glacier). They were the first to set foot on the South Polar Plateau.
Robert Falcon Scott, the most well known of all of the explorers, wanted to be the first man to reach the South Pole. At the same time, another team from Norway lead by Roald Amundsen started. They both raced each other to the South Pole, but in the end Amundsen won because he had made a good use of his sleigh dogs. Scott had used ponies and motor sleds, but when he got to the South Pole he found a message from Amundsen, showing that he had beaten Scott.
On his way back, Scott and three companions met a blizzard and froze to death while waiting for it to finish. The people who found him eight months later also found his records and diary, which he had written to the day he died.
Climate change and global warming are showing effects in Antarctica, particularly the Antarctic Peninsula.
People
No one lives in Antarctica all the time. People who go to Antarctica are there to learn about Antarctica, so most of the people who live there are scientists. Most live at national science stations on the coast. Some bases are far from the sea, for example at the South pole. They study the weather, animals, glaciers, and the Earth's atmosphere. Some scientists drill ice cores to find out about the weather long ago. People who work in the Antarctic must be careful, because a blizzard can start any time and anywhere. When they go far away from their shelter, they must always take lots of food just in case.
Today, people explore Antarctica using snowmobiles, which are faster than dogs and can pull heavier loads. Many come to Antarctica just for a short visit. There are companies in South America that have vacations to Antarctica, so people pay to go there on a ship. Some people take their own boats.
Related pages
List of uninhabited regions
References
Related pages
List of rivers of Antarctica
Other websites
Western Antarctica warming confirmed December 23, 2012 USA Today
Gondwana
Uninhabited regions |
1977 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/South%20Pole | South Pole | The South Pole is the most southern point on the Earth. It is in Antarctica and is the center of the Southern Hemisphere. From the South pole, everywhere is North.
The geographic North and South poles are the poles the earth spins around, the ones people see on a globe where all the north/south lines meet. These poles stay in the same place, and are usually the ones we mean if we just say North or South Pole. People can tell that they are at these poles by looking at the stars (at the poles, a star just circles around at the same height, never dipping to the horizon). The Sun rises once a year and gives the South Pole half a year of summer but it is always cold. When the Sun sets half a year later it makes half a year of winter which is even colder. The South Pole is always cold because the Sun never rises high in the sky.
The south magnetic pole is something different. It is defined by the Earth's magnetic field, as roughly where a magnetic compass needle points. People can tell they are near these poles by looking at a compass.
Exploration
The South Pole is hard to reach. Unlike the North pole, which is covered by the sea and flat sea-ice, the South Pole is on a mountainous continent. This continent is called Antarctica. It is covered by thick ice (more than a mile thick in the centre). The south Pole is very high up, and is very windy. It is far from places where people live, and ships going there often have to find their way through thick sea ice. Once ashore, land-travelling explorers have to travel more than a thousand miles to get to the pole. They must cross a floating ice shelf, then up onto the ice-covered land, up steep mountain glaciers covered in broken, twisted ice slowly sliding to the sea, and across a high level land ("plateau") covered in ice and swept by strong freezing winds.
Two expeditions early in the 20th century, led by Robert Falcon Scott and then Ernest Shackleton, failed to reach the South Pole, but returned safely. Shackleton turned back quite close to the pole, but it was late in the season and supplies were low. He knew that he would be risking the lives of his men, so he turned back.
The first men to reach the South Pole were a group from Norway led by Roald Amundsen. They arrived at the Pole on December 14, 1911 and left the Norwegian flag. Amundsen and his men returned home safely. Amundsen's story is one of excellent planning, good leadership, and willingness to learn from others: this made extreme endurance unnecessary, and perhaps made the successful expedition less of a story, and therefore perhaps less famous, than the next one.
The most famous South Pole expedition is perhaps the one that failed badly. This was the British expedition (not just UK, it included people from the British Empire, who at that time were considered British citizens) led by Robert Falcon Scott. Scott and four other men, dragging their equipment on sledges, had hoped to be first to the Pole. When they arrived, they saw a Norwegian flag. A letter left for Scott showed that Amundsen and his men had beaten them by a month, by using dogs to pull their sledges.
On their journey back from the Pole, Scott's team found that food "dumps" were short of supplies, particularly kerosene. Kerosene was very important: not just for cooking but for melting ice. Once it ran out, they would have no water to drink. One man collapsed and died while walking. Oates knew his frostbitten feet could not carry him back to base, and that he might delay his companions and risk their lives. He committed suicide by walking out of their tent into the cold. Scott and his remaining two companions died of starvation, thirst, and cold - trapped in the tent by bad weather until their supplies ran out. Next spring, the three bodies in the tent were found by a team from the main part of the expedition - who had spent the winter in the expeditions's hut by the sea. Scott's letters to his wife, written in the tent when he knew he was going to die, have just (Jan 2007) been made public.
Apart from Ernest Shackleton's expedition to cross the Antarctic (another heroic failure, but Shackleton saved all his men, after a very courageous sea crossing in an open boat, and a crossing of an unknown mountain range while starving and freezing), this was the end of the "heroic" age of exploration. Motors, Planes, Radios, and GPS ensured that following expeditions were never truly "unsupported".
Today there is an American science base at the South Pole. It is named the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station to honor the two explorers.
Climate
The South Pole has a desert climate. It almost never gets any precipitation. Air humidity is near zero. However, high winds can cause the blowing of snowfall, and the accumulation of snow amounts to about per year. The former dome seen in pictures of the Amundsen-Scott station is partially buried due to snow storms, and the entrance to the dome had to be regularly bulldozed to uncover it. More recent buildings are raised on stilts so that the snow does not build up against the sides.
References
Related pages
North Pole
Geography of Antarctica |
1978 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian%20Ocean | Indian Ocean | The Indian Ocean is the ocean surrounded by Asia to the north, Australia and the Pacific Ocean to the east, the Southern Ocean to the south, and Africa and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. It is named for the river Indus and Ancient India on its north shore. The Bay of Bengal, the Arabian Sea, the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea are all parts of this ocean.
The deepest point in the Indian Ocean is in the Java Trench near the Sunda Islands in the east, 7500 m (25,344 feet) deep. The average depth is 3,890 m (12,762 ft). The Indian Ocean is the third largest ocean, 28,350,000 square miles in size. The majority is in the southern hemisphere.
Other websites
Maps of the indian Ocean
Océan Indien in easy French
NOAA In-situ Ocean Data Viewer Plot and download ocean observations
The Indian Ocean in World History: Educational Website Interactive resource from the Sultan Qaboos Cultural Center
The Regional Tuna Tagging Project-Indian Ocean with details of the importance of Tuna in the Indian Ocean..
Detailed maps of the Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean Trade: A Classroom Simulation
CIA - The World Factbook, Oceans: Indian Ocean |
1980 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic%20Ocean | Arctic Ocean | The Arctic Ocean is the ocean around the North Pole. The most northern parts of Eurasia and North America are around the Arctic Ocean. Thick pack ice and snow cover almost all of this ocean in winter, and most of it in summer. An icebreaker or a nuclear-powered submarine can use the Northwest Passage through the Arctic Ocean to go between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.
The ocean's area is about 14.056 million km2, which is the smallest of the world's 5 oceans, and it has of coastline. The central surface covered by ice about thick. The biology there is quite special. Endangered species there include walruses, whales and polar bears. Year by year the Arctic Ocean is becoming less icy, as a result of global warming.
The average depth of the Arctic Ocean is . The deepest point is in the Eurasian Basin, at .
Geography
The Arctic Ocean covers an area of about 14,056,000 km2. The coastline is 45,390 km (28,200 mi) long It is surrounded by Eurasia, North America, Greenland, and by several islands.
It is generally taken to include Baffin Bay, Barents Sea, Beaufort Sea, Chukchi Sea, East Siberian Sea, Greenland Sea, Hudson Bay, Hudson Strait, Kara Sea, Laptev Sea, White Sea and other bodies of water. It is connected to the Pacific Ocean by the Bering Strait and to the Atlantic Ocean through the Greenland Sea and Labrador Sea.
Countries bordering the Arctic Ocean are: Russia, Norway, Iceland, Greenland, Canada and the United States.
Climate
The Arctic Ocean is in a polar climate. Winters are characterized by the polar night, cold and stable weather conditions, and clear skies.
The temperature of the surface of the Arctic Ocean is fairly constant, near the freezing point of seawater. Arctic Ocean consists of saltwater but its salinity is less than other oceans. The temperature must reach −1.8 °C (28.8 °F) before freezing occurs.
Ice covers most of the Arctic Ocean. It covers almost the whole ocean in late winter and the majority of the ocean in late summer. Much of the Arctic ice pack is covered in snow for about 10 months of the year. The maximum snow cover is in March or April — about 20 to 50 cm (7.9 to 19.7 in).
The climate of the Arctic region has varied significantly in the past. As recently as 55 million years ago, during the eocene epoch, the region reached an average annual temperature of 10–20 °C (50–68 °F). The surface waters of the Arctic Ocean warmed enough to support tropical lifeforms.
Animal and plant life
Endangered marine species in the Arctic Ocean include walruses and whales. The area has a fragile ecosystem. The Arctic Ocean has relatively little plant life except for phytoplankton. Phytoplankton are a crucial part of the ocean. They feed on nutrients from rivers and the currents of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
References
Other websites
The Hidden Ocean Arctic 2005 Daily logs, photos and video from exploration mission.
Oceanography Image of the Day, from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Arctic Council
The Northern Forum
Arctic Environmental Atlas Interactive map
NOAA Arctic Theme Page
Daily Arctic Ocean Rawinsonde Data from Soviet Drifting Ice Stations (1954–1990) at NSIDC
Arctic time series: The Unaami Data collection
NOAA North Pole Web Cam Images from Web Cams deployed in spring on an ice floe
NOAA Near-realtime North Pole Weather Data Data from instruments deployed on an ice floe
Search for Arctic Life Heats Up by Stephen Leahy
International Polar Foundation
National Snow and Ice Data Center – Daily report of Arctic ice cover based on satellite data
Marine Biodiversity Wiki
Oceans
Arctic |
1983 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inuit | Inuit | The Inuit are one of many groups of First Nations who live in very cold places of northern Canada, Greenland, the Arctic, and Alaska.
They are sometimes called Eskimos, a word which likely comes from the Algonquin language and may mean "eater of raw meat" which is a fallacy many believe due to misinformation. The term Eskimo means "netter of snowshoes. Most Inuit prefer to be called by their own name, either the more general Inuit particularly in Canada or their actual tribe name. Inuit is a tribe name but not all indigenous Arctic peoples in North America are Inuits. Particularly in the United States Alaska, the word Eskimo would be accepted as a more general term, but would probably refer to themselves by their tribe name.
Etymology
Inuit in Canada and Greenland like the name Inuit because it is their own name for themselves. Inuit means more than one, one person is an "Inuk". The native Greenlanders are related to the Inuit. The language of the Inuit is Inuktitut, and it is one of the official languages of Nunavut and of the Northwest Territories in Canada. Eskimo is a term more frequently used in mainstream United States where such concerns get less attention.
Inuits in Alaska have various concerns, such as protecting the caribou from American oil pipelines. Anti-seal hunt campaigns work to eliminate this aspect of northern culture, which most Inuits regard as vital to their lives.
Traditional culture
Inuit ate both raw and cooked meat and fish, as well as the fetus's of pregnant animals. Whale blubber was burned as fuel for cooking and lamps.
Inuit were also Nomadic people, but they did not domesticate any animals except for dogs, which they used to pull their sleds and help with the hunting. They were hunter-gatherers, living off the land. They were very careful to make good use of every part of the animals they killed. Respect for the land and the animals they harvested was and is a focal part of their culture.
Inuit lived in tents made of animal skins during the summer. In the winter they lived in sod houses and igloos. They could build an igloo out of snow bricks in just a couple of hours. Snow is full of air spaces, which helps it hold in warmth. With just a blubber lamp for heat, an igloo could be warmer than the air outside. The Inuit made very clever things from the bones, antlers, and wood they had. They invented the harpoon, which was used to hunt seals and whales. They built boats from wood or bone covered with animal skins. They invented the kayak for one man to use for hunting the ocean and among the pack ice.
Inuit sleds could be built from wood, bone, or even animal skins wrapped around frozen fish. Dishes were made from carving soapstone, bones, or musk ox horns. They wore two layers of skins, one fur side in, the other facing out, to stay warm.
Inuit had to be good hunters to survive. When an animal was killed in a hunt, it was thanked respectfully for offering itself to the hunter. They believed it intended to provide itself as a gift towards the survival of the hunter and his children. Their gratitude was deeply sincere and is an important aspect of their belief system. In the winter, seals did not come out onto the ice. They only came up for air at holes they chewed in the ice. Inuit would use their dogs to find the air holes, then wait patiently until the seal came back to breathe and kill it with a harpoon. In the summer, the seals would lie out on the ice enjoying the sun. The hunter would have to slowly creep up on a seal to kill it. The Inuit would use their dogs and spears to hunt polar bears, musk ox, and caribou. Sometimes they would kill caribou from their boats as the animals crossed the rivers on their migration.
The Inuit even hunted whales. From their boat, they would throw harpoons that were attached to floats made of inflated seal skins. The whale would grow tired from dragging the floats under the water. When it slowed down and came up to the surface, the Inuit could keep hitting it with more harpoons or spears until it died. Whale blubber provide Vitamin D and Omegas to their cultural diet, and prevented rickets. The whaling industry around the world has depleted the whale population, and now traditional whale hunting for subsistence purposes is rare around the world. Inuits have added to their modern northern diet with grocery foods, which are normally very expensive in the north.
Clothes
During the summer months, the Inuit were able to gather berries and roots to eat. They also collected grass to line their boots or make baskets. Often the food they found or killed during the summer was put into a cache for use during the long winter. A cache was created by digging down to the permafrost and building a rock lined pit there. The top would be covered with a pile of rocks to keep out the animals. It was as good as a freezer, because the food would stay frozen there until the family needed it. Inuit cultural traditions and traditional stories provided each new generation with the lifeskills and knowledge to survive their environment and work together. They usually moved around in small groups looking for food, and sometimes they would get together with other groups to hunt for larger animals such as whales. The men did the hunting and home building, and also made weapons, sleds, and boats. The women cooked, made the clothes, and took care of the children. Children and infants under the ages of 5 became easy victims of hypothermia, and if they were to die, their mothers would weight the children's corpses with stones and wrap them in fishnets before placing the bodies through holes in the ice. The mothers believed the children's souls were being offered to the god Phallus, who would reincarnate them as whales. Something wrong here Phallus isn't found in North America. Some Canadian companies like Canada Goose and Moose Knuckle have clothing designs based on Inuit culture.
North American Arctic people today
Today, most Inuit live in modern houses. Many still hunt or fish for a major part of their food supply and sometimes some income. Seal pelts are used to protect from the extreme cold in the Arctic and are far more effective than man-made fabrics. The technology has worked well for many thousands of years. Besides, commercial winter clothes are expensive. Today, they use rifles and snowmobiles when hunting, however traditional values respecting the animals hunted still very much applies. In Alaska, many of the people have received money from the oil discovered in that state on their traditional lands.
The Arctic is very different from the rest of the world. The way of life in the south does not work well in the north. Canada values having Inuit peoples in Canada's northernmost lands as proof of sovereignty over the Canadian portion of the Arctic Circle. It's a very challenging living in an Arctic environment. There is some controversy over the practice of sinking the corpses of child victims of hypothermia under the ice, as bodies have been known to drift through the currents and wash up on the eastern coast of Canada, and, upon occasion, the northeastern United States.
References
Native American
Arctic |
1986 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basket | Basket | A basket is a container. It is usually light.
Basket makers use a wide variety of materials to create a basket, such as bark, willow rods, leaves, wire, plastic, paper, and rope. There are three basic kinds of baskets—coiled, twined, or woven. A woven basket is made of spokes and weavers: the spokes run up and down and the weavers go over and under the spokes. A coiled basket is made by sewing rings of a fibrous material to the previous ring. Twined baskets have flexible weavers that are twined around the spokes in a variety of patterns.
Basketmaking is so old that it features in myths from various cultures. Baskets are used to carry babies, plants, fruit, cotton, and Easter eggs. Coroners once used a basket coffin to collect bodies, thus the expression "a basket case" which meant the person was dead.
In basketball, the basket is an open net fixed to a metal ring in which players try to throw the ball.
Basic English 850 words |
1987 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software | Software | Computer software, also called software, is a set of instructions and documentation that tells a computer what to do or how to perform a task. Software includes all different programs on a computer, such as applications and the operating system. Applications are programs that are designed to perform a specific operation, such as a game or a word processor. The operating system (e.g. Mac OS, Microsoft Windows, Android and various Linux distributions) is a type of software that is used as a platform for running the applications, and controls all user interface tools including display and the keyboard.
The word software was first used in the late 1960s to emphasize on its difference from computer hardware, which can be physically observed by the user. Software is a set of instructions that the computer follows. Before compact discs (CDs) or development of the Internet age, software was used on various computer data storage media tools like paper punch cards, magnetic discs or magnetic tapes.
The word firmware is sometimes used to describe a style of software that is made specifically for a particular type of computer or an electronic device and is usually stored on a Flash memory or ROM chip in the computer. Firmware usually refers to a piece of software that directly controls a piece of hardware. The firmware for a CD drive or the firmware for a modem are examples of firmware implementation.
Today, software has become an important part of our lives. software is used everywhere. software engineers are responsible for producing fault-free software which has literally become an essential part of our daily lives. Changeability and conformity are two of the main properties of software design. There are also different processing models for designing software including Build and Fix, Waterfall and Agile software processing design methods.
Types of Software
The different types of software can be put into categories based on common function, type, or field of use. There are three broad classifications:
Application software are the computer programs for performing user tasks such as word processing and web browsers.
System software is used to start and run computer systems and networks. This includes operating systems.
Computer programming tools (also known as development software) are used to create application and system software. This is done by translating and combining computer program source code and libraries into executable RAMs. These include compiler and linker.
Related pages
Computer program
Free software
software engineering
Computer science |
1988 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Container | Container | A container is an object used for holding something. People put things in a container. The use of shipping containers is called Containerization.
Types of container
Bottle
receptacle
Box
Can
Tin
Jug (container)
Jar
Pan
Tub
Carton
Packet
Barrel
Vessel
Crate |
1989 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/South%20America | South America | South America is the continent to the south of North America.<ref>"South America . ', 6th ed. 2001–6. New York, Columbia University Press": "fourth largest continent ..., the southern of the two continents of the Western Hemisphere." Archived from the original 2009-02-10. Retrieved 2017-03-24</ref> These two continents are separated by the Panama Canal. There are seven continents which make up the globe, South America being the 4th largest. South America includes 14 countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Falkland Islands (United Kingdom), French Guiana (France), Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela.
South America is attached to Central America at the boundary of Panama. Geographically all of Panama – including the part east of the Panama Canal is usually included in North America alone, among the countries of Central America.Geography: Panama CIA World Factbook 2008.
List of Countries
Natural resources
The soil in Argentina's Pampas is among the best in the world. Brazil's soil is very good for growing coffee. A great number of minerals have been found. Few, however, have been mined. Among those that were mined are iron, manganese, gold, and gemstones. The tropical forests are rich in valuable trees, like mahogany, ebony, and rubber. Oil is also a resource in some places.
Wildlife
South America is home to a large variety of animal life. These include animals such as jaguars, macaws, monkeys, anacondas, llamas, piranhas, toucans, tapirs, cougars, condors and chinchillas.
Tourist attractions
The most popular attractions are:
Machu Picchu, a historic site in Peru which is a city made of stone and has a over 26 mile marathon.
The Iguazu Falls, a waterfall on the border between Argentina and Brazil
The Angel Falls, the world's tallest waterfall, in Venezuela
Rio de Janeiro and its carnival in Brazil is a huge seaside city in Brazil, famed for its Copacabana and Ipanema beaches, 38m Christ the Redeemer statue atop Mount Corcovado and for Sugarloaf Mountain, a granite peak with cable cars to its summit. The city is also known for its sprawling favelas (shanty towns). Its raucous Carnaval festival, featuring parade floats, flamboyant costumes and samba dancers, is considered the world’s largest.
The Patagonia region in Argentina and Chile
The Christ Redeemer in Brazil, a large, white statue of Jesus Christ.
Related pages
Latin America
Americas
Latin American Literature
The Amazon rain forest
The amazon rain forest is a moist grassy land where many wild animals live and contains the amazon river which is the 2nd longest river in the world and has the largest volume of water. The world's longest river is the Nile in Africa. The forest is known as a rain forest as it rains very often but due to the dense surroundings not every droplet reaches the bottom. The Amazon is shared by eight countries''' (Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana and Suriname) and stretches for 6.7 million kilometers2. In the amazon rain forest, hundreds of thousands of trees have been cut down for wood and paper, meaning that the forest is endangered. Unlike the Boreial forest in Canada the trees are not getting replanted.
References
Gondwana |
1992 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bed | Bed | A bed is a piece of furniture that people sleep on. It normally has a soft mattress on a bed frame. Many beds also have bed sheets to cover the mattress and additional sheets for the people to sleep under. People also use a pillow under their heads. A bed comes in many different sizes including a single, double and king size.
History
In August 2020 archaeologists reported the discovery of the oldest grass bedding from Middle Paleolithic (at least 200,000 years ago). This was much older than the oldest previously known bedding.
They found insect-repellent plants and ash layers beneath the bedding. This would have made a dirt-free, insulated base which helped to keep away insects. So early beds were little more than piles of straw or some other natural material (e.g. a heap of palm leaves, animal skins, or dried ferns).
Here's an example of what they said: "Several cultures have used ash as an insect repellent because insects cannot easily move through fine powder. Ash blocks insects' breathing and biting apparatus, and eventually dehydrates them. Tarchonanthus (camphor bush) remains were on top of the grass from the oldest bedding in the cave. This plant is still used to deter insects in rural parts of East Africa".
Mattresses stuffed with feathers were first used in Ancient Rome.
In Ancient Egypt, beds were considered to be status symbols. While the lower classes simply slept on a heap of palm bows or straw, the wealthy constructed wood platform beds that were ascended by stairs, were often curtained, and piled high with cushions for comfort.
In Ancient Rome, the bed was utilized as a multi-purpose reclining surface rather than just a place to sleep. Several beds, or "dining couches" were arranged around the perimeter of the home's living space, and friends and family would recline in bed while socializing, studying, and dining.
Types of beds
There are several kinds of bed in use today. Several terms refer to the size of the mattress. Some kinds are usually temporary, such as camp cots, air mattresses, and hammocks.
Single bed
Double bed
Bunk beds
Twin beds
Camp bed/ Cot
Futon
Cot/ Crib
Carrycot/Portacrib
Cradle
Hospital bed
References
Basic English 850 words
Furniture |
1994 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asia | Asia | Asia is a large region on Earth mainly in the northern hemisphere. Asia is connected to Europe in the west, forming a continent called Eurasia, though sometimes it is viewed as a separate continent from Europe. Some of the oldest human civilizations began in Asia, such as Sumer, China, and India. Asia was also home to some large empires such as the Persian Empire, the Mughal Empire, the Mongol Empire, and the Ming Empire. It is home to at least 44 countries. Turkey, Russia, Georgia, Kazakhstan and Cyprus are partly are also considered european.
Area
Asia includes a large amount of land. Covering about 30% of the world's land area, it has more people than any other continent, with about 60% of the world's total population. Stretching from the icy Arctic in the north to the hot and steamy equatorial lands in the south, Asia contains huge, empty deserts, as well as some of the world's highest mountains and longest rivers.
Asia is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea, the Black Sea, the Arctic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, and the Indian Ocean. It is separated from Europe by the Pontic Mountains and the Turkish Straits. A long, mainly land border in the west separates Europe and Asia. This line runs North-South down the Ural Mountains in Russia, along the Ural River to the Caspian Sea, and through the Caucasus Mountains to the Black Sea.
Regions
East Asia
Southeast Asia
South Asia
Central Asia
West Asia
North Asia
List of countries
Geologically in Europe and Asia
Geologically in Europe and Asia
Geologically in Europe and Asia
Only Sinai Peninsula
Geologically in Europe and Asia
Geologically in Europe and Asia
Geologically in Europe and Asia
Geologically in Europe and Asia
Some countries are variously located in both Europe and Asia, namely Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Cyprus, and Turkey.
The Sinai Peninsula of Egypt lies in the Arabian peninsula, with the rest of the country lying in North-East Africa.
Related pages
Asia Minor
Asian Games
Southeast Asia
References |
1996 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wall | Wall | A wall is a vertical dividing surface. It divides space in buildings into rooms or protects buildings. It is usually made of stone or brick. Walls have two main purposes: to support the top part of buildings, and to divide space, giving protection from invasion, escape, and weather.
Before powerful artillery was invented, many cities had protective walls. Since they are not suitable for defense any more, most city walls have been removed.
The term "the Wall" usually referred to the Berlin Wall, built during the Cold War, which fell in 1989, but may also refer to the Pink Floyd album of the same name.
Retaining wall
A retaining wall is a structure made to hold soil from collapsing. It is made in special areas for any other construction work, such as farming or road making.
Types of retaining wall are:
Anchored wall
Cantilever wall
Gravity wall
Piling wall
Main type of walls
Load Bearing Wall is a structural element. It carries the weight of a house from the roof and upper floors, all the way to the foundation. It supports structural members like beams, slab and walls on above floors.
Non-Load Bearing Wall doesn’t help the structure to stand up and holds up only itself. It doesn’t support floor roof loads above. It is a framed structure. Most are interior walls whose purpose is to divide the structure into rooms.
Partition Wall separates spaces from buildings. It can be solid, constructed from brick or stone. It is a framed construction. The partition wall is secured to the floor, ceiling, and walls. It is enough strong to carry its own load. It resists impact. It is stable and strong to support wall fixtures. The partition wall works as a sound barrier and it is fire resistant.
Cavity Wall A cavity wall or hollow wall consists of two separate walls, called leaves or skins, with a cavity or gap in-between. The two leaves of the cavity wall may be of equal thickness if it a non-load-bearing wall or the internal leaf may be thicker than the external leaf, to meet the structural requirements.
Veneered Wall holds up the material. It can be made of brick or stone. The most famous veneered wall is made of brick. The wall is only one wythe thick. It became the norm when building codes began to require insulation in interior walls. It is light weighted. Veneered walls can be built quickly.
Related pages
Fire wall
Wallpaper
Great Wall of China
References
Basic English 850 words |
1998 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coordinated%20Universal%20Time | Coordinated Universal Time | Coordinated Universal Time (or UTC) is the standard time system of the world. It is the standard by which the world regulates clocks and time. It is, within about 1 second, mean solar time at 0° longitude.
The standard before was Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). UTC and GMT are almost the same. In fact, there is no practical difference which would be noticed by ordinary people.
Some websites, for example Wikipedia, use UTC because it does not make any country look more important than the others. It offers one time for all the Internet (the same time can be used by people all over the world).
Time zones are often named by how many hours they are different from UTC time. For example, UTC−5 (United States east coast) is 5 hours behind UTC. If the time is 07:00 UTC, the local time is 02:00 in New York (UTC−5) and 10:00 in Moscow (UTC+3).
07:00 UTC is also written more simply as 0700Z (or 07:00Z).
Note that UTC uses the 24-hour clock. That means there is no 'AM' or 'PM'. For example, 4:00PM would be 16:00 or 1600. UTC also does not use daylight savings time - that way the time stays consistent the entire year.
When this page loaded, it was , , in UTC.
References
Time zones
fi:Aikajärjestelmä#UTC |
1999 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television | Television | Telegram television (also known as a TV) is a machine with a screen. Televisions receive broadcasting signals and change them into pictures and sound. The word "television" comes from the words tele (Greek for far away) and vision (sight).
Sometimes a television can look like a box. Older TVs had a large cathode ray tube in a large wooden frame and sat on the floor like furniture. Newer TVs are much lighter and flatter.
A TV can show pictures from many television networks. Computers and mobile devices also can be used for watching television programs.
The television was invented in the 1920s but the equipment was expensive and the pictures were poor. By the 1950s, these problems had been fixed and TVs became widespread.
At first, all televisions used an antenna (or aerial). This would pick up television programmes from broadcasting stations. A TV station could be many miles or kilometers away, and still be received. TVs can also show movies from VCD and DVD players or VCRs. Cable TV and Satellite television can provide more programs at once than broadcast can. Video game consoles connect to most modern TVs. Some computers can also use a TV as a computer monitor.
All TVs have screens where the picture is viewed. Before the 1950s these were usually "black and white", which made everything look grey, but all modern TVs show colors. Most 20th century screens also had rounded corners. That is because television screens were cathode ray tubes. These are like heavy glass jars with one side bulging out to form the screen.
Today flat panel displays are the usual kind. These are usually flat rectangles with straight edges. This long rectangle looks more like the shape of a movie theatre screen. This is called widescreen. If a widescreen set was 30 cm tall, it would be 53 cm wide. For this to work best, TV shows also need to be made in widescreen. Widescreen sets can still be any size, but they have the same widescreen shape.
The early 21st century is also when digital television transmission became more common than analog television. |
2002 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sociology | Sociology | Sociology is the study of societies and how humans act in groups. Sociology is a social science. People who study sociology are called sociologists. A society is the community of people living in a particular country or region and having shared customs, laws, and organizations.
Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyès in 1780 was first to use the term. The problems caused by the change to an industrial society, where many people moved to cities and worked in factories, were an early focus of sociology. Auguste Comte, Max Weber and Émile Durkheim were leading figures in the study of social phenomena. Themes included: community, authority, status, alienation and lack of power.
In the 2000s, some sociologists look at such things as: race, ethnicity, class, gender, the family and social interaction. They also study the breakdown of social structures; crime and divorce.
Work of sociologists
Sociologists research the structures that organize society, such as race, gender (whether a person is male or female), and social classes (rich or poor). They study the family and examine problems such as crime and drug abuse.
Most sociologists work in one or more specialty areas or "sub-fields". Sociology includes many sub-fields that examine different aspects of society. For example, social stratification studies inequality and class structure in society. The field of demography studies changes in population size or type. Criminology examines criminal behavior and crime. Political sociology studies government and laws. Sociology of race and sociology of gender examine how people think about race and gender.
Many sociologists also do research outside of the university. Their research is supposedly intended to help teachers, lawmakers, and government administrators to make better institutions, government programs, and rules.
Sociologists often use statistics to count and measure patterns in how people act or behave. Sociologists also interview people or hold group discussions to find out why people behave in certain ways. Some sociologists combine different research methods.
History of sociology
Social analysis has been done since the time of Plato. Sociology became accepted as a type of science in the early 1800s. European cities were changing as many people moved into cities and began working in factories. Sociologists tried to understand how people interacted and how groups interacted.
The word "sociology" was invented by French thinker Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyès in 1780. Early thinkers who wrote about sociology included Auguste Comte and Max Weber.
Sociology was taught in a university for the first time at the University of Kansas in 1890. The first European department of sociology was founded in 1895 at the University of Bordeaux by Émile Durkheim. The first sociology department to be established in Britain was at the London School of Economics and Political Science in 1904. In 1919 a sociology department was established in Germany at the Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich by Max Weber.
Related pages
Political economy
Anthropology
Social psychology
Social structure
Sociolinguistics
Sociological imagination
Structural functionalism
Marxism
Further reading
Babbie, Earl R. 2003. The Practice of Social Research, 10th edition. Wadsworth, Thomson Learning Inc.,
Giddens, Anthony. 2006. Sociology (5th edition), Polity, Cambridge.
Nisbet, Robert A. 1967. The Sociological Tradition, London,
Other websites
An insight to Human Sociology |
2004 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky | Sky | The sky is the appearance of the atmosphere around the surface of the planet from our point of view. We see many objects that are actually in space such as the Sun, the Moon, and stars because they are in the sky. On a clear day the sky appears blue. At night it appears from very dark blue to black. The deepness of the blue increases as we look toward the horizon, and up to the point above us.
The sky, which is made up of gas molecules, is blue because of the random scattering of sunlight by the molecules. Rayleigh scattering defines the amount of scattering of light rays. Blue light scatters much more than red, which is why the sky appears blue on a clear day. Depending on the time of day, the sky may appear different colors. At dawn or dusk the sky may appear red, orange, or even green and purple depending on how low the sun is and how close it is to night.
Other planets have skies too. Because the types of gases in their atmospheres are different, they have different sky colors. For example, the sky on Mars is red.
Many things can be seen in the sky. There are objects from space like the Sun, Moon, and stars. There are also many weather events seen in the sky. For example, these can be clouds, rain, lightning, or fog. Weather is caused by different patterns and temperatures in the atmosphere. Other things that can be seen in the sky are birds, other flying animals, and aircraft.
Other websites
Day Sky Images
Night Sky Images
Sky Photo Gallery
Why is the sky blue?
References
Basic English 850 words |
2012 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tone%20language | Tone language | A tone language, or tonal language, is a language in which words can differ in tones (like pitches in music) in addition to consonants and vowels.
Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai, Punjabi, Yorùbá, Igbo, Luganda, Ewe, and Cherokee are tonal. The other languages, including Indo-European languages such as English and Hindi, are not tone languages.
In some languages, it is pitch accent that is important instead. A word's meaning can then change if a different syllable is stressed. Examples include Ancient Greek, Hebrew, Swedish, Norwegian, Serbo-Croatian, Lithuanian, and some Asian languages like Japanese and Korean. However, pitch accent is different from tones.
Some tones may sound alike to people who do not speak a tone language. They are the most difficult part of learning a tone language for those people.
Example
In Mandarin, the most famous example "mā má mǎ mà ()" has four different words each pronounced in exactly the same way but with four different tones. If numbers identify the tones, they can be written ma1 ma2 ma3 ma4, which means "mom hemp horse scold." Some ways of romanization mark each tone by a different spelling; ma1 ma2 ma3 ma4 in Pinyin would be written ma mha maa mah in Gwoyeu Romatzyh. Most use numbers or accent marks (mā má mǎ mà in Pinyin). There is a passage called Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den (). It has 92 characters; all read the same way in Mandarin ("shi") but with different tones.
Mandarin does not have many syllables: the words for "mother," "hemp," "horse," "scold," and a word put at the end of sentences to make it a question are all pronounced "ma:"
"Mother" is "ma" that is high and level.
"Hemp" is "ma" that starts low and ends high.
"Horse" is "ma" that starts fairly high, dips very low, and then goes back up again.
"Scold" is "ma" that starts high and ends low.
To make a question, "ma" is added at the end, but it is kept very soft and short and about the same level.
Mandarin has "first tone," "second tone," "third tone," "fourth tone," and "neutral tone." Other Chinese dialects have more tones, some as many as twelve.
Tonal markings
Vietnamese and Pinyin use accents as the tone marks for the Latin alphabet. Each accent shows an altered sound for the syllable. Most syllables have only one tone marking, but the letters in the syllable can be altered by other markings. Syllables usually form one word in un-hyphenated compound words.
Pinyin may have style differences because its use is to help Westerners. On the other hand, Vietnamese has a national script that always follows and uses the same style.
References |
2017 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollar | Dollar | A dollar is a type of currency. Many countries have named their money the dollar, so it is important to say which dollar is being talked about. The symbol for the dollar is a capital letter S, pierced by one or two vertical lines: $.
History
The dollar is named after the thaler. The thaler was a large silver coin first made in the year 1518. The thaler named after the Joachimsthal (Joachim's valley) mine in Bohemia (Thal means valley in German). The later Spanish Peso was the same size and was often called "Spanish dollar" and the similar coin of the Dutch Republic was called “lion dollar”. In the 18th century it became a world currency. Many national currencies were originally Spanish dollars including the ones now called dollar or peso and the Japanese yenand Chinese Renminbi.
List of dollars
Australian dollar
Bahamian dollar
Barbadian dollar
Belize dollar
Canadian dollar
East Caribbean dollar
Hong Kong dollar
Namibian dollar
New Zealand dollar
Singapore dollar
United States dollar
Zimbabwean dollar
Currency |
2020 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer | Beer | Beer is also the name of a place in Devon, England - Beer (Devon)
Beer is a type of alcoholic drink. It is made with water, hops, barley (types of cereal grains), and types of yeast (a fungus that produces alcohol). A process called fermentation turns sugar into alcohol, using yeast. Another product of the fermentation is carbon dioxide.
Classification from the type of fermentation
In general, all alcoholic drinks where yeast turns sugar into alcohol are called beer. In these cases, distillation is not used. The difference to wine is that with wine, sugars from plants, such as fruit sugar, or that made by animals is used. As an example, mead is a wine made from honey. Japanese sake is made from rice, and uses yeast for fermentation; so even if some people call it rice wine, sake is really a kind of beer.
Making beer
The act of making beer is called "brewing". Beer is made by adding warm water to malted barley and other grains. The enzymes in the barley change the malted barley and other grains into simple sugars. This is called the mash. The water is then sparged (drained) from the grain. The water is now called wort. The wort is boiled and hops are added. Hops provide flavour and preserve the beer. After boiling the wort is cooled and yeast is added. The yeast turns the sugars into alcohol and the wort into beer.
Different beers can have different natures, depending on the ingredients used; for example, an ale uses top fermenting yeast. Top fermenting yeasts eat more sugar and produce more alcohol. A lager uses bottom fermenting yeast. Bottom fermenting yeasts eat less sugar and produce a crisper, cleaner taste. Adding hops makes the beer more bitter and aromatic. Specialty malts (different types of cooked barley) produce different flavours and colours. These flavours and colours are most notable in dark beers like Porter and Stout.
Different countries have different ways to make beer. In Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Czech Republic, and Slovakia, beer is usually made from just hops, malt, water, and yeast. This is because of the Reinheitsgebot. The Reinheitsgebot was a law that said says that beer can only be made from hops, malt, and water. Yeast was discovered after the Reinheitsgebot. The law was overturned by the European Union in 1992. In Belgium, however, beers have always been made with wheat, sugar, fruit, and other ingredients.
Different ways to make beer
The type of yeast used determines the kind of beer made:
Some kinds of yeast ferment at a higher temperature, usually at 15-20 °C. The fermentation process is quicker.
Other kinds ferment at a lower temperature, usually 4-8 °C. Beers made with this kind usually have a longer shelf-life.
Some beers ferment sponaneously from yeast that can be found in the environment.
The history of beer
The earliest records of beer were written around 7000 years ago by the Sumerians. It is said that the Sumerians discovered the fermentation process by accident. It is not known exactly how this happened, but it could be that a piece of bread or grain became wet, and a short time later, it began to ferment and made a pulp that caused people to become drunk. A seal around 4,000 years old is a Sumerian "Hymn to Ninkasi", the goddess of brewing. This "hymn" is also a recipe for making beer. A description of the making of beer on this ancient engraving in the Sumerian language is the earliest account of what is easily recognised as barley, followed by a pictograph of bread being baked, crumbled into water to form a mash, and then made into a drink, that is recorded as having made people feel "...wonderful and blissful". It could even be possible that bread was first baked to be a way to make beer that is easy to carry around. The Sumerians were probably the first people to brew beer. They had found a "divine drink" -- they felt it was a gift from the gods.
Amount of alcohol in beer
Normal beers have around 3-5 % alcohol (for the volume, i.e. in 100ml beer there is 3-5ml alcohol). In brewing beer, the amount of alcohol can be made more or less quite easily. The Belgian types of beer are made by adding more sugar. Through the fermentation, this will then turn to alcohol. Today, there are beers with between 2% and about 16% of alcohol (about the same alcohol content as wine). Spirits can have up to 80% alcohol. Some beer labels say there is no alcohol in them because it was taken out later. This is not completely true, though. Beers "without alcohol" usually do have less than 1% of alcohol. |
2024 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP%20address | IP address | An IP address (short for Internet Protocol address) is a label which is used to identify one or more devices on a computer network, such as the internet. It can be compared to a postal address. An IP address is a long
number written in binary. Since such numbers are difficult to communicate, IP addresses are usually written as a set of numbers in a given order. Devices using IP addresses use the internet protocol to communicate.
The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority assigns IP addresses to regional internet registries (RIRs). The RIRs assign them to Internet Service Providers. Internet Service Providers then assign IP addresses to their customers. Very often, people have a router or gateway at home, to which they connect computers, printers, and other devices. These routers or gateways are often configured to assign "local" IP addresses to the devices that are connected.
Each address has two parts: one that specifies the computer or group of computers, and another which specifies the network. A device can have more than one IP address. Certain types of IP addresses are used to address a group of devices, while others are used to address only one device. Certain types of addresses are unique, others can be re-used. A number of IP addresses are used for special purposes, for example to obtain an IP address automatically.
An IP address is converted to physical or Media Access Control Address using the Address Resolution Protocol (ARP). If an IP address is your phone number, then your MAC address is your name. You may change your phone number, but your name will not change.
Example
Suppose one of our friends wants to meet us but they don’t know our address. He asks for our address and then we give our address (Example: 123 Main Street, Anytown, USA). After giving the address, he or she can easily locate our address. The same thing is done in case of internet. Every network is assigned an address.
Who allocates IP Address
IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority) allocates the IP address. IANA is responsible for the IP addressing system.
What an IP address looks like
An IP address is a long binary number, made of ones and zeros. An IPv4 address is 32 binary digits (or bits) long. An IPv6 is 128 bits long, allowing many more IP addresses to be used. IP addresses are usually written in human-readable form, where 8 bits are grouped into one octet. IPv4 addresses are usually written as a group of four numbers. Each number can take a value from 0 to 255. IPv6 addresses are written as a group of eight hexadecimal numbers. Many Ipv6 addresses contain many zeroes. There are special rules which say that in certain cases, these zeroes do not need to be written.
Public and private addresses
Certain IP addresses can be assigned freely on the local area network. Since they are not unique, they are not routed on the internet. The addresses which can be freely assigned are called private IP addresses, and the ones which are unique are called public. To be routed, a private address needs to be translated into a public one. This process of translating between private and public addresses is called network address translation, or NAT. Routers and firewalls often also perform this task.
Reaching one or more devices
There are three different types of addresses:
Unicast addresses: The address is assigned to one specific device. This is the most common case, most addresses are unicast addresses.
Broadcast addresses: Addresses all computers on the same network. There are certain cases where this is useful, such as to obtain a new address automatically. The sender sends the data once, and the devices used for routing the data make copies, as needed.
Multicast addresses: This case is similar to the broadcast case above: Some devices are interested in receiving certain data, and the network copies the data as needed. The big difference to the broadcast case above is that all devices connected to the broadcast network see the data sent using broadcast. With multicast, devices need to subscribe to see a given content. The devices on the same network that are not subscribed will not see the content.
Obtaining a new IP address
There are different ways of getting a new IP address. One of them is called Bootstrap Protocol (usually shortened to BOOTP). The device that needs a new address, does not know what network it is in, so it uses an IP address of all zeroes (0.0.0.0) which it sends as a broadcast to the current network, on a special port. In addition, it sends the MAC address of the network card, plus a 4 byte random number. The BOOTP server will send a reply, also as broadcast, addressed to a different port. The reply will contain the mac address of the client, the random number, and the IP address of the client. When the client receives the data, it will set the address specified. If the BOOTP server is configured that way, it will also send the IP address and hostname of the BOOTP Server, the name and path to a file which should be loaded to boot the client (using TFTP) or the name of a directory, which the client should mount using NFS.
DHCP extends BOOTP, and allows to send more information, such as the address of a time server, or information which is useful for routing.
IP addresses obtained automatically can be dynamic or static. Static addressing means the same machine will always get the same IP address. With dynamic addresses, a device will get the next address which is not used. Dynamic addresses which are used need to be reviewed from time to time. If they are not renewed, they can be used for other devices.
IP Version 4
With IPv4, each address consists of four 8-digit binary numbers, called octets. An IPv4 address is 32 bits in total. The biggest number one can make with 8 regular digits is 99,999,999, but the biggest number one can make with 8 binary digits is 255 (11111111 in binary), so each octet can be any number from 0 to 255.
An IPv4 address could look something like this:
198.51.100.137
Each octet is converted to its decimal form and separated by a period.
There are are also special meanings associated with two different ending numbers. In general, a last number of 0 stands for the network (called base address), and a last number of 255 stands for all hosts on that network (called broadcast address). Computers that are on the same local network share 3 of the 4 numbers. A computer can be on more than one network. It can also have several names.
Public/Private addresses
The problem with IPv4 is that it only allows for 4.3 billion addresses, and we've almost used them all. To delay this, Network Address Translation (NAT) was created. Network Address Translation has a network share one public IP address and give every computer on the network a private IP address. Everyone living in the same house uses the same address, but mail can be meant for multiple different people living in the house.
Special IP addresses
There are some IP addresses that are reserved for special purposes. For example, the address 127.0.0.1 is called the Loopback Address and will "loop back" any packets sent to this address back to the computer that sent them, like sending mail to yourself. Although this may not seem useful, it is used to test servers.
Network
It identifies the class of a network.
Host Part
It identifies the host on a network.
Static IP Address
It is a permanent internet address. It has to be configured manually. It is used in smaller networks. All servers use static IP addresses. It is a simple way for communication.
Dynamic IP Address
(Dynamic means Constantly changing)
It is a temporary internet address. It is assigned by a DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) server from a specific range of IP address.
IPv4 subnetting
To make a network work faster, it is split up into subnets. To do this, an IP address contains a network ID, subnet ID, and a host ID. A special binary number called a Subnet Mask is used to determine the size of the network, subnet, and host IDs.
The original IPv4 only supported 254 networks, so in 1981 the Internet addressing specification was changed to a classful network architecture. Classful network design allowed for a larger number of individual networks. The first three bits of an IP address determined its class. Three classes (A, B, and C) were defined for normal computer communication (Unicast). The size of the network ID was based on the class of the IP address. Each class used more octets for the network ID, making the host ID smaller and reducing the number of possible hosts.
Classful networks have been replaced by Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) since 1993. CIDR also provides a network address and host address. CIDR does not have classes, which means network and host address sizes don't have to be in octets.
An IPv4 Address in CIDR notation looks like192.168.0.14/24The slash and number represent the amount of bits that the network id uses, in this case 24 or 3 octets.
IP Version 6
Because IPv4 is only 32 bits, the number of available addresses will run out. To prevent this, an organization called the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) created IP Version 6 (IPv6), which will eventually finish replacing IPv4.
IP Version 6 uses 8 octets each 16 bits = 128 bits in total. Octets in IPv6 are written in hexadecimal, and separated by colons (:). An IPv6 address might look like this:
2001:0db8:85a3:0000:0000:8a2e:0370:7334
An IPv6 address can be long and this can lead to mistakes when typing them into the computer or writing them down. There are two ways in which an IPv6 address can be made shorter without leaving anything out:
Leading zeroes can be left out: 2001:0db8:00b8:0008:0000:0000:0000:0001 becomes 2001:db8:b8:8:0:0:0:1
Any number of sequential, all-zero 'chunks' may be compressed to simply ::. This can be done only once in the same address: 2001:0db8:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0001 could be written as 2001:db8::1
DNS
DNS stands for Domain Name System
It is also called a service server, and is based on client server network architecture. Like a phonebook, it contains a database of public IP addresses.
Other versions
Versions before IPv4 were experimental and never widely used. Version 5 was used exclusively for the Internet Stream Protocol, which was also never widely used.
Internet |
2025 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurasia | Eurasia | Eurasia is the combined landmass of Europe and Asia in the northern part of Earth. It has the Atlantic Ocean on its west, and the Pacific Ocean to the east. The Arctic Ocean is to its north, and the Mediterranean and Indian Ocean to its south. It is the largest of the continents. Its name comes from adding the "Eur" from "Europe" to "Asia". It and Africa form a part of the world called "Afro-Eurasia".
Some geographers say Eurasia is one continent, because Europe and Asia are mostly on the same tectonic plate and do not have a sea between them. The Ancient Greeks divided the world they knew into Europe, Asia and Africa. To them, the Aegean Sea was the division between the Balkan Peninsula in Europe and Asia Minor in Asia. North of the Sea of Marmara, the Greeks thought the lands on the western side of the Black Sea was Europe and the eastern side was Asia. The ancient Greeks did not know very much about the lands north of the Black Sea. Since Classical Antiquity, people have talked about Asia and Europe separately, so it is now a tradition to see them as two continents.
Some other continents, which are not completely divided by sea, are joined together by a thin strip of land (called an isthmus). An example is North America and South America, which are connected by the Isthmus of Panama. Europe and Asia are not divided by a sea, nor by any isthmus.
Outside of geological definitions, Eurasia also includes the Indian subcontinent and the Arabian Peninsula.
Sometimes Eurasia is divided into West Eurasia and East Eurasia. Here, the dividing line is the Ural Mountains. West Eurasia includes Europe and the Middle East. Historians sometimes add North Africa to West Eurasia, because the Sahara Desert divides North Africa from Sub-Saharan Africa, and it is as difficult to cross as a sea. Also, North Africa is culturally linked to Europe by the Mediterranean Sea.
List of countries
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Geologically in Europe and Asia
The OECD’s Eurasia activities involve 13 countries extending from the borders of the European Union to the Far East:
Afghanistan
Armenia
Azerbaijan
Belarus
Georgia
Kazakhstan
Kyrgyzstan
Mongolia
Republic of Moldova
Tajikistan
Turkmenistan
Ukraine
Uzbekistan
Turkey
Laurasia |
2028 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/North%20Pole | North Pole | The North Pole is the point that is farthest north on Earth. It is the point on which axis of Earth turns. It is in the Arctic Ocean and it is cold there because the sun does not shine there for about half a year and never rises very high. The ocean around the pole is always very cold and it is covered by a thick sheet of ice.
There is also a Magnetic North Pole. It is near the physical North Pole. A compass points toward the magnetic North Pole.
There is a star called the North Star (or Polaris) that is always in the sky above the North Pole. People can tell how far north they are by seeing how high the North Star appears in the sky.
Climate
Related pages
South Pole
References
Arctic |
2029 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plural | Plural | In linguistics, noun phrases have grammatical number. Plural is one kind of grammatical number. In English, plural noun phrases are counted as more or less than one (e.g., 32 degrees, no bananas, 0.5 liters, 1.2 grams, two times, three fish, 20 mothers). In contrast, a singular noun phrase usually refers to something that you would count as one only (e.g., one time, a glass, the sun, my mother, Jennifer). Noun phrases that cannot be counted are also singular in English (e.g., water, the meat, some space, etc.).
In many languages, a suffix (word ending) is added to a word to show that the word is plural. In English, the normal plural suffix is -s (e.g., cat is singular, and cats is plural).
Plurals in English
There are a number of exceptions:
Singulars ending in s are usually the same in plural: species, mumps, innings and so on. However, proper nouns ending in 's' take add 'es' in plural: Jones becomes the Joneses.
Compound words add the plural to the noun part: sons-in-law, Lord Mayors, Courts Martial.
Singulars ending in y become ies in the plural if a consonant is before the suffix: day becomes days, but spy becomes spies. Personal names are again exceptions: the plural of Mary is Marys.
Singulars ending in f usually changes to ves: dwarf to dwarves, leaf to leaves, and so on.
Special cases: some plurals just have to be learnt. The plural of person is normally people, but sometimes persons is used.
Invariant nouns: The common names of animals is often used as both singular and plural. One can say "We shot grouse today" correctly no matter what number were killed. With "fish" there is a choice. The traditional English usage is that the word is used for both singular and plural, but American usage seems to prefer fishes as the plural. With groups of animals, one uses the singular, as in a herd of bison or a shoal of herring. However, if the animals are known as individuals then, for example, we feed the ducks, or stroke our cats. There are other cases where there is no plural at all, as with sheep, salmon, deer. Other general words which add no suffix in plural are aircraft and offspring. Some look like singular but are always plural, such as vermin, livestock, cattle, people.
It is fair to say that most native English-speakers make mistakes in this area, which is one of the more troublesome aspects of English.
Other languages
All European languages have plural forms. The suffix that is used in each language is different from the one that is applied to English nouns.
In other languages, such as Chinese, Korean and Japanese, there is usually no plural ending.
References
Grammar |
2031 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander%20Gode | Alexander Gode | Alexander Gottfried Friedrich Gode-von Aesch, or simply Alexander Gode (October 30, 1906 – August 10, 1970), was a German-American linguist, and translator. He helped create the auxiliary language Interlingua.
American linguists
American translators
German people
1906 births
1970 deaths |
2032 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oceania | Oceania | Oceania is a name used in geography for the region made up of Australia, Polynesia, Melanesia, and several other island nations in the surrounding area. It is often listed as one of the continents of the world.
The term "Oceania" does not have one single agreed definition. The widest definition of Oceania includes the entire region between continental Asia and the Americas, including Australasia, as well as islands in the Pacific Rim such as the Japanese archipelago, Taiwan, and the Aleutian islands.
On the other hand, the Oceania ecozone includes all of Micronesia, Fiji, and all of Polynesia except New Zealand. Sometimes, people use the term 'Oceania' to include only the Polynesian and Melanesian islands in the Pacific Ocean, as separate from Australasia. When Oceania is treated seperately from Australia, the region of Oceania is referred to as "Australia and Oceania".
In the United Nations' geographic regions, Oceania includes Australia and the nations of the Pacific from Papua New Guinea east, but not the Malay Archipelago or Indonesian New Guinea.
A smaller usage of Oceania as a continent includes only Australia, Tasmania, New Guinea, and the islands between them. This part of the world is usually called Australasia instead. For these reasons, it is not correct to say that Australasia is part of Oceania, because what is meant by 'Oceania' is not clear. Australasia has an exact definition in biogeography and geology; Australasia includes New Zealand, Australia (including Tasmania), and Melanesia, New Guinea, and the islands just north and east of Australia. All these are south-east of the Bali–Lombok line, also known as the Wallace Line.
References
Oceania |
2033 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern%20Ocean | Southern Ocean | The Southern Ocean is the ocean around Antarctica. It means the waters of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans around the continent of Antarctica. Since the 1770s geographers have discussed its limits. Nowadays, sixty degrees south latitude is often accepted. Some people call this ocean the Antarctic Ocean.
The total area is 20,327,000 km², and the coastline length is 17,968 km.
Other websites
Oceanography Image of the Day, from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
The CIA World Factbook's entry on the Southern Ocean
The Fifth Ocean from Geography.About.com
NOAA In-situ Ocean Data Viewer Plot and download ocean observations
NOAA FAQ about the number of oceans
Geography of Antarctica |
2035 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catalan%20language | Catalan language | The Catalan language is a Romance language spoken in Catalonia, Valencian Community, the eastern part of Aragon, the Balearic Islands, a small zone of Murcia (all of them in Spain), Andorra, North Catalonia (in France) and the Italian city of L'Alguer. Together, those places are often called the Catalan Countries.
The language that most similar is Occitan. Catalan also has similarities to other Romance languages, such as Spanish, Italian, French and Portuguese. It came from Vulgar Latin and was first spoken in the in the Eastern Pyrenees in the Middle Ages.
There are about 4 million people who speak Catalan as a first language and about 6 million people as a second language. Catalan is the sixth-most-spoken Romance language and also the most-spoken language that is not an official language in the European Union.
References
Languages of Europe
Romance languages
Catalonia |