Zhang Fei was later killed by his own officers, because after the death of his brother Guan Yu, he became a drunk.
Dong Zhuo
Dong Zhuo (董卓 139-192) was a reckless general in ancient China. He took control over the imperial court of Han in 189. He was later killed by his own foster son, Lu Bu.
Dong Zhuo had been a successful warrior and general since his youth. Anyway, he was defeated by Yellow Scarves rebels in 184 and demoted. After the death of Emperor Ling, the eunuchs kidnapped the young follower Liu Bian and his brother Liu Xie. Dong Zhuo freed them and intimidated the kidnappers so they committed suicide by drowning in the Yellow River. Dong then brought the emperor and his brother back to the capital Luoyang and seized perfect control over the court. Because Liu Bian seemed too stupid to him, Dong deposed him and made his brother Liu Xie emperor instead (Emperor Xian). In 190 he poisoned Liu Bian.
Dong Zhuo became arrogant and violent. He even forced the emperor to move to the city Chang'an as capital instead and burned Luoyang. Because of that, many warlords and Han generals all over the country formed an alliance to destroy Dong's reign. After some fierce battles, Lü Bu knew that his position was lost, and killed his foster father Dong in 192.
Dong's associates Guo Si and Li Jue continued to control the emperor, but they started struggles and the emperor escaped. He was rescued by Cao Cao in 196.
Sun Quan
Sun Quan (孫權 182-252) was an ancient Chinese warlord and founder of Eastern Wu in 222.
His brother Sun Ce conquered Southeastern China from 197 until his death in 200. Sun Quan was in charge at the age of 18. He continued to expand his empire and drew back the forces of Cao Cao in the "Battle at Red Cliffs" (along with Liu Bei). To have better opportunities against the north, he gave his Jing Province to Liu Bei so that he could create an empire on his own. Liu Bei conquered the other western territories from 211 to 214 and set his brother Guan Yu in charge of defending Jing.
Now that Liu Bei had his own empire, Sun quan demanded his western province back from him, but Liu Bei declined. In alliance with Cao Cao, Sun Quan's general Lü Meng captured Guan Yu in 219 and slayed him along with his son, Guan Ping.
After Cao Cao's son Cao Pi started the Wei Dynasty in 220, Liu Bei also wanted to be an emperor and declared himself Emperor of Shu Han in 221. He considered himself the righteous heir of the abdicated Han emperor Xian. Sun Quan declared himself "King of Wu" in 222. Liu Bei found that offensive, and launched a great attack against Sun Quan but failed—due to Lu Xun's great tactics. He died a year later.
Under the regency of the Shu prime minister Zhuge Liang, the alliance between Shu and Wu was renewed. Both empires did not have to worry about their defense in the west/east after that.
In 229, Sun Quan declared himself "Emperor of Wu". His attacks on Wei were all in vain but he managed to develop his country very well. After his son Crown Prince Sun Deng died in 241, he made his now-oldest son Sun He Crown Prince. All along the next nine years, He would have trouble with his brother Sun Ba who wanted to be Crown Prince instead. Their fight even caused the honorable general Lu Xun to die of anger in 245.
In 250, Sun Quan was sick of his sons' struggles and deposed them both as princes. Instead he made his youngest son Sun Liang Crown Prince. Two years later, Sun Quan died at the age of 70. For his follower was too young to rule on his own, the official Zhuge Ke became regent.
Conference
A conference is an event where people get together to discuss things. For example, scientists usually present their findings at conferences. Many other types of people other than scientists attend conferences also. Business people sometimes come together to talk about things. International business conferences are very common because it allows individuals to showcase their knowledge to the world. Using modern media, like the Internet, or the telephone people can talk to each other that are not in the same place. This is then called a conference call. Very often, digital video cameras can be used to transmit images, as well as sound.
Pasture
A pasture is a piece of land. Usually specific grasses and herbs are grown on it. Then livestock is put on for "grazing". Rangeland is similarly used, but less controlled.
Hectare
A hectare is a unit of measurement of area. It is equal to 10,000 square metres, or a square with sides of 100 by 100 metres. 100 hectares is 1 square kilometre. Therefore, a farm with 200 hectares of fields has 2 square kilometres of fields.
The word "hectare" means 100 ares. "Hecto" is the metric prefix of 100. The "are" is a metric unit of area, equal to 100 square metres.
Zhuge Liang
Zhuge Liang (181-234) was a Chinese politician and general of the ancient Shu Han Dynasty.
He helped his lord Liu Bei conquer the country "Ba Shu" from 211 to 214, along with Pang Tong. After Liu Bei's death in 223, Zhuge Liang was a regent for the new emperor Liu Shan. Zhuge Liang attempted to conquer the Southern Wei territories five times but had no success. He died in 234, leaving the regency to Jiang Wei.
Wavelength
A wavelength is the length of the shortest repeating part of a "sine wave". All waves can be formed by adding up sine waves. That is, every wave is a total of sine waves, which may be identified by Fourier analysis.
Waves are everywhere. Examples of waves include:
The sine wave has a pattern that repeats. The length of this repeating piece of the sine wave is called the wavelength. The wavelength can be found by measuring the length or distance between one peak of a sine wave and the next peak. The wavelength can be found in many other ways too. As the frequency of a wave increases, the wavelength decreases Thus, the frequency and wavelength are in inverse proportionality.
There are other properties of waves and sine waves, such as their frequency, amplitude, phase, and speed.
A symbol used for wavelength most often is the Greek letter "lambda" (λ).
Francis Scott Key
Francis Scott Key (August 1, 1779 - January 11, 1843) was an American lawyer and poet. He is best known for writing a poem which later became the words of "The Star-Spangled Banner", the national anthem of the United States of America.
His mother was Ann Phoebe Penn Dagworthy (Charlton) and his father was Captain John Ross Key. He graduated from St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland in 1796.
Key was an owner of slaves, and in the later administration of Andrew Jackson he was the United States Attorney in Washington, D.C.
Latex
Latex, also known as rubber, is a natural polymer. It is taken from the milky sap of the rubber tree (Hevea brasiliensis), native to the tropical forests of Central and South America.
Today, much of the natural latex comes from Southeast Asia, such as Malaysia and Indonesia. Polymers made from artificial latex are called "synthetic rubber."
Properties
Vulcanization makes rubber useful in many products:
Drum
A drum is a musical instrument that is played with the hands using a drum stick (a stick for hitting a drum). A collection of drums and cymbals is called a drum kit, or drum set.
Drums are used to keep a steady beat in a song. They give music of many kinds a sense of feeling. For example, to make a song to be slow or fast, the drums play slower or faster.
A drum is a percussion instrument, which means it makes a noise by being hit. There are many types such as cymbals and bells; even a simple piece of wood can be used as a percussion instrument.
The drum kit is a group of drums & cymbals to make beats for music. Drum kits are used in most types of popular music, including rock, jazz, country, blues, and many others.