Stair measurements:
Minas Gerais
Minas Gerais () is one of the 26 states of Brazil. It has the second highest number of people. It has the fourth largest area. The capital is the city of Belo Horizonte, near the center of the state. The name means "General mines". Minas Gerais was formed mainly by colonists searching for gold, gemstones and diamonds.
Minas Gerais is in the west of the southeastern part of Brazil. That area also has the states of São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Espírito Santo. Minas Gerais shares borders with Bahia and Goiás (north), Mato Grosso do Sul (far west), the states of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro (south) and the state of Espírito Santo (east). It also shares a short border with the Brazilian Federal District.
Even though it is not the largest state in Brazil, Minas Gerais is the state with the most cities. Of the more than 5,500 municipalities in Brazil, Minas has more than 850 of them. The most important ones are the capital Belo Horizonte, Contagem, Betim, Juiz de Fora, Montes Claros, Uberlândia and Ouro Preto
Ceará
Ceará is one of the 26 states of Brazil. It is in the northeastern part of the country, on the Atlantic coast. Ceará has many beaches, which brings a lot of tourism.
Ceará has an area of 148,016 km². It shares borders on the east by the states of Rio Grande do Norte and Paraíba, on the south by Pernambuco state, and on the west by Piauí. Its northern border is the Atlantic Ocean. Its capital is Fortaleza.
Espírito Santo
Espírito Santo is one of the states of southeastern Brazil. It is often referred to as "ES". The capital of ES is Vitória and its largest city is Vila Velha. Those who are born in the state are known as "Capixabas", but the more correct word is "Espiritossantenses". The name means "holy spirit" after the Holy Ghost of Christianity.
This Brazilian state is in the southeastern subdivision of Brazil, which also contains the states of São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean (east), the state of Bahia (north), the state of Minas Gerais (north and west), and the state of Rio de Janeiro (south). Espírito Santo's other main cities are Cachoeiro de Itapemirim, Colatina, Linhares, São Mateus and Aracruz.
At , it is about the size of Estonia. The state has many different types of habitats, for example coastal planes, lakes, mountain forest and mangroves.
The islands of Trindade and Martim Vaz, east of Vitória in the Southern Atlantic Ocean, are also a part of Espirito Santo state.
Goiás
Goiás is a state of Brazil. It is in the central part of the country. It shares borders with Tocantins, Bahia, Minas Gerais, the Federal District, Mato Grosso do Sul and Mato Grosso. The capital and largest city in the state is Goiânia. With an area of 341,289 km², Goiás is about the size of the Republic of the Congo; smaller than Germany and larger than Finland.
There are 246 municipalities in Goiás. The top 15 cities in order by number of people (est. 01/07/2005) are:
Maranhão
Maranhão is one of the states of Brazil. It is in the northeastern region of the country. To the north is the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. Maranhão shares borders with Piauí, Tocantins and Pará. In the 19th century, the state used plantation slaves to produce cotton for Europe.
Major cities in the state besides the state capital São Luís are Imperatriz, Timon, and Caxias. The Alcantara spaceport is in the north of the state, not far from São Luís.
Mato Grosso
Mato Grosso is one of the states of Brazil. It is in the western part of the country. Mato Grosso shares borders with the states of Rondônia, Amazonas, Pará, Tocantins, Goiás and Mato Grosso do Sul. It also borders the country Bolivia to the southwest. The name, Mato Grosso, means "thick jungle".
Mato Grosso is the state in Brazil in which the most deforestation of Brazil's part of the Amazon Rainforest has happened. In 1977, the state was split into two halves. This created the new state Mato Grosso do Sul. The Bororo Indians live in the Mato Grosso area.
There are few cities. The most important ones are:
Hassium
Hassium is a chemical element. It has been named unniloctium and eka-osmium. It has the symbol Hs. It has the atomic number 108. It is a transuranium element.
Hassium is a radioactive element that does not exist in nature. It has to be made.
Hassium oxidises like osmium, the element above it in the periodic table. Hassium oxidises to hassium tetroxide. It is less volatile than osmium tetroxide.
Hassium was first made in 1984. It was made at the Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung (GSI) in Darmstadt, Germany. The team that made darmstadtium was led by Peter Armbruster and Gottfried Münzenberg.
The element was named from the Latin name for the German state of Hessen. Hessen is the state that the Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung is in.
Before it was named Hassium scientists could not decide what the name should be. There was an element naming controversy. The temporary IUPAC systematic element name was "unniloctium". The symbol with the name was "Uno". In 1994 a committee of IUPAC recommended that element 108 be named "hahnium". The name hassium was adopted internationally in 1997.
Isotope 270 of Hassium was found in December 2006. An international team of scientists led by the Technical University of Munich found it. It is a doubly magic isotope. It has an long half-life of 22 seconds. Scientists had thought that heavy and stable isotopes should exist. Some theories said Hassium-270 may be part of an island of stability.
Roraima
Roraima is one of the states of Brazil. It is in the northern part of the country. It shares borders with the states of Pará and Amazonas, as well as the countries Venezuela and Guyana. Roraima is both the northernmost and least populated state of Brazil.
The climate is tropical with an average temperature of 26 °C. Most of the state is in the Amazon rainforest. A small part of the state is a small strip of savanna to the east. The state has many mineral deposits - especially gold, diamonds, cassiterite, bauxite and copper. These create constant fights with the native people. The Yanomami are the most well-known of the native people, but they are greatly out-numbered by the Macuxi.
The Monte Roraima National Park is near one of the highest mountains of Brazil, the 9220 ft (2727 m) high table-top Mount Roraima.
In 1943, the federal government separated the area from the state Amazonas. The territory was first named Rio Branco after the main river. In 1962, it was renamed "Roraima." In 1988, it became a state. The name of the state was taken from Monte Roraima, whose name comes from the Pemon words "roroi" (cyan) and "ma" (large).
Santa Catarina (state)
Santa Catarina is a state in Southern Brazil. It has with one of the highest standards of living in the country. Its capital is Florianópolis, which partly lies on the Santa Catarina Island.
Santa Catarina shares borders with the states of Rio Grande do Sul to the south and Paraná to the north. It is bordered on the east by the Atlantic Ocean, and to the west it borders the province of Misiones, Argentina.
Santa Catarina is the most "European" state of Brazil. Most of the people that live there are descendants of Portuguese, German and Italian immigrants.
Its largest city is Joinville.
European colonies began with the Spanish settlement of Santa Catarina island in 1542. The Portuguese took control in 1675. The captaincy of Santa Catarina was created in 1738. Large numbers of European immigrants, especially from Germany, began arriving in the early 19th century. Immigrants from Italy, Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Japan and other parts of Europe later came. This led to many small, family held farms in the state.
In late March 2004, the state was hit by the first ever hurricane recorded in the South Atlantic. Because there is no naming system for such an event in Brazil, Brazilian meteorologists called it Catarina, after the state.