Hamiltonian paths and cycles and cycle paths are named after William Rowan Hamilton who invented the Icosian game. This game is also known as "Hamilton's puzzle". It involves finding a Hamiltonian cycle in the edge graph of the dodecahedron. Hamilton solved this problem using the Icosian Calculus, an algebraic structure based on roots of unity with many similarities to the quaternions (also invented by Hamilton). This solution does not generalize to arbitrary graphs. However, despite being named after Hamilton, Hamiltonian cycles in polyhedra had also been studied a year earlier by Thomas Kirkman.
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman (born March 30, 1964) is an American singer-songwriter. She was born in Cleveland in Ohio. She has won four Grammy Awards.
Her most famous songs are "Fast Car" and "Give Me One Reason" that went top of the charts in Canada. They also did really well in the Billboard charts (United States). She has published a total of 8 albums.
She is a feminist. She has never said publicly what her sexuality is, but she dated Alice Walker in the mid 1990s.
Nathaniel Wallich
Nathaniel Wallich FRS (28 January 1786 – 28 April 1854) was a medical doctor and botanist from Denmark. He worked in India; firstly in the Danish settlement near Calcutta and later for the East India Company. He was involved in the early development of the Calcutta Botanical Garden, describing many new plant species and developing a large collection with copies that he gave to collections in Europe. Several of the plants that he collected were named after him.
Nathaniel Wallich was born in a Jewish family in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1786 as Nathan ben Wulff. His father Wulff ben Wallich (or Wolff Wallich) was a rich merchant from Altona, a town near Hamburg, Germany, and then moved to Copenhagen late in the 18th century. Nathaniel changed his name to Nathan Wallich, later Nathaniel, as an adult.
Wallich got the diploma of the Royal Academy of Surgeons at Copenhagen in 1806. At the end of the year he was appointed as doctor in the Danish colony of Serampore, then known as "Frederiksnagore" in Bengal (now in West Bengal). He sailed for India in April 1807 and arrived at Serampore the following November.
He was an honorary doctor at the University of Copenhagen and member of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters.
Because of bad health, Wallich spent the years 1811-1813 in the more temperate climate of Mauritius, where he continued his studies. From August 1814, Wallich became an Assistant Surgeon in the East India Company's service. Wallich was later appointed assistant to William Roxburgh, the East India Company's botanist in Calcutta.
By 1813 he took great interest in the flora and natural vegetation of India. He also went on expeditions to Nepal, West Hindustan, and lower Burma. Wallich travelled to Nepal in 1821, one of the very first Englishmen to go there, and returned with many new plants. During 1837 and 1838, Nathaniel Wallich served as Professor of Botany in Calcutta Medical College.
He also published two important books, "Tentamen Floræ Nepalensis Illustratæ" (vols I-II, 1824–26) and "Plantæ Asiaticæ Rariores" (vols I-III, 1830–32).
Dr. Nathaniel Wallich took charge of the Oriental Museum of the Asiatic Society on 1 June 1814. Wallich joined the East India Company's Botanical Garden in 1817 and served there until 1846 when he retired from the service.
Wallich retired to London in 1847, and stayed there until his death seven years later. He had a son, George Charles Wallich, and a daughter, Hannah Sarah. Part of his collections are held at Kew Gardens, and known as the 'Wallich Herbarium'.
Roman dodecahedron
Roman dodecahedron is the name for dodecahedra which were found in Europe. In total, over hundred such objects were found in all European parts of the Roman Empire. They date from the second or third century CE, and were made of bronze or stone. They are hollow, and each of the twelve pentangular faces has a hole in it. Most of these were found on the territories of modern-day France and Germany, but some were also found in Hungary and Great Britain. They are between and in size.
The function or use of the dodecahedra remains a mystery; no mention of them has been found in texts or pictures of the time. Speculated uses include candlestick holders (wax was found inside one example); dice; survey instruments; devices for determining the optimal sowing date for winter grain; that they were used to calibrate water pipes; and army standard bases. It has also been suggested that they may have been religious artifacts of some kind. This speculation is based on the fact that most of the examples have been found in Gallo-Roman sites.
Gamma function
In mathematics, the gamma function (Γ("z")) is a key topic in the field of special functions. Γ("z") is an extension of the factorial function to all complex numbers except negative integers. For positive integers, it is defined as formula_1
The gamma function is defined for all complex numbers, but it is not defined for negative integers and zero. For a complex number whose real part is not a negative integer, the function is defined by:
Some particular values of the gamma function are:
Gauss introduced the Pi function. This is another way of denoting the gamma function. In terms of the gamma function, the Pi function is
Necrotising arachnidism
Farthing (English coin)
The farthing was a coin of the Kingdom of England. It was worth one quarter of a penny, or of a pound sterling. The word 'farthing' is derived from the Anglo-Saxon "feorthing". It means a "fourthling" or "fourth part". The Anglo-Saxon word was probably derived from the Old Norse, "fjorthungr" meaning a "quarter".
Such coins were first minted in England in silver in the 13th century. They were used until 1707, when the Kingdom of England merged into the new United Kingdom of Great Britain. Early farthings were silver. The farthing was small (only 10 millimeters in diameter) and very light (slightly more than 0.4 gram). Surviving examples are rare. The first copper farthings were issued during the reign of King James I. In the late 17th century the English farthing was also minted in tin.
In 1953, the British farthing's low value forced its last minting. A Londoner complained of abusive vendors when he tried to offer the coin for purchases. The coin ceased to be legal tender on 1 January 1961.
Emeli Sandé
Adele Emeli Sandé best known as Emeli Sandé (born 10 March 1987) is a British singer and songwriter. She was born in Sunderland, Tyne and Wear to an English mother and Zambian father. She was raised in Alford, Aberdeenshire. She became famous after writing many songs for artists like Rihanna, Leona Lewis and Susan Boyle.
In 2010 she singed a contract with EMI. She then released two singles, "Read All About It" and "Beneath Your Beautiful", which went on top of the British charts. In 2012 she won the Brits Critics Choice award. Her first album, "Our Version of Events", was very successful, selling more than 100,000 copies in the first week. It was the best-selling album in the UK of 2012. She performed at the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics.
In 2013 she won two BRIT Awards, one for Best Female Artist and one for Best Album.
On 24 February 2014, she released her second EP, "Who Needs The World? EP".
Her next album will be released in summer 2014.
Sandé married Adam Gouraguine in Montenegro in 2012. They later divorced in 2014.
Stock-Keeping Unit
SKU (often pronounced "skew") is an acronym for Stock-Keeping Unit. This is the barcode found on things sold in stores. It is made in a way that laser scanners in the check-out lane can read the code. The code is then used to find the price.