1.
Construction
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Construction is the process of constructing a building or infrastructure. Construction as an industry comprises six to nine percent of the domestic product of developed countries. Construction starts with planning, design, and financing, and continues until the project is built, large-scale construction requires collaboration across multiple disciplines. An architect normally manages the job, and a manager, design engineer. For the successful execution of a project, effective planning is essential, the largest construction projects are referred to as megaprojects. Construction is a term meaning the art and science to form objects, systems, or organizations. Construction is used as a verb, the act of building, and a noun, how a building was built, in general, there are three sectors of construction, buildings, infrastructure and industrial. Building construction is further divided into residential and non-residential. Infrastructure is often called heavy/highway, heavy civil or heavy engineering and it includes large public works, dams, bridges, highways, water/wastewater and utility distribution. Industrial includes refineries, process chemical, power generation, mills, there are other ways to break the industry into sectors or markets. Engineering News-Record is a magazine for the construction industry. Each year, ENR compiles and reports on data about the size of design and they publish a list of the largest companies in the United States and also a list the largest global firms. In 2014, ENR compiled the data in nine market segments and it was divided as transportation, petroleum, buildings, power, industrial, water, manufacturing, sewer/waste, telecom, hazardous waste plus a tenth category for other projects. In their reporting on the Top 400, they used data on transportation, sewer, hazardous waste, the Standard Industrial Classification and the newer North American Industry Classification System have a classification system for companies that perform or otherwise engage in construction. To recognize the differences of companies in this sector, it is divided into three subsectors, building construction, heavy and civil engineering construction, and specialty trade contractors, there are also categories for construction service firms and construction managers. Building construction is the process of adding structure to real property or construction of buildings, the majority of building construction jobs are small renovations, such as addition of a room, or renovation of a bathroom. Often, the owner of the property acts as laborer, paymaster, for this reason, those with experience in the field make detailed plans and maintain careful oversight during the project to ensure a positive outcome. Residential construction practices, technologies, and resources must conform to local building authority regulations, materials readily available in the area generally dictate the construction materials used
2.
Townhouse
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A townhouse, or town house as used in North America, Asia, Australia, South Africa and parts of Europe, is a type of terraced housing. A modern town house is one with a small footprint on multiple floors. The term originally referred in British usage to the city residence of someone whose main or largest residence was a country house. Historically, a house was the city residence of a noble or wealthy family. From the 18th century, landowners and their servants would move to a townhouse during the social season, in the United Kingdom most townhouses were terraced. Only a small minority of them, generally the largest, were detached, for example, the Duke of Norfolk owned Arundel Castle in the country, while his London house, Norfolk House, was a terraced house in St Jamess Square over 100 feet wide. In the United States and Canada, a townhouse has two connotations, the older predates the automobile and denotes a house on a small footprint in a city, but because of its multiple floors, it has a large living space, often with servants quarters. The small footprint of the townhouse allows it to be walking or mass-transit distance of business. Townhouses are expensive where detached single-family houses are uncommon, such as in New York City, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Toronto, Washington, DC, and San Francisco. A townhouse is where there is a roof and foundation and a single wall divides adjacent townhouses. A rowhouse will generally be smaller and less luxurious than a called a townhouse. The name townhouse or townhome was later used to describe non-uniform units in areas that are designed to mimic detached or semi-detached homes. Today, the term, townhouse, is used to describe units mimicking a detached home that are attached in a multi-unit complex, such homes have multiple units vertically, normally each with its own private entrance from the street or at least from the outside. They can be side by side in a row of three or more, in case they are sometimes referred to as rowhouses. A townhouse in a group of two could be referred to as a townhouse, but in Canada and the US, it is called a semi-detached home and in some areas of western Canada. Freehold, where one owns exclusively the land and the dwelling without any condominium aspects and these may share the foundation as well but have narrow air spaces between and still referred to as a townhouse. Condominium townhouses, just like condominium apartments, are referred to as condos. All types of dwellings can be condos, and this is true of townhouses
3.
Building
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A building or edifice is a structure with a roof and walls standing more or less permanently in one place, such as a house or factory. To better understand the term building compare the list of nonbuilding structures, Buildings serve several needs of society – primarily as shelter from weather, security, living space, privacy, to store belongings, and to comfortably live and work. A building as a shelter represents a division of the human habitat. Ever since the first cave paintings, buildings have become objects or canvasses of much artistic expression. In recent years, interest in planning and building practices has also become an intentional part of the design process of many new buildings. The word building is both a noun and a verb also an adverb, the structure itself and the act of making it. As a noun, a building is a structure that has a roof and walls and stands more or less permanently in one place, there was a building on the corner. In the broadest interpretation a fence or wall is a building, however, the word structure is used more broadly than building including natural and man-made formations and does not necessarily have walls. Structure is more likely to be used for a fence, as a verb, building is the act of construction. Structural height in technical usage is the height to the highest architectural detail on building from street-level, depending on how they are classified, spires and masts may or may not be included in this height. Spires and masts used as antennas are not generally included, the definition of a low-rise vs. a high-rise building is a matter of debate, but generally three storeys or less is considered low-rise. A report by Shinichi Fujimura of a shelter built 500000 years ago is doubtful since Fujimura was later found to have faked many of his findings. Supposed remains of huts found at the Terra Amata site in Nice purportedly dating from 200000 to 400000 years ago have also called into question. There is clear evidence of homebuilding from around 18000 BC, Buildings became common during the Neolithic. Single-family residential buildings are most often called houses or homes, residential buildings containing more than one dwelling unit are called a duplex, apartment building to differentiate them from individual houses. A condominium is an apartment that the occupant owns rather than rents, houses which were built as a single dwelling may later be divided into apartments or bedsitters, they may also be converted to another use e. g. an office or a shop. Building types may range from huts to multimillion-dollar high-rise apartment blocks able to house thousands of people, increasing settlement density in buildings is usually a response to high ground prices resulting from many people wanting to live close to work or similar attractors. Other common building materials are brick, concrete or combinations of either of these with stone, also if the residents are in need of special care such as a nursing home, orphanage or prison, or in group housing like barracks or dormitories
4.
Concrete
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Concrete is a composite material composed of coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement that hardens over time. Most concretes used are lime-based concretes such as Portland cement concrete or concretes made with other hydraulic cements, when aggregate is mixed together with dry Portland cement and water, the mixture forms a fluid slurry that is easily poured and molded into shape. The cement reacts chemically with the water and other ingredients to form a matrix that binds the materials together into a durable stone-like material that has many uses. Often, additives are included in the mixture to improve the properties of the wet mix or the finished material. Most concrete is poured with reinforcing materials embedded to provide tensile strength, famous concrete structures include the Hoover Dam, the Panama Canal, and the Roman Pantheon. The earliest large-scale users of technology were the ancient Romans. The Colosseum in Rome was built largely of concrete, and the dome of the Pantheon is the worlds largest unreinforced concrete dome. Today, large concrete structures are made with reinforced concrete. After the Roman Empire collapsed, use of concrete became rare until the technology was redeveloped in the mid-18th century, today, concrete is the most widely used man-made material. The word concrete comes from the Latin word concretus, the passive participle of concrescere, from con-. Perhaps the earliest known occurrence of cement was twelve years ago. A deposit of cement was formed after an occurrence of oil shale located adjacent to a bed of limestone burned due to natural causes and these ancient deposits were investigated in the 1960s and 1970s. On a human timescale, small usages of concrete go back for thousands of years and they discovered the advantages of hydraulic lime, with some self-cementing properties, by 700 BC. They built kilns to supply mortar for the construction of houses, concrete floors. The cisterns were kept secret and were one of the reasons the Nabataea were able to thrive in the desert, some of these structures survive to this day. In the Ancient Egyptian and later Roman eras, it was re-discovered that adding volcanic ash to the mix allowed it to set underwater, similarly, the Romans knew that adding horse hair made concrete less liable to crack while it hardened, and adding blood made it more frost-resistant. Crystallization of strätlingite and the introduction of pyroclastic clays creates further fracture resistance, german archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann found concrete floors, which were made of lime and pebbles, in the royal palace of Tiryns, Greece, which dates roughly to 1400–1200 BC. Lime mortars were used in Greece, Crete, and Cyprus in 800 BC, the Assyrian Jerwan Aqueduct made use of waterproof concrete
5.
Fire-resistance rating
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A fire-resistance rating typically means the duration for which a passive fire protection system can withstand a standard fire resistance test. This can be quantified simply as a measure of time, or it may entail a host of other criteria, canadas Institute for Research in Construction requires a special test regime for firestops for plastic pipe penetrants. Special hoods are applied here to provide suction on the top side of a test assembly in order to reach the 50Pa pressure differential, afterwards, a 30PSI hose-stream test may be applied. If critical environmental conditions are not satisfied, an assembly may not be eligible for a fire-resistance rating, regardless of the complexity of any given test regime that may lead to a rating, the premise is generally product certification and, most importantly listing and approval use and compliance. The following classifications may be attained when testing in accordance with UL72 and this rating is the requirement in data safes and vault structures for protecting digital information on magnetic media or hard drives. Temperatures inside the chamber must be held below 125 °F for the time period specified, such as Class 125-2 Hour. The temperature reading is taken on the surfaces of the protective structure. Maintaining the temperature below 125 °F. is critical because data is lost above that temperature threshold and this is the rating required to protect microfilm, microfiche, and other film-based information storage media. Above 150 °F film is distorted by the heat and information is lost, a Class 150-2 Hour vault must keep the temperature below 150 °F. for at least two hours, with temperatures up to 2,000 °F. outside the vault. This rating is the requirement for protecting paper documents, above 350 °F paper is distorted by the heat and information is lost. A Class 350-4 Hour vault must keep the temperature below 350 °F. for at least four hours, typically, most countries use the building elements curve, which is nearly identical in most countries as that is what results by burning wood. The building elements curve is characterized jointly by, including, but not limited to, DIN4102, BS476, ASTM E119, ULC-S101, for exterior systems used in the petrochemical industry, the hydrocarbon curve is used. The only exposure beyond this, apart from the recent tunnel curves shown above, would be the British jetfire exposure. Big differences between different countries in terms of the use of the include the use of pipes. This slows down the time and results in a somewhat more conservative test regime in North America. On the other hand, the ISO based European curves run somewhat hotter for most of the test, North America also selectively uses a hose-stream test between 30 and 45PSI, to simulate real-world impacts and damages that may not be simulated in a laboratory. Germanys DIN4102 also includes a significant impact test for a firewall, which is, however, applied from the wrong side. Applying the impact from the side is more practical to do in a lab setting, however, potential impacts should come from the exposed side
6.
Germany
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Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a federal parliamentary republic in central-western Europe. It includes 16 constituent states, covers an area of 357,021 square kilometres, with about 82 million inhabitants, Germany is the most populous member state of the European Union. After the United States, it is the second most popular destination in the world. Germanys capital and largest metropolis is Berlin, while its largest conurbation is the Ruhr, other major cities include Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf and Leipzig. Various Germanic tribes have inhabited the northern parts of modern Germany since classical antiquity, a region named Germania was documented before 100 AD. During the Migration Period the Germanic tribes expanded southward, beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation, in 1871, Germany became a nation state when most of the German states unified into the Prussian-dominated German Empire. After World War I and the German Revolution of 1918–1919, the Empire was replaced by the parliamentary Weimar Republic, the establishment of the national socialist dictatorship in 1933 led to World War II and the Holocaust. After a period of Allied occupation, two German states were founded, the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, in 1990, the country was reunified. In the 21st century, Germany is a power and has the worlds fourth-largest economy by nominal GDP. As a global leader in industrial and technological sectors, it is both the worlds third-largest exporter and importer of goods. Germany is a country with a very high standard of living sustained by a skilled. It upholds a social security and universal health system, environmental protection. Germany was a member of the European Economic Community in 1957. It is part of the Schengen Area, and became a co-founder of the Eurozone in 1999, Germany is a member of the United Nations, NATO, the G8, the G20, and the OECD. The national military expenditure is the 9th highest in the world, the English word Germany derives from the Latin Germania, which came into use after Julius Caesar adopted it for the peoples east of the Rhine. This in turn descends from Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz popular, derived from *þeudō, descended from Proto-Indo-European *tewtéh₂- people, the discovery of the Mauer 1 mandible shows that ancient humans were present in Germany at least 600,000 years ago. The oldest complete hunting weapons found anywhere in the world were discovered in a mine in Schöningen where three 380, 000-year-old wooden javelins were unearthed
7.
Impact (mechanics)
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In mechanics, an impact is a high force or shock applied over a short time period when two or more bodies collide. Such a force or acceleration usually has an effect than a lower force applied over a proportionally longer period. The effect depends critically on the velocity of the bodies to one another. At normal speeds, during a perfectly inelastic collision, an object struck by a projectile will deform, however, these deformations and vibrations cannot occur instantaneously. A high-velocity collision does not provide sufficient time for these deformations and vibrations to occur, thus, the struck material behaves as if it were more brittle than it would otherwise be, and the majority of the applied force goes into fracturing the material. Or, another way to look at it is that actually are more brittle on short time scales than on long time scales. Impact resistance decreases with an increase in the modulus of elasticity, resilient materials will have better impact resistance. Different materials can behave in different ways in impact when compared with static loading conditions. Ductile materials like steel tend to become brittle at high loading rates. The way in which the energy is distributed through the section is also important in determining its response. Projectiles apply a Hertzian contact stress at the point of impact to a body, with compression stresses under the point. Since most materials are weaker in tension than compression, this is the zone where cracks tend to form, a nail is pounded with a series of impacts, each by a single hammer blow. These high velocity impacts overcome the friction between the nail and the substrate. A pile driver achieves the same end, although on a larger scale. An impact wrench is a designed to impart torque impacts to bolts to tighten or loosen them. At normal speeds, the applied to the bolt would be dispersed, via friction. However, at speeds, the forces act on the bolt to move it before they can be dispersed. In ballistics, bullets utilize impact forces to puncture surfaces that could otherwise resist substantial forces, a rubber sheet, for example, behaves more like glass at typical bullet speeds
8.
Transformer
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A transformer is an electrical device that transfers electrical energy between two or more circuits through electromagnetic induction. A varying current in one coil of the transformer produces a magnetic field. Power can be transferred between the two coils through the field, without a metallic connection between the two circuits. Faradays law of induction discovered in 1831 described this effect, Transformers are used to increase or decrease the alternating voltages in electric power applications. A wide range of designs is encountered in electronic and electric power applications. Transformers range in size from RF transformers less than a centimeter in volume to units interconnecting the power grid weighing hundreds of tons. For simplification or approximation purposes, it is common to analyze the transformer as an ideal transformer model as presented in the two images. An ideal transformer is a theoretical, linear transformer that is lossless and perfectly coupled, perfect coupling implies infinitely high core magnetic permeability and winding inductances and zero net magnetomotive force. A varying current in the primary winding creates a varying magnetic flux in the transformer core. This varying magnetic field at the secondary winding induces a varying EMF or voltage in the secondary winding due to electromagnetic induction. The primary and secondary windings are wrapped around a core of high magnetic permeability so that all of the magnetic flux passes through both the primary and secondary windings. With a voltage source connected to the winding and load impedance connected to the secondary winding. The primary EMF is sometimes termed counter EMF and this is in accordance with Lenzs law, which states that induction of EMF always opposes development of any such change in magnetic field. The transformer winding voltage ratio is shown to be directly proportional to the winding turns ratio according to eq. common usage having evolved over time from turn ratio to turns ratio. However, some use the inverse definition. The ideal transformer model assumes that all flux generated by the primary winding links all the turns of winding, including itself. In practice, some flux traverses paths that take it outside the windings, Such flux is termed leakage flux, and results in leakage inductance in series with the mutually coupled transformer windings. Leakage flux results in energy being alternately stored in and discharged from the fields with each cycle of the power supply
9.
Roof
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A roof is part of a building envelope. It is the covering on the uppermost part of a building or shelter which provides protection from animals and weather, notably rain or snow, the word also denotes the framing or structure which supports that covering. In most countries a roof protects primarily against rain, a verandah may be roofed with material that protects against sunlight but admits the other elements. The roof of a garden conservatory protects plants from cold, wind, and rain, a roof may also provide additional living space, for example a roof garden. Old English hrof roof, ceiling, top, summit, heaven, sky, also figuratively, highest point of something, there are no apparent connections outside the Germanic family. English alone has retained the word in a sense, for which the other languages use forms corresponding to OE. In many parts of the ceramic tiles have been the predominant roofing material for centuries. Other roofing materials include asphalt, coal tar pitch, EPDM rubber, Hypalon, polyurethane foam, PVC, slate, Teflon fabric, TPO, and wood shakes and shingles. The construction of a roof is determined by its method of support and how the space is bridged. The pitch is the angle at which the roof rises from its lowest to highest point, most US domestic architecture, except in very dry regions, has roofs that are sloped, or pitched. Although modern construction such as drainpipes may remove the need for pitch, roofs are pitched for reasons of tradition. So the pitch is dependent upon stylistic factors, and partially to do with practicalities. Some types of roofing, for example thatch, require a steep pitch in order to be waterproof, other types of roofing, for example pantiles, are unstable on a steeply pitched roof but provide excellent weather protection at a relatively low angle. In regions where there is rain, an almost flat roof with a slight run-off provides adequate protection against an occasional downpour. Drainpipes also remove the need for a sloping roof, a person that specializes in roof construction is called a roofer. The shape of roofs differs greatly from region to region, the main factors which influence the shape of roofs are the climate and the materials available for roof structure and the outer covering. The basic shapes of roofs are flat, mono-pitched, gabled, hipped, butterfly, there are many variations on these types. Roofs constructed of sections that are sloped are referred to as pitched roofs
10.
Weather
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Weather is the state of the atmosphere, to the degree that it is hot or cold, wet or dry, calm or stormy, clear or cloudy. Most weather phenomena occur in the lowest level of the atmosphere, Weather refers to day-to-day temperature and precipitation activity, whereas climate is the term for the averaging of atmospheric conditions over longer periods of time. When used without qualification, weather is understood to mean the weather of Earth. Weather is driven by air pressure, temperature and moisture differences between one place and another and these differences can occur due to the suns angle at any particular spot, which varies with latitude. The strong temperature contrast between polar and tropical air gives rise to the largest scale atmospheric circulations, the Hadley Cell, the Ferrel Cell, the Polar Cell, Weather systems in the mid-latitudes, such as extratropical cyclones, are caused by instabilities of the jet stream flow. Because the Earths axis is tilted relative to its orbital plane, on Earths surface, temperatures usually range ±40 °C annually. Over thousands of years, changes in Earths orbit can affect the amount and distribution of energy received by the Earth, thus influencing long-term climate. Surface temperature differences in turn cause pressure differences, higher altitudes are cooler than lower altitudes as most atmospheric heating is due to contact with the Earths surface while radiative losses to space are mostly constant. Weather forecasting is the application of science and technology to predict the state of the atmosphere for a future time and a given location. The Earths weather system is a system, as a result. Human attempts to control the weather have occurred throughout history, and there is evidence that human activities such as agriculture, studying how the weather works on other planets has been helpful in understanding how weather works on Earth. A famous landmark in the Solar System, Jupiters Great Red Spot, is a storm known to have existed for at least 300 years. However, weather is not limited to planetary bodies, a stars corona is constantly being lost to space, creating what is essentially a very thin atmosphere throughout the Solar System. The movement of mass ejected from the Sun is known as the solar wind, on Earth, the common weather phenomena include wind, cloud, rain, snow, fog and dust storms. Less common events include natural disasters such as tornadoes, hurricanes, typhoons, almost all familiar weather phenomena occur in the troposphere. Weather does occur in the stratosphere and can affect weather lower down in the troposphere, Weather occurs primarily due to air pressure, temperature and moisture differences between one place to another. These differences can occur due to the sun angle at any particular spot, in other words, the farther from the tropics one lies, the lower the sun angle is, which causes those locations to be cooler due the spread of the sunlight over a greater surface. The strong temperature contrast between polar and tropical air gives rise to the large scale atmospheric circulation cells and the jet stream, Weather systems in the mid-latitudes, such as extratropical cyclones, are caused by instabilities of the jet stream flow
11.
Ulan-Ude
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Ulan-Ude is the capital city of the Republic of Buryatia, Russia, it is located about 100 kilometers southeast of Lake Baikal on the Uda River at its confluence with the Selenga. According to the 2010 Census,404,426 people lived in Ulan-Ude, up from 359,391 recorded in the 2002 Census, Ulan-Ude was first called Udinskoye for its location on the Uda River. From around 1735, the settlement was called Udinsk and was granted town status under that name in 1775. The name was changed to Verkhneudinsk, literally Upper Udinsk, in 1783 to differentiate it from Nizhneudinsk lying on a different Uda River near Irkutsk which was granted town status that year. The upper and lower refer to positions of the two relative to each other, not the location of the cities on their respective Uda rivers. Verkhneudinsk lies at the mouth of its Uda, i. e. the lower end, the current name was given to the city in 1934 and means red Uda in Buryat, reflecting the Soviet Unions Communist ideology. Ulan-Ude lies 5,640 kilometers east of Moscow and 100 kilometers southeast of Lake Baikal, Ulan-Ude is one of the few pairs of cities in the world that has a near-exact antipodal city — with Puerto Natales, Chile. There are two rivers flows across Ulan-Ude — Selenga and Uda. Selenga is the biggest inflow of Baikal Lake, supplying 50% of all rivers in its basin, Selenga brings into the lake about 30 cubic kilometres of water per year, exerting a major influence on the formation of the lake water and its sanitary condition. Selenga is the habitat of the most valuable species such as Omul, Siberian sturgeon, Siberian taimen. Uda is the inflow of the Selenga river. The length of the watercourse is 467 kilometres, the first occupants of the area where Ulan-Ude now stands were the Evenks and, later, the Buryat Mongols. Ulan-Ude was settled in 1666 by the Russian Cossacks as the fortress of Udinskoye, by 1775, it was known as Udinsk, and in 1783 it was granted city status and renamed Verkhneudinsk. After a large fire in 1878, the city was almost completely rebuilt, the Trans-Siberian Railway reached the city in 1900 causing an explosion in growth. The population which was 3,500 in 1880 reached 126,000 in 1939, from April 6 to October 1920 Verkhneudinsk was the capital of the Far Eastern Republic, sometimes called Chita Republic. It was a independent state that existed from April 1920 to November 1922 in the easternmost part of the Russian Far East. On July 27,1934, the city was renamed Ulan-Ude, Ulan-Ude is the capital of the republic. Within the framework of administrative divisions, it is incorporated as the city of republic significance of Ulan-Ude—an administrative unit with the equal to that of the districts
12.
North America
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North America is a continent entirely within the Northern Hemisphere and almost all within the Western Hemisphere. It can also be considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the west and south by the Pacific Ocean, and to the southeast by South America and the Caribbean Sea. North America covers an area of about 24,709,000 square kilometers, about 16. 5% of the land area. North America is the third largest continent by area, following Asia and Africa, and the fourth by population after Asia, Africa, and Europe. In 2013, its population was estimated at nearly 565 million people in 23 independent states, or about 7. 5% of the worlds population, North America was reached by its first human populations during the last glacial period, via crossing the Bering land bridge. The so-called Paleo-Indian period is taken to have lasted until about 10,000 years ago, the Classic stage spans roughly the 6th to 13th centuries. The Pre-Columbian era ended with the migrations and the arrival of European settlers during the Age of Discovery. Present-day cultural and ethnic patterns reflect different kind of interactions between European colonists, indigenous peoples, African slaves and their descendants, European influences are strongest in the northern parts of the continent while indigenous and African influences are relatively stronger in the south. Because of the history of colonialism, most North Americans speak English, Spanish or French, the Americas are usually accepted as having been named after the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci by the German cartographers Martin Waldseemüller and Matthias Ringmann. Vespucci, who explored South America between 1497 and 1502, was the first European to suggest that the Americas were not the East Indies, but a different landmass previously unknown by Europeans. In 1507, Waldseemüller produced a map, in which he placed the word America on the continent of South America. He explained the rationale for the name in the accompanying book Cosmographiae Introductio, for Waldseemüller, no one should object to the naming of the land after its discoverer. He used the Latinized version of Vespuccis name, but in its feminine form America, following the examples of Europa, Asia and Africa. Later, other mapmakers extended the name America to the continent, In 1538. Some argue that the convention is to use the surname for naming discoveries except in the case of royalty, a minutely explored belief that has been advanced is that America was named for a Spanish sailor bearing the ancient Visigothic name of Amairick. Another is that the name is rooted in a Native American language, the term North America maintains various definitions in accordance with location and context. In Canadian English, North America may be used to refer to the United States, alternatively, usage sometimes includes Greenland and Mexico, as well as offshore islands
