Hydrocarbon
In organic chemistry, a hydrocarbon is an organic compound consisting of hydrogen and carbon. Hydrocarbons are examples of group 14 hydrides. Hydrocarbons from which one hydrogen atom has been removed are functional groups called hydrocarbyls; because carbon has 4 electrons in its outermost shell carbon has four bonds to make, is only stable if all 4 of these bonds are used. Aromatic hydrocarbons, alkanes and alkyne-based compounds are different types of hydrocarbons. Most hydrocarbons found on Earth occur in crude oil, where decomposed organic matter provides an abundance of carbon and hydrogen which, when bonded, can catenate to form limitless chains; as defined by IUPAC nomenclature of organic chemistry, the classifications for hydrocarbons are: Saturated hydrocarbons are the simplest of the hydrocarbon species. They are composed of single bonds and are saturated with hydrogen; the formula for acyclic saturated hydrocarbons is CnH2n+2. The most general form of saturated hydrocarbons is CnH2n +2.
Those with one ring are the cycloalkanes. Saturated hydrocarbons are the basis of petroleum fuels and are found as either linear or branched species. Substitution reaction is their characteristics property. Hydrocarbons with the same molecular formula but different structural formulae are called structural isomers; as given in the example of 3-methylhexane and its higher homologues, branched hydrocarbons can be chiral. Chiral saturated hydrocarbons constitute the side chains of biomolecules such as chlorophyll and tocopherol. Unsaturated hydrocarbons have one or more triple bonds between carbon atoms; those with double bond are called alkenes. Those with one double bond have the formula CnH2n; those containing triple bonds are called alkyne. Those with one triple bond have the formula CnH2n−2. Aromatic hydrocarbons known as arenes, are hydrocarbons that have at least one aromatic ring. Hydrocarbons can be gases, waxes or low melting solids or polymers; because of differences in molecular structure, the empirical formula remains different between hydrocarbons.
This inherent ability of hydrocarbons to bond to themselves is known as catenation, allows hydrocarbons to form more complex molecules, such as cyclohexane, in rarer cases, arenes such as benzene. This ability comes from the fact that the bond character between carbon atoms is non-polar, in that the distribution of electrons between the two elements is somewhat due to the same electronegativity values of the elements, does not result in the formation of an electrophile. With catenation comes the loss of the total amount of bonded hydrocarbons and an increase in the amount of energy required for bond cleavage due to strain exerted upon the molecule. In simple chemistry, as per valence bond theory, the carbon atom must follow the 4-hydrogen rule, which states that the maximum number of atoms available to bond with carbon is equal to the number of electrons that are attracted into the outer shell of carbon. In terms of shells, carbon consists of an incomplete outer shell, which comprises 4 electrons, thus has 4 electrons available for covalent or dative bonding.
Hydrocarbons are hydrophobic like lipids. Some hydrocarbons are abundant in the solar system. Lakes of liquid methane and ethane have been found on Titan, Saturn's largest moon, confirmed by the Cassini-Huygens Mission. Hydrocarbons are abundant in nebulae forming polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon compounds. Hydrocarbons are a primary energy source for current civilizations; the predominant use of hydrocarbons is as a combustible fuel source. In their solid form, hydrocarbons take the form of asphalt. Mixtures of volatile hydrocarbons are now used in preference to the chlorofluorocarbons as a propellant for aerosol sprays, due to chlorofluorocarbons' impact on the ozone layer. Methane and ethane are gaseous at ambient temperatures and cannot be liquefied by pressure alone. Propane is however liquefied, exists in'propane bottles' as a liquid. Butane is so liquefied that it provides a safe, volatile fuel for small pocket lighters. Pentane is a colorless liquid at room temperature used in chemistry and industry as a powerful nearly odorless solvent of waxes and high molecular weight organic compounds, including greases.
Hexane is a used non-polar, non-aromatic solvent, as well as a significant fraction of common gasoline. The C6 through C10 alkanes and isomeric cycloalkanes are the top components of gasoline, jet fuel and specialized industrial solvent mixtures. With the progressive addition of carbon units, the simple non-ring structured hydrocarbons have higher viscosities, lubricating indices, boiling points, solidification temperatures, deeper color. At the opposite extreme from methane lie the heavy tars that remain as the lowest fraction in a crude oil refining retort, they are collected and utilized as roofing comp
Buoy
A buoy is a floating device that can have many purposes. It can be allowed to drift with ocean currents; the etymology of the word is disputed. Buoy racing is the most prevalent form of yacht racing Emergency wreck buoy – An Emergency Wreck Buoys provides a clear and unambiguous means of marking new wrecks; this buoy is used as a temporary response for the first 24–72 hours. This buoy is coloured in an equal number of blue and yellow vertical stripes and is fitted with an alternating blue and yellow flashing light; this has come about due to the collisions which occurred in the Dover Straits in 2002 when vessels struck the new wreck of the MV Tricolor. Ice marking buoys – used for marking ice holes in frozen lakes and rivers, so that snowmobiles do not drive over the holes. Large Navigational Buoy is an automatic buoy over 10m high equipped with a powerful light monitored electronically as a replacement for lightships. A LNB may be marked on charts as a "Superbuoy." Lobster trap buoys – brightly colored buoys used for the marking of lobster trap locations so the person lobster fishing can find their lobster traps.
Each lobster fisherman has his or her own color markings or registration numbers so they know which ones are theirs. They are only allowed to haul their own traps and must display their buoy color or license number on their boat so law enforcement officials know what they should be hauling; the buoys are brightly colored with visible numbers so they can be seen under conditions when there is poor visibility like rain, sea smoke, etc. lateral marker buoy Safe water mark or Fairway Buoy – a navigational buoy which marks the entrance to a channel or a nearby landfall Sea mark – aids pilotage by marking a maritime channel and administrative area to allow boats and ships to navigate safely. Some navigational buoys are fitted with a bell or gong, which sounds when waves move the buoy Wreck buoy – a buoy to mark a wrecked ship to warn other ships to keep away because of unseen hazards. Lifebuoy – used as a life saving buoy designed to be thrown to a person in the water to provide buoyancy. Has a connecting line allowing the casualty to be pulled to the rescuer Self-locating datum marker buoy – A 70% scale Coastal Ocean Dynamics Experiment /Davis-style oceanographic surface drifter with drogue vanes between 30 and 100 cm deep.
This particular surface drifter is designed for deployment from a U. S. Coast Guard vessel or airframe for search and rescue. Since the SLDMB has a small surface area above the ocean surface and a high underwater surface area, there is little leeway in response to the direct forcing of winds and waves. Submarine rescue buoy – used for release in case of emergencies or for communication Decompression buoy – deployed by submerged scuba divers to mark their position underwater whilst doing decompression stops Shot buoy – used to mark dive sites for the boat safety cover of scuba divers so that the divers can descend to the dive site more in conditions of low visibility or tidal currents and more safely do decompression stops on their ascent. Surface marker buoy – taken on dives by scuba divers to mark their position underwater Profiling buoy – specialized models which adjust buoyancy so that they will sink at a controlled rate to 2,000 metres below the surface while measuring sea temperatures and salinity.
After a time 10 days, the buoy returns to the surface, transmits its data via satellite, sinks again. See Argo. Tsunami buoys – anchored buoys that can detect sudden changes in undersea water pressure are used as part of tsunami warning systems in the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center and Indian Oceans. Wave buoy – used to measure the movement of the water surface as a wave train; the wave train is analysed to determine statistics like the significant wave height and period, wave direction. Weather buoys – equipped to measure weather parameters such as air temperature, barometric pressure, wind speed and direction and to report these data via satellite radio links such as the purpose-built Argos System or commercial satellite phone networks to meteorological centres for use in forecasting and climate study. May be allowed to drift in the open ocean currents. Position is calculated by the satellite. Weather buoys are sometimes referred to as ODAS buoys or Ocean Data Acquisition Systems and may be marked on charts as "Superbuoys."
Mooring buoys – used to keep one end of a mooring cable or chain on the water's surface so that ships or boats can tie on to it. Many marinas mark these with a number and assign it to a particular vessel, or rent it out to transient vessels. Tripping buoys – used to keep one end of a'tripping line' on the water's surface so that a stuck anchor can more be freed Marker buoys – used in naval warfare anti-submarine warfare, is a light-emitting or smoke-emitting, or both, marker using some kind of pyrotechnic to provide the flare and smoke, it is a 3-inch diameter device about 20 inches long, set off by contact with seawater and floats on the surface. Some markers extinguish after others are made to sink. Sonobuoy – used by anti-submarine warfare aircraft to detect submarines by SONAR Target buoy – used to simulate target in live fire exercise by naval and coastal forces targeted by weapons like HMG's, rapid fire cannons and anti-tank rockets. DAN buoy – has several meanings: A large maritime navigational aid providing a platform for light and radio beacons A lifebuoy with flags used on yachts and smaller pl
Nobel Prize in Physics
The Nobel Prize in Physics is a yearly award given by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for those who have made the most outstanding contributions for humankind in the field of physics. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895 and awarded since 1901; the first Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to physicist Wilhelm Röntgen in recognition of the extraordinary services he rendered by the discovery of the remarkable rays. This award is administered by the Nobel Foundation and regarded as the most prestigious award that a scientist can receive in physics, it is presented in Stockholm at an annual ceremony on 10 December, the anniversary of Nobel's death. Through 2018, a total of 209 individuals have been awarded the prize. Only three women have won the Nobel Prize in Physics: Marie Curie in 1903, Maria Goeppert Mayer in 1963, Donna Strickland in 2018. Alfred Nobel, in his last will and testament, stated that his wealth be used to create a series of prizes for those who confer the "greatest benefit on mankind" in the fields of physics, peace, physiology or medicine, literature.
Though Nobel wrote several wills during his lifetime, the last one was written a year before he died and was signed at the Swedish-Norwegian Club in Paris on 27 November 1895. Nobel bequeathed 94% of his total assets, 31 million Swedish kronor, to establish and endow the five Nobel Prizes. Due to the level of skepticism surrounding the will, it was not until April 26, 1897 that it was approved by the Storting; the executors of his will were Ragnar Sohlman and Rudolf Lilljequist, who formed the Nobel Foundation to take care of Nobel's fortune and organise the prizes. The members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee who were to award the Peace Prize were appointed shortly after the will was approved; the prize-awarding organisations followed: the Karolinska Institutet on June 7, the Swedish Academy on June 9, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences on June 11. The Nobel Foundation reached an agreement on guidelines for how the Nobel Prize should be awarded. In 1900, the Nobel Foundation's newly created statutes were promulgated by King Oscar II.
According to Nobel's will, The Royal Swedish Academy of sciences were to award the Prize in Physics. A maximum of three Nobel laureates and two different works may be selected for the Nobel Prize in Physics. Compared with other Nobel Prizes, the nomination and selection process for the prize in Physics is long and rigorous; this is a key reason why it has grown in importance over the years to become the most important prize in Physics. The Nobel laureates are selected by the Nobel Committee for Physics, a Nobel Committee that consists of five members elected by The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. In the first stage that begins in September, around 3,000 people – selected university professors, Nobel Laureates in Physics and Chemistry, etc. – are sent confidential forms to nominate candidates. The completed nomination forms arrive at the Nobel Committee no than 31 January of the following year; these nominees are scrutinized and discussed by experts who narrow it to fifteen names. The committee submits a report with recommendations on the final candidates into the Academy, where, in the Physics Class, it is further discussed.
The Academy makes the final selection of the Laureates in Physics through a majority vote. The names of the nominees are never publicly announced, neither are they told that they have been considered for the prize. Nomination records are sealed for fifty years. While posthumous nominations are not permitted, awards can be made if the individual died in the months between the decision of the prize committee and the ceremony in December. Prior to 1974, posthumous awards were permitted; the rules for the Nobel Prize in Physics require that the significance of achievements being recognized has been "tested by time". In practice, it means that the lag between the discovery and the award is on the order of 20 years and can be much longer. For example, half of the 1983 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar for his work on stellar structure and evolution, done during the 1930s; as a downside of this approach, not all scientists live long enough for their work to be recognized.
Some important scientific discoveries are never considered for a prize, as the discoverers die by the time the impact of their work is appreciated. A Physics Nobel Prize laureate earns a gold medal, a diploma bearing a citation, a sum of money; the Nobel Prize medals, minted by Myntverket in Sweden and the Mint of Norway since 1902, are registered trademarks of the Nobel Foundation. Each medal has an image of Alfred Nobel in left profile on the obverse; the Nobel Prize medals for Physics, Physiology or Medicine, Literature have identical obverses, showing the image of Alfred Nobel and the years of his birth and death. Nobel's portrait appears on the obverse of the Nobel Peace Prize medal and the Medal for the Prize in Economics, but with a different design; the image on the reverse of a medal varies according to the institution awarding the prize. The reverse sides of the Nobel Prize medals for Chemistry and Physics share the same design of Nature, as a Goddess, whose veil is held up by the Genius of Science.
These medals and the ones for Physiology/Medicine and Literature were designed by Erik Lindberg in 1902. Nobel laureates receive a diploma directly from the hands of the
Linde plc
Linde plc is an Irish-domiciled multinational chemical company formed by the merger of Linde AG of Germany and Praxair of the United States. It is the world's largest industrial gas company by market share as well as revenue. Linde shares are traded in Germany and the United States, included in those countries' DAX 30 and S&P 500 major stock market indices; the Linde Group has over 600 affiliated companies in more than 100 countries, with customers in the industrial, trade, science and public sectors. In September 2006 the company acquired its UK based competitor The BOC Group, subsequently disposed of its non-gas interests. Linde's former materials handling business was rebranded as KION Group in September 2006 and sold in November 2006 to KKR and Goldman Sachs for €4bn. In March 2007 the BOC Edwards semiconductor equipment business was sold to CCMP Capital for €685m. Linde's revenue in 2016 were €16.948 billion, with 59,715 employees. Following the BOC acquisition, The Linde Group has become the world's largest industrial gas company.
In 2005, Linde AG and BOC together had 21% of the world's market in industrial gases followed by Air Liquide with 19%, Praxair with 13%, Air Products & Chemicals with 10%, Taiyo Nippon Sanso Corporation with 4%, Airgas with 3% and Messer Group with 1%. The Linde Group today has two principal business areas: gas, engineering. In the industrial gas area the group trades under a number of established brand names including Linde, AGA, BOC, TIG, MOX, Afrox and PanGas. HiQ is used as an identifier for high purity and premium specialty gases across all of these business brand names. In the medical gas area, Linde is known with the following names, Linde Gas Therapeutics, AGA Medical, INO Therapeutics, Linde Homecare and Life Gas. Linde Gas supplies industrial gases, medical gases, specialty gases and other chemicals. Depending on the gas and the quantity required, these may be supplied in portable high-pressure gas cylinders, in liquefied form by road tanker, from on-site gas generators or in gaseous form via pipeline to large customers.
Linde Engineering designs and builds large-scale chemical plants for the production of industrial gases including oxygen, argon and carbon monoxide, as well as large plants associated with the processing of natural gas, LNG, LPG and the manufacture of olefins. On 21 June 1879, Carl von Linde founded the Gesellschaft für Linde's Eismaschinen Aktiengesellschaft to develop further his work in developing mechanical refrigeration systems for the brewing and food industries. Following success in this market, he moved on to developing lower temperature systems resulting in 1895 in a patent covering the liquefaction of air. Out of this work his company developed equipment for the separation of air and other gases. Linde's process was patented in 1902 and exploited by the first large-scale air separation plant installed in Linde's work in Höllriegelskreuth, near Munich in 1903. In addition to plants for air separation, in 1906 Linde engineers started working with others on processes to separate the constituents of water gas.
This work developed into capabilities in the recovery of hydrogen and carbon monoxide, which were further key feedstocks for the emerging chemicals industry. In addition to his interests in refrigeration, Carl von Linde had partnered with Hugo Güldner and Georg von Krauß and others in 1904 to form the Güldner Motoren-Gesellschaft mbH in Munich, moved to Aschaffenburg in 1906. Linde took full ownership of the company in 1929, from this origin developed a business manufacturing first engines and tractors, from the 1950s onwards, a range of mechanical handling equipment such as fork lift trucks. Linde acquired the Aktiengesellschaft für Industriegasverwertung referred to as the Heylandt Works. Linde Air Products, since 1917 part of the Union Carbide & Carbon Corporation sued another company in 1950 for violating their patent on a welding process by substituting a similar material. In Graver Tank & Manufacturing Co. v. Linde Air Products Co. the United States Supreme Court established the doctrine of equivalents which found that, while not in the literal scope of the patent, the concept discovered by Linde was still being unfairly encroached upon without compensation.
A complex history of takeovers and divestments occurred, in 2000 completed the acquisition of AGA AB of Sweden. This was followed in 2004 with the divestment of the original core of the Linde business – the refrigeration division – to Carrier Corporation of the USA. In March 2006, Linde made a proposal to acquire The BOC Group for €11.7 billion in cash. The acquisition was completed on 5 September 2006. Following the acquisition, the combined gas and engineering group was rebranded as The Linde Group, the materials handling activities separated and rebranded as KION Group, it was announced that the BOC Edwards equipment business was to be sold. In 2010 the group acquired over 95 % of Ceylon Oxygen Ltd.. In June 2011, PT Linde Indonesia, a subsidiary of the Linde group, announced its plan to build an air separation plant worth Rp.1 trillion in Cilegon, Banten, to supply industrial gas to PT Krakatau Posco's steel plant. In January 2012, the company acquired the Continental-European homecare business of the industrial gases company Air Products at an enterprise value of €590 million.
This business achieved annual sales of €210 million in 2011. The transaction comprises Air Products' homecare operations in Belgium, Germany and Spain with around 850 employees. In August 2012, the company acquired Lincare Holdings Inc. a healthca
AGA cooker
The AGA cooker is a heat storage stove and cooker, which works on the principle that a heavy frame made of cast iron can absorb heat from a low-intensity but continuously burning source, the accumulated heat can be used for cooking. Invented and produced in Sweden, but since 1957 all production is located in UK. Developed to burn coke or anthracite, the Aga cooker was invented in 1922 by the Nobel Prize–winning Swedish physicist Gustaf Dalén, employed as the chief engineer of the Swedish AGA company. Dalén lost his sight in an explosion while developing his earlier invention, a porous substrate for storing gases, Agamassan. Forced to stay at home, Dalén discovered. Although blind, he set out to develop a new stove, capable of a range of culinary techniques and easy to use. Adopting the principle of heat storage, he combined a heat source, two large hotplates and two ovens into one unit: the AGA Cooker; the cooker was introduced to England in 1929, was manufactured there under licence in the early 1930s.
Its popularity in certain parts of English society led to the coining of the term "AGA Saga" in the 1990s, referring to a genre of fiction set amongst stereotypical upper-middle-class society. The cast-iron parts were cast at the Coalbrookdale foundry in the 1940s, where they were still made by the Aga Rangemaster Group until November 2017 when Middleyby closed the site with the loss of 35 jobs. A small, traditional two-oven AGA running on gas will use 2,530 watts; the average standard gas oven and hob uses 580 kilowatt-hours per year, only 2.6% of the AGA's consumption. AGA's own figures for expected energy consumption for their two-oven AGA support this criticism, suggesting average consumption of 40 litres of kerosene or diesel fuel per week, 60 litres of propane gas per week, 425 kW⋅h of natural gas per week, or 220 kW⋅h/week for the electric models; this would indicate that the smallest traditional two-oven gas AGA providing simple cooking functions consumes thirty-eight times as much as a standard gas oven and hob as much gas in a week as a standard gas oven and hob in nine months.
AGA has provided an analysis of their own, which includes the steps taken to reduce energy consumption. Owners talk about how the AGA makes their homes more energy efficient, as the AGA does a number of jobs, such as replacing several radiators, a tumble dryer, electric kettle and toaster and is not a cooker; the vast majority of AGAs sold today are programmable and AGA announced an upgrade initiative in 2009, meaning that owners of older AGA cookers can have them modified so they are programmable. The latest model, the AGA Total Control, uses the same radiant heat to cook, but is designed to be switched off like a regular cooker when not in use, using far less energy as a result. Oil burning AGAs can be fitted with a modern pressure jet oil burner in place of the standard wick burner which burns the fuel more efficiently and so reduces oil consumption. AGA cookers are available in 2,3,4 and 5 oven models with the 4 and 5 oven versions wider than the others. AGA cookers have a boiling and simmering plate, or in models with one hotplate this can be set to either boiling or simmering mode.
While the classic AGA models are on all the time, the ovens and hotplates of the newer AGA cookers can be switched on and off as required and the hotplates on the Dual Control cookers can be switched on and off, meaning there is heat in to the room but energy is not used unnecessarily. The AGA 60 is just 60 cm wide; the AGA is known with many cookers still operating after more than 50 years. In 2009, in conjunction with the Daily Telegraph and to celebrate the 80th anniversary of its founding, AGA set up a competition to find the oldest AGA still in use. There were thousands of entries, but the winning cooker was installed in 1932 and belonged to the Hett family of Sussex. Rayburn Range
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a region in Northern Europe, with strong historical and linguistic ties. The term Scandinavia in local usage covers the three kingdoms of Denmark and Sweden; the majority national languages of these three, belong to the Scandinavian dialect continuum, are mutually intelligible North Germanic languages. In English usage, Scandinavia sometimes refers to the Scandinavian Peninsula, or to the broader region including Finland and Iceland, always known locally as the Nordic countries. While part of the Nordic countries, the remote Norwegian islands of Svalbard and Jan Mayen are not in Scandinavia, nor is Greenland, a constituent country within the Kingdom of Denmark; the Faroe Islands are sometimes included. The name Scandinavia referred to the former Danish, now Swedish, region of Scania. Scandinavia and Scandinavian entered usage in the late 18th century, being introduced by the early linguistic and cultural Scandinavist movement; the majority of the population of Scandinavia are descended from several North Germanic tribes who inhabited the southern part of Scandinavia and spoke a Germanic language that evolved into Old Norse.
Icelanders and the Faroese are to a significant extent descended from the Norse and are therefore seen as Scandinavian. Finland is populated by Finns, with a minority of 5% of Swedish speakers. A small minority of Sami people live in the extreme north of Scandinavia; the Danish and Swedish languages form a dialect continuum and are known as the Scandinavian languages—all of which are considered mutually intelligible with one another. Faroese and Icelandic, sometimes referred to as insular Scandinavian languages, are intelligible in continental Scandinavian languages only to a limited extent. Finnish and Meänkieli are related to each other and more distantly to the Sami languages, but are unrelated to the Scandinavian languages. Apart from these, German and Romani are recognized minority languages in parts of Scandinavia. "Scandinavia" refers to Denmark and Sweden. Some sources argue for the inclusion of the Faroe Islands and Iceland, though that broader region is known by the countries concerned as Norden, or the Nordic countries.
The use of "Scandinavia" as a convenient general term for Denmark and Sweden is recent. According to some historians, it was adopted and introduced in the eighteenth century, at a time when the ideas about a common heritage started to appear and develop into early literary and linguistic Scandinavism. Before this time, the term "Scandinavia" was familiar to classical scholars through Pliny the Elder's writings and was used vaguely for Scania and the southern region of the peninsula; as a political term, Scandinavia was first used by students agitating for pan-Scandinavianism in the 1830s. The popular usage of the term in Sweden and Norway as a unifying concept became established in the nineteenth century through poems such as Hans Christian Andersen's "I am a Scandinavian" of 1839. After a visit to Sweden, Andersen became a supporter of early political Scandinavism. In a letter describing the poem to a friend, he wrote: "All at once I understood how related the Swedes, the Danes and the Norwegians are, with this feeling I wrote the poem after my return:'We are one people, we are called Scandinavians!'".
The clearest example of the use of Scandinavia is Finland, based on the fact that most of modern-day Finland was part of the Swedish kingdom for hundreds of years, thus to much of the world associating Finland with all of Scandinavia. However, the creation of a Finnish identity is unique in the region in that it was formed in relation to two different imperial models, the Swedish and the Russian, as described by the University of Jyväskylä based editorial board of the Finnish journal Yearbook of Political Thought and Conceptual History. Various promotional agencies of the Nordic countries in the United States serve to promote market and tourism interests in the region. Today, the five Nordic heads of state act as the organization's patrons and according to the official statement by the organization its mission is "to promote the Nordic region as a whole while increasing the visibility of Denmark, Iceland and Sweden in New York City and the United States"; the official tourist boards of Scandinavia sometimes cooperate under one umbrella, such as the Scandinavian Tourist Board.
The cooperation was introduced for the Asian market in 1986, when the Swedish national tourist board joined the Danish national tourist board to coordinate intergovernmental promotion of the two countries. Norway's government entered one year later. All five Nordic governments participate in the joint promotional efforts in the United States through the Scandinavian Tourist Board of North America. While the term "Scandinavia" is used for Denmark and Sweden, the term "Nordic countries" is used unambiguously for Denmark, Sweden and Iceland, including their associated territories. Scandinavia can thus be considered a subset of the Nordic countries. Furthermore, the term Fennoscandia refers to Scandinavia and Karelia, excluding Denmark and overseas territories, but the usage of this term is restricted to geology when speaking of the Fennoscandian Shield. In addition to the mainland Scandinavian countries of: Denmark Norway (constitutional monarchy with a parliament
Zürich
Zürich or Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zürich. It is located in north-central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zürich; the municipality has 409,000 inhabitants, the urban agglomeration 1.315 million and the Zürich metropolitan area 1.83 million. Zürich is a hub for railways and air traffic. Both Zürich Airport and railway station are the busiest in the country. Permanently settled for over 2,000 years, Zürich was founded by the Romans, who, in 15 BC, called it Turicum. However, early settlements have been found dating back more than 6,400 years ago. During the Middle Ages, Zürich gained the independent and privileged status of imperial immediacy and, in 1519, became a primary centre of the Protestant Reformation in Europe under the leadership of Huldrych Zwingli; the official language of Zürich is German, but the main spoken language is the local variant of the Alemannic Swiss German dialect, Zürich German. Many museums and art galleries can be found in the city, including the Swiss National Museum and the Kunsthaus.
Schauspielhaus Zürich is one of the most important theatres in the German-speaking world. Zürich is a leading global city and among the world's largest financial centres despite having a small population; the city is home to a large number of financial institutions and banking companies. Most of Switzerland's research and development centres are concentrated in Zürich and the low tax rates attract overseas companies to set up their headquarters there. Monocle's 2012 "Quality of Life Survey" ranked Zürich first on a list of the top 25 cities in the world "to make a base within". According to several surveys from 2006 to 2008, Zürich was named the city with the best quality of life in the world as well as the wealthiest city in Europe in terms of GDP per capita; the Economist Intelligence Unit's Global Liveability Ranking sees Zürich rank among the top ten most liveable cities in the world. In German, the city name is written Zürich, pronounced in Swiss Standard German. In Zürich German, the local dialect of Swiss German, the name is pronounced without the final consonant, as Züri, although the adjective remains Zürcher.
The city is called Zurich in French, Zurigo in Italian, Turitg in Romansh. In English, the name used to be written without the umlaut. So, standard English practice for German calques is to either preserve the umlaut or replace it with the base letter followed by e, it is pronounced ZEWR-ik, more sometimes with /ts/, as in German. The earliest known form of the city's name is Turicum, attested on a tombstone of the late 2nd century AD in the form STA TURICEN; the name is interpreted as a derivation from a given name Gaulish personal name Tūros, for a reconstructed native form of the toponym of *Turīcon. The Latin stress on the long vowel of the Gaulish name, was lost in German but is preserved in Italian and in Romansh; the first development towards its Germanic form is attested as early as the 6th century with the form Ziurichi. From the 9th century onward, the name is established in an Old High German form Zurih. In the early modern period, the name became associated with the name of the Tigurini, the name Tigurum rather than the historical Turicum is sometimes encountered in Modern Latin contexts.
Settlements of the Neolithic and Bronze Age were found around Lake Zürich. Traces of pre-Roman Celtic, La Tène settlements were discovered near the Lindenhof, a morainic hill dominating the SE - NW waterway constituted by Lake Zurich and the river Limmat. In Roman times, during the conquest of the alpine region in 15 BC, the Romans built a castellum on the Lindenhof. Here was erected Turicum, a tax-collecting point for goods trafficked on the Limmat, which constituted part of the border between Gallia Belgica and Raetia: this customs point developed into a vicus. After Emperor Constantine's reforms in AD 318, the border between Gaul and Italy was located east of Turicum, crossing the river Linth between Lake Walen and Lake Zürich, where a castle and garrison looked over Turicum's safety; the earliest written record of the town dates from the 2nd century, with a tombstone referring to it as to the Statio Turicensis Quadragesima Galliarum, discovered at the Lindenhof. In the 5th century, the Germanic Alemanni tribe settled in the Swiss Plateau.
The Roman castle remained standing until the 7th century. A Carolingian castle, built on the site of the Roman castle by the grandson of Charlemagne, Louis the German, is mentioned in 835. Louis founded the Fraumünster abbey in 853 for his daughter Hildegard, he endowed the Benedictine convent with the lands of Zürich and the Albis forest, granted the convent immunity, placing it under his direct authority. In 1045, King Henry III granted the convent the right to hold markets, collect tolls, mint coins, thus made the abbess the ruler of the city. Zürich gained Imperial immediacy in 1218 with the extinction of the main line of the Zähringer family and attained a status comparable to statehood. During the 1230s, a city wall was built, enclosing 38 hectares, when the earliest stone houses on the Rennweg were built as well; the Carolingian castle was used as a quarry, as it had st
listen); 30 November 1869 – 9 December 1937) was a Swedish Nobel Laureate and industrialist, the founder of the AGA company and inventor of the AGA cooker and the Dalén light. In 1912 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his "invention of automatic regulators for use in conjunction with gas accumulators for illuminating lighthouses and buoys".
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