1.
System of measurement
–
A system of measurement is a collection of units of measurement and rules relating them to each other. Systems of measurement have historically been important, regulated and defined for the purposes of science and commerce, systems of measurement in modern use include the metric system, the imperial system, and United States customary units. The French Revolution gave rise to the system, and this has spread around the world. In most systems, length, mass, and time are base quantities, later science developments showed that either electric charge or electric current could be added to extend the set of base quantities by which many other metrological units could be easily defined. Other quantities, such as power and speed, are derived from the set, for example. Such arrangements were satisfactory in their own contexts, the preference for a more universal and consistent system only gradually spread with the growth of science. Changing a measurement system has substantial financial and cultural costs which must be offset against the advantages to be obtained using a more rational system. However pressure built up, including scientists and engineers for conversion to a more rational. The unifying characteristic is that there was some definition based on some standard, eventually cubits and strides gave way to customary units to met the needs of merchants and scientists. In the metric system and other recent systems, a basic unit is used for each base quantity. Often secondary units are derived from the units by multiplying by powers of ten. Thus the basic unit of length is the metre, a distance of 1.234 m is 1,234 millimetres. Metrication is complete or nearly complete in almost all countries, US customary units are heavily used in the United States and to some degree in Liberia. Traditional Burmese units of measurement are used in Burma, U. S. units are used in limited contexts in Canada due to the large volume of trade, there is also considerable use of Imperial weights and measures, despite de jure Canadian conversion to metric. In the United States, metric units are used almost universally in science, widely in the military, and partially in industry, but customary units predominate in household use. At retail stores, the liter is a used unit for volume, especially on bottles of beverages. Some other standard non-SI units are still in use, such as nautical miles and knots in aviation. Metric systems of units have evolved since the adoption of the first well-defined system in France in 1795, during this evolution the use of these systems has spread throughout the world, first to non-English-speaking countries, and then to English speaking countries
System of measurement
–
A baby bottle that measures in three measurement systems—imperial (UK), US customary, and metric.
2.
Metric system
–
The metric system is an internationally agreed decimal system of measurement. Many sources also cite Liberia and Myanmar as the other countries not to have done so. Although the originators intended to devise a system that was accessible to all. Control of the units of measure was maintained by the French government until 1875, when it was passed to an intergovernmental organisation. From its beginning, the features of the metric system were the standard set of interrelated base units. These base units are used to larger and smaller units that could replace a huge number of other units of measure in existence. Although the system was first developed for use, the development of coherent units of measure made it particularly suitable for science. Although the metric system has changed and developed since its inception, designed for transnational use, it consisted of a basic set of units of measurement, now known as base units. At the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789, most countries, the metric system was designed to be universal—in the words of the French philosopher Marquis de Condorcet it was to be for all people for all time. However, these overtures failed and the custody of the metric system remained in the hands of the French government until 1875. In languages where the distinction is made, unit names are common nouns, the concept of using consistent classical names for the prefixes was first proposed in a report by the Commission on Weights and Measures in May 1793. The prefix kilo, for example, is used to multiply the unit by 1000, thus the kilogram and kilometre are a thousand grams and metres respectively, and a milligram and millimetre are one thousandth of a gram and metre respectively. These relations can be written symbolically as,1 mg =0, however,1935 extensions to the prefix system did not follow this convention, the prefixes nano- and micro-, for example have Greek roots. During the 19th century the prefix myria-, derived from the Greek word μύριοι, was used as a multiplier for 10000, prefixes are not usually used to indicate multiples of a second greater than 1, the non-SI units of minute, hour and day are used instead. On the other hand, prefixes are used for multiples of the unit of volume. The base units used in the system must be realisable. Each of the units in SI is accompanied by a mise en pratique published by the BIPM that describes in detail at least one way in which the base unit can be measured. In practice, such realisation is done under the auspices of a mutual acceptance arrangement, in the original version of the metric system the base units could be derived from a specified length and the weight of a specified volume of pure water
Metric system
–
"The metric system is for all people for all time." (
Condorcet, 1791). Four everyday measuring devices that have metric calibrations: a
tape measure calibrated in
centimetres, a
thermometer calibrated in
degrees Celsius, a
kilogram weight, and an electrical
multimeter that measures
volts,
amperes and
ohms.
Metric system
–
Countries which have officially adopted the metric system
Metric system
–
Chinese road sign listing distances on an
expressway in eastern Beijing. Although the primary text is in Chinese, the distances use internationally recognised characters.
Metric system
–
James Clerk Maxwell played a major role in developing the concept of a coherent CGS system and in extending the metric system to include electrical units.
3.
Length
–
In geometric measurements, length is the most extended dimension of an object. In the International System of Quantities, length is any quantity with dimension distance, in other contexts length is the measured dimension of an object. For example, it is possible to cut a length of a wire which is shorter than wire thickness. Length may be distinguished from height, which is vertical extent, and width or breadth, length is a measure of one dimension, whereas area is a measure of two dimensions and volume is a measure of three dimensions. In most systems of measurement, the unit of length is a base unit, measurement has been important ever since humans settled from nomadic lifestyles and started using building materials, occupying land and trading with neighbours. As society has become more technologically oriented, much higher accuracies of measurement are required in a diverse set of fields. One of the oldest units of measurement used in the ancient world was the cubit which was the length of the arm from the tip of the finger to the elbow. This could then be subdivided into shorter units like the foot, hand or finger, the cubit could vary considerably due to the different sizes of people. After Albert Einsteins special relativity, length can no longer be thought of being constant in all reference frames. Thus a ruler that is one meter long in one frame of reference will not be one meter long in a frame that is travelling at a velocity relative to the first frame. This means length of an object is variable depending on the observer, in the physical sciences and engineering, when one speaks of units of length, the word length is synonymous with distance. There are several units that are used to measure length, in the International System of Units, the basic unit of length is the metre and is now defined in terms of the speed of light. The centimetre and the kilometre, derived from the metre, are commonly used units. In U. S. customary units, English or Imperial system of units, commonly used units of length are the inch, the foot, the yard, and the mile. Units used to denote distances in the vastness of space, as in astronomy, are longer than those typically used on Earth and include the astronomical unit, the light-year. Dimension Distance Orders of magnitude Reciprocal length Smoot Unit of length
Length
–
Base quantity
4.
SI units
–
The International System of Units is the modern form of the metric system, and is the most widely used system of measurement. It comprises a coherent system of units of measurement built on seven base units, the system also establishes a set of twenty prefixes to the unit names and unit symbols that may be used when specifying multiples and fractions of the units. The system was published in 1960 as the result of an initiative began in 1948. It is based on the system of units rather than any variant of the centimetre-gram-second system. The motivation for the development of the SI was the diversity of units that had sprung up within the CGS systems, the International System of Units has been adopted by most developed countries, however, the adoption has not been universal in all English-speaking countries. The metric system was first implemented during the French Revolution with just the metre and kilogram as standards of length, in the 1830s Carl Friedrich Gauss laid the foundations for a coherent system based on length, mass, and time. In the 1860s a group working under the auspices of the British Association for the Advancement of Science formulated the requirement for a coherent system of units with base units and derived units. Meanwhile, in 1875, the Treaty of the Metre passed responsibility for verification of the kilogram, in 1921, the Treaty was extended to include all physical quantities including electrical units originally defined in 1893. The units associated with these quantities were the metre, kilogram, second, ampere, kelvin, in 1971, a seventh base quantity, amount of substance represented by the mole, was added to the definition of SI. On 11 July 1792, the proposed the names metre, are, litre and grave for the units of length, area, capacity. The committee also proposed that multiples and submultiples of these units were to be denoted by decimal-based prefixes such as centi for a hundredth, on 10 December 1799, the law by which the metric system was to be definitively adopted in France was passed. Prior to this, the strength of the magnetic field had only been described in relative terms. The technique used by Gauss was to equate the torque induced on a magnet of known mass by the earth’s magnetic field with the torque induced on an equivalent system under gravity. The resultant calculations enabled him to assign dimensions based on mass, length, a French-inspired initiative for international cooperation in metrology led to the signing in 1875 of the Metre Convention. Initially the convention only covered standards for the metre and the kilogram, one of each was selected at random to become the International prototype metre and International prototype kilogram that replaced the mètre des Archives and kilogramme des Archives respectively. Each member state was entitled to one of each of the prototypes to serve as the national prototype for that country. Initially its prime purpose was a periodic recalibration of national prototype metres. The official language of the Metre Convention is French and the version of all official documents published by or on behalf of the CGPM is the French-language version
SI units
–
Stone marking the
Austro-Hungarian /Italian border at
Pontebba displaying
myriametres, a unit of 10 km used in
Central Europe in the 19th century (but since
deprecated).
SI units
–
The seven base units in the International System of Units
SI units
–
Carl Friedrich Gauss
SI units
–
Thomson
5.
Metre
–
The metre or meter, is the base unit of length in the International System of Units. The metre is defined as the length of the path travelled by light in a vacuum in 1/299792458 seconds, the metre was originally defined in 1793 as one ten-millionth of the distance from the equator to the North Pole. In 1799, it was redefined in terms of a metre bar. In 1960, the metre was redefined in terms of a number of wavelengths of a certain emission line of krypton-86. In 1983, the current definition was adopted, the imperial inch is defined as 0.0254 metres. One metre is about 3 3⁄8 inches longer than a yard, Metre is the standard spelling of the metric unit for length in nearly all English-speaking nations except the United States and the Philippines, which use meter. Measuring devices are spelled -meter in all variants of English, the suffix -meter has the same Greek origin as the unit of length. This range of uses is found in Latin, French, English. Thus calls for measurement and moderation. In 1668 the English cleric and philosopher John Wilkins proposed in an essay a decimal-based unit of length, as a result of the French Revolution, the French Academy of Sciences charged a commission with determining a single scale for all measures. In 1668, Wilkins proposed using Christopher Wrens suggestion of defining the metre using a pendulum with a length which produced a half-period of one second, christiaan Huygens had observed that length to be 38 Rijnland inches or 39.26 English inches. This is the equivalent of what is now known to be 997 mm, no official action was taken regarding this suggestion. In the 18th century, there were two approaches to the definition of the unit of length. One favoured Wilkins approach, to define the metre in terms of the length of a pendulum which produced a half-period of one second. The other approach was to define the metre as one ten-millionth of the length of a quadrant along the Earths meridian, that is, the distance from the Equator to the North Pole. This means that the quadrant would have defined as exactly 10000000 metres at that time. To establish a universally accepted foundation for the definition of the metre, more measurements of this meridian were needed. This portion of the meridian, assumed to be the length as the Paris meridian, was to serve as the basis for the length of the half meridian connecting the North Pole with the Equator
Metre
–
Belfry, Dunkirk —the northern end of the meridian arc
Metre
Metre
–
Fortress of Montjuïc —the southerly end of the meridian arc
Metre
–
Creating the metre-alloy in 1874 at the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers. Present Henri Tresca, George Matthey, Saint-Claire Deville and Debray
6.
Imperial units
–
The system of imperial units or the imperial system is the system of units first defined in the British Weights and Measures Act of 1824, which was later refined and reduced. The Imperial units replaced the Winchester Standards, which were in effect from 1588 to 1825, the system came into official use across the British Empire. The imperial system developed from what were first known as English units, the Weights and Measures Act of 1824 was initially scheduled to go into effect on 1 May 1825. However, the Weights and Measures Act of 1825 pushed back the date to 1 January 1826, the 1824 Act allowed the continued use of pre-imperial units provided that they were customary, widely known, and clearly marked with imperial equivalents. Apothecaries units are mentioned neither in the act of 1824 nor 1825, at the time, apothecaries weights and measures were regulated in England, Wales, and Berwick-upon-Tweed by the London College of Physicians, and in Ireland by the Dublin College of Physicians. In Scotland, apothecaries units were unofficially regulated by the Edinburgh College of Physicians, the three colleges published, at infrequent intervals, pharmacopoeiae, the London and Dublin editions having the force of law. The Medical Act of 1858 transferred to The Crown the right to publish the official pharmacopoeia and to regulate apothecaries weights, Metric equivalents in this article usually assume the latest official definition. Before this date, the most precise measurement of the imperial Standard Yard was 0.914398416 metres, in 1824, the various different gallons in use in the British Empire were replaced by the imperial gallon, a unit close in volume to the ale gallon. It was originally defined as the volume of 10 pounds of distilled water weighed in air with brass weights with the standing at 30 inches of mercury at a temperature of 62 °F. The Weights and Measures Act of 1985 switched to a gallon of exactly 4.54609 l and these measurements were in use from 1826, when the new imperial gallon was defined, but were officially abolished in the United Kingdom on 1 January 1971. In the USA, though no longer recommended, the system is still used occasionally in medicine. The troy pound was made the unit of mass by the 1824 Act, however, its use was abolished in the UK on 1 January 1879, with only the troy ounce. The Weights and Measures Act 1855 made the pound the primary unit of mass. In all the systems, the unit is the pound. For the yard, the length of a pendulum beating seconds at the latitude of Greenwich at Mean Sea Level in vacuo was defined as 39.01393 inches, the imperial system is one of many systems of English units. Although most of the units are defined in more than one system, some units were used to a much greater extent, or for different purposes. The distinctions between these systems are not drawn precisely. One such distinction is that between these systems and older British/English units/systems or newer additions, the US customary system is historically derived from the English units that were in use at the time of settlement
Imperial units
–
The former Weights and Measures office in
Seven Sisters, London.
Imperial units
–
Imperial standards of length 1876 in
Trafalgar Square, London.
Imperial units
–
A baby bottle that measures in three measurement systems—metric, imperial (UK), and US customary.
Imperial units
–
A one US gallon gas can purchased near the US-Canada border. It shows equivalences in imperial gallons and litres.
7.
US customary units
–
United States customary units are a system of measurements commonly used in the United States. The United States customary system developed from English units which were in use in the British Empire before the US declared its independence, however, the British system of measures was overhauled in 1824 to create the imperial system, changing the definitions of some units. Therefore, while many U. S. units are similar to their Imperial counterparts. The majority of U. S. customary units were redefined in terms of the meter and these definitions were refined by the international yard and pound agreement of 1959. Americans primarily use customary units in commercial activities, as well as for personal and social use, in science, medicine, many sectors of industry and some of government, metric units are used. The International System of Units, the form of the metric system, is preferred for many uses by the U. S. National Institute of Standards. The United States system of units is similar to the British imperial system, both systems are derived from English units, a system which had evolved over the millennia before American independence, and which had its roots in Roman and Anglo-Saxon units. The customary system was championed by the U. S. -based International Institute for Preserving and Perfecting Weights, advocates of the customary system saw the French Revolutionary, or metric, system as atheistic. An auxiliary of the Institute in Ohio published a poem with wording such as down with every metric scheme and A perfect inch, one adherent of the customary system called it a just weight and a just measure, which alone are acceptable to the Lord. The U. S. government passed the Metric Conversion Act of 1975, the legislation states that the federal government has a responsibility to assist industry as it voluntarily converts to the metric system, i. e. metrification. This is most evident in U. S. labeling requirements on food products, according to the CIA Factbook, the United States is one of three nations that have not adopted the metric system as their official system of weights and measures. U. S. customary units are used on consumer products. Metric units are standard in science, medicine, as well as many sectors of industry and government, the metric system also lacks a parallel to the foot. Frequently, however, these units designate quite different sizes, for example, the mile ranged by country from one-half to five U. S. miles, foot and pound also had varying definitions. Historically, a range of non-SI units were used in the U. S. and in Britain. This article deals only with the commonly used or officially defined in the U. S. For measuring length, the U. S. customary system uses the inch, foot, yard, and mile, since July 1,1959, these have been defined on the basis of 1 yard =0.9144 meters except for some applications in surveying. The U. S. the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth countries agreed on this definition, the NAD27 was replaced in the 1980s by the North American Datum of 1983, which is defined in meters
US customary units
–
A 23.7 US fl oz (700 ml) bottle displaying both US and metric units.
8.
Mile
–
The mile is an English unit of length of linear measure equal to 5,280 feet, or 1,760 yards, and standardised as exactly 1,609.344 metres by international agreement in 1959. The Romans divided their mile into 5,000 feet but the importance of furlongs in pre-modern England meant that the statute mile was made equivalent to 8 furlongs or 5,280 feet in 1593. This form of the mile then spread to the British-colonized nations who continue to employ the mile, the US Geological Survey now employs the metre for official purposes but legacy data from its 1927 geodetic datum has meant that a separate US survey mile continues to see some use. Derived units such as miles per hour and miles per gallon, however, continue to be abbreviated as mph, mpg. The modern English word mile derives from Middle English myl and Old English mīl, the present international mile is usually what is understood by the unqualified term mile. When this distance needs to be distinguished from the nautical mile, in British English, the statute mile may refer to the present international miles or to any other form of English mile since the 1593 Act of Parliament which set it as a distance of 1,760 yards. Under American law, however, the statute mile refers to the US survey mile, the mile has been variously abbreviated—with and without a trailing period—as m, M, ml, and mi. The American National Institute of Standards and Technology now uses and recommends mi in order to avoid confusion with the SI metre and millilitre. Derived units such as miles per hour and miles per gallon, however, continue to be abbreviated in the United States, United Kingdom, the BBC style holds that There is no acceptable abbreviation for ‘miles’ and so it should be spelt out when used in describing areas. The Roman mile consisted of a thousand paces as measured by every other step—as in the distance of the left foot hitting the ground 1,000 times. The ancient Romans, marching their armies through uncharted territory, would push a carved stick in the ground after each 1000 paces. Well-fed and harshly driven Roman legionaries in good weather thus created longer miles, the distance was indirectly standardised by Agrippas establishment of a standard Roman foot in 29 BC, and the definition of a pace as 5 feet. An Imperial Roman mile thus denoted 5,000 Roman feet, surveyors and specialized equipment such as the decempeda and dioptra then spread its use. In modern times, Agrippas Imperial Roman mile was empirically estimated to have been about 1,481 metres in length, in Hellenic areas of the Empire, the Roman mile was used beside the native Greek units as equivalent to 8 stadia of 600 Greek feet. The mílion continued to be used as a Byzantine unit and was used as the name of the zero mile marker for the Byzantine Empire. The Roman mile also spread throughout Europe, with its local variations giving rise to the different units below, also arising from the Roman mile is the milestone. All roads radiated out from the Roman Forum throughout the Empire –50,000 miles of stone-paved roads, at every mile was placed a shaped stone, on which was carved a Roman numeral, indicating the number of miles from the center of Rome – the Forum. Hence, one knew how far one was from Rome
Mile
–
A
milestone in
Westminster showing the distance from
Knightsbridge to
Hounslow and
Hyde Park Corner in miles.
Mile
–
The remains of the
Golden Milestone, the
zero mile marker of the
Roman road network, in the
Roman Forum.
Mile
–
Edinburgh 's "
Royal Mile "—running from
the castle to
Holyrood Abbey —is roughly a Scots mile long.
9.
Foot (unit)
–
The foot is a unit of length in the imperial and US customary systems of measurement. Since 1959, both units have been defined by international agreement as equivalent to 0.3048 meters exactly, in both systems, the foot comprises 12 inches and three feet compose a yard. Historically the foot was a part of local systems of units, including the Greek, Roman, Chinese, French. It varied in length from country to country, from city to city and its length was usually between 250 mm and 335 mm and was generally, but not always, subdivided into 12 inches or 16 digits. The United States is the industrialized nation that uses the international foot and the survey foot in preference to the meter in its commercial, engineering. The foot is legally recognized in the United Kingdom, road signs must use imperial units, the measurement of altitude in international aviation is one of the few areas where the foot is widely used outside the English-speaking world. The length of the international foot corresponds to a foot with shoe size of 13,14,15.5 or 46. Historically the human body has been used to provide the basis for units of length. The foot of a male is typically about 15. 3% of his height, giving a person of 160 cm a foot of 245 mm. These figures are less than the used in most cities over time. Archeologists believe that the Egyptians, Ancient Indians and Mesopotamians preferred the cubit while the Romans, under the Harappan linear measures, Indus cities during the Bronze Age used a foot of 13.2 inches and a cubit of 20.8 inches. The Egyptian equivalent of the measure of four palms or 16 digits—was known as the djeser and has been reconstructed as about 30 cm. The Greek foot had a length of 1⁄600 of a stadion, one stadion being about 181.2 m, the standard Roman foot was normally about 295.7 mm, but in the provinces, the pes Drusianus was used, with a length of about 334 mm. Originally both the Greeks and the Romans subdivided the foot into 16 digits, but in later years, after the fall of the Roman Empire, some Roman traditions were continued but others fell into disuse. In AD790 Charlemagne attempted to reform the units of measure in his domains and his units of length were based on the toise and in particular the toise de lÉcritoire, the distance between the fingertips of the outstretched arms of a man. The toise has 6 pieds each of 326.6 mm, at the same time, monastic buildings used the Carolingian foot of 340 mm. The procedure for verification of the foot as described in the 16th century by Jacob Koebel in his book Geometrei, the measures of Iron Age Britain are uncertain and proposed reconstructions such as the Megalithic Yard are controversial. Later Welsh legend credited Dyfnwal Moelmud with the establishment of their units, the Belgic or North German foot of 335 mm was introduced to England either by the Belgic Celts during their invasions prior to the Romans or by the Anglo-Saxons in the 5th & 6th century
Foot (unit)
–
The unofficial public
imperial measurement standards erected at the
Royal Observatory in
Greenwich in the 19th century
Foot (unit)
–
Determination of the rod, using the length of the left foot of 16 randomly chosen people coming from church service. Woodcut published in the book Geometrei by Jakob Köbel (Frankfurt, c. 1536).
Foot (unit)
–
Page from Austrian Lehrbuch des gesammten Rechnens für die vierte Classe der Hauptschulen in den k.k. Staaten – 1848
10.
Nautical mile
–
A nautical mile is a unit of measurement defined as exactly 1852 meters. Historically, it was defined as one minute of latitude, which is equivalent to one sixtieth of a degree of latitude. Today it is an SI derived unit, being rounded to a number of meters. The derived unit of speed is the knot, defined as one mile per hour. The geographical mile is the length of one minute of longitude along the Equator, there is no internationally agreed symbol. M is used as the abbreviation for the mile by the International Hydrographic Organization and by the International Bureau of Weights. NM is used by the International Civil Aviation Organization, nm is used by the U. S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Nmi is used by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the word mile is from the Latin word for a thousand paces, mīlia. In 1617 the Dutch scientist Snell assessed the circumference of the Earth at 24,630 Roman miles, around that time British mathematician Edmund Gunter improved navigational tools including a new quadrant to determine latitude at sea. He reasoned that the lines of latitude could be used as the basis for a unit of measurement for distance, as one degree is 1/360 of a circle, one minute of arc is 1/21600 of a circle. These sexagesimal units originated in Babylonian astronomy, Gunter used Snells circumference to define a nautical mile as 6,080 feet, the length of one minute of arc at 48 degrees latitude.3 metres. Other countries measure the minute of arc at 45 degrees latitude, in 1929, the international nautical mile was defined by the First International Extraordinary Hydrographic Conference in Monaco as 1,852 meters. Imperial units and United States customary units used a definition of the nautical mile based on the Clarke Spheroid, the United States nautical mile was defined as 6,080.20 feet based in the Mendenhall Order foot of 1893. It was abandoned in favour of the nautical mile in 1954.181 meters. It was abandoned in 1970 and, legally, references to the unit are now converted to 1,853 meters. Conversion of units Orders of magnitude
Nautical mile
–
Historical definition – 1 nautical mile
11.
American and British English spelling differences
–
Many of the differences between American and British English date back to a time when spelling standards had not yet developed. For instance, some spellings seen as American today were once used in Britain. But English-language spelling reform has rarely been adopted otherwise, and thus modern English orthography varies somewhat between countries and is far from phonemic in any country, in the early 18th century, English spelling was inconsistent. These differences became noticeable after the publishing of influential dictionaries, todays British English spellings mostly follow Johnsons A Dictionary of the English Language, while many American English spellings follow Websters An American Dictionary of the English Language. Webster was a proponent of English spelling reform for reasons both philological and nationalistic, in A Companion to the American Revolution, John Algeo notes, it is often assumed that characteristically American spellings were invented by Noah Webster. He was very influential in popularizing certain spellings in America, rather he chose already existing options such as center, color and check for the simplicity, analogy or etymology. William Shakespeares first folios, for example, used spellings like center and color as much as centre, Webster did attempt to introduce some reformed spellings, as did the Simplified Spelling Board in the early 20th century, but most were not adopted. In Britain, the influence of those who preferred the Norman spellings of words proved to be decisive, later spelling adjustments in the United Kingdom had little effect on todays American spellings and vice versa. For the most part, the systems of most Commonwealth countries. Australian spelling has also strayed slightly from British spelling, with some American spellings incorporated as standard, New Zealand spelling is almost identical to British spelling, except in the word fiord. There is also an increasing use of macrons in words that originated in Māori, most words ending in an unstressed -our in British English end in -or in American English. Wherever the vowel is unreduced in pronunciation, e. g. contour, velour, paramour and troubadour the spelling is the same everywhere, most words of this kind came from Latin, where the ending was spelled -or. They were first adopted into English from early Old French, after the Norman conquest of England, the ending became -our to match the Old French spelling. The -our ending was not only used in new English borrowings, however, -or was still sometimes found, and the first three folios of Shakespeares plays used both spellings before they were standardised to -our in the Fourth Folio of 1685. After the Renaissance, new borrowings from Latin were taken up with their original -or ending, Websters 1828 dictionary had only -or and is given much of the credit for the adoption of this form in the United States. Johnson, unlike Webster, was not an advocate of spelling reform and he preferred French over Latin spellings because, as he put it, the French generally supplied us. In Jeffersons original draft it is spelled honour, Honor and honour were equally frequent in Britain until the 17th century, honor still is, in the UK, the usual spelling as a persons name and appears in Honor Oak, a district of London. In derivatives and inflected forms of the words, British usage depends on the nature of the suffix used
American and British English spelling differences
–
Extract from the Orthography section of the first edition (1828) of
Webster 's "
ADEL ", which popularized the "American standard" spellings of -er (6); -or (7); the dropped -e (8); -or (10); -se (11); and the doubling of consonants with a suffix (15).
American and British English spelling differences
–
An 1814 American medical text showing British English spellings that were still in use ("tumours", "colour", "centres", etc.).
12.
International Bureau of Weights and Measures
–
The organisation is usually referred to by its French initialism, BIPM. The BIPM reports to the International Committee for Weights and Measures and these organizations are also commonly referred to by their French initialisms. The BIPM was created on 20 May 1875, following the signing of the Metre Convention, under the authority of the Metric Convention, the BIPM helps to ensure uniformity of SI weights and measures around the world. It does so through a series of committees, whose members are the national metrology laboratories of the Conventions member states. The BIPM carries out measurement-related research and it takes part in and organises international comparisons of national measurement standards and performs calibrations for member states. The BIPM has an important role in maintaining accurate worldwide time of day and it combines, analyses, and averages the official atomic time standards of member nations around the world to create a single, official Coordinated Universal Time. The BIPM is also the keeper of the prototype of the kilogram. Metrologia Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements International Organization for Standardization National Institute of Standards and Technology Official website
International Bureau of Weights and Measures
–
Pavillon de Breteuil in
Sèvres,
France.
International Bureau of Weights and Measures
–
Seal of the BIPM
13.
Units of measurement
–
A unit of measurement is a definite magnitude of a quantity, defined and adopted by convention or by law, that is used as a standard for measurement of the same quantity. Any other value of quantity can be expressed as a simple multiple of the unit of measurement. For example, length is a physical quantity, the metre is a unit of length that represents a definite predetermined length. When we say 10 metres, we actually mean 10 times the definite predetermined length called metre, the definition, agreement, and practical use of units of measurement have played a crucial role in human endeavour from early ages up to this day. Different systems of units used to be very common, now there is a global standard, the International System of Units, the modern form of the metric system. In trade, weights and measures is often a subject of regulation, to ensure fairness. The International Bureau of Weights and Measures is tasked with ensuring worldwide uniformity of measurements, metrology is the science for developing nationally and internationally accepted units of weights and measures. In physics and metrology, units are standards for measurement of quantities that need clear definitions to be useful. Reproducibility of experimental results is central to the scientific method, a standard system of units facilitates this. Scientific systems of units are a refinement of the concept of weights, science, medicine, and engineering often use larger and smaller units of measurement than those used in everyday life and indicate them more precisely. The judicious selection of the units of measurement can aid researchers in problem solving, in the social sciences, there are no standard units of measurement and the theory and practice of measurement is studied in psychometrics and the theory of conjoint measurement. A unit of measurement is a quantity of a physical property. Units of measurement were among the earliest tools invented by humans, primitive societies needed rudimentary measures for many tasks, constructing dwellings of an appropriate size and shape, fashioning clothing, or bartering food or raw materials. Weights and measures are mentioned in the Bible and it is a commandment to be honest and have fair measures. As of the 21st Century, multiple unit systems are used all over the world such as the United States Customary System, the British Customary System, however, the United States is the only industrialized country that has not yet completely converted to the Metric System. The systematic effort to develop an acceptable system of units dates back to 1790 when the French National Assembly charged the French Academy of Sciences to come up such a unit system. After this treaty was signed, a General Conference of Weights, the CGPM produced the current SI system which was adopted in 1954 at the 10th conference of weights and measures. Currently, the United States is a society which uses both the SI system and the US Customary system
Units of measurement
–
The former Weights and Measures office in
Seven Sisters, London
Units of measurement
–
Units of measurement,
Palazzo della Ragione,
Padua
Units of measurement
–
An example of
metrication in 1860 when Tuscany became part of modern Italy (ex. one "libbra" = 339,54 grams)
14.
SI prefix
–
A metric prefix is a unit prefix that precedes a basic unit of measure to indicate a multiple or fraction of the unit. While all metric prefixes in use today are decadic, historically there have been a number of binary metric prefixes as well. Each prefix has a symbol that is prepended to the unit symbol. The prefix kilo-, for example, may be added to gram to indicate multiplication by one thousand, the prefix milli-, likewise, may be added to metre to indicate division by one thousand, one millimetre is equal to one thousandth of a metre. Decimal multiplicative prefixes have been a feature of all forms of the system with six dating back to the systems introduction in the 1790s. Metric prefixes have even been prepended to non-metric units, the SI prefixes are standardized for use in the International System of Units by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures in resolutions dating from 1960 to 1991. Since 2009, they have formed part of the International System of Quantities, the BIPM specifies twenty prefixes for the International System of Units. Each prefix name has a symbol which is used in combination with the symbols for units of measure. For example, the symbol for kilo- is k, and is used to produce km, kg, and kW, which are the SI symbols for kilometre, kilogram, prefixes corresponding to an integer power of one thousand are generally preferred. Hence 100 m is preferred over 1 hm or 10 dam, the prefixes hecto, deca, deci, and centi are commonly used for everyday purposes, and the centimetre is especially common. However, some building codes require that the millimetre be used in preference to the centimetre, because use of centimetres leads to extensive usage of decimal points. Prefixes may not be used in combination and this also applies to mass, for which the SI base unit already contains a prefix. For example, milligram is used instead of microkilogram, in the arithmetic of measurements having units, the units are treated as multiplicative factors to values. If they have prefixes, all but one of the prefixes must be expanded to their numeric multiplier,1 km2 means one square kilometre, or the area of a square of 1000 m by 1000 m and not 1000 square metres. 2 Mm3 means two cubic megametres, or the volume of two cubes of 1000000 m by 1000000 m by 1000000 m or 2×1018 m3, and not 2000000 cubic metres, examples 5 cm = 5×10−2 m =5 ×0.01 m =0. The prefixes, including those introduced after 1960, are used with any metric unit, metric prefixes may also be used with non-metric units. The choice of prefixes with a unit is usually dictated by convenience of use. Unit prefixes for amounts that are larger or smaller than those actually encountered are seldom used
SI prefix
–
Distance marker on the
Rhine: 36 (XXXVI) myriametres from
Basel. Note that the stated distance is 360 km; comma is the
decimal mark in
Germany.
15.
Statute mile
–
The mile is an English unit of length of linear measure equal to 5,280 feet, or 1,760 yards, and standardised as exactly 1,609.344 metres by international agreement in 1959. The Romans divided their mile into 5,000 feet but the importance of furlongs in pre-modern England meant that the statute mile was made equivalent to 8 furlongs or 5,280 feet in 1593. This form of the mile then spread to the British-colonized nations who continue to employ the mile, the US Geological Survey now employs the metre for official purposes but legacy data from its 1927 geodetic datum has meant that a separate US survey mile continues to see some use. Derived units such as miles per hour and miles per gallon, however, continue to be abbreviated as mph, mpg. The modern English word mile derives from Middle English myl and Old English mīl, the present international mile is usually what is understood by the unqualified term mile. When this distance needs to be distinguished from the nautical mile, in British English, the statute mile may refer to the present international miles or to any other form of English mile since the 1593 Act of Parliament which set it as a distance of 1,760 yards. Under American law, however, the statute mile refers to the US survey mile, the mile has been variously abbreviated—with and without a trailing period—as m, M, ml, and mi. The American National Institute of Standards and Technology now uses and recommends mi in order to avoid confusion with the SI metre and millilitre. Derived units such as miles per hour and miles per gallon, however, continue to be abbreviated in the United States, United Kingdom, the BBC style holds that There is no acceptable abbreviation for ‘miles’ and so it should be spelt out when used in describing areas. The Roman mile consisted of a thousand paces as measured by every other step—as in the distance of the left foot hitting the ground 1,000 times. The ancient Romans, marching their armies through uncharted territory, would push a carved stick in the ground after each 1000 paces. Well-fed and harshly driven Roman legionaries in good weather thus created longer miles, the distance was indirectly standardised by Agrippas establishment of a standard Roman foot in 29 BC, and the definition of a pace as 5 feet. An Imperial Roman mile thus denoted 5,000 Roman feet, surveyors and specialized equipment such as the decempeda and dioptra then spread its use. In modern times, Agrippas Imperial Roman mile was empirically estimated to have been about 1,481 metres in length, in Hellenic areas of the Empire, the Roman mile was used beside the native Greek units as equivalent to 8 stadia of 600 Greek feet. The mílion continued to be used as a Byzantine unit and was used as the name of the zero mile marker for the Byzantine Empire. The Roman mile also spread throughout Europe, with its local variations giving rise to the different units below, also arising from the Roman mile is the milestone. All roads radiated out from the Roman Forum throughout the Empire –50,000 miles of stone-paved roads, at every mile was placed a shaped stone, on which was carved a Roman numeral, indicating the number of miles from the center of Rome – the Forum. Hence, one knew how far one was from Rome
Statute mile
–
A
milestone in
Westminster showing the distance from
Knightsbridge to
Hounslow and
Hyde Park Corner in miles.
Statute mile
–
The remains of the
Golden Milestone, the
zero mile marker of the
Roman road network, in the
Roman Forum.
Statute mile
–
Edinburgh 's "
Royal Mile "—running from
the castle to
Holyrood Abbey —is roughly a Scots mile long.
16.
Gough Whitlam
–
Edward Gough Whitlam AC QC was the 21st Prime Minister of Australia, serving from 1972 to 1975. The Leader of the Labor Party from 1967 to 1977, Whitlam led his party to power for the first time in 23 years at the 1972 election. He won the 1974 election before being dismissed by the Governor-General of Australia, Sir John Kerr. Whitlam remains the only Australian prime minister to have his commission terminated in that manner, Whitlam served in the Royal Australian Air Force during World War II for four years as airforce navigator in the Pacific and worked as a barrister following the war. He was first elected to Parliament in 1952, representing Werriwa in the House of Representatives, Whitlam became Deputy Leader of the Labor Party in 1960, and in 1967, after the retirement of Arthur Calwell, was elected Leader and became the Leader of the Opposition. After narrowly losing the 1969 election, Whitlam led Labor to victory at the 1972 election after 23 years of continuous Liberal-Country Coalition Government. The government and the opposition then had equal numbers in the Senate where they voted against the six trigger bills which had formed the basis for the 1974 double dissolution. The Whitlam government then instituted the first and only 1974 joint sitting enabled under s.57 of the Constitution as part of the dissolution process. All six of the bills were then passed at the Joint Sitting in August 1974. Whitlam refused to back down, arguing that his government, which held a majority in the House of Representatives, was being held to ransom by the Senate. The crisis ended on 11 November, when Whitlam arrived at a meeting with the Governor-General, Sir John Kerr. Kerr had agreed to the documents and the date for the half-Senate election—13 December—with Whitlam over the preceding days. Whitlam described it as the greatest shock I had ever experienced when Kerr instead dismissed him without warning and commissioned the opposition leader, Malcolm Fraser, as prime minister. Later that afternoon, the House of Representatives passed a motion of no confidence in Fraser, Kerr refused to see the Speaker of the House or receive the motion of the House of Representatives and prorogued parliament with Fraser still in office. Labor lost the subsequent election by a landslide, Whitlam stepped down after losing again at the 1977 election, and retired from parliament in 1978. Upon the election of the Hawke Government in 1983, he was appointed as Ambassador to UNESCO, a position he filled with distinction and he remained active into his nineties. The circumstances of his dismissal and the legacy of his government remain a part of Australian political discourse. Edward Gough Whitlam was born on 11 July 1916 at the family home Ngara,46 Rowland Street, Kew and he was the older of two children born to Martha and Fred Whitlam
Gough Whitlam
–
Gough Whitlam
AC QC
Gough Whitlam
–
Gough Whitlam in
Cooktown, Queensland in 1944
Gough Whitlam
–
Photograph of Whitlam and attestation paper from his
RAAF officer personnel file dated 1942
Gough Whitlam
–
Whitlam visits US President
Richard Nixon, July 1973
17.
Foot (length)
–
The foot is a unit of length in the imperial and US customary systems of measurement. Since 1959, both units have been defined by international agreement as equivalent to 0.3048 meters exactly, in both systems, the foot comprises 12 inches and three feet compose a yard. Historically the foot was a part of local systems of units, including the Greek, Roman, Chinese, French. It varied in length from country to country, from city to city and its length was usually between 250 mm and 335 mm and was generally, but not always, subdivided into 12 inches or 16 digits. The United States is the industrialized nation that uses the international foot and the survey foot in preference to the meter in its commercial, engineering. The foot is legally recognized in the United Kingdom, road signs must use imperial units, the measurement of altitude in international aviation is one of the few areas where the foot is widely used outside the English-speaking world. The length of the international foot corresponds to a foot with shoe size of 13,14,15.5 or 46. Historically the human body has been used to provide the basis for units of length. The foot of a male is typically about 15. 3% of his height, giving a person of 160 cm a foot of 245 mm. These figures are less than the used in most cities over time. Archeologists believe that the Egyptians, Ancient Indians and Mesopotamians preferred the cubit while the Romans, under the Harappan linear measures, Indus cities during the Bronze Age used a foot of 13.2 inches and a cubit of 20.8 inches. The Egyptian equivalent of the measure of four palms or 16 digits—was known as the djeser and has been reconstructed as about 30 cm. The Greek foot had a length of 1⁄600 of a stadion, one stadion being about 181.2 m, the standard Roman foot was normally about 295.7 mm, but in the provinces, the pes Drusianus was used, with a length of about 334 mm. Originally both the Greeks and the Romans subdivided the foot into 16 digits, but in later years, after the fall of the Roman Empire, some Roman traditions were continued but others fell into disuse. In AD790 Charlemagne attempted to reform the units of measure in his domains and his units of length were based on the toise and in particular the toise de lÉcritoire, the distance between the fingertips of the outstretched arms of a man. The toise has 6 pieds each of 326.6 mm, at the same time, monastic buildings used the Carolingian foot of 340 mm. The procedure for verification of the foot as described in the 16th century by Jacob Koebel in his book Geometrei, the measures of Iron Age Britain are uncertain and proposed reconstructions such as the Megalithic Yard are controversial. Later Welsh legend credited Dyfnwal Moelmud with the establishment of their units, the Belgic or North German foot of 335 mm was introduced to England either by the Belgic Celts during their invasions prior to the Romans or by the Anglo-Saxons in the 5th & 6th century
Foot (length)
–
The unofficial public
imperial measurement standards erected at the
Royal Observatory in
Greenwich in the 19th century
Foot (length)
–
Determination of the rod, using the length of the left foot of 16 randomly chosen people coming from church service. Woodcut published in the book Geometrei by Jakob Köbel (Frankfurt, c. 1536).
Foot (length)
–
Page from Austrian Lehrbuch des gesammten Rechnens für die vierte Classe der Hauptschulen in den k.k. Staaten – 1848
18.
Yard
–
The yard is an English unit of length, in both the British imperial and US customary systems of measurement, that comprises 3 feet or 36 inches. It is by international agreement in 1959 standardized as exactly 0.9144 meters, a metal yardstick originally formed the physical standard from which all other units of length were officially derived in both English systems. In the 19th and 20th centuries, increasingly powerful microscopes and scientific measurement detected variation in these prototype yards which became significant as technology improved. In 1959, the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, the name derives from the Old English gerd, gyrd, &c. which was used for branches, staves, and measuring rods. It is first attested in the late-7th century laws of Ine of Wessex, where the yard of land mentioned is the yardland, an old English unit of tax assessment equal to 1⁄4 hide. Around the same time, the Lindisfarne Gospels account of the messengers from John the Baptist in the Book of Matthew used it for a branch swayed by the wind. In addition to the yardland, Old and Middle English both used their forms of yard to denote the lengths of 15 or 16 1⁄2 ft used in computing acres. A unit of three English feet is attested in a statute of c. 1300 but there it is called an ell, the use of the word yard to describe this length is first attested in Langlands poem on Piers Plowman. The usage seems to derive from the prototype standard rods held by the king, the word yard is a homonym of yard in the sense of an enclosed area of land. This second meaning of yard has a related to the verb to gird and is probably not related. The origin of the measure is uncertain, both the Romans and the Welsh used multiples of a shorter foot, but 2 1⁄2 Roman feet was a step and 3 Welsh feet was a pace. The Proto-Germanic cubit or arms-length has been reconstructed as *alinâ, which developed into the Old English ęln, Middle English elne and this has led some to derive the yard of three English feet from pacing, others from the ell or cubit, others from Henry Is arm standard. Based on the etymology of the yard, others suggest it originally derived from the girth of a persons waist. But the yard was the standard adopted by the early English soverigns. The yard continued till the reign of Henry VII. when the ell was introduced, that being a yard, the ell was borrowed from the Paris drapers. Subsequently, however, Queen Elizabeth re-introduced the yard as the English standard of measure, the earliest record of a prototype measure is the statute II Edgar Cap. 8, which survives in several variant manuscripts, in it, Edgar the Peaceful directed the Witenagemot at Andover that the measure held at Winchester should be observed throughout his realm. The statutes of William I similarly refer to and uphold the measures of his predecessors without naming them
Yard
–
The informal public
imperial measurement standards erected at the
Royal Observatory,
Greenwich,
London, in the 19th century: 1
British yard, 2
feet, 1
foot, 6
inches, and 3
inches. The inexact monument was designed to permit rods of the correct measure to fit snuggly into its pins at an ambient temperature of 62
°F (16 2 ⁄ 3
°C).
Yard
–
Bronze Yard №11, the official standard of length for the
United States between 1855 and 1892, when the
Treasury Department formally adopted a metric standard. Bronze Yard №11 was forged to be an exact copy of the British Imperial Standard Yard held by
Parliament. Both are line standards: the yard was defined by the distance at 62
°F between two fine lines drawn on
gold plugs (closeup, top) installed in recesses near each end of the bar.
Yard
–
Two yardsticks, used for measuring "yard goods"
19.
Astronomical unit
–
The astronomical unit is a unit of length, roughly the distance from Earth to the Sun. However, that varies as Earth orbits the Sun, from a maximum to a minimum. Originally conceived as the average of Earths aphelion and perihelion, it is now defined as exactly 149597870700 metres, the astronomical unit is used primarily as a convenient yardstick for measuring distances within the Solar System or around other stars. However, it is also a component in the definition of another unit of astronomical length. A variety of symbols and abbreviations have been in use for the astronomical unit. In a 1976 resolution, the International Astronomical Union used the symbol A for the astronomical unit, in 2006, the International Bureau of Weights and Measures recommended ua as the symbol for the unit. In 2012, the IAU, noting that various symbols are presently in use for the astronomical unit, in the 2014 revision of the SI Brochure, the BIPM used the unit symbol au. In ISO 80000-3, the symbol of the unit is ua. Earths orbit around the Sun is an ellipse, the semi-major axis of this ellipse is defined to be half of the straight line segment that joins the aphelion and perihelion. The centre of the sun lies on this line segment. In addition, it mapped out exactly the largest straight-line distance that Earth traverses over the course of a year, knowing Earths shift and a stars shift enabled the stars distance to be calculated. But all measurements are subject to some degree of error or uncertainty, improvements in precision have always been a key to improving astronomical understanding. Improving measurements were continually checked and cross-checked by means of our understanding of the laws of celestial mechanics, the expected positions and distances of objects at an established time are calculated from these laws, and assembled into a collection of data called an ephemeris. NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory provides one of several ephemeris computation services, in 1976, in order to establish a yet more precise measure for the astronomical unit, the IAU formally adopted a new definition. Equivalently, by definition, one AU is the radius of an unperturbed circular Newtonian orbit about the sun of a particle having infinitesimal mass. As with all measurements, these rely on measuring the time taken for photons to be reflected from an object. However, for precision the calculations require adjustment for such as the motions of the probe. In addition, the measurement of the time itself must be translated to a scale that accounts for relativistic time dilation
Astronomical unit
–
Transits of Venus across the face of the Sun were, for a long time, the best method of measuring the astronomical unit, despite the difficulties (here, the so-called "
black drop effect ") and the rarity of observations.
Astronomical unit
–
The red line indicates the Earth-Sun distance, which is on average about 1 astronomical unit.
20.
Parsec
–
The parsec is a unit of length used to measure large distances to objects outside the Solar System. One parsec is the distance at which one astronomical unit subtends an angle of one arcsecond, a parsec is equal to about 3.26 light-years in length. The nearest star, Proxima Centauri, is about 1.3 parsecs from the Sun, most of the stars visible to the unaided eye in the nighttime sky are within 500 parsecs of the Sun. The parsec unit was likely first suggested in 1913 by the British astronomer Herbert Hall Turner, named from an abbreviation of the parallax of one arcsecond, it was defined so as to make calculations of astronomical distances quick and easy for astronomers from only their raw observational data. Partly for this reason, it is still the unit preferred in astronomy and astrophysics, though the light-year remains prominent in science texts. This corresponds to the definition of the parsec found in many contemporary astronomical references. Derivation, create a triangle with one leg being from the Earth to the Sun. As that point in space away, the angle between the Sun and Earth decreases. A parsec is the length of that leg when the angle between the Sun and Earth is one arc-second. One of the oldest methods used by astronomers to calculate the distance to a star is to record the difference in angle between two measurements of the position of the star in the sky. The first measurement is taken from the Earth on one side of the Sun, and the second is approximately half a year later. The distance between the two positions of the Earth when the two measurements were taken is twice the distance between the Earth and the Sun. The difference in angle between the two measurements is twice the angle, which is formed by lines from the Sun. Then the distance to the star could be calculated using trigonometry. 5-parsec distance of 61 Cygni, the parallax of a star is defined as half of the angular distance that a star appears to move relative to the celestial sphere as Earth orbits the Sun. Equivalently, it is the angle, from that stars perspective. The star, the Sun and the Earth form the corners of a right triangle in space, the right angle is the corner at the Sun. Therefore, given a measurement of the angle, along with the rules of trigonometry. A parsec is defined as the length of the adjacent to the vertex occupied by a star whose parallax angle is one arcsecond
Parsec
–
The jet erupting from the
active galactic nucleus of
M87 is thought to be 7000150000000000000♠ 1.5 kiloparsecs (7019462629720109201♠ 4890
ly) long. (image from Hubble Space Telescope)
Parsec
–
A parsec is the distance from the
Sun to an
astronomical object that has a
parallax angle of one
arcsecond (the diagram is not to scale).
21.
Constituent assembly
–
A constituent assembly is a body or assembly of representatives composed for the purpose of drafting or adopting a constitution. A constituent assembly is set up for its specific purpose. A constituent assembly is a form of representative democracy, as described by Columbia University Social Sciences Professor Jon Elster, Constitutions arise in a number of different ways. At the non-democratic extreme of the spectrum, we may imagine a sovereign lawgiver laying down the constitution for all later generations, at the democratic extreme, we may imagine a constituent assembly elected by universal suffrage for the sole task of writing a new constitution. And there are all sorts of intermediate arrangements, right after the 1948 Costa Rican Civil War that overthrow Rafael Angel Calderón Government, the leaders of the victorious side call for an election of a Constituent Assembly in the same year. The Assembly successfully drafted and approved the current Costa Rican Constitution, louis XVI recognized the validity of the National Constituent Assembly on June 27,1789. See also French Constituent Assembly election,1848 On 27 November 2010, Iceland held an election for a constitutional assembly, with 522 people vying for 25 delegate seats. The constitutional assembly, in session for four months from early April until late July 2011, drafted a new constitution, Parliament put the bill to a national referendum 20 October 2012 in which 67% of the voters declared their support for the bill. Further, 67% of the voters declared their support for voting rights and 83% declared their support for national ownership of natural resources. The Constituent Assembly of India was elected to write the Constitution of India and it was set up as a result of negotiations between the leaders of the Indian independence movement and members of the British Cabinet Mission. The constituent assembly was elected indirectly by the members of the Provincial legislative assembly and it first met on December 9,1946, in Delhi. On August 15,1947, India became an independent nation, dr. Ambedkar drafted the Constitution of India in conjunction with the requisite deliberations and debates in the Constituent Assembly. The Assembly approved the Constitution on November 26,1949, once the Constitution took effect, the Constituent Assembly became the Provisional Parliament of India. (It was provisional until the first elections under the new Constitution took place, the whole process took 2 years,11 months and 18 days from start to finish. The Constitutional Assembly of Indonesia was established to draw up a permanent constitution and its membership was elected in November 1955, and it met for the first time in November 1956. After four sessions, it failed to agree on the basis for the state. It was dissolved in 1059, and the constitution imposed by presidential decree. The Constituent Assembly of Italy was established in 1946 in the wake of Fascist Italys defeat during World War II and it was elected with universal suffrage, simultaneously with a referendum about the adoption of Republic or the continuation of monarchy
Constituent assembly
–
The Virginia Constitutional Convention, 1830 (George Catlin, ca. 1830). Many state constituent assemblies, like the 1830 Virginia Constitutional Convention, were highly formalized but the legitimacy of the constitution they drafted depended on whether it was authorized by the people, not whether a particular procedure was followed.
22.
French Academy of Sciences
–
The French Academy of Sciences is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French scientific research. It was at the forefront of developments in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries. Currently headed by Sébastien Candel, it is one of the five Academies of the Institut de France, the Academy of Sciences makes its origin to Colberts plan to create a general academy. He chose a group of scholars who met on 22 December 1666 in the Kings library. The first 30 years of the Academys existence were relatively informal, in contrast to its British counterpart, the Academy was founded as an organ of government. The Academy was expected to remain apolitical, and to avoid discussion of religious, on 20 January 1699, Louis XIV gave the Company its first rules. The Academy received the name of Royal Academy of Sciences and was installed in the Louvre in Paris, following this reform, the Academy began publishing a volume each year with information on all the work done by its members and obituaries for members who had died. This reform also codified the method by which members of the Academy could receive pensions for their work, on 8 August 1793, the National Convention abolished all the academies. Almost all the old members of the previously abolished Académie were formally re-elected, among the exceptions was Dominique, comte de Cassini, who refused to take his seat. In 1816, the again renamed Royal Academy of Sciences became autonomous, while forming part of the Institute of France, in the Second Republic, the name returned to Académie des sciences. During this period, the Academy was funded by and accountable to the Ministry of Public Instruction, the Academy came to control French patent laws in the course of the eighteenth century, acting as the liaison of artisans knowledge to the public domain. As a result, academicians dominated technological activities in France, the Academy proceedings were published under the name Comptes rendus de lAcadémie des sciences. The Comptes rendus is now a series with seven titles. The publications can be found on site of the French National Library, in 1818 the French Academy of Sciences launched a competition to explain the properties of light. The civil engineer Augustin-Jean Fresnel entered this competition by submitting a new theory of light. Siméon Denis Poisson, one of the members of the judging committee, being a supporter of the particle-theory of light, he looked for a way to disprove it. The Poisson spot is not easily observed in every-day situations, so it was natural for Poisson to interpret it as an absurd result. However, the head of the committee, Dominique-François-Jean Arago, and he molded a 2-mm metallic disk to a glass plate with wax
French Academy of Sciences
–
A heroic depiction of the activities of the Academy from 1698
French Academy of Sciences
–
Colbert Presenting the Members of the Royal Academy of Sciences to Louis XIV in 1667
French Academy of Sciences
–
The
Institut de France in Paris where the Academy is housed
23.
National Convention
–
The National Convention was the third government of the French Revolution, following the two-year National Constituent Assembly and the one-year Legislative Assembly. Created after the insurrection of 10 August 1792, it was the first French government organized as a republic. The Convention sat as an assembly from 20 September 1792 to 26 October 1795. The National Convention was therefore the first French assembly elected by a suffrage without distinctions of class, although the Convention lasted until 1795, power was effectively stripped from the elected deputies and concentrated in the small Committee of Public Safety from April 1793. After the fall of Robespierre, the Convention lasted for year until a new constitution was written. The election took place from 2 to 6 September 1792 after the election of the colleges by primary assemblies on 26 August. Therefore, the increased suffrage had very little impact, the electorate returned the same sort of men that the active citizens had chosen in 1791. In the whole of France, only eleven primary assemblies wanted to retain the monarchy, of the electoral assemblies, all tacitly voted for a republic – though only Paris used the word. None of the deputies stood as a royalist for elections, out of the five million Frenchmen able to vote, only a million showed up at the polls. The Salle des Machines had galleries for the public who often influenced the debates with interruptions or applause, the members of the Convention came from all classes of society, but the most numerous were lawyers. 75 members had sat in the National Constituent Assembly,183 in the Legislative Assembly, the full number of deputies was 749, not counting 33 from the French colonies, of whom only some arrived in Paris in time. Besides these, however, the newly formed départements annexed to France from 1792 to 1795 were allowed to send deputations, according to its own ruling, the Convention elected its President every fortnight, and the outgoing President was eligible for re-election after the lapse of a fortnight. Ordinarily the sessions were held in the morning, but evening sessions also occurred frequently, sometimes in exceptional circumstances the Convention declared itself in permanent session and sat for several days without interruption. For both legislative and administrative the Convention used committees, with more or less widely extended and regulated by successive laws. The most famous of these included the Committee of Public Safety. The Convention held legislative and executive powers during the first years of the French First Republic and had three periods, Girondin, Montagnard or Jacobin, and Thermidorian. The abolition of the royalty is a matter you cannot put off till tomorrow, the first session was held on 20 September 1792. The following day, amidst profound silence, the proposition was put to the assembly, on the 22nd came the news of the Battle of Valmy
National Convention
–
Autel de la Convention nationale or Autel républicain
François-Léon Sicard Panthéon de Paris, France, 1913
National Convention
–
The trial of Louis XVI
National Convention
–
Journées des 31 Mai 1er et 2 Juin 1793
National Convention
–
Constitution du Peuple Française du 6 Messidor l'an I (24 June 1793)
24.
Myriametre
–
The following are examples of orders of magnitude for different lengths. To help compare different orders of magnitude, the following list describes various lengths between 1. 6×10−35 meters and 101010122 meters,100 pm –1 Ångström 120 pm – radius of a gold atom 150 pm – Length of a typical covalent bond. 280 pm – Average size of the water molecule 298 pm – radius of a caesium atom, light travels 1 metre in 1⁄299,792,458, or 3. 3356409519815E-9 of a second. 25 metres – wavelength of the broadcast radio shortwave band at 12 MHz 29 metres – height of the lighthouse at Savudrija, Slovenia. 31 metres – wavelength of the broadcast radio shortwave band at 9.7 MHz 34 metres – height of the Split Point Lighthouse in Aireys Inlet, Victoria, Australia. 1 kilometre is equal to,1,000 metres 0.621371 miles 1,093.61 yards 3,280.84 feet 39,370.1 inches 100,000 centimetres 1,000,000 millimetres Side of a square of area 1 km2. Radius of a circle of area π km2,1.637 km – deepest dive of Lake Baikal in Russia, the worlds largest fresh water lake. 2.228 km – height of Mount Kosciuszko, highest point in Australia Most of Manhattan is from 3 to 4 km wide, farsang, a modern unit of measure commonly used in Iran and Turkey. Usage of farsang before 1926 may be for a precise unit derived from parasang. It is the altitude at which the FAI defines spaceflight to begin, to help compare orders of magnitude, this page lists lengths between 100 and 1,000 kilometres. 7.9 Gm – Diameter of Gamma Orionis 9, the newly improved measurement was 30% lower than the previous 2007 estimate. The size was revised in 2012 through improved measurement techniques and its faintness gives us an idea how our Sun would appear when viewed from even so close a distance as this. 350 Pm –37 light years – Distance to Arcturus 373.1 Pm –39.44 light years - Distance to TRAPPIST-1, a star recently discovered to have 7 planets around it. 400 Pm –42 light years – Distance to Capella 620 Pm –65 light years – Distance to Aldebaran This list includes distances between 1 and 10 exametres. 13 Em –1,300 light years – Distance to the Orion Nebula 14 Em –1,500 light years – Approximate thickness of the plane of the Milky Way galaxy at the Suns location 30.8568 Em –3,261. At this scale, expansion of the universe becomes significant, Distance of these objects are derived from their measured redshifts, which depends on the cosmological models used. At this scale, expansion of the universe becomes significant, Distance of these objects are derived from their measured redshifts, which depends on the cosmological models used. 590 Ym –62 billion light years – Cosmological event horizon, displays orders of magnitude in successively larger rooms Powers of Ten Travel across the Universe
Myriametre
–
The
Strait of Gibraltar is 13 kilometres wide
25.
Expressways of Beijing
–
Beijing was first linked to outside areas by the Jingshi Expressway in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Now, nine expressways link Beijing, and future expressways are planned, when the Airport Expressway and the Jingjintang Expressway opened, Beijing was already been griped by expressway fever. Out in the far part of town lay an unpopular Jingha Expressway. It still is too far out of central Beijing to be recognised as an important express roadway, by the Peoples Republic of Chinas 50th anniversary, however, more expressways were being built in Beijing. The Badaling Expressway, Jingshen Expressway and the Jingkai Expressway were built, in 2001 the Jingcheng Expressway was built. The northeastern and southeastern parts are ready to accommodate two more expressways, in 2004, the municipal government made a plan public complete up to 890 km of expressways. By 2006, the 6th Ring Road would be completed, also in that year, a major batch of expressways would be completed. The expressways around Beijing total 15, of these,11 would radiate from central Beijing. In early January 2005, mainland authorities revealed a plan for seven national expressways originating from Beijing, amongst those included an expressway bound straight for Taiwan. Nine toll expressways link Beijing to its suburbs, outlying regions, the Badaling Expressway connects Beijing to the Badaling section of the Great Wall of China. It runs from Madian to Badaling and Yanqing for a total of nearly 70 kilometres, parts of the expressway run through hilly terrain. The entire expressway opened late 2009/early 2010, with a length of about 210 km. This expressway is part of the larger Daguang Expressway, the Airport Expressway to Beijing Capital International Airport runs for under 20 kilometres and is one of the most used expressways in Beijing. Beijing authorities are planning two more expressways to link to the airport, Route, Sanyuanqiao - Siyuan Bridge - Dashanzi - N. It has no numbered expressway exits and functions mainly as a city express route, Route, Dawang Bridge - E. 4th Ring Road - Gaobeidian - E. It is a short and rather old expressway, Route, Sifang Bridge - Wufang Bridge - Bailu Toll Gate - E. Due to heavy traffic, it can be congested at times. It continues as China National Highway 106, Route, Liuliqiao - Yuegezhuang - Xidaokou - W. However, tolls are networked with the 6th Ring Road
Expressways of Beijing
–
The
Jingcheng Expressway near Gaoliying (July 2004 image)
Expressways of Beijing
–
The
Jingha Expressway (July 2004 image)
Expressways of Beijing
–
The
Jingshi Expressway (July 2004 image)
Expressways of Beijing
–
The
Airport Expressway near the toll gate (July 2004 image)
26.
Driver location signs
–
Only roads in England feature these signs, they are not found on roads in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland. This information might be useful in the event of an emergency or breakdown and they were first introduced in 2003, and they complement distance marker posts. Both types of display an unique location number. The number, although given without units, is the distance in kilometres from a designated location for the road. While the driver location signs are metric, other road signs throughout the UK use imperial measurements, since at least 1980, motorways have had distance marker posts installed at 100 metre intervals alongside the hard shoulder. These posts are used to help pinpoint road locations for maintenance and emergency purposes, on the M25 for example, distances are referenced to a point near Junction 31 even though the section of the ring road between Junction 31 and Junction 1a is the A282, not the M25. On motorways distance marker posts also bear an arrow pointing towards the location of the nearest emergency telephone, the number used on distance marker posts is also encoded into the numbers associated with motorway emergency roadside telephones. In this way motorway control centre staff can pinpoint the telephone from which a call is being made, items of highway furniture are commonly uniquely identified by a code number attached to or stencilled onto them. On motorways the number from the closest distance location marker is incorporated into such identifiers. They are also sent in the signal from traffic cameras to identify the location of the camera and these signs give the same location information as distance marker posts, but more visibly on larger signs, which are generally placed at 500-metre intervals. If obstacles prevent signs from being spaced at 500-metre intervals, then the interval must be reduced to either 400 or 300 metres. By the end of the 2009 financial year,80 percent of Englands motorway network had been fitted with 16,000 driver location signs at a cost of £5.9 million. It was expected that the remaining 20% of the network would be covered by April 2010 at a cost of £1.6 million. As of July 2009 driver location signs had not been erected in Scotland, by the early 2000s mobile phones were being used as the primary means of reporting accidents. This required the government to rethink marker posts, the need for more visible roadside location information was shown in 2007, in an incident on a motorway before the driver location signs had been erected. The Devon and Somerset Fire & Rescue Service reported that after a collision on the M5. Callers gave the operators locations stretching over 40 miles of road, as a result, four emergency service centres were mobilised instead of just one. Research on trial sections of motorways showed that emergency service organisations responded 10 percent more rapidly when a motorway had driver location signs than when it did not
Driver location signs
–
A driver location sign marking location 2.8 on the "B carriageway" of the
M27
Driver location signs
–
Driver location signs on the
M25
Driver location signs
–
Driver location sign, emergency telephone and location marker post at position 2.8 on the "B" carriageway of the
M27 in
Hampshire
27.
National Highway System Designation Act
–
Altogether, it constitutes the largest highway system in the world. Individual states are encouraged to focus federal funds on improving the efficiency, the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 provided that certain key routes such as the Interstate Highway System, be included. The National Highway System Designation Act of 1995 is a United States Act of Congress that was signed into law by President Bill Clinton on November 28,1995, the legislation designated about 160,955 miles of roads, including the Interstate Highway System, as the NHS. Aside from designating the system, the act served several other purposes, the act also created a State Infrastructure Bank pilot program. Ten states were chosen in 1996 for this new method of road financing and these banks would lend money like regular banks, with funding coming from the federal government or the private sector, and they would be repaid through such means as highway tolls or taxes. In 1997,28 more states asked to be part of the program, ohio was the first state to use a state infrastructure bank to start building a road. An advantage to this method was completing projects faster, state laws, all urban areas with a population of over 50,000 and about 90% of Americas population live within 5 miles of the network, which is the longest in the world
National Highway System Designation Act
–
System map with Interstate Highways in blue and other components in red
28.
Federal Highway Administration
–
The Federal Highway Administration is a division of the United States Department of Transportation that specializes in highway transportation. The agencys major activities are grouped into two programs, the Federal-aid Highway Program and the Federal Lands Highway Program and its role had previously been performed by the Office of Road Inquiry, Office of Public Roads and the Bureau of Public Roads. The organization has several organizations and a complicated history. The Office of Road Inquiry was founded in 1893, in 1905 that organizations name was changed to the Office of Public Roads which became a division of the United States Department of Agriculture. The name was changed again to the Bureau of Public Roads in 1915 and it was then shifted to the Federal Works Agency which was abolished in 1949 when its name reverted to Bureau of Public Roads under the Department of Commerce. With the coming of the bicycle in the 1890s, interest grew regarding the improvement of streets, the traditional method of putting the burden on maintaining roads on local landowners was increasingly inadequate. New York State took the lead in 1898, and by 1916 the old system had been discarded everywhere area, demands grew for local and state government to take charge. With the coming of the automobile after 1910, urgent efforts were made to upgrade, the American Association for Highway Improvement was organized in 1910. Funding came from automobile registration, and taxes on motor fuels, in 1916, federal-aid was first made available to improve post-roads, and promote general commerce. Congress appropriated $75 million over a period, with the Secretary of Agriculture in charge through the Bureau of Public Roads. There were 2.4 million miles of rural dirt rural roads in 1914,100,000 miles had been improved with grading and gravel, the rapidly increasing speed of automobiles, and especially trucks, made maintenance and repair high-priority item. Concrete was first used in 1893, and expanded until it became the dominant surfacing material in the 1930s, from 1917 through 1941,261,000 miles of highways were built with federal aid, and cost $5.31 billion. Federal funds totaled $3.17 billion, and state-local funds were $2.14 billion, the FHWA was created on October 15,1966. In 1967 the functions of the Bureau of Public Roads were transferred to the new organization and it was one of three original bureaus along with the Bureau of Motor Carrier Safety and the National Highway Safety Bureau. The FHWA’s role in the Federal-aid Highway Program is to oversee federal funds used for constructing and maintaining the National Highway System and this funding mostly comes from the federal gasoline tax and mostly goes to state departments of transportation. FHWA oversees projects using these funds to ensure that requirements for project eligibility. The FHWA also publishes the “Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices”, the MUTCD specifies such things as the size, color and height of traffic signs, traffic signals and road surface markings. The Federal Highway Administration is overseen by an Administrator appointed by the President of the United States by, the Administrator works under the direction of the Secretary of Transportation and Deputy Secretary of Transportation
Federal Highway Administration
–
Federal Highway Administration
29.
United States Department of Transportation
–
The United States Department of Transportation is a federal Cabinet department of the U. S. government concerned with transportation. It was established by an act of Congress on October 15,1966 and it is governed by the United States Secretary of Transportation. Prior to the Department of Transportation, the Under Secretary of Commerce for Transportation administered the functions now associated with the DOT, the awardees include light rail projects. Other projects include both a rail extension and a subway project in New York City, and a bus rapid transit system in Springfield. The budget provided funding for all of the projects currently receiving Recovery Act funding. It also continued funding for another 18 transit projects that are currently under construction or soon will be. Following the same the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2014 delegates $600 million for Infrastructure Investments, the Department of Transportation was authorized a budget for Fiscal Year 2016 of $75.1 billion. e. Did not earn an overall grade
United States Department of Transportation
–
Headquarters of the U.S. Department of Transportation, which opened in spring 2007 in Southeast Washington, near the
Washington Navy Yard and
Nationals Park
United States Department of Transportation
–
Seal of the United States Department of Transportation
30.
Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices
–
These specifications include the shapes, colors, and fonts used in road markings and signs. In the United States, all control devices must legally conform to these standards. The manual is used by state and local agencies as well as construction firms to ensure that the traffic control devices they use conform to the national standard. While some state agencies have developed their own sets of standards, including their own MUTCDs, the National Committee on Uniform Traffic Control Devices advises the FHWA on additions, revisions, and changes to the MUTCD. However, each highway had its own set of signage, usually designed to promote the highway rather than to assist in the direction, in fact, conflicts between these automobile clubs frequently led to multiple sets of signs—sometimes as many as eleven—being erected on the same highway. They reported their findings to the Mississippi Valley Association of Highway Departments and these suggestions included the familiar circular railroad crossing sign and octagonal stop sign. In 1927, the American Association of State Highway Officials, or AASHO, published the Manual and Specifications for the Manufacture, Display, standard Road Markers and Signs to set standards for traffic control devices used on rural roads. This was followed by the Manual on Street Traffic Signs, Signals, and Markings, the MUTCD was first released in 1935, and set standards for both road signs and pavement markings. In 1966, Congress passed the Highway Safety Act, P. L. 89-564,72 Stat,885, which is now codified at 23 U. S. C. §401 et seq. The penalty for noncompliance was a 10% reduction in funding, in turn, taking advantage of broad rulemaking powers granted in 23 U. S. C. §402, the Department simply adopted the entire MUTCD by reference at 23 C. F. R, thus, what was formerly a quasi-official project became an official one. States are allowed to supplement the MUTCD but must remain in substantial conformance with the national MUTCD, most of the repainting to the 1971 standard was done between 1971 and 1974, with a deadline of 1978 for the changeover of both the markings and signage. Comments were accepted until July 31,2008, the new edition was published in 2009. Proposed additions and revisions to the MUTCD are recommended to FHWA by the National Committee on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, the NCUTCD also recommends interpretations of the MUTCD to other agencies that use the MUTCD, such as state departments of transportation. NCUTCD develops public and professional awareness of the principles of safe traffic control devices and practices, the NCUTCD is supported by twenty-one sponsoring organizations, including transportation and engineering industry groups, safety organizations, and the American Automobile Association. Each sponsoring organization promotes members to serve as voting delegates within the NCUTCD, compared to the Vienna Convention, the MUTCD stresses a consistent color scheme and relatively large, verbose warning signs. MUTCD guide signs tend to be less verbose than their equivalents in Vienna Convention countries, the MUTCD has become widely influential outside the United States, for example, the use of yellow stripes to divide opposing traffic has been widely adopted throughout the Western Hemisphere. Many U. S. states produce their own standards, which take the form of either a manual or supplement to the federal MUTCD
Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices
–
Cover of 2009 edition
31.
Metrication in the United States
–
Although all U. S. customary units have been redefined in terms of SI units, the United States does not commonly mandate the use of SI. Although the Constitution grants Congress the authority to determine standards of measure, in the early 19th century, the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey used meter and kilogram standards brought from France. The signing of international agreement concluded five years of meetings in which the metric system was reformulated. The Metre Convention established the International Bureau of Weights and Measures in Sèvres, France, the definitions of United States customary units, such as the foot and pound, have been based on metric units since then. The 1895 Constitution of Utah, in Article X, Section 11, originally mandated that and this section was repealed, effective July 1,1987. The General Conference on Weights and Measures is the body for the modern metric system. The General Conference on Weights and Measures approved a version of the metric system in 1960 named Le Système international dunités. On February 10,1964, the National Bureau of Standards issued a statement that it use the metric system. In 1968, Congress authorized the U. S, Metric Study, a three-year study of systems of measurement in the United States, with emphasis on the feasibility of metrication. The United States Department of Commerce conducted the study, a 45-member advisory panel consulted and took testimony from hundreds of consumers, business organizations, labor groups, manufacturers, and state and local officials. The final report of the concluded that the U. S. would eventually join the rest of the world in the use of the metric system of measurement. The study found that units were already implemented in many areas. Metric Study recommended that the United States implement a planned transition to the principal use of the metric system over a decade. Congress passed the Metric Conversion Act of 1975 to coordinate and plan the use of the metric system in the United States. Voluntary conversion was initiated, and the United States Metric Board was established for planning, coordination, the public education component led to public awareness of the metric system, but the public response included resistance, apathy, and sometimes ridicule. In 1981, the USMB reported to Congress that it lacked the clear Congressional mandate necessary to bring about national conversion, the ending of the USMB increased doubts that metrication would really be implemented. Public and private sector metrication slowed even while competitiveness between nations and demands of global marketplaces increased. S. economy, the ANMC became a separately incorporated organization in 1976. The ANMC was intended to facilitate U. S, the ANMC attempted to coordinate the metric planning of many industrial sectors, unlike the USMB, which only attempted to implement the policy set forth in the Metric Conversion Act of 1975
Metrication in the United States
–
U.S. shampoo label, with round metric quantity taking secondary status next to non-integer U.S. customary quantity
Metrication in the United States
–
This measuring cup, manufactured and sold in the United States circa 1980 at the height of the metrication effort, features graduations in both metric and United States customary units, with the metric graduations in front for right-handed users.
Metrication in the United States
–
1980s Road Map mentioning an impending change to the metric system
Metrication in the United States
–
A 1980s-vintage dual miles per hour and kilometers per hour sign, (formerly) located in Florida.
32.
Olympic Games
–
The Olympic Games are considered the worlds foremost sports competition with more than 200 nations participating. The Olympic Games are held four years, with the Summer and Winter Games alternating by occurring every four years. Their creation was inspired by the ancient Olympic Games, which were held in Olympia, Greece, Baron Pierre de Coubertin founded the International Olympic Committee in 1894, leading to the first modern Games in Athens in 1896. The IOC is the body of the Olympic Movement, with the Olympic Charter defining its structure. The evolution of the Olympic Movement during the 20th and 21st centuries has resulted in changes to the Olympic Games. The IOC has had to adapt to a variety of economic, political, as a result, the Olympics has shifted away from pure amateurism, as envisioned by Coubertin, to allowing participation of professional athletes. The growing importance of mass media created the issue of corporate sponsorship, World wars led to the cancellation of the 1916,1940, and 1944 Games. Large boycotts during the Cold War limited participation in the 1980 and 1984 Games, the Olympic Movement consists of international sports federations, National Olympic Committees, and organising committees for each specific Olympic Games. As the decision-making body, the IOC is responsible for choosing the host city for each Games, the IOC also determines the Olympic programme, consisting of the sports to be contested at the Games. There are several Olympic rituals and symbols, such as the Olympic flag and torch, over 13,000 athletes compete at the Summer and Winter Olympic Games in 33 different sports and nearly 400 events. The first, second, and third-place finishers in each event receive Olympic medals, gold, silver, the Games have grown so much that nearly every nation is now represented. This growth has created numerous challenges and controversies, including boycotts, doping, bribery, every two years the Olympics and its media exposure provide unknown athletes with the chance to attain national and sometimes international fame. The Games also constitute an opportunity for the host city and country to themselves to the world. The Ancient Olympic Games were religious and athletic festivals held every four years at the sanctuary of Zeus in Olympia, competition was among representatives of several city-states and kingdoms of Ancient Greece. These Games featured mainly athletic but also combat such as wrestling. It has been written that during the Games, all conflicts among the participating city-states were postponed until the Games were finished. This cessation of hostilities was known as the Olympic peace or truce and this idea is a modern myth because the Greeks never suspended their wars. The truce did allow those religious pilgrims who were travelling to Olympia to pass through warring territories unmolested because they were protected by Zeus
Olympic Games
–
Stadium in
Olympia, Greece.
Olympic Games
–
Baron
Pierre de Coubertin
Olympic Games
–
A postage stamp from the first Greek Olympic stamp set.
Olympic Games
–
The opening ceremony in the
Panathinaiko Stadium.
33.
Rieti, Italy
–
Rieti is a city and comune in Lazio, central Italy, with a population of 47,700. It is the capital of province of Rieti and see of the diocese of Rieti, the town centre rests on a small hilltop, commanding from the southern edge the wide Rieti valley, at the bottom of Sabine mountains and of monti Reatini, among which mount Terminillo. The plain was once a lake, drained by ancient Romans. Only the small Ripasottile and Lungo lakes remain of the large one. According to the legend, Reate was founded by Rea, a divinity and it was founded at the beginning of the Iron Age. Probably in earlier times the lands around Rieti were inhabited by Umbri, then by Aborigines and later on by Sabines, Reate was originally a major site of the Sabine nation well before the foundation of Rome. According to the legend, when Romulus founded Rome, Romans kidnapped Sabine women in order to populate the town, so there was a war between Romans and Sabines. The battle of the Lacus Curtius came to an end only when the women threw themselves among the armies, Romulus and Titus Tatius reprieved and a collaboration between the two people started. According to a version based on history, Sabines settled on the Quirinale because of their continuous need. Many lands of Reate and Amiternum were confiscated and allocated to Romans, at the very beginning, Sabines were offered Roman citizenship but with no right of voting, but yet in 268 BC they gained the full citizenship, being included in two new tribes. Curius Dentatus drained a large portion of the lake by making the Velino a distributary of the Nera river, the wide area once occupied by the lake turned into a fertile plain. Following Roman customs, the land was split into characteristic square allotments, the town itself underwent significant development, being re-organised according to typical Roman urbanistic standards, and was fortified with strong walls. A stone bridge was laid across the Velino river, and a viaduct was built to bring goods from the Salaria road directly to Rietis southern door. Roman Reate receives a number of mentions in Latin literature, thanks to its soil, its valued assets. Cicero, for instance, describes the tensions between Reate and Interamna following the drainage, and refers to the country houses that his friend Q. One of the most important Sabine families that gained success in Rome was the Gens Flavia, the Reatin poet and writer Marcus Terentius Varro was born in 116 BC and he is usually referred to as the father of Roman erudition. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire Rieti suffered destruction by Barbarians, under the Franks, it was county capital. It was sacked by the Saracens in the 9th and 10th century, the city was rebuilt with the help of the Roman comune, and from 1198 was also a free commune, of Guelph orientation, with a podestà of its own
Rieti, Italy
–
St. Mary Cathedral
Rieti, Italy
–
Remains of the Roman Bridge (3rd century BC)
Rieti, Italy
–
The medieval walls.
Rieti, Italy
–
Fontana dei delfini.
34.
Brussels
–
Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, is a region of Belgium comprising 19 municipalities, including the City of Brussels which is the capital of Belgium. The Brussels-Capital Region is a part of both the French Community of Belgium and the Flemish Community, but is separate from the region of Flanders or Wallonia. The region has a population of 1.2 million and an area with a population of over 1.8 million. Brussels is the de facto capital of the European Union as it hosts a number of principal EU institutions, the secretariat of the Benelux and the headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization are also located in Brussels. Today, it is considered an Alpha global city, historically a Dutch-speaking city, Brussels has seen a language shift to French from the late 19th century onwards. Today, the majority language is French, and the Brussels-Capital Region is a bilingual enclave within the Flemish Region. All road signs, street names, and many advertisements and services are shown in both languages, Brussels is increasingly becoming multilingual with increasing numbers of migrants, expatriates and minority groups speaking their own languages. The most common theory of the origin of Brussels name is that it derives from the Old Dutch Broekzele or Broeksel, meaning marsh, Saint Vindicianus, the bishop of Cambrai made the first recorded reference to the place Brosella in 695 when it was still a hamlet. The origin of the settlement that was to become Brussels lies in Saint Gaugericus construction of a chapel on an island in the river Senne around 580. The official founding of Brussels is usually situated around 979, when Duke Charles of Lower Lotharingia transferred the relics of Saint Gudula from Moorsel to the Saint Gaugericus chapel, Charles would construct the first permanent fortification in the city, doing so on that same island. Lambert I of Leuven, Count of Leuven gained the County of Brussels around 1000 by marrying Charles daughter, as it grew to a population of around 30,000, the surrounding marshes were drained to allow for further expansion. The Counts of Leuven became Dukes of Brabant at about this time, in the 13th century, the city got its first walls. After the construction of the city walls in the early 13th century, to let the city expand, a second set of walls was erected between 1356 and 1383. Today, traces of it can still be seen, mostly because the small ring, Brabant had lost its independence, but Brussels became the Princely Capital of the prosperous Low Countries, and flourished. In 1516 Charles V, who had been heir of the Low Countries since 1506, was declared King of Spain in St. Michael and St. Gudula Cathedral in Brussels. Upon the death of his grandfather, Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor in 1519 and it was in the Palace complex at Coudenberg that Charles V abdicated in 1555. This impressive palace, famous all over Europe, had expanded since it had first become the seat of the Dukes of Brabant. In 1695, during the Nine Years War, King Louis XIV of France sent troops to bombard Brussels with artillery, together with the resulting fire, it was the most destructive event in the entire history of Brussels
Brussels
–
A
collage with several views of Brussels, Top: View of the
Northern Quarter business district, 2nd left: Floral carpet event in the
Grand Place, 2nd right:
Brussels City Hall and
Mont des Arts area, 3rd:
Cinquantenaire Park, 4th left:
Manneken Pis, 4th middle:
St. Michael and St. Gudula Cathedral, 4th right:
Congress Column, Bottom:
Royal Palace of Brussels
Brussels
–
Charles of Lorraine founded what would become Brussels c. 979
Brussels
–
Grand Place after
the 1695 bombardment by the French army
Brussels
–
Episode of the
Belgian Revolution of 1830,
Wappers (1834)
35.
Speed Skating
–
Speed skating is a competitive form of ice skating in which the competitors race each other in travelling a certain distance on skates. Types of speed skating are long track speed skating, short track speed skating, in the Olympic Games, long-track speed skating is usually referred to as just speed skating, while short-track speed skating is known as short track. The ISU, the body of both ice sports, refers to long track as speed skating and short track as short track skating. The standard rink for long track is 400 meters long, but tracks of 200,250 and it is one of two Olympic forms of the sport and the one with the longer history. An international federation was founded in 1892, the first for any winter sport, the sport enjoys large popularity in the Netherlands and Norway. There are top international rinks in a number of countries, including Canada. A World Cup circuit is held with events in those countries, International Skating Union rules allow some leeway in the size and radius of curves. Short track speed skating takes place on a rink, normally the size of an ice hockey rink. Distances are shorter than in long-track racing, with the longest Olympic individual race being 1500 meters, races are usually held as knockouts, with the best two in heats of four or five qualifying for the final race, where medals are awarded. Disqualifications and falls are not uncommon, there are variations on the mass-start races. In the regulations of roller sports, eight different types of mass starts are described, races usually have some rules about disqualification if an opponent is unfairly hindered, these rules vary between the disciplines. In mass-start races, skaters will usually be allowed some physical contact, relay races are also held in short track and inline competitions, but here, exchanges may take place at any time during the race, though exchanges may be banned during the last couple of laps. Most speed skating races are held on a course. Oval sizes vary, in track speed skating, the rink must be an oval of 111.12 metres. Inline skating rinks are between 125 and 400 metres, though banked tracks can only be 250 metres long, inline skating can also be held on closed road courses between 400 and 1,000 metres, as well as open-road competitions where starting and finishing lines do not coincide. This is also a feature of outdoor marathons and it was much later, in the 16th century, that people started seeing skating as fun and perhaps even a sporting activity. Later, in Norway, King Eystein Magnusson, later King Eystein I of Norway, however, skating and speed skating was not limited to the Netherlands and Scandinavia, in 1592, a Scotsman designed a skate with an iron blade. It was iron-bladed skates that led to the spread of skating and, in particular, while in the Netherlands, people began touring the waterways connecting the 11 cities of Friesland, a challenge which eventually led to the Elfstedentocht
Speed Skating
–
Paulien van Deutekom in
Thialf in 2007
Speed Skating
–
Long track speed skating in
Thialf in 2008
Speed Skating
–
Short-track speed skaters racing through a curve
Speed Skating
–
Individual start
36.
Shani Davis
–
Shani Davis is an Olympic Champion speed skater from the United States. At the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, Davis became the first black athlete to win a medal in an individual sport at the Olympic Winter Games. He also won a medal in the 1500 meter event. At the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada, he duplicated the feat, becoming the first man to defend the 1000 meter gold medal. Davis won the all-around World Allround Championships in both 2005 and 2006, after winning the medal in 2004. In 2009 he won the World Sprint Championships in Moscow, the site of his first World Allround Championship victory, by winning he became the second male skater to have won both the Sprint and Allround in their career, after Eric Heiden. He has won ten career Overall World Cup titles, six at 1000 meters, Davis also earned the title of Grand World Cup Champion for the 2013–14 season, earning the most points across all distances. His 58 career individual victories on the ISU Speed Skating World Cup circuit place him second all-time among men. Davis has set a total of nine world records, three of them current,1,06.42 over 1000 meters,1,41.04 at 1500 meters and he also sits atop the world Adelskalender list after taking the lead from Sven Kramer in March 2009. The Adelskalender ranks the all-time fastest long track speed skaters by personal best times in the four World Allround Championship distances, Davis is known for his consistency and technical proficiency. Davis is native to Chicago, Illinois, and trains at two U. S. Olympic training facilities, the Pettit National Ice Center in West Allis, Wisconsin, Davis was born in Chicago, Illinois. His father, Reginald Shuck, picked his sons out of a Swahili dictionary. The English translation is a mixture of light and weight, Davis learned to roller skate at the age of 2. By the time he was 3, he could skate so quickly that he had to be slowed down by the rinks skate guards, Daviss mother worked for a local lawyer and speed skating official whose son was an elite level speed skater. At the lawyers suggestion, his mother enrolled her son at the Robert Crown Center in nearby Evanston when he was six years old, within two months, Davis was winning regional races in his age groups, earning the admiration of his friends and Northbrook rivals alike. Determined that her son reach his potential, his mother would wake Davis up in the mornings to run a mile on a nearby track to build up his endurance. In order to be closer to his club, she. At 16, Davis was invited to Lake Placid, New York, after training there for a year, Davis decided to pursue his Olympic dreams and moved to Marquette, Michigan, to further his training
Shani Davis
–
Shani Davis at the World Cup in
Thialf in 2006
37.
Salt Lake City
–
Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the capital and the most populous municipality of the U. S. state of Utah. With an estimated population of 190,884 in 2014, the city lies at the core of the Salt Lake City metropolitan area, Salt Lake City is further situated within a larger metropolis known as the Salt Lake City-Ogden-Provo Combined Statistical Area. This region is a corridor of contiguous urban and suburban development stretched along an approximately 120-mile segment of the Wasatch Front and it is one of only two major urban areas in the Great Basin. The city was founded in 1847 by Brigham Young, Isaac Morley, George Washington Bradley and numerous other Mormon followers, who extensively irrigated and cultivated the arid valley. Due to its proximity to the Great Salt Lake, the city was originally named Great Salt Lake City—the word great was dropped from the name in 1868 by the 17th Utah Territorial Legislature. Today, however, less than half the population of Salt Lake City proper are members of the LDS Church. It was traversed by the Lincoln Highway, the first transcontinental highway, in 1913, Salt Lake City has since developed a strong outdoor recreation tourist industry based primarily on skiing, and hosted the 2002 Winter Olympics. It is the banking center of the United States. Before Mormon settlement, the Shoshone, Ute, and Paiute had dwelt in the Salt Lake Valley for thousands of years. The land was treated by the United States as public domain, the first U. S. explorer in the Salt Lake area is believed to be Jim Bridger in 1825, although others had been in Utah earlier, some as far north as the nearby Utah Valley. Frémont surveyed the Great Salt Lake and the Salt Lake Valley in 1843 and 1845, the Donner Party, a group of ill-fated pioneers, had traveled through the Great Salt Lake Valley in August 1846. The first permanent settlements in the date to the arrival of the Latter-day Saints on July 24,1847. Upon arrival at the Salt Lake Valley, president of the church Brigham Young is recorded as stating, This is the right place, Brigham Young claimed to have seen the area in a vision prior to the wagon trains arrival. They found the broad valley empty of any human settlement, four days after arriving in the Salt Lake Valley, Brigham Young designated the building site for the Salt Lake Temple, which would eventually become a famous Mormon and Salt Lake City landmark. The Salt Lake Temple, constructed on the block that would later be called Temple Square, construction started in 1853, and the temple was dedicated on 6 April 1893. The temple has become an icon for the city and serves as its centerpiece, in fact, the southeast corner of Temple Square is the initial point of reference for the Salt Lake Meridian, and for all addresses in the Salt Lake Valley. The Mormon pioneers organized a new state called Deseret and petitioned for its recognition in 1849, the United States Congress rebuffed the settlers in 1850 and established the Utah Territory, vastly reducing its size, and designated Fillmore as its capital city. Great Salt Lake City replaced Fillmore as the capital in 1858
Salt Lake City
–
Clockwise from top: The skyline in July 2011,
Utah State Capitol,
TRAX,
Union Pacific Depot, the
Block U, the
City and County Building, and the
Salt Lake Temple.
Salt Lake City
–
Map showing Salt Lake as
Mexican territory in 1838. Source:
Britannica 7th Ed.
Salt Lake City
–
Part of Main Street 1890
Salt Lake City
–
Men lounging outside saloon & Chinese laundry, 1910
38.
Cindy Klassen
–
Cindy Klassen, OM is a retired Canadian long track speed skater. She is a six-time medalist having achieved one gold, two silver, three bronze at the Winter Olympics, Klassen is tied with Clara Hughes for Canadas all-time most decorated Olympian with six medals each. Both Klassen and Hughes are from Winnipeg and she is the only Canadian Olympian to win five medals in a single Olympic games and the first female speed skater to win five medals in a single games at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy. She is the current world record holder in the 3000 m and she also holds the Canadian records over 1500 m and 5000 m. Klassen is the leader of the Adelskalender, which is the world ranking for speed skating. In 2003, Klassen became the first Canadian in 27 years to win the title at the World Speed Skating Championships. Klassen has several awards and accolades to her name having won the Lou Marsh Trophy in 2006. Due to her tremendous accomplishments at the 2006 Winter Olympics and her accomplishments throughout her career. Klassen was awarded the Oscar Mathisen Award in 2006 for outstanding speed skating performance of the year, in 2007 she was given the award for Female Athlete of the Year at the Canadian Sports Awards. Klassen won the 2005 and 2006 Bobbie Rosenfeld Award as female athlete of the year as presented from the Canadian Press and she was also tipped as Speed Skating Canadas 2003,2005,2006 and 2007 Female Skater of the Year for long track speed skating. The Canadian Mint featured Klassen on a Canadian quarter in 2010 as part of their Olympic memories editions, Klassen started her sports career as an ice hockey player at Gateway Community Club in Winnipeg, in her youth she played for the Canadian national youth team. When she was not selected for the 1998 Winter Olympics, she switched to speed skating and soon she proved to be a natural talent. Klassen missed the entire 2003–04 season due to an injury, she fell during training, colliding with another skater, hitting his skate. In 2006, she announced she would not carry the Canadian flag at the Opening Ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, the flag was instead carried by womens ice hockey veteran Danielle Goyette. Going into the 2006 Winter Olympics, Klassen was considered one of the favourites following her title in 2003. Klassen started out in Turin by winning a silver in the 1000 m, following this silver Klassen became Olympic champion in the 1500 m. She followed this thrilling gold with a silver in the team pursuit. To come out five, its been better than expected
Cindy Klassen
–
Cindy Klassen
39.
Calgary
–
Calgary is a city in the Canadian province of Alberta. It is situated at the confluence of the Bow River and the Elbow River in the south of the province, in an area of foothills and prairie, the city anchors the south end of what Statistics Canada defines as the Calgary–Edmonton Corridor. The city had a population of 1,239,220 in 2016, making it Albertas largest city, also in 2016, Calgary had a metropolitan population of 1,392,609, making it the fourth-largest census metropolitan area in Canada. The Calgary CMA is home to the second-highest number of head offices in Canada among the countrys 800 largest corporations. In 1988, Calgary became the first Canadian city to host the Winter Olympic Games, Calgary was named after Calgary on the Isle of Mull, Scotland. In turn, the name originates from a compound of kald and gart, similar Old Norse words, meaning cold and garden, alternatively, the name might be Gaelic Cala ghearraidh, meaning beach of the meadow, or Gaelic for either clear running water or bay farm. The Calgary area was inhabited by people whose presence has been traced back at least 11,000 years. Before the arrival of Europeans, the area was inhabited by the Blackfoot, Blood, Peigan, in 1787, cartographer David Thompson spent the winter with a band of Peigan encamped along the Bow River. He was a Hudsons Bay Company trader and the first recorded European to visit the area, John Glenn was the first documented European settler in the Calgary area, in 1873. The site became a post of the North-West Mounted Police, the NWMP detachment was assigned in 1875 to protect the western plains from US whisky traders, and to protect the fur trade. Originally named Fort Brisebois, after NWMP officer Éphrem-A, Brisebois, it was renamed Fort Calgary in 1876 by Colonel James Macleod. When the Canadian Pacific Railway reached the area in 1883, over a century later, the Canadian Pacific Railway headquarters moved to Calgary from Montreal in 1996. Calgary was officially incorporated as a town in 1884, and elected its first mayor, in 1894, it was incorporated as The City of Calgary in what was then the North-West Territories. The Calgary Police Service was established in 1885 and assumed municipal, local duties from the NWMP, the Calgary Fire of 1886 occurred on November 7,1886. Fourteen buildings were destroyed with losses estimated at $103,200, although no one was killed or injured, city officials drafted a law requiring all large downtown buildings to be built with Paskapoo sandstone, to prevent this from happening again. After the arrival of the railway, the Dominion Government started leasing grazing land at minimal cost, as a result of this policy, large ranching operations were established in the outlying country near Calgary. Already a transportation and distribution hub, Calgary quickly became the centre of Canadas cattle marketing and meatpacking industries. By the late 19th century, the Hudsons Bay Company expanded into the interior and established posts along rivers that later developed into the cities of Winnipeg, Calgary
Calgary
–
From top left:
Scotiabank Saddledome and
Downtown Calgary,
SAIT Polytechnic,
Calgary Stampede,
Canada Olympic Park,
Lougheed House,
Stephen Avenue,
Calgary Zoo
Calgary
–
Calgary as it appeared circa 1885
Calgary
–
Downtown Calgary in 2010.
Calgary
–
Ice fog is common over ice-free currents of the
Bow River when temperatures drop to −17 °C (1 °F).
Hoar frost forms on vegetation. January 9, 2015 −20 °C (−4 °F), 10:00 am
40.
Cycling
–
Cycling, also called bicycling or biking, is the use of bicycles for transport, recreation, exercise or sport. Persons engaged in cycling are referred to as cyclists, bikers, or less commonly, apart from two-wheeled bicycles, cycling also includes the riding of unicycles, tricycles, quadracycles, recumbent and similar human-powered vehicles. Bicycles were introduced in the 19th century and now approximately one billion worldwide. They are the means of transportation in many parts of the world. Cycling is widely regarded as an effective and efficient mode of transportation optimal for short to moderate distances. Cycling also offers a reduced consumption of fuels, less air or noise pollution. These lead to financial cost to the user as well as to society at large. By fitting bicycle racks on the front of buses, transit agencies can significantly increase the areas they can serve, in many countries, the most commonly used vehicle for road transport is a utility bicycle. These have frames with relaxed geometry, protecting the rider from shocks of the road, utility bicycles tend to be equipped with accessories such as mudguards, pannier racks and lights, which extends their usefulness on a daily basis. As the bicycle is so effective as a means of various companies have developed methods of carrying anything from the weekly shop to children on bicycles. Certain countries rely heavily on bicycles and their culture has developed around the bicycle as a form of transport. In Europe, Denmark and the Netherlands have the most bicycles per capita, road bikes tend to have a more upright shape and a shorter wheelbase, which make the bike more mobile but harder to ride slowly. The design, coupled with low or dropped handlebars, requires the rider to bend forward more, making use of stronger muscles, the price of a new bicycle can range from US$50 to more than US$20,000, depending on quality, type and weight. However, UCI regulations stipulate a legal race bike cannot weigh less than 6.8 kg, being measured for a bike and taking it for a test ride are recommended before buying. The drivetrain components of the bike should also be considered, a middle grade dérailleur is sufficient for a beginner, although many utility bikes are equipped with hub gears. If the rider plans a significant amount of hillclimbing a triple-chainrings crankset gear system may be preferred, otherwise, the relatively lighter and less expensive double chainring may be better. Much simpler fixed wheel bikes are also available, many road bikes, along with mountain bikes, include clipless pedals to which special shoes attach, via a cleat, enabling the rider to pull on the pedals as well as push. For basic maintenance and repairs cyclists can carry a pump, a repair kit, a spare inner tube, and tire levers
Cycling
–
Tro-Bro Léon racing, 2009.
Cycling
–
Mountain biking.
Cycling
–
Police cyclists in London
Cycling
–
Village cycling in
Sri Lanka
41.
La Paz, Bolivia
–
La Paz, officially known as Nuestra Señora de La Paz, also named Chuqi Yapu in Aymara, is the seat of government of the Plurinational State of Bolivia. With an estimated 789,541 residents as of 2015, La Paz is the third-most populous city in Bolivia. Its metropolitan area, which is formed by La Paz, El Alto and Viacha, makes up the most populous area in Bolivia. It is also the capital of the La Paz Department, the city, located in west-central Bolivia 68 km southeast of Lake Titicaca, is set in a canyon created by the Choqueyapu River. It is located in a depression surrounded by the high mountains of the Altiplano. Overlooking the city is the towering, triple-peaked Illimani and its peaks are always snow covered and can be seen from many parts of the city. At an elevation of roughly 3,650 m above sea level, due to its altitude, La Paz has an unusual subtropical highland climate, with rainy summers and dry winters. The city was moved to its present location in the valley of Chuquiago Marka. La Paz was under Spanish colonial rule as part of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, since its founding, the city was the site of numerous revolts. In 1781, the leader and independence activist Túpac Katari laid siege to the city for a total of six months. Sucre is the capital of Bolivia and retains the judicial power. The city hosts numerous foreign embassies as well as missions in the country. The city is renowned for its markets, particularly the Witches Market. Its unusual topography offers unique views of the city and the mountains of the Cordillera Real from numerous natural viewing points. La Paz is also home to both the longest and highest urban cable car network in the world, in May 2015, it was officially recognized as one of the New 7 Wonders Cities together with Beirut, Doha, Durban, Havana, Kuala Lumpur and Vigan. La Paz is listed on the Global Cities Index 2015, and is considered a city type Gamma by Globalization. This area had been the site of an Inca city, located on a trading route. Although the Spanish conquistadors entered the area in 1535, they did not found La Paz until 1548, originally it was to be at the site of the Native American settlement, Laja, with the full name of the city being Nuestra Señora de La Paz
La Paz, Bolivia
–
Government Palace of Bolivia in downtown La Paz
La Paz, Bolivia
–
Flag
La Paz, Bolivia
–
Legislative Palace of Bolivia
La Paz, Bolivia
–
The city in winter, with
Illimani in the background.
42.
Conversion of units
–
Conversion of units is the conversion between different units of measurement for the same quantity, typically through multiplicative conversion factors. The process of conversion depends on the situation and the intended purpose. This may be governed by regulation, contract, technical specifications or other published standards, engineering judgment may include such factors as, The precision and accuracy of measurement and the associated uncertainty of measurement. The statistical confidence interval or tolerance interval of the initial measurement, the number of significant figures of the measurement. The intended use of the measurement including the engineering tolerances, historical definitions of the units and their derivatives used in old measurements, e. g. international foot vs. Some conversions from one system of units to another need to be exact and this is sometimes called soft conversion. It does not involve changing the configuration of the item being measured. By contrast, a conversion or an adaptive conversion may not be exactly equivalent. It changes the measurement to convenient and workable numbers and units in the new system and it sometimes involves a slightly different configuration, or size substitution, of the item. Nominal values are allowed and used. A conversion factor is used to change the units of a quantity without changing its value. The unity bracket method of unit conversion consists of a fraction in which the denominator is equal to the numerator, because of the identity property of multiplication, the value of a number will not change as long as it is multiplied by one. Also, if the numerator and denominator of a fraction are equal to each other, so as long as the numerator and denominator of the fraction are equivalent, they will not affect the value of the measured quantity. There are many applications that offer the thousands of the various units with conversions. For example, the free software movement offers a command line utility GNU units for Linux and this article gives lists of conversion factors for each of a number of physical quantities, which are listed in the index. For each physical quantity, a number of different units are shown, Conversion between units in the metric system can be discerned by their prefixes and are thus not listed in this article. Exceptions are made if the unit is known by another name. Within each table, the units are listed alphabetically, and the SI units are highlighted, notes, See Weight for detail of mass/weight distinction and conversion
Conversion of units
–
Base units
43.
Cubic metre
–
The cubic metre or cubic meter is the SI derived unit of volume. It is the volume of a cube with one metre in length. An alternative name, which allowed a different usage with metric prefixes, was the stère, another alternative name, no longer widely used, was the kilolitre. A cubic metre of water at the temperature of maximum density and standard atmospheric pressure has a mass of 1000 kg. At 0 °C, the point of water, a cubic metre of water has slightly less mass,999.972 kilograms. It is sometimes abbreviated to cu m, m3, M3, m^3, m**3, CBM, abbreviated CBM and cbm in the freight business and MTQ in international trade. See Orders of magnitude for a comparison with other volumes
Cubic metre
–
One cubic metre of
concrete (representing the world annual production per inhabitant)
44.
Metric prefix
–
A metric prefix is a unit prefix that precedes a basic unit of measure to indicate a multiple or fraction of the unit. While all metric prefixes in use today are decadic, historically there have been a number of binary metric prefixes as well. Each prefix has a symbol that is prepended to the unit symbol. The prefix kilo-, for example, may be added to gram to indicate multiplication by one thousand, the prefix milli-, likewise, may be added to metre to indicate division by one thousand, one millimetre is equal to one thousandth of a metre. Decimal multiplicative prefixes have been a feature of all forms of the system with six dating back to the systems introduction in the 1790s. Metric prefixes have even been prepended to non-metric units, the SI prefixes are standardized for use in the International System of Units by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures in resolutions dating from 1960 to 1991. Since 2009, they have formed part of the International System of Quantities, the BIPM specifies twenty prefixes for the International System of Units. Each prefix name has a symbol which is used in combination with the symbols for units of measure. For example, the symbol for kilo- is k, and is used to produce km, kg, and kW, which are the SI symbols for kilometre, kilogram, prefixes corresponding to an integer power of one thousand are generally preferred. Hence 100 m is preferred over 1 hm or 10 dam, the prefixes hecto, deca, deci, and centi are commonly used for everyday purposes, and the centimetre is especially common. However, some building codes require that the millimetre be used in preference to the centimetre, because use of centimetres leads to extensive usage of decimal points. Prefixes may not be used in combination and this also applies to mass, for which the SI base unit already contains a prefix. For example, milligram is used instead of microkilogram, in the arithmetic of measurements having units, the units are treated as multiplicative factors to values. If they have prefixes, all but one of the prefixes must be expanded to their numeric multiplier,1 km2 means one square kilometre, or the area of a square of 1000 m by 1000 m and not 1000 square metres. 2 Mm3 means two cubic megametres, or the volume of two cubes of 1000000 m by 1000000 m by 1000000 m or 2×1018 m3, and not 2000000 cubic metres, examples 5 cm = 5×10−2 m =5 ×0.01 m =0. The prefixes, including those introduced after 1960, are used with any metric unit, metric prefixes may also be used with non-metric units. The choice of prefixes with a unit is usually dictated by convenience of use. Unit prefixes for amounts that are larger or smaller than those actually encountered are seldom used
Metric prefix
–
Distance marker on the
Rhine: 36 (XXXVI) myriametres from
Basel. Note that the stated distance is 360 km; comma is the
decimal mark in
Germany.
45.
Odometer
–
An odometer or odograph is an instrument that indicates distance travelled by a vehicle, such as a bicycle or automobile. The device may be electronic, mechanical, or a combination of the two, the noun derives from the Greek words hodós and métron. Possibly the first evidence for the use of an odometer can be found in the works of the ancient Roman Pliny, both authors list the distances of routes traveled by Alexander the Great as by his bematists Diognetus and Baeton. However, the accuracy of the bematistss measurements rather indicates the use of a mechanical device. 2% from the actual distance. From the nine surviving bematists measurements in Plinys Naturalis Historia eight show a deviation of less than 5% from the actual distance, three of them being within 1%. An odometer for measuring distance was first described by Vitruvius around 27 and 23 BC, hero of Alexandria describes a similar device in chapter 34 of his Dioptra. Some researchers have speculated that the device might have included technology similar to that of the Greek Antikythera mechanism, the odometer of Vitruvius was based on chariot wheels of 4 feet diameter turning 400 times in one Roman mile. For each revolution a pin on the axle engaged a 400 tooth cogwheel thus turning it one complete revolution per mile and this engaged another gear with holes along the circumference, where pebbles were located, that were to drop one by one into a box. The distance traveled would thus be given simply by counting the number of pebbles, whether this instrument was ever built at the time is disputed. Leonardo da Vinci later tried to build it himself according to the description, however, in 1981 engineer Andre Sleeswyk built his own replica, replacing the square-toothed gear designs of da Vinci with the triangular, pointed teeth found in the Antikythera mechanism. With this modification, the Vitruvius odometer functioned perfectly, the odometer was also independently invented in ancient China, possibly by the prolific inventor and early scientist Zhang Heng of the Han Dynasty. By the 3rd century, the Chinese had termed the device as the jì lĭ gŭ chē, there is speculation that some time in the 1st century BC, the beating of drums and gongs were mechanically-driven by working automatically off the rotation of the road-wheels. This might have actually been the design of one Loxia Hong, the odometer was used also in subsequent periods of Chinese history. In the historical text of the Jin Shu, the oldest part of the compiled text, the passage in the Jin Shu expanded upon this, explaining that it took a similar form to the mechanical device of the south-pointing chariot invented by Ma Jun. As recorded in the Song Shi of the Song Dynasty, the odometer and south-pointing chariot were combined into one wheeled device by engineers of the 9th century, 11th century, and 12th century. The Sun Tzu Suan Ching, dated from the 3rd century to 5th century, the historical text of the Song Shi, recording the people and events of the Chinese Song Dynasty, also mentioned the odometer used in that period. At the completion of every li, the figure of a man in the lower storey strikes a drum, at the completion of every ten li. The carriage-pole ends in a phoenix-head, and the carriage is drawn by four horses, the escort was formerly of 18 men, but in the 4th year of the Yung-Hsi reign-period the emperor Thai Tsung increased it to 30
Odometer
–
An electronic odometer (below) with digital display
Odometer
–
A Smiths speedometer from the 1920s showing odometer and trip meter.
Odometer
–
A
Hubodometer on a wheel of a semitrailer
Odometer
–
A
Han Dynasty stone rubbing of a horse-drawn odometer cart.
46.
Square kilometre
–
Square kilometre or square kilometer, symbol km2, is a multiple of the square metre, the SI unit of area or surface area. For example,3 km2 is equal to 3×2 =3,000,000 m2, topographical map grids are worked out in metres, with the grid lines being 1,000 metres apart. 1,100,000 maps are divided into squares representing 1 km2, each square on the map being one square centimetre in area, for 1,50,000 maps, the grid lines are 2 cm apart. Each square on the map is 2 cm by 2 cm, for 1,25,000 maps, the grid lines are 4 cm apart. Each square on the map is 4 cm by 4 cm, in each case, the grid lines enclose one square kilometre. The area enclosed by the walls of many European medieval cities were about one square kilometre, the approximate area of the old walled cities can often be worked out by fitting the course of the wall to a rectangle or an oval. Examples include Delft, Netherlands 52°0′54″N 4°21′34″E The walled city of Delft was approximately rectangular, the approximate length of rectangle was about 1.30 kilometres. The approximate width of the rectangle was about 0.75 kilometres, a perfect rectangle with these measurements has an area of 1. 30×0.75 =0.9 km2 Lucca 43°50′38″N 10°30′2″E The medieval city is roughly rectangular with rounded north-east and north-west corners. The maximum distance from east to west is 1.36 kilometres, the maximum distance from north to south is 0.80 kilometres. A perfect rectangle of these dimensions would be 1. 36×0.80 =1.088 km2, Brugge 51°12′39″N 3°13′28″E The medieval city of Brugge, a major centre in Flanders, was roughly oval or elliptical in shape with the longer or semi-major axis running north and south. The maximum distance from north to south is 2.53 kilometres, the maximum distance from east to west is 1.81 kilometres. A perfect ellipse of these dimensions would be 2.53 ×1.81 × =3.597 km2. Chester United Kingdom 53°12′1″N 2°52′45″W Chester is one of the smaller English cities that has a city wall. The distance from Northgate to Watergate is about 855 metres. The distance from Eastgate to Westgate is about 589 metres, a perfect rectangle of these dimensions would be × =0.504 km2. Parks come in all sizes, a few are almost exactly one kilometre in area. Here are some examples, Riverside Country Park, UK. Brierley Forest Park, rio de Los Angeles State Park, California, USA Jones County Central Park, Iowa, USA. Using the figures published by golf course architects Crafter and Mogford, assuming a 6,000 metres 18-hole course, an area of 80 hectares needs to be allocated for the course itself
Square kilometre
–
Part of an Ordnance Survey map, published 1952. The grid lines are at one kilometre intervals giving each square an area of one square kilometre. The map shows that the area of the island is about two square kilometres.
Square kilometre
–
Map of
Delft, Netherlands dated 1659. The walls enclosed an area of about 1 square kilometre
47.
The New Zealand Herald
–
The New Zealand Herald is a daily newspaper published in Auckland, New Zealand, owned by New Zealand Media and Entertainment. Its main circulation area is the Auckland region and it is also delivered to much of the north of the North Island including Northland, Waikato and King Country. The New Zealand Herald was founded by William Chisholm Wilson, Wilson had been a partner with John Williamson in the New Zealander, but left to start a rival daily newspaper as he saw a business opportunity with Auckland’s rapidly growing population. He had also split with Williamson because Wilson supported the war against the Māori while Williamson opposed it, the Herald also promoted a more constructive relationship between the North and South Islands. After the New Zealander closed in 1866 The Daily Southern Cross provided competition, the Daily Southern Cross was first published in 1843 by William Brown as The Southern Cross and had been a daily since 1862. Vogel sold out of the paper in 1873 and Alfred Horton bought it in 1876, in 1876 the Wilson family and Horton joined in partnership and The New Zealand Herald absorbed The Daily Southern Cross. In 1879 the United Press Association was formed so that the daily papers could share news stories. The organisation became the New Zealand Press Association in 1942, in 1892, the New Zealand Herald, Otago Daily Times, and Press agreed to share the costs of a London correspondent and advertising salesman. The New Zealand Press Association closed in 2011, the Herald is now owned by New Zealand Media and Entertainment. That company is owned by Sydney-based APN News & Media and the Radio Network, dita de Boni was a columnist for the newspaper, writing her first columns for the NZ Herald in 1995. From 2012 -2015 she wrote a business and politics column until – after a series of articles critical of the Key government – the Herald discontinued her column due to financial reasons. Gordon Minhinnick was a staff cartoonist from the 1930s until his retirement in the 1980s, malcolm Evans was fired from his position as staff cartoonist in 2003 after the newspaper received complaints about his cartoons on the conflict between Israel and Palestine. Laurence Clark was the political cartoonist from 1987 to 1996. On 10 September 2012, the Herald moved to a format for weekday editions. The broadsheet format was retained for the Saturday edition, in April 2007, APN NZ announced it was outsourcing the bulk of the Heralds copy editing to an Australian-owned company, Pagemasters. The Herald is traditionally a centre-right newspaper, and was given the nickname Granny Herald into the 1990s, on domestic matters, editorial opinion is centrist, usually supporting socially conservative values. In 2007, an editorial strongly disapproved of some legislation introduced by the Labour-led government, the Herald published Baileys name, photo, and comments after she had retracted permission for Glucina to do so. The council said there was an “element of subterfuge” in Glucinas actions, in its ruling the council said that, “The NZ Herald has fallen sadly short of those standards in this case. ”The Heralds editor denied the accusations of subterfuge
The New Zealand Herald
–
Front cover of the Auckland edition, Friday 2 June 2006.
48.
Daniel Jones (phonetician)
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Daniel Jones was a London-born British phonetician who studied under Paul Passy, professor of phonetics at the École des Hautes Études at the Sorbonne. He was head of the Department of Phonetics at University College, in 1900, Jones studied briefly at William Tillys Marburg Language Institute in Germany, where he was first introduced to phonetics. In 1903, he received his BA degree in mathematics at Cambridge, from 1905 to 1906, he studied in Paris under Paul Passy, who was one of the founders of the International Phonetic Association, and in 1911, he married Passys niece Cyrille Motte. He briefly took lessons from the British phonetician Henry Sweet. In 1907, he became a lecturer at University College London and was afterwards appointed to a full-time position. In 1912, he became the head of the Department of Phonetics and was appointed to a chair in 1921, a post he held until his retirement in 1949. From 1906 onwards, Jones was an member of the International Phonetic Association, and was Assistant Secretary from 1907 to 1927, Secretary from 1927 to 1949. In 1909, Jones wrote the short Pronunciation of English, a book he later radically revised, the year 1917 was a landmark for Jones in many ways. He became the first linguist in the world to use the term phoneme in its current sense. It was here that the vowel diagram made a first appearance. A similar work for US English was published in 1944 by Kenyon, the problem of the phonetic description of vowels is of long standing, going back to the era of the ancient Indian linguists. Three nineteenth-century British phoneticians worked on this topic, alexander Melville Bell devised an ingenious iconic phonetic alphabet which included an elaborate system for vowels. Alexander Ellis had also suggested vowel symbols for his phonetic alphabets, Henry Sweet did much work on the systematic description of vowels, producing an elaborate system of vowel description involving a multitude of symbols. Much of the inspiration for this scheme can be found in the publications of Paul Passy. In the original form of the Cardinal Vowels, Jones employed a system of description based on the supposed height of the tongue arch together with the shape of the lips. This he reduced to a simple diagram which could be used to help visualize how vowels are articulated. Tongue height is represented on the axis and front vs. back on the horizontal axis indicates the portion of the tongue raised on the horizontal axis. Lip-rounding is also built into the system, so that front vowels have spread or neutral lip postures, Jones thus arrived at a set of eight primary Cardinal Vowels, and recorded these on gramophone disc for HMV in 1917
Daniel Jones (phonetician)
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The standard
IPA vowel trapezium, an application of Jones's work.
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International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
International Standard Book Number
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A 13-digit ISBN, 978-3-16-148410-0, as represented by an
EAN-13 bar code
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