Zebra
Zebras are several species of African equids united by their distinctive black-and-white striped coats. Their stripes come in different patterns, unique to each individual, they are social animals that live in small harems to large herds. Unlike their closest relatives and donkeys, zebras have never been domesticated. There are three species of zebras: the mountain zebra and the Grévy's zebra; the plains zebra and the mountain zebra belong to the subgenus Hippotigris, while Grévy's zebra is the sole species of subgenus Dolichohippus. The latter resembles an ass, to which zebras are related, while the former two look more horse-like. All three belong to the genus Equus, along with other living equids; the unique stripes of zebras make them one of the animals most familiar to people. They occur in a variety of habitats, such as grasslands, woodlands, thorny scrublands and coastal hills. Various anthropogenic factors have had a severe impact on zebra populations, in particular hunting for skins and habitat destruction.
Grévy's zebra and the mountain zebra are endangered. While plains zebras are much more plentiful, one subspecies, the quagga, became extinct in the late 19th century – though there is a plan, called the Quagga Project, that aims to breed zebras that are phenotypically similar to the quagga in a process called breeding back; the name "zebra" in English dates back to c. 1600, from Italian zebra from Portuguese, which in turn is said to be Congolese. The Encarta Dictionary says its ultimate origin is uncertain, but it may come from Latin equiferus meaning "wild horse"; the word was traditionally pronounced with a long initial vowel, but over the course of the 20th century, the pronunciation with the short initial vowel became the usual one in the UK and Commonwealth. The pronunciation with a long initial vowel remains standard in the United States. A group of zebras are referred to dazzle, or zeal. Zebras evolved among the Old World horses within the last 4 million years, it has been suggested that striped equids evolved more than once.
Extensive stripes are posited to have been of little use to equids that live in low densities in deserts or ones that live in colder climates with shaggy coats and annual shading. However, molecular evidence supports zebras as a monophyletic lineage; the zebra has between 46 chromosomes, depending on the species. There are three extant species. Collectively, two of the species have eight subspecies. Zebra populations are diverse, the relationships between, the taxonomic status of, several of the subspecies are not well known. Genus: Equus Subgenus: Hippotigris Plains zebra, Equus quagga †Quagga, Equus quagga quagga Burchell's zebra, Equus quagga burchellii Grant's zebra, Equus quagga boehmi Selous' zebra, Equus quagga selousi Maneless zebra, Equus quagga borensis Chapman's zebra, Equus quagga chapmani Crawshay's zebra, Equus quagga crawshayi Mountain zebra, Equus zebra Cape mountain zebra, Equus zebra zebra Hartmann's mountain zebra, Equus zebra hartmannae Subgenus: Dolichohippus Grévy's zebra, Equus grevyi The plains zebra is the most common, has or had about six subspecies distributed across much of southern and eastern Africa.
It, or particular subspecies of it, have been known as the common zebra, the dauw, Burchell's zebra, Chapman's zebra, Wahlberg's zebra, Selous' zebra, Grant's zebra, Boehm's zebra and the quagga. The mountain zebra of southwest Africa tends to have a sleek coat with a white belly and narrower stripes than the plains zebra, it is classified as vulnerable. Grévy's zebra is the largest type, with a narrow head, making it appear rather mule-like, it is an inhabitant of the semi-arid grasslands of northern Kenya. Grévy's zebra is the rarest species, is classified as endangered. Although zebra species may have overlapping ranges, they do not interbreed. In captivity, plains zebras have been crossed with mountain zebras; the hybrid foals lacked a dewlap and resembled the plains zebra apart from their larger ears and their hindquarters pattern. Attempts to breed a Grévy's zebra stallion to mountain zebra mares resulted in a high rate of miscarriage. In captivity, crosses between zebras and other equines have produced several distinct hybrids, including the zebroid, zeedonk and zorse.
In certain regions of Kenya, plains zebras and Grévy's zebra coexist, fertile hybrids occur. The Hagerman horse is sometimes referred to as the American zebra due to perceived similarities to the plains zebra, sometimes depicted as striped. However, consensus appears to be that it wasn't closely related to either Hippotigiris nor Dolichohippus, nor is there unambiguous evidence that it had stripes; the common plains zebra is about 1.2–1.3 m at the shoulder with a body ranging from 2–2.6 m long with a 0.5 m tail. It can weigh up to 350 kg, males being bigger than females. Grévy's zebra is larger, while the mountain zebra is somewhat smaller, it was believed that zebras were white animals with black stripes, since some zebras have white underbellies. Embryological evidence, shows that the animal's background colour is black and the white stripes and bellies are additions, it is that the stripes ar
Cent (currency)
In many national currencies, the cent represented by the cent sign is a monetary unit that equals 1⁄100 of the basic monetary unit. Etymologically, the word cent derives from the Latin word "centum" meaning hundred. Cent refers to a coin worth one cent. In the United States, the 1¢ coin is known by the nickname penny, alluding to the British coin and unit of that name. In the European Union, coins designs are chosen nationally, while the reverse and the currency as a whole is managed by the European Central Bank. In Canada, production of the 1¢ coin was ended in 2012. A cent is represented by the cent sign, a minuscule letter "c" crossed by a diagonal stroke or a vertical line: ¢. Cent amounts from 1 cent to 99 cents can be represented as one or two digits followed by the appropriate abbreviation, or as a subdivision of the base unit. Back in the days of typewriters, the cent sign appeared as the shift of the 6 key; the cent sign has not survived the changeover from typewriters to computer keyboards.
There are alternative ways, however, to create the character in most common code pages, including Unicode and Windows-1252: On DOS- or Windows-based computers, hold Alt while typing 0162 or 155 on the numeric keypad. If there is no numeric keypad, as on many laptops, type A2 in Windows Wordpad followed by Alt+X and copy/paste the resulting ¢ into the target document. For the US International keyboard: <Right Alt> <Shift> c. On Macintosh systems, hold ⌥ Option and press 4 on the number row. On Unix/Linux systems with a compose key, Compose+|+C and Compose+/+C are typical sequences; the cent sign has Unicode code point: U+00A2 ¢ CENT SIGN, U+FFE0 ￠ FULLWIDTH CENT SIGN. When written in English, the cent sign follows the amount, in contrast with a larger currency symbol, placed before the amount. For example, 2¢ and $0.02, or 2c and €0.02. Examples of currencies around the world featuring centesimal units called cent, or related words from the same root such as céntimo, centésimo, centavo or sen, are: Argentine peso Aruban florin Australian dollar Barbadian dollar Bahamian dollar Belize dollar Bermudian dollar Bolivian boliviano Brazilian real Brunei dollar Canadian dollar Cayman Islands dollar Chilean peso.
Centavos exist and are considered in financial transactions. Cook Islands dollar Cuban peso East Caribbean dollar Eritrean nakfa Estonian kroon European Union's euro – the coins bear the text "EURO CENT". Greek coins have ΛΕΠΤΑ on the obverse of the others; the actual usage varies depending on the language. Fijian dollar Guyanese dollar Indonesian rupiah Jamaican dollar Kenyan shilling Lesotho loti Liberian dollar Malaysian ringgit Mauritian rupee Mexican peso Moroccan dirham Namibian dollar Netherlands Antillean gulden New Zealand dollar Panamanian balboa Peruvian nuevo sol Philippine peso Seychellois rupee Sierra Leonean leone Singapore dollar South African rand Sri Lankan rupee Surinamese dollar Swazi lilangeni New Taiwan dollar Tanzanian shilling Tongan paʻanga Trinidad and Tobago dollar Ugandan shilling United States dollar Uruguayan peso Zimbabwean dollarExamples of currencies featuring centesimal units not called cent British pound – divided into 100 pence since 1971 Bulgarian lev (as stotinka, Bulgarian: стотинка Chinese Yuan/Renminbi – divided into 100 fēn.
Croatian kuna – divided into 100 lipa Danish krone – divided into 100 øre Estonian mark – divided into 100 penni Indian rupee – divided into 100 paise Israeli new shekel – divided into 100 agorot Macao pataca – divided into 100 avos Macedonian denar – divided into 100 deni Norwegian krone – divided into 100 øre Pakistani rupee – divided into 100 paise Polish złoty – divided into 100 groszy Romanian and Moldovan leu – divided into 100 bani Russian ruble – divided into 100 kopeks Saudi riyal. Examples of currencies which do not feature centesimal units: Costa Rican colón – no fractional denomination in circulation since the 1980s divided into 100 céntimos. Czech koruna – no fractional denomination in circulation divided into 100 hellers Japanese yen – no fractional denomination in circulation divided into 100 sen and 1000 rin. South Korean Won no fractional denomination in circulation divided into 100 jeon. Icelandic króna – no fractional denomination in circulation divided into 100 eyrir. Kuwaiti dinar – divided into 1000 fils Omani rial – divided into 1000 baisa Mauritanian ouguiya – divided into 5 khoums Malagasy ariary – divided into 5 iraimbilanjaExamples of currencies which use the cent symbol for other purpose: Costa Rican colón – The common symbol'¢' is used locally to represent'₡', the proper
Julius Nyerere
Julius Kambarage Nyerere was a Tanzanian anti-colonial activist and political theorist. He governed Tanganyika as Prime Minister from 1961 to 1962 and as President from 1963 to 1964, after which he led its successor state, Tanzania, as President from 1964 to 1985. A founding member of the Tanganyika African National Union party—which in 1977 became the Chama Cha Mapinduzi party—he chaired it until 1990. Ideologically an African nationalist and African socialist, he promoted a political philosophy known as Ujamaa. Born in Butiama in the British colony of Tanganyika, Nyerere was the son of a Zanaki chief. After completing his schooling, he studied at Makerere College in Uganda and Edinburgh University in Scotland. In 1952 he returned to Tanganyika and worked as a teacher. In 1954, he helped form TANU, through which he campaigned for Tanganyikan independence from the British Empire. Influenced by the Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi, Nyerere preached non-violent protest to achieve this aim.
Elected to the Legislative Council in the 1958–59 elections, Nyerere led TANU to victory at the 1960 general election, becoming Prime Minister. Negotiations with the British authorities resulted in Tanganyikan independence in 1961. In 1962, Tanganyika became a republic, with Nyerere elected its first president, his administration pursued decolonisation and the "Africanisation" of the civil service while promoting unity between indigenous Africans and the country's Asian and European minorities. He encouraged the formation of a one-party state and unsuccessfully pursued the Pan-Africanist formation of an East African Federation with Uganda and Kenya. A 1963 mutiny within the army was suppressed with British assistance. Following the Zanzibar Revolution of 1964, the island of Zanzibar was unified with Tanganyika to form Tanzania. Nyerere placed a growing emphasis on socialism and national self-reliance. Although his vision of socialism differed from that promoted by Marxism, Tanzania developed close links with Mao Zedong's Marxist-governed China.
In 1967, Nyerere issued the Arusha Declaration. Banks and other major industries and companies were nationalised. Renewed emphasis was placed on agricultural development through the formation of communal farms; these reforms left Tanzania dependent on foreign food aid. His government provided training and aid to anti-colonialist groups active throughout southern Africa. Nyerere oversaw Tanzania's 1978–79 war with Uganda, resulting in the overthrow of Ugandan President Idi Amin. In 1985, Nyerere stood down and was succeeded by Ali Hassan Mwinyi, who reversed many of Nyerere's policies, he remained chair of Chama Cha Mapinduzi until 1990, supporting a transition to a multi-party system, served as mediator in attempts to end the Burundian Civil War. Nyerere was a controversial figure. Across Africa he gained widespread respect as an anti-colonialist and in power received praise for ensuring that, unlike many of its neighbours, Tanzania remained stable and unified, his construction of the one-party state and use of detention without trial led to accusations of dictatorial governance, while he has been blamed for economic mismanagement.
He is held in deep respect within Tanzania, where he is referred to by the Swahili honorific Mwalimu and described as the "Father of the Nation". Julius Kambarage Nyerere was born on 13 April 1922 in Mwitongo, an area in the town of Butiama in Tanganyika's Mara Region, he was one of 25 surviving children of the chief of the Zanaki people. Burito had been born in 1860 and given the name "Nyerere" after a plague of worm caterpillars infested the local area at the time of his birth. Burito had been appointed chief in 1915, installed in that position by the German imperial administrators of what was German East Africa. Burito had 22 wives, of whom Mugaya Nyang ` ombe, was the fifth, she had married the chief in 1907, when she was fifteen. Mugaya bore four daughters, of which Nyerere was the second child; these wives lived in various huts around Burito's cattle corral, in the centre of, his roundhouse. The Zanaki were one of the smallest of the 120 tribes in the British colony and were sub-divided among eight chiefdoms.
Nyerere's clan were the Abhakibhweege. At birth, Nyerere was given the personal name "Mugendi" but this was soon changed to "Kambarage", the name of a female rain spirit, at the advice of a omugabhu diviner. Nyerere was raised into the polytheistic belief system of the Zanaki, lived at his mother's house, assisting in the farming of the millet and cassava. With other local boys he took part in the herding of goats and cattle. At some point he underwent the Zanaki's traditional circumcision ritual at Gabizuryo; as the son of a chief he was exposed to African-administered power and authority, living in the compound gave him an appreciation for communal living that would influence his political ideas. The British colonial administration encouraged the education of chiefs' sons, believing that this would help to perpetuate the chieftain system and prevent the development of a separate educated indigenous elite who might challenge colonial governance. At his father's prompting, Nyerere began his education at the Native Administration School in Mwis
East African shilling
The East African shilling was the currency issued for use in British controlled areas in East Africa from 1921 until 1969. It was produced by the East African Currency Board, it is the proposed name for a common currency that the East African Community plans to introduce. The shilling was subdivided into 100 cents, a pound was equivalent to twenty shillings. In the United Kingdom, the pound sterling was divided into twenty shillings, it was normal to consider the shilling to be a subsidiary unit of the pound. In British East Africa, however though twenty shillings were equal in value to one pound sterling, the shilling was always considered the primary unit of account; this state of affairs was unique amongst all the parts of the British Empire that used the pound sterling currency. This anomalous state of affairs arose because the first currency used by the British colonial authorities in British East Africa was the rupee, not sterling; the East African shilling was introduced to Kenya and Uganda in 1921, replacing the short-lived East African florin at a rate of 2 shillings to 1 florin.
The short-lived florin had been introduced because of increasing silver prices after World War I. At that time, the Indian rupee was the currency of the British East African states; the rupee, being a silver coin, rose in value against sterling. When it reached the value of two shillings, the authorities decided to replace it with the florin. From the florin thence came the East African shilling; the currency was subdivided into 100 cents. In 1936, Zanzibar joined the currency board, the Zanzibari rupee was replaced at a rate of 1.5 East African shillings to 1 Zanzibari rupee. It was replaced by local currencies following the territories' independence. In 1951, the East African shilling replaced the Indian rupee in the Aden colony and protectorate, which became the South Arabian Federation in 1963. In 1965, the East African Currency Board was breaking up, the South Arabian dinar replaced the shilling in the South Arabian Federation at a rate of 20 shillings to 1 dinar; the shilling was used in parts of what is now Somalia and Eritrea when they were under British control.
Before 1941, these areas known as Italian East Africa, were using the Italian East African lira. In 1941, as a result of World War II, Britain regained control and introduced the shilling, at a rate of 1 shilling to 24 lira. Italian Somaliland was returned to Italy in 1949 as a UN Trusteeship and soon switched to the Italian Somaliland somalo, at par with the shilling. British Somaliland gained independence in 1960, joined what had been Italian Somaliland to create Somalia. In that year, Somalia began using the Somali shilling at par with the East African shilling. Ethiopia regained independence in 1941, with British support, began using the East African shilling. Maria Theresa thalers, Indian rupees, Egyptian pounds were legal tender at the beginning of this time, it is unclear when this status ended. Full sovereignty was restored in late 1944, the Ethiopian birr was reintroduced in 1945 at a rate of 1 birr = 2 shillings. Eritrea was captured from the Italians in 1941, began using the East African shilling, as well as the Egyptian pound.
The lira was demonetized in 1942. When Eritrea formed a federation with Ethiopia in 1952, the birr, in use in Ethiopia, was adopted in Eritrea. A new version of the currency is proposed by the East African Community, which consists of Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and South Sudan, it had been proposed that the Second East African shilling be introduced into circulation in 2012, but the target was not met. A second target date was set to 2015, but not met; the third target date is 2024. In 1921, notes were issued by the East African Currency Board in denominations of 5, 10, 20, 100, 200, 1,000 and 10,000 shillings, with the notes of 20 shillings and above carrying the denominations given in pounds sterling. In 1943, 1 shilling notes were issued, the only occasion. 1,000 shilling notes were only issued until 1933, with 10,000 shillings notes last issued in 1947. The remaining denominations were issued until 1964; the History of British Currency in the Middle East The last issued 10,000 shillings note was dated 1 August 1951 but the high denomination note was used for clearing internally for many years after 1951.
East African Community Images of East African banknotes
Maasai people
The Maasai are a Nilotic ethnic group inhabiting northern and southern Kenya and northern Tanzania. They are among the best known local populations internationally due to their residence near the many game parks of the African Great Lakes, their distinctive customs and dress; the Maasai speak the Maa language, a member of the Nilo-Saharan family, related to the Dinka and Nuer languages. Some have become educated in the official languages of Kenya and Tanzania and English; the Maasai population has been reported as numbering 841,622 in Kenya in the 2009 census, compared to 377,089 in the 1989 census. The Tanzanian and Kenyan governments have instituted programs to encourage the Maasai to abandon their traditional semi-nomadic lifestyle, but the people have continued their age-old customs. An Oxfam study has suggested that the Maasai could pass on traditional survival skills such as the ability to produce food in deserts and scrublands that could help populations adapt to climate change. Many Maasai tribes throughout Tanzania and Kenya welcome visits to their villages to experience their culture and lifestyle, in return for a fee.
The Maasai arrived via the South Sudan. Most Nilotic speakers in the area, including the Maasai, the Turkana and the Kalenjin, are pastoralists, are famous for their fearsome reputations as warriors and cattle-rustlers; the Maasai and other groups in East Africa have adopted customs and practices from neighboring Cushitic-speaking groups, including the age set system of social organization and vocabulary terms. According to their oral history, the Maasai originated from the lower Nile valley north of Lake Turkana and began migrating south around the 15th century, arriving in a long trunk of land stretching from what is now northern Kenya to what is now central Tanzania between the 17th and late 18th century. Many ethnic groups that had formed settlements in the region were forcibly displaced by the incoming Maasai, while other Southern Cushitic groups, were assimilated into Maasai society; the Nilotic ancestors of the Kalenjin absorbed some early Cushitic populations. The Maasai territory reached its largest size in the mid-19th century, covered all of the Great Rift Valley and adjacent lands from Mount Marsabit in the north to Dodoma in the south.
At this time the Maasai, as well as the larger Nilotic group they were part of, raised cattle as far east as the Tanga coast in Tanganyika. Raiders used spears and shields, but were most feared for throwing clubs which could be thrown from up to 70 paces. In 1852, there was a report of a concentration of 800 Maasai warriors on the move in what is now Kenya. In 1857, after having depopulated the "Wakuafi wilderness" in what is now southeastern Kenya, Maasai warriors threatened Mombasa on the Kenyan coast; because of this migration, the Maasai are the southernmost Nilotic speakers. The period of expansion was followed by the Maasai "Emutai" of 1883–1902; this period was marked by epidemics of contagious bovine pleuropneumonia and smallpox. The estimate first put forward by a German lieutenant in what was northwest Tanganyika, was that 90 percent of cattle and half of wild animals perished from rinderpest. German doctors in the same area claimed that "every second" African had a pock-marked face as the result of smallpox.
This period coincided with drought. Rains failed in 1897 and 1898; the Austrian explorer Oscar Baumann travelled in Maasai lands between 1891 and 1893, described the old Maasai settlement in the Ngorongoro Crater in the 1894 book Durch Massailand zur Nilquelle: "There were women wasted to skeletons from whose eyes the madness of starvation glared... warriors scarcely able to crawl on all fours, apathetic, languishing elders. Swarms of vultures followed them from high, awaiting their certain victims." By one estimate two-thirds of the Maasai died during this period. Starting with a 1904 treaty, followed by another in 1911, Maasai lands in Kenya were reduced by 60 percent when the British evicted them to make room for settler ranches, subsequently confining them to present-day Samburu,Laikipia,Kajiado and Narok districts. Maasai in Tanganyika were displaced from the fertile lands between Mount Meru and Mount Kilimanjaro, most of the fertile highlands near Ngorongoro in the 1940s. More land was taken to create wildlife reserves and national parks: Amboseli National Park, Nairobi National Park, Maasai Mara, Samburu National Reserve, Lake Nakuru National Park and Tsavo in Kenya.
Maasai are pastoralist and have resisted the urging of the Tanzanian and Kenyan governments to adopt a more sedentary lifestyle. They have demanded grazing rights to many of the national parks in both countries; the Maasai people stood against slavery and lived alongside most wild animals with an aversion to eating game and birds. Maasai land now has East Africa's finest game areas. Maasai society never condoned traffic of human beings, outsiders looking for people to enslave avoided the Maasai. There are twenty two geographic sectors or sub tribes of the Maasai community, each one having its own customs, appearance and dialects; these subdivisions are known as'nations' or' iloshon'in the Maa language: the Keekonyokie, Purko, Siria, Loitai, Matapato, Loodokolani,Kaputiei,Moitanik,Ilkirasha, Samburu,Lchamus,Laikipia,Loitokitoki,Larusa,Salei,Sir
Coat of arms of Tanzania
The coat of arms of Tanzania comprises a warrior’s shield which bears a golden portion on the upper part followed underneath by the Flag of Tanzania. It was designed by Mr Jeremiah Wisdom Kabati, at Bwiru, Mwanza in 1961; the golden portion represents minerals in the United Republic. In the golden part of the flag, there appears a burning torch signifying freedom and knowledge; the shield stands upon the representation of Mount Kilimanjaro. Elephant tusks are supported by a man and a woman, with a clove bush at the feet of the man and a cotton bush at the feet of the woman indicating the theme of co-operation; the United Republic motto below –Uhuru na Umoja– is written in Swahili and means "Freedom and Unity". Tanzanian National Website Statehouse Website Tanzania at national-symbol.com
Equals sign
The equals sign or equality sign is a mathematical symbol used to indicate equality. It was invented in 1557 by Robert Recorde. In an equation, the equals sign is placed between two expressions. In Unicode and ASCII, it is U+003D = EQUALS SIGN; the etymology of the word "equal" is from the Latin word "æqualis" as meaning "uniform", "identical", or "equal", from aequus. The "=" symbol, now universally accepted in mathematics for equality was first recorded by Welsh mathematician Robert Recorde in The Whetstone of Witte; the original form of the symbol was much wider than the present form. In his book Recorde explains his design of the "Gemowe lines": And to auoide the tediouſe repetition of theſe woordes: is equalle to: I will ſette as I doe in woorke vſe, a paire of paralleles, or Gemowe lines of one lengthe, thus: =, bicauſe noe.2. Thynges, can be moare equalle, and to avoid the tedious repetition of these words: is equal to: I will set as I do in work use, a pair of parallels, or Gemowe lines of one length, thus: =, because no 2 things, can be more equal.
According to Scotland's University of St Andrews History of Mathematics website: The symbol'=' was not popular. The symbol || was used by some and æ, from the Latin word aequalis meaning equal, was used into the 1700s. In mathematics, the equals sign can be used as a simple statement of fact in a specific case, or to create definitions, conditional statements, or to express a universal equivalence 2 = x2 + 2x + 1; the first important computer programming language to use the equals sign was the original version of Fortran, FORTRAN I, designed in 1954 and implemented in 1957. In Fortran, "=" serves as an assignment operator: X = 2 sets the value of X to 2; this somewhat resembles the use of "=" in a mathematical definition, but with different semantics: the expression following "=" is evaluated first and may refer to a previous value of X. For example, the assignment X = X + 2 increases the value of X by 2. A rival programming-language usage was pioneered by the original version of ALGOL, designed in 1958 and implemented in 1960.
ALGOL included a relational operator that tested for equality, allowing constructions like if x = 2 with the same meaning of "=" as the conditional usage in mathematics. The equals sign was reserved for this usage. Both usages have remained common in different programming languages into the early 21st century; as well as Fortran, "=" is used for assignment in such languages as C, Python and their descendants. But "=" is used for equality and not assignment in the Pascal family, Eiffel, APL, other languages. A few languages, such as BASIC and PL/I, have used the equals sign to mean both assignment and equality, distinguished by context. However, in most languages where "=" has one of these meanings, a different character or, more a sequence of characters is used for the other meaning. Following ALGOL, most languages that use "=" for equality use ":=" for assignment, although APL, with its special character set, uses a left-pointing arrow. Fortran did not have an equality operator until FORTRAN IV was released in 1962, since when it has used the four characters ".
EQ." to test for equality. The language B introduced the use of "==" with this meaning, copied by its descendant C and most languages where "=" means assignment; the equals sign is used in defining attribute–value pairs, in which an attribute is assigned a value. In PHP, the triple equals sign denotes value and type equality, meaning that not only do the two expressions evaluate to equal values, they are of the same data type. For instance, the expression 0 == false is true, but 0 === false is not, because the number 0 is an integer value whereas false is a Boolean value. JavaScript has the same semantics for ===, referred to as "equality without type coercion". However, in JavaScript the behavior of == cannot be described by any simple consistent rules; the expression 0 == false is true, but 0 == undefined is false though both sides of the == act the same in Boolean context. For this reason it is sometimes recommended to avoid the == operator in JavaScript in favor of ===. In Ruby, equality under == requires both operands to be of identical type, e.g. 0 == false is false.
The === operator may be defined arbitrarily for any given type. For example, a value of type Range is a range of integers, such as 1800..1899. == 1844 is false. Note that under these semantics, === is non-symmetric; the equals sign is sometimes used in Japanese as a separator between names. The equals sign is used as a grammatical tone letter in the orthographies of Budu in the Congo-Kinshasa, in Krumen and Dan in the Ivory Coast; the Unicode character used for the tone letter is different from the mathematical symbol. A unique case of the equals sign of European usage in a person's name in a double-barreled name, was by pioneer aviator Alberto Santos-Dumont, as he is known not only to have used an equals sign between his two surnames in place of a hyphen, but seems to have preferred that practice, to display equal respect for his father's French ethnicity and the Brazilian ethnicity of his mother. In linguistic interlinear
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