title: Denmark

paragraphs: Denmark (), officially named the Kingdom of Denmark, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the furthest south of the Scandinavian countries, to the south of Norway and south-west of Sweden (which it is connected to by a bridge). It has a south border with Germany. It borders both the North Sea to the west and the Baltic Sea to the east. Denmark is a developed country with a large welfare state; In 2006 and 2007, surveys ranked Denmark as "the happiest place in the world," based on standards of health, welfare, and education.

paragraphs: The capital city of Denmark is Copenhagen, on the island of Sealand. Denmark is a constitutional monarchy (meaning the head of state is a monarch who has few established powers) with a queen, Margrethe II. Denmark is a parliamentary state, meaning the people appoint a parliament to make decisions for them, and it has a democratic government headed by an elected Prime Minister, who currently is Mette Frederiksen since 2019.

paragraphs: In geography, "Denmark" is the land in northern Europe, where the Danes live. In the political sense, the "Kingdom of Denmark" also includes the Faroe Islands in the Atlantic Ocean, and Greenland in North America. All three parts of the country have different languages and culture.

paragraphs: Denmark was first united in the 10th century, during the Viking period, by the king Harald Bluetooth (), who first converted Denmark to Christianity. The Vikings are well known for invading countries. In the 11th century, the Danish Vikings controlled England (the Danelaw) for a while. In 1397 Denmark, Sweden and Norway became a single country with one queen (this country was called the "Kalmar Union") Sweden became a separate country again in 1523. Denmark and Norway (called "Denmark-Norway)" stayed united, until 1814. Denmark-Norway controlled many islands in the Atlantic Ocean, including the Faroe Islands, Iceland and Greenland. Iceland became independent from Denmark in 1944.

paragraphs: Denmark became a constitutional monarchy in June 5, 1849 when it adopted a constitution which took away powers from the King and gave rights to ordinary Danish people. June 5 is now a holiday in Denmark, called "Constitution Day".

paragraphs: Over the years Denmark lost many of the lands that it controlled in battle. Denmark's biggest war defeat was the "Second Schleswig War" (in 1864) when the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein was conquered by the Kingdom Prussia (now a part of Germany). This was a big loss for Denmark and, consequently, it began a policy of neutrality after the loss, meaning it would no longer take part in any wars or support other countries. Denmark did not take part in the First World War.

paragraphs: On April 9, 1940, Denmark was invaded by Nazi Germany and the Nazis stayed in Denmark throughout World War II. During the war, in 1943, Danes helped over 8,000 Jews to escape from Denmark into Sweden after the Nazis tried to arrest them.

paragraphs: After the liberation of Denmark, one part of the country was not. That was the island of Bornholm. The German Commandant "von Kamptz" who was stationed there, refused to surrender to the Soviets as the German were fleeing to Bornholm and further to Sweden. The Soviets then bombed the two biggest towns Rønne and Nexø. After the Germans were captured on May 9, 1945, the Soviet Army occupied the island until April 6, 1946.

paragraphs: After World War Two, Denmark became a member of NATO and the European Union. Greenland and the Faroe Islands are now part of the "Kingdom of Denmark" and have their own governments and limited power.

paragraphs: Denmark has three branches of power; the judiciary (the courts), the executive (the Prime Minister and the cabinet) and the legislature (the Danish parliament). The current Prime Minister of Denmark is Mette Frederiksen, who was elected in June 2019.

paragraphs: Denmark is a Kingdom which means it has a monarch (a king or queen). The current monarch is Queen Margrethe II. Margrethe II does not have a lot of power (she does not make any important decisions) and has a symbolic role. Denmark became a constitutional monarchy in 1849.

paragraphs: Elections to the parliament are held every four years, and the winner of the election is the party or coalition which gets the most votes and seats in the parliament. After the elections are done, several parties who are in agreement will group together to form a coalition government, and the leader of the largest party becomes the prime minister.

paragraphs: Here is a short summary of the biggest political parties in Denmark, from left to right on the political axis:

paragraphs: Denmark, like the other Nordic countries. is well known for being a large welfare state. The government provides many services to the public such as free health care, free education (school and college) and free housing for the poor. Danes pay high taxes to fund welfare.

paragraphs: Denmark is the smallest of the Scandinavian countries. The neighbours are Germany (to the south), Sweden (to the east), Norway (to the north) and the United Kingdom (to the west). The country is surrounded by the sea except for Jutland ("Jylland"), the largest part of Denmark. It is connected to Germany by land. To the south-east there is the Baltic Sea, to the west the North Sea, to the north the Skagerrak and to the north-east the Kattegat.

paragraphs: The western part of Denmark is the peninsula of Jutland (, pronounced "yoo´-land"), bordering Germany. This is the only part of Denmark that is not an island. The rest of Denmark includes 76 islands people live on, and many tiny islands. The largest islands are Zealand ("Sjælland"), and Funen ("Fyn"). To the east is the island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea, the only place in Denmark where the bedrock can be seen.

paragraphs: The country is quite flat. The highest hill or mountain is Møllehøj, which is 170.86 metres (560.56 ft) tall. There are many small hills, lakes, creeks, forests and farmland. Denmark's shore line covers 7,314 km (4,545 mi). Nobody in Denmark lives more than 60 km from the coast. The longest river in Denmark is the Gudenå.

paragraphs: The weather in Denmark is quite windy and rainy. In the winter, it does not get very cold; in most years, there are only a few weeks of snow. Every ten years or so, the sea around the islands freezes over, but in most winters, it does not. The climate and topography are not good for winter sports.

paragraphs: Most summers are not very hot. People always dress to be ready for rain or wind. There are also very sunny times, but nobody can know ahead of time when these will be. The best time of the year for outdoor activities is the months of May and June until midsummer.

paragraphs: Denmark is divided into five regions (Danish: "regioner" or "region" for one). The regions replaced the former counties ("amter") in January 2007. The regions are in charge of hospitals and health care.

paragraphs: The regions are then subdivided into municipalities (). There are currently 98 municipalities, but before January 2007 there were 275. The number of municipalities was decreased when it was decided that, to become more efficient, each should have a population of at least 20,000 .

paragraphs: The biggest part (90.5%) of Denmark's population of just under 5.4 million is of Danish descent, according to 2009 statistics. Of the rest 8.9% who are immigrants or descendent from recent immigrants, many come from South Asia or the Middle East. There are also small groups of Inuit from Greenland and Faroese.

paragraphs: The Danes speak the national language, Danish, which is very similar to the other Scandinavian languages. Swedish and Norwegian are so close to Danish that most Danes understand them.

paragraphs: As well as Danish, most Danes speak a foreign language too, such as English, which is popular as an international language, or German. In the southern part of Jutland, a German minority speaks German. On the Faroe Islands, Faroese is spoken, and people living in Greenland speak Inuit.

paragraphs: Religion does not play a large part in the life of most Danes and church attendance is very low. However, even though many Danes are atheist, 80.4% are members of the Protestant "Church of Denmark" (, The National Church) which is the official "state church" of Denmark. The National Church is Lutheran, which means it separated from the Roman Catholic Church in the 16th Century. Other important faiths include Judaism, Islam (the number of Muslims is increasing), other Protestant groups and Catholicism.

paragraphs: Because of the many islands, Denmark has many bridges. The main parts of the country, and most of the bigger islands, are connected by roads and railroads. One of the world's longest bridges connects the eastern and the western parts of the country, and there is a large bridge to Sweden also. There is still no bridge across the Baltic Sea to Germany, but it will most likely be built in a few years. The bridge to Sweden was expensive, took a long time to build, and required much planning by engineers.

paragraphs: There are still many islands with no bridges to the mainland. People have to go by boat or airplane to reach these islands. Many islands will never be reached by bridges, because they are too small or too far away. If the island has too few people, bridges are often not built because it is expensive to build.

paragraphs: Cycling is very popular in Denmark because the ground is so flat. Copenhagen is a city that is very bicycle friendly, with bicycle lanes extending over 12,000 km.

paragraphs: The people of Denmark have always depended on the sea. In earlier days, people could not travel anywhere unless they went by boat. Many Danes were fishermen or merchants. Even today, many Danes spend much time near or at the sea.

paragraphs: Farming has always been one of the main occupations. Because of the climate and the soil, Denmark is a good place for agriculture. Export of food to the neighbouring countries is one of the most important sources of income for the country. Danish hams and cookies are exported throughout the world.

paragraphs: Perhaps the most famous Dane is actually Hamlet, the title character of William Shakespeare's famous play, which was set in the real castle of Kronborg in Helsingør, north of Copenhagen. The play was based on an old Danish myth of the Viking Prince Amled of Jutland, and his quest for revenge against his father's killer. Another widely known Dane is Hans Christian Andersen, an author mostly famous for such fairy tales as "The Little Mermaid", and "The Ugly Duckling". Also Karen Blixen, Tycho Brahe and the philosopher Søren Kierkegaard are well-known worldwide. There are many famous Danish scientists, including Niels Bohr, the famous physicist who developed the first working model for the atom, and Ole Rømer, who discovered the speed of light. Hans Kirk, although less well-known outside of Denmark, is the author of the best-selling Danish novel of all time, "The Fishermen".

paragraphs: Danes enjoy many different types of music, including ballets, jazz music, pop and rock. Denmark's most famous classical composer is Carl Nielsen. Famous Danish bands include Aqua, a pop band, and The Raveonettes, an indie rock band. The most famous Danish rock star is Lars Ulrich of the band Metallica.

paragraphs: The cuisine of Denmark is like the other Nordic countries (Finland, Norway, Iceland, and Sweden), as well as that of northern Germany, consists mainly pork meat and fish. Traditional Danish food includes "frikadeller" (fried meatballs, often served with potatoes and various sorts of gravy). Fish is also widely eaten, especially on the west coast of Jutland.

paragraphs: Christmas () is the main feast of the year. Christmas is traditionally celebrated on the eve, December 24, and this is when the main Christmas meal is eaten and presents are unwrapped.

paragraphs: In midwinter, a fast is celebrated. Children are dressed up, and go from house to house begging for money. This practice has in the recent years been taken over by Halloween, and most people give candy not money. A barrel filled with candy is smashed with clubs. The person who makes the candy fall out is appointed queen of cats and the person who hits the last stick is appointed king of cats.

paragraphs: Midsummer is celebrated with a huge bonfire in the evening of June 23. Most Danes have a three-week summer holiday in July or August.

paragraphs: The most popular sport in Denmark is football (soccer). Sailing, swimming and other water sports are very popular because of the long coastline. Another common sport is cycling, (Copenhagen has been nicknamed the "City of Cyclists" because of the popularity of bicycles for moving around), which has become popular in Denmark partly because of the flat land all over the country. Indoor sports such as badminton and handball are also popular during the long winters.

paragraphs: Monarch is a word that means king or queen. Denmark is the oldest monarchy in Europe. The current monarch is Queen Margrethe II, who has been the queen since 1972. Denmark does not currently have a King. Margrethe's husband was called a prince because he was the son-in-law, not the son, of the previous King. He died on 13. February 2018 at the age of 83. The royal couple have two children:

paragraphs: In 2008 Prince Joachim married for the second time. His new wife is from France and is called Marie, with whom he has a son and a daughter.


title: Death

paragraphs: Death is the end of a life in an organism. All biological and living activity of the living thing stop, including the mind and the senses. The usual signal for death in humans and many other animals is that the heart stops beating and cannot be restarted. This can be caused by many things. All living things have a limited lifespan, and all living things eventually die.

paragraphs: Living things that have died are normally described as being dead. Death of humans is often investigated for the cause, in case of crime (such as murder), accident or disease that may continue to kill other humans. About 150,000 people die every day around the world. About two thirds of these people die because of age. In addition to the physical body, some believe humans also have a soul and believe that the soul can continue without a body (afterlife), move into another body (reincarnation), or cease to exist (annihilationism). Religions have different beliefs about this issue. Many cultures have their own customs and rituals to respect the dead.

paragraphs: When people talk about things or events that lead to the death of a plant or animal, those things or events are usually described as being deadly, or fatal. In the case of diseases, they are described as "terminal". Humans are no different from any other lifeform. Our bodies have an ability for self-repair, but that ability is limited. Finding the cause of death is a medical speciality called pathology. In medicine, death is when the heart stops beating for more than several minutes. There are special times in which people recover even though the heart has stopped for 30 minutes, such as near-drowning in very cold water. If machines are used to help the heart and lungs work, then the moment of death is more difficult to know.

paragraphs: Death is commonly a sad or unpleasant thing to people. It can make people think about their own death. People might miss or be sad for the person who has died. They might also be sad for the family and friends of the person who has died.

paragraphs: In any society, human death is surrounded by ritual - a wake or funeral is normal. In some places it was common to "eat" the dead in a form of ritual cannibalism. But this is no longer common, in part because disease like kuru can be passed this way. Human dead bodies are taboo in most societies and must be handled in special ways - for a combination of religious and hygiene reasons. A human dead body must always be reported in law, to be sure it is disposed of properly.

paragraphs: Finding the cause of any human death and stopping a similar death from happening to someone else are the main reasons people look into "human morbidity" or let dead bodies be cut open and looked at in an autopsy. Some religions do not allow autopsies, because they feel the body is holy. Autopsies are usually required by the state if someone dies and people do not know why. The autopsy helps find out if someone killed the person on purpose, tried to hurt them, or if they died from a sickness.

paragraphs: To prepare for their own death, humans can write a last will and testament to be clear about who gets their property and possessions. A person will sometimes also volunteer to be an organ donor. This might mean giving the whole body to medical research. It can also save the lives of others by making organ transplants possible.

paragraphs: For a long time, many people have been afraid of death and a lot of people have wondered about what may happen to people after they die. This is one of the largest questions of philosophy and religion. Many people believe there is some form of afterlife.

paragraphs: Ancient rulers sometimes did insist not only that their own bodies, and much property, but even their servants and relatives be destroyed at their funeral.

paragraphs: Christianity has a special focus on death because of the state killing of Jesus Christ by the Romans. In Islam this is thought to demonstrate the injustice of human systems of dealing out death, and the ability of the best people to overcome it and even forgive it. In Christianity itself it is thought to prove that Jesus himself was really God and so could lose his body and still have the power of resurrection. In Buddhism reincarnation is believed to occur. Reincarnation is an idea taken from Hinduism.

paragraphs: Confucianism advises respect for parents and forms of ancestor worship to respect both dead and living ancestors.

paragraphs: Every ethical tradition including the medical view of the body has some ritual surrounding death. Often these excuse behaviours that might be hated if they did not have the ritual. For instance, one may say that organ transplant is like cannibalism.

paragraphs: Very much of what happens at a human death is ritual. People who wish theirs to be dealt with a certain way, and who wish a particular treatment like cremation of their body, should decide in advance and set up the necessary payments and agreements. This makes it much easier for their family after they die, since there is no longer the ability to clearly communicate the wish.

paragraphs: For the same reason, saying goodbye is important. Most of the stress of death seems to come for loved ones who "did not have a chance to say goodbye".

paragraphs: Maybe it is to relieve this stress that rituals are created, and to bring together those that knew someone so that the personal experience a person can no longer communicate for themselves, can be exchanged by others.

paragraphs: Some ritual, such as seances, claim to allow people to speak to the dead. This is not claimed to be very reliable, both by scientists and even by those who do them very often.

paragraphs: Aside from wills, goodbyes, organ donations and funerals, there is important personal experience to decide to pass on, or not, when someone knows they may soon die. Palliative care focuses on basic decisions people make when they are very close to the end of their lives, and it ensures someone is always available to talk to them. It is a replacement for heroic medical intervention that may keep them physically alive but with no quality of life. Human psychology must prepare for death if it is anything other than a quick surprise:

paragraphs: Elizabeth Kubler-Ross wrote that there were several stages in dying, of which denial was the first, and acceptance was the last. Recording one's life is often something people with acceptance will do to leave a memoir or a full autobiography:

paragraphs: Because events leave living memory, and may only be part of oral tradition, there are projects to record everything that people remember about World War I and the Shoah. The first of these was to record everything remembered about the U.S. Civil War. This discipline has changed history since we have so many more first person accounts of the times, and made social history much more standard.

paragraphs: There are other terms for death. Examples are, "to pass away", "to go to a better place", "to buy the farm" (generally used in the military), "to leave the earth", "big sleep", and "to kick the bucket". the term "gone" may also be a term for describing death. "for example": if a person has died, they are also said to be "gone", as in "gone to a better place" or "no longer here".

paragraphs: Old age is not the only thing that can end a person's life. People make other people die. This is called killing or murder. Three famous murders are John Wilkes Booth killing Abraham Lincoln, James Earl Ray killing Martin Luther King Jr. and Lee Harvey Oswald killing the President of the United States John F. Kennedy. People can also die by accidents resulting in terminal trauma, hypothermia, starvation, suicide and dehydration.


title: Diesel-electric

paragraphs: A diesel-electric engine is a diesel generator, a diesel engine that drives an electric generator. The generator feeds electric power to an electric motor which turns a driveshaft. Its efficiency is higher than when an engine drives a shaft through gears. Most locomotives and many ships use diesel-electric drive.

paragraphs: Many diesel-electric drives, especially small ones, store the electricity in a battery. Some designs also store braking energy in a flywheel, which can also charge a battery. However, these add even more complexity and weight to the vehicle, so are more appropriate for city driving where service stations are always available and there is much stop and go driving.

paragraphs: Because they do not require any change or investment in stations nor much in vehicle design, diesel-electric vehicles are believed to be the most likely replacement for today's internal combustion engine. When properly tuned, they have low emissions and they use only about one-third of the fossil fuel of most gasoline engines powering similar vehicles.

paragraphs: Honda and Toyota are presently delivering consumer priced diesel-electric cars. By contrast, hydrogen infrastructure is thought to be decades off, and is not fully implemented even in Iceland where there is abundant free geothermal electricity.

paragraphs: In countries like India, government is focusing on fully electric trains rather than diesel electric. That too electricity will be produced by renewable sources like Solar.

paragraphs: Many activists feel that promoting hydrogen is a stall, a way to avoid forcing the shift to diesel-electric vehicles in the nearer term.


title: Embassy

paragraphs: A foreign embassy is the official office of one country in another. It is usually in the capital city of the other country. It is where the ambassador and other representatives of the home country work. Much of the diplomacy (talk) between the two governments happens there. They represent their country to the host government.


title: Europe

paragraphs: Europe is the western part of the continent of Eurasia, sometimes thought of as its own continent. It is separated from Asia by the Ural Mountains in Russia and the Bosporus strait in Turkey.

paragraphs: Europe is bordered by water on three sides. On the west is the Atlantic Ocean. To the north is the Arctic Ocean. The Mediterranean Sea separates Southeastern Europe from Africa. On the eastern border of Europe are the Ural River and Ural Mountains.

paragraphs: There are at least 43 countries in Europe (the European identities of 5 transcontinental countries:Cyprus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkey are disputed). Most of these countries are members of the European Union.

paragraphs: Europe covers about 10,180,000 square kilometers (3,930,000 square miles). This is 2% of the Earth's surface (6.8% of its land area).

paragraphs: As of 2017, about 510 million people lived in Europe.

paragraphs: Europe contains the world's second most-active volcano, which is Mount Etna that is currently the most-active volcano in the continent.

paragraphs: Europe is a major tourist attraction. People come from all over the world to see its many World Heritage Sites and other attractions.

paragraphs: Europe is named after a princess in Greek mythology called "Europa." The myth says that Zeus kidnapped Europa and took her to Crete, where she became the mother of King Minos (from whom Europe’s first civilization gets its name, the Minoans).

paragraphs: The name "Europa" was later used to describe Greece. Then, as the rest of modern-day Europe started to have cities and empires, the entire area West of the Ural Mountains came to be called "Europa".

paragraphs: The history of Europe is long and has many turns. Many great countries originated from Europe. Greek mythology and the beginning of western civilization came from European nations.

paragraphs: Some of the major periods in European history have been:

paragraphs: Andreas M. Kaplan describes modern Europe as a continent where many different cultures live closely together, "embracing maximum cultural diversity at minimal geographical distances".

paragraphs: There are several major regions of Europe:

paragraphs: Within these regions, there are up to 48 independent European countries (with the identities of 5 transcontinental countries being disputed). The largest is the Russian Federation, which covers 39% of Europe.

paragraphs: The European city with the largest population is Istanbul. The country with the largest population is the Russian Federation. About 15% of Europeans live in Russia.

paragraphs: Two European countries, the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, are on islands called the British Isles.

paragraphs: Most of Europe lies in temperate climate zones.

paragraphs: However, there are many different climates throughout Europe. For example, during the winter, it may be snowing and -30 degrees Celsius for 4–5 months in Finland. Yet it may be much warmer, with no snow at all except on high mountains, in Spain.

paragraphs: The European Union is a confederation of 27 European countries. These countries agree to follow common laws so that their citizens can move and trade in EU countries almost the same as they do in their own. Nineteen of these countries also share the same type of money: the euro.


title: Encyclopedia

paragraphs: An encyclopedia or encyclopaedia is a collection (usually a book) of information. Some are called "encyclopedic dictionaries".

paragraphs: All encyclopedias were printed, until the late 20th century when some were on CD-ROM and the Internet. 21st century encyclopedias are mostly online by Internet.

paragraphs: The largest encyclopedia in the English language is English Wikipedia, which has more than 6 million articles. The second largest is the "Encyclopædia Britannica", which is the largest one that is printed. Either kind of encyclopedia can inform us on many different topics.

paragraphs: Book series were used to summarize all knowledge have been published for thousands of years. A famous early one was the "Natural History" by Pliny the Elder. The name "encyclopedia" is from the 16th century and meant "complete knowledge". The French "Encyclopédie" of Denis Diderot was the first that had major parts written by many people from all around the world.

paragraphs: After the printing press was invented, dictionaries with long definitions began to be called encyclopedias that were books that has articles or subjects. For example, a dictionary of science, if it included essays or paragraphs, it was thought of as an encyclopedia or knowledgeable book on the subject of science. Some encyclopedias then put essays on more than one subject in alphabetical order instead of grouping them together by subject. The word, encyclopedia, was put in the title of some encyclopedias.

paragraphs: Companies such as "Britannica" were started for the purpose of publishing encyclopedias for sale to individuals, and for public use in libraries. Like dictionaries (which had definitions), these publishers hired hundreds of experts to write articles and read and choose articles. Some internet encyclopedias allowed their paying customers to submit articles from other encyclopedias. Other internet encyclopedias accepted writing from non-paying users (users who did not sign in) of the encyclopedia.

paragraphs: There are different types of encyclopedias. Some are general and have pages on lots of topics. The English language "Encyclopædia Britannica" and German "Brockhaus" are general encyclopedias. Some are about specific topics. For example, there are encyclopedias of medicine or philosophy. Others include the "Dictionary of National Biography", the "Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships", and "Black's Law Dictionary". There are also encyclopedias that that cover many topics with one perspective or one cultural bias. They include the "Great Soviet Encyclopedia" and Conservapedia.

paragraphs: There are two main ways of organizing printed encyclopedias: from A to Z (the alphabetical way) or by categories. Most encyclopedias go from A to Z.

paragraphs: Many dictionaries have similar information to encyclopedias.


title: Earth science

paragraphs: Earth science is an all-embracing term for the sciences related to the planet Earth. Earth science may also be called geoscience.

paragraphs: It is a broader term than geology because it includes aspects of planetary science, which is part of astronomy. The Earth sciences include the study of the atmosphere, oceans and biosphere, as well as the solid earth. Typically Earth scientists will use tools from physics, chemistry, biology, chronology and mathematics to understand the Earth, and how it evolved to its current state.

paragraphs: If there is one fact which underlies all Earth science it is this; the Earth is an ancient planet which has been changing the whole time since its formation. The extent of the changes is much greater than people used to think.

paragraphs: The following disciplines are generally recognised as being within the geosciences:


title: Earth

paragraphs: Earth is a terrestrial planet. It is the third planet from the Sun. It is the only planet known to have life on it. The Earth formed around 4.5 billion years ago. It is one of four rocky planets on the inside of the Solar System. The other three are Mercury, Venus, and Mars.

paragraphs: The large mass of the Sun makes Earth move around it, just as the mass of Earth makes the moon move around it. Earth also turns around in space, so that different parts face the Sun at different times. Earth goes around the Sun once (one year) for every 365 times it turns around (one day).

paragraphs: Earth is the only planet in the Solar System that has a large amount of liquid water. About 74% of the surface of Earth is covered by liquid or frozen water. Because of this, people sometimes call it the blue planet.

paragraphs: Because of its water, Earth is home to millions of species of plants and animals. The things that live on Earth have changed its surface greatly. For example, early cyanobacteria changed the air and gave it oxygen. The living part of Earth's surface is called the "biosphere".

paragraphs: Earth is part of the eight planets and many thousands of small bodies that move around the Sun as its solar system. The Solar System is moving through the Orion Arm of the Milky Way galaxy now, and will be for about the next 10,000 years.

paragraphs: Earth is about away from the Sun (this distance is called an "Astronomical Unit"). It moves on its orbit at an average speed of about . Earth turns all the way around about 365 times in the time it takes for Earth to go all the way around the Sun. To make up this extra bit of a day every year, an additional day is used every four years. This is named a "leap year".

paragraphs: The Moon goes around Earth at an average distance of . It is locked to Earth, so that it always has the same half facing Earth; the other half is called the "dark side of the moon". It takes about 27 days for the Moon to go all the way around Earth, but because Earth is moving around the Sun at the same time, it takes about 29 days for the Moon to go from dark to bright to dark again. This is where the word "month" came from, even though most months now have 30 or 31 days.

paragraphs: Earth and the other planets formed about 4.6 billion years ago. They were made of the leftover gas from the nebula that made the Sun. The Moon may have been formed after a collision between the early Earth and a smaller planet (sometimes called "Theia"). Scientists believe that parts of both planets broke off — becoming (by gravity) the Moon.

paragraphs: Earth's water came from different places. Condensing water vapour, and comets and asteroids hitting Earth, made the oceans. Within a billion years (that is at about 3.6 billion years ago) the first life evolved, in the Archaean era. Some bacteria developed photosynthesis, which lets plants make food from the Sun's light and water. This released a lot of oxygen, which was first taken up by iron in solution. Eventually, free oxygen got into the atmosphere or air, making Earth's surface suitable for aerobic life (see Great Oxygenation Event). This oxygen also formed the ozone layer which protects Earth's surface from bad ultraviolet radiation from the Sun. Complex life on the surface of the land did not exist before the ozone layer.

paragraphs: Earth's land and climate has been very different in the past. About 3 to 3.5 million years ago almost all land was in one place. This is called a supercontinent. The earliest known supercontinent was called Vaalbara. Much later, there was a time (the Cryogenian) when Earth was almost entirely covered by thick ice sheets (glaciers). This is discussed as the Snowball Earth theory.

paragraphs: Earth is rocky. It is the largest of the rocky planets moving around the Sun by mass and by size. It is much smaller than the gas giants such as Jupiter.

paragraphs: Overall, Earth is made of iron (32.1%), oxygen (30.1%), silicon (15.1%), magnesium (13.9%), sulfur (2.9%), nickel (1.8%), calcium (1.5%), and aluminium (1.4%). The 1.2% left over is made of many different kinds of other chemicals. Chemicals that are very uncommon (such as gold and platinum) can be very valuable.

paragraphs: The structure of Earth changes from the inside to the outside. The center of earth (Earth's core) is mostly iron (88.8%), nickel (5.8%), sulfur (4.5%), and less than 1% other things. The Earth's crust is largely oxygen (47%). Oxygen is normally a gas but it can join with other chemicals to make compounds like water and rocks. 99.22% of rocks have oxygen in them. The most common oxygen-having rocks are silica (made with silicon), alumina (made with aluminium), rust (made with iron), lime (made with calcium), magnesia (made with magnesium), potash (made with potassium), and sodium oxide, and there are others as well.

paragraphs: Earth's shape is a spheroid: not quite a sphere because it is slightly squashed on the top and bottom. The shape is called an oblate spheroid. As Earth spins around itself, centrifugal force forces the equator out a little and pulls the poles in a little. The equator, around the middle of Earth's surface, is about long.

paragraphs: The highest mountain above sea level—the well-known Mount Everest (which is above sea level)—is "not" actually the one that is the farthest away from the center of the Earth. Instead, the sleeping volcano Mount Chimborazo in Ecuador is; it is only above sea level but it is almost at the equator. Because of this, Mount Chimborazo is from the center of the Earth, while Mount Everest is closer to it. Similarly, the lowest point below sea level that we are conscious of is the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean. It is about below sea level, but, again, there are probably places at the bottom of the Arctic Ocean that are nearer to the center of the Earth.

paragraphs: The deepest hole ever dug is only about . We know something about the inside of the Earth, though, because we can learn things from earthquakes and the times when volcanoes erupt. We are able to see how quickly the shock waves move through Earth in different places.

paragraphs: The inside of Earth is very different from the outside. Almost all of Earth's liquid water is in the seas or close to the surface. The surface also has a lot of oxygen, which comes from plants. Small and simple kinds of life can live far under the surface, but animals and plants only live on the surface or in the seas. The rocks on the surface of Earth (Earth's crust) are well known. They are thicker where there is land, between thick. Under the seas they are sometimes only thick. There are three groups of rocks that make up most of the Earth's crust. Some rock is made when the hot liquid rock comes from inside the earth (igneous rocks); another type of rock is made when sediment is laid down, usually under the sea (sedimentary rocks); and a third kind of rock is made when the other two are changed by very high temperature or pressure (metamorphic rocks). A very few rocks also fall out of the sky (meteorites).

paragraphs: Below the crust is warm and almost-liquid rock that is always moving around (the Earth's mantle). Then, there is a thin liquid layer of heated rock (the outer core). This is very hot: . The middle of the inside of the Earth would be liquid as well but all the weight of the rock above it pushes it back into being solid. This solid middle part (the inner core) is almost all iron. This is what makes the Earth magnetic.

paragraphs: The Earth's crust is solid but made of parts which move very slowly. The thin level of hard rock on the outside of the Earth rests on hot liquid material below it in the deeper mantle. This liquid material moves because it gets heat from the hot center of the earth. The slow movement of the plates is what causes earthquakes, volcanoes and large groups of mountains on the Earth.

paragraphs: There are three ways plates can come together. Two plates can move towards each other ("convergent" plate edges). This can form islands (such as Japan), volcanoes, and high mountain ranges (such as the Andes and Himalayas). Two plates can move away from each other ("divergent" plate edges). This gives the warm liquid rock inside the earth a place to come out. This makes special mountain ranges below the sea or large low lands like Africa's Great Rift Valley. Plates are able to move beside each other as well ("transform" plate edges, such as the San Andreas Fault). This makes their edges crush against each other and makes many shocks as they move.

paragraphs: The outside of the Earth is not even. There are high places called mountains, and high flat places called plateaus. There are low places called valleys and canyons. For the most part, moving air and water from the sky and seas damages rocks in high places and breaks them into small pieces. The air and water then move these pieces to lower places. Because of this, the Earth would have been very flat a long time before now. The fundamental cause of the differences in the Earth's surface is plate tectonics. The shape of the entire planet itself is not even a ball. Because of its velocity, Earth has a slight bulge at the Equator. Other than that, Earth is shaped more like a pear than an actual sphere.

paragraphs: All places on Earth are made of, or are on top of, rocks. The outside of the Earth is usually not uncovered rock. Over 70% of the Earth is covered by seas full of salty water. This salty water makes up about 97% of all Earth's water. The fresh water people can drink is mostly ice. Only a very small amount is in rivers and under the Earth for people to drink and use. The air above the Earth stops the water from going away into outer space. Also, much of the land on Earth is covered with plants, or with what is left from earlier living things. Places with very little rain are dry wastes called deserts. Deserts usually have few living things, but life is able to grow very quickly when these wastes have rainfall. Places with large amounts of rain may be large woods. Lately, people have changed the environment of the Earth a great deal.

paragraphs: All around the Earth is a large amount of air (the atmosphere). The mass of the Earth pulls the gasses in the air down and does not let them go into outer space. The air is mostly made of nitrogen (about 78%) and oxygen (about 21%) but there are a few other gasses as well. Most living things need the air (or parts of the air gripped in the water) to breathe and live. They use the gasses—especially oxygen and carbon dioxide—to make and use sugar and to give themselves power.

paragraphs: The air animals and plants use to live is only the first level of the air around the Earth (the troposphere). The day to day changes in this level of air are named weather; the changes between places far away from each other and from year to year are named the climate. Rain and storms are both in this level. Both come about because this part of the air gets colder as it goes up. Cold air becomes thicker and falls, and warm air becomes thinner and goes up. The turning Earth moves the air as well and air moves north and south because the middle of the Earth generally gets more power from the Sun and is warmer than the north and south points. At the same time, air over water (specially very warm water) gets water in it but, because cold air is not able to take in as much water, it starts to make clouds and rain as it gets colder. The way water moves around in a circle like this is called the water cycle.

paragraphs: Above this first level, there are four other levels. The air gets colder as it goes up in the first level; in the second level (the stratosphere), the air gets warmer as it goes up. This level has a special kind of oxygen called ozone. The ozone in this air keeps living things safe from damaging rays from the Sun. The power from these rays is what makes this level warmer and warmer. The middle level (the mesosphere) gets colder and colder with height; the fourth level (the thermosphere) gets warmer and warmer; and the last level (the exosphere) is almost outer space and has very little air at all. It reaches about half the way to the Moon. The three outer levels have a lot of electric power moving through them; this is called the ionosphere and is important for radio and other electric waves in the air. It is also where the Northern Lights are.

paragraphs: Even though air seems very light, the weight of all of the air above the outside of the Earth (air pressure) is important. Generally, from sea level to the top of the outer level of the air, a space of air one cm across has a mass of about 1.03 kg and a space of air one sq in across has a weight of about 14.7 lb. The mass of the air also keeps the Earth safe when rocks (meteorites) hit it from outer space. Without the air, the damage meteorites do would be much greater. Because of the air, meteorites generally burn up long before they get to the earth.

paragraphs: The air also keeps the Earth warm, specially the half turned away from the Sun. Some gasses – especially methane and carbon dioxide – work like a blanket to keep things warm. In the past, the Earth has been much warmer and much colder than it is now. Since people have grown used to the heat we have now, though, we do not want the Earth to be too much warmer or colder. Most of the ways people create electric power use burning kinds of carbon—especially coal, oil, and natural gas. Burning these creates new carbon dioxide and can cause more warming. A large discussion is going on now about what people should do about the Earth's latest warming, which has gone on for about 150 years. So far, this warming has been good for people: plants have grown better and the weather has been better than when it was colder before. Some people who learn about science, though, say that many bad things will possibly come about if the warming goes on.

paragraphs: About seven billion people live on Earth. They live in about 200 different lands called countries. Some, for example, Russia, are large with many large cities. Others, for example, Vatican City, are small. The five countries with the most people are China, India, the United States, Indonesia, and Brazil. About 90% of people live in the north half of the world, which has most of the land. Scientists think that people originally came from Africa. Now, 70% of all people do not live in Africa but in Europe and Asia.

paragraphs: People change the Earth in many ways. They have been able to grow plants for food and clothes for about ten thousand years. When there was enough food, they were able to build towns and cities. Near these places, men and women were able to change rivers, bring water to farms, and stop floods (rising water) from coming over their land. People found useful animals and bred them so they were easier to keep.


title: Et cetera

paragraphs: Et cetera means "and the rest" in Latin. It is often used in English to continue a list that is longer than what can be normally written. People most often write "et cetera" as etc.. Very rarely, it is also written "&c" because the ampersand, or the "&", is the same as "et", having been formed by 'e' and 't' being joined into a single letter. It is also the symbol for "and". Some people write it as "ect", but that is wrong since it incorrectly abbreviates "et cetera".


title: Experiment

paragraphs: An experiment is a test of an idea or a method. It is often used by scientists and engineers. An experiment is used to see how well the idea matches the real world. Experiments have been used for many years to help people understand the world around them. Experiments are part of scientific method. Many experiments are controlled experiments or even blind experiments. Many are done in a laboratory.

paragraphs: Experiments can tell us if a theory is false, or if something does not work. They cannot tell us if a theory is true. When Einstein said that gravity could affect light, it took a few years before astronomers could test it. General relativity predicts that the path of light is bent in a gravitational field; light passing a massive body is deflected towards that body. This effect has been confirmed by observing the light of stars or distant quasars being deflected as it passes the Sun.

paragraphs: Now, a hundred years or so after Einstein published his ideas, there have been many tests, all of which have been consistent with Einstein's predictions. But, one day, we might find the theory has some limits beyond which it does not work. What we test are implications of the theory, because the theory itself is too large and complicated to test all at once.

paragraphs: A controlled experiment is a kind of comparison. It often compares the results from experimental samples against control samples. Control samples are the same as the experimental sample, except for one difference. This difference is the one thing whose effect is being tested (the independent variable). A good example would be a drug trial. The sample or group receiving the drug would be the experimental group (treatment group); and the one receiving the placebo or an older treatment would be the control group.

paragraphs: An observational study is used when an experiment would be difficult, unethical, or expensive. Observational studies are not experiments. Experiments can control for other variables, and it allows the researchers to change something. Observational studies often do not have random samples, and they often have many variables.


title: Ethics

paragraphs: Ethics is the part of philosophy that deals with good and evil. Ethics tries to answer questions like:

paragraphs: When discussing ethics, the philosophy is generally separated into:

paragraphs: "Morality" is what someone thinks or feels is good or bad.

paragraphs: There are many different moralities, but they share some things.

paragraphs: For example, most people think that murder (killing somebody) is wrong.(compare Exodus 20:13)

paragraphs: Some philosophers have hope to find more things that moralities share.

paragraphs: They think that ethics should use the scientific method to study

paragraphs: things that people think are good or bad. Their work can be used

paragraphs: to test the fairness of a situation, such as how people should treat

paragraphs: each other. An example of this kind of thinking is the categorical imperative.

paragraphs: Many countries have laws based on this idea of fairness.

paragraphs: Understanding ethics can help people decide what to do when they have choices. Many philosophers think that doing anything or making any choice is a part of ethics.

paragraphs: Ethics is part of other fields of study in many ways. Here are some ways:

paragraphs: Along with aesthetics ethics forms part of axiology, the philosophy of what people like.


title: E Prime

paragraphs: E Prime (it means English Prime) is a way of speaking English without using the verb "to be" in any way ("be, is, am, are, was, were, been, and being"). Instead, an E Prime speaker or writer uses different verbs like "to become," "to remain," and "to equal" or they might choose to rearrange the sentence to show that the "thing" does not actually "act". For example, in E Prime, a writer would change the statement "Mistakes were made" to "Joe made mistakes." This change in wording reveals an actor (Joe) where the previous form concealed the actor. Users of E Prime would consider the changed sentence more accurate.

paragraphs: D. David Bourland, Jr. first suggested E Prime in 1965. Bourland had studied the discipline (way of thinking) of General Semantics. The main idea of General Semantics is that people can only know what they observe and experience when they see, hear, touch, taste, smell, think, and feel, and furthermore, that what they observe and experience can affect how they observe and experience in the future. Because each person has different experiences throughout their lives, they interpret their experiences differently.

paragraphs: Students of General Semantics and users of E Prime contend that to say "This cat is soft" leaves out many other attributes, and implies that the outside "object" of the cat is the "same as" the inside experience of "softness". Instead, E Prime users say "This cat feels soft TO ME" to remind themselves of the following:

paragraphs: Although languages like Russian, Arabic, Turkish, and Cantonese do not always use a separate verb for "to be," they do have the idea of "being." For example, an English speaker might say "This apple is red." An Arabic speaker might say "This apple red." Most languages can be used to express the idea of a red apple. An E Prime user chooses to say "This apple looks red to me" to remind themselves that "seeing red" involves both the apple and the eye and brain of the person looking at the apple.

paragraphs: Many teachers of English encourage students to use verbs other than "to be." To them, using more active verbs makes writing clearer and more interesting. These teachers want to improve their students' writing and may not agree with the ideas of General Semantics or E Prime.

paragraphs: In English, 'to be' can have different functions:


title: Einstein on the Beach

paragraphs: Einstein on the Beach is an opera written by the minimalist composer Philip Glass and theater director and designer Robert Wilson. It was first acted for an audience in Avignon, France in 1976.

paragraphs: It is a single act opera, about five hours long with no intermission. Because of the length and the minimalist (repetitive) nature of the music, audience members are free to enter and leave the opera as they wish. Glass's music tends to cycle round, but does not exactly repeat itself. Admittedly, he has described himself as a composer of "music with repetitive structures". Though his earlier music fits what is normally called "minimalist", he has since evolved stylistically.


English


title: Ethnic group

paragraphs: An ethnic group is a group of people who are considered to be the same in some or multiple ways. They may all have the same ancestors, speak the same language, or have the same religion. They often live in the same or surrounding area.

paragraphs: Sometimes almost all of the people in one country are of the same ethnic group, but not always. Often one country may have several different ethnic groups, or the people of one ethnic group may live in several different countries.

paragraphs: The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights ensures the rights of ethnic groups in Article 27 and also gives them the right to use their own language.


title: Ebola virus

paragraphs: Ebola virus is a very dangerous virus. It belongs to the family Filoviridae and is responsible for a severe disease characterized by the sudden onset of hemorrhagic fever accompanied by other non specific signs and symptoms. "Hemorrhagic" means that the victim will bleed a lot, inside and outside their body. The virus attacks almost every organ and tissue of the human body resulting in multi-organ dysfunction. Out of every 100 people who get Ebola, on average 25 to 90 die. There are four kinds of Ebola virus that can cause the disease. The virus was first found in Sudan. It is found in Africa, with very few cases in Europe and the United States.

paragraphs: The Ebola virus that makes people sick lives in the blood and other liquids and wet things in some kinds of non-human animals without killing them. Scientists think the animals it lives in are mainly some kinds of monkeys or fruit bats. When people touch animals that have the virus, or wet things that came out of those animals, they can get sick.

paragraphs: Ebola cannot be caught through the air, or by being near sick people. The virus can only go from liquids into people's bodies. This means Ebola can be caught by touching a sick person's blood, saliva, mucus, semen, diarrhea, vomit, or other fluids that come out of a sick person's body.

paragraphs: If a person does not die from the disease, he can still give other people the infection by having sex for nearly another two months after they stop being sick. This is because the virus can still be in the man's semen after a long time.

paragraphs: 1. Once the virus enters the human body via mucosal surfaces, abrasions or injuries in the skin or by direct parental transmission, it fuses with the cells lining the respiratory tract, eyes, or body cavities.

paragraphs: 2. It invades the macrophages and dendritic immune cells and releases its genetic content. The cell explosion triggers the secretion of proinflammatory cytokines initiating a ‘cytokine storm’. The genetic material takes over the cell machinery to replicate itself; new copies of the virus are formed and released into the system.

paragraphs: 3. The virus then, goes on to attack spleen, kidneys and even the brain. The blood vessels leak blood and fluid into the surrounding tissues. This atypical clotting and bleeding at the same time manifests externally in the form of rashes.

paragraphs: 4. The virus causes the shutdown of other vital organs such as liver and lungs too. In fact, it is able to invade almost all human cells through different attachment mechanisms for each cell type (except for lymphocytes). The very cells that are meant to fight infection are used as carriers to spread infection to other body parts

paragraphs: 5. It has been found that the ebola-infected cells do not undergo normal apoptosis, but exhibit vacuolization and signs of necrosis.

paragraphs: When people get Ebola the first symptoms look like some other diseases. People get a fever and feel very tired. Their head, stomach, joints, and throat might hurt. Sometimes, people think they have other diseases like malaria or typhoid fever.

paragraphs: Later, people get much sicker. They bleed both inside and outside their bodies. They have blood in their diarrhea and vomit. They bleed from their noses, mouths, and genitals/sex organs. They get shock: low blood pressure, fast pulse (heart rate), and low blood circulation to the body. Their organs might stop working. Ebola also causes stiffness throughout the body which makes it hard for sick people to move.

paragraphs: Five to nine out of every ten people who get sick with Ebola die.

paragraphs: There is no cure for Ebola, but if people get care quickly from doctors and nurses at a hospital, more of them live. People with Ebola need a lot of fluids to replace fluids lost from diarrhea, vomiting, and bleeding. The most important care is giving them water with a very small amount of salt and sugar in it. This is called oral rehydration. It helps to replace their fluids and blood. It is also important to give medicines in case they get bad blood pressure and blood circulation.

paragraphs: In December 2016, a study found the VSV-EBOV vaccine to be very effective (in the neighborhood of 70–100%) against the Ebola virus, making it the first vaccine against the disease.

paragraphs: Many Ebola vaccine candidates had been developed in the decade prior to 2014, but as of October 2014, none had yet been approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use in humans.

paragraphs: World Community Grid is a computing project that is seeking possible drug treatments. People donate the spare time on their computers to the project.


title: Ecology

paragraphs: Ecology is the science that studies the biota (living things), the environment, and their interactions. It comes from the Greek "oikos" = house; "logos" = study.

paragraphs: Ecology is the study of ecosystems. Ecosystems describe the web or network of relations among organisms at different scales of organization. Since ecology refers to any form of biodiversity, ecologists research everything from tiny bacteria in nutrient recycling to the effects of tropical rain forests on the Earth's atmosphere. Scientists who study these interactions are called "ecologists".

paragraphs: Terrestrial ecoregion and climate change research are two areas where ecologists now focus.

paragraphs: There are many practical applications of ecology in conservation biology, wetland management, natural resource management (agriculture, forestry, fisheries), city planning (urban ecology), community health, economics, and applied science. It provides a framework for understanding and researching human social interaction.

paragraphs: Ecology starts many powerful philosophical and political movements - including the conservation movement, wellness movement, environmental movement, and ecology movement we know today. When these are combined with peace movements and the Six Principles, they are called green movements. In general, these put ecosystem health first on a list of human moral and political priorities, as the way to achieve better human health and social harmony, and better economics.

paragraphs: People with these beliefs are called political ecologists. Some have organized into the Green Parties, but there are actually political ecologists in most political parties. They very often use arguments from ecology to advance policy, especially forest policy and energy policy.

paragraphs: Also, ecology means that it is the branch of biology dealing with the relations and interactions between organisms and their environment, including other organisms.

paragraphs: Many ecologists also deal with human economics:

paragraphs: Ecological economics and human development theory try to separate the economic questions from others, but it is difficult. Many people think economics is just part of ecology now, and that economics that ignores it is wrong. "Natural capital" is an example of one theory combining both.

paragraphs: Sometimes ecology is compared to anthropology. Anthropology includes how our bodies and minds are affected by our environment, while ecology includes how our environment is affected by our bodies and minds. There is even a type of anthropology called ecological anthropology, which studies how people interact with the environment.

paragraphs: Antoine de Saint-Exupery stated: "The earth teaches us more about ourselves than all the books. Because it resists us. Man discovers himself when he measures himself against the obstacle".


title: Economics

paragraphs: Economics is the social science which studies economic activity: how people make choices to get what they want. It has been defined as "the study of scarcity and choice" and is basically about the choices people make. It also studies what affects the production, distribution and consumption of goods and services in an economy.

paragraphs: Investment and income relate to economics. The word comes from Ancient Greek, and relates to οἶκος oíkos "house" and νόμος nomos "custom" or "law". The models used in economics today were mostly started in the 19th century. People took ideas from political economy and added to them because they wanted to use an empirical approach similar to the one used in the natural sciences.

paragraphs: The subjects (actors) in economic study are households, business companies, the government (the state), and foreign countries. Households offer their "factors of production" to companies. This includes work, land, capital (things like machines and buildings) and information. In exchange for their factors of production, households get income which they use to consume (buy) goods from other subjects.

paragraphs: Business companies produce and sell goods and services and buy factors of production from households and from other companies.

paragraphs: The state or public sector includes institutions and organisations. The state takes some of the earnings from the business companies and households, and uses it to pay for "public goods" like streets or education, to be available for everyone. The last subject is foreign countries. This includes all households, business companies and state institutions, which are not based in one's own country. They demand and supply goods from abroad.

paragraphs: The objects (things acted upon) in economic study are consumer goods, capital goods, and factors of production. Consumer goods are classified as "usage goods" (for example, gasoline or toilet paper), as "purpose goods" (for example, a house or bicycle), and as "services" (for example, the work of a doctor or cleaning lady). Capital goods are goods which are necessary for producing other goods. Examples of these are buildings, equipment, and machines. Factors of production are work, ground, capital, information, and environment.

paragraphs: The ideas that economists have depend a lot on the times they live in. For example, Karl Marx lived in a time when workers' conditions were very poor, and John Maynard Keynes lived through the Great Depression of the 1930s. Today's economists can look back and understand why they made their judgments, and try to make better ones.

paragraphs: The two main branches of economics are microeconomics and macroeconomics.

paragraphs: Macroeconomics is about the economy in general. For example, macroeconomists study things that make a country's wealth go up and things that make millions of people lose their jobs. Microeconomics is about smaller and more specific things such as how families and households spend their money and how businesses operate.

paragraphs: There are a number of other branches of economics:

paragraphs: Famous economists of the 19th and 20th century include Friedrich August von Hayek, Wassily Leontief, Carl Menger, and Léon Walras.


title: Chemical element

paragraphs: A chemical element is a substance that contains only one type of atom, which is the smallest particle of an element. Atoms are made up of protons, neutrons, and electrons.

paragraphs: The number of protons in an atom is called the atomic number. For example, all atoms with 6 protons are atoms of the chemical element carbon, and all atoms with 92 protons are atoms of the element uranium. The number of neutrons in the nucleus does not have to be the same in every atom of an element. Atoms of the same element with different numbers of neutrons are called isotopes. Saying that a substance "contains only one type of atom" really means that it contains only atoms that all have the same number of protons.

paragraphs: The number of protons in the nucleus causes its electric charge. This fixes the number of electrons in its normal (un-ionized) state. The electrons in their atomic orbitals determine the element's various chemical properties.

paragraphs: Elements are the basic building blocks for all types of substances. If a substance contains more than one type of atom, it is a compound or a mixture. The smallest particle of a compound is a molecule.

paragraphs: 118 different chemical elements are known to modern chemistry. 92 of these elements can be found in nature, and the others can only be made in laboratories. The human body is made up of 26 elements. The last natural element discovered was uranium, in 1789. The first man-made element was technetium, in 1937.

paragraphs: Chemical elements are commonly arranged in the periodic table. Where the elements are in the table tells us about their properties relative to the other elements.

paragraphs: Chemical elements are given a unique "chemical symbol". Chemical symbols are used all over the world. This means that, no matter which language is spoken, there is no confusion about what the symbol means. Chemical symbols of elements almost always come from their English or Latin names. For example, carbon has the chemical symbol 'C', and sodium has chemical symbol 'Na', after the Latin "natrium". Tungsten is called 'W' after its German name, "wolfram". 'Au' is the symbol for gold and it comes from the Latin word for gold, "aurum". Another symbol which comes from Latin is 'Ag'. This is the element silver and it comes from the Latin "argentum". Lead's symbol, 'Pb', comes from the Latin "plumbum" and the English word plumber derives from this as pipes used to be made out of lead. Some more recently discovered elements were named after famous people, like einsteinium, which was named after Albert Einstein.

paragraphs: Elements can join (react) to form pure compounds (such as water, salts, oxides, and organic compounds). In many cases, these compounds have a fixed composition and their own structure and properties. The properties of the compound may be very different from the elements it is made from. Sodium is a metal that burns when put into water and chlorine is a poisonous gas. When they react together they make "sodium chloride" (salt) which is generally harmless in small quantities and edible.

paragraphs: Some elements mix together in any proportion to form new structures. Such new structures are not compounds. They are called mixtures or, when the elements are metals, alloys.

paragraphs: Most elements in nature consist of atoms with different numbers of neutrons. An isotope is a form of an element with a certain number of neutrons. For example, carbon has two stable, naturally occurring isotopes: carbon-12 (6 neutrons) and carbon-13 (7 neutrons). Carbon-14 (8 neutrons) is a naturally occurring radioactive isotope of carbon. At least two isotopes of each element are known (except for Oganesson, of which only a few atoms have been made).

paragraphs: Elements can be classified based on physical states. At room temperature and pressure, most elements are solids, only 11 are gases and 2 are liquids.

paragraphs: Elements can also be classified into metals and non-metals. There are many more metals than non-metals.

paragraphs: However, a few elements have properties in between those of metals and non-metals. These elements are called semimetals (or metalloids).


title: Egypt

paragraphs: Egypt is a country in northeast Africa. Its capital city is Cairo. Egypt is famous for its ancient monuments, such as the Pyramids and the Sphinx.

paragraphs: Ancient Egypt has one of the longest histories of any country in the world as it used to be ruled by pharaohs. As a province of the Roman Empire, it became Christian and some Coptic Church people are there after more than a thousand years of Muslim rule. The Fatimid Caliphate ruled Egypt in the tenth through twelfth centuries. Mamlukes ruled it until 1798 when Napoleon defeated them. Muhammad Ali Pasha soon took over and started a dynasty of Khedives under the Ottoman Empire. The Empire fell apart after World War I. Egypt became an independent country in 1922 and the khedive became a king. Egypt is a member of the United Nations and the Arab League. It became a republic after the Army's revolution of 1952.

paragraphs: Egypt is a large country, but a large portion of it is desert. Most people (95% of Egypt's total people) live in areas around the coast of the Mediterranean Sea and along the Nile River. This includes the cities of Cairo, Alexandria, Aswan, and Port Said. Not many people live in the desert. Today, Egypt has about 90 million people.

paragraphs: Egypt is divided into 29 areas, called Governorates of Egypt.

paragraphs: Egypt is a country which has had many different rulers and many political systems. After World War II, Egypt was still ruled by a king, Farouk of Egypt (11 February 1920 – 18 March 1965). He was the last ruler of the Muhammad Ali dynasty.

paragraphs: Farouk was overthrown on 23 July 1952 by a military coup. The coup was led by Muhammad Naguib, and Gamal Abdel Nasser. From then on, Egypt had military rulers or rulers who had the backing of the army and many citizens.

paragraphs: Nasser became President, from 1956 to 1970. Later rulers were Anwar Sadat, and Hosni Mubarak.

paragraphs: Abdel Fattah el-Sisi became President in 2014.

paragraphs: In January 2011, thousands of protesters gathered in Cairo. They wanted Hosni Mubarak to leave office. He had been the President for almost 30 years. On February 11, 2011, Vice President Omar Suleiman made an announcement. He said that Mubarak agreed to leave office. In 2012, Egypt had a democratic election for the post of President. The winner was the Muslim Brotherhood candidate, Mohamed Morsi.

paragraphs: The events which followed are still controversial, but one aspect stands out. Morsi issued a declaration that in effect gave him unlimited powers. He had the power to legislate (make laws) without legal overview by the courts. This caused widespread protests. On 3 July 2013, he was unseated by a military coup council (a coup d'état). After an election in June 2014, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi became President of Egypt. Islamist movements, such as the Muslim Brotherhood, rejected the change of regime as a military coup, and not democratic.

paragraphs: Today, the people of Egypt are mostly Sunni Muslims. There are many Christians in Egypt today. Many of these belong to the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria.

paragraphs: The official language in Egypt is Arabic. The majority speak Egyptian Arabic but many speak other dialects. Some Egyptians still speak Coptic and English. They also speak French and German in Egypt. These are taught in Egypt as additional languages.

paragraphs: Many famous people are from Egypt. Some of these include Omar Sharif, who was an international actor, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, who was the first person from Africa to lead the United Nations, and four Nobel Prize winners: Anwar Sadat, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1978, Naguib Mahfouz, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1988, Ahmed Zewail, who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1999, and Mohamed ElBaradei, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005. Mohamed Salah is a famous footballer who plays for Liverpool in England. A famous Egyptian singer is called Amr Diab.

paragraphs: Egypt is divided into 27 governorates. The governorates are divided into regions. The regions have towns and villages. Each governorate has a capital. Sometimes capital has the same name as the governorate.

paragraphs: Egypt is a country with an immense cultural mix. Life in the countryside differs from life in the large cities. There are differences between the families which are Muslim, and the smaller number which are Coptic Christians. There are noticeable differences in the standards of education.

paragraphs: Tourism is one of the most important national incomes in Egypt. In 2008, about 12 million tourists visited Egypt providing nearly $12 billion of national income to Egypt. Tourism affects the economy of the country as a whole.

paragraphs: Giza Necropolis is one of Egypt's iconic sites. It is a popular destination for tourists to visit. It includes the Great Pyramid of Giza, one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

paragraphs: There are methods of transport in Egypt. The Suez Canal carries ships of many countries.

paragraphs: Cairo Metro is one of the most important projects in Egypt. It consists of 3 lines. Metro is the most preferable transport in Egypt due to persistent major traffic jams in the streets of Cairo. Metro line 4 is being developed to reach the New Cairo District.

paragraphs: Egypt established EgyptAir in 1932. The airline is based in Cairo International Airport and is owned by the government.


title: Everything2

paragraphs: Everything2 or E2 is a website. It lets people make pages about many different things, and some people use it as a diary.

paragraphs: E2 users create pages called "nodes" and add stuff in "writeups". Only logged-in users can create writeups. Only the person who created the writeup or someone who the website owners (called "gods") choose can edit the writeup. On the other hand, on Wikipedia, anyone can edit pages, but on Everything2 only those who can edit the writeup can edit pages.

paragraphs: Everything2 does not require a like Wikipedia does. So, it is possible to have more than one article (writeups) under the same title (node), each by different authors, and presenting different points of view.


title: Editor

paragraphs: An editor is a person who makes changes to documents.

paragraphs: More specifically the word "editor" can mean:


title: Ecological yield

paragraphs: Ecological yield is the harvestable growth of an ecosystem. It is most commonly measured in forestry - in fact sustainable forestry is defined as that which does not harvest more wood in a year than has grown in that year, within a given patch of forest.

paragraphs: However, the concept is also applicable to water, and soil, and any other aspect of an ecosystem which can be both harvested and renewed - the so-called renewable resources. The carrying capacity of an ecosystem is reduced over time if more than the amount which is "renewed" (refreshed or regrown or rebuilt).


title: Experience economy

paragraphs: The experience economy is the intangible service economy that customers experience directly. In moral purchasing, Natural Capitalism and other theories of how consumers make choices, they are actually choosing experiences or comprehensive outcomes of their choices. For instance to buy local is to choose a whole experience of local suppliers, such as in a farmers market or Slow Food, that is quite different than the experience associated with factory food or fast food.


title: Execution

paragraphs: Execution is where state authorities kill someone for having committed an extremely serious crime, usually treason or especially terrible murders. In most countries where the death penalty is still provided for by law, using it is an option available to the sentencing judge: even if the jury or judicial panel recommends the death penalty, the presiding judge still has the option to lock the convicted person in a prison for the rest of their life.

paragraphs: Beheading means cutting the convict's head off. It is one of the oldest execution methods and already mentioned in the Bible. Beheading used to be the standard method of execution in Scandinavia and Germany. Commoners were usually beheaded with an axe and noblemen with a sword. A special device, like guillotine, can also be used, as in France. Nazi Germany used guillotine to execute criminal convicts, such as murderers.

paragraphs: Centuries ago many countries used beheading as an execution for important people, including England. In England, many noblemen and even some kings and queens have been beheaded. There, the prisoner would be led up the scaffold and usually say a speech. Then, he/she would be blindfolded and put his/her neck onto a block. Then, the executioner would lift up his axe and swing it down onto the victim's neck. If the executioner was skilled and the axe was sharp, then the axe would usually cut through the bone and organs of the victim in one stroke. But if the executioner was inexperienced, then it may take many strokes before the head would be cut off.

paragraphs: Many countries do not allow executions as punishment any more, because it is too violent. However, many states of the United States and some other foreign countries allow it. Even in the United States, less violent ways of execution have had to be used. Here are some other ways of execution other than hanging


title: Flesch Reading Ease

paragraphs: The Flesch Reading Ease (FRES) score says how easy something is to read. J. Peter Kincaid and others this formula for the U.S. Navy in 1975.

paragraphs: The FRES test works by counting the number of words, syllables, and sentences in the text. It then calculates the average number of words per sentence and the average number of syllables per word. The idea is that shorter words and shorter sentences are easier to read. The higher the score, the easier the text is to understand. The formula is:

paragraphs: Some points of reference for the score are:

paragraphs: The highest score possible is 121.22. It is gained if every sentence only has a one-syllable word.

paragraphs: "The cat sat on the mat" scores 116. There is no lower limit to this score. Some very complicated

paragraphs: The Flesch score is usually lower for technical documentation because the topic itself is complicated.

paragraphs: Someone who uses the test regularly will develop a sense of a reasonable score for this type of writing.

paragraphs: They can then aim to align with this score.

paragraphs: The Flesch score for this subsection is 69.

paragraphs: Tools to calculate the Flesch Reading Ease include:


title: February

paragraphs: February (Feb.) is the second month of the year, coming between January and March, with 28 days in common years, and 29 days in leap years. In Sweden in 1732 the month had 30 days. This was to make the calendar match to the rest of the world. In 1930 and 1931, February had 30 days in the Soviet Union because the government changed all the months to be 30 days long. This year (2020), February will have 29 days in it because 2020 is a leap year. The name comes either from the Roman god Februus or else from "februa", the festivals of purification celebrated in Rome every fifteenth of this month.

paragraphs: February begins on the same day of the week as March and November in common years, and August in leap years. February always ends on the same day of the week as October, and additionally, January in common years.

paragraphs: February is one of the last two months to be added to the calendar at the beginning of the year (the other is January). This is because in the original Roman calendar, the two months of winter, when not much would happen in agriculture, did not have names.

paragraphs: February is the second month of the year, coming between January and March, and is also the shortest month, with 28 days in a common year, and 29 days in a leap year. February begins on the same day of the week as March and November in common years and on the same day of the week as August in leap years. February ends on the same day of the week as January in common years and October every year, as each other's last days are exactly 4 weeks (28 days) and 35 weeks (245 days) apart respectively. In a leap year, February is the only month to begin and end on the same day of the week.

paragraphs: Every year, February starts on the same day of the week as June of the previous year, as each other's first days are exactly 35 weeks (245 days) apart. In common years, February finishes on the same day of the week as May of the previous year, and in leap years, August and November of the previous year.

paragraphs: In common years immediately before other common years, February starts on the same day of the week as August of the following year, and in leap years and years immediately before that, May of the following year. In years immediately before common years, February finishes on the same day of the week as July of the following year, and in years immediately before leap years, April and December of the following year.

paragraphs: February is also the only month of the calendar that, once every six years and twice every 11 years consecutively, either back into the past or forward into the future, will have four full 7-day weeks. In countries that start their week on a Monday, it occurs as part of a common year starting on Friday, in which February 1st is a Monday and the 28th is a Sunday, this was observed in 2010 and can be traced back 11 years to 1999, 6 years back to 1993, 11 years back to 1982, 11 years back to 1971 and 6 years back to 1965, and will be observed in 2021. In countries that start their week on a Sunday, it occurs in a common year starting on Thursday, with the next occurrence in 2026, and previous occurrences in 2015 (11 years earlier than 2026), 2009 (6 years earlier than 2015), 1998 (11 years earlier than 2009) and 1987 (11 years earlier than 1998). This works unless the pattern is broken by a skipped leap year, but no leap year has been skipped since 1900 and no others will be skipped until 2100.

paragraphs: From circa 700 BC, when Numa Pompilius, the second king of Rome, added it to the calendar, February had 23 days and 24 days on some of every second year, until 46 BC when Julius Caesar assigned it 29 days on every fourth year and 28 days otherwise. Leap year Day, February 29, is added in every year that can be divided equally by four, such as 2012 and 2016, but this does not apply when the year ending in "00" at the turn of the century does not divide equally into 400. This means that 1600 and 2000 were leap years in the Gregorian calendar, but 1700, 1800, and 1900 were rather common years. This is where the Julian calendar calculated dates differently, as it always repeated February 29 every four years.

paragraphs: February is a winter month in the Northern Hemisphere and a summer month in the Southern Hemisphere. In each hemisphere, it is the seasonal equivalent of August in the other. In weather lore, Groundhog Day, in the United States, is set to decide what the weather will be like for the rest of the winter.

paragraphs: February's flower is the violet and its birthstone is the amethyst. The meaning of the amethyst is sincerity. The zodiac signs for February are Aquarius (January 21 to February 19), and Pisces (February 20 to March 20).


title: FAQ

paragraphs: FAQ is an abbreviation for "Frequently Asked Question(s)". The term is used for a list questions and answers. All of the questions are supposed to be asked often and they all are about the same thing. Since the acronym was first used in written form, there are different ways it is said; both "fak" and "F.A.Q." are commonly used.


title: Financial capital

paragraphs: Financial capital is a form of capital. It is things that have value, but do not do anything by themselves. They are only valuable because people value (want) them. For example, money is a form of financial capital. You cannot do anything with money but it still has value.

paragraphs: Financial capital is used to pay for things, this is because there is always more of it and people always want it. This means that financial capital has a stable value and can be traded in most places and with most people.

paragraphs: Some forms of financial capital, such as stocks, gold or bonds are not wanted by everybody. However they can be traded with people for money or another type of financial capital. Because of this, these forms of financial capital do not have a stable price. This means that some people try to make a profit by buying and selling these types of financial capital in a market.

paragraphs: Some things are treated as financial capital, even though they do have a use. For example, some people buy and sell land but are not interested in doing anything with it. Some people think this sort of trade is bad because the land should be used and not just treated like money. Other types of capital, such as social capital and human capital are rarely treated like financial capital. This may be because they involve people. Treating useful capital like financial capital is called comodification.

paragraphs: In politics, a common question is how often the government should use financial capital. In particular, should the government use financial capital to make a profit? Traditionally, liberal politicians do not mind this kind of trading for profit, but socialist or conservative politicians are against it.


title: Fecund universes

paragraphs: Fecund universes is a multiverse theory of Lee Smolin. It relies on models of our universe and statistics from astrophysics but is more correctly a theory of cosmology.

paragraphs: In this theory, collapsing stars, or black holes, are always creating new universes with slightly different laws of physics. Because these laws are only slightly different, each is assumed to be like a mutation of the original universe, as if each universe was a kind of single-celled organism. It would reproduce by "splitting" in some sense.

paragraphs: This theory relies on many models of our universe to model these "mutated" alternative universes, the ones that Smolin supposes are generated or "spun off" by black holes.

paragraphs: No human can ever be part of any of these "other" universes. Observations from astrophysics can only say if the black holes exist or are common, and give some idea of how much the laws of physics can vary and still let the new universes produce new black holes.

paragraphs: Smolin predicts that there would be many black holes in the universe humans can see, since they are likely in a very late born universe, by simple probability. If there are many black holes, that is evidence for his theory,

paragraphs: As this shows, cosmology has a very different standard of evidence and burden of proof than is required for models of our universe only, which humans (using mathematics) can observe and exchange knowledge on.

paragraphs: It is hard to separate science from religion on such questions. It may be a simple matter of preference whether one wants to see one's universe as part of a system like biology or like mechanics - clockwork. Smolin's theory is important mostly because it challenges the mechanistic paradigm.

paragraphs: Even if it is wrong, it raises the idea that living beings might have to see their universe as also living to be able to understand or care about it at all. Some compare Smolin's theory to Gaia philosophy which combines biology, geology and ecology to explain the Earth, our planet, as a living thing. If both are right, humans are on a living planet in a living universe. This idea is very appealing - which does not mean it is really "right".


title: Food

paragraphs: Food is what people and animals eat to survive. Food usually comes from animals and plants. It is eaten by living things to provide energy and nutrition. Food contains the nutrition that people and animals need to be healthy. The consumption of food is normally enjoyable to humans. It contains protein, fat, carbohydrates, vitamins, water and minerals. Liquids used for energy and nutrition are often called "drinks". If someone cannot afford food they go hungry.

paragraphs: Food for humans is mostly made through farming or gardening. It includes animal and vegetable sources. Some people refuse to eat food from animal origin, like meat, eggs, and products with milk in them. Not eating meat is called vegetarianism. Not eating or using any animal products is called veganism.

paragraphs: Food produced by farmers or gardeners can be changed by industrial processes (the food industry). Processed food usually contains several natural ingredients and food additives (such as preservatives, antioxidants, emulsifiers, flavor enhancers). For example, bread is processed food.

paragraphs: Food processing at home is done in the kitchen, by the cook. The cook sometimes uses a cookbook. Examples of cooking utensils are pressure cookers, pots, and frying pans.

paragraphs: Food can also be prepared and served in restaurants or refectory (in particular for children in school).

paragraphs: The utensils used may be a plate, knife, fork, chopsticks, spoon, bowl, or spork.

paragraphs: Many people do not grow their own food. They have to buy food that was grown by someone else. People buy most of their food in shops or markets. But some people still grow most or all of their own food.

paragraphs: People may buy food and take it home to cook it. They may buy food that is ready to eat from a street vendor or a restaurant.

paragraphs: Originally, people got food as hunter-gatherers. The agricultural revolution changed that. Farmers grew crops including those invented and improved by selective breeding, eventually improved further as Food.

paragraphs: Food shortage is still a big problem in the world today. Many people do not have enough money to buy the food that they need. Bad weather or other problems sometimes destroy the growing food in one part of the world. When people do not have enough food, we say that they are hungry. If they do not eat enough food for a long time, they will become sick and die from starvation. In areas where many people do not have enough food, we say that there is famine there.

paragraphs: Food and water can make people sick if it is contaminated by microorganisms, bad metals, or chemicals.

paragraphs: If people do not eat the right foods, they can become sick.

paragraphs: People may often have a variety of eating disorders that cause them to either eat too much, or not be able to eat certain things or amounts. Common diseases like Coeliac disease or food allergies cause people to experience ill effects from consuming certain foods that are normally safe. If people eat too much food, they can become overweight or obese. This causes numerous health problems. On the other hand, eating too little food, from lack of access or anorexia could cause malnutrition. Therefore, people have to balance the amount, the nutrition, and the type of food to be healthy.

paragraphs: Many cultures or religions have food taboos. That means they have rules what people should not eat, or how the food has to be prepared. Examples of religious food rules are the "Kashrut" of Judaism and the "Halal" of Islam, that say that pig meat cannot be eaten. In Hinduism, eating beef is not allowed. Some Christians are "vegetarian" (someone who does not eat meat) because of their religious beliefs. For example, Seventh-day Adventist Church recommends vegetarianism.

paragraphs: In addition, sometime beliefs do not relate to the religion but belong to the culture. For example, some people pay respect to "Guān Yīn" mothergod and those followers will not consume "beef" as they believe that her father has a shape of the cow.


title: Fine

paragraphs: If someone is found guilty of a crime, their punishment may be to pay a fine, a certain amount of money. In many countries, fines can be ordered by police, court judges and some government officers.

paragraphs: When agreeing to a contract with a business, a customer may agree to certain rules. If the customer breaks the rules, then they agree to pay a fine for doing so. For example, when somebody hires a car and agrees to return it by Friday, they agree that if they do not return the car by Friday, they must pay a $50 fine to the business.


title: Frying

paragraphs: To fry food is to cook it in hot butter or vegetable oil or other fat. We can fry food in a small amount of fat in a pan or in a lot of oil in a pot. Some restaurants use deep frying to fry a large amount of food.