title: Manchester United F.C.

paragraphs: Manchester United F.C. is a football club that plays in the Premier League. They play their home games at Old Trafford which is in Greater Manchester.

paragraphs: Matt Busby led the club to lots of success by using the youth players until the Munich air disaster in 1958, where many United footballers and staff died. Sir Alex Ferguson led the club to many titles, including the treble (Premier League, FA Cup, and Champions League), from 1986 to 2013, when he retired. The club has 3 UEFA Champions League titles, 20 league titles, 12 FA Cups, and a FIFA Club World Cup.

paragraphs: Manchester United are the most successful club in England and have won 20 league titles, which is more than any other team. They have also won 12 FA Cups and 3 European Cups.

paragraphs: The club started as Newton Heath L&YR F.C. in 1878. All of the team worked at Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway depot at Newton Heath. After nearly closing in 1902, John Henry Davies took over and changed the club's name to Manchester United F.C.. Manchester United made Matt Busby their manager after World War II. Matt Busby used the youth team to get new players, and this was very successful. The club won the Football League in 1956 and 1957. The success was stopped by the Munich air disaster in 1958, when eight of the club's players died. It was thought that the club might close, but it did not. They won the Football League in 1965 and 1967, and the European Cup in 1968.

paragraphs: In 1986, manager Ron Atkinson was sacked by the club because they were in danger of being relegated. They brought in Sir Alex Ferguson. He did not win anything for the first couple of years.

paragraphs: The team won their first trophy under Ferguson, the 1990 FA Cup, against Crystal Palace in the replay after a 3-3 draw. The next season, United won the UEFA Cup Winners Cup. In 1993, Manchester United won the very first Premier League. In 1999, Manchester United won the treble, made of the Premier League, FA Cup, and UEFA Champions League. Manchester United won the league 7 times again until Sir Alex Ferguson retired.

paragraphs: David Moyes was made manager in 2013. In April 2014, he was sacked by the club and club legend Ryan Giggs became player-manager (when a player is also the manager at the same time). They finished in 7th place. In 2014, Louis Van Gaal took over. He led United to a 4th-place finish. In 2015, after winning 3-0 against Sunderland, Man United reached 1st place for the first time in over two years. However, after losing 0-3 to Arsenal, they dropped to 3rd place. Van Gaal was sacked at the end of the season and José Mourinho replaced him. He then led the club to a League Cup and Europa League victory in the 2016-17 season. Mourinho was sacked in December 2018 because of poor results and replaced by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

paragraphs: <nowiki>*</nowiki>Bold indicates a place of third or higher.

paragraphs: The Old Trafford became the club's home ground in 1909, and the stadium was constructed to a capacity of 77,000. In the Second World War, bombings damaged the stadium. While the stadium was being fixed, they played "home" games at Manchester City's Maine Road. The stadium was converted to an all-seater stadium in 1993 for safety reasons, but the capacity fell to 44,000. In 1995, expansions in the North Stand raised the capacity to 55,000. In the middle of 1999, the East and West Stands were expanded to give the stadium a capacity of 67,000. Then between 2005 and 2006 8,000 more seats were added to make a capacity of 75,000.

paragraphs: United has many rivalries including Liverpool, Manchester City, Leeds United and Arsenal. Their most intense rivalry is with "The Citizens" (Manchester City). This is because both clubs are from Manchester and each time they play against each other it is called the Manchester Derby.


title: Middlesbrough F.C.

paragraphs: Middlesbrough Football Club, is an English football club. Their stadium is the Riverside Stadium.

paragraphs: The club plays in the Premier League. The manager is Neil Warnock.


title: Newcastle United F.C.

paragraphs: Newcastle United Football Club is an English football club in Newcastle upon Tyne. Newcastle play in the Premier League. In the 2008/09 season they were relegated after 16 years in the top flight, but won promotion back into the Premier League by winning the Football League Championship. In the 2015/16 season, they were relegated again.

paragraphs: Newcastle United was formed in 1892 after the two rival clubs Newcastle West End and Newcastle East End grouped together. They have played their matches at the ground St.James' Park ever since. This ground holds 52,000 people, and is one of the biggest in England. It is located just outside the centre of Newcastle.

paragraphs: Newcastle originally played in red shirts and white shorts. In fact, there was a kit clash in their very first League match, away to the then-named Woolwich Arsenal. The home side wore red, so Newcastle played in their change kit of black and white stripes. A permanent switch to black and white soon followed, most likely to reduce kit clashes, and perhaps as a further attempt to appease West End fans. The decision was taken in 1894, as the minutes from the club meeting reveal: ‘It was agreed that the Club’s colours should be changed from red shirts and white knickers to black and white shirts (two inch stripe) and dark knickers.’.

paragraphs: On the 24th day of May 2009 which was also the last day of thr season, Newcastle were relegated to the second tier of English football, the Coca-Cola Championship. They returned to the top flight of English football, winning the Championship in the 2009/10 season. In the 2010/11 season, they finished mid-table. The club then went on to finish 5th place in the 2011/12 season.

paragraphs: Traditionally the loudest support for the club came from the Gallowgate End - a stand in St. James' Park. This stand is where Alan Shearer once used to watch Newcastle play when he was a child.

paragraphs: The record transfer fee the club has paid is £17 million (around $30 million) for Michael Owen, in August 2005. Alan Shearer was the previous record transfer at £15 million, which was also the world's largest transfer fee when he signed in 1996.

paragraphs: The Newcastle United's number 9 shirt is one of the most famous shirts in the world. Legends such as Hughie Gallacher, Malcolm McDonald, Jackie Milburn and Alan Shearer have worn the famous shirt.

paragraphs: The current season has been one of great difficulty for the club.


title: Portsmouth F.C.

paragraphs: Portsmouth F.C. is an English football club. They play in the Football League Two. Their home stadium is called Fratton Park.

paragraphs: Portsmouth's manager is Kenny Jackett. The most famous manager was probably Harry Redknapp who took the team to an FA Cup victory in 2008 which subsequently got the team into the UEFA Europa League (then called the UEFA Cup) for the first time. The club has since been hit with financial problems and see themselves in the fourth tier of English football.

paragraphs: They have a big rivalry with a team called Southampton F.C. They are also from Hampshire.


title: Tottenham Hotspur F.C.

paragraphs: Tottenham Hotspur Football Club is an English football club. The club plays in the Premier League. Their current stadium is The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in north London. The captain of Tottenham Hotspur is Hugo Lloris and vice-captain is Harry Kane. José Mourinho is the manager. The club's most common nickname is Spurs. Other nicknames include The Lilywhites and occasionally "Yid Army".

paragraphs: Famous Tottenham Hotspur players include Pat Jennings, Paul Gascoigne, Glenn Hoddle, Dave Mackay, Gary Lineker, Danny Blanchflower, Teddy Sheringham and Jimmy Greaves. They have many rivals in London, but their most famous rivals are Arsenal. Tottenham were the first winners of the UEFA Cup tournament, and the first team in the 20th century to achieve the league and cup double. In the 2016–17 Premier League, they finished in 2nd position and earned a place in the European Champions League.


title: Derby County F.C.

paragraphs: Derby County Football Club is an English football club. The club plays in the Football League Championship.

paragraphs: The club was formed in 1884 by players from Derbyshire County Cricket Club who wanted something to do in the winter. They started out by playing at the Racecourse Ground, Derby.

paragraphs: The Rams, as Derby County are known, were one of the first members of The Football League when it started in 1888. Back in 1895 the club moved to a new stadium, The Baseball Ground. It was called this because baseball had been played there much earlier beforehand, and it became their home for the next 102 years. When they moved, Derby County had changed their club colours to the black and white they still use today at matches.

paragraphs: In 1898, Derby got to their first FA Cup final, but lost. The same happened again in 1899 and 1903. Derby's went down to the Football League's Second Division for the first time in 1907, but they came back up to the First Division in 1911.

paragraphs: In 1914, they were relegated again, but won the Second Division the next year to get promoted. World War I meant that they had to wait until 1919 to play First Division football again. After just two seasons, they were relegated yet again in 1921.

paragraphs: After Derby's next promotion in 1926 the club got much better, and were one of the top teams from the late 1920s all the way through to the 1939-1940 season, which was interrupted when World War II broke out.

paragraphs: The FA Cup restarted in the 1945-1946 season. Derby got to the final again, but this time they beat Charlton Athletic 4-1 to win the Cup. Some people had thought the reason Derby kept losing in the FA Cup was that they were cursed by gypsies, as the Baseball Ground was built on the site of a gypsy camp. Some players even thought so, and before the final they asked the gypsies to lift the curse.

paragraphs: The Football League began again the next season, but Derby did not play well and were relegated in 1953. Things went from bad to worse and in 1955 they were relegated to the Football League Third Division (North) for the first time in their history. Derby were too good for that league though, and finished second at the first try. Then they did even better next season by finishing first, and going back up to the top division.

paragraphs: In 1967, Brian Clough took over Derby County with Peter Taylor helping him. Derby were back in Division Two, but Clough got them promoted to the First Division in 1969. He led them to their first ever Championship in 1972. Derby could not win the title again the next season, but they did get to the semi-finals of the European Cup, but they lost to Juventus. A lot of people in England thought after the match that the Italian club had paid money to the referee as a bribe. This was never proved. Clough left the club after an argument with Derby's chairman Sam Longson. Clough later became manager of Nottingham Forest F.C., where he went on to win a First Division championship and two European Cups.

paragraphs: Derby won the league again in 1974-1975, this time with Dave Mackay as manager. He used to play for the club, as captain, under Clough. When Mackay left in 1976, Derby got slowly worse until they went down in 1980.

paragraphs: Derby's stay in the Second Division was not a happy one and they were relegated to the Football League Third Division in 1984. It was exactly 100 years since the club formed, and just nine years after their last Championship.

paragraphs: The club made Arthur Cox manager. After a two-year stay in the Third Division, they were promoted to the Second Division. They won that league the next year, going back up to the First Division in 1987.

paragraphs: The club managed to finish 5th in 1989, but it was owned by businessman Robert Maxwell, who was having money problems. He stopped spending money on new players, and sold the club not long before his death. The club was relegated back to the Second Division in 1991 (which changed its name to the First Division a year later when the First Division clubs left to form the FA Premier League).

paragraphs: Jim Smith became Derby's manager in 1995. Before the end of the season, Smith took the Rams up to the Premier League for the first time.

paragraphs: Derby County did well in the 1996-97 season, finishing 12th in the final table with international players like Aljosa Asanovic and Igor Stimac playing well. The club moved into the new 33,000-seat Pride Park Stadium for the 1997-98 season, and went on to finish ninth. Next year they did even better, finishing eighth, but the season after that Derby struggled, and finished 16th. Another bad season followed in 2000-01, as Derby finished 17th in the Premiership - just one place clear of going down.

paragraphs: Jim Smith left the club in October 2001 and his assistant manager Colin Todd took over. He kept his job for just 3 months before he was sacked. At the end of January 2002, John Gregory got the manager's job. Derby started well, but then lost seven of their last eight matches and were relegated again after six seasons in a row in the Premiership.

paragraphs: It was a bad time to go down. Money owed to the Football League teams by the TV company ITV Digital was never paid, and Derby were one of the clubs to suffer worst. They had to sell their best players and rebuild a team with mostly very young players. They finished 18th after a difficult season. In late March, Gregory was suspended and George Burley came in as a temporary manager. At the end of the season Gregory was sacked and Burley took over fully. Owner Lionel Pickering lost control of the club and a new board of John Sleightholme, Jeremy Keith and Steve Harding came in. Derby finished 20th in the 2003-2004 First Division campaign, but did much better in the 2004-05 season and finished 4th in the Division which was now called the Football League Championship. This meant they won a promotion play-off spot, but lost in the semi-finals to Preston North End. Soon after losing, Burley left. Derby then employed Phil Brown for a short period who was then replaced by the Academy Coach, Terry Westley, who kept the club up in the 2005-06 season.

paragraphs: Before the final game of the 2005-06 season a local consortium led by Peter Gadsby, took over the Rams and gave the manager's job to Billy Davies, who left Preston after compensation was agreed by both clubs for his services. The new changes and fresh activity in the transfer market promise a bright future for this founder member of the football league.

paragraphs: Following a poor start to the 2007-2008 season which saw Derby achieve just one win in 14 matches Billy Davies has left Derby County FC.

paragraphs: Many people think the best Rams player ever was Steve Bloomer, one of the highest scoring players in the history of English football. He played for Derby from the late 19th century to just before the First World War. Other top players include the FA Cup winners Peter Doherty, Jackie Stamps and Raich Carter. In more recent years players like Roy McFarland, Archie Gemmill, Colin Todd, Kevin Hector, Steve Powell, Ron Webster, Alan Hinton and Dave Mackay played in the championship winning sides. More recently, the England goalkeeper Peter Shilton, Stefano Eranio and Igor Stimac all played for the Rams. Bobby Davison was also a favourite of Rams fans. Recent famous players also include locally born Matthew Debyshire who has achieved some degree or recognition at Blackburn Rovers but has expressed desire to play a more successful clubs like Tottenham Hotspurs.

paragraphs: Derby County's main rivals are Nottingham Forest, who are based in Nottingham, a city just a few miles north-east of Derby. Leicester City, also based in the East Midlands, come a close second. Fans from the north of Derbyshire often dislike Sheffield Wednesday or Leeds United.


title: Ipswich Town F.C.

paragraphs: Ipswich Town Football Club (Ipswich Town) is an English football club. It is in Ipswich in Suffolk county. The club started in 1878. The club's home stadium is Portman Road.

paragraphs: Ipswich Town play in League One having been relegated from the Championship in 2019, after 17 years in the division. The club has won the top division once, in 1962 and the FA Cup in 1978. They have also been successful in European football. They won the UEFA Cup in 1981. The chairman of the club is Marcus Evans. Right now, the manager is Paul Lambert. Two of the club's previous managers have gone on to manage the England national football team, and one has gone on to manage the Scotland national football team. A notable previous manager is Roy Keane, a legend for Ireland and Manchester United.

paragraphs: Ipswich Town F.C. was started as an amateur team in 1878 and was called "Ipswich A.F.C." The club played a lot of games in the local area and won several cup competitions. In 1936, they became a professional club and joined a league called the "Southern League" which they won in their first season. In 1938, they were elected to join The Football League and played in "Division Three (South)" until the end of the 1954 season, when they were promoted to "Division Two".

paragraphs: In 1961, Ipswich Town won their division and were promoted to the highest level of English football, "Division One". The club went on to win this division the next season. This let them play in European football competition, The European Cup the following season. Two years later,they were sent back to "Division Two" where they stayed for four years before being promoted to "Division One" again, in 1968. Soon after, Bobby Robson became the manager of the club and led them to success in both English and European football. In 1978 Ipswich won the FA Cup at Wembley Stadium, beating Arsenal F.C. 1–0. Further success came in 1981 when Ipswich defeated Dutch team AZ Alkmaar.

paragraphs: Bobby Robson was asked to become manager of the England national football team in 1982 so he left the club. Ipswich did not do well in the following seasons and were relegated to "Division Two" in 1986. They remained here until 1993 when they won the division and promotion into the new English Premier League. Two poor seasons followed, including a 9–0 defeat by Manchester United, still the biggest defeat in Premier League history. In 1995 Ipswich were relegated once again and stayed in second division of English football until they were promoted in 2000 after they beat Barnsley in the play-offs at Wembley 4–2.

paragraphs: In their first season in the Premier League, Ipswich finished fifth; This meant they qualified to play in the UEFA Cup the next season. Although the club played well in the European competition, they were poor in the Premier League. They finished bottom and were relegated to Division One, now called Football League Championship. Ipswich were relegated to League 1 after the 18/19 season, finishing bottom of the championship.

paragraphs: One of Ipswich Town's nicknames is "The Blues". This is because the traditional kit the players wear is usually mostly blue. When Ipswich play against other teams who also wear blue, they change to an alternative kit, sometimes called an "away" kit. The "away" kit has been different colours including orange, white, red and black vertical stripes and, as of 2009, plain red.

paragraphs: The crest which is on the shirts and shorts of the kit shows a horse, with one hoof resting on a football. Underneath the horse is a river—this represents the River Orwell which flows through the town.

paragraphs: Ipswich Town play their home games at a stadium called Portman Road. The club started playing games here in 1884. The stadium can hold over 30,000 people. Outside the ground there are statues of both Bobby Robson and Sir Alf Ramsey.

paragraphs: In 2003, England played a game against Croatia at Portman Road. England won the game 3–1. The England youth team has also played at the stadium several times.

paragraphs: Other sports have been played at Portman Road, including athletics, hockey and American football. The stadium has also been used for events other than sports. It has been used for concerts by Elton John, R.E.M., Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Rod Stewart.

paragraphs: Local fans call the team "Town" because it is a shortened version of the team name. Some people also call Ipswich the "Tractor Boys". This nickname is used a lot by newspapers. Many Ipswich fans use this name as a joke rather than letting it be an insult.

paragraphs: The main rival of Ipswich Town is Norwich City who are based in Norfolk. When these two teams play, the game is called the "East Anglian derby". The derby is usually referred to as the 'Old Farm' derby, a take on the 'Old Firm' derby played in Scotland between Glasgow Celtic and Glasgow Rangers (now 'The Rangers').

paragraphs: Mick Mills holds the record for Ipswich league appearances. He played 591 matches between 1966 and 1982. The club's top league goalscorer is Ray Crawford, who scored 203 goals between 1958 and 1969. Ted Phillips holds the record for the most goals scored in a season, 41 in the 1956–57 season. Allan Hunter has played the most international games while at the club, making 47 appearances for Northern Ireland.

paragraphs: The club's widest victories in the league have been their 7–0 wins against Portsmouth in 1964, against Southampton in 1974 and against West Bromwich Albion in the First Division in 1976. Their biggest defeats in the league were 10–1 against Fulham in 1963 and 9–0 against Manchester United in 1995.

paragraphs: The highest number of people to watch Ipswich at Portman Road is 38,010 for a sixth round FA Cup match against Leeds United on 8 March 1975.

paragraphs: The largest amount of money received for an Ipswich player is £6.5 million, from Newcastle United for Kieron Dyer in July 1999. The most the club has spent on a player was £4.75 million for Matteo Sereni from Sampdoria in July 2001.

paragraphs: Paul Lambert is the current manager of Ipswich Town, replacing

paragraphs: Mick McCarthy. McCarthy was formerly the manager of Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. who he left in 2012. McCarthy joined Ipswich in November 2012.

paragraphs: Two managers of Ipswich Town have gone on to become the manager of the England national football team. The first was Sir Alf Ramsey. He also won the World Cup for England in 1966. The second was Sir Bobby Robson who got England to the semi-finals of the 1990 World Cup finals. George Burley became manager of the Scotland national football team in January 2008, for 22 months.

paragraphs: Ipswich Town won the top division once (when it was called Division One) in 1962. The club has won the FA Cup once, in 1978, when they defeated Arsenal F.C. 1–0. The club has also won the UEFA Cup once in 1981.


title: Sunderland A.F.C.

paragraphs: Sunderland Association Football Club is an English football club. They are from the city of Sunderland.

paragraphs: The club played in the Premier League in the 2005/2006 season, they finished bottom. They played in the Football League Championship in 2006/2007, but were promoted back to the Premiership for 2007/08 under manager Roy Keane.

paragraphs: Sunderland AFC were created in 1879 and joined the Football League in 1891. They have won the league six times. The last time Sunderland won the league was in 1936. Sunderland have won the FA Cup two times, in 1937 and 1973.

paragraphs: For 99 years, Sunderland played their home games at Roker Park. In 1997 they moved, and now play their home games at the Stadium of Light. The stadium holds 49,000 people.

paragraphs: The team's most recent promotion to the English Premier League was in 2007, and they are now, in 2015/16, in their ninth season in a row in this division. They have had three different managers in 2013. Martin O'Neill was fired at the end of March and Paolo Di Canio became manager. He was fired in September after the team had bad results, and Gus Poyet replaced him on October 8th.


title: West Bromwich Albion F.C.

paragraphs: West Bromwich Albion Football Club (West Brom, WBA) is an English football club. The club plays in the Championship. Their home stadium is called the Hawthorns.

paragraphs: Albion were one of the founding members of The Football League in 1888 and have spent the majority of their existence in the top tier of English football. They have been champions of England once, in 1919–20, but have had more success in the FA Cup, with five wins. The first came in 1888, the year the league was founded, and the most recent in 1968, their last major trophy. They also won the Football League Cup at the first attempt in 1966. The club's longest consecutive period in the top division was between 1949 and 1973, and from 1986 to 2002 they spent their longest ever period out of the top division. The 2011–12 season will be their sixth season in the Premier League since 2002. The Hawthorns is a stadium on a hill


title: West Ham United F.C.

paragraphs: West Ham United Football Club is an English football club.

paragraphs: The club plays in the Premier League. It was started in 1895 and its home stadium is the London stadium East London. The club is also called "the Hammers" and "the Irons" because it was started in a London Ironworks. Their main rivals are Millwall and other rivals are Tottenham Hotspur, chelsea and Arsenal

paragraphs: West ham currently are managed by David Moyes, their former care-taker manager for the 2017/18 season in Premier League.


title: Wigan Athletic F.C.

paragraphs: Wigan Athletic Football Club is an English football club from Wigan, Greater Manchester. The club plays in the Championship, currently managed by Owen Coyle. They play their home games at the DW Stadium. In 2012-13 they won the FA Cup by beating Manchester City 1-0 and so they played in the UEFA Europa League in the season 2013/14. A few days later they were relegated from the English Premier League to the Football League Championship, becoming the first FA Cup-winning side to be relegated in the same season. Manager Roberto Martínez left the club shortly after to join Everton. Owen Coyle replaced him.

paragraphs: Wigan Athletic Official Supporters Club (formally known as Wigan Athletic Supporters Travel Club) is the official supporters' association of Wigan Athletic Football Club. The supporters club are a non-profit organisation run by volunteers and meet before home matches in the South Stand Bar.

paragraphs: Since Wigan Athletic's admission to the Football League in 1978, the club has built up several rivalries, mainly with Bolton Wanderers. They also have a rivalry with Manchester City, because they are from the same city and have the same blue club color.

paragraphs: As listed on the official Wigan Athletic website.

paragraphs: Wigan's victory in the 2013 FA Cup Final qualified them for European football for the first time, earning them an automatic place in the group stage of the 2013–14 UEFA Europa League.


title: Wimbledon F.C.

paragraphs: Wimbledon Football Club was an English football club. The club began in Wimbledon in 1889. In 2002 it moved to Milton Keynes and it 2004 it changed its name to Milton Keynes Dons F.C. Many football fans in Wimbledon did not agree with the move. They decided to start a new club there, which is called AFC Wimbledon.

paragraphs: The club played in the English Football League and won the FA Cup in 1988. It was a professional football club, which means that the players get paid to play.

paragraphs: In 1992, the club decided that its ground at Plough Lane was too small and moved away from Wimbledon to Selhurst Park in Croydon. This ground is owned by Crystal Palace F.C.. They stayed there for the next 12 years.

paragraphs: In 2002, the club's owners decided that they wanted to move the club out of London. Nobody really knows why they wanted to move. They said that there were too many clubs in London, that not enough people were coming to watch the matches. This meant that they did not collect enough money at the gate to pay everyone and that is why they could not afford to stay. They looked at Cardiff and Dublin before deciding to move to Milton Keynes. Milton Keynes is a new city that is 45 miles (or 75 kilometres) north of London. When they said what they wanted to do, most of their fans stopped paying to see matches, which meant that they had even less money to pay everyone.

paragraphs: Before the move could happen, they had to get permission from the Football Association (the FA). The FA is the association of all the football clubs in England. The clubs elect a Committee to decide what to do about things. Most things they have to decide are easy but this was not easy to decide. Or maybe they knew what to decide but did not want to be the ones to decide it. So they asked three clever men to study the problem and tell them what would be best to do. These three men said that the club should be allowed to move.

paragraphs: Some members of the Committee did not like this decision and tried to stop it. But the owners of Wimbledon F.C. said that they would get a judge to decide (in a court) if anyone tried to stop them. It costs a lot of money to go to court and whoever loses has to pay for everybody. The other clubs would not agree to pay if this happened, so the FA had to disagree the move.

paragraphs: But it was already too late for the owners of Wimbledon F.C. They had no money left. They had borrowed money from the bank to keep going but now the bank wanted its money back. When you cannot pay back what you borrow, this is called "going bankrupt" and that is what happened. Luckily (or unluckily, depends on your point of view), the group in Milton Keynes that first wanted them to come, still wanted them. So this group paid back some of the money and in 2002, the club moved to Milton Keynes. They began playing in the National Hockey Stadium, beside Milton Keynes Central railway station and stayed there for two years until their new stadium was ready (2006).

paragraphs: Many football fans around England did not like the idea that a club could move. They believe that a club belongs to a town and it is not like a furniture shop that closes down in one town and opens in another town. Another reason that they did not like it is that they would love to see their own club get into the Football League. The only way that they can do that is if they win their regional league, then win the Football Conference. So they felt that Milton Keynes was "jumping the queue" to get into the League. Because of this, many fans refused to attend ("boycotted") any games they played

paragraphs: In 2004, the new owners changed the name to 'Milton Keynes Dons F.C.' (usually just 'MK Dons'), which combined the name of their new home ('Milton Keynes') with the nickname ('Dons') from Wimbledon. With this, Wimbledon FC ceased to exist.

paragraphs: But the boycott continued. In 2006, the Football Fans Federation proposed a way forward. The most important thing for the town of Wimbledon was the trophies (cups, shields) that the club had won when it was called Wimbledon F.C. The agreement was that Milton Keynes Dons F.C. would give these trophies to Merton Borough Council, which is the local government area that contains Wimbledon. The league history of Milton Keynes Dons F.C. would start from 2004 which is when they changed their name. The Fans Federation would ask fans to end the boycott. Everybody agreed and this is what has happened.


title: Accrington Stanley F.C.

paragraphs: Accrington Stanley Football Club is an English football club.

paragraphs: The club will play in League Two (the English fourth division) in the 2015/16 season.

paragraphs: They were re-founded in 1968 after going bankrupt (having no money) in 1962. They were first founded in 1921. They are thought of as hard working but having no chance of success. Their nickname is Stanley. They play at the Interlink Express Stadium in Accrington in Lancashire, in England.


title: Telford United F.C.

paragraphs: A.F.C Telford United is a football club based in Telford, Shropshire, England. They are currently a member of the National League North, the sixth tier of English football.

paragraphs: They were founded in 2004. They are based off the original Telford United, which folded in 2004 after financial problems.

paragraphs: They play their home games in New Bucks Head in Wellington, which is a part of Telford.


title: A.F.C. Wimbledon

paragraphs: AFC Wimbledon is an English football club from London. The club are currently in Football League Two after winning the promotion playoffs in Conference National in 2010–11. This was their fifth promotion to a higher league in their first nine seasons.

paragraphs: AFC Wimbledon were formed in 2002 by fans angry at Wimbledon F.C. moving to Milton Keynes, 70 miles away from South London. They play at Kingsmeadow, known for sponsorship reasons as The Cherry Red Records Stadium, in London.


title: Sheffield F.C.

paragraphs: Sheffield Football Club is a football club in England.

paragraphs: Sheffield F.C. is the oldest football club in the world. It was set up in 1857 in the city of Sheffield.

paragraphs: Unlike Sheffield United F.C. and Sheffield Wednesday F.C., it does not play in a national league.


title: Asteroid belt

paragraphs: The asteroid belt or main belt is a ring of small and large rocks and dust between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. The biggest object in the asteroid belt is Ceres, a dwarf planet. The Kirkwood gaps separate the asteroid belt into several groups.

paragraphs: Most asteroids orbit at 2 to 3 times the distance between Earth and the Sun. Planets that are "inside" - or before - the asteroid belt (which means they are closer to the sun) are called "inner planets." Planets that are "outside" - that is, after - the asteroid belt are called "outer planets": so Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars are "inner planets," while Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune are the "outer planets."

paragraphs: In 1802, shortly after discovering 2 Pallas, Heinrich Olbers suggested to William Herschel that Ceres and Pallas were fragments of a much larger planet that once occupied the Mars–Jupiter region, this planet having suffered an internal explosion or a cometary impact many million years before. This hypothesis has fallen from favor. The large amount of energy needed to destroy a planet, and with the belt's low combined mass (only about 4% of the mass of the Moon) do not support the hypothesis. Also, the significant chemical differences between the asteroids are difficult to explain if they come from the same planet. Today, most scientists accept that the asteroids never formed a planet at all.

paragraphs: In general, the formation and evolution of the Solar System happened when a cloud of interstellar dust and gas collapsed under the influence of gravity to form the Sun and planetesimals, and eventually the planets. This gravitational accretion led to the formation of the rocky planets and the gas giants.

paragraphs: Planetesimals in the region which would become the asteroid belt were too strongly disturbed by Jupiter's gravity to form a planet. Instead they continued to orbit the Sun as before, while occasionally colliding. In regions where the velocity of the collisions was too high, the shattering of planetesimals was more common than accretion, preventing the formation of planet-sized bodies.


title: Essen

paragraphs: Essen is a German city in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is on the Ruhr River and it is near Cologne, Duisburg and Bochum. 585,000 people live in Essen. Together with Dortmund, Essen is the biggest city of the Ruhr area with its 5,000,000 inhabitants. Essen is often called the shopping city ("Einkaufsstadt") because there are so many malls and shops in it.

paragraphs: Essen is in North Rhine-Westphalia and part of the Ruhr area, where eleven cities and four districts are. The rivers Ruhr and Emscher flow through the city. The lake "Baldeney" is part of the Ruhr. Essen's neighbour cities are Oberhausen, Mülheim an der Ruhr, Ratingen, Heiligenhaus and Velbert in the Rhineland; and Hattingen, Bochum, Gelsenkirchen, Gladbeck and Bottrop in Westphalia. Other near cities are Duisburg, Düsseldorf, Cologne, Dortmund and Münster.

paragraphs: Because of the large number of coal mine workers in Essen, the SPD, the Social Democratic Party of Germany, always was very strong in Essen. During the time of National Socialism, the Nazi Party installed the mayors. But from 1999 to 2009, the Christian Democratic Party ruled the city with the mayor Dr.Wolfgang Reiniger. At the local elections of 2009, the SPD's candidate Reinhard Paß became the new mayor.

paragraphs: Around 850, Saint Altfrid founded the "Damenstift", an abbey for women, ruled by a prince abbess. In this time the cathedral of Essen was built. In those days the name of the city was "Assindia" in Latin. Later it changed over "Essendia" and "Essend" to "Essen". 1377 Essen became a "free imperial city". At this time, Essen was just a small city in a region where few people lived. The city became more important when the Industrial Revolution began. In 1811, "Friedrich Krupp" founded a small steel factory in Essen which was fast growing. The city population also grew, and 80 years after the foundation of Krupp's steel work, Essen was a big city with 100,000 inhabitants. Because in the region of the Ruhr River much coal was found, many coal mines were founded in Essen and other near cities. Great industrial families like the "Krupp"s, the "Haniel"s and the "Grillo"s gave money for cultural buildings like the Grillo theatre and the Folkwang museum. Because of its big industry, Essen was destroyed with bombs in the Second World War. Many people gave their lives, and many buildings were destroyed. Not all were rebuilt after WW2. But because the coal mining industry ended mining in Essen in the 1970's (coal from abroad was getting cheaper), the city was getting poor. The "Strukturwandel" (structural change) saved Essen. Old collieries like "Zeche Zollverein" became museums or theatres. In 2003, the universities of Essen and Duisburg joined together as the university Duisburg-Essen.

paragraphs: In 2010 Essen was "Kulturhauptstadt Europas" (European Capital of Culture) together with Istanbul and Pécs in Hungary.

paragraphs: The "WDR" ("Westdeutscher Rundfunk/Western German Broadcasting") has a TV-station in Essen. The two biggest newspapers, the "WAZ" ("Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung/Western German common newspaper") and the "NRZ", the "Neue Ruhr Zeitung/New Ruhr newspaper" (at the lower Rhine region"Neue Rhein Zeitung/New Rhein newspaper") are in the city. Both newspapers belong to the WAZ-media group. Essen also has a radio station named "Radio Essen".

paragraphs: Essen has nine districts ("Bezirke") and 50 boroughs ("Stadtteile"). The most famous and most known are "Kettwig", until 1975 a separate town and not part of Essen, with the "Altstadt" of Kettwig, where many timber framing houses are ("Fachwerkhäuser"). Also well-known is "Werden". It lays like Kettwig in the south of the city and is the oldest borough of Essen. The "Werden abbey" stands here. In Essen-"Rüttenscheid" there are many cultural buildings (like the "Folkwang" or the "Ruhrland" museum). The WDR-studio and Essen's trade fair, the "Gruga" are also in Rüttenscheid. In the north of Essen is "Katernberg", where in the past the coal mine workers lived. Here is "Zeche Zollverein". In Katernberg, many houses were built by the Krupp family for their workers. Another big coal mine worker's borough, perhaps the biggest, is "Margarethenhöhe" near Rüttenscheid. It is named after Margarethe Krupp, wife of Friedrich Alfred Krupp. The Krupps wanted their workers to be absolutely dependent on them. So they built houses and malls for them, where they should spend their money, what they got from Krupp, again to the industrials. Today Margarethenhöhe is one of the most beautiful boroughs of Essen. Another big borough of Essen is "Steele" in the east of the city, that was in the 19th and early 20th century a city as big as Essen. In the west of Essen is "Borbeck", which was long separate from Essen. In Borbeck is the great Borbeck Castle ("Schloss Borbeck"). The people of Borbeck speak their own regional dialect, the "Borbecker Platt".

paragraphs: The most known people from Essen are the actor Heinz Rühmann, whose parents were the owner of Essen's famous hotel "Handelshof" near the Central Station ("Hauptbahnhof)", Carl Humann, explorer of the Great Altar of Pergamon, Karl Baedeker, a publisher whose company made many books for tourists ("Baedeker"), Alfred Krupp and Franz Dinndendahl, who made the first steam machine in the Ruhr area. These people were born in the city. Other people who were not born in Essen but lived and worked there a long time are Berthold Beitz, who saved the Krupp company from the ruin, Wilhelm Busch, a famous poet and painter or Gustav Heinemann, a German politician who was mayor of Essen and federal president of Germany. Other people like Otto von Bismarck and Paul von Hindenburg were honorary people in Essen.

paragraphs: The most popular sport in Germany is "Association football" or "soccer". The most important soccer clubs of Essen are "Rot-Weiß Essen (RWE)" and "Schwarz-Weiß Essen". They play in the 4th and the 5th league. More successfully is the women's association football club "SG Essen-Schönebeck" that plays in the first "Bundesliga".

paragraphs: The second big sport is team handball. "TUSEM Essen" is the most important club in Essen.

paragraphs: The most popular ice hockey club is named "ESC Moskitos Essen" and the biggest basketball club "ETB Wohnbau Baskets Essen".

paragraphs: Essen also has many table tennis and swimming clubs.


title: Gardening

paragraphs: Gardening is the growing of plants such as flowers, shrubs and trees as a hobby or recreation. Some people also grow vegetables or fruit in their gardens. People do gardening outdoors in the soil in their backyard, or in pots or containers on their balcony or on their patio. Some people do gardening on a roof.

paragraphs: People do indoor gardening inside their house or inside a building. Sometimes indoor gardening is done in greenhouses, which are special buildings where plants are grown. A greenhouse has a transparent glass or plastic roof and walls that let sunlight in. Grow tent is also used for indoor plants. Grow tent helps plant to grow in a more spectacular and develop a friendly environment. Water gardening is growing plants in ornamental pools and ponds. People doing water gardening plant water lilies and other aquatic plants.

paragraphs: Gardening can be done outside of the home, in city parks, botanical gardens, zoos, amusement parks, theme parks, and around tourist attractions. These types of gardens are cared for by people called gardeners or groundskeepers.

paragraphs: Gardening is related to farming. But farming is done on a much larger scale. A farm may have hundreds of square kilometres of plants and crops. A garden in a person's backyard usually only measures a few square meters. As well, farming is done as a business, to sell the crops, fruit, and vegetables that are produced. Gardening is done just to produce fruit or vegetables for the gardener's own family. Gardening is done as a hobby or as a recreation, not as a business.

paragraphs: Gardeners use tools to dig in the soil and water the crops. These tools include a spade, a fork, a hoe, a basket, a watering can, a hose, a Sprinkler, a bucket, a trowel and a wheelbarrow. With growing, technology gardeners now have tech like Self-watering containers, Garden sensors, Hydroponic systems and Indoor lighting systems.

paragraphs: In many countries and cultures, designing beautiful gardens is treated as a fine art. In Japan, for instance, Zen monks created Japanese gardens. In Europe in the 1700s, kings and queens had formal gardens built. One example is the gardens at the Versailles palace in Paris, France. Landscaping, the making of an artificial landscape, may include gardening and the designer may be a professional landscape architect.


title: Democracy

paragraphs: A democracy means "rule by the people". The name is used for different forms of government, where the people can take part in the decisions that affect the way their community is run. In modern times, there are different ways this can be done:

paragraphs: To become a stable democracy, a state usually undergoes a process of democratic consolidation.

paragraphs: A democracy is the opposite of a dictatorship, a type of government in which the power is centralized on the hands of a single person who rules the nation, lacks political pluralism, the people have no participation in the local politics and little to no freedom of expression.

paragraphs: After people hold an election, the candidates that won are determined. The way this is done can be simple: The candidate with the most votes gets elected. Very often, the politicians being elected belong to a political party. Instead of choosing a person, people vote for a party. The party with the most votes then picks the candidates.

paragraphs: Usually, the people being elected need to meet certain conditions: They need to have a certain age or a government body needs to determine that they are suitably qualified to perform the job.

paragraphs: Not everyone can vote in an election. Suffrage is only given to people who are citizens. Some groups may be excluded, for example prisoners.

paragraphs: For some elections, a country may make voting compulsory. Someone who does not vote, and who does not give a good reason usually has to pay a fine

paragraphs: In a direct democracy, everyone has the right to make laws together. One modern example of direct democracy is a referendum, which is the name for the kind of way to pass a law where everyone in the community votes on it. Direct democracies are not usually used to run countries, because it is hard to get millions of people to get together all the time to make laws and other decisions. There is not enough time.

paragraphs: In an indirect, or representative democracy, people choose representatives to make laws for them. These people can be mayors, councilmen, members of Parliament, or other government officials. This is a much more common kind of democracy. Large communities like cities and countries use this method, but it may not be needed for a small group.

paragraphs: This kind of government was developed long ago by the ancient Greeks in classical Athens. They had everyone who was a citizen (not slaves, women, foreigners, and children) get together in one area. The assembly would talk about what kinds of laws they wanted and voted on them. The Council would suggest the laws. All citizens were allowed in the assembly.

paragraphs: The Council were picked by draws (lottery). The participants in the Council would change every year and the number of people in the Council was at the most 500. For some offices the Athenian citizens would pick a leader by writing the name of their favorite candidate on a piece of stone or wood. The person with the most votes became the leader.

paragraphs: In the Middle Ages, there were many systems, although only a few people could join in at this time. The Parliament of England began from the Magna Carta, a document which said that the King's power was limited, and protected certain rights of the people. The first elected parliament was De Montfort's Parliament in England in 1265.

paragraphs: However, only a few people could actually join in. Parliament was chosen by only a few percent of the people (in 1780, fewer than 3% of people joined in). The ruler also had the power to call parliaments. After a long time, the power of Parliament began to grow. After the Glorious Revolution in 1688, the English Bill of Rights 1689 made Parliament more powerful. Later, the ruler became a symbol instead of having real power.

paragraphs: Democratic consolidation is the process by which a new democracy matures. Once mature, it is unlikely to revert to dictatorship rule without an external shock.

paragraphs: The idea is that unconsolidated democracies suffer from intermittent elections which are not free and fair. In other words, powerful groups are able to prevent the system working fairly.


title: Game

paragraphs: A game is something that people often do for fun. If so, it is different from work. Many sports are games, and there are many professional sports. In those cases, there is money to be made, because it is a type of entertainment.

paragraphs: There are different kinds of games using many kinds of equipment. For example, in video games, people often use controllers or their keyboard to control what happens on a screen, such as a television screens and computers ones too. In card games, players use playing cards. There are also games that use your body, such as the Kinect. Most games need equipment, but not always. Children's street games often need no equipment.

paragraphs: In board games, players may move pieces on a flat surface called a "board". The object of the game varies. In race-type games like ludo, the object is to reach the end first. In go the object is to surround more space. In soccer it is to score more goals. Some games have complicated rules, some have simple rules.

paragraphs: Ludwig Wittgenstein was probably the first academic philosopher to address the definition of the word "game". In his "Philosophical Investigations", Wittgenstein demonstrated that the elements (parts) of games, such as play, rules, and competition, all fail to correctly define what games are. He concluded that people apply the term "game" to a range of different human activities that are related, but not closely related.

paragraphs: "Homo Ludens" (Playing Man) is a book written in 1938 by Dutch historian Johan Huizinga. It discusses the importance of the play element in culture and society. Huizinga suggests that play is a condition for the generation of culture.

paragraphs: French sociologist Roger Caillois, in his book "Les jeux et les hommes (Games and Men)", said that a game is an activity which is these things:

paragraphs: Computer game designer Chris Crawford tried to define the word "game" using a series of comparisons:

paragraphs: Crawford's definition of a game is: an interactive, goal-oriented activity, with opponents to play against, and where players and opponents can interfere with each other.

paragraphs: The first writer of history was Herodotus, an ancient Greek. He wrote a book called “The Histories” around 440 BC, which is nearly 2500 years ago. Some of the stories he wrote were not true, and we don't know if this is one of those.

paragraphs: Herodotus tells us about king Atys; he ruled about 5,500 [five thousand five hundred] years ago in a country called Lydia. His country was in western Asia Minor, near modern Greece. Atys had a serious problem; his lands had very little food because the climate was not good for agriculture. The people of Lydia demonstrated patience and hoped that the good times of plenty would return.

paragraphs: But when things failed to get better, the people of Lydia thought up a strange solution for their problem. The path they took to fight their natural need to eat – the hungry times caused by the unusually hard climate - was to play games for one entire day so that they would not think about food. On the next day they would eat, so eating occurred every second day. In this way they passed 18 years, and in that time they invented dice, balls, and all the games commonly played today.

paragraphs: Games appear in all cultures all over the world, an ancient custom that brings people together for social opportunities. Games allow people to go beyond the limit of the immediate physical experience, to use their imagination. Common features of games include a finish that you cannot forecast, agreed upon rules, competition, separate place and time, imaginary elements, elements of chance, established goals and personal enjoyment. Games are used to teach, to build friendships, and to indicate status.

paragraphs: In his 1938 history book the Dutch writer Johan Huizinga says that games are older than human culture. He sees games as the beginning of complex human activities such as language, law, war, philosophy and art. Ancient people used bones to make the first games. Dice are very early game pieces. Games began as part of ancient religions. The oldest gaming pieces ever found – 49 [forty nine] small painted stones with pictures cut into them from 5,000 [five thousand] years ago – come from Turkey, so perhaps the history of Herodotus is true. One of the first board games, Senet, appears in ancient Egypt around 3,500 [three thousand five hundred] years ago. The ancient Greeks had a board game similar to checkers, and also many ball games.

paragraphs: The first reference to the game of Go occurs in Chinese records from around 2,400 [two thousand four hundred] years ago. Originally the game Go was used by political leaders to develop skill in strategy and mental skill. Knowing how to play Go was required by a Chinese gentleman, along with the skills of artistic writing or calligraphy, painting and the ability to play a musical instrument. These were regarded as the four most important skills. In ancient China, a gentleman had to pass a test in these four key skills in order to get a good paying job in the government. The Chinese brought Go to Korea, and it entered Japan around 1,500 [one thousand five hundred] years ago, and it has been popular ever since.

paragraphs: In March 2016 a Google computer program beat the best Go players in the world. Go is believed to be the most complex board game ever created. Is this computer program smarter than a person? Well, it did beat the South Korean Go master Lee Se-dol, and Lee was surprised by the result. He acknowledged defeat after three and a half hours of play. Demis Hassabis, who made the Google program, called it an important moment in history, because a machine beat the best person in the world in an intelligent game. Such computer programs rely on what is called artificial intelligence. Go is a two-player game of strategy said to have had an origin in China perhaps around 3,000 [three thousand] years ago. Players compete to win more territory by placing black and white “stones” on a board made up of 19 [nineteen] lines by 19 [nineteen] lines.

paragraphs: The first computer game that was ever created was probably the game OXO by Alexander Douglas in 1952. It was a version of tic-tac-toe. But most people consider the first true computer game where players actually participate to be Tennis for Two developed in 1958 by the physics scientist William Higginbotham. He wanted to teach about gravity, the force of attraction between masses. These men who created the early computer games did not forecast the potential for the popular use of games, because at that period in modern history it took a small room full of computers to make these games work! Another early game was Spacewar! developed in 1961 by MIT university student Steve Russell. In 1972 the company Atari produced the Pong game which was a huge commercial success; being a commercial success means that it made a lot of money. This was the true beginning of computer games that could be played at home.

paragraphs: Today, all around the world people spend more the 3,000,000,000 [three billion] hours a week playing computer games. This is equivalent to more than 342,000 [three hundred and forty two hundred thousand] years!


title: Nebraska

paragraphs: Nebraska is a state near to the center of the United States. Its capital is Lincoln and the largest city is Omaha. It touches the states of Wyoming, South Dakota, Iowa, Missouri, Colorado and Kansas.

paragraphs: Nebraska is known for its agriculture, especially beef and corn.

paragraphs: Nebraska has hot summers and cold winters. A temperature of 30 °C (which is about 86 °F) is common in the summer, and in the winter it can be -20 °C (which is about -4 °F) or colder at night.

paragraphs: On May 30, 1854, the United States government made a law called the Kansas-Nebraska Act. It made two territories called Kansas Territory and Nebraska Territory. In the 1860s, many people moved there to take free land from the government. Nebraska became a state on March 1, 1867.


title: Time

paragraphs: Time is the never-ending continued progress of existence and events. It happens in an apparently irreversible way from the past, through the present to the future.

paragraphs: To measure time, we can use anything that repeats itself regularly. One example is the start of a new day (as Earth rotates on its axis). Two more are the phases of the moon (as it orbits the Earth), and the seasons of the year (as the Earth orbits the Sun).

paragraphs: Even in ancient times, people developed calendars to keep track of the number of days in a year. They also developed sundials that used the moving shadows cast by the sun through the day to measure times smaller than a day. Today, highly accurate clocks can measure time in less than a billionth of a second. The study of time measurement is known as horology.

paragraphs: The SI (International Systems of Units) unit of time is one second, written as s. When used as a variable in mathematics, time is often represented by the symbol formula_1.

paragraphs: In Einsteinian physics, time and space can be combined into a single concept. For more on the topic, see space-time continuum.


title: Force

paragraphs: In physics, a force is an interaction between "objects". It is called an interaction because if one object acts on another, its action is "matched" by a reaction from the other object. This idea is known as Newton's third law, where "action" and "reaction" are "equal and opposite" ("matched").

paragraphs: The "objects" are just the things the force acts between. Different forces act between different sorts of object. For example, gravity acts between objects with mass, like the sun and the earth. Another example is electromagnetic force, which acts between objects with charge, like an electron and the nucleus of an atom. "Gravity" and "electromagnetic force" are two examples of forces.

paragraphs: A force changes the state of an object (some physical quantity changes) or, strictly, the states of two objects, since the force is an interaction. For example, a force causes an affected object to be pushed or pulled in a certain direction. This changes the object's momentum. Forces cause objects to accelerate, add to the object's overall pressure, change direction, or change shape. The strength of a force is measured in Newtons (N). There are four fundamental forces in physics.

paragraphs: A force is always a push, pull, or a twist, and it affects objects by pushing them up, pulling them down, pushing them to a side, or by changing their motion or shape in some other way.

paragraphs: According to Newton's Second Law of Motion, the formula for finding force is:

paragraphs: and formula_4 is the acceleration of the object.

paragraphs: This formula says that when there is a force on an object then it will move faster and faster.

paragraphs: If the force is weak and the object is heavy, then it will take a long time to increase the speed very much,

paragraphs: but if the force is strong and the object is light, then it will move a lot faster very quickly.

paragraphs: Gravity is an acceleration. Everything that has a mass is being pulled toward the Earth because of that acceleration. This pull is a force called weight.

paragraphs: One can take the equation above and change formula_4 to the standard gravity "g", then a formula about the gravity on earth can be found:

paragraphs: where formula_7 is the weight of an object,

paragraphs: and formula_9 is the acceleration due to gravity at sea level. It is about formula_10.

paragraphs: This formula says that when you know the mass of an object, then you can calculate how much force there is on the object because of gravity.

paragraphs: You must be on earth to use this formula. If you are on the moon or another planet, then you can use the formula but "g" will be different.

paragraphs: Force is a vector, so it can be stronger or weaker and it can also point in different directions.

paragraphs: Gravity always points down into the ground (if you are not in space).

paragraphs: Another equation that says something about gravity is:

paragraphs: formula_2 is force; formula_13 is the gravitational constant, which is used to show how gravity accelerates an object; formula_14 is the mass of one object; formula_15 is the mass of the second object; and formula_16 is the distance between the objects.

paragraphs: This equation is used to calculate how the earth moves around the sun and how the moon moves around the earth. It is also used to calculate how other planets, stars and objects in space move around.

paragraphs: The equation says that if two objects are very heavy then there is a strong force between them because of gravity.

paragraphs: If they are very far apart then the force is weaker.


title: Laboratory techniques

paragraphs: Laboratory techniques are the techniques of handling the various pieces of apparatus.

paragraphs: Ways to dissolve a solid in a liquid or to mix two liquids in a test tube:


title: International System of Units

paragraphs: The International System of Units is the standard modern form of the metric system. The name of this system can be shortened or abbreviated to SI, from the French name "Système International d'unités".

paragraphs: The International System of Units is a system of measurement based on 7 base units: the metre (length), kilogram (mass), second (time), ampere (electric current), Kelvin (temperature), mole (quantity), and candela (brightness). These base units can be used in combination with each other. This creates "SI derived units", which can be used to describe other quantities, such as volume, energy, pressure, and velocity.

paragraphs: The system is used almost globally. Only Myanmar, Liberia, and the United States do not use SI as their official system of measurement. In these countries, though, SI is commonly used in science and medicine.

paragraphs: The metric system was created in France after the French Revolution in 1789. The original system only had two standard units, the kilogram and the metre. The metric system became popular amongst scientists.

paragraphs: In the 1860s, James Clerk Maxwell and William Thomson (later known as Lord Kelvin) suggested a system with three base units - length, mass, and time. Other units would be derived from those three base units. Later, this suggestion would be used to create the centimetre-gram-second system of units (CGS), which used the centimetre as the base unit for length, the gram as the base unit for mass, and the second as the base unit for time. It also added the dyne as the base unit for force and the erg as the base unit for energy.

paragraphs: As scientists studied electricity and magnetism, they realized other base units were needed to describe these subjects. By the middle of the 20th century, many different versions of the metric system were being used. This was very confusing.

paragraphs: In 1954, the 9th General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM) created the first version of the International System of Units. The six base units that they used were the metre, kilogram, second, ampere, Kelvin, and candela. The seventh base unit, the mole, was added in 1971.

paragraphs: SI is now used almost everywhere in the world, except in the United States, Liberia and Myanmar, where the older imperial units are still widely used. Other countries, most of them historically related to the British Empire, are slowly replacing the old imperial system with the metric system or using both systems at the same time.

paragraphs: The SI base units are measurements used by scientists and other people around the world. All the other units can be written by combining these seven base units in different ways. These other units are called "derived units".

paragraphs: Derived units are created by combining the base units. The base units can be divided, multiplied, or raised to powers. Some derived units have special names. Usually these were created to make calculations simpler.

paragraphs: Very large or very small measurements can be written using prefixes. Prefixes are added to the beginning of the unit to make a new unit. For example, the prefix "kilo-" means "1000" times the original unit and the prefix "milli-" means "0.001" times the original unit. So one "kilometre" is 1000 metres and one "milligram" is a 1000th of a gram.


title: Lake Michigan

paragraphs: Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes in North America. It has a surface area of . It is wide. Lake Michigan is the 5th largest lake in the world.

paragraphs: Lake Michigan is surrounded by the U.S. states of Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Michigan. It is the only Great Lake that is not partly in Canada. The largest city on the shore of Lake Michigan is Chicago.

paragraphs: The earliest time that people lived near the lake was 800 CE. The word "Michigan" originally meant the lake itself. It is believed to come from the Ojibwa word "mishigami" meaning "great water".

paragraphs: The first person to reach the deepest part of Lake Michigan was J. Val Klump. Klump reached the bottom with a submarine as part of a 1985 research expedition.

paragraphs: Twelve million people live along Lake Michigan's shores. They are mainly in the Chicago and Milwaukee areas.


title: Gas syringe

paragraphs: A gas syringe is a tool used in a laboratory. It is used to collect a gas or to measure the volume of a gas.

paragraphs: Simple systems can be settled in the laboratory to collect gas or to compress it. It is usually used to explain Gas Law.


title: Mixture

paragraphs: In chemistry, a mixture is a substance that is made up of two or more simpler substances. These substances can be chemical elements or compounds. A mixture can be made of liquids, solids, or gases.

paragraphs: A mixture is not the same as a compound which is made of two or more atoms connected together. For instance, a mixture of the gases hydrogen and nitrogen contains hydrogen and nitrogen, not the compound ammonia which is made of hydrogen and nitrogen atoms.

paragraphs: A mixture where the different parts can be distinguished easily is called "heterogenous", one where this is not the case is called "homogeneous". A third form is called colloid.

paragraphs: If one substance in a mixture dissolves in the other, it is called a solution. For example, if sugar is put in water it forms a mixture, then dissolves to make a solution. If it does not dissolve, it would be called a suspension.

paragraphs: Solids can be mixtures also. Alloys are mixtures. Many kinds of soil and rock are mixtures of different minerals. Thus, a mixture is made of two or more elements and/or compounds which are not chemically combined.


title: Language family

paragraphs: Language families are groups of languages that are related to each other because they come from a common older language. The languages in such a family are similar in their vocabulary or structure.

paragraphs: For example, French and Spanish both come from Latin. Latin was spoken a long time ago, and some of the people who spoke it started to speak one way, saying, for example, for good: "bueno" while another group started saying "bon." Most words are said a little differently in Spanish and French, so the two are called different languages.

paragraphs: Most languages belong to a language family, but some languages do not. These languages are called Language isolates.

paragraphs: There also are constructed languages, like for example Esperanto. Constructed languages are made for different reasons: making a 'world language', for fun, for use in fiction, etc.

paragraphs: Some language families with sub-families and language examples:


title: Chess

paragraphs: Chess is a board game for two players. It is played in a square board, made of 64 smaller squares, with eight squares on each side. Each player starts with sixteen pieces: eight pawns, two knights, two bishops, two rooks, one queen and one king. The goal of the game is for each player to try and checkmate the king of the opponent. Checkmate is a threat ('check') to the opposing king which no move can stop. It ends the game.

paragraphs: During the game the two opponents take turns to move one of their pieces to a different square of the board. One player ('White') has pieces of a light color; the other player ('Black') has pieces of a dark color. There are rules about how pieces move, and about taking the opponent's pieces off the board. The player with white pieces always makes the first move. Because of this, White has a small advantage, and wins more often than Black in tournament games.

paragraphs: Chess is popular and is often played in competitions called chess tournaments. It is enjoyed in many countries, and is a national hobby in Russia.

paragraphs: Most historians agree that the game of chess was first played in northern India during the Gupta Empire in the 6th century . This early type of chess was known as "Chaturanga", a Sanskrit word for the military. The Gupta chess pieces were divided like their military into the infantry, cavalry, elephants, and chariots. In time, these pieces became the pawn, knight, bishop, and rook. The English words "chess" and "check" both come from the Persian word "shāh" meaning king.

paragraphs: The earliest written evidence of chess is found in three romances (epic stories) written in Sassanid Persia around 600. The game was known as "chatrang" or "shatranj". When Persia was taken over by Muslims (633–644) the game was spread to all parts of the Muslim world. Muslim traders carried the game to Russia and to Western Europe. By the year 1000 it had spread all over Europe. In the 13th century a Spanish manuscript called "Libro de los Juegos" describes the games of "shatranj" (chess), backgammon, and dice.

paragraphs: The game changed greatly between about 1470 to 1495. The rules of the older game were changed in the West so that some of the pieces (queen, bishop) had more scope, development of the pieces was faster, and the game more exciting. The new game formed the basis of modern international chess. Historians of chess consider this as the most important change since the game was invented.

paragraphs: The rules of chess are governed by the World Chess Federation, which is known by the initials FIDE, meaning "Fédération Internationale des Échecs". The rules are in the section "Laws of Chess" of the "FIDE Handbook". FIDE also give rules and guidelines for chess tournaments.

paragraphs: Chess is played on a square board divided into eight rows of squares called ranks and eight columns called files, with a dark square in each player's lower left corner. This is altogether 64 squares. The colors of the squares are laid out in a checker (chequer) pattern in light and dark squares. To make speaking and writing about chess easy, each square has a name. Each rank has a number from 1 to 8, and each file a letter from "a" to "h". This means that every square on the board has its own label, such as g1 or f5. The pieces are in white and black sets. The players are called White and Black, and at the start of a game each player has 16 pieces. The 16 pieces are one king, one queen, two rooks, two bishops, two knights and eight pawns. in this game out can get up to a quadruple pon, king, knight, queen, and also the king although it is very rare.

paragraphs: Definitions: vertical lines are "files"; horizontal lines are "ranks"; lines at 45° are "diagonals".

paragraphs: Each piece has its own way of moving around the board. The "X" marks the squares where the piece can move.

paragraphs: Most pieces capture as they move. If a piece lands on an opponent's piece, the opposing piece is taken off the board. There are three special cases:

paragraphs: If a move is made which attacks the opposing king, that king is said to be 'in check'. The player whose king is checked must make a move to remove the check. The options are: moving the king, capturing the threatening piece, or moving another piece between the threatening piece and the king. If the player whose king is in danger cannot do any of these things, it is checkmate, and the player loses the game.

paragraphs: Once in every game, each king can make a special move, known as "castling". When the king castles, it moves two squares to the left or right. When this happens, the rook is moved to stand on the opposite side of the King. Castling is only allowed if all of these rules are kept:

paragraphs: "En passant" ('in passing' in French) is a special capture. It is only available when a pawn moves forward two squares past an opposing pawn on an adjacent file. The opposing pawn must be on the 5th rank from its own side. Then the opponent's pawn can capture the double-mover "as if it had only moved one square forward". This option is open on the next move only.

paragraphs: For example, if the black pawn has just moved up two squares from g7 to g5, then the white pawn on f5 can take it by "en passant" on g6. The "en passant" rule was developed when pawns were allowed to make their double move. The rule made it more difficult for players to avoid pawn exchanges and blockade the position. It kept the game more open.

paragraphs: When a pawn moves to its eighth rank, it must be changed for a piece: a queen, rook, bishop, or knight of the same color (player's choice). Normally, the pawn is "queened", but in some advantageous cases another piece is chosen, called 'under-promotion'.

paragraphs: Checkmates are rare in competitive chess. The most common ends are decisions made by one or both players.

paragraphs: The FIDE rules for competitive chess include all the above rules, plus several others.

paragraphs: If players wish to adjust a piece on the board, they must first say "J'adoube" (I adjust) or the equivalent. Apart from that, if a piece is touched it must be moved if possible. This is the 'touch and move' law. If no legal move is possible with the touched piece, the player must make a legal move with another piece. When a player's hand leaves a piece after moving it then the move is over and may not be changed (if the move was legal).

paragraphs: There are a few famous cases where players appeared to break this rule without being punished. The most famous example was by the then World Champion Garry Kasparov against Judit Polgar in a top-class tournament.

paragraphs: Competitive games of chess must be played with special chess clocks which time a player only when it is his/her turn to move. The essence is that a player has to make a certain number of moves in a certain total time. After moving, the player presses a button on the clock. This stops the player's clock, and start's the opponent's clock. Usually the clocks are mechanical, but some are electronic. Electronic clocks can be set to various programs, and they can count moves made.

paragraphs: The moves of a chess game are written down by using a special chess notation. This is compulsory for any competitive game. Usually algebraic chess notation is used. In algebraic notation, each square has one and only one name (whether you are looking from White's side of the board or Black's). Here, moves are written in the format of: initial of piece moved – file where it moved – rank where it moved. For example, Qg5 means "queen moves to the g-file and 5th rank" (that is, to the square g5). If there are two pieces of the same type that can move to the same square, one more letter or number is added to show the file or rank from which the piece moved, e.g. Ngf3 means "knight from the g-file moves to the square f3". The letter P showing a pawn is not used, so that e4 means "pawn moves to the square e4".

paragraphs: If the piece makes a capture, "x" is written before the square in which the capturing piece lands on. Example: "Bxf3" means "bishop captures on f3". When a pawn makes a capture, the file from which the pawn left is used in place of a piece initial. For example: exd5 means "pawn captures on d5."

paragraphs: If a pawn moves to its eighth rank, getting a promotion, the piece chosen is written after the move, for example e1Q or e1=Q. Castling is written by the special notations 0-0 for kingside castling and 0-0-0 for queenside. A move which places the opponent's king in check normally has the notation "+" added. Checkmate can be written as # or ++. At the end of the game, 1-0 means "White won", 0-1 means "Black won" and ½-½ is a draw.

paragraphs: In print, "figurines" (like those in diagrams, but smaller) are used for the pieces rather than initials. This has the advantage of being language-free, whereas the initials of pieces are different in every language. Typefaces which include figurines can be purchased by chess authors. Also, basic notes can be added by using a system of well-known punctuation marks and other symbols. For example: ! means a good move, !! means a very good move, ? means a bad move, ?? a very bad move (sometimes called a "blunder"), !? a creative move that may be good, and ?! a doubtful move. The purpose of these methods is to make publications readable in a wider range of countries. For example, one kind of a simple "trap" known as the Scholar's mate, as in the diagram to the right, may be recorded:

paragraphs: 3. Bc4 Nf6?? (3...Qe7 would prevent the mate, with 4...Nf6 next move)

paragraphs: With figurines in place of the initials, this would be understood by players everywhere.

paragraphs: Players may not smoke in the playing area, but only in areas designated by the organiser. Mobile phones may not be used or even switched on. Players may not use any sources of advice, and may not analyse on any device. These and other matters are covered by the FIDE Laws on the conduct of the players.

paragraphs: Chess is an easy game to learn the moves, but a difficult game to master. Strategy is an important part of the game. First of all comes the "openings", about which a great deal is now known. The best-known move, the King's Pawn opening, is the white player moving his king's pawn on e2 forward two spaces to e4. Black can reply to that move in various ways.

paragraphs: The first moves of a chess game are called the "opening". A chess opening is a name given to a series of opening moves. Recognized patterns of opening moves are "openings" and have been given names such as the Ruy Lopez or Sicilian defence. They are listed in reference works such as the "Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings". There are dozens of different openings. They range from gambits, where a pawn, say, is offered for fast development (e.g. the King's Gambit), to slower openings which lead to a maneuvering type of game (e.g. the Réti opening). In some opening lines, the sequence thought best for both sides has been worked out to 20–30 moves, but most players avoid such lines. Expert players study openings throughout their chess career, as opening theory keeps on developing.

paragraphs: The basic aims of the opening phase are:

paragraphs: Players think, and chess databases prove, that White, by virtue of the first move, begins the game with a better chance. Black normally tries to equalise, or to get some counterplay.

paragraphs: The middlegame is the part of the game after most pieces have been developed. It is where most games are won and lost. Many games will end in resignation even before an endgame takes place.<ref name="H/W">Hooper D. and Whyld K. 1992. "The Oxford companion to chess". 2nd ed, Oxford University Press.</ref>

paragraphs: A middlegame position has a structure. That structure is determined by the opening. The simplest way to learn the middlegame is to select an opening and learn it well (see examples in English opening and French defence).

paragraphs: These are some things to look for when looking at a middlegame position:

paragraphs: Here is an example from the borderline between opening and middlegame. In the diagram to the left, White will operate mainly on the Q-side, and Black on the K-side.

paragraphs: White, to play, may wish to cope with Black playing 10...Nf4. He can do this by playing 10.g3, or by playing 10.Re1 so that if 10...Nf4 11.Bf1 will preserve the bishop (in this position an important defensive piece). Or maybe White will plough ahead with 10.c5, the key move on the Q-side.

paragraphs: ChessBase shows that the number of tournament games with these choices were:

paragraphs: The data base also shows that the overall results were significantly better for 10.Re1. What the player does is note the features on the board, and formulate a plan which takes the features into account. Then the player works out a sequence of moves. Of course, in practice, the opponent is interfering with the plan at every step!

paragraphs: The endgame (or "end game" or "ending") is the part of the game when there are few pieces left on the board. There are three main strategic differences between earlier parts of the game and endgame:

paragraphs: All endgame positions can be put into two camps. On the one hand are positions which may be won by force. On the other hand, are positions which are drawn, or which should be drawn. The ones that are drawn for certain may be legally drawn (mate could not happen) or drawn by chess experience (no sane defence could lose). All endgames in master chess revolve around the borderline between winning and drawing. Generally, once a 'textbook' drawn position is reached the players will agree a draw; otherwise they play on.

paragraphs: Endgames can be studied according to the types of pieces that remain on board. For example, king and pawn endgames have only kings and pawns on one or both sides and the task of the stronger side is to promote one of the pawns. Other endings are studied according to the pieces on board other than kings, e.g. rook and pawn versus rook endgame.

paragraphs: Basic checkmates are positions in which one side has only a king and the other side has one or two pieces, enough to checkmate the opponent's king. They are usually learned at the beginner stage. Examples are mate with K+Q v K; K+R v K; K+2B v K; K+B&N v K (this one is quite difficult).

paragraphs: There are two types of chess programs. One is to play against you; the other is to help you become a better player by learning more. The two types can be made to work together, though they have different functions.

paragraphs: Chess engines are computer systems that can play chess games against human opponents. Quite a number have been devised; they can play at master level, though their processes are quite different from a human being.

paragraphs: Fritz is a German chess program by Frans Morsch and Mathias Feist, published by ChessBase. It is the current market leader. There is also a different kind of Fritz called "Deep Fritz" that is made for multi-processing. The latest kinds of the consumer products are Deep Fritz 12 and Fritz 12. They came with reviews by Josh Waitzkin, who said that "Fritz is like a woman that you can't get with. It just drives (makes) you to think in ways you've never thought before".

paragraphs: Shredder, also a ChessBase product, is claimed to be the strongest engine at present.

paragraphs: Rybka, a product by Vasik Rajlich, is Shredder's main rival.

paragraphs: Chess databases do not actually play. They give access to the recorded history of master chess. There are two components. First, there is the software, which lets one search and organise the database material. Then there is the actual database, typically one to four million games.

paragraphs: In practice, databases are used for two purposes. First, for a player to train his/her ability at specific openings. Second, to look up specific opponents to see what they play, and prepare against them beforehand.

paragraphs: The existence of chess databases is one of the reasons young players can achieve mastery at an early age.

paragraphs: ChessBase is the biggest database, and widely used by masters. Although it can be used online, most users download the software and data onto their computer. If that computer happens to be a laptop, then they might take the laptop to tournaments, to help prepare for games. Players may not use computers or any other aid during games, but much preparation goes on behind the scenes. ChessBase has to be purchased, and it is not cheap.

paragraphs: This is a Dutch magazine for advanced players, which runs an on-line database called NicBase as part of its services. NicBase is free, and has over a million games.

paragraphs: Chessgames.com runs an on-line database of games. It is partly free, but requires registration. Full access to all its facilities is by a fairly modest subscription. It has over half a million games on its database.

paragraphs: There are websites which a player can join (for a fee) and play on line. In this case, the subscriber will play against other subscribers, not a computer. All standards of players are amongst the members, and various events are on offer at different rates of play. The two leaders in this market are:

paragraphs: These are endgames for improvers, based on reviews by John Watson.


title: Gold

paragraphs: Gold is a soft, dense, yellow metal. It is a chemical element. Its chemical symbol is Au. Its atomic number is 79. As a precious metal, it has been used for many thousands of years by people all over the world, for jewelry, and as money. Gold is important because it is rare, but also easier to use than other rare metals. It is also used to repair and replace teeth and in electronic equipment such as computers. The color of this metal is also called "gold".

paragraphs: Mining methods for gold are similar to other metals. Gold is so valued that the discovery of a new place to mine has sometimes caused a gold rush. The deepest workplaces for miners in the world are in South African gold mines.

paragraphs: Often, gold is found as a native metal. This means it is not part of an ore, and does not need smelting. It may be in large, pure nuggets but more often must be separated from other minerals and soil.

paragraphs: Most of the gold on Earth is deep inside the Earth's core because it is dense. Nearly all discovered gold was deposited on the surface by meteorites.

paragraphs: In chemistry, gold is chemical element 79, a transition metal in Group 11. It has an atomic weight of 199.966 a.m.u. Its symbol is Au, from the Latin word for gold, "aurum". It is a "noble metal" meaning it has low chemical reactivity.

paragraphs: Gold is very soft. It is malleable, meaning a goldsmith can hammer it into thin metal sheets. It is also ductile, which means it can be pulled into wire. When it is used in money or in jewelry, it is often alloyed with silver or some other metal to make it harder.

paragraphs: Most metals are gray in color. Gold is yellow because of the way its electrons behave. The only other metal in common use that has a non-gray color is copper. Caesium also has a gold-like color, but it is not commonly used as a metal because it reacts with water.

paragraphs: Gold is a fairly good electrical conductor, but not as good as copper or silver. Copper and brass electrical connectors, especially those used with computer and audio/video equipment, are often plated with gold for corrosion resistance.

paragraphs: Gold can mean that something or someone is very good or has done very well. A gold medal is often the given to the first-place winner in a race or other sports. Something that is in some way good may be given gold status.

paragraphs: Metallic gold is non-toxic, which is unusual for a heavy metal. Soluble gold compounds, however, are toxic to the liver and kidneys. Gold is non-flammable, even in a pure oxygen environment or when finely powdered. It does not react with most household or laboratory chemicals. Gold is commonly processed with cyanide, which is highly toxic. Most of the cyanide is destroyed in the production process, so it is not present in the final product, but it can be a hazard to workers in a gold processing plant. Since gold conducts electricity, gold jewelry should never be worn when working with electricity.


title: Century

paragraphs: A century is a way to describe a length of time. One century is one hundred years. The ancient Romans used the word "centuria" to describe a group of about one hundred soldiers, organized into a single unit.

paragraphs: The Roman numeral for 100 is "C". The word for 100 in Latin is "centum".

paragraphs: A centenary is a celebration of something that happened 100 years ago. A bicentenary celebrates 200 years, a tercentenary 300 years.

paragraphs: A centenarian is someone who is 100 years old or more.

paragraphs: Centennial means something that happens every 100 years, or that lasts 100 years.


title: Kilogram

paragraphs: The kilogram is the base unit of mass in the International System of Units (SI). It is in widely used in science, engineering, and commerce worldwide. The kilogram is exactly the mass of one litre of water.

paragraphs: As of May 20, 2019, the definition of the kilogram is based on the Planck constant as .

paragraphs: There are attempts to define the kilogram in other ways. One example specifies a number of atoms of a certain substance (at a certain temperature).

paragraphs: One kilogram is a little more than 2.2 pounds. One tonne is one thousand kilograms. One litre of water weighs almost exactly one kilogram, at , at sea level. This was the basis of the definition of the gram in 1795.

paragraphs: In 1879, the piece of metal was made. It was officially chosen to be the kilogram in 1889. It was made of 90% platinum and 10% iridium. Those metals were chosen because they do not rust or corrode like most metals. It is stored in a vault at the BIPM in Sèvres, France. From 1795 to 1799, the unit of mass was not called "kilogram" but was called "grave".

paragraphs: The original kilogram is kept inside bell jars. Over time, dust can collect on it. Before it is measured, it is cleaned to get the original size.

paragraphs: The kilogram is a unit of mass. In normal language, measuring mass defines how "heavy" is something. This is not scientifically correct. Mass is an "inertial property". It measures the tendency of an object to stay at a given speed when no force acts on it.

paragraphs: Sir Isaac Newton's laws of motion contain an important formula: "F" = "ma". "F" is force. "m" is mass. "a" is acceleration. An object with a mass ("m") of one kilogram will accelerate ("a") at one meter per second per second when acted upon by a force ("F") of one newton. This about one-tenth the acceleration due to earth’s gravity.

paragraphs: The weight of matter depends on the strength of gravity. The mass of matter does not. The mass of an object is the same everywhere. Matter has invariant mass assuming it is not traveling at a relativistic speed with respect to an observer. According to Einstein’s theory of special relativity, the relativistic mass (apparent mass with respect to an observer) of an object or particle with rest mass "m" increases with its speed as "M"=γ"m" (where γ is the Lorentz factor). This effect is vanishingly small at everyday speeds, which are by orders of magnitude less than the speed of light, but becomes noticeable at very high speeds. For example, traveling at just 10% the speed of light with respect to an observer—exceedingly fast compared to everyday speeds (about )—increases an object’s relativistic mass just over 0.5%.

paragraphs: As regards the kilogram, relativity’s effect upon the constancy of matter’s mass is simply an interesting scientific phenomenon that has zero effect on the definition of the kilogram and its practical realizations.</ref> Objects are "weightless" for astronauts in microgravity. However, the objects still have their mass and inertia. Astronaut must use ten times as much force to accelerate a ten-kilogram object at the same rate as a one-kilogram object.

paragraphs: A common swing, as shown in the picture, can show the relationship of force, mass and acceleration. Someone could push an adult on the swing. The adult would accelerate slowly. They would only swing a short distance forward before the swing would change direction. If a child is sitting on the swing, then the child would swing forward faster and further.


title: Second

paragraphs: The second (symbol: s), sometimes abbreviated sec., is the name of a unit of time. It is one of the seven SI base units. That means that the second is used to build the foundations of many other units (e.g. speed is a meter per second, in SI units). One second is officially measured as the time taken by 9,192,631,770 cycles of radiation that comes from electrons moving between two energy levels of the caesium-133 atom.

paragraphs: The second is not the only unit of time. Other units of time include minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, and years. There are 60 seconds in one minute, 60 minutes (or 3,600 seconds) in one hour, and 24 hours (86,400 seconds) in one day. With the only exception of the second, all other units of time are not considered SI units.

paragraphs: Metric prefixes are frequently combined with the word "second" to denote subdivisions of the second, "e.g.", the millisecond (one thousandth of a second) and nanosecond (one billionth of a second). Though SI prefixes may also be used to form multiples of the second (such as “kilosecond”, or one thousand seconds), such units are rarely used in practice. More commonly encountered, non-SI units of time such as the minute, hour, and day increase by multiples of 60 and 24 (rather than by powers of ten as in the SI system).

paragraphs: Under the International System of Units, the second is currently defined as the duration of 9,192,631,770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the caesium-133 atom. This definition refers to a caesium atom at rest at a temperature of (absolute zero). The ground state is defined at zero magnetic field. The second thus defined is equivalent to the ephemeris second.

paragraphs: The international standard symbol for a second is s (see ISO 31-1)

paragraphs: There are 31,536,000 seconds in a common year, 31,622,400 seconds in a leap year, and 31,557,600 seconds in a Julian year

paragraphs: Originally, the second was known as a "second minute", meaning the second minute (i.e. small) division of an hour. The first division was known as a "prime minute" and is equivalent to the minute we know today. Third and fourth minutes were sometimes used in calculations.

paragraphs: The factor of 60 comes from the Babylonians who used a sexagesimal (base-60) numeral system. However, the Babylonians did not subdivide their time units sexagesimally (except for the day). The hour had been defined by the ancient Egyptians as either 1/12 of daytime or 1/12 of nighttime, hence both varied with the seasons. Greek astronomers, for example Hipparchus and Ptolemy, defined the hour as 1/24 of a mean solar day. Sexagesimally subdividing this mean solar hour made the second 1/86,400 of a mean solar day.

paragraphs: Greek time periods, for example the mean synodic month, were usually specified quite precisely because they were "calculated" from carefully selected eclipses separated by hundreds of years—individual "mean" synodic months and similar time periods cannot be measured. Nevertheless, with the development of pendulum clocks keeping "mean time" (as opposed to the "apparent time" displayed by sundials), the second became measurable. The seconds pendulum was proposed as a unit of length as early as 1660 by the Royal Society of London. The duration of a beat or half period (one swing, not back and forth) of a pendulum one metre in length on the Earth's surface is approximately one second.

paragraphs: In 1956 the second was defined in terms of the period of revolution of the Earth around the Sun for a particular epoch, because by then it had become recognized that the Earth's rotation on its own axis was not sufficiently uniform as a standard of time. The Earth's motion was described in Newcomb's Tables of the Sun, which provides a formula for the motion of the Sun at the epoch 1900 based on astronomical observations made between 1750 and 1892. The second thus defined is

paragraphs: This definition was ratified by the Eleventh General Conference on Weights and Measures in 1960. The "tropical year" in the definition was not measured, but calculated from a formula describing a tropical year which decreased linearly over time, hence the curious reference to a specific "instantaneous" tropical year. Because this second was the independent variable of time used in ephemerides of the Sun and Moon during most of the twentieth century (Newcomb's Tables of the Sun were used from 1900 through 1983, and Brown's Tables of the Moon were used from 1920 through 1983), it was called the ephemeris second.

paragraphs: When atomic clocks were made, they became the basis of the definition of the second, rather than the revolution of the Earth around the Sun.

paragraphs: Following several years of work, Louis Essen from the National Physical Laboratory (Teddington, England) and William Markowitz from the United States Naval Observatory (USNO) determined the relationship between the hyperfine transition frequency of the caesium atom and the ephemeris second. Using a common-view measurement method based on the received signals from radio station WWV, they determined the orbital motion of the Moon about the Earth, from which the apparent motion of the Sun could be inferred, in terms of time as measured by an atomic clock. As a result, in 1967 the Thirteenth General Conference on Weights and Measures defined the second of atomic time in the International System of Units (SI) as

paragraphs: The definition of the second was later refined at the 1997 meeting of the BIPM to include the statement

paragraphs: The revised definition would seem to imply that the ideal atomic clock would contain a single caesium atom at rest emitting a single frequency. In practice, however, the definition means that high-precision realizations of the second should compensate for the effects of the ambient temperature (black-body radiation) within which atomic clocks operate and extrapolate accordingly to the value of the second as defined above.

paragraphs: Sometimes in role-playing games a second is used to refer to a small period of time or a single turn of combat. It is used as a standard moment of time, and does not necessarily refer to a real second, and could be shorter or longer depending on the scenario.