title: Conor Oberst

text: In 1994, following a Slowdown Virginia show, Oberst, along with Joel Petersen and brothers Todd Fink and Clark Baechle, formed a band called Norman Bailer, later known as The Faint.


title: Conor Oberst

text: A few days later, Oberst told the other members of the band that they had a show in two weeks at Kilgore's. Despite having never performed together, they produced nine songs to perform. An album, "Sine Sierra", was released (on cassette only) in 1995.


title: Conor Oberst

text: Oberst formed the rock band Commander Venus in 1994 with Tim Kasher, Ben Armstrong, and Robb Nansel. They recorded two albums: "Do You Feel at Home?" (1995) and "The Uneventful Vacation" (1997). Kasher later went on to form Cursive and Nansel was the co-founder of Saddle Creek Records. Kasher left the group to focus on Cursive as they were about to go into the studio to record their second album, and was replaced by Todd Baechle. Commander Venus disbanded in 1998.


title: Conor Oberst

text: The Magnetas were only active for a very brief period of time in 1996 in Omaha. Along with Oberst, band members included Todd Fink (the Faint) and Chris Hughes (Beep Beep). They recorded three songs, only one of which ("Annex Anex") was released on Ghostmeat Records "Parts" compilation album. Two other confirmed recordings exist: "Clatter" and "Science Fiction in Schools".


title: Conor Oberst

text: In January 1996, Oberst began playing drums in a group named Park Ave., alongside Clark Baechle, Jenn Bernard, Neely Jenkins (now in the band Tilly and the Wall), and Jamie Williams (also in Tilly and the Wall). The group only played between 10 and 15 shows and made a handful of recordings (several of them with Mike Mogis as producer). The group disbanded in 1998 when Williams, the singer and primary songwriter, moved to London, England. In 1999, Urinine Records released their only album, "When Jamie Went to London ... We Broke Up", which has also now been re-released under Team Love.


title: Conor Oberst

text: Oberst founded Bright Eyes as a solo project in 1995, and after the disbanding of Commander Venus, released "A Collection of Songs Written and Recorded 1995–1997" in January 1998. This was followed quickly by "Letting Off the Happiness", released in November of the same year. It featured members of numerous bands and was recorded in the Oberst family basement. One year later, Bright Eyes released its first EP, "Every Day and Every Night". Bright Eyes' third album, "Fevers and Mirrors" was released in May 2000; it was ranked 170 on Pitchfork's list of the top 200 albums of the 2000s.


title: Conor Oberst

text: With the release of 2002's "Lifted or The Story Is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground", Bright Eyes received national attention and Oberst was proclaimed a breakthrough artist by several notable magazines. On January 25, 2005, Bright Eyes simultaneously released two new albums: the folk "I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning" and more electronic-pop "Digital Ash in a Digital Urn". "Time" listed "I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning" as one of the top ten albums of 2005.


title: Conor Oberst

text: The "Four Winds" EP was released in March 2007, followed by their seventh album, "Cassadaga" in April. The song "Four Winds" was named a top 100 song of 2007 by "Rolling Stone". Oberst spent the next two years focusing on other music projects, and in June 2009 told "Rolling Stone" he wanted to make one final album with Bright Eyes before retiring the group. The band subsequently released "The People's Key" on Conor's 31st birthday, February 15, 2011.


title: Conor Oberst

text: In January 2020 the band announced their return to both touring and recording after a nine-year hiatus, and released their tenth album "Down in the Weeds, Where the World Once Was" on August 21, 2020.


title: Conor Oberst

text: Oberst is a guitarist and singer for Desaparecidos. The music and lyrics of Desaparecidos differ greatly from Bright Eyes, having more in common with punk rock than Oberst's usual folk rock. The lyrics are generally social commentary on the state of affairs in America and the pitfalls of the suburban lifestyle, as opposed to the more introspective lyrics of Bright Eyes. Desaparecidos was active as a band between 2001–2002 but have regrouped to play shows in the Omaha area. They had two releases in 2002: a single for "The Happiest Place on Earth" and the full-length "Read Music / Speak Spanish", on Saddle Creek Records.


title: Conor Oberst

text: In 2012, the band regrouped and self-released the 7-inch single "MariKKKopa/Backsell", as well as continuing to tour. In 2013, they released two more 7-inches independently, "Anonymous / The Left is Right" and "Te Amo Camila Vallejo / The Underground Man" (dedicated to the Chilean student activist Camila Vallejo), and complemented these releases with yet another tour. In 2015, the band announced the release of a new studio album, "Payola", on June 23 on Epitaph Records.


title: Conor Oberst

text: On October 28, 2015, it was announced that Conor Oberst had been hospitalized due to "laryngitis, anxiety, and exhaustion", according to a press release. The entirety of Desaparecidos' remaining tour dates were cancelled and Oberst returned to his hometown of Omaha to recuperate.


title: Conor Oberst

text: In November 2007, it was reported that Oberst would work on a solo record with Jake Bellows, and that he and M. Ward would start a band and perform two late December shows in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Contrary to what was believed, the shows were not played with M. Ward, but rather with Nik Freitas and Jason Boesel. They also played a show in February in Mexico City, Mexico.


title: Conor Oberst

text: On March 31, 2008, it was announced that Conor Oberst would play at the 2008 Reading and Leeds Festivals. He also performed at the Electric Picnic, in County Laois, Ireland, on August 31, 2008, the Cains Ballroom in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and "Austin City Limits" in late September 2008, shows across Australia in early October 2008, and the Warfield Theater in San Francisco October 24. Oberst also headlined the Friday night slot of the End of the Road Festival at the Larmer Tree Gardens in Wiltshire, held over the weekend of September 12–14, 2008.


title: Conor Oberst

text: Conor Oberst released the self-titled album "Conor Oberst", which was recorded in Tepoztlán, Morelos, Mexico, with Taylor Hollingsworth on guitar and Macey Taylor on bass, on August 5, 2008, on Merge Records.


title: Conor Oberst

text: In about mid-October, the band sold a new EP, "Gentleman's Pact". It was limited to 1000 copies and was only available on tour. The band placed limitations on how many were sold at shows. It has four unreleased tracks. Three of them are pre-album songs while "Corina, Corina" is a cover of a traditional folk song.


title: Conor Oberst

text: Oberst and the band released their second album, "Outer South", on May 5, 2009, on Merge Records. They have also released a documentary, "One of My Kind", following the band from Conor's solo album to their most recent album "One of My Kind".


title: Conor Oberst

text: Conor Oberst is one of the four members of the band Monsters of Folk. Other band members include Jim James of My Morning Jacket, M. Ward and fellow Bright Eyes member Mike Mogis. The band members swap instruments and share vocal duties. The quartet released their self-titled debut album on September 22, 2009.


title: Conor Oberst

text: Oberst released his first solo album, Water, in the form of a cassette tape when he was just 13. However, this album is difficult to find and is no longer sold.


title: Conor Oberst

text: His second solo album was 2008's self-titled "Conor Oberst". Throughout the end of 2012 and the beginning of 2013, Oberst embarked on a solo tour of North America and Europe performing with Ben Brodin on guitar and vibraphone. On the tour, he played songs from Bright Eyes, Mystic Valley Band, and Monsters of Folk as well as playing new songs.


title: Conor Oberst

text: Oberst released a new solo record, titled "Upside Down Mountain", on May 19, 2014. He has been working with producer Jonathan Wilson (Dawes, Father John Misty) and Swedish duo First Aid Kit.


title: Conor Oberst

text: On October 14, 2016, Oberst released his seventh studio solo record, titled "Ruminations", on Nonesuch Records.


title: Conor Oberst

text: Oberst and Phoebe Bridgers revealed their oft rumored new band, Better Oblivion Community Center, on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert on January 23, 2019, and released their eponymous debut album at midnight on January 24, 2019 (out via Dead Oceans). Band members include guitarist Nick Zinner from Yeah Yeah Yeahs and drummer Carla Azar from Autolux.


title: Conor Oberst

text: Oberst is one of the founding members of the independent record label Saddle Creek Records, an integral part of Omaha's indie rock scene, which hosts bands such as Cursive, Desaparecidos, The Faint (which left to start its own label Blank.wav), Rilo Kiley (which left to start its own label Brute-Beaute Records), Bright Eyes, Two Gallants, Son, Ambulance, Azure Ray, The Good Life, and Sorry About Dresden, among others.


title: Conor Oberst

text: Oberst co-founded the Team Love record label (along with Nate Krenkel, longtime manager of Bright Eyes) to "do different things, or smaller things, that we couldn't get everyone to be into at the same time" at Saddle Creek. such as Tilly and the Wall, Willy Mason, The Felice Brothers, David Dondero, Taylor Hollingsworth and Jenny Lewis' solo album with The Watson Twins.


title: Conor Oberst

text: Oberst opened Pageturners Lounge, a bar, with Philip Schaffart in 2012. Pageturners Lounge is located in the Dundee neighborhood in Omaha. The business name is a holdover from the bookstore that formerly occupied the space.


title: Conor Oberst

text: Oberst was drawn to music at a very early age, due in part to his brother Matt's penchant for bands like The Smiths, R.E.M., Fugazi, and The Cure. He has cited The Cure's first singles collection, "Staring at the Sea", as the first record he ever bought, as well as being one of his favorites. "It must have been third grade ... I bought the cassette at a local record store chain called Homer's in Omaha. I just loved the sound of Robert Smith's voice. It just sounded good."


title: Conor Oberst

text: Some of his biggest influences and favorite songwriters are local musicians David Dondero and Simon Joyner. Joyner wrote the song "Burn Rubber", which Bright Eyes covered on the "Take It Easy (Love Nothing)" single. The two used to do mini-tours together, usually on weekends due to Joyner having a family.


title: Conor Oberst

text: Oberst has also been heavily influenced by the 1960s folk revival, mentioning Neil Young, Leonard Cohen, and country singers Emmylou Harris, John Prine and Townes Van Zandt. Harris sang on a few tracks on Bright Eyes' "I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning". As a prolific and well-known musician in the folk genre, he has sometimes been defined as "a new Bob Dylan." He covered Neil Young's "Out on the Weekend", collaborating with Mike Mogis, Jim James and M. Ward in concert. He performed the Townes Van Zandt song "Rex's Blues" live with fellow musician Steve Earle. He has also performed two of John Prine's songs live, "Crazy as a Loon" and "Wedding Day in Funerville".


title: Conor Oberst

text: Oberst was greatly influenced by Daniel Johnston, whose "Devil Town" was covered and featured on "", and profoundly influenced by Elliott Smith, stating in an October 22, 2003 "All Things Considered" interview that, "sometimes when you're not feeling good, you have to listen to really sad music like Elliott Smith's" and that [Smith] "wrote the sweetest, saddest, most gentle songs". Oberst also said he liked to "listen to Elliott Smith's songs when he [couldn't] find anyone to talk to on the phone" and thought that it was sad that "through his music, [Smith] had the ability to answer feelings in others that he was unable to answer in himself". A live cover of Smith's "The Biggest Lie" is featured on "Motion Sickness".


title: Conor Oberst

text: In 2010, Oberst married Corina Figueroa Escamilla, whom he met in 2008 while recording music in Mexico. Oberst and


title: Conor Oberst

text: In December 2013, Oberst was accused of sexual assault by a fan, leading to widespread media coverage. However, by July 2014, the fan had retracted the accusation, stating that the accusations were "100% false" and that "my actions were wrong and could undermine the claims of actual sexual assault victims, and for that I also apologize". Of the period in his life, Oberst said "I'm not violent towards anyone ... And for a second, to have the whole world think that [the allegations were] true about me just did a number on my psyche." He also went on to emphasize that he did not want to minimize how frequently women are sexually assaulted, citing the statistic that one in four women will experience sexual assault at some point and saying that "as painful and surreal and fucked up as my situation was, I don't ever want to use this as an example to justify anything."


title: Conor Oberst

text: Oberst's brother Matthew died suddenly on November 27, 2016, in Cary, North Carolina, where he was a schoolteacher. He was 42. Oberst did not elaborate on his brother's death, except to say, "[he] basically fucking drank himself to death", a comment for which he has since expressed regret: "I guess ["Vice"] caught me on a day where I just didn't really give a fuck. I remember feeling bad afterwards when I had described the way my brother passed away, not thinking about ... my niece and nephew. They're definitely old enough to read an article." In the same 2020 interview, Oberst clarified the circumstances of Matthew's death: "It was kind of inconclusive. He had sleep apnea and he obviously struggled with addiction, but I came to find out it wasn't quite as clear cut as I made it seem."


title: American Music Awards

text: The American Music Awards (AMAs) is an annual American music awards show, generally held in the fall, created by Dick Clark in 1973 for ABC when the network's contract to air the Grammy Awards expired, and currently produced by Dick Clark Productions. From 1973 to 2005, both the winners and the nominations were selected by members of the music industry, based on commercial performance, such as sales and airplay. Since 2006, winners have been determined by a poll of the public and fans, who can vote through the AMAs website.


title: American Music Awards

text: The AMAs was created by Dick Clark in 1973 to compete with the Grammy Awards after the move of that year's show to Nashville, Tennessee led to CBS (which has broadcast all Grammy Award shows since then) picking up the Grammy telecasts after its first two in 1971 and 1972 were broadcast on ABC. In 2014, American network Telemundo acquired the rights to produce a Spanish-language version of the American Music Awards and launched the Latin American Music Awards in 2015.


title: American Music Awards

text: From 1973 to 2005, both the winners and the nominations were selected by members of the music industry, based on commercial performance, such as sales and airplay. Since 2006, winners have been determined by a poll of the public and fans, who can vote through the AMAs website, while nominations have remained based on sales, airplay, now including activity on social networks, and video viewing. Before 2010, had nominations based only on sales and airplay and nominated every work, even if old. The Grammys have nominations based on vote of the Academy and only nominate a work from their eligibility period that changes often.


title: American Music Awards

text: The first hosts for the first telecast of the AMAs were Helen Reddy, Roger Miller, and Smokey Robinson. Helen Reddy not only hosted the show but also became the first female artist to win an AMA for Favorite Pop/Rock Female artist. For the first decade or so, the AMAs had multiple hosts, each representing a genre of music. For instance, Glen Campbell would host the country portion (Campbell, in fact, has co-hosted the AMAs more times than any other host or co-host), while other artists would co-host to represent their genre. In recent years, however, there has been one single host.


title: American Music Awards

text: From its inception in 1973 through 2002, the AMAs were held in mid- to late-January, but were moved to November (usually the Sunday before Thanksgiving) beginning in 2003 so as not to further compete with other major awards shows (such as the Golden Globe Awards and the Academy Awards) and allows for ABC to have a well-rated awards show during November sweeps.


title: American Music Awards

text: For the 2008 awards, Jimmy Kimmel hosted for the fourth consecutive year. In 2009–2012, there was no host for the first time in history. Instead, the AMAs followed the Grammys' lead in having various celebrities give introductions. However, rapper Pitbull hosted the 2013 ceremony and 2014 ceremony. Jennifer Lopez hosted the 2015 show. Gigi Hadid and Jay Pharoah hosted the 2016 show. Tracee Ellis Ross hosted the show in 2017 and 2018. Ciara hosted the 2019 show.


title: American Music Awards

text: Between 2012 and 2014, as part of a marketing strategy for Samsung, the American Music Awards used the lock screen wallpaper of Samsung Galaxy smartphones rather than envelopes to reveal winners. A magnetic screen cover on each phone kept the wallpaper image with the winner's name secret until opened.


title: American Music Awards

text: In August 2018, Dick Clark Productions announced a two-year sponsorship and content partnership with YouTube Music.


title: American Music Awards

text: The record for most American Music Awards won is held by Taylor Swift with 40 awards. The record for most American Music Awards won by a male artist belongs to Michael Jackson, who has collected twenty-six awards. The record for most American Music Awards won by a group belongs to Alabama, who have collected eighteen awards.


title: American Music Awards

text: The record for the most American Music Awards won in a single year is held by Michael Jackson (in 1984) and Whitney Houston (in 1994), each with 8 awards to their credit (including the Award of Merit, with which both artists were honored in the respective years).


title: American Music Awards

text: The following list shows the artists with most wins in each category, adapted from the AMAs official website.


title: American Music Awards

text: The American Music Award of Merit has been awarded to thirty two artists, the latest being Sting (2016).


title: American Music Awards

text: The International Artist Award of Excellence is described as "an award which recognizes artists whose popularity and impact cross national boundaries and is only given when there is a deserving recipient who is worthy of recognition for their accomplishments" and has been awarded to seven artists:


title: American Music Awards

text: The AMAs' producer Larry Klein stated: "The first-ever Icon Award was created to honor an artist whose body of work has made a profound influence over pop music on a global level."


title: American Music Awards

text: At the 2014 award ceremony, the Dick Clark Award for Excellence was given for the first time. It was created to recognize "an artist who achieves a groundbreaking feat or creates a landmark work. It is to be bestowed upon someone whose spirit and excellence capture the visionary passion that Dick Clark himself incorporated into everything he did."


title: American Music Awards

text: In 2000, the year Brooks won the award, the AMAs held a poll to elect the Artist of the Decade for each previous decade of the Rock & Roll era. According to some sources, the result of this poll is not counted in the total of AMAs won by these artists. The results were Elvis Presley (1950s), The Beatles (1960s), Stevie Wonder (1970s), and Michael Jackson (1980s).


title: American Music Awards

text: Michael Jackson won the Artist of the Century award in the 29th American Music Awards held on January 9, 2002.


title: Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds

text: "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1967 album "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band". It was written primarily by John Lennon and credited to the Lennon–McCartney songwriting partnership. Lennon's son Julian inspired the song with a nursery school drawing that he called "Lucy – in the sky with diamonds". Shortly before the album's release, speculation arose that the first letter of each of the nouns in the title intentionally spelled "LSD", the initialism commonly used for the hallucinogenic drug lysergic acid diethylamide. Lennon repeatedly denied that he had intended it as a drug song, and attributed the song's fantastical imagery to his reading of Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland" books.


title: Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds

text: The Beatles recorded "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" in March 1967. Adding to the song's ethereal qualities, the musical arrangement includes a Lowrey organ part heavily treated with studio effects, and a drone provided by an Indian tambura. The song has been recognised as a key work in the psychedelic genre. Among its many cover versions, a 1974 recording by Elton John – with a guest appearance by Lennon – was a number 1 hit in the US and Canada.


title: Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds

text: John Lennon said that his inspiration for the song came when his three-year-old son Julian showed him a nursery school drawing that he called "Lucy – in the Sky with Diamonds", depicting his classmate Lucy O'Donnell. Julian later recalled: "I don't know why I called it that or why it stood out from all my other drawings, but I obviously had an affection for Lucy at that age. I used to show Dad everything I'd built or painted at school, and this one sparked off the idea." Ringo Starr witnessed the moment and said that Julian first uttered the song's title on returning home from nursery school. Lennon later said, "I thought that's beautiful. I immediately wrote a song about it."


title: Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds

text: According to Lennon, the lyrics were largely derived from the literary style of Lewis Carroll's novel "Alice in Wonderland". Lennon had read and admired Carroll's works, and the title of Julian's drawing reminded him of the "Which Dreamed It?" chapter of "Through the Looking Glass", in which Alice floats in a "boat beneath a sunny sky". Lennon recalled in a 1980 interview:


title: Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds

text: It was Alice in the boat. She is buying an egg and it turns into Humpty-Dumpty. The woman serving in the shop turns into a sheep and the next minute they are rowing in a rowing boat somewhere and I was visualizing that.


title: Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds

text: Paul McCartney remembered of the song's composition, "We did the whole thing like an "Alice in Wonderland" idea, being in a boat on the river ... Every so often it broke off and you saw Lucy in the sky with diamonds all over the sky. This Lucy was God, the Big Figure, the White Rabbit." He later recalled helping Lennon finish the song at Lennon's Kenwood home, specifically claiming he contributed the "newspaper taxis" and "cellophane flowers" lyrics. Lennon's 1968 interview with "Rolling Stone" magazine confirmed McCartney's contribution.


title: Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds

text: Lucy O'Donnell Vodden, who was married to Ross Vodden and lived in Surbiton, Surrey, died 28 September 2009 of complications of lupus. Julian had been informed of her illness and renewed their friendship before her death.


title: Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds

text: Most of "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" is in simple triple metre ( time), but the chorus is in time. In the song, the structure modulates between musical keys, using the key of A major for verses, B-flat major for the pre-chorus, and G major for the chorus. It is sung by Lennon over an increasingly complicated underlying arrangement which features a tambura, played by George Harrison; lead electric guitar put through a Leslie speaker, played by Harrison; and a counter melody on Lowrey organ played by McCartney and taped with a special organ stop sounding "not unlike a celeste". Session tapes from the initial 1 March 1967 recording of this song reveal Lennon originally sang the line "Cellophane flowers of yellow and green" as a broken phrase, but McCartney suggested that he sing it more fluidly to improve the song.


title: Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds

text: The recording of "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" began with rehearsals in Studio 2 at Abbey Road on 28 February 1967. The instrumental backing was finished the following evening. On the first take, track one of the four-track tape contained acoustic guitar and piano, track two McCartney's Lowrey organ, track three Ringo Starr's drums, and track four a guide vocal by Lennon during the verses. Take eight replaced the guide vocal with Harrison's tambura. The four tracks of this take were then mixed together and recorded on the first track of a second four-track tape. On 2 March, Lennon's double-tracked vocals, accompanied by McCartney on the choruses, were recorded to tracks two and three. McCartney's bass and Harrison's lead guitar occupied track four. The lead guitar part varies between sections of the song: over the bridges, Harrison duplicates Lennon's melody and intonation in the style of a sarangi accompanying an Indian khyal vocalist; over the choruses, he plays an ascending riff on his Fender Stratocaster (mirrored by McCartney's bass), with heavy Leslie treatment given to the part. Eleven mono mixes of the song were made at the 2 March session, but they were rejected in favour of the final mono mix created on 3 March. A stereo mix was made on 7 April.


title: Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds

text: Outtakes from the recording sessions have been officially released. The Beatles' "Anthology 2", released in 1996, contained a composite remix, with ingredients from takes six, seven and eight, while the first take of the song was featured on the two-disc and six-disc versions of the 50th-anniversary edition of "Sgt. Pepper" in 2017. The six-disc collection also included take five and the last of the eleven mono mixes made on 2 March 1967.


title: Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds

text: Rumours of the connection between the title of "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" and the initialism "LSD" began circulating shortly after the release of the "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" LP in June 1967. McCartney gave two interviews in June admitting to having taken the drug. Lennon later said he was surprised at the idea the title was a hidden reference to LSD, countering that the song "wasn't about that at all," and it "was purely unconscious that it came out to be LSD. Until someone pointed it out, I never even thought of it. I mean, who would ever bother to look at initials of a title? ... It's "not" an acid song."


title: Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds

text: When you write a song and you mean it one way, and someone comes up and says something about it that you didn't think of – you can't deny it. Like "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," people came up and said, cunningly, "Right, I get it. L-S-D," and it was when [news]papers were talking about LSD, but we never thought about it.


title: Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds

text: In a 2004 interview with "Uncut" magazine, McCartney confirmed it was "pretty obvious" drugs did influence some of the group's compositions at that time, including "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", though he tempered this statement by adding, "[I]t's easy to overestimate the influence of drugs on the Beatles' music."


title: Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds

text: Claims have circulated that the BBC banned the song at the time of its release in 1967 for its alleged references to drugs. Among other sources, the claim has been recited in "The Routledge Concise History of Twentieth-Century British Literature". This claim has been disputed by authors Alan Clayson and Spencer Leigh, who wrote in "The Walrus Was Ringo: 101 Beatles Myths Debunked" that the BBC never officially banned the song, despite the corporation's doubts about the subject matter. "The Oxford Handbook of Music Censorship" consulted with the BBC's surviving internal correspondence and memos from 1967, and mentioned no ban on any "Sgt. Pepper" song aside from the one on "A Day in the Life", stating the BBC banned "this one track [A Day in the Life] from the album "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band"". A 2014 documentary film produced and broadcast by BBC television entitled "Britain's Most Dangerous Songs: Listen to the Banned" also claimed that the BBC never banned the song:


title: Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds

text: The song was played at least once on BBC Radio at the time of the "Sgt. Pepper" album's release, on 20 May 1967 broadcast of "Where It's At" hosted by Kenny Everett and Chris Denning. The song was also played as part of the 1972 BBC Radio documentary "The Beatles Story", hosted by Brian Matthew.


title: Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds

text: Upon the release of the "Sgt. Pepper" album, "Disc and Music Echo" magazine wrote that "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" was "easily remembered", that the song spotlighted John Lennon's "peculiarly insinuating" vocals, and that it "jumps along on a crashing clavicord-type sound." Richard Goldstein wrote in a review for "The New York Times" that the song was "an engaging curio, nothing more." Ernie Santosuosso wrote in a review for "The Boston Globe" that the song's imagery was "wild".


title: Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds

text: Discussing the impact of the "Sgt. Pepper" album, author Nicholas Schaffner cited the song as an example of how the Beatles successfully captured the way "young people were trying to transcend, transform, or escape from straight society" in 1967. He said that just as Harrison's "Within You Without You" represented the exoticism of Herman Hesse's "Siddartha", "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" was a "miniature pop version" of Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings" in terms of conveying the sense of wonder the book evoked. According to musicologist Walter Everett, the song's lyrics inspired "derivative texts" throughout the late 1960s, namely John Fred & His Playboy Band's "Judy in Disguise (With Glasses)", the Lemon Pipers' "Jelly Jungle (of Orange Marmalade)", Pink Floyd's "Let There Be More Light", and the Scaffold's "Jelly Covered Cloud".


title: Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds

text: "Rolling Stone" magazine described "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" as "Lennon's lavish daydream." In their respective reviews for AllMusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine identifies it as "one of the touchstones of British psychedelia," while Richie Unterberger views it as "one of the best songs on the Beatles' famous "Sgt. Pepper" album, and one of the classic songs of psychedelia as a whole." Unterberger adds: "There are few other songs that so successfully evoke a dream world, in both the sonic textures and words." In his book on the history of ambient music, Mark Prendergast highlights the track as one of the album's "three outstanding cuts", along with "A Day in the Life" and "Within You Without You". He describes it as "incredible" and "a gossamer-like evocation of childlike psychedelia." For BBC Culture, Greg Kot called the song an "acid-rock fantasia" and a high point of the album.


title: Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds

text: In a review for the BBC Music website, Chris Jones described the track as "nursery rhyme surrealism" that contributed to "Sgt. Pepper"s "revolutionary ... sonic carpet that enveloped the ears and sent the listener spinning into other realms." Writing for "Paste" in 2015, Hilary Saunders called the song "a perfectly indulgent introduction to psych-rock." In 2013, Dave Swanson of "Ultimate Classic Rock" ranked "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" fourth on his list of the "Top 10 Beatles Psychedelic Songs" saying that, despite Lennon's insistence about the inspiration for its title, the track is "Three-and-a-half minutes of pure lysergic bliss, full of picturesque and surreal lyrics set to one of the Beatles' most trippy songs."


title: Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds

text: Harrison later identified "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" as one of the few songs he liked from "Sgt. Pepper" and expressed satisfaction with his Indian music-inspired contributions. For his part, Lennon expressed disappointment with the Beatles' arrangement of the recording, complaining that inadequate time was taken to fully develop his initial idea for the song. He also said he had not sung it very well. "I was so nervous I couldn't sing," he told journalist Ray Connolly, "but I like the lyrics." According to author Ian MacDonald, in a scenario similar to Lennon's disappointment with "Strawberry Fields Forever", Lennon most likely rued the loss of "sentimental gentleness" he had envisaged for the piece, and, overly passive to his songwriting partner's suggestions, allowed the arrangement to become dominated by McCartney's "glittering countermelody". MacDonald views the bridge portions as the "most effective" sections, through their subtle use of harmonised drone and "featherweight bass", and bemoans the reversion to "clodhopping ... three-chord 4/4 rock" over the choruses. He concludes by saying that the track "succeed[s] more as a glamorous production (voice and guitar through the Leslie cabinet; echo and varispeed on everything) than as an integrated song."


title: Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds

text: A 3.2-million-year-old, 40% complete fossil skeleton of an "Australopithecus afarensis" specimen, discovered in 1974 by Donald Johanson, Yves Coppens, Maurice Taieb and Tom Gray, was named "Lucy" because the Beatles song was being played loudly and repeatedly on a tape recorder in the camp. The phrase "Lucy in the sky" became "Lucy in disguise" to the anthropologists, because they initially did not understand the impact of their discovery. The NASA mission Lucy has, in turn, been named after the fossil. It is due to arrive at its first target, asteroid 52246 Donaldjohanson, in April 2025.


title: Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds

text: In 2009 Julian with James Scott Cook and Todd Meagher released "Lucy", a song that is a quasi-follow-up to the Beatles song. The cover of the EP showed four-year-old Julian's original drawing, that now is owned by David Gilmour from Pink Floyd.<ref name="CBS 12/15"></ref>


title: Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds

text: In 1974, English musician Elton John released a cover version as a single. Recorded at the Caribou Ranch, it featured backing vocals and guitar by John Lennon under the pseudonym Dr. Winston O'Boogie (Winston being Lennon's middle name). The single topped the US "Billboard" pop chart for two weeks in January 1975 as well as the Canadian "RPM" national singles chart for four weeks spanning January and February. The B-side of the single was also a John Lennon composition, "One Day (At a Time)", from Lennon's 1973 album "Mind Games".


title: Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds

text: In the US it was certified Gold on 29 January 1975 by the RIAA. During their collaboration, Elton John appeared on John Lennon's song "Whatever Gets You Thru the Night". Lennon promised to appear live with Elton at Madison Square Garden if "Whatever Gets You Thru the Night" became a number-one single. It did, and on Thanksgiving Night, 28 November 1974, Lennon kept his promise. They performed "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", "Whatever Gets You thru the Night", and "I Saw Her Standing There" (which was written primarily by Paul McCartney). It is one of two songs written by Lennon–McCartney to reach number one in the US by an artist other than the Beatles. The other is "A World Without Love" recorded by Peter and Gordon in 1964.


title: Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds

text: In introducing "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", Elton John said he believed it to be "one of the best songs ever written." The Lennon-sung "I Saw Her Standing There" (credited to the Elton John Band featuring John Lennon) was originally released in 1975 on the B-side of Elton John's "Philadelphia Freedom" single. In 1981, all three live songs were issued on "28 November 1974", an Elton John EP. In 1990, the three songs were made available on the "Lennon" box set. In 1996, they were also included on the remastered edition of Elton John's "Here and There" album. Elton John once stated that "'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds' is a song that I never do in a set at a concert simply because it reminds me too much of John Lennon. This is the same with 'Empty Garden'." It was a part of his standard repertoire from 1974 until 1976, and sporadically until 1998. It also appeared in the 1976 musical documentary "All This and World War II".


title: Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds

text: A cover version by the Flaming Lips was included on their album "With a Little Help from My Fwends", released on Warner Bros. The song, featuring vocals from Miley Cyrus and Moby, was released as official single on 18 May 2014. All proceeds from record sales go to the Bella Foundation, an organisation in Oklahoma City that helps provide veterinary care to needy pet owners.


title: Kris

text: The kris, or keris in the Indonesian language, is an asymmetrical dagger with distinctive blade-patterning achieved through alternating laminations of iron and nickelous iron ("pamor"). Of Javanese origin, the kris is famous for its distinctive wavy blade, although many have straight blades as well, and is one of the weapons commonly used in the "pencak silat" martial art native to Indonesia.


title: Kris

text: A kris can be divided into three parts: blade ( or ), hilt (), and sheath (). Each part of the kris is considered a piece of art, often carved in meticulous detail and made from various materials: metal, precious or rare types of wood, or gold or ivory. A kris's aesthetic value covers the (the form and design of the blade, with around 60 variants), the (the pattern of metal alloy decoration on the blade, with around 250 variants), and referring to the age and origin of a kris. Depending on the quality and historical value of the kris, it can fetch thousands of dollars or more.


title: Kris

text: Both a weapon and spiritual object, kris are often considered to have an essence or presence, considered to possess magical powers, with some blades possessing good luck and others possessing bad. Kris are used for display, as talismans with magical powers, weapons, a sanctified heirloom ("pusaka"), auxiliary equipment for court soldiers, an accessory for ceremonial dress, an indicator of social status, a symbol of heroism, etc. Legendary kris that possess supernatural power and extraordinary ability were mentioned in traditional folktales, such as those of Empu Gandring, Taming Sari, and Setan Kober.


title: Kris

text: The kris is promoted by the Indonesian government as a cultural symbol of Indonesia. While the kris is commonly associated with the Javanese within Indonesian society, other ethnic communities are familiar with the weapon as part of their culture, such as the Balinese, Sundanese, Malay, Madurese, Banjar, Buginese, and Makassar people. Kris have been produced in many regions of Indonesia for centuries, but it is particularly associated with the culture of Central Java, as it is embedded in a mutually-connected whole of ritual prescriptions and acts, ceremonies, mythical backgrounds and epic poetry. In 2005, UNESCO gave the title to kris as Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity from Indonesia.


title: Kris

text: The word "kris" derived from the Old Javanese term ""ngiris"" (Javanese: ) which means "to slice" or "wedge". The spelling of "kris" is more frequently used in the West, but "keris" is more popular in the dagger's native lands, as exemplified by the late Bambang Harsrinuksmo's popular book entitled "Ensiklopedi Keris" (Kris Encyclopedia).


title: Kris

text: In Javanese, kris is known in three names according to the degree or level of linguistic politeness; ngoko: (Javanese: ); lit. "to slice"; krama: ; and in krama inggil: "wangkingan" (Javanese: ). In Malay, Indonesian, Sundanese, Balinese and Sasak it is spelled "keris" (Pegon and Jawi: کريس). Other names include "karih" in Minangkabau, and "sele" (ᨔᨙᨒᨙ) in Buginese and Makassarese.


title: Kris

text: Two notable exceptions are the Philippines where it is usually called "kalis" in Tagalog, although the Filipino "kalis" is more like a sword rather than a dagger, and Thailand where it is always spelled "kris" and pronounced either as "kris" or "krit" (กริช) in Thai, while in the Yala dialect it is spelled "kareh". In Cambodia it is spelled as "kris" (គ្រីស) in Khmer. Other alternative spellings used by Europeans include "cryse", "crise", "criss", "kriss" and "creese". In English, the plural form is often simply "kris" as well.


title: Kris

text: The Kris's history is generally traced through the study of carvings and bas-relief panels found in Java, Indonesia. Some of the most famous renderings of a kris appear on the bas-reliefs of Borobudur (825) and Prambanan temple (850), originated from Hindu-Buddhist Mataram Kingdom of Central Java.


title: Kris

text: The term "kris" was mentioned in several ancient Javanese inscriptions, including Humanding inscription (707 Saka or 875 CE), Jurungan inscription and Haliwangbang inscription (708 Saka or 876 CE), Taji inscription (823 Saka or 901 CE), Poh inscription (827 Saka or 905 CE), and Rukam inscription (829 Saka or 907 CE).


title: Kris

text: The description of a small dagger from Java reminiscent of kris can be found in Chinese source from the 10th century Song dynasty. In 992 the envoy from "She-po" (Java) arrived in Chinese court bearing a lot of gifts, consists of a dagger with exquisite hilt made of rhino horn and gold, silk woven with floral motifs made of gold threads, ivories, pearls, silk of various colours, fragrant sandalwood, cotton clothes of various colours, turtle shells, betel nut preparation kit, rattan mat with the image of white cockatoo, and a small model of house made of sandalwood adorned with valuable ornaments.


title: Kris

text: However, Raffles' (1817) study of the Candi Sukuh states that the kris recognized today came into existence around 1361 AD in the kingdom of Majapahit, East Java. The scene in bas relief of Sukuh Temple in Central Java, dated from 15th century Majapahit era, shows the workshop of a Javanese keris blacksmith. The scene depicted Bhima as the blacksmith on the left forging the metal, Ganesha in the center, and Arjuna on the right operating the piston bellows to blow air into the furnace. The wall behind the blacksmith displays various items manufactured in the forge, including kris. These representations of the kris in the Candi Sukuh established the fact that by the year 1437 the kris had already gained an important place within Javanese culture.


title: Kris

text: This Chinese account also reported that public execution by stabbing using this type of dagger is common. Majapahit knows no caning for major or minor punishment. They tied the guilty men's hands in the back with rattan rope and paraded them for a few paces, and then stabbed the offender one or two times in the back on the gap between the floating ribs, which resulted in severe bleeding and instant death.


title: Kris

text: Currently, the Kris of Knaud is the oldest known surviving kris in the world. Given to Charles Knaud, a Dutch physician, by Paku Alam V in the 19th century Yogyakarta in Java, the kris is on display at the Tropenmuseum, Amsterdam. The kris bears the date of 1264 Saka (which corresponds to 1342 AD) in its iron blade. Scientists suspect that due to its special features the kris might be even older, but was decorated during Majapahit period to celebrate an important event. The kris bears scenes from the Ramayana on an unusual thin copper layer which partially covers it.


title: Kris

text: Although the people of Southeast Asia were already familiar with this type of stabbing weapon, the development of the kris most probably took place in Java, Indonesia. From its origin in Java, kris culture spread throughout the Indonesian archipelago, as far as Singapore, Malaysia, Southern Thailand and Southern Philippines through maritime trade links. The spread of the kris to other nations such as Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines, experts say, was credited to the growing influence of the Majapahit Empire in Java around the year 1492.


title: Kris

text: The "Sanghyang Siksa Kandang Karesian" canto XVII, a Sundanese manuscript dated from Saka 1440 or 1518 AD, describes the kris as the weapon of kings, while the "kujang" is the weapon of farmers. There exist claims of earlier forms predating the Majapahit kris but none are verifiable. In the past, the majority of kris had straight blades but this became less frequent over time. Tomé Pires, in the early 16th century, describes the importance of the kris to the Javanese.


title: Kris

text: While it is commonly believed that kris were the primary weapons wielded by fighters in the past, they were actually carried by warriors as a secondary armament if they lost their main weapon, which was usually a spear. For commoners however, kris were worn on a daily basis, especially when travelling because it might be needed for self-defense. During times of peace, people wore kris as part of ceremonial attire. Ceremonial kris were often meticulously decorated with intricate carving in gold and precious stones. Heirloom blades were handed down through successive generations and worn during special events such as weddings and other ceremonies. Men usually wore only one kris but the admiral Hang Tuah is said in the "Hikayat Hang Tuah" to have armed himself with one short and one long kris. Women also wore kris, though usually of a smaller size than a man's. In battle, a fighter might have carried more than one kris; some carried three kris: his own, one from his father-in-law, and one as a family heirloom. The extra two served as parrying daggers, but if none were available the sheath would serve the same purpose.


title: Kris

text: Kris were often broken in battle and required repairs. Yearly cleanings, known in Javanese tradition as , is required as part of the spirituality and mythology surrounding the weapon, often left ancient blades worn and thin. The repair materials depended on location and it is quite usual to find a weapon with fittings from several areas. For example, a kris may have a blade from Java, a hilt from Bali and a sheath from Madura.


title: Kris

text: In many parts of Indonesia and the Malacca Sultanate, the kris used to be the choice weapon for an execution known as the "hukuman salang". The executioner's kris had a long, straight, slender blade. The condemned knelt before the executioner, who placed a wad of cotton or similar material on the subject's shoulder or clavicle area. The blade was thrust through the padding, piercing the subclavian artery and the heart. Upon withdrawal, the cotton wiped the blade clean. In the Malay world and Java, an honourable form of execution was death by kris to the heart.


title: Kris

text: Kris were used commonly in battle, during the early modern period, instead of having professional armies, most kings within the region relied on their courtiers to mobilize for war whenever required and since most Javanese, Malay and Makassarese would own a kris, the weapon would have seen regular combat. During "amok", the kris was used in a furious charge to scatter or kill a number of enemies even at the cost of one's own life.


title: Kris

text: In the 16th century, European colonial powers introduced firearms into the archipelago that contributed to the decline of using the kris as the weapon of choice in battle. The forging of edged weapons went into decline from the moment that the sultans or rajas were subjugated and their realms annexed by the British or Dutch East Indies colonial state. In number of regions, a ban was placed on carrying of cutting and stabbing weapons.


title: Kris

text: In Java, the turning point was the end of the five-year-long Java War when the rebellious Prince Diponegoro was defeated and detained, and had to hand his kris over to the Dutch in 1830. This event marked the disarmament of the kris as a combat weapon among the Javanese populace. Its ceremonial function, however, as part of traditional costumes, as sacred heirloom and as a protective personal amulet, remains.


title: Kris

text: However, the kris saw continuous use and forging in the Philippines, which comprised most of the Spanish East Indies. Kris-forgers and swordsmen were referred to as "juramentados" by the Spanish. Juramentados practice a ritual of sacrifice, a form of Jihad against not only Spanish soldiers, but also against Christian Filipinos alike.


title: Kris

text: The early 20th century saw the decline of kris forging as carrying edged weapons was banned in the Dutch East Indies. However its spiritual and ceremonial function still continues and is celebrated mainly in "kraton" and "istana" (courts) throughout Indonesia, Malaysia and the Muslim-inhabited parts of the southern Philippines.


title: Kris

text: In Java, the traditional art of kris-making is preserved in the Javanese culture heartland, the "keraton" (royal court) of Yogyakarta and Surakarta, and also the princedom of Mangkunegaran and Pakualaman. The Javanese kings and nobles of these courts are known to employ some kris blacksmiths ("empu") and become the patrons of their works, although the activity of kris-making is declining. Until the 1990s, kris-making activities in Java had almost come to a standstill due to economic difficulties and changing socio-cultural values. However, thanks to several concerned kris experts, the tradition is being revived and kris craftsmanship has increased again.


title: Kris

text: Over the past three decades, kris have lost their prominent social and spiritual meaning in society. Although active and honoured smiths who produce high quality kris in the traditional way can still be found in some places such as Madura, Surakarta, Yogyakarta, Makassar and Palembang, their number is dramatically decreasing, and it is more difficult for them to find successors to whom they may transmit their skills. The traditional kris-making industry still survives in some villages, such as Banyu Sumurup village in Imogiri subdistrict, Bantul, Yogyakarta, either specially made as a sacred amulet ordered by a kris enthusiast who seeks its spiritual power, or merely as souvenirs for tourists.


title: Kris

text: Kris made in the Philippines are often in variants, with half-wavy half-straight blades. It has become an essential and symbolic weapon to Moro culture, much as it is associated with Javanese cultures.


title: Kris

text: Physically, the kris is a form of dagger with a blade measuring between 15 and 50 centimetres long, sharp on both edges and tip, broader and asymmetric shape near the hilt, made of a combination of several kinds of metals. A kris's aesthetic value covers the (the form and design of the blade, with around 150 variants), the (the pattern of metal alloy decoration on the blade, with around 60 variants), and referring to the age and origin of a kris.


title: Kris

text: The kris blade is called a or . Kris blades are usually narrow with a wide, asymmetrical base. The kris is famous for its wavy blade; however, the older types of kris dated from the Majapahit era have straight blades, as do more than half of all kris prior to the modern era. The number of curves on the blade (known as "luk" or "lok") is always odd. Common numbers of luk range from three to thirteen waves, but some blades have up to 29. In contrast to the older straight type, most kris today have a wavy blade which is supposed to increase the severity of wounds inflicted upon a victim.


title: Kris

text: According to traditional Javanese kejawen, kris contain all the intrinsic elements of nature: (water), (wind), (fire), (earth, but also interpreted as metal or wood which both come from the earth), and "aku" (lit: "I" or "me", meaning that the kris has a spirit or soul). All these elements are present during the forging of kris. Earth is metal forged by fire being blown by pumped wind, and water to cool down the metal. In Bali, the kris is associated with the nāga or dragon, which also symbolizes irrigation canals, rivers, springs, wells, spouts, waterfalls and rainbows; thus, the wavy blade symbolizes the movement of the serpent. Some kris have the head of a "naga" (dragon) carved near the base with the body and tail following the curves of the blade to the tip. A wavy kris is thus a naga in motion, aggressive and alive; a straight blade is one at rest, its power dormant but ready to come into action.


title: Kris

text: In former times, kris blades were said to be infused with poison during their forging, ensuring that any injury was fatal. The poison used to polish kris blade is called . The process of chemical coating was done by or (washing) the blade with acid and minerals that contains arsenic compounds. The process of doing so was kept secret among smiths. Different types of whetstones, acidic juice of citrus fruits and poisonous arsenic bring out the contrast between the dark black iron and the light colored silvery nickel layers which together form , damascene patterns on the blade.


title: Kris

text: The distinctive patterns have specific meanings and names which indicate the mythical properties they are believed to impart. There are around 60 variants of recognized today in traditional kris blades. Some examples of include , , , and . The kris blade forging uses iron with a small content of nickel to create this pattern. The faint pattern has been found in the kris from Majapahit period, which was acquired from iron ores with small nickel content. Most probably this iron ore was imported from the island of Sulawesi, as the from Luwu region is quite well known in Sulawesi and Java.


title: Kris

text: The best material for creating however, is acquired in a quite unusual way, as it is made from rare meteorite iron. Traditionally the material for the kris smiths connected with the courts of Yogyakarta and Surakarta originates from an iron meteorite that fell to earth at the end of 18th century in the neighborhood of the Prambanan temple complex. The meteorite was excavated and transported to the keraton of Surakarta; from that time on the smiths of (the Royal territories) used small pieces of meteoric iron to produce patterns in their kris, pikes, and other status weapons. After etching the blade with acidic substances, it is the small percentage of nickel present in meteoric iron that creates the distinctive silvery patterns that faintly light up against the dark background of iron or steel that become darkened by the effect of the acids.


title: Kris

text: The handle or hilt () is an object of art, often carved in meticulous details and made from various materials: precious rare types of wood to gold or ivory. They were often carved to resemble various animals and Hindu deities, although this became less common with the introduction of Islam. In Bali, kris handles are made to resemble demons coated in gold and adorned with semi precious and precious stones, such as rubies. In Java, kris handles are made in various types, the most common design being the abstract stylized representation of the human form. Examples of hilt designs include Tunggak Semi Putri Kinurung hilt from Surakarta, Batara Guru and Pulasir hilt from Madura, Punukan hilt from Palembang, Ratmaja from Bali, Pulungan hilt from Cirebon, Pekaka hilt from Pattani, and a seabird-like hilt from Lampung and Sulawesi. The kris usually has a curved pistol-grip hilt that aids in stabbing strikes. It allows the palm of the holding hand to add pressure to the blade while stabbing. A kris only offers minimal protection for the hand by the broad blade at the hilt.


title: Kris

text: As with the hilt, a kris' sheath ("warangka") is also an object of art. It can be made from various materials, usually a wooden frame to hold the blade which can be coated with metals such as brass, iron, silver, or even gold, usually carved in "sulur" floral motifs. The upper part of the sheath formed a broad curved handle made from wood or sometimes ivory. It could be adorned with precious or semi-precious stones.


title: Kris

text: The making of a kris was the specialised duty of metalworkers called "empu" (lit. "possessor") or "pandai besi" (lit. "iron-skilled"). In Java the honorary title "empu" refer to those ironsmiths who possess the special skill of forging the kris. According to Javanese beliefs, a kris "empu" should possess knowledge, technical skills and also spiritual prowess, since kris are believed to have physical and spiritual presence. This was meant to differentiate the masters from common "pandai besi" that mostly create common metal tools or peasant's weapons like "parang" or "golok". In old Majapahit, a kris bladesmith was referred to as "pande" and all were reputed to be able to work hot iron with their bare hands. The people of Majapahit would eventually flee to Bali where the occupation has been preserved by the Pande clan to this day, members of whom also make jewellery. A bladesmith makes the blade in layers of different iron ores and meteorite nickel. Some blades can be made in a relatively short time, while more intricate weapons take years to complete. In high quality kris blades, the metal is folded dozens or hundreds of times and handled with the utmost precision. Empu are highly respected craftsmen with additional knowledge in literature, history, and the occult.


title: Kris

text: Kris were worn at special ceremonies, with heirloom blades being handed down through successive generations. Both men and women might wear them, though those for women are smaller. A rich spirituality and mythology developed around the weapon. Kris are used for display, as talismans with magical powers, weapons, sanctified heirloom, auxiliary equipment for court soldiers, as an accessory for ceremonial dress, an indicator of social status, a symbol of heroism, etc.


title: Kris

text: In the Barong dance of Bali there is a segment called keris dance, in which the villain Rangda magically enchants Airlangga's soldiers to commit suicide, while another magician makes them invulnerable to sharp objects. In a trance state, the male dancers stab themselves in the chest with their own kris but remain unhurt.


title: Kris

text: Keris dance is actually a dangerous dance, since it can lead to a fatal accident that may cause injury or death. In February 2021, a 16 years old boy keris dancer was stabbed to death right in his heart by his own kris in a trance, during a Rangda dance performance in Banjar Blong Gede, Pemecutan Kaja, Denpasar, Bali.


title: Kris

text: In Javanese culture the kris is revered as "tosan aji" (Javanese for "sacred heirloom weapon") and considered a pusaka. The kris is believed to have the ability to infuse bravery upon its holder: this property is known as "piyandel" in Javanese which means "to add self-confidence". The "pusaka" kris or kris-tipped spear given by a Javanese king to nobles or his subjects, was meant to symbolize the king's confidence bestowed upon the receiver and is considered a great honor. During the Javanese wedding ceremony, a kris is required to be adorned with chains of jasmine flower arrangement as an important part of Javanese groom's wedding costume. The addition of jasmine arrangement around the kris was meant as a symbol that a man should not easily be angry, cruel, fierce, too aggressive, tyrannical and abusive.


title: Kris

text: Kris-makers did more than forge the weapon, they carried out the old rituals which could infuse the blade with mystical powers. For this reason, kris are considered almost alive because they may be vessels of spirits, either good or evil. Legends tell of kris that could move of their own volition and killed individuals at will. Some kris are rumored to stand upright when their real names are called by their masters. It was said that some kris helped prevent fires, death, agricultural failure, and many other problems. Likewise, they could also bring fortune, such as bountiful harvests. Many of these beliefs were derived from the possession of different kris by different people. For example, there is a type of kris in Java that was called "Beras Wutah", which was believed to grant its possessor an easy life without famine. This kris was mainly assigned to government officers who were paid, in whole or in part, with foodstuffs such as rice.


title: Kris

text: There are several ways of testing whether a kris is lucky or not. A series of cuts on a leaf, based on blade width and other factors, could determine if a blade was good or bad. Also, if the owner slept with the blade under their pillow, the spirit of the kris would communicate with the owner via dream. If the owner had a bad dream, the blade was unlucky and had to be discarded, whereas if the owner had a good dream the dagger would bring good fortune. However, just because a blade was bad for one person didn't mean it would be bad for another. Harmony between the weapon and its owner was critical.


title: Kris

text: Because some kris are considered sacred and believed to possess magical powers, specific rites needed to be completed to avoid calling down evil fates which is the reason warriors often made offerings to their kris at a shrine. There is also the belief that pointing a kris at someone means they will die soon, so silat practitioners precede their demonstrations by touching the points of the blades to the ground so as to neutralise this effect.


title: Kris

text: Several folktales—linked to historical figures—mention legendary kris that possess supernatural power and extraordinary ability. Most of the magical kris are of Javanese origin, while the tales are mainly derived from Javanese ancient manuscript and Babad (Javanese chronicle).


title: Kris

text: One of the most famous legends from Java comes from the Pararaton (Book of Kings). It describes a legendary bladesmith called Mpu Gandring or Empu Gandring and his impatient customer, Ken Arok, in the last days of the Kediri kingdom in the 13th century. The customer ordered a powerful kris to kill the mighty chieftain of Tumapel, Tunggul Ametung. Ken Arok eventually stabbed the old bladesmith to death because he kept delaying the scheduled completion of the kris. Dying, the bladesmith cursed the kris through prophecy that the unfinished or incomplete kris would kill seven men, including Ken Arok. Ken Arok used Mpu Gandring's cursed kris to assassinate Tunggul Ametung, cunningly put the blame to Kebo Ijo, and built a new kingdom of Singhasari. The prophecy finally came true, with four men enlisted as the kris' first death roll, including Mpu Gandring himself, Tunggul Ametung, Kebo Ijo to whom Ken Arok lent the weapon, and finally Ken Arok himself. The unfinished kris then disappeared.


title: Kris

text: Another version of the tale describes that the kris passed to Ken Arok's stepson Anusapati which in turn killed his stepfather after recognized that his biological father was killed by Ken Arok with the same kris. The bloody feud continued on and on until the reign of Kertanegara, the last king of Singosari Empire


title: Kris

text: Taming Sari ("flower shield") is one of the most well-known kris in Malay literature, said to be so skilfully crafted that anyone wielding it was unbeatable. In some versions of the legend, the weapon would grant its user physical invulnerability. The legend took place sometime during the fall of Majapahit Empire and the rise of the Malacca Sultanate in the 15th century. Tun Sri Lanang's book, the Sejarah Melayu, tells that it was made by a Javanese empu and first used by the champion of Majapahit, a pendekar named Taming Sari. He was defeated in a duel to the death by the Melakan admiral Hang Tuah, after which the king of Majapahit presented the weapon to the victor.


title: Kris

text: After being framed by a jealous official, Hang Tuah was ordered to be executed, but he managed to escape and go into hiding with the help of a minister who knew the truth. Hang Tuah's kris and title of Laksamana (admiral) were passed on to his comrade Hang Jebat. Furious that his best friend was unfairly put to death, Hang Jebat rebelled against the royalty and took over the palace. The desperate ruler of Melaka pardoned the minister so long as Hang Tuah could win him back the throne. Having trained under the same master since childhood the two friends were nearly equals but of the two, Tuah was the superior fighter. However, even after a long battle in the palace, neither could best the other because the Kris Taming Sari evened the odds. Only after taking his weapon back did Hang Tuah manage to stab Jebat, who died soon after.


title: Kris

text: Javanese folk story tells of Arya Penangsang, the mighty viceroy ("adipati") of Jipang who was killed by his own kris called Setan Kober ("devil of the grave"). It was forged by Empu Bayu Aji in the kingdom of Pajajaran, and had 13 luk on its blade. Near its completion when the empu tried to infuse the weapon with spiritual power, he was disturbed by a crying demon (djinn) from the graveyard. As a result, although powerful, the kris had a temperamental evil nature that caused the wielder to be overly ambitious and impatient.


title: Kris

text: The story took place in the 16th century, during the fall of Demak Sultanate that had replaced Majapahit as the ruler of Java. Setan Kober was safely kept by Sunan Kudus, one of the nine Islamic saints of Java. However Sunan Prawoto, son of Prince Trenggana and grandson of Raden Patah, stole it and used it to assassinate his uncle Raden Kikin by the river. Since then, Raden Kikin is also referred to as Sekar Seda Lepen (flower that fell by the river). Raden Trenggana rose as a sultan and later after his death, was replaced by Sunan Prawoto. Kikin's son, Penangsang of Jipang with the help of his teacher, Sunan Kudus, took revenge by sending an assassin to kill Prawoto using the Setan Kober kris. Prawoto younger sister Ratu Kalinyamat seeks revenge on Penangsang, since Penangsang also murdered her husband. She urged her brother in-law, Hadiwijaya (Joko Tingkir) the ruler of Pajang, to kill Arya Penangsang. Hadiwijaya sent his adopted son and also his son in-law Sutawijaya, who would later become the first ruler of the Mataram dynasty.


title: Kris

text: During a battle, Sutawijaya stabbed Penangsang with the Kyai Plered spear in the gut. However, Penangsang was believed to possess "aji" or "kesaktian" (spiritual power), he kept fighting with an open wound in the stomach. He encircled his hanging intestines on his kris hilt, and continued to fight. When trying to attack his opponent, the reckless, fierce and impatient Panangsang pulled his Setan Kober off its sheath, but accidentally cut his own intestines and died.


title: Kris

text: The Javanese tradition of putting jasmine garlands around the kris hilt, especially on groom's kris during the wedding ceremony, is said to originate from this tale. It is to symbolize that the groom should not be reckless, easily get angry, impatient and abusive like Arya Panangsang. To replace the intestine, the kris is coiled with a floral garland of jasmine chain that resemble intestine. The jasmine is to symbolize sacredness, patience, grace, humility, kindness and benevolence, the qualities lack in Panangsang. However another source mentioned that actually Sutawijaya admired Penangsang's fighting spirits, still fighting although his intestine encircled around his kris. Impressed by Penangsang's deed, later he command his male descendants to follow his step, adorned the kris with "intestine" made from the chain of jasmine, as a symbol of bravery. The story of Arya Penangsang has inspired and performed as Javanese ketoprak drama.


title: Kris

text: During the Royal Netherlands state visit to Indonesia in March 2020, King Willem-Alexander returned the kris of Prince Diponegoro to


title: Kris

text: Indonesia, received by President Joko Widodo. Today considered as Indonesian national hero, Prince Diponegoro of Yogyakarta was the charismatic leader of the mass rebellion against Dutch colonial rule in Central Java, that was defeated and taken prisoner after the conclusion of Java War in 1830. His kris was long considered lost, but has now been found, after being identified by the Dutch National Museum of Ethnology in Leiden. The kris of Prince Diponegoro represents a historic importance, as a symbol of Indonesian heroic resilience and the nation's struggle for independence. The extraordinary gold-inlaid Javanese dagger previously was held as the Dutch state collection, and is now part of the collection of the Indonesian National Museum. There is great doubt whether the Kris is the original Kris of Dipenegoro. Experts think not.


title: Kris

text: Throughout the archipelago, the "kris" is a symbol of heroism, martial prowess, power and authority. As a cultural symbol, the meticulously decorated kris represent refinement, art and beauty, as the pride and prized possession for its owner; however, as a weapon it is associated with violence, death and bloodshed. Probably for this reason, although the kris is widespread in Javanese culture, it is not used to symbolise Javanese culture or royalty, as Javanese tradition promotes harmony and discourages direct confrontation (hence the absence of knives on Indonesian dinner tables). This is also why the Javanese traditionally wear the kris on their back, to symbolize violence as the last resort. Balinese and Sundanese also wearing kris on their back. However, in other parts of archipelago, from Sumatra to the Malay Peninsula and to Sulawesi, the kris is worn on the front or left side on the hip.


title: Kris

text: The kris is depicted on different flags, emblems, coats and logos such as those of the Mataram Sultanate, Riau Islands Province, Terengganu and Selangor. The former emblem of Siam uses the kris to represent the southern territories. It can also be seen on an obverse copper-zinc-tin RM1 coin with a songket pattern in the background. The Malaya and British Borneo dollar 1 cent coin of 1962 also depicted a pair of crossed kris.


title: Kris

text: Since the independence of Malaysia, the kris has become a symbol of Malay nationalism, particularly of "ketuanan Melayu", the doctrine of the Malay race as the dominant race at their homeland. It has been incorporated into the "Sang Saka Bangsa", the official flag of the United Malays National Organisation.


title: Kris

text: In the Philippines, the "kalis", a larger sword variant of the "kris", is a symbol of Moro and southern Filipino culture, and a resistance to Spanish rule and influence. It is incorporated into the flags of the Moro National Liberation Front and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. It has also been incorporated into the flag of Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, historical flags of the Sultanate of Sulu, as well as the emblem of the Cotabato Province.


title: Time in Canada

text: Time in Canada, by regional law, is divided into six standard time zones covering the country's provinces and territories. Most regions operate on standard time from the first Sunday in November to the second Sunday in March and daylight saving time the rest of the year.


title: Time in Canada

text: The division between time zones are based on proposals by Scottish Canadian railway engineer Sandford Fleming, who pioneered the use of the 24-hour clock, the world's time zone system, and a standard prime meridian.


title: Time in Canada

text: The National Research Council (NRC) maintains Canada's official time through the use of atomic clocks. The official time is specified in legislation passed by the individual provinces. In Quebec it is based on coordinated universal time. The other provinces use mean solar time. The NRC provides both coordinated universal time and mean solar time in its signals. It makes time servers available for direct synchronization with computers. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation has aired a daily time signal, the "National Research Council Time Signal", since November 5, 1939.


title: Time in Canada

text: The Government of Canada recommends use of the 24-hour clock (e.g. ), which is widely used in contexts such as transportation schedules, parking meters, and data transmission. Speakers of Canadian French predominantly use this system, but most Canadian English speakers use the 12-hour clock in everyday speech (e.g. ), even when reading from a 24-hour display, similar to the use of the 24-hour clock in the United Kingdom.


title: Time in Canada

text: Four Canadian cities, by local ordinance, observed daylight saving time in 1916. Brandon, Manitoba, adopted it on April 17. It was followed by Winnipeg on April 23, Halifax on April 30, and Hamilton, Ontario, on June 4. Port Arthur, Ontario, was the first place in the world to introduce it, on July 1, 1908.


title: Time in Canada

text: Daylight saving time is currently observed in nine of ten provinces and two of three territories, but with exceptions in several provinces and Nunavut. Most of the province of Saskatchewan, despite geographically being in the Mountain Time Zone, observes year-round CST. In 2020, the territory of Yukon abandoned seasonal time change and moved to permanently observing MST year-round. Under the Constitution of Canada, laws related to timekeeping are a purely provincial matter. In practice, since the late 1960s DST across Canada has been closely or completely synchronized with its observance in the United States to promote consistent economic and social interaction. When the United States extended DST in 1987 to the first Sunday in April, all DST-observing Canadian provinces followed suit to mimic the change.


title: Time in Canada

text: In 2019, the legislature of British Columbia began the process of eliminating the practice of observing daylight saving time in the province. On October 31, 2019, the government introduced Bill 40 in the legislature, which would define "Pacific Time" as "7 hours behind Coordinated Universal Time (UTC)". In a press release, the provincial government stated an intention to maintain alignment of clock time with Washington, Oregon, California, and Yukon. The move follows a consultation earlier in 2019, in which the province received over 223,000 responses, 93% of which said they would prefer year-round DST as compared to the status quo of changing the clocks twice a year. The premier of British Columbia discussed the issue with Yukon premier Sandy Silver, who said in October that he needs more consultation with Yukon stakeholders, and with Alberta and Alaska.


title: Time in Canada

text: The latest United States change (Energy Policy Act of 2005) to daylight saving time, adding parts of March and November to when daylight saving time is observed, which began in 2007 was adopted by the various provinces and territories on the following dates:


title: Time in Canada

text: Data for Canada from zone.tab of the IANA time zone database. Columns marked with * are the columns from zone.tab itself.


title: Optics

text: Optics is the branch of physics that studies the behaviour and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of instruments that use or detect it. Optics usually describes the behaviour of visible, ultraviolet, and infrared light. Because light is an electromagnetic wave, other forms of electromagnetic radiation such as X-rays, microwaves, and radio waves exhibit similar properties.


title: Optics

text: Most optical phenomena can be accounted for by using the classical electromagnetic description of light. Complete electromagnetic descriptions of light are, however, often difficult to apply in practice. Practical optics is usually done using simplified models. The most common of these, geometric optics, treats light as a collection of rays that travel in straight lines and bend when they pass through or reflect from surfaces. Physical optics is a more comprehensive model of light, which includes wave effects such as diffraction and interference that cannot be accounted for in geometric optics. Historically, the ray-based model of light was developed first, followed by the wave model of light. Progress in electromagnetic theory in the 19th century led to the discovery that light waves were in fact electromagnetic radiation.


title: Optics

text: Some phenomena depend on light having both wave-like and particle-like properties. Explanation of these effects requires quantum mechanics. When considering light's particle-like properties, the light is modelled as a collection of particles called "photons". Quantum optics deals with the application of quantum mechanics to optical systems.


title: Optics

text: Optical science is relevant to and studied in many related disciplines including astronomy, various engineering fields, photography, and medicine (particularly ophthalmology and optometry, in which it is called physiological optics). Practical applications of optics are found in a variety of technologies and everyday objects, including mirrors, lenses, telescopes, microscopes, lasers, and fibre optics.


title: Optics

text: Optics began with the development of lenses by the ancient Egyptians and Mesopotamians. The earliest known lenses, made from polished crystal, often quartz, date from as early as 2000 BC from Crete (Archaeological Museum of Heraclion, Greece). Lenses from Rhodes date around 700 BC, as do Assyrian lenses such as the Nimrud lens. The ancient Romans and Greeks filled glass spheres with water to make lenses. These practical developments were followed by the development of theories of light and vision by ancient Greek and Indian philosophers, and the development of geometrical optics in the Greco-Roman world. The word "optics" comes from the ancient Greek word ("optikē"), meaning "appearance, look".


title: Optics

text: Greek philosophy on optics broke down into two opposing theories on how vision worked, the intromission theory and the emission theory. The intromission approach saw vision as coming from objects casting off copies of themselves (called eidola) that were captured by the eye. With many propagators including Democritus, Epicurus, Aristotle and their followers, this theory seems to have some contact with modern theories of what vision really is, but it remained only speculation lacking any experimental foundation.


title: Optics

text: Plato first articulated the emission theory, the idea that visual perception is accomplished by rays emitted by the eyes. He also commented on the parity reversal of mirrors in "Timaeus". Some hundred years later, Euclid (4th–3rd century BC) wrote a treatise entitled "Optics" where he linked vision to geometry, creating "geometrical optics". He based his work on Plato's emission theory wherein he described the mathematical rules of perspective and described the effects of refraction qualitatively, although he questioned that a beam of light from the eye could instantaneously light up the stars every time someone blinked. Euclid stated the principle of shortest trajectory of light, and considered multiple reflections on flat and spherical mirrors.


title: Optics

text: Ptolemy, in his treatise "Optics", held an extramission-intromission theory of vision: the rays (or flux) from the eye formed a cone, the vertex being within the eye, and the base defining the visual field. The rays were sensitive, and conveyed information back to the observer's intellect about the distance and orientation of surfaces. He summarized much of Euclid and went on to describe a way to measure the angle of refraction, though he failed to notice the empirical relationship between it and the angle of incidence. Plutarch (1st–2nd century AD) described multiple reflections on spherical mirrors and discussed the creation of magnified and reduced images, both real and imaginary, including the case of chirality of the images.


title: Optics

text: During the Middle Ages, Greek ideas about optics were resurrected and extended by writers in the Muslim world. One of the earliest of these was Al-Kindi (c. 801–873) who wrote on the merits of Aristotelian and Euclidean ideas of optics, favouring the emission theory since it could better quantify optical phenomena. In 984, the Persian mathematician Ibn Sahl wrote the treatise "On burning mirrors and lenses", correctly describing a law of refraction equivalent to Snell's law. He used this law to compute optimum shapes for lenses and curved mirrors. In the early 11th century, Alhazen (Ibn al-Haytham) wrote the "Book of Optics" ("Kitab al-manazir") in which he explored reflection and refraction and proposed a new system for explaining vision and light based on observation and experiment. He rejected the "emission theory" of Ptolemaic optics with its rays being emitted by the eye, and instead put forward the idea that light reflected in all directions in straight lines from all points of the objects being viewed and then entered the eye, although he was unable to correctly explain how the eye captured the rays. Alhazen's work was largely ignored in the Arabic world but it was anonymously translated into Latin around 1200 A.D. and further summarised and expanded on by the Polish monk Witelo making it a standard text on optics in Europe for the next 400 years.


title: Optics

text: In the 13th century in medieval Europe, English bishop Robert Grosseteste wrote on a wide range of scientific topics, and discussed light from four different perspectives: an epistemology of light, a metaphysics or cosmogony of light, an etiology or physics of light, and a theology of light, basing it on the works of Aristotle and Platonism. Grosseteste's most famous disciple, Roger Bacon, wrote works citing a wide range of recently translated optical and philosophical works, including those of Alhazen, Aristotle, Avicenna, Averroes, Euclid, al-Kindi, Ptolemy, Tideus, and Constantine the African. Bacon was able to use parts of glass spheres as magnifying glasses to demonstrate that light reflects from objects rather than being released from them.


title: Optics

text: This was the start of the optical industry of grinding and polishing lenses for these "spectacles", first in Venice and Florence in the thirteenth century, and later in the spectacle making centres in both the Netherlands and Germany. Spectacle makers created improved types of lenses for the correction of vision based more on empirical knowledge gained from observing the effects of the lenses rather than using the rudimentary optical theory of the day (theory which for the most part could not even adequately explain how spectacles worked). This practical development, mastery, and experimentation with lenses led directly to the invention of the compound optical microscope around 1595, and the refracting telescope in 1608, both of which appeared in the spectacle making centres in the Netherlands.


title: Optics

text: In the early 17th century, Johannes Kepler expanded on geometric optics in his writings, covering lenses, reflection by flat and curved mirrors, the principles of pinhole cameras, inverse-square law governing the intensity of light, and the optical explanations of astronomical phenomena such as lunar and solar eclipses and astronomical parallax. He was also able to correctly deduce the role of the retina as the actual organ that recorded images, finally being able to scientifically quantify the effects of different types of lenses that spectacle makers had been observing over the previous 300 years. After the invention of the telescope, Kepler set out the theoretical basis on how they worked and described an improved version, known as the "Keplerian telescope", using two convex lenses to produce higher magnification.


title: Optics

text: Optical theory progressed in the mid-17th century with treatises written by philosopher René Descartes, which explained a variety of optical phenomena including reflection and refraction by assuming that light was emitted by objects which produced it. This differed substantively from the ancient Greek emission theory. In the late 1660s and early 1670s, Isaac Newton expanded Descartes's ideas into a corpuscle theory of light, famously determining that white light was a mix of colours that can be separated into its component parts with a prism. In 1690, Christiaan Huygens proposed a wave theory for light based on suggestions that had been made by Robert Hooke in 1664. Hooke himself publicly criticised Newton's theories of light and the feud between the two lasted until Hooke's death. In 1704, Newton published "Opticks" and, at the time, partly because of his success in other areas of physics, he was generally considered to be the victor in the debate over the nature of light.


title: Optics

text: Newtonian optics was generally accepted until the early 19th century when Thomas Young and Augustin-Jean Fresnel conducted experiments on the interference of light that firmly established light's wave nature. Young's famous double slit experiment showed that light followed the superposition principle, which is a wave-like property not predicted by Newton's corpuscle theory. This work led to a theory of diffraction for light and opened an entire area of study in physical optics. Wave optics was successfully unified with electromagnetic theory by James Clerk Maxwell in the 1860s.


title: Optics

text: The next development in optical theory came in 1899 when Max Planck correctly modelled blackbody radiation by assuming that the exchange of energy between light and matter only occurred in discrete amounts he called "quanta". In 1905, Albert Einstein published the theory of the photoelectric effect that firmly established the quantization of light itself. In 1913, Niels Bohr showed that atoms could only emit discrete amounts of energy, thus explaining the discrete lines seen in emission and absorption spectra. The understanding of the interaction between light and matter that followed from these developments not only formed the basis of quantum optics but also was crucial for the development of quantum mechanics as a whole. The ultimate culmination, the theory of quantum electrodynamics, explains all optics and electromagnetic processes in general as the result of the exchange of real and virtual photons. Quantum optics gained practical importance with the inventions of the maser in 1953 and of the laser in 1960.


title: Optics

text: Following the work of Paul Dirac in quantum field theory, George Sudarshan, Roy J. Glauber, and Leonard Mandel applied quantum theory to the electromagnetic field in the 1950s and 1960s to gain a more detailed understanding of photodetection and the statistics of light.


title: Optics

text: Classical optics is divided into two main branches: geometrical (or ray) optics and physical (or wave) optics. In geometrical optics, light is considered to travel in straight lines, while in physical optics, light is considered as an electromagnetic wave.


title: Optics

text: Geometrical optics can be viewed as an approximation of physical optics that applies when the wavelength of the light used is much smaller than the size of the optical elements in the system being modelled.


title: Optics

text: "Geometrical optics", or "ray optics", describes the propagation of light in terms of "rays" which travel in straight lines, and whose paths are governed by the laws of reflection and refraction at interfaces between different media. These laws were discovered empirically as far back as 984 AD and have been used in the design of optical components and instruments from then until the present day. They can be summarised as follows:


title: Optics

text: When a ray of light hits the boundary between two transparent materials, it is divided into a reflected and a refracted ray.


title: Optics

text: where is a constant for any two materials and a given colour of light. If the first material is air or vacuum, is the refractive index of the second material.


title: Optics

text: The laws of reflection and refraction can be derived from Fermat's principle which states that "the path taken between two points by a ray of light is the path that can be traversed in the least time."


title: Optics

text: Geometric optics is often simplified by making the paraxial approximation, or "small angle approximation". The mathematical behaviour then becomes linear, allowing optical components and systems to be described by simple matrices. This leads to the techniques of Gaussian optics and "paraxial ray tracing", which are used to find basic properties of optical systems, such as approximate image and object positions and magnifications.


title: Optics

text: Reflections can be divided into two types: specular reflection and diffuse reflection. Specular reflection describes the gloss of surfaces such as mirrors, which reflect light in a simple, predictable way. This allows for the production of reflected images that can be associated with an actual (real) or extrapolated (virtual) location in space. Diffuse reflection describes non-glossy materials, such as paper or rock. The reflections from these surfaces can only be described statistically, with the exact distribution of the reflected light depending on the microscopic structure of the material. Many diffuse reflectors are described or can be approximated by Lambert's cosine law, which describes surfaces that have equal luminance when viewed from any angle. Glossy surfaces can give both specular and diffuse reflection.


title: Optics

text: In specular reflection, the direction of the reflected ray is determined by the angle the incident ray makes with the surface normal, a line perpendicular to the surface at the point where the ray hits. The incident and reflected rays and the normal lie in a single plane, and the angle between the reflected ray and the surface normal is the same as that between the incident ray and the normal. This is known as the Law of Reflection.


title: Optics

text: For flat mirrors, the law of reflection implies that images of objects are upright and the same distance behind the mirror as the objects are in front of the mirror. The image size is the same as the object size. The law also implies that mirror images are parity inverted, which we perceive as a left-right inversion. Images formed from reflection in two (or any even number of) mirrors are not parity inverted. Corner reflectors produce reflected rays that travel back in the direction from which the incident rays came. This is called retroreflection.


title: Optics

text: Mirrors with curved surfaces can be modelled by ray tracing and using the law of reflection at each point on the surface. For mirrors with parabolic surfaces, parallel rays incident on the mirror produce reflected rays that converge at a common focus. Other curved surfaces may also focus light, but with aberrations due to the diverging shape causing the focus to be smeared out in space. In particular, spherical mirrors exhibit spherical aberration. Curved mirrors can form images with a magnification greater than or less than one, and the magnification can be negative, indicating that the image is inverted. An upright image formed by reflection in a mirror is always virtual, while an inverted image is real and can be projected onto a screen.


title: Optics

text: Refraction occurs when light travels through an area of space that has a changing index of refraction; this principle allows for lenses and the focusing of light. The simplest case of refraction occurs when there is an interface between a uniform medium with index of refraction formula_2 and another medium with index of refraction formula_3. In such situations, Snell's Law describes the resulting deflection of the light ray:


title: Optics

text: where formula_5 and formula_6 are the angles between the normal (to the interface) and the incident and refracted waves, respectively.


title: Optics

text: Snell's Law can be used to predict the deflection of light rays as they pass through linear media as long as the indexes of refraction and the geometry of the media are known. For example, the propagation of light through a prism results in the light ray being deflected depending on the shape and orientation of the prism. In most materials, the index of refraction varies with the frequency of the light. Taking this into account, Snell's Law can be used to predict how a prism will disperse light into a spectrum. The discovery of this phenomenon when passing light through a prism is famously attributed to Isaac Newton.


title: Optics

text: Some media have an index of refraction which varies gradually with position and, therefore, light rays in the medium are curved. This effect is responsible for mirages seen on hot days: a change in index of refraction air with height causes light rays to bend, creating the appearance of specular reflections in the distance (as if on the surface of a pool of water). Optical materials with varying indexes of refraction are called gradient-index (GRIN) materials. Such materials are used to make gradient-index optics.


title: Optics

text: For light rays travelling from a material with a high index of refraction to a material with a low index of refraction, Snell's law predicts that there is no formula_6 when formula_5 is large. In this case, no transmission occurs; all the light is reflected. This phenomenon is called total internal reflection and allows for fibre optics technology. As light travels down an optical fibre, it undergoes total internal reflection allowing for essentially no light to be lost over the length of the cable.


title: Optics

text: A device that produces converging or diverging light rays due to refraction is known as a "lens". Lenses are characterized by their focal length: a converging lens has positive focal length, while a diverging lens has negative focal length. Smaller focal length indicates that the lens has a stronger converging or diverging effect. The focal length of a simple lens in air is given by the lensmaker's equation.


title: Optics

text: Ray tracing can be used to show how images are formed by a lens. For a thin lens in air, the location of the image is given by the simple equation


title: Optics

text: where formula_11 is the distance from the object to the lens, formula_12 is the distance from the lens to the image, and formula_13 is the focal length of the lens. In the sign convention used here, the object and image distances are positive if the object and image are on opposite sides of the lens.


title: Optics

text: Incoming parallel rays are focused by a converging lens onto a spot one focal length from the lens, on the far side of the lens. This is called the rear focal point of the lens. Rays from an object at a finite distance are focused further from the lens than the focal distance; the closer the object is to the lens, the further the image is from the lens.


title: Optics

text: With diverging lenses, incoming parallel rays diverge after going through the lens, in such a way that they seem to have originated at a spot one focal length in front of the lens. This is the lens's front focal point. Rays from an object at a finite distance are associated with a virtual image that is closer to the lens than the focal point, and on the same side of the lens as the object. The closer the object is to the lens, the closer the virtual image is to the lens. As with mirrors, upright images produced by a single lens are virtual, while inverted images are real.


title: Optics

text: Lenses suffer from aberrations that distort images. "Monochromatic aberrations" occur because the geometry of the lens does not perfectly direct rays from each object point to a single point on the image, while chromatic aberration occurs because the index of refraction of the lens varies with the wavelength of the light.


title: Optics

text: In physical optics, light is considered to propagate as a wave. This model predicts phenomena such as interference and diffraction, which are not explained by geometric optics. The speed of light waves in air is approximately 3.0×10 m/s (exactly 299,792,458 m/s in vacuum). The wavelength of visible light waves varies between 400 and 700 nm, but the term "light" is also often applied to infrared (0.7–300 μm) and ultraviolet radiation (10–400 nm).


title: Optics

text: The wave model can be used to make predictions about how an optical system will behave without requiring an explanation of what is "waving" in what medium. Until the middle of the 19th century, most physicists believed in an "ethereal" medium in which the light disturbance propagated. The existence of electromagnetic waves was predicted in 1865 by Maxwell's equations. These waves propagate at the speed of light and have varying electric and magnetic fields which are orthogonal to one another, and also to the direction of propagation of the waves. Light waves are now generally treated as electromagnetic waves except when quantum mechanical effects have to be considered.


title: Optics

text: Many simplified approximations are available for analysing and designing optical systems. Most of these use a single scalar quantity to represent the electric field of the light wave, rather than using a vector model with orthogonal electric and magnetic vectors.


title: Optics

text: The Huygens–Fresnel equation is one such model. This was derived empirically by Fresnel in 1815, based on Huygens' hypothesis that each point on a wavefront generates a secondary spherical wavefront, which Fresnel combined with the principle of superposition of waves. The Kirchhoff diffraction equation, which is derived using Maxwell's equations, puts the Huygens-Fresnel equation on a firmer physical foundation. Examples of the application of Huygens–Fresnel principle can be found in the articles on diffraction and Fraunhofer diffraction.


title: Optics

text: More rigorous models, involving the modelling of both electric and magnetic fields of the light wave, are required when dealing with materials whose electric and magnetic properties affect the interaction of light with the material. For instance, the behaviour of a light wave interacting with a metal surface is quite different from what happens when it interacts with a dielectric material. A vector model must also be used to model polarised light.


title: Optics

text: Numerical modeling techniques such as the finite element method, the boundary element method and the transmission-line matrix method can be used to model the propagation of light in systems which cannot be solved analytically. Such models are computationally demanding and are normally only used to solve small-scale problems that require accuracy beyond that which can be achieved with analytical solutions.