title: Erection

text: The nipples of men and women can also become erect. Women's nipples become erect when they are breastfeeding (giving milk to their babies from their breasts). Men and women may also have an erection of their nipples when they are sexually excited, or if they feel cold. Nipples do not have any tissue in them that fills with blood. Instead, the body's nervous system makes muscles in the nipples contract (become shorter), causing them to stand up and become slightly harder.


title: Erection

text: Blood flows out of the corpus spongiosum and corpora cavernosa penis, and the penis goes back to its normal size. A man who often has problems having or keeping an erection of his penis is said to have erectile dysfunction (ED). On the other hand, an erection that lasts too long is also a dangerous condition called priapism. Men who want to get less erections sometimes take anaphrodisiacs.


title: Erection

text: The term "erection" is most often used to refer to an erection of the penis. A man's penis is usually soft, quite short and hangs down. When the penis is like this, it is said to be flaccid (). In order for the man to take part in sexual intercourse by putting his penis inside a woman's vagina, his penis needs to become longer, thicker, harder. For many men it stands upright. It is okay if it points out or down. When the penis is hard, it is said that the penis is erect or that the man has an erection. The scrotum (the bag containing a man's testicles or "balls") will usually tighten during erection. The penis usually needs to be at least mildly erect before the man can have an orgasm and ejaculate semen.


title: Erection

text: The scientific name for an erection is "tumescence" (which means "swelling"). Some slang terms for having an erection are "getting hard", "getting wood" and "having a hard-on", and an erect penis is informally called a "boner", "hard-on", "stiffy", "wood" or "woody".


title: Erection

text: The penis is shaped like a banana or sausage. It has a duct or tube called the urethra running right through it. Semen and urine pass along the urethra to get out of the body. Around the whole urethra is tissue called the corpus spongiosum penis (which is Latin for "body of the penis that is like a sponge"). It is near the lower surface of the penis. Also inside the penis near its upper surface are two cylindrical tissues called the corpora cavernosa penis (Latin for "bodies of the penis that are like caves"). (One of these tissues by itself is called a corpus cavernosum.) The corpus spongiosum penis and corpora cavernosa penis are filled with many blood vessels called arteries which carry blood.


title: Erection

text: When a man is sexually aroused or stimulated (made sexually excited) by touch – for example, if he masturbates or another person touches him in a sexual way – the touching is picked up by nerves in the arteries of the corpus spongiosum penis and corpora cavernosa penis. The nerves then cause a chemical called nitric oxide to be released into the arteries. This makes the arteries dilate (become wider), and they fill up with blood. Thus, the corpus spongiosum penis and corpora cavernosa penis all fill with blood and become larger and harder. This makes the penis grow longer, thicker and harder. The corpora cavernosa penis press against blood vessels called veins that let blood flow out of the penis. Since less blood can flow out of the penis through the veins, more of it stays in the penis, which remains hard. During an erection, a valve stops urine from entering the urethra so that only semen flows along it. This is why it is difficult for a man to urinate when he is having an erection.


title: Erection

text: A man can also become sexually aroused without being touched, for example, if he sees a naked person or thinks about having sex with someone. In this case, his brain sends messages through his spinal cord (which is inside his vertebral column or backbone) to his penis and makes an erection happen. The brain can also stop an erection from happening, even if the man is being touched sexually.


title: Erection

text: After a man has had an orgasm and has ejaculated, his erection usually ends. How long this takes depends on the length and thickness of his penis. A man can also stop having an erection without having an orgasm and ejaculating, if he is no longer sexually aroused. Nerves in his body cause the arteries in the penis to constrict (become narrower). This forces blood out of the corpus spongiosum penis and corpora cavernosa penis. As they go back to their normal size, they do not press so much on the veins leading out of the penis. This lets blood flow faster out of the corpus spongiosum penis and corpora cavernosa penis. The scientific term for this process is "detumescence".


title: Erection

text: The angle that an erect penis makes varies from one man to another. If it is imagined that a man is standing upright and there is a horizontal line stretching out from the base of his penis, most men's erect penises point upwards from the line at a certain angle. However, it is common and normal for an erect penis to point nearly vertically upwards, nearly vertically downwards. The angle depends on how long a man's suspensory ligament is. The suspensory ligament is a band of tough, stringy tissue that joins a man's penis to the front of his pelvis.


title: Erection

text: The following table shows how common various erection angles are for a standing male. In the table, zero degrees (0°) is pointing straight up against the abdomen, 90° is horizontal and pointing straight forward, and 180° is pointing straight down to the feet. An upward pointing angle is most common and the average erection angle is 74.3 degrees.


title: Erection

text: Few men's penises are completely straight when they are erect. It is common for an erect penis to have a slight curve in it. The curve can be up or down, or to the left or right. A curve of up to 30° is considered normal, and medical treatment is usually not needed unless the angle of curvature is more than 45°. A curved penis does not usually cause a man any problems when he is having sex. However, if the curvature of a penis changes, this could be caused by an illness called Peyronie's disease (see below). An erection that pokes through clothing is sometimes called a "manbulge".


title: Erection

text: A survey of 300 men over the age of 18 carried out between 11 March and 17 March 2001 in Cancún, Mexico, found that among those men the average erect human penis was about 14.928 centimetres (5.877 inches) long, and that most of them had an erect penis length of between 14 and 16 centimetres (5.5 and 6.3 inches). The typical girth or circumference (the length around the outside of the penis) was about 12.63 centimetres (4.972 inches), and most erect penises had a girth of between 12 and 13 centimetres (4.7 and 5.1 inches). As this survey was only done in one city, its findings may not apply to men from other countries.


title: Erection

text: The size of an erect penis generally does not change after puberty, the time when a boy becomes sexually mature. Some people have surgery to make their penises larger. However, a study that came out in 2006 found that only 35% of men who had gone for such surgery were happy with the results.


title: Erection

text: An erection of the penis can also happen by itself when a man is asleep, often when he is dreaming. The scientific term for this is "nocturnal penile tumescence" (which means "swelling of the penis at night"). It is also common for a man to wake up after a night's sleep to find that he has an erection. This is often caused by his bladder being full of urine, which presses on the tissues in the penis. Such an erection is sometimes informally called a "morning glory" or "morning wood".


title: Erection

text: Most boy teenagers have unexpected erections. Sometimes adult men have unexpected erections. Unexpected erections are involuntary and are normal. People call this a "spontaneous" (sudden or surprise) erection. Sometimes it happens in school. Sometimes it happens walking. Sometimes it happens taking clothes off for a shower or bath or swimming. This is normal. Such erections can be embarrassing if they happen in public. Erections can occur unexpectedly at any time of day.


title: Erection

text: A man who often has problems having or keeping an erection of his penis is said to have erectile dysfunction. Erectile dysfunction is also known as ED, impotence or male impotence. The study of erectile dysfunction comes within andrology, the field of science dealing with men's health.


title: Erection

text: ED is not uncommon. For example, about 10% of all men in the United Kingdom will have ED happening to them regularly at some time in their lives. It can be due to both physiological and psychological reasons. Physiological reasons are those dealing with how the body works. Psychological reasons are those involving human behaviour and how people think.


title: Erection

text: ED can also happen for psychological reasons. For example, a man can find it difficult to have an erection:


title: Erection

text: Having erections is seen by many people as a very important part of being a man. Therefore, a man who has ED often feels that he is not manly enough and not successful in life. This can lead to him feeling ashamed and not as good as other men. The matter is made worse because men often do not like talking about their personal problems with other people, so they keep their unhappy feelings to themselves. However, talking to a doctor or psychiatrist (a doctor who knows a lot about mental problems) is helpful, as he or she may be able to suggest ways of dealing with the problem.


title: Erection

text: How ED may be treated depends on the cause. If it is caused by a disease, sometimes treating the disease will reduce the problem. For example, if a man is unable to have erections because his body does not make enough testosterone, he can be given pills to take which help his body to do so. If the blood vessels or nerves in the corpora cavernosa penis are damaged, a full cure may not be possible. However, there are some temporary treatments that allow a man to have an erection for long enough to have sex:


title: Erection

text: If a man's erection lasts for more than four hours even though he is no longer sexually excited, this is a medical problem called priapism (). The man must go to a doctor or hospital quickly if it happens. The condition is named after the Greek god Priapus, whose penis was believed to always be erect (see below). Priapism is painful, and is a medical emergency because the blood stuck in the penis can become thick and form clots. This can damage the blood vessels of the penis and lead to erectile dysfunction (ED). In serious cases the tissues of the penis can die, and the penis may have to be amputated (cut off) so that the tissue death does not spread to the rest of the body.


title: Erection

text: It is not really known what causes priapism. Men who suffer from priapism sometimes have blood diseases like leukemia (a type of cancer of the blood; in the United Kingdom and some other countries it is spelled "leukaemia") or sickle-cell disease (which makes the blood cells crescent-shaped). Problems with the nervous system such as injury to the spinal cord or abnormal growths on it can also lead to priapism. Certain medicines can make priapism happen, including some used to treat ED such as alprostadil. A 2008 study suggests that too much of the chemical adenosine in the body may cause priapism since it makes blood vessels widen which lets more blood flow into the penis.


title: Erection

text: When a man with priapism is brought to the emergency department of a hospital, a doctor will usually try to remove blood from the corpora cavernosa penis by aspirating it (sucking it out) using a syringe. If this is not enough, a chemical called phenylephrine (/"feen-il-eff-rin"/) may be injected into the penis to try and make the blood vessels become narrower. If this also does not work, the doctor will make a shunt (a hole or passage) between the corpora cavernosa penis and corpus spongiosum penis. This allows blood to flow away from the corpora cavernosa penis into the corpus spongiosum penis. For men who have priapism again and again, it has been found that medicines such as sildenafil (Viagra) and tadalafil (Cialis) may help.


title: Erection

text: When an erect penis is shown in art, it is often called a phallus. Erotic (sexually exciting) art has shown phalluses for a very long time. Pictures of men with erections appear on ancient objects and in paintings.


title: Erection

text: The erect penis was also a symbol or sign of health and fertility (the ability to give life). The Hohle Fels phallus was found in a cave in Germany. It is a piece of stone carved to look like a penis that archaeologists believe is about 28,000 years old. (Archaeologists are scientists who study the past by looking for things that people have left behind.) From the fourth millennium B.C. (4000–3001 B.C.), Ancient Egyptians worshipped Min as the god of reproduction and the maker of all things. Min was shown in statues and on wall carvings as having an erect penis.


title: Erection

text: The Ancient Greeks believed in a god called Priapus who had a very large penis that was always erect. He was thought to protect livestock (animals kept by humans for food, milk, leather or wool), fruit plants and gardens, and men's sex organs. He was also seen as able to chase away evil, and as a protector of sailors, fishermen and others needing good luck.


title: Erection

text: Long after the Roman Empire ended and many people became Christian, Priapus was still seen as a symbol of health and fertility. A 13th-century book called the "Lanercost Chronicle", which is a history of northern England and Scotland, talks about someone putting up a statue of Priapus to try and stop a disease from spreading among cattle.


title: Erection

text: Some Native Americans in the Southwestern United States believe in a fertility god called Kokopelli who is in charge of childbirth and agriculture (the growing of plants and animals for food and other uses). He also plays tricks and is a symbol for the spirit of music. Kokopelli is sometimes shown as a man playing a flute with a humpback (a back that is bent forwards), things like feathers sticking out from his head, and a very big penis.


title: Erection

text: Today, phalluses do not often appear in artworks or movies (except in pornographic movies which show people having sex with each other). This is because many people think that showing a man's penis when it is erect is obscene (not decent).


title: Erection

text: Men with larger penises are commonly thought to be more handsome, manly and powerful. In 2006, it was reported that an Internet survey of 52,031 heterosexual (straight) men and women showed that men who thought that their penises were larger than the average size believed they were more good-looking. Of the men, 55% of them were happy with their penis size, but 45% wanted to be larger. Only 0.2% wanted a smaller penis. On the other hand, 85% of women were happy with how big their partner's penis was. Another study that also came out in 2006 in the Netherlands found that out of 251 homosexual (gay) men who were asked, most felt it was better to have a large penis, and those who thought they had one were happy about their bodies. However, just because a man has a large penis does not always mean he is sexier or stronger than other men, even though many people think this.


title: Erection

text: A lot of people also believe that men with bigger penises are better at making their partners feel good when they are having sex. For heterosexual men, this is because it is thought that when the penis can go further into the vagina, this helps the woman have a better orgasm. Scientists are not sure whether this is true or not. Some research shows that the most sensitive area of the female sex organs includes the vulva, clitoris and the part of the vagina nearest the outside of a woman's body. There are also parts of the clitoris inside the vulva and vagina. Therefore, most men's penises are long enough to make their partners feel good during sex. Also, some studies say it is not how long but how thick a penis is that decides how well it excites a woman sexually.


title: Erection

text: However, other research seems to say that a long penis that touches and sexually excites the fornix, which is the deepest part of the vagina near the cervix (the opening of the uterus into the vagina), helps a woman to have an orgasm. A study from the Netherlands of 375 women came out in 2002. This study said that although 77% of the women felt that the length of a man's penis was not important to them, quite a large number – 21% – felt it was important.


title: Erection

text: The clitoris () is part of a woman's sex organs. It makes a woman's orgasms happen, which gives her very good sexual feelings. Like a man's penis, a woman's clitoris also becomes bigger and harder, moving out and away from the body, when she is sexually excited. However, because the clitoris is much smaller than the penis, and most of the clitoris is inside the woman's body, only part of its entire length can be seen from the outside. Some clitoral erections cannot be seen as well as an erection of the penis.


title: Erection

text: An erection of the clitoris happens in the same way as an erection of the penis. The clitoris has a corpus cavernosum similar to the penis. However, instead of the corpus spongiosum it has two vestibular bulbs. When a woman is sexually excited, the corpus cavernosum and vestibular bulbs fill with blood. This causes the clitoris and other parts of the woman's sex organs to become larger, harder, and redder in color. When this happens, they become very sensitive to being touched.


title: Erection

text: If an erection of the clitoris does not go away after a long time, even though the woman is not being made sexually excited any more, this is a medical problem called clitorism. Like priapism which can affect a man's penis, it is painful. A woman who thinks she may have clitorism should see a doctor.


title: Erection

text: Clitorises range in size. From a small pea to fingertip-section(s) when still soft. They engorge with blood and become much larger in all dimensions, and firmer when aroused. They can range into even 4-5 inches in some. A penis has a tubular shape while a clitoris has a hood covering and C curvature shape, and yet still tube-like, and rides along the body. The tip can lift upward more when aroused. The tip can also be referred to as the pearl. Sometimes, it can be uncomfortable to the entire clitoris, from its sensitivity, if treated rashly, mistaking erection for pleasure. This is known mentally by the participant if pleasurable or uncomfortable. It can be hard, or mid-firm as well, and climb to a shudder, then do a sharp firm up and an outward move right before, and then a tingling jingle inside and to the g-spot on in the other - and this is an orgasm. Orgasms vary in intensity. The body and mind can be relaxed and passionate afterwards to continue with love making or setting itself.


title: Erection

text: The nipples of men and women can also become erect. Women's nipples become erect when they are breastfeeding (giving milk to their babies from their breasts). Men and women may also have an erection of their nipples when they are sexually excited. This is caused by the release of a hormone called oxytocin in the body. Nipples can also become erect when a person feels cold or sexually excited.


title: Erection

text: Unlike the penis and clitoris, nipples do not have any tissue in them that fills with blood. Instead, the body's nervous system makes muscles in the nipples contract (become shorter), causing them to stand up and become slightly harder.


title: Maharashtra

text: Maharashtra is the name of a state in Western India. Its language is Marathi. It is the third biggest state of India by area and second biggest state in India based on population. Only one Indian state has more people (Uttar Pradesh). Mumbai is the capital of Maharashtra. Pune is the cultural and educational capital.


title: Maharashtra

text: Maharashtra is in the west part of India. It is on the coast of the Arabian Sea. Six other states of India have borders with Maharashtra. It covers an area of . It is bigger than Italy, but smaller than Oman. In traditional Indian geography it falls under the West Indian zone.


title: Maharashtra

text: There are some well-known cave monuments like Ajanta and Ellora. The first oil mill is in Mumbai.Some of the crops grown in Maharashtra are Bajra, Jowar, Rice, Wheat, etc. The neighbouring States are Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Goa, and Chhattisgarh. A famous dish in Maharashtra is Pithla Bhakri.


title: Maharashtra

text: Most people in Maharashtra are Hindus and you can see it in the culture of Maharashtra. There are many temples in Maharashtra and some of them are very old. The architecture of these temples is a mixture of architecture from North and South India. The temples also have ideas from Hindu, Buddhist and Jain cultures. Maharashtra has many forts like Raigad and Pratapgad which were very important in the early history of the Maratha Empire and also sea forts like the one at Sindhudurg. A famous dance form in Maharashtra is lavani.


title: Maharashtra

text: An early piece of Marathi literature is Bhawarthadeepika (known as Dnyaneshwari) by Dnyaneshwar. The religious songs called bhajans by Dnyaneshwar, Tukaram, Namdev,chokhamela,Savta Mali are very popular. Modern Marathi literature also has some great poets and authors likeJyotirao Govindrao Phule,Savitribai Jyotirao Phule,Dr.Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, Anna Bhau Sathe, Namdev Dhasal, M.M. Deshmukh,P. L. Deshpande, Kusumagraj, Prahlad Keshav Atre, and Vyankatesh Madgulkar. Many books are published every year in Marathi.


title: Maharashtra

text: The theater, movies, and television in Maharashtra are mostly made in Mumbai, and the actors in each area (like television) can work in the others. Some important people in the movie industry are Dadasaheb Phalke, Dada Kondke, Ashok Saraf, Laxmikant Berde, Sachin Pilgaonkar, Mahesh Kothare and V. Shantaram. Early Marathi theatre had important playwrights (people who write plays) like Kolhatkar, Khadilkar, Deval, Gadkari and Kirloskar. They wrote musical plays called Sangeet Naatak. The music from those plays is called Natyasangeet. Important actors at this time were Bal Gandharva, Keshavrao Bhosle, Bhaurao Kolhatkar, and Dinanath Mangeshkar.


title: Maharashtra

text: Some of the popular Marathi television channels are Mi Marathi and ETV Marathi. They have many kinds of shows: soap operas, cooking, travel, political satire, and game shows.


title: Maharashtra

text: The food of Maharashtra is different in each place. The people in the Konkan region eat more rice and the ones near the ocean eat a lot of fish. In eastern Maharashtra, most people eat a lot of wheat, jowar, and bajra. Other important things people eat in Maharashtra are lentils, onions, tomatoes, potatoes, chilies, garlic, ginger, and aamras. Many people also eat chicken and mutton.


title: Maharashtra

text: In the past, women wore a long sari ( Nauvari saree ) and men wore a dhoti or pajama with a shirt. Today, women in the cities often wear other clothes like Salwar kameez (dresses from the Punjab), and men in the cities wear trousers and a shirt.


title: Maharashtra

text: Cricket is very popular in Maharashtra. Many people play it and many others watch it. Kabaddi is also popular. Children play Viti-Dandu and Pakada-pakadi (Tag).


title: Maharashtra

text: Hindus in Maharashtra follow the Saka era calendar. Gudi Padwa, Diwali, Rangapanchami, Gokulashtami, and Ganeshotsav are some of the festivals that are celebrated in Maharashtra. Ganeshotsav is the biggest festival. The Hindus celebrate it with reverence and festivity in Maharashtra and it has also become popular in other parts of India. The festival which lasts ten days is in honor of Ganesha, the Hindu god of learning and knowledge.


title: Verb

text: A verb is a kind of word (part of speech) that tells about an action or a state. It is the main part of a sentence: every sentence has a verb. In English, verbs are the only kind of word that changes to show past or present tense.


title: Verb

text: Every language in the world has verbs, but they are not always used in the same ways. They also can have different properties in different languages. In some other languages (Chinese & Indonesian, for example) verbs do not change for past and present tense. This means the definition above only works well for English verbs.


title: Verb

text: The word "verb" originally comes from "*were-", a Proto-Indo-European word meaning "a word". It comes to English through the Latin "verbum" and the Old French "verbe".


title: Verb

text: In simple sentences, the verb may be one word: "The cat "sat" on the mat". However, the verb may be a phrase: "The cat "will sit" on the mat".


title: Verb

text: Verbal phrases can be extremely difficult to analyse: "I'm afraid I will need to be going soon". There seem to be three verbal phrases here, which mean something like "Sorry, I must go soon".


title: Verb

text: In English and many other languages, verbs change their form. This is called inflection. Most English verbs have six inflected forms (see the table), but "be" has eight different forms.


title: Verb

text: You should notice that some of the verb forms look the same. You can say they have the same shape. For example, the plain present and the plain form of "walk" have the same shape. The same is true for the past and the past participle. But these different forms can have different shapes in other verbs. For example, the plain present of "be" is usually "are" but the plain form is "be". Also, the past of "eat" is "ate", but the past participle is "eaten". When you look for a verb in the dictionary, it is usually the plain form that you look for.


title: Verb

text: An English sentence must have at least one primary-form verb. Each main clause can only have one primary-form verb.


title: Verb

text: English has two main kinds of verbs: normal verbs (called lexical verbs) and auxiliary verbs. The difference between them is mainly in where they can go in a sentence. Some verbs are in both groups, but there are very few auxiliary verbs in English. There are also two kinds of auxiliary verbs: modal verbs and non-modal verbs. The table below shows most of the English auxiliaries and a small number of other verbs.


title: Verb

text: Sometimes the verb "do" is used with other verbs. It does not really change the meaning, but it can be used to make a strong statement.


title: Verb

text: Sometimes it comes before the subject. This is called inversion and it usually means the sentence is a question.


title: Verb

text: Many other languages do not use the verb "do" as an auxiliary verb. They use the simple present for "do", and the simple past or perfect for "did".


title: Verb

text: Tense is mainly used to say when the verb happens: in the past, present, or future. In order to explain and understand tense, it is useful to imagine time as a line on which past tense, present tense and future tense are positioned.


title: Verb

text: Some languages have all three tenses, some have only two, and some have no tenses at all. English and Japanese for example have only two tenses: past and present. Chinese and Indonesian verbs do not show tense. Instead they use other words in the sentence to show when the verb happens.


title: Verb

text: Aspect usually shows us things like whether the action is finished or not, or if something happens regularly. English has two aspects: progressive and perfect. In English, aspect is usually shown by using participle verb forms. Aspect can combine with present or past tense.


title: Verb

text: English uses the gerund-participle, usually together with the auxiliary "be" (and its forms am, is, are, was, and were) to show the progressive aspect.


title: Verb

text: After If, wish and would rather, the past perfect can be used to talk about past events that never happened.


title: Verb

text: Finally, English mood is now usually shown by using modal verbs. In the past, English had a full mood system but that has almost completely disappeared. The subjunctive mood now uses the plain form. There is also a form of "be" that is used in conditionals to show that something is not true (e.g., If I were a bird, I would fly to California.)


title: Verb

text: Certain parts of a sentence naturally come before verbs or after them, but these are not always the same for all verbs. The main sentence parts are: subject, object, complement, and modifier.


title: Verb

text: Almost all English sentences have subjects, but sentences that are orders (called imperatives) usually do not have any subjects. A subject usually comes before a verb, but it can also come after auxiliary verbs. In the following examples, the subject is underlined and the primary verb is in bold.


title: Verb

text: Many verbs can be followed by an object. These verbs are called transitive verbs. In fact, some verbs must have an object (e.g., "take"), but some verbs never take an object (e.g., "sleep"). Verbs that do not take an object are called intransitive verbs. Some verbs can even have two objects. They are called ditransitive verbs. In the following examples, the object is underlined and the primary verb is in bold.


title: Verb

text: Some verbs can or must be followed by a complement. These verbs are called linking verbs or copula. In the following examples, the complement is underlined and the verb is in bold.


title: Verb

text: Verbs can be modified by various modifiers, mainly adverbs. Note that verbs generally do not need modifiers; it's usually a choice. In the following examples, the adverb is underlined and the verb is in bold.


title: Verb

text: Sometimes a verb and another word can have the same shape. In these cases you can usually see the difference by looking at various properties of the words.


title: Verb

text: Sometimes a verb and an adjective can have the same shape. Usually this happens with participles. For example, the present participle "interesting" and the adjective "interesting" look the same. Verbs are different from adjectives, though, because they cannot be modified by "very", "more", or "most". For example, you can say "That is very interesting," so you know interesting is an adjective here. But you cannot say "My teacher is very interesting me in math" because in this sentence "interesting" is a verb. On the other hand, if you cannot change the 'be' verb to 'seem' or 'become', it is probably a verb.


title: Verb

text: The gerund-particle sometimes looks like a noun. This is especially true when it is used as a subject, as in the following example:


title: Verb

text: Verbs cannot generally be modified by adjectives and nouns cannot generally be modified by adverbs. So, in "Running regularly is good for you", "running" is a verb because it is modified by "regularly", an adverb.


title: Verb

text: Verbs cannot change for number, so if you can make the word plural, it is a noun, not a verb. For example, "this drawing is nice" can change to "these drawings are nice", so "drawing" is a noun. But "drawing trees is fun" cannot change to "drawings trees is fun", so it is a verb here.


title: Verb

text: Many verbs can take objects or complements, but nouns cannot. So, in "parking the car is hard", "parking" is a verb because it takes the object "the car". But, if you say, "there's no parking", parking may be a noun because it does not have an object.


title: Verb

text: Some verbs have become prepositions. Again, usually these share a shape with participles. Here are some examples:


title: Verb

text: The main difference between verbs and prepositions is that verbs have a subject. Even if the subject is not written, you can understand what it is. Prepositions do not have a subject.


title: Soviet–Afghan War

text: The Soviet war in Afghanistan was a war initially fought between the forces of the Afghanistan government and Afghan assistance fighters, supported from abroad. Without proper equipment and training, the Afghanistan government was unable to resist the opposition, called the Mujahideen, eventually seeking the aid of the Soviet Union. The entry of the Soviet Union into the country caused an immediate increase in the presence of foreign involvement. Massive military campaigns against the Mujahideen, who blended in with the local population, caused extensive destruction of local infrastructure and death, causing the local population to side with the Mujahideen. This change, among the local population, caused a loss of support for the Soviet military presence, creating nationwide resistance, and eventually a conflict. The war began in December 1979, and lasted until February 1989. About 15,000 Soviet soldiers were killed, and about 35,000 were wounded. About two million Afghan civilians were killed. The anti-government forces had support from many countries, mainly the United States and Pakistan.


title: Soviet–Afghan War

text: The war started when the Soviet Union sent its 40th Army to fight in Afghanistan. They reached Afghanistan on 25 December 1979. The fighting continued for about ten years. Then, from 15 May 1988, the Soviet troops started to leave Afghanistan. This continued until 2 February 1989. On 15 February 1989, the Soviet Union announced that all its troops had left Afghanistan.


title: Soviet–Afghan War

text: The country has many mountains and deserts that make movement difficult. The population is made up mainly of Pashtun people, along with Tajiks, Hazara, Aimak, Uzbeks, Turkmen people, and some other small groups.


title: Soviet–Afghan War

text: In 1979, Hafizullah Amin was the ruler of Afghanistan. The Soviets were told by its KGB spies that Amin's rule was a threat to the part of Central Asia that was Soviet. They also suspected that Amin was not loyal to the Soviet Union. They found some information about Amin's attempt to be friendlier with Pakistan and China. The Soviets also suspected that Amin was behind the death of president Nur Muhammad Taraki. Finally, the Soviets decided to remove Amin.


title: Soviet–Afghan War

text: On 22 December 1979, Soviet advisers to the Army of Afghanistan took many steps. They stopped all telecommunication links in Kabul. No message could come inside the city, or go outside the city. Troops of the Soviet Air force also reached Kabul. Amin saw danger and moved to the Presidential palace for better safety. The palace was named Tajbeg Palace.


title: Soviet–Afghan War

text: On 27 December 1979, about 700 Soviet troops took over major government and military buildings at Kabul. The troops wore uniforms similar to the army of Afghanistan. At 7:00 pm, the Soviet troops destroyed Kabul's communication. This stopped all communication among Afghan troops. At 7:15 pm, Soviet troops entered Tajbeg Palace. By morning of 28 December, the first part of the military action was over. Amin and his two sons were killed in the fighting by this time. The Soviets announced freedom of Afghanistan from the rule of President Amin. They also said that all the Soviet soldiers were there to fulfill their duty as stated in the "Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Good Neighborliness of 1978."


title: Soviet–Afghan War

text: An announcement came from the Kabul radio station about the killing of Hafizullah Amin. The Pro-Soviet Afghan Revolutionary Central Committee (ARCC) took the responsibility for this killing. Then, the ARCC chose Babrak Karmal as the head of government of Afghanistan. He asked the Soviet Union for military assistance.


title: Soviet–Afghan War

text: The government of Afghanistan asked the Soviet Union many times to send troops. Despite the Soviet Union's treaty with Afghanistan to assist, and fearing a Vietnam-style quagmire, the Soviet Union resisted, instead telling the Afghanistan government to reach a compromise with the foreign mercenaries. The situation deteriorated between the Afghanistan government and foreign mercenaries, and the Soviet Union responded initially with only intelligence and advisors.


title: Soviet–Afghan War

text: The Soviet soldiers did many things in Afghanistan, but they could never control the whole country. Soviet soldiers in Afghanistan lacked the proper military tactics for guerrilla warfare in Afghanistan's rugged mountainous terrain and many of the Soviet troops were young conscripts untested in combat. Several Afghan groups continued to attack and fight with the Soviet troops.


title: Soviet–Afghan War

text: People in most countries around the world did not like what the Soviet Union was doing in Afghanistan. They liked the way the Afghan people were fighting them. Some reactions were very serious. US President Jimmy Carter said that the Soviet action was "the most serious threat to the peace since the Second World War". Carter threatened to boycott the 1980 Olympic Games in Russia unless the Soviet Union withdrew its forces by February 1980. It did not do this, and therefore the U.S. boycotted the Games.


title: Soviet–Afghan War

text: By the mid-1980s, many groups in Afghanistan had organized themselves to fight the Soviet troops. These groups received help from many countries like United States, United Kingdom, China, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan.


title: Soviet–Afghan War

text: Pakistan thought that the Soviet war in Afghanistan was also a threat to them. Through its intelligence agency, the ISI, it also started bringing active support to Afghans fighting the Soviet troops.


title: Soviet–Afghan War

text: The Soviet war in Afghanistan seemed like a war that would never end. The Soviet Union looked very bad in the eyes of the world for trying to control this country. Most people inside the Soviet Union did not support this war. As more and more Soviet soldiers were being killed or wounded as the war dragged on, Mikhail Gorbachev would refer to the Soviet war in Afghanistan as a "bleeding wound". Finally, on 15 February 1989, after ten years of fighting with no end in sight, the Soviets decided to get out of Afghanistan.


title: Soviet–Afghan War

text: The Soviet war in Afghanistan badly affected the rule of the Communist Party. Many thought that the war was against Islam. This created strong feelings among the Muslim population of Central Asian Soviet Republics. The Soviet army was really in very low spirits or "morale" because they were unable to control the people and were treated only as invaders everywhere they went. Andrei Sakharov openly said the action of Soviet Army in Afghanistan was wrong.


title: Soviet–Afghan War

text: Over 15,000 Soviet troops were killed in Afghanistan from 1979 until 1989. In the war, the Soviet Army also lost hundreds of aircraft, and billions worth of other military machines. Around two million Afghan men, women and children died in the war.


title: Soviet–Afghan War

text: Even after the Soviet Army left Afghanistan, civil war continued in Afghanistan. For about three years, the Communist government of Najibullah could not defend itself from the Mujahideen forces opposing it. Many groups had arisen within the government itself, and some of them supported the Mujahideen forces. In March 1992, General Abdul Rashid Dostam and his Uzbek militia stopped supporting the Najibullah’s government. Soon, Mujahideen forces won Kabul and started to rule most parts of Afghanistan.


title: Soviet–Afghan War

text: During this war lasting for about ten years, Afghanistan's economy suffered badly. Grain production came down to 3.5% per year between 1978 and 1990. The Soviets also tried to bring commercial and industrial activities under state control. This also had a bad effect on the economy. With the break-up of the Soviet Union in many countries, Afghanistan’s traditional trade also suffered.


title: Soviet–Afghan War

text: At the beginning, many people and countries had praised the US for supporting groups fighting the Soviet forces. But after the September 11 attacks, people started to question the US policy of supporting and giving money to such groups. In 2001, the US occupied Afghanistan, in an effort to find Osama bin Laden. In 2021, the last forces from NATO countries, left Afghanistan.


title: Belle Delphine

text: Mary-Belle Kirschner (born 23 October 1999), better known online as Belle Delphine, is a South African-born English model and Internet celebrity, 'porn star', and YouTuber.


title: Belle Delphine

text: Delphine was born on 23 October 1999 in South Africa, and was raised in Cape Town. She experienced a devout Christian family upbringing. After her parents divorced, she moved to Lymington, England with her mother. Now in Hampshire, she attended Priestlands School, but dropped out at the age of fourteen, due to being bullied online. Around this time, she was treated for depression. After dropping out, she found work as a waitress, nanny, and barista. Delphine also began posting pictures of her cosplay onto her Facebook account, which was later deleted. These now-deleted cosplay posts were "low-res and dimly lit."


title: Belle Delphine

text: Delphine has a boyfriend, who often works on the photography of her modeling content and likes to remain anonymous.


title: Family

text: A family is a group of people who, in most cases, live together. They share their money and food and are supposed to take care of one another. Its members are either genetically related (like brother and sister) or legally bound to each other, for example by marriage. In many cultures, the members of a family have the same or a similar surname.


title: Family

text: The family in accordance to the Catholic doctrine is treated in many articles of the Catechism of the Catholic Church starting from the article 2201.


title: Family

text: A family is said to be society's smallest unit, its nucleus. Family life is more private and intimate than public life. But in most countries there are laws for it. For example, there are restrictions for marrying within the family and bans for having a sexual relationship with relatives, especially with children.


title: Family

text: Foster families are families where a child lives with and is cared for by people who are not his or her biological parents.


title: Family

text: Some family members are related closer to each other. Consanguinity is a way of measuring this closeness.


title: Amazon (company)

text: Amazon.com, Inc., known as Amazon (), is an American online business and cloud computing company. It was founded on July 5, 1994 by Jeff Bezos. It is based in Seattle, Washington. It is the largest Internet-based store in the world by total sales and market capitalization. Amazon.com started as an online bookstore. When it got bigger, it started selling DVDs, Blu-rays, CDs, video downloads/streaming, MP3s, audiobooks, software, video games, electronics, apparel, furniture, food, toys, and jewelry. It also makes consumer electronics like Kindle e-readers, Fire tablets, Fire TV, and Echo. It is the world's largest provider of cloud computing services. Amazon also sells products like USB cables using the name AmazonBasics.


title: Amazon (company)

text: Amazon has separate retail websites for the United States, Argentina, Brazil, United Kingdom, France, Ireland, Canada, Colombia, Germany, Australia, Italia, Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Japan, Poland, Mexico, Sweden, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and Republic of India. Amazon also offers international shipping to some countries for some of its products. In 2016, Dutch, Polish, and Tamil languages versions of the German Amazon website were launched.


title: Amazon (company)

text: Amazon owns over 40 smaller companies, including Zappos, Shopbop, Diapers.com, Kiva Systems (now Amazon Robotics), Audible, Goodreads, Teachstreet and IMDb.


title: YouTube

text: YouTube is a free, international, video sharing and social networking website and app on the internet. The website lets people upload, view, and share videos. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005 by three former members of PayPal. Google (a search engine company) has owned and operated YouTube since 2006. YouTube now carries paid advertisements on all pages.


title: YouTube

text: YouTube's official logo is a white triangle pointing right in a rounded red box. People who commonly upload on YouTube are called YouTubers. YouTube awards people who reach milestones such as 100,000 subscribers with Play Buttons, a metal sheet with the YouTube logo and the channel name on it.


title: YouTube

text: Videos can be rated with likes or dislikes (although the number of dislikes a video has cannot be seen by the public since a 2021 update), and viewers can subscribe to channels they like. Videos can be commented on if viewers log into their own accounts. The number of times a video has been watched, known as "views", are shown. YouTube has another app called YouTube Kids, aimed at children and with less functions, made to protect children.


title: YouTube

text: Many different types of videos can be put onto the website, such as educational content, animations, and events.


title: YouTube

text: There are very popular YouTubers such as MrBeast, PewDiePie and T-Series, which have the most subscribers for a YouTube Channel with over 200 million.


title: YouTube

text: On February 14, 2005, three former workers of PayPal founded the site. In November 2006, Google bought YouTube. In 2012, an iOS app was created for YouTube. They changed their logo in 2017.


title: YouTube

text: YouTube needed the Adobe Flash Player plug-in to play videos in the past. However, in January 2010, YouTube started using the built-in features of web browsers (HTML5) they removed it early 2015 so people would not need to use Adobe Flash player to watch videos.


title: YouTube

text: All YouTube users can upload 15-minute long videos. Users who have used the site for enough time and follow the rules can upload videos that are 12 hours long. A user needs to verify the account to do this, however. Everyone could upload long videos when YouTube started, but in March 2006 a ten-minute video limit was put in. The limit was changed to 15 minutes in July 2010. Most video formats can be uploaded to YouTube, and videos can also be uploaded from mobile phones.


title: YouTube

text: YouTube is blocked in many schools because it allows children to search for videos that might distract them from their lessons. But at a higher level than schools (and in workplaces), some governments have blocked YouTube access to their country's public. Their reasons vary. Some countries have also banned it. These are listed below.


title: YouTube

text: On December 3, 2006, the government of Iran blocked YouTube and several other sites to stop films and music from other countries from being seen.


title: YouTube

text: Turkey blocked YouTube on March 6, 2007 for letting videos that were mean or discriminating to Turks and Atatürk, the founder of modern Turkey, to be shown. Because of a "virtual war" between Greeks, Armenians, Kurds and Turks on YouTube, people from each side posted videos to hurt the other. The video that caused the banning said that Turks and Atatürk were gay. The video was first mentioned on Turkish CNN and the Istanbul public prosecutor sued YouTube for being mean to Turkishness. The court suspended access to YouTube while waiting for the removal of the video. The ban was criticized a lot. YouTube lawyers sent proof of removal to court and users could access the website again on March 9, 2007.


title: YouTube

text: During the week of March 8 2007, YouTube was blocked in Thailand. Many bloggers (people who have a "diary" online) believed the reason YouTube was blocked was because of a video of the former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's speech on CNN. However, the government did not confirm or give reasons for the ban. YouTube was unblocked on March 10.


title: YouTube

text: On the night of April 3, YouTube was again blocked in Thailand. The government said it was because of a video on the site that it said was "insulting" to King Bhumibol Adulyadej. The Ministry of Information and Communication Technology claimed that it would unblock YouTube in a few days, after websites with references to this video are blocked instead of the entire website. Communications Minister Sitthichai Pookaiyaudom said, "When they decide to withdraw the clip, we will withdraw the ban." Soon after this incident the internet technology blog Mashable was banned from Thailand over the reporting of the YouTube clips in question.


title: YouTube

text: YouTube is being sued by Brazilian model and MTV VJ Daniela Cicarelli (better known as Ronaldo's ex-fiancée) because she says that the site is making available a video footage made by a paparazzi (or celebrity photographer) in which she and her boyfriend are having sex on a Spanish beach. The lawsuit says that YouTube has to be blocked in Brazil until all copies of the video are removed. On Saturday, January 6, 2007, a legal injunction (command) ordered that filters be put in place to prevent users in Brazil from going to the website.


title: YouTube

text: The effectiveness of the measure has been questioned, since the video is not available only on YouTube, but rather has become an Internet phenomenon. On Tuesday, January 9, 2007, the same court overturned their earlier decision, ordering the filters to be taken down, even though the footage was still forbidden, but without technical support for its blockage.


title: YouTube

text: On May 25, 2007 the state-owned company Maroc Telecom blocked all access to YouTube. There were no reasons given why YouTube was blocked. But the guesses are that it might have something to do with some pro-separatist group Polisario clips (Polisario is the Western Sahara independence movement) or because of some videos that criticized King Mohammed VI. This block did not concern the other two private internet-providers, Wana and Meditel. YouTube became accessible again on May 30, 2007 after "Maroc Telecom" unofficially announced that the denied access to the website was only a "technical glitch".


title: YouTube

text: YouTube was blocked in Pakistan following a decision taken by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority on 22 February 2008 because of the number of "non-Islamic objectionable videos."


title: YouTube

text: In Australia, some schools, including all secondary schools in Victoria, have YouTube blocked from student access, after fights have been posted on YouTube.


title: YouTube

text: Currently in China, the government has blocked YouTube. For several years, it has been unblocked but since March 24, 2009 it has been blocked.


title: YouTube

text: According the site's terms of service, users may upload videos only if they have the permission of the copyright holder and of the people in the video. Pornography, defamation, harassment, commercials, and videos that encourage criminal conduct may not be uploaded. The uploader gives YouTube permission to give out and change the uploaded video for any purpose, and they do not have permission anymore when the uploader deletes the video from the site. Users may view videos on the site but are not allowed to save them on their computers.


title: YouTube

text: On June 19, 2007, Google CEO Eric Schmidt was in Paris to launch the new localization system. The interface of the website is available with localized versions in 104 countries, and a worldwide version.


title: YouTube

text: The interface of the YouTube website is available in 76 language versions including Albanian, Amharic, Armenian, Burmese, Khmer, Kyrgyz, Laotian, Mongolian, Persian, and Uzbek, which do have local channel versions.


title: YouTube

text: YouTube has been criticized for how poorly they manage user-generated content and because of how a number of their policies are considered unfair to content creators. YouTube has been criticized for not properly handling copyrighted content that is added in uploaded videos. The video recommendation algorithms used in YouTube persistently promote conspiracy theories and false information, as noted by some critics. There is also criticism that there are violent or sexually suggestive content involving popular characters in certain videos falsely claiming to be targeted to children. YouTube has also been criticized for attracting pedophilic comments in videos of minors performing activities.


title: YouTube

text: Because YouTube keeps changing policies on the types of content that is eligible to be monetized with advertising, many content creators are concerned about these frequent changes. YouTube policies restrict certain forms of content from being included in videos being monetized with advertising. This includes videos containing violence, strong language, sexual content, "controversial or sensitive subjects and events, including subjects related to war, political conflicts, natural disasters and tragedies, even if graphic imagery is not shown" (unless the content is "usually newsworthy or comedic and the creator's intent is to inform or entertain"), and videos whose user comments contain "inappropriate" content. However, it is not clear what is the boundaries for what YouTube's policies specifically accept and do not accept. Some content creators also say that YouTube's policies also change too often. For example, on January 16, 2018, the requirement for a channel to be monetized is to get 4,000 hours of watchtime within the past 12 months and at least 1,000 subscribers. Although YouTube's intent was to avoid monetizing videos of channels seen as controversial, people criticize that this move greatly harms smaller YouTube channels.


title: YouTube

text: After testing earlier in 2021, YouTube removed public display of dislike counts on videos in November 2021, citing its internal research that found users often used the dislike feature as a form of cyberbullying and brigading. While some users praised the move as a way to discourage trolls, others felt that hiding dislikes would make it harder for viewers to recognise clickbait or unhelpful videos, and that other features already existed for creators to limit bullying. Some theorised the removal of dislikes was influenced by YouTube Rewind 2018, which was universally panned and became the most-disliked video on the platform. YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim referred to the update as "a stupid idea", and that the reason behind the change was "not a good one, and not one that will be publicly disclosed." Karim felt that the ability for users on a social platform to identity bad content was essential, saying, "The process works, and there’s a name for it: the wisdom of the crowds. The process breaks when the platform interferes with it. Then, the platform invariably declines."


title: Hanged, drawn and quartered

text: Typically, the five body parts (i.e. the four quarters of the body and the head) would be put on public display in different parts of the city, town, or - in more famous cases such as that of William Wallace - in the country, to discourage would-be traitors who had not seen the execution. After the Crimes Act 1814 was passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom, the prisoner was instead hanged until dead - not having to suffer the extremely painful remainder of the punishment while alive. The public display of the bodies of executed prisoners (whether by "hanging, drawing and quartering", or some other method) was removed from English criminal law in 1843; "drawing" and "quartering" in 1870.


title: Hanged, drawn and quartered

text: There is debate among modern historians about whether "drawing" referred to the dragging to the place of execution or the disembowelling, but since two different words are used in the official documents detailing the trial of William Wallace (""detrahatur"" for drawing as a method of transport, and ""devaletur"" for disembowelment), there is no doubt that the subjects of the punishment were disembowelled.


title: Hanged, drawn and quartered

text: Judges delivering sentence at the Old Bailey also seemed to have had some confusion over the term "drawn", and some sentences are summarized as "Drawn, Hanged and Quartered". Nevertheless, the sentence was often recorded quite explicitly. For example, the record of the trial of Thomas Wallcot, John Rouse, William Hone and William Blake for offences against the king, on 12 July 1683 concludes as follows:


title: Hanged, drawn and quartered

text: The "Oxford English Dictionary" notes both meanings of "drawn": "To draw out the viscera or the like, to the place of execution". It states that "In many cases of executions it is uncertain [which of these senses of "drawn"] is meant. The presumption is that where "drawn" is mentioned after "hanged", the sense is [the second meaning]."


title: Hanged, drawn and quartered

text: The condemned man would usually be sentenced to the short drop method of hanging, so that the neck would not break. The man was usually dragged alive to the quartering table, although in some cases men were brought to the table dead or unconscious. A splash of water was usually employed to wake the man if unconscious, then he was laid down on the table. A large cut was made in the gut after removing the genitalia, and the intestines would be spooled out on a device that resembled a dough roller. Each piece of organ would be burned before the sufferer's eyes, and when he was completely disembowelled, his head would be cut off. The body would then be cut into four pieces, and the king would decide where they were to be displayed. Usually the head was sent to the Tower of London and, as in the case of William Wallace, the other four pieces were sent to different parts of the country. The head was generally par-boiled in brine to preserve the appearance of the head in display, while the quarters were more often prepared in pitch, for longer-lasting deterrent displays.


title: Quantum mechanics

text: Quantum physics explains how the universe works at a scale smaller than atoms. It is also called quantum mechanics or quantum theory. Mechanics is the part of physics that explains how things move and "quantum" is the Latin word for 'how much'. A quantum of energy is the least amount possible (or the least extra amount), and quantum mechanics describes how that energy moves or interacts.


title: Quantum mechanics

text: Atoms were long considered the smallest pieces of matter, but modern science has shown that there are even smaller subatomic particles, like protons, neutrons and electrons. Quantum mechanics describes how the particles that make up atoms work.


title: Quantum mechanics

text: Quantum physics also tells us how electromagnetic waves (like light) work. Wave–particle duality means that particles behave like waves and waves behave like particles. (They are not two kinds of thing, they are something like both: this is their "duality".) Much of modern physics and chemistry can be described and understood using the mathematical rules of quantum mechanics.


title: Quantum mechanics

text: The mathematics used to study subatomic particles and electromagnetic waves is very complex because they act in very strange ways.


title: Quantum mechanics

text: Photons are particles that are point-sized, tinier than atoms. Photons are like "packets" or packages of energy. Light sources such as candles or lasers produce light in bits called photons.


title: Quantum mechanics

text: The more photons a lamp produces, the brighter the light. Light is a form of energy that behaves like the waves in water or radio waves. The distance between the top of one wave and the top of the next wave is called a 'wavelength'. Each photon carries a certain amount, or 'quantum', of energy depending on its wavelength.


title: Quantum mechanics

text: A light's color depends on its wavelength. The color violet (the bottom or innermost color of the rainbow) has a wavelength of about 400 nm ("nanometers") which is 0.00004 centimeters or 0.000016 inches. Photons with wavelengths of 10-400 nm are called ultraviolet (or UV) light. Such light cannot be seen by the human eye. On the other end of the spectrum, red light is about 700 nm. Infrared light is about 700 nm to 300,000 nm. Human eyes are not sensitive to infrared light either.


title: Quantum mechanics

text: Wavelengths are not always so small. Radio waves have longer wavelengths. The wavelengths for an FM radio can be several meters in length (for example, stations transmitting on 99.5 FM are emitting radio energy with a wavelength of about 3 meters, which is about 10 feet). Each photon has a certain amount of energy related to its wavelength. The shorter the wavelength of a photon, the greater its energy. For example, an ultraviolet photon has more energy than an infrared photon.


title: Quantum mechanics

text: Wavelength and frequency (the number of times the wave crests per second) are inversely proportional, which means a longer wavelength will have a lower frequency, and vice versa. If the color of the light is infrared (lower in frequency than red light), each photon can heat up what it hits. So, if a strong infrared lamp (a heat lamp) is pointed at a person, that person will feel warm, or even hot, because of the energy stored in the many photons. The surface of the infrared lamp may even get hot enough to burn someone who may touch it.


title: Quantum mechanics

text: Humans cannot see infrared light, but we can feel the radiation in the form of heat. For example, a person walking by a brick building that has been heated by the sun will feel heat from the building without having to touch it.


title: Quantum mechanics

text: The mathematical equations of quantum mechanics are abstract, which means it is impossible to know the exact physical properties of a particle (like its position or momentum) for sure. Instead, a mathematical function called the wavefunction provides information about the probability with which a particle has a given property. For example, the wavefunction can tell you what the probability is that a particle can be found in a certain location, but it can't tell you where it is for sure. Because of this uncertainty and other factors, you cannot use classical mechanics (the physics that describe how large objects move) to predict the motion of quantum particles.


title: Quantum mechanics

text: Ultraviolet light is higher in frequency than violet light, such that it is not even in the visible light range. Each photon in the ultraviolet range has a lot of energy, enough to hurt skin cells and cause a sunburn. In fact, most forms of sunburn are not caused by heat; they are caused by the high energy of the sun's UV rays damaging your skin cells. Even higher frequencies of light (or electromagnetic radiation) can penetrate deeper into the body and cause even more damage. X-rays have so much energy that they can go deep into the human body and kill cells. Humans cannot see or feel ultraviolet light or x-rays. They may only know they have been under such high frequency light when they get a radiation burn. Areas where it is important to kill germs often use ultraviolet lamps to destroy bacteria, fungi, etc. X-rays are sometimes used to kill cancer cells.


title: Quantum mechanics

text: Quantum mechanics started when it was discovered that if a particle has a certain frequency, it must also have a certain amount of energy. Energy is proportional to frequency (E ∝ f). The higher the frequency, the more energy a photon has, and the more damage it can do. Quantum mechanics later grew to explain the internal structure of atoms. Quantum mechanics also explains the way that a photon can interfere with itself, and many other things never imagined in classical physics.


title: Quantum mechanics

text: Max Planck discovered the relationship between frequency and energy. Nobody before had ever guessed that frequency is directly proportional to energy (this means that as one of them doubles, the other does, too). Under what are called natural units, then the number representing the frequency of a photon would also represent its energy. The equation would then be:


title: Quantum mechanics

text: But the way physics grew, there was no natural connection between the units that were used to measure energy and the units commonly used to measure time (and therefore frequency). So the formula that Planck worked out to make the numbers all come out right was:


title: Quantum mechanics

text: or, energy equals h times frequency. This h is a number called Planck's constant after its discoverer.


title: Quantum mechanics

text: Quantum mechanics is based on the knowledge that a photon of a certain frequency means a photon of a certain amount of energy. Besides that relationship, a specific kind of atom can only give off certain frequencies of radiation, so it can also only give off photons that have certain amounts of energy.


title: Quantum mechanics

text: Isaac Newton thought that light was made of very small things that we would now call particles (he referred to them as "Corpuscles"). Christiaan Huygens thought that light was made of waves. Scientists thought that a thing cannot be a particle and a wave at the same time.


title: Quantum mechanics

text: Scientists did experiments to find out whether light was made of particles or waves. They found out that both ideas were right — light was somehow both waves and particles. The Double-slit experiment performed by Thomas Young showed that light must act like a wave. The Photoelectric effect discovered by Albert Einstein proved that light had to act like particles that carried specific amounts of energy, and that the energies were linked to their frequencies. This experimental result is called the "wave-particle duality" in quantum mechanics. Later, physicists found out that everything behaves both like a wave and like a particle, not just light. However, this effect is much smaller in large objects.


title: Quantum mechanics

text: Here are some of the people who discovered the basic parts of quantum mechanics: Max Planck, Albert Einstein, Satyendra Nath Bose, Niels Bohr, Louis de Broglie, Max Born, Paul Dirac, Werner Heisenberg, Wolfgang Pauli, Erwin Schrödinger, John von Neumann, and Richard Feynman. They did their work in the first half of the 20th century.


title: Quantum mechanics

text: Quantum mechanics formulae and ideas were made to explain the light that comes from glowing hydrogen. The quantum theory of the atom also had to explain why the electron stays in its orbit, which other ideas were not able to explain. It followed from the older ideas that the electron would have to fall in to the center of the atom because it starts out being kept in orbit by its own energy, but it would quickly lose its energy as it revolves in its orbit. (This is because electrons and other charged particles were known to emit light and lose energy when they changed speed or turned.)


title: Quantum mechanics

text: Hydrogen lamps work like neon lamps, but neon lamps have their own unique group of colors (and frequencies) of light. Scientists learned that they could identify all elements by the light colors they produce. They just could not figure out how the frequencies were determined.


title: Quantum mechanics

text: Then, a Swiss mathematician named Johann Balmer figured out an equation that told what λ (lambda, for wave length) would be:


title: Quantum mechanics

text: This equation only worked for the visible light from a hydrogen lamp. But later, the equation was made more general:


title: Quantum mechanics

text: Putting in different numbers for m and n, it is easy to predict frequencies for many types of light (ultraviolet, visible, and infared). To see how this works, go to Hyperphysics and go down past the middle of the page. (Use H = 1 for hydrogen.)


title: Quantum mechanics

text: In 1908, Walter Ritz made the Ritz combination principle that shows how certain gaps between frequencies keep repeating themselves. This turned out to be important to Werner Heisenberg several years later.


title: Quantum mechanics

text: In 1905, Albert Einstein used Planck's idea to show that a beam of light is made up of a stream of particles called photons. The energy of each photon depends on its frequency. Einstein's idea is the beginning of the idea in quantum mechanics that all subatomic particles like electrons, protons, neutrons, and others are both waves and particles at the same time. (See picture of atom with the electron as waves at atom.) This led to a theory about subatomic particles and electromagnetic waves called "wave-particle duality". This is where particles and waves were neither one nor the other, but had certain properties of both.


title: Quantum mechanics

text: In 1913, Niels Bohr came up with the idea that electrons could only take up certain orbits around the nucleus of an atom. Under Bohr's theory, the numbers called m and n in the equation above could represent orbits. Bohr's theory said electrons could begin in some orbit m and end up in some orbit n, or an electron could begin in some orbit n and end up in some orbit m so if a photon hits an electron, its energy will be absorbed, and the electron will move to a higher orbit because of that extra energy. Under Bohr's theory, if an electron falls from a higher orbit to a lower orbit, then it will have to give up energy in the form of a photon. The energy of the photon will equal the energy difference between the two orbits, and the energy of a photon makes it have a certain frequency and color. Bohr's theory provided a good explanation of many aspects of subatomic phenomena, but failed to answer why each of the colors of light produced by glowing hydrogen (and by glowing neon or any other element) has a brightness of its own, and the brightness differences are always the same for each element.


title: Quantum mechanics

text: By the time Niels Bohr came out with his theory, most things about the light produced by a hydrogen lamp were known, but scientists still could not explain the brightness of each of the lines produced by glowing hydrogen.


title: Quantum mechanics

text: Werner Heisenberg took on the job of explaining the brightness or "intensity" of each line. He could not use any simple rule like the one Balmer had come up with. He had to use the very difficult math of classical physics that figures everything out in terms of things like the mass (weight) of an electron, the charge (static electric strength) of an electron, and other tiny quantities. Classical physics already had answers for the brightness of the bands of color that a hydrogen lamp produces, but the classical theory said that there should be a continuous rainbow, and not four separate color bands. Heisenberg's explanation is:


title: Quantum mechanics

text: There is some law that says what frequencies of light glowing hydrogen will produce. It has to predict spaced-out frequencies when the electrons involved are moving between orbits close to the nucleus (center) of the atom, but it also has to predict that the frequencies will get closer and closer together as we look at what the electron does in moving between orbits farther and farther out. It will also predict that the intensity differences between frequencies get closer and closer together as we go out. Where classical physics already gives the right answers by one set of equations the new physics has to give the same answers but by different equations.


title: Quantum mechanics

text: Classical physics uses the mathematical methods of Joseph Fourier to make a math picture of the physical world, It uses collections of smooth curves that go together to make one smooth curve that gives, in this case, intensities for light of all frequencies from some light. But it is not right because that smooth curve only appears at higher frequencies. At lower frequencies, there are always isolated points and nothing connects the dots. So, to make a map of the real world, Heisenberg had to make a big change. He had to do something to pick out only the numbers that would match what was seen in nature. Sometimes people say he "guessed" these equations, but he was not making blind guesses. He found what he needed. The numbers that he calculated would put dots on a graph, but there would be no line drawn between the dots. And making one "graph" just of dots for every set of calculations would have wasted lots of paper and not have gotten anything done. Heisenberg found a way to efficiently predict the intensities for different frequencies and to organize that information in a helpful way.


title: Quantum mechanics

text: Just using the empirical rule given above, the one that Balmer got started and Rydberg improved, we can see how to get one set of numbers that would help Heisenberg get the kind of picture that he wanted:


title: Quantum mechanics

text: The rule says that when the electron moves from one orbit to another it either gains or loses energy, depending on whether it is getting farther from the center or nearer to it. So we can put these orbits or energy levels in as headings along the top and the side of a grid. For historical reasons the lowest orbit is called n, and the next orbit out is called n - a, then comes n - b, and so forth. It is confusing that they used negative numbers when the electrons were actually gaining energy, but that is just the way it is.


title: Quantum mechanics

text: Since the Rydberg rule gives us frequencies, we can use that rule to put in numbers depending on where the electron goes. If the electron starts at n and ends up at n, then it has not really gone anywhere, so it did not gain energy and it did not lose energy. So the frequency is 0. If the electron starts at n-a and ends up at n, then it has fallen from a higher orbit to a lower orbit. If it does so then it loses energy, and the energy it loses shows up as a photon. The photon has a certain amount of energy, e, and that is related to a certain frequency f by the equation e = h f. So we know that a certain change of orbit is going to produce a certain frequency of light, f. If the electron starts at n and ends up at n - a, that means it has gone from a lower orbit to a higher orbit. That only happens when a photon of a certain frequency and energy comes in from the outside, is absorbed by the electron and gives it its energy, and that is what makes the electron go out to a higher orbit. So, to keep everything making sense, we write that frequency as a negative number. There was a photon with a certain frequency and now it has been taken away.


title: Quantum mechanics

text: So we can make a grid like this, where f(a←b) means the frequency involved when an electron goes from energy state (orbit) b to energy state a (Again, sequences look backwards, but that is the way they were originally written.):


title: Quantum mechanics

text: Heisenberg did not make the grids like this. He just did the math that would let him get the intensities he was looking for. But to do that he had to multiply two amplitudes (how high a wave measures) to work out the intensity. (In classical physics, intensity equals amplitude squared.) He made an odd-looking equation to handle this problem, wrote out the rest of his paper, handed it to his boss, and went on vacation. Dr. Born looked at his funny equation and it seemed a little crazy. He must have wondered, "Why did Heisenberg give me this strange thing? Why does he have to do it this way?" Then he realized that he was looking at a blueprint for something he already knew very well. He was used to calling the grid or table that we could write by doing, for instance, all the math for frequencies, a matrix. And Heisenberg's weird equation was a rule for multiplying two of them together. Max Born was a very, very good mathematician. He knew that since the two matrices (grids) being multiplied represented different things (like position (x,y,z) and momentum (mv), for instance), then when you multiply the first matrix by the second you get one answer and when you multiply the second matrix by the first matrix you get another answer. Even though he did not know about matrix math, Heisenberg already saw this "different answers" problem and it had bothered him. But Dr. Born was such a good mathematician that he saw that the difference between the first matrix multiplication and the second matrix multiplication was always going to involve Planck's constant, h, multiplied by the square root of negative one, i. So within a few days of Heisenberg's discovery they already had the basic math for what Heisenberg liked to call the "indeterminacy principle." By "indeterminate" Heisenberg meant that something like an electron is just not pinned down until it gets pinned down. It is a little like a jellyfish that is always squishing around and cannot be "in one place" unless you kill it. Later, people got in the habit of calling it "Heisenberg's uncertainty principle," which made many people make the mistake of thinking that electrons and things like that are really "somewhere" but we are just uncertain about it in our own minds. That idea is wrong. It is not what Heisenberg was talking about. Having trouble measuring something is a problem, but it is not the problem Heisenberg was talking about.


title: Quantum mechanics

text: Heisenberg's idea is very hard to grasp, but we can make it clearer with an example. First, we will start calling these grids "matrices," because we will soon need to talk about matrix multiplication.


title: Quantum mechanics

text: Suppose that we start with two kinds of measurements, position (q) and momentum (p). In 1925, Heisenberg wrote an equation like this one:


title: Quantum mechanics

text: He did not know it, but this equation gives a blueprint for writing out two matrices (grids) and for multiplying them. The rules for multiplying one matrix by another are a little messy, but here are the two matrices according to the blueprint, and then their product:


title: Quantum mechanics

text: The matrix for the product of the above two matrices as specified by the relevant equation in Heisenberg's 1925 paper is:


title: Quantum mechanics

text: Note how changing the order of multiplication changes the numbers, step by step, that are actually multiplied.


title: Quantum mechanics

text: The work of Werner Heisenberg seemed to break a log jam. Very soon, many different other ways of explaining things came from people such as Louis de Broglie, Max Born, Paul Dirac, Wolfgang Pauli, and Erwin Schrödinger. The work of each of these physicists is its own story. The math used by Heisenberg and earlier people is not very hard to understand, but the equations quickly grew very complicated as physicists looked more deeply into the atomic world.


title: Quantum mechanics

text: In the early days of quantum mechanics, Albert Einstein suggested that if it were right then quantum mechanics would mean that there would be "spooky action at a distance." It turned out that quantum mechanics was right, and that what Einstein had used as a reason to reject quantum mechanics actually happened. This kind of "spooky connection" between certain quantum events is now called "quantum entanglement".


title: Quantum mechanics

text: When an experiment brings two things (photons, electrons, etc.) together, they must then share a common description in quantum mechanics. When they are later separated, they keep the same quantum mechanical description or "state." In the diagram, one characteristic (e.g., "up" spin) is drawn in red, and its mate (e.g., "down" spin) is drawn in blue. The purple band means that when, e.g., two electrons are put together the pair shares both characteristics. So both electrons could show either up spin or down spin. When they are later separated, one remaining on Earth and one going to some planet of the star Alpha Centauri, they still each have both spins. In other words, each one of them can "decide" to show itself as a spin-up electron or a spin-down electron. But if later on someone measures the other one, it must "decide" to show itself as having the opposite spin.


title: Quantum mechanics

text: Einstein argued that over such a great distance it was crazy to think that forcing one electron to show its spin would then somehow make the other electron show an opposite characteristic. He said that the two electrons must have been spin-up or spin-down all along, but that quantum mechanics could not predict which characteristic each electron had. Being unable to predict, only being able to look at one of them with the right experiment, meant that quantum mechanics could not account for something important. Therefore, Einstein said, quantum mechanics had a big hole in it. Quantum mechanics was incomplete.


title: Quantum mechanics

text: In 1925, Werner Heisenberg described the Uncertainty principle, which says that the more we know about where a particle is, the less we can know about how fast it is going and in which direction. In other words, the more we know about the speed and direction of something small, the less we can know about its position. Physicists usually talk about the momentum in such discussions instead of talking about speed. Momentum is just the speed of something in a certain direction times its mass.


title: Quantum mechanics

text: The reason behind Heisenberg's uncertainty principle says that we can never know both the location and the momentum of a particle. Because light is an abundant particle, it is used for measuring other particles. The only way to measure it is to bounce the light wave off of the particle and record the results. If a high energy, or high frequency, light beam is used, we can tell precisely where it is, but cannot tell how fast it was going. This is because the high energy photon transfers energy to the particle and changes the particle's speed. If we use a low energy photon, we can tell how fast it is going, but not where it is. This is because we are using light with a longer wavelength. The longer wavelength means the particle could be anywhere along the stretch of the wave.


title: Quantum mechanics

text: The principle also says that there are many pairs of measurements for which we cannot know both of them about any particle (a very small thing), no matter how hard we try. The more we learn about one of such a pair, the less we can know about the other.


title: Quantum mechanics

text: Even Albert Einstein had trouble accepting such a bizarre concept, and in a well-known debate said, "God does not play dice".


title: Quantum mechanics

text: Electrons surround every atom's nucleus. Chemical bonds link atoms to form molecules. A chemical bond links two atoms when electrons are shared between those atoms. Thus quantum mechanics is the physics of the chemical bond and of chemistry. Quantum mechanics helps us understand how molecules are made, and what their properties are.


title: Quantum mechanics

text: Quantum mechanics can also help us understand big things, such as stars and even the whole universe. Quantum mechanics is a very important part of the theory of how the universe began called the Big Bang.


title: Quantum mechanics

text: Everything made of matter is attracted to other matter because of a fundamental force called gravity. Einstein's theory that explains gravity is called the theory of general relativity. A problem in modern physics is that some conclusions of quantum mechanics do not seem to agree with the theory of general relativity.


title: Quantum mechanics

text: Quantum mechanics is the part of physics that can explain why all electronic technology works as it does. Thus quantum mechanics explains how computers work, because computers are electronic machines. But the designers of the early computer hardware of around 1950 or 1960 did not need to think about quantum mechanics. The designers of radios and televisions at that time did not think about quantum mechanics either. However, the design of the more powerful integrated circuits and computer memory technologies of recent years does require quantum mechanics.


title: Quantum mechanics

text: Quantum mechanics describes nature in a way that is different from how we usually think about science. It tells us how likely to happen some things are, rather than telling us that they certainly will happen.


title: Quantum mechanics

text: One example is Young's double-slit experiment. If we shoot single photons (single units of light) from a laser at a sheet of photographic film, we will see a single spot of light on the developed film. If we put a sheet of metal in between, and make two very narrow slits in the sheet, when we fire many photons at the metal sheet, and they have to go through the slits, then we will see something remarkable. All the way across the sheet of developed film we will see a series of bright and dark bands. We can use mathematics to tell exactly where the bright bands will be and how bright the light was that made them, that is, we can tell ahead of time how many photons will fall on each band. But if we slow the process down and see where each photon lands on the screen we can never tell ahead of time where the next one will show up. We can know for sure that it is most likely that a photon will hit the center bright band, and that it gets less and less likely that a photon will show up at bands farther and farther from the center. So we know for sure that the bands will be brightest at the center and get dimmer and dimmer farther away. But we never know for sure which photon will go into which band.


title: Quantum mechanics

text: One of the strange conclusions of quantum mechanics theory is the "Schrödinger's cat" effect. Certain properties of a particle, such as their position, speed of motion, direction of motion, and "spin", cannot be talked about until something measures them (a photon bouncing off of an electron would count as a measurement of its position, for example). Before the measurement, the particle is in a "superposition of states," in which its properties have many values at the same time. Schrödinger said that quantum mechanics seemed to say that if something (such as the life or death of a cat) was determined by a quantum event, then its state would be determined by the state that resulted from the quantum event, but only at the time that somebody looked at the state of the quantum event. In the time before the state of the quantum event is looked at, perhaps "the living and dead cat (pardon


title: Quantum mechanics

text: People often use the symbol formula_6, which is called "h-bar." formula_7 . H-bar is a unit of angular momentum. When this new unit is used to describe the orbits of electrons in atoms, the angular momentum of any electron in orbit is always a whole number.


title: Quantum mechanics

text: The particle in a 1-dimensional well is the most simple example showing that the energy of a particle can only have specific values. The energy is said to be "quantized."


title: Quantum mechanics

text: The well has zero potential energy inside a range and has infinite potential energy everywhere outside that range. For the 1-dimensional case in the formula_8 direction, the time-independent Schrödinger equation can be written as:


title: Quantum mechanics

text: The walls of the box mean that the wavefunction must have a special form. The wavefunction of the particle must be zero anytime the walls are infinitely tall. At each wall:


title: Quantum mechanics

text: We can see that formula_22 must be an integer. This means that the particle can only have special energy values and cannot have the energy values in between. This is an example of energy "quantization."


title: Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel

text: Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel (31 October 1875 — 15 December 1950) was a lawyer and influential political leader in the Indian independence movement. After independence, he played an important role in the integration of over 500 princely states into the Indian Union. He was deeply influenced by Gandhi’s ideology and principles, having worked very closely with the leader. Despite being the choice of the people, on the request of Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Patel stepped down from the candidacy of Congress President, which ultimately turned out to be the election to choose the first Prime Minister of independent India. He was the first Home Minister of Independent India and his uncompromising efforts towards consolidation of the country earned him the title "Iron Man of India".


title: Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel

text: Vallabhbhai Patel was born on October 31, 1875 in Nadiad village of modern day Gujarat to Zaverbai and Ladbai. He belongs to rich class agriculturist Patidar (leva patidar patel) community and Vallabhbhai’s father had served in the army of the Queen of Jhansi, and his mother was a very spiritual woman.


title: Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel

text: Starting his academic career in a Gujarati medium school, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel later shifted to an English medium school. In 1897, Vallabhbhai passed his high school and started preparing for law examination. He went to pursue a degree in law and travelled to England in 1910. He completed his law degree in 1913 from Inns of Court and came back to India to start his law practice in Godhra, Gujarat. For his legal proficiency, Vallabhbhai was offered many lucrative posts by the British Government but he rejected all. He was a staunch opponent of the British government and its laws and therefore decided not to work for the British.


title: Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel

text: In 1891, he married Zaverbai and the couple had two children. His daughter, Maniben Patel (1903-1990), was an activist while his son, Dahyabhai Patel (1905-1973) was a member of the parliament of India.


title: Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel

text: Patel shifted his practice to Ahmedabad. He became a member of the Gujarat Club where he attended a lecture by Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi’s words deeply affected Vallabhbhai and he soon adopted Gandhi’s principles to become a staunch follower of the charismatic leader. That is how deeply Gandhi’s words had affected him. He didn’t know that he would change India and start a successful career.


title: Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel

text: In 1917, Sardar Vallabhbhai was elected as the Secretary of the Gujarat Sabha, the Gujarat wing of the Indian National Congress. In 1918, he led a massive "No Tax Campaign" that urged the farmers not to pay taxes after the British insisted on tax after the floods in Kaira. The peaceful movement forced the British authorities to return the land taken away from the farmers. His effort to bring together the farmers of his area brought him the title of 'Sardar'. He actively supported the non-cooperation Movement launched by Gandhi. Patel toured the nation with him, recruited 300,000 members and helped collect over Rs.1.5 million.


title: Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel

text: In 1928, the farmers of Bardoli again faced a problem of "tax-hike". After prolonged summons, when the farmers refused to pay the extra tax, the government seized their lands in retaliation. The agitation took on for more than six months. After several rounds of negotiations by Patel, the lands were returned to farmers after a deal was struck between the government and farmers’ representatives.


title: Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel

text: In 1930, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel was among the leaders who were imprisoned for participating in the famous Salt Satyagraha movement initiated by Mahatma Gandhi. His inspiring speeches during the "Salt Movement" transformed the outlook of numerous people, who later played a major role in making the movement successful. He led the Satyagraha movement across Gujarat when Gandhi was under imprisonment, upon request from the congress members.


title: Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel

text: Sardar Patel was freed in 1931, following an agreement signed between Mahatma Gandhi and Lord Irwin, the then Viceroy of India. The treaty was popularly known as the Gandhi-Irwin Pact. The same year, Patel was elected as the President of Indian National Congress in its Karachi session where the party deliberated its future path. Congress committed itself towards the defense of fundamental and human rights. It was in this session that the dream of a secular nation was conceived.


title: Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel

text: During the legislative elections of 1934, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel campaigned for the Indian National Congress. Though he did not contest, Sardar Patel helped his fellow party mates during the election.


title: Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel

text: In the 1942 Quit India Movement, Patel continued his unwavering support to Gandhi when several contemporary leaders criticized the latter’s decision. He continued travelling throughout the country propagating the agenda of the movement in a series of heart-felt speeches. He was arrested again in 1942 and was imprisoned in the Ahmednagar fort till 1945 along with other Congress leaders.


title: Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel

text: Sardar Patel’s journey often saw a number of confrontations with other important leaders of the congress. He voiced his annoyance at Jawaharlal Nehru openly when the latter adopted socialism in 1936. Patel was also wary of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose and considered him to be "keen on more power within the party”.


title: Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel

text: The separatist movement lead by Muslim League leader Mohammed Ali Jinnah led to a series of violent Hindu-Muslim riots across the country just before the independence. In Sardar Patel’s opinion, the open communal conflicts incited by the riots had the potential to establish a weak Government at the centre post-independence which will be disastrous for consolidating a democratic nation. Patel went on to work on a solution with V.P. Menon, a civil servant during December 1946 and accepted his suggestion of creating a separate dominion based on religious inclination of states. He represented India in the Partition Council.


title: Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel

text: After India achieved independence, Patel became the first Home Minister and also the Deputy Prime Minister. Patel played a very crucial role in post-independence India by successfully integrating around 565 princely states under the Indian Dominion. The British Government had presented these rulers with two alternatives - they could join India or Pakistan; or they could stay independent. This clause magnified the difficulty of process to mammoth proportions. Congress entrusted this intimidating task to Sardar Patel who started lobbying for integration on August 6, 1947. He was successful in integrating all of them barring Jammu and Kashmir, Junagarh and Hyderabad. He eventually dealt with the situation with his sharp political acumen and secured their accession. The India that we see today was a result of the efforts put in by Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.


title: Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel

text: Patel was a leading member of the Constituent Assembly of India and Dr. B.R. Ambedkar was appointed on his recommendation. He was the key force in establishing the Indian Administrative Service and the Indian Police Service. He took personal interest in initiating a restoration endeavor of the Somnath Temple in Saurashtra, Gujarat. Patel dealt ruthlessly with the Pakistan’s efforts to invade Kashmir in September 1947. He oversaw immediate expansion of the army and marked improvement of other infrastructural aspects. He often disagreed with Nehru’s policies, especially about his dealings with Pakistan regarding the refugee issues. He organized multiple refugee camps in Punjab and Delhi, and later in West Bengal.


title: Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel

text: Gandhi had profound effect on Patel’s politics and thoughts. He pledged unwavering support to the Mahatma and stood by his principles allowed by night at museum and art is the most beautiful woman and through his life. While leaders including Chakravarthy Rajagopalachari and Maulana Azad criticized Mahatma Gandhi's idea that the civil disobedience movement would compel the British to leave the nation, Patel extended his support to Gandhi. Despite the unwillingness of the Congress High Command, Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel strongly forced the All India Congress Committee to ratify the civil disobedience movement and launch it without delaying further. Upon Gandhi’s request he gave up his candidacy for the post of the Prime Minister of India. He suffered a major heart attack after Gandhiji’s death.  Although he recovered, he attributed it to having lamented silently for the loss of his mentor.


title: Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel

text: Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel's health started declining in 1950. He relized that he was not going to live much longer. On November 2, 1950, his health became even worse and he had to stay in bed. He died because of a heart attack on December 15, 1950.


title: ASCII

text: ASCII (pronounced "az-kee", "ass-key" if American), is a table of characters for computers. It is binary code used by electronic equipment to handle text using the English alphabet, numbers, and other common symbols. ASCII is an abbreviation for "American Standard Code for Information Interchange".


title: ASCII

text: The code includes definitions for 128 characters, which are assigned numbers from 0 to 127. Numbers 32 to 126 stand for letters, numbers and symbols such as abc, ABC, 123, and ?&!. Numbers 0 to 31 and the number 127 stand for characters that control how text is processed and are not printed.


title: ASCII

text: ASCII uses 7 binary digits (bits) to represent characters. The bits 1000001 (65 in normal base-10 numbers) represent the upper-case letter A, 1000010 represents B, 1000011 represents C, and so on. Using the table below, you can look up a number in the Decimal column and see the character it represents in the Char column. Programmers often use hexadecimal (base-16 numbers), and you can look that up in the Hex column.


title: ASCII

text: An ASCII computer file uses one byte for each character. A byte has 8 bits, so can hold an ASCII character with one bit spare. In the past, the spare bit was sometimes used as a "parity bit" to help check if the data had been corrupted.


title: ASCII

text: ASCII has no formatting control (for bold or "Italics", etc.) Sometimes someone talks about a file or document in ASCII, meaning it is in plain text.


title: ASCII

text: Standard ASCII is still commonly used, particularly in computer software and HTML files. Until 2010 it was the standard for URLs. Often a web site that has fields for entering text will only take ASCII text. Any special markups for bold or centered text, etc. will show up incorrectly.