A Ton of Crap
Page 33
APPLIED MATHEMATICS
What Is Applied Mathematics? Mathematics can be separated into two categories: pure mathematics and applied mathematics. Pure mathematics is the study of completely abstract math. Applied mathematics, however, uses mathematical techniques in very real and specialized ways and applies math to some sciences (such as physics), engineering, industry, and business. In applied mathematics, mathematical models are used to solve and work with very real problems and applications. Applied mathematics is also used in newer fields such as computer science.
BIOMES
Freshwater Freshwater biomes consist of ponds, lakes, streams, rivers, and wetlands. The freshwater biome has a low concentration of salt (less than 1 percent usually), and plants and animals that live in these types of locations would not be able to live in bodies of water with higher concentrations of salt. Ponds and lakes are often isolated from larger bodies of water, and have limited diversity in terms of wildlife as a result. Streams and rivers flow in one direction, ending at the ocean. Wetlands are locations with standing water such as marshes, bogs, and swamps. Wetlands support specific types of aquatic plants and have the highest amount of diversity in terms of wildlife.
MAYAN LANGUAGES
Yucatec Maya Yucatec Maya is spoken by 800,000 people, and it is the most common form of Mayan language spoken by the indigenous people of Mexico (who are mostly found on the Yucatán Peninsula). The Yucatec Maya language is one of only three Mayan languages that features tone, with Uspantek and a dialect of Tzotzil being the other two. Though currently written with the Latin alphabet, Yucatec Maya used Mayan script (a logosyllabic system where logograms represent entire words) until the sixteenth century.
LESSON 30B
THE COLD WAR
The Marshall Plan Following World War II, Europe was left completely devastated industrially, economically, and agriculturally, and the United States was the only major power that had not been left in ruins. In 1947, the Marshall Plan was created by the U.S. Secretary of State George Marshall to provide aid and restore political and economic stability to the Western countries. Marshall believed this plan could both rebuild the Western countries and blunt the Communist advancements. A total of sixteen nations were involved in the program, and nearly $13 billion dollars was received in financial aid.
BIOGRAPHIES
Into the Wild Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild tells the story of Chris McCandless, an Honors graduate from Emory University, who traveled across the United States renouncing society and living as a vagabond. McCandless ultimately hitchhiked to Alaska to live in the wilderness. After surviving for two years on his own, McCandless starved to death. Krakauer chronicles, as best he can, McCandless’s journey through interviews with people he met along his journey, his friends and family, and authorities. Though the exact details are unknown, Jon Krakauer goes to great lengths to describe the events that may have led to Chris McCandless’s unfortunate death.
APPLIED MATHEMATICS
Computer Science Computers are an integral part of society. Computer science is more than being able to build computers or write programs. At its simplest, computer science is about solving problems and understanding how information (which, in its smallest form is known as a bit) is transferred through complex algorithms and algebra, logic, and combinatorics. The field of study began in the 1940s, and since then, has become a fundamental part of everyday life. Computer science can be used to understand the big bang, earthquakes, and even genetics.
BIOMES
Marine The marine biome includes the oceans, estuaries, and coral reefs. Oceans, which make up 70 percent of the entire planet, are the largest of the ecosystems and have a great variety of wildlife. Estuaries are the locations where the rivers and freshwater streams join the ocean. The ecosystem of estuaries is unique due to the mixtures of the different concentrations of salt. Coral reefs exist around warm and shallow water. These are found along continents and islands, and the most dominant life form is coral, which is comprised of both animal polyp tissues and algae.
MAYAN LANGUAGES
Huasteco The Huastec (also known as Wastek) language is spoken by 120,000 indigenous people of Mexico located in northern Veracruz, Tamaulipas, and parts of San Luis Potosi. The culture of the indigenous people who spoke Huasteco was not a part of the Classic Maya civilization due to their geographic isolation; the nearest Mayan culture was around 1,000 miles from them. The Chicomuceltec language, a Mayan language that had become extinct in the 1970s and 1980s, is believed to be the closest relative to the Huastec language.
LESSON 30C
THE COLD WAR
The Cuban Missile Crisis The Cuban Missile Crisis is considered the closest the United States ever came to a nuclear war. By the 1960s, the United States had missiles that could reach the Soviet Union, while the missiles of the Soviets could only reach as far as Europe. In 1962, the Soviets set their attention on Cuba, and began putting their intermediate-range missiles there. Photographs of the Soviet missiles in Cuba surfaced, and a naval quarantine was deployed around Cuba. Tension grew as communication between the United States and the Soviet Union continued. Finally, the Soviet Union agreed to dismantle the installations in hopes that the United States would not invade Cuba.
BIOGRAPHIES
Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy Eric Metaxas’s Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy tells the story of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a Lutheran pastor who lived in Germany during the reign of Adolf Hitler. While other churches embraced Hitler’s hatred toward the Jewish people, Bonhoeffer believed the role of the churches was to help the victimized Jewish people. Bonhoeffer created an illegal seminary with the purpose of training pastors, and was involved in a plot to assassinate Hitler. The assassination attempt would ultimately lead to his death only three weeks before Hitler committed suicide. Metaxas’s book focuses on the personal life of Bonhoeffer and his theological ideologies and spirituality.
APPLIED MATHEMATICS
Scientific Computing Scientific computing, also known as computational science, is different from computer science. Scientific computing involves creating mathematical models and performing quantitative analysis with computers to solve problems. Typically, scientific computing involves computational simulation. Unlike computer science, which studies the processing of information, scientific computing implements models on computers to receive and analyze information. Often, work in scientific computing is done with supercomputers, software, and programs. In scientific computing, numerical analysis is used, which uses algorithms that feature numerical approximations.
BIOMES
Desert One-fifth of the surface of the planet is comprised of desert, and rainfall is less than 50 centimeters a year at these locations. There are four different types of desert: hot and dry, semiarid, coastal, and cold. Hot and dry deserts feature little humidity, resulting in twice the radiation from the sun. An example of a hot and dry desert would be the Mojave Desert. Cold deserts, which are found in places like Antarctica and Greenland, are on the opposite end of the spectrum, and have cold winters with a lot of snow.
MAYAN LANGUAGES
Ch’ol There are around 130,000 indigenous people who speak Ch’ol in Chiapas, located in southeastern Mexico. The Ch’ol languages can be divided into two languages: Tila and Tumbala, and these two are mutually intelligible. It is believed that the Ch’ol languages are the closest to the language spoken during the Classic era in the Central Lowlands. Ch’olan languages are more conservative in terms of phonology and vocabulary, and it is believed they might have been treated as a prestigious language that coexisted with other dialects.
LESSON 30D
THE COLD WAR
The Space Race With the arms race and threat of nuclear war, fear of the Soviet Union grew. On October 4, 1957, the Soviets launched the first artificial satellite into space, Sputnik 1. The launch was a surprise to Americans, who believed they were the leaders in technology, and many feared Sputnik was a weapon. The United States launch
ed the Explorer 1 only four months after Sputnik. The Soviet Union originally led in the Space Race. In April of 1961, the Soviet Union was the first to launch a man into orbit (twenty-three days later, the United States sent their first man into orbit), and in June of 1963, the Soviet Union sent the very first woman into orbit. Ultimately, the United States won the Space Race, however. In 1961, President Kennedy announced the goal of sending a man to the moon. Eight years later, that goal was achieved.
BIOGRAPHIES
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly In 1995, Jean-Dominique Bauby, an editor, author, and journalist for the French Elle magazine, suffered a devastating stroke that left him in a coma for three weeks. When he awoke from his coma, he suffered from locked-in syndrome, where his mind still functioned but his body was left completely motionless. The only thing he could move was his left eyelid. In 1996, as a person said the alphabet to him, he would blink at each letter he wanted. The result was his memoir, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.
APPLIED MATHEMATICS
Operations Research In operations research, also known as management science, models and concepts are used to improve problems relating to managerial issues or problems pertaining to organizations, as well as how effectively technology is used in organizations. There are many different types of techniques that can be applied to operational research, including game theory, probability theory, graph theory, statistics, and simulation. Some of the fields involved in operations research include transportation, financial engineering, marketing engineering, energy, and manufacturing. Operations research began following World War II, stemming from the work of military planners.
BIOMES
Forest There are three types of forests: tropical, temperate, and boreal. The greatest diversity in wildlife can be found in tropical forests. These forests do not experience winter, and have only two seasons, a rainy season and a dry season. Temperate forests grow in areas with well-defined seasons that have a distinct winter (such as Wisconsin or the Adirondacks). The largest of the biomes are the boreal forests. Boreal forests (also known as taiga) are found across North America and Eurasia, and seasons are defined as short and moist summers that are moderately warm and winters that are cold, dry, and long.
MAYAN LANGUAGES
Q’eqchi’ In Guatemala and Belize, 500,000 people speak Q’eqchi’ (or Kekchi). Q’eqchi’ speakers speak Q’eqchi’ as their native language and Spanish as a second language (and some do not speak Spanish at all). There are two dialects of the language: one found in Guatemala, Alta Verapaz, and Cobán, and then an “eastern” dialect that is spoken elsewhere. Two orthographies are widely used. The first was developed in the 1960s and still remains in circulation, though it is no longer the standard. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, an orthography was developed that is now the standard form used in Guatemala.
LESSON 30E
THE COLD WAR
The Berlin Wall The Berlin Wall was more than just a division between West and East Germany. It was symbolic of Democracy versus Communism. The split had also occurred in the capital, Berlin. West Berlin was actually encircled by the rest of East Germany. While West Germany experienced economic growth, East Germany, under the Soviet Union’s Communist influence, had a dragging economy and individual’s rights were severely restricted. By the 1950s, many residents of East Germany were fleeing to West Berlin. Once there, they were able to fly to West Germany. By 1961, 2.5 million people had left East Germany, and several attempts, with the help of the Soviet Union, were made to control West Berlin, until finally a wall was built that stretched hundreds of miles.
BIOGRAPHIES
A Beautiful Mind: The Life of Mathematical Genius and Nobel Laureate John Nash John Nash is a mathematical genius. He founded game theory, worked for RAND during the Cold War, won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1994, and even challenged Albert Einstein on a theory of quantum mechanics when he was just twenty years old. He also suffered greatly from paranoid schizophrenia. Sylvia Nasar’s book, A Beautiful Mind: The Life of Mathematical Genius and Nobel Laureate John Nash, explores Nash’s life as he suffers with his illness, becoming entangled in his own thoughts and creating amazing mathematical accomplishments.
APPLIED MATHEMATICS
Actuarial Science Actuarial science involves the assessment of risk and the creation of insurance policies to mitigate the risk for finance and insurance industries. Statistics, probability, finance, and economics are all used in actuarial science. Actuarial science also allows actuaries (those who work to assess risk and create insurance policies) to be able to predict income levels that would be needed for specific retirement incomes. In order to become an actuary, you must take several exams and become certified so that you can apply and perform the science.
BIOMES
Grassland When land is dominated by grass instead of trees, it is known as a grassland. There are two types of grasslands: tropical (also known as savannah) and temperate. Savannahs have trees scattered throughout and make up about half of Africa. In order for savannahs to exist, there must be hot or warm climates and rainfall of about 20 to 50 inches a year. Unlike savannahs, temperate grasslands do not have any trees and there is more variation in temperature from winter to summer. Prairies are temperate grasslands with tall grass, and steppes are temperate grasslands with shorter grass.
MAYAN LANGUAGES
Mam In Guatemala and Mexico, half a million people speak Mam, of which, there are three types: Northern Mam (found in Huehuetenango), Southern Mam (found in Quetzaltenango), and Central Mam (found in San Marcos). Due to mountainous terrain and isolation, there are several dialects within these different types of Mam; however, even as such, the dialects are still mutually intelligible. Mam, Tektitek, and Awakatek are closely related, and together are known as the Mamean language group.
LESSON 30F
THE COLD WAR
The Dissolution of the USSR In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev became president of the Soviet Union, and as reform was being promoted and was desperately needed in the Soviet Union, Gorbachev introduced perestroika, a restructuring of the economy, and glasnost, which allowed for political freedom. As reforms continued throughout 1986–1990, Soviet states gained new autonomy, and Gorbachev’s power and ability to hold the union together weakened. In 1991, a coup was attempted against Gorbachev. The coup failed, but Gorbachev lost support and Boris Yeltsin came to power. The USSR was dissolved and the Russian Federation was created.
BIOGRAPHIES
The Autobiography of Malcolm X Malcolm X was one of the most important and controversial leaders during the civil rights movement. In his autobiography, he discusses his childhood growing up in Boston as the son of a Baptist minister, how his life turned to the streets and prison, and finally, his embrace of Islam. He discusses his education, which he says he got from the schools, the streets, the prisons, and his mentor. The book was written by Alex Haley transcribing interviews he did with Malcolm X, and though Malcolm read drafts, he never lived to see it in print. Haley would later go on to write Roots.
APPLIED MATHEMATICS
Statistics Though statistics is the study of organization, collection, and interpretation, it often features applied mathematics (especially when dealing with statistical procedures and research, which get improved through mathematical tests). Probability, algebra, decision theory, scientific computing, and combinatorial design are all used in statistics. Statistics can also be applied to a wide range of topics, including economics, engineering, public health, marketing, biology, education, sports, and medicine.
BIOMES
Tundra The coldest biome is known as the tundra, of which there are two types: arctic tundra and alpine tundra. Tundra include very low diversity in wildlife, very cold climates, and short growth and reproduction seasons. Arctic tundras encircle the north pole and are desert-like. Though there are several plants that thrive in arctic tundras, they are not deep root systems. Alpine tundras are found on mountains where the altitude is so high that trees cannot grow. The
plants and animals are similar to those found in the arctic tundra, able to withstand the extremely cold environments.
MAYAN LANGUAGES
Poqomchi The Poqomchi language is spoken in Guatemala by 90,000 people. There are currently two dialects of Poqomchi, a western and an eastern dialect. Poqomchi is a Poqom language, and is related to Poqomam, which is spoken by 30,000 people. Poqom languages are also related to Core Quichean languages such as K’iche’ (which has the largest amount of speakers), Archi, and Tz’utujil.
LESSON 30 QUIZ
The Warsaw Pact was initiated by the Soviet Union as a counter to the formation of:
The USSR