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Friday, July 27, 2007

In Physics

Space is one of the few fundamental quantities in physics, meaning that it cannot be defined via other quantities because there is nothing more fundamental known at present. Thus, similar to the definition of other fundamental quantities, space is defined via measurement. Currently, the standard space interval, called a standard meter or simply meter, is defined as the distance traveled by light in a vacuum during a time interval of 1/299792458 of a second. This definition coupled with present definition of time makes our space-time to be Minkowski space and makes special relativity theory to be absolutely correct by definition.

In classical physics, space is a three-dimensional Euclidean space where any position can be described using three coordinates. Special and general relativity uses space-time rather than space; space-time is modeled as a four-dimensional space with the time axis being imaginary in special relativity and real in general relativity, and currently there are many theories which use more than four-dimensional spaces.

Before Einstein's work on relativistic physics, time and space were viewed as independent dimensions. Einstein's discoveries have shown that due to relativity of motion our space and time can be mathematically combined into one symmetric object — space-time.
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Sunday, July 22, 2007

Money

Economics offers various definitions for money, though it is now commonly defined by the functions attached to any good or token that functions in trade as a medium of exchange, store of value, and unit of account. Some authors explicitly require money to be a standard of deferred payment, too . In common usage, money refers more specifically to currency, particularly the many circulating currencies with legal tender status conferred by a national state; deposit accounts denominated in such currencies are also considered part of the money supply, although these characteristics are historically comparatively recent. Other older functions a money may possess are a means of rationing access to scarce resources, and a means of accumulating power of command over others.

The use of money provides an alternative to bartering, which is often considered to be inefficient because it requires a coincidence of wants between traders, and an agreement that these needs are of equal value, before a transaction can occur. The efficiency gains through the use of money are thought to encourage trade and the division of labour, in turn increasing productivity and wealth.


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Monday, July 16, 2007

Festival

A festival is an occasion, generally staged by a local community, which centers on some exclusive portion of that community.

Among several religions, a feast or festival is a place of celebrations in honour of God or gods. A feast and a festival are traditionally identical. However, the term "feast" has also entered regular worldly idiom as a synonym for every large or detailed meal. When used as in the significance of a festival, most frequently refers to a religious festival quite than a film or art festival.

There are several types of festivals in the world. Although a lot of have religious origins, others involve seasonal alteration or have some cultural impact. Also certain institutions celebrate their own festival to stain some important occasions in their history. These occasions might be the day these institutions were founded or any other event which they decide to celebrate occasionally, usually annually.

Festivals, of several types, provide to meet specific social needs and duties, as well as to provide entertainment. These times of celebration suggest a sense of belonging for religious, social, or geographical groups. Modern festivals that focus on cultural look for to notify members of their traditions. In past times, festivals were times when the aged shared stories and transferred certain information to the next generation. Historic feasts frequently provided a way for unity between families and for people to find mates. Choose anniversaries have annual festivals to commemorate previous significant occurrences.

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Friday, July 13, 2007

Philosophy of space and time

Space has a range of definitions:

One view of space is that it is part of the fundamental structure of the universe, a set of dimensions in which objects are separated and located, have size and shape, and through which they can move.
A contrasting view is that space is part of a fundamental abstract mathematical conceptual framework within which we compare and quantify the distance between objects, their sizes, their shapes, and their speeds. In this view space does not refer to any kind of entity that is a "container" that objects "move through".
These opposing views are relevant also to definitions of time. Space is typically described as having three dimensions, and that three numbers are needed to specify the size of any object and/or its location with respect to another location. Modern physics does not treat space and time as independent dimensions, but treats both as features of space-time – a conception that challenges intuitive notions of distance and time.

An issue of philosophical debate is whether space is an ontological entity itself, or simply a conceptual framework we need to think about the world. Another way to frame this is to ask, "Can space itself be measured, or is space part of the measurement system?" The same debate applies also to time, and an important formulation in both areas was given by Immanuel Kant.

In his Critique of Pure Reason, Kant described space as an a priori intuition that allows us to comprehend sense experience. With Kant, neither space nor time are conceived as substances, but rather both are elements of a systematic framework we use to structure our experience. Spatial measurements are used to quantify how far apart objects are, and temporal measurements are used to quantify how far apart events occur.

Schopenhauer, in the preface to his On the Will in Nature, stated that "space is the condition of the possibility of juxtaposition." This is in accordance with Kant's understanding of space as a form in the mind of an observing subject.

Similar philosophical questions concerning space include: Is space absolute or purely relational? Does space have one correct geometry, or is the geometry of space just a convention? Historical positions in these debates have been taken by Isaac Newton, Gottfried Leibniz, and Henri Poincare. Two important thought-experiments connected with these questions are: Newton's bucket argument and Poincare's sphere-world.


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Sunday, July 08, 2007

Spatial Measurement

The measurement of physical space has long been important. Geometry, the name given to the branch of mathematics which measures spatial relations, was popularised by the ancient Greeks, although earlier societies had developed measuring systems. The International System of Units, is now the most common system of units used in the measuring of space, and is almost universally used within science.

Geography is the branch of science concerned with identifying and describing the Earth, utilising spatial awareness to try and understand why things exist in specific locations. Cartography is the mapping of spaces to allow better navigation, for visualisation purposes and to act as a locational device. Geostatistics apply statistical concepts to collected spatial data in order to create an estimate for unobserved phenomena. Astronomy is the science involved with the observation, explanation and measuring of objects in outer space.

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