Question: Who proposed the concept that electrons exhibit wave-particle duality?

Wave-particle duality was a revolutionary concept proposed by Einstein, suggesting that light exhibits properties of both waves and particles. This theory was crucial in explaining the photoelectric effect, where electrons are ejected from a metal surface when illuminated by light. Einstein's hypothesis was that light consists of discrete packets of energy, or quanta, later termed photons. These photons have wave-like properties, such as frequency and wavelength, but also behave as particles when interacting with matter. The energy of a photon is directly proportional to its frequency, as determined by Planck's constant. This dual nature of light was confirmed through various experiments, including the discovery of the photon antibunching effect. Einstein's groundbreaking work on the photoelectric effect, which introduced the concept of light quanta, was recognized with the Nobel Prize in 1921, solidifying the foundation of quantum mechanics and the wave-particle duality of electromagnetic radiation.

In solid state physics, a particle's effective mass (often denoted m*) is the mass that it seems to have when responding to forces, or the mass that it seems to have when interacting with other identical particles in a thermal distribution. One of the results from the band theory of solids is that the movement of particles in a periodic potential, over long distances larger than the lattice spacing, can be very different from their motion in a vacuum. The effective mass is a quantity that is used to simplify band structures by modeling the behavior of a free particle with that mass. For some purposes and some materials, the effective mass can be considered to be a simple constant of a material. In general, however, the value of effective mass depends on the purpose for which it is used, and can vary depending on a number of factors.

For partial filling at the top of the valence band, it is helpful to introduce the concept of an electron hole.
Although the electrons in the valence band are always moving around, a completely full valence band is inert, not conducting any current.
If an electron is taken out of the valence band, then the trajectory that the electron would normally have taken is now missing its charge.
For the purposes of electric current, this combination of the full valence band, minus the electron, can be converted into a picture of a completely empty band containing a positively charged particle that moves in the same way as the electron.
Combined with the negative effective mass of the electrons at the top of the valence band, we arrive at a picture of a positively charged particle that responds to electric and magnetic fields just as a normal positively charged particle would do in vacuum, again with some positive effective mass.[10]
This particle is called a hole, and the collection of holes in the valence band can again be understood in simple classical terms (as with the electrons in the conduction band).

Building on the work of Lodge,[23] the Indian Bengali physicist Jagadish Chandra Bose ignited gunpowder and rang a bell at a distance using millimeter range wavelength microwaves in a November 1894 public demonstration at the Town Hall of Kolkata. Bose wrote in a Bengali essay, Adrisya Alok (Invisible Light), "The invisible light can easily pass through brick walls, buildings etc. Therefore, messages can be transmitted by means of it without the mediation of wires." Bose’s first scientific paper, "On polarisation of electric rays by double-refracting crystals" was communicated to the Asiatic Society of Bengal in May 1895. His second paper was communicated to the Royal Society of London by Lord Rayleigh in October 1895. In December 1895, the London journal The Electrician (Vol. 36) published Bose’s paper, "On a new electro-polariscope". At that time, the word 'coherer', coined by Lodge, was used in the English-speaking world for Hertzian wave receivers or detectors. The Electrician readily commented on Bose’s coherer. (December 1895). The Englishman (18 January 1896) quoted from the Electrician and commented as follows: "Should Professor Bose succeed in perfecting and patenting his ‘Coherer’, we may in time see the whole system of coast lighting throughout the navigable world revolutionised by an Indian Bengali scientist working single handed in our Presidency College Laboratory." Bose planned to "perfect his coherer", but never thought of patenting it.

Before Moseley and his law, atomic numbers had been thought of as a semi-arbitrary ordering number, vaguely increasing with atomic weight but not strictly defined by it. Moseley's discovery showed that atomic numbers were not arbitrarily assigned, but rather, they have a definite physical basis. Moseley postulated that each successive element has a nuclear charge exactly one unit greater than its predecessor. Moseley redefined the idea of atomic numbers from its previous status as an ad hoc numerical tag to help sorting the elements into an exact sequence of ascending atomic numbers that made the Periodic Table exact. (This was later to be the basis of the Aufbau principle in atomic studies.) As noted by Bohr, Moseley's law provided a reasonably complete experimental set of data that supported the (new from 1911) conception by Ernest Rutherford and Antonius van den Broek of the atom, with a positively charged nucleus surrounded by negatively charged electrons in which the atomic number is understood to be the exact physical number of positive charges (later discovered and called protons) in the central atomic nuclei of the elements. Moseley mentioned the two scientists above in his research paper, but he did not actually mention Bohr, who was rather new on the scene then. Simple modification of Rydberg's and Bohr's formulas were found to give theoretical justification for Moseley's empirically derived law for determining atomic numbers.

The time-dependent Schrödinger equation described above predicts that wave functions can form standing waves, called stationary states (also called "orbitals", as in atomic orbitals or molecular orbitals). These states are particularly important as their individual study later simplifies the task of solving the time-dependent Schrödinger equation for any state. Stationary states can also be described by a simpler form of the Schrödinger equation, the time-independent Schrödinger equation (TISE).

A wave function is an element of a function space partly characterized by the following concrete and abstract descriptions.

The speed at which light waves propagate in vacuum is independent both of the motion of the wave source and of the inertial frame of reference of the observer.[Note 4] This invariance of the speed of light was postulated by Einstein in 1905,[5] after being motivated by Maxwell's theory of electromagnetism and the lack of evidence for the luminiferous aether;[16] it has since been consistently confirmed by many experiments. It is only possible to verify experimentally that the two-way speed of light (for example, from a source to a mirror and back again) is frame-independent, because it is impossible to measure the one-way speed of light (for example, from a source to a distant detector) without some convention as to how clocks at the source and at the detector should be synchronized. However, by adopting Einstein synchronization for the clocks, the one-way speed of light becomes equal to the two-way speed of light by definition.[17][18] The special theory of relativity explores the consequences of this invariance of c with the assumption that the laws of physics are the same in all inertial frames of reference.[19][20] One consequence is that c is the speed at which all massless particles and waves, including light, must travel in vacuum.

In classical mechanics, Newton's second law (F = ma) is used to make a mathematical prediction as to what path a given physical system will take over time following a set of known initial conditions.  Solving this equation gives the position, and the momentum of the physical system as a function of the external force F on the system. Those two parameters are sufficient to describe its state at each time instant.  In quantum mechanics, the analogue of Newton's law is Schrödinger's equation for a quantum system (usually atoms, molecules, and subatomic particles whether free, bound, or localized). The equation is mathematically described as a linear partial differential equation, which describes the time-evolution of the system's wave function (also called a "state function").[3]:1–2

Moseley's law advanced atomic physics, nuclear physics and quantum physics by providing the first experimental evidence in favour of Niels Bohr's theory, aside from the hydrogen atom spectrum which the Bohr theory was designed to reproduce. That theory refined Ernest Rutherford's and Antonius van den Broek's model, which proposed that the atom contains in its nucleus a number of positive nuclear charges that is equal to its (atomic) number in the periodic table. This remains the accepted model today.

After Dalton published his atomic theory in 1808, certain of his central ideas were soon adopted by most chemists. However, uncertainty persisted for half a century about how atomic theory was to be configured and applied to concrete situations; chemists in different countries developed several different incompatible atomistic systems. A paper that suggested a way out of this difficult situation was published as early as 1811 by the Italian physicist Amedeo Avogadro (1776-1856), who hypothesized that equal volumes of gases at the same temperature and pressure contain equal numbers of molecules, from which it followed that relative molecular weights of any two gases are the same as the ratio of the densities of the two gases under the same conditions of temperature and pressure. Avogadro also reasoned that simple gases were not formed of solitary atoms but were instead compound molecules of two or more atoms. Thus Avogadro was able to overcome the difficulty that Dalton and others had encountered when Gay-Lussac reported that above 100 °C the volume of water vapor was twice the volume of the oxygen used to form it. According to Avogadro, the molecule of oxygen had split into two atoms in the course of forming water vapor.


Question: What is the phase change from a gas directly to a solid called?

Deposition, also referred to as desublimation, is a phase transition where a gas directly transforms into a solid, bypassing the liquid state. It is the opposite of sublimation.

When the intrinsic hysteresis of rubber is being measured, the material can be considered to behave like a gas. When a rubber band is stretched it heats up, and if it is suddenly released, it cools down perceptibly. These effects correspond to a large hysteresis from the thermal exchange with the environment and a smaller hysteresis due to internal friction within the rubber. This proper, intrinsic hysteresis can be measured only if the rubber band is adiabatically isolated.

Some work has been done on gelling liquid propellants to give a propellant with low vapor pressure to reduce the risk of an accidental fireball. Gelled propellant behaves like a solid propellant in storage and like a liquid propellant in use.

In the original sense it meant the movement of waste saturated in water found in periglacial regions. However it was later discovered that various slow waste movements in periglacial regions did not required saturation in water, but were rather associated to freeze-thaw processes.[1][2] The term solifluction was appropriated to refer to these slow processes, and therefore excludes rapid periglacial movements.[1] In slow periglacial solifluction there are not clear gliding planes,[3] and therefore skinflows and active layer detachments are not included in the concept.[1] On the other hand, movement of waste saturated in water can occur in any humid climate, and therefore this kind of solifluction is not restricted to cold climates.[citation needed]

Amorphous silicon is the most well-developed thin film technology to-date. An amorphous silicon (a-Si) solar cell is made of non-crystalline or microcrystalline silicon. Amorphous silicon has a higher bandgap (1.7 eV) than crystalline silicon (c-Si) (1.1 eV), which means it absorbs the visible part of the solar spectrum more strongly than the higher power density infrared portion of the spectrum. The production of a-Si thin film solar cells uses glass as a substrate and deposits a very thin layer of silicon by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD).

Nitrogen dissolves in the blood and body fats. Rapid decompression (as when divers ascend too quickly or astronauts decompress too quickly from cabin pressure to spacesuit pressure) can lead to a potentially fatal condition called decompression sickness (formerly known as caisson sickness or the bends), when nitrogen bubbles form in the bloodstream, nerves, joints, and other sensitive or vital areas.[91][92] Bubbles from other "inert" gases (gases other than carbon dioxide and oxygen) cause the same effects, so replacement of nitrogen in breathing gases may prevent nitrogen narcosis, but does not prevent decompression sickness.[93]

Hysteresis is the dependence of the state of a system on its history. For example, a magnet may have more than one possible magnetic moment in a given magnetic field, depending on how the field changed in the past. Plots of a single component of the moment often form a loop or hysteresis curve, where there are different values of one variable depending on the direction of change of another variable. This history dependence is the basis of memory in a hard disk drive and the remanence that retains a record of the Earth's magnetic field magnitude in the past. Hysteresis occurs in ferromagnetic and ferroelectric materials, as well as in the deformation of rubber bands and shape-memory alloys and many other natural phenomena. In natural systems it is often associated with irreversible thermodynamic change such as phase transitions and with internal friction; and dissipation is a common side effect.

Emission is a process by which a substance releases energy in the form of electromagnetic radiation. Emission can occur at any frequency at which absorption can occur, and this allows the absorption lines to be determined from an emission spectrum. The emission spectrum will typically have a quite different intensity pattern from the absorption spectrum, though, so the two are not equivalent. The absorption spectrum can be calculated from the emission spectrum using appropriate theoretical models and additional information about the quantum mechanical states of the substance.[citation needed]

The ammonium ion (NH+
4) has very similar properties to the heavier alkali metals, acting as an alkali metal intermediate between potassium and rubidium,[102][114] and is often considered a close relative.[115][116][117] For example, most alkali metal salts are soluble in water, a property which ammonium salts share.[118] Ammonium is expected to behave stably as a metal (NH+
4 ions in a sea of delocalised electrons) at very high pressures (though less than the typical pressure where transitions from insulating to metallic behaviour occur around, 100 GPa), and could possibly occur inside the ice giants Uranus and Neptune, which may have significant impacts on their interior magnetic fields.[116][117] It has been estimated that the transition from a mixture of ammonia and dihydrogen molecules to metallic ammonium may occur at pressures just below 25 GPa.[116] Under standard conditions, ammonium can form a metallic amalgam with mercury.[119]

Solid propellants are either "composites" composed mostly of large, distinct macroscopic particles or single-, double-, or triple-bases (depending on the number of primary ingredients), which are homogeneous mixtures of one or more primary ingredients. Composites typically consist of a mixture of granules of solid oxidizer (examples: ammonium nitrate, ammonium perchlorate, potassium nitrate) in a polymer binder (binding agent) with flakes or powders of energetic compounds (examples: RDX, HMX), metallic additives (examples: aluminium, beryllium), plasticizers, stabilizers, and/or burn rate modifiers (iron oxide, copper oxide). Single-, double-, or triple-bases are mixtures of the fuel, oxidizer, binders, and plasticizers that are macroscopically indistinguishable and often blended as liquids and cured in a single batch. Often, the ingredients of a double-base propellant have multiple roles such as RDX which is both a fuel and oxidizer or nitrocellulose which is a fuel, oxidizer, and plasticizer. Further complicating categorization, there are many propellants that contain elements of double-base and composite propellants, which often contain some amount of energetic additives homogeneously mixed into the binder. In the case of gunpowder (a pressed composite without a polymeric binder) the fuel is charcoal, the oxidizer is potassium nitrate, and sulphur serves as a catalyst. (Note: sulphur is not a true catalyst in gunpowder as it is consumed to a great extent into a variety of reaction products such as K2S.) During the 1950s and 60s researchers in the United States developed ammonium perchlorate composite propellant (APCP). This mixture is typically 69-70% finely ground ammonium perchlorate (an oxidizer), combined with 16-20% fine aluminium powder (a fuel), held together in a base of 11-14% polybutadiene acrylonitrile (PBAN) or Hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene (polybutadiene rubber fuel). The mixture is formed as a thickened liquid and then cast into the correct shape and cured into a firm but flexible load-bearing solid. Historically the tally of APCP solid propellants is relatively small. The military, however, uses a wide variety of different types of solid propellants some of which exceed the performance of APCP. A comparison of the highest specific impulses achieved with the various solid and liquid propellant combinations used in current launch vehicles is given in the article on solid-fuel rockets.[1]

In common everyday speech, speed of sound refers to the speed of sound waves in air. However, the speed of sound varies from substance to substance: sound travels most slowly in gases; it travels faster in liquids; and faster still in solids. For example, (as noted above), sound travels at 343 m/s in air; it travels at 1,484 m/s in water (4.3 times as fast as in air); and at 5,120 m/s in iron (about 15 times as fast as in air). In an exceptionally stiff material such as diamond, sound travels at 12,000 metres per second (26,843Â mph);[1] (about 35 times as fast as in air) which is around the maximum speed that sound will travel under normal conditions.


Question: Who holds the record for the most All-Star MVP awards in basketball?

Bob Pettit and Kobe Bryant hold the record for the most NBA All-Star Game Most Valuable Player (MVP) awards, each winning the honor four times. Oscar Robertson, Michael Jordan, Shaquille O'Neal, and LeBron James have each been awarded the All-Star MVP three times, while Bob Cousy, Julius Erving, Isiah Thomas, Magic Johnson, Karl Malone, Allen Iverson, and Russell Westbrook have all received the award twice. LeBron James, at the age of 21 years and 1 month, is the youngest player to win the All-Star MVP in 2006, followed closely by Kyrie Irving, who won in 2014 at the age of 21 years and 10 months, both as members of the Cleveland Cavaliers. Notably, there have been four instances of joint winners: Elgin Baylor and Bob Pettit in 1959, John Stockton and Karl Malone in 1993, Shaquille O'Neal and Tim Duncan in 2000, and O'Neal and Kobe Bryant in 2009. O'Neal is unique in sharing two MVP awards and is the first player to win the award with multiple teams. The Los Angeles Lakers lead with eleven All-Star MVP winners, followed by the Boston Celtics with eight. Tim Duncan, from the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Kyrie Irving, from Australia, are the only winners not born in the United States, although both are American citizens. The NBA classifies them as "international" players because they were not born in one of the fifty states or Washington, D.C. To date, no player trained entirely outside the U.S. has won the award; Irving moved to the U.S. at the age of two, and Duncan played U.S. college basketball at Wake Forest.

The Oak Hill Academy Warriors basketball program is regarded by some as the best prep basketball program in the Nation[citation needed]}, having produced future NBA all-stars Rajon Rondo, Carmelo Anthony, and Kevin Durant.

Rose became the first Bulls draftee to score 10 points or more in his first 10 games since Michael Jordan,[62] and earned Eastern Conference Rookie of the Month honors for November and December.[63][64] During the All-Star Weekend, Rose played in the Rookie Challenge,[65] and won the Skills Challenge, where he beat out several All-Stars to become the first rookie to claim the trophy.[66] Overcoming a January and February slump, Rose returned to form and won monthly rookie honors in March. Meanwhile, the Bulls, re-energized by the trade deadline acquisitions of John Salmons and Brad Miller, finished the regular season on a 12â€“4 spurt to qualify as the seventh seed in the Eastern Conference. Rose won Rookie of the Year, joining Michael Jordan (1985) and Elton Brand (2000) as the only Bulls to do so.[67] He was also the first number-one draft pick since LeBron James to win the award. He averaged 16.8 points on 47.5% field goal shooting, 6.3 assists (leading all rookies) and 3.9 rebounds per game and was also named to the NBA All-Rookie First Team.[68]

The first batting average champion in the NL was Ross Barnes; in the league's inaugural 1876 season, Barnes batted .429 for the Chicago White Stockings.[6] The AL was established in 1901, and Hall of Fame second baseman Nap Lajoie led that league with a .426 average for the Philadelphia Athletics.[7] Ty Cobb of the Detroit Tigers, who also holds the highest career batting average of .366, led the AL in average in 11 (or 12) seasons.[8] Honus Wagner and Gwynn are tied for the second-most titles, with eight apiece in the NL.[4][9] It is unclear whether Lajoie or Cobb won the 1910 AL title, with some sources attributing the title to each man.[1910a] If Cobb is credited with the 1910 title, he won 9 consecutive titles from 1907 to 1915 and 12 total titles for his career. Otherwise, Rogers Hornsby won the most consecutive titles, with six from 1920 to 1925. Without the 1910 title, Cobb still led the league in five consecutive seasons from 1911 to 1915. Cobb holds the record for highest average in two and three consecutive seasons (.414 from 1911 to 1912 and .408 from 1911 to 1913), but Hornsby holds the record for four and five consecutive seasons (.404 from 1922 to 1925 and .402 from 1921 to 1925).[10] Wagner, Rod Carew, Wade Boggs, and Gwynn have each won four consecutive titles. Lajoie also had a streak of four league-leading seasons from 1901 to 1904 if he is credited with the contested AL title in 1902.[1902a] At the 2016 MLB All-Star Game in San Diego, MLB announced that the AL and NL batting champions would henceforth be named in honor of Carew and Gwynn, respectively. Gwynn won all eight titles in the NL with the San Diego Padres, while Carew was a seven-time AL batting champion.[11][12]

One of the tallest players in major league history at 6 feet 10 inches (2.08 m), and a ten-time All-Star, Johnson was celebrated for having one of the most dominant fastballs in the game.  He regularly approached – and occasionally exceeded – 100 miles per hour (160 km/h) during his prime. He also threw a hard, biting slider. After struggling early in his career, gaining only 64 wins by his 30th birthday, he went on to lead his league in strikeouts nine times, and in earned run average, winning percentage and complete games four times each.  Randy won the pitching Triple Crown in 2002. Johnson was named one of two World Series Most Valuable Players in 2001, with three pitching victories, leading the Diamondbacks to a world championship over the New York Yankees in only their fourth year of play. His .646 career winning percentage ranks sixth among lefthanders with at least 200 decisions, and among southpaws he ranks eighth in games started (603) and ninth in innings pitched (4,135 1⁄3). He also finished his career first in strikeouts per nine innings pitched (10.67), third in hit batsmen (188), and tenth in fewest hits allowed per nine innings pitched (7.24). He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2015, his first year of eligibility, and is the first member of the Hall to be depicted in a Diamondbacks uniform on his plaque.

A triple-double is defined as a performance in which a player accumulates a double digit number total in three of five statistical categories—points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocked shots—in a game. The most common way for a player to achieve a triple-double is with points, rebounds, and assists, though on occasion players may record 10 or more steals or blocked shots in a game.[12] The origin of the term "triple-double" is unclear. Some sources claim that it was coined by former Los Angeles Lakers public relations director Bruce Jolesch in the 1980s in order to showcase Magic Johnson's versatility,[13][14] while others claim that it was coined by then Philadelphia 76ers media relations director Harvey Pollack in 1980.[15][16] The triple-double became an officially recorded statistic during the 1979–80 season.

The 21st All-Star Game one year later was somber compared to the 20 before it, as the days before the game were tragic. On January 14, 1968, two days before the game, Bill Masterton had been checked by two Oakland Seals players and died from his on-ice injuries. The game itself was overshadowed by the debate on whether helmets should be worn in the NHL in the fallout of Masterton's untimely death. As in the previous years, the All-Stars were represented by the First and Second All-Star teams, as well as enough players so that each team was represented. The East-West format of future All-Star Games was announced in the 21st All-Star Game, with the intention of being able to move the game anywhere, alternating home ice between an East division team and a West division team year after year. The idea, along with the notion that the players chosen for the two All-Star teams should be the best at the time of the game rather than the best of the players from the season before, quickly gained popularity, although the Cup champions reserved the right to host the 22nd All-Star Game. The St. Louis Blues became the first Western host of the All-Star Game the following year. The 26th All-Star Game was the first in which the game MVP received a car as a prize.

The MTV Video Music Awards were established in 1984 by MTV to celebrate the top music videos of the year. BeyoncÃ© has won 24 awards from 63 nominations as a solo artist. At the 2014 ceremony, she received the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award. At the 2016 ceremony, she became the most awarded artist in the history of the Video Music Awards.

This is the list of Bundesliga top scorers season by season.[1] Since 1966 a miniature artillery sponsored by the German football magazine kicker is awarded to the top scorer at the end of the season. It is formally named "kicker Torjägerkanone" (kicker top scorer cannon). Gerd Müller holds the record for most goals in a single season at 40. With seven wins he is also the record holder for the most awards won. The latest recipient of the award is Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, while playing for Borussia Dortmund.

The Magic history was changed on May 17, 1992, when the franchise won the first pick in the 1992 NBA draft Lottery.[20] The Magic selected big-man Shaquille O'Neal from Louisiana State University, the biggest prize in the draft since the Knicks won Patrick Ewing.[26] O'Neal, a 7'1" center, made an immediate impact on the Magic, leading the team to a 41–41 record.[27] The Magic again became the NBA's most improved franchise, as they improved by 20 games. O'Neal was the first rookie to be voted an All-Star starter since Michael Jordan in 1985.[20] He also became the 1992–1993 NBA Rookie of the Year. Despite O'Neal's presence, the Magic missed the 1993 NBA Playoffs because they were tied with the Indiana Pacers for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference with the Pacers holding the tiebreaker.[28]

During 2010â€“11 season Maya Moore posted career highs in scoring (22.3 ppg), assists (4.1 apg) and steals (2.2 spg), sweeping all possible individual honors: she won her 2nd Naismith College Player of the Year award, her 3rd straight Wade Trophy (only player in history - freshmen are not eligible for this award), her 2nd Associated Press Women's College Basketball Player of the Year award, her 2nd USBWA Women's National Player of the Year award and her 2nd John R. Wooden Award; she was also voted Big East Player of The Year (3rd time) and a fourth straight unanimous First-Team All-American in WBCA, USBWA and AP polls (second player ever after Oklahoma's Courtney Paris).


Question: What is the definition of pH in water?

In the realm of chemistry, pH (potential of hydrogen) serves as a quantitative scale to determine the acidity or alkalinity of an aqueous solution. It is essentially the negative logarithm (base 10) of the hydrogen ion concentration, measured in moles per liter. A pH value below 7 indicates acidity, while a value above 7 signifies basicity. Contrary to common misconceptions, the pH scale can extend beyond 0 and 14 for extremely potent acids and bases, respectively. Pure water holds a neutral pH of 7 at 25 degrees Celsius, neither acidic nor basic.

For cases where no sharing was involved, Lewis in 1923 developed the electron pair theory of acids and base: Lewis redefined an acid as any atom or molecule with an incomplete octet that was thus capable of accepting electrons from another atom; bases were, of course, electron donors. His theory is known as the concept of Lewis acids and bases. In 1923, G. N. Lewis and Merle Randall published Thermodynamics and the Free Energy of Chemical Substances, first modern treatise on chemical thermodynamics.

But water can only evaporate if the air around it can absorb more water. This is measured by comparing how much water is in the air, compared to the maximum which could be in the air - the relative humidity. 0% means the air is completely dry, and 100% means the air contains all the water it can hold in the present circumstances and it cannot absorb any more water (from any source).

Hydrogen (H) is the chemical element with atomic number 1. At standard temperature and pressure, hydrogen is a colorless, odorless, nonmetallic, tasteless, highly flammable diatomic gas with the molecular formula H2. With an atomic mass of 1.00794Â amu, hydrogen is the lightest element.[6]

At relative humidities below 100 percent, water evaporates from the bulb which cools the bulb below ambient temperature. To determine relative humidity, ambient temperature is measured using an ordinary thermometer, better known in this context as a dry-bulb thermometer.  At any given ambient temperature, less relative humidity results in a greater difference between the dry-bulb and wet-bulb temperatures; the wet-bulb is colder. The precise relative humidity is determined by reading from a  psychrometric chart of wet-bulb versus dry-bulb temperatures, or by calculation.

Modified (or screened) methyl orange, an indicator consisting of a solution of methyl orange and xylene cyanol, changes from grey-violet to green as the solution becomes more basic.

In its most simple form, the oxyhemoglobin dissociation curve describes the relation between the partial pressure of oxygen (x axis) and the oxygen saturation (y axis). Hemoglobin's affinity for oxygen increases as successive molecules of oxygen bind. More molecules bind as the oxygen partial pressure increases until the maximum amount that can be bound is reached. As this limit is approached, very little additional binding occurs and the curve levels out as the hemoglobin becomes saturated with oxygen. Hence the curve has a sigmoidal or S-shape. At pressures above about 60 mmHg, the standard dissociation curve is relatively flat, which means that the oxygen content of the blood does not change significantly even with large increases in the oxygen partial pressure. To get more oxygen to the tissue would require blood transfusions to increase the hemoglobin count (and hence the oxygen-carrying capacity), or supplemental oxygen that would increase the oxygen dissolved in plasma. Although binding of oxygen to hemoglobin continues to some extent for pressures about 50 mmHg, as oxygen partial pressures decrease in this steep area of the curve, the oxygen is unloaded to peripheral tissue readily as the hemoglobin's affinity diminishes. The partial pressure of oxygen in the blood at which the hemoglobin is 50% saturated, typically about 26.6 mmHg (3.5 kPa) for a healthy person, is known as the P50. The P50 is a conventional measure of hemoglobin affinity for oxygen. In the presence of disease or other conditions that change the hemoglobin's oxygen affinity and, consequently, shift the curve to the right or left, the P50 changes accordingly. An increased P50 indicates a rightward shift of the standard curve, which means that a larger partial pressure is necessary to maintain a 50% oxygen saturation. This indicates a decreased affinity. Conversely, a lower P50 indicates a leftward shift and a higher affinity.

Deuteration changes the heats of adsorption and the boiling and freezing points of molecules (boiling points:  100.0 °C for H2O vs. 101.42 °C for D2O; melting points: 0.0 °C for H2O, 3.82 °C for D2O), pKa (i.e., dissociation constant: 9.71x10−15 for H2O vs. 1.95x10−15 for D2O, cf. heavy water) and the strength of hydrogen bonding.  Such isotope effects are exceedingly common, and so it is well known that deuterium substitution will indeed change the binding constants of molecules to protein receptors.[18]

In the past, enthalpy was sometimes called heat content.[9][8][10] The fact that the change in enthalpy Î”H equals the heat absorbed in processes at constant pressure is the reason for this name.[11] However this equality is not true in general (when the pressure varies), so that the term heat content is considered misleading[12] and is now deprecated.

The vapour pressure of water is the pressure at which water vapour is in thermodynamic equilibrium with its condensed state. At higher pressures water would condense. The water vapour pressure is the partial pressure of water vapour in any gas mixture in equilibrium with solid or liquid water. As for other substances, water vapour pressure is a function of temperature and can be determined with the Clausius–Clapeyron relation.

Water covers some 70% of the Earth's surface. Approximately 97.2% of it is saline, just 2.8% fresh. Potable water is available in almost all populated areas of the Earth, although it may be expensive and the supply may not always be sustainable. Sources where water may be obtained include:


Question: What is the definition of pH in water?

pH is a measure that represents the negative logarithm of the hydrogen ion concentration, [H+], in a solution. It is commonly used to indicate the acidity or basicity of water-based solutions.

For cases where no sharing was involved, Lewis in 1923 developed the electron pair theory of acids and base: Lewis redefined an acid as any atom or molecule with an incomplete octet that was thus capable of accepting electrons from another atom; bases were, of course, electron donors. His theory is known as the concept of Lewis acids and bases. In 1923, G. N. Lewis and Merle Randall published Thermodynamics and the Free Energy of Chemical Substances, first modern treatise on chemical thermodynamics.

Alternatively, proteases may be classified by the optimal pH in which they are active:

In these applications, terms such as stability constant, formation constant, binding constant, affinity constant, association/dissociation constant are used. In biochemistry, it is common to give units for binding constants, which serve to define the concentration units used when the constantâ€™s value was determined.

Electroanalytical methods are a class of techniques in analytical chemistry which study an analyte by measuring the potential (volts) and/or current (amperes) in an electrochemical cell containing the analyte.[1][2][3][4]  These methods can be broken down into several categories depending on which aspects of the cell are controlled and which are measured.  The three main categories are potentiometry (the difference in electrode potentials is measured), coulometry (the cell's current is measured over time), and voltammetry (the cell's current is measured while actively altering the cell's potential).

Infiltration is a component of the general mass balance hydrologic budget. There are several ways to estimate the volume and/or the rate of infiltration of water into a soil. The rigorous standard that fully couples groundwater to surface water through a non-homogeneous soil is the numerical solution of Richards' equation. A newer method that allows full groundwater and surface water coupling in homogeneous soil layers, and that is related to the Richards equation is the Finite water-content vadose zone flow method. In the case of uniform initial soil water content and a deep well-drained soil, there are some excellent approximate methods to solve for the infiltration flux for a single rainfall event. Among these are the Green and Ampt (1911)[3] method, Parlange et al. (1982).[4] Beyond these methods there are a host of empirical methods such as, SCS method, Horton's method, etc., that are little more than curve fitting exercises.

[A] is the concentration of reagent A, etc. It is possible in principle to obtain values of the activity coefficients, γ. For solutions, equations such as the Debye–Hückel equation or extensions such as Davies equation[9] Specific ion interaction theory or Pitzer equations[10] may be used.Software (below). However this is not always possible. It is common practice to assume that Γ is a constant, and to use the concentration quotient in place of the thermodynamic equilibrium constant. It is also general practice to use the term equilibrium constant instead of the more accurate concentration quotient. This practice will be followed here.

Enthalpy /ˈɛnθəlpi/ ( listen) is a property of a thermodynamic system. The enthalpy of a system is equal to the system's internal energy plus the product of its pressure and volume.[1][2]

Zeta potential titrations are titrations in which the completion is monitored by the zeta potential, rather than by an indicator, in order to characterize heterogeneous systems, such as colloids.[36] One of the uses is to determine the iso-electric point when surface charge becomes zero, achieved by changing the pH or adding surfactant. Another use is to determine the optimum dose for flocculation or stabilization.[37]

Beneficial use is defined as agricultural, industrial, or urban use. Environmental uses, such as maintaining body of water and the wildlife that use it, were not initially regarded as beneficial uses in some states but have been accepted in some areas.[7] Every water right is parameterized by an annual yield and an appropriation date. When a water right is sold, it maintains its original appropriation date.

At relative humidities below 100 percent, water evaporates from the bulb which cools the bulb below ambient temperature. To determine relative humidity, ambient temperature is measured using an ordinary thermometer, better known in this context as a dry-bulb thermometer.  At any given ambient temperature, less relative humidity results in a greater difference between the dry-bulb and wet-bulb temperatures; the wet-bulb is colder. The precise relative humidity is determined by reading from a  psychrometric chart of wet-bulb versus dry-bulb temperatures, or by calculation.


Question: Where does the origin of bird's nest soup come from?

Bird's Nest Soup Origin
Bird's nest soup, a delicacy in Chinese cuisine, is made from the nests of edible-nest swiftlets, which are constructed from solidified saliva. These nests are highly valued in Chinese culture for their rarity, supposed nutritional benefits, and exquisite taste. They are among the most expensive animal products consumed, with prices reaching up to approximately US$2,000 per kilogram, depending on the grade.[1] The grading of bird's nests is determined by the bird species and its diet, resulting in variations in color from white to dark brown. The Chinese tradition of consuming bird's nests for health, particularly for skin benefits, dates back over 400 years, with bird's nest soup being a popular dish.[3]

Despite the modern popularity of the Qu Yuan origin theory, in the former territory of the Kingdom of Wu, the festival commemorated Wu Zixu (died 484 BC), the Premier of Wu. Xi Shi, a beautiful woman sent by King Goujian of the state of Yue, was much loved by King Fuchai of Wu. Wu Zixu, seeing the dangerous plot of Goujian, warned Fuchai, who became angry at this remark. Wu Zixu was forced to commit suicide by Fuchai, with his body thrown into the river on the fifth day of the fifth month. After his death, in places such as Suzhou, Wu Zixu is remembered during the Duanwu Festival.

Anthropologists believe that the Stone Age people and hunter-gatherers relied on wildlife, both plants and animals, for their food. In fact, some species may have been hunted to extinction by early human hunters. Today, hunting, fishing, and gathering wildlife is still a significant food source in some parts of the world. In other areas, hunting and non-commercial fishing are mainly seen as a sport or recreation, with the edible meat as mostly a side benefit of it.[citation needed] Meat sourced from wildlife that is not traditionally regarded as game is known as bush meat. The increasing demand for wildlife as a source of traditional food in East Asia is decimating populations of sharks, primates, pangolins and other animals, which they believe have aphrodisiac properties.

Although there is not usually considered to be a tradition of snail eating in Britain, common garden snails Helix aspersa were eaten in the Southwick area of Sunderland in North East England. They were collected from quarries and along the stone walls of railway embankments during the winter when the snails were hibernating and had voided the contents of their guts. Gibson writes that this tradition was introduced in the 19th century by French immigrant glass workers.[35] "Snail suppers" were a feature of local pubs and Southwick working men were collecting and eating snails as late as the 1970s, though the tradition may now have died out.

In colloquial speech, the term "fowl" is often used near-synonymously with "domesticated chicken" (Gallus gallus), or with "poultry" or even just "bird", and many languages do not distinguish between "poultry" and "fowl". Both words are also used for the flesh of these birds.[8] Poultry can be distinguished from "game", defined as wild birds or mammals hunted for food or sport, a word also used to describe the flesh of these when eaten.[9]

Poultry is the second most widely eaten type of meat in the world, accounting for about 30% of total meat production worldwide compared to pork at 38%. Sixteen billion birds are raised annually for consumption, more than half of these in industrialised, factory-like production units.[48] Global broiler meat production rose to 84.6 million tonnes in 2013. The largest producers were the United States (20%), China (16.6%), Brazil (15.1%) and the European Union (11.3%).[49] There are two distinct models of production; the European Union supply chain model seeks to supply products which can be traced back to the farm of origin. This model faces the increasing costs of implementing additional food safety requirements, welfare issues and environmental regulations. In contrast, the United States model turns the product into a commodity.[50]

Both Nippon and Nihon literally mean "the sun's origin", that is, where the sun originates,[1] and are often translated as the Land of the Rising Sun. This nomenclature comes from Imperial correspondence with the Chinese Sui Dynasty and refers to Japan's eastern position relative to China. Before Nihon came into official use, Japan was known as Wa (倭) or Wakoku (倭国).[2] Wa was a name early China used to refer to an ethnic group living in Japan around the time of the Three Kingdoms Period.

Typically, the female chooses the nest site and builds the nest. However, there has been some indication that the male is able to influence the selection of the nest site by perching nearby and singing. Usually, though, the female chooses whether or not to accept or reject the nest site suggested by the male.[18] The nest is usually sited in a dense patch of vegetation in a tree or shrub that provides concealment and shade. It is usually made of dead grasses, stems, and leaves, and lined with mud, and placed in a fork at a horizontal branch. The nest is not reused. Usually, two broods are attempted, although three to four separate nests may be built before a pair succeeds. Two to four pale blue eggs are laid at the rate of one per day.[19] The eggs are incubated by the female only for 11 to 14 days, with the average being 13 days. Like all passerines, the chicks are altricial at hatching, mostly naked with closed eyes.[20] The female broods the chicks during the first four days after hatching. Both parents feed the nestlings and remove fecal sacs from the nest. The chicks fledge 12–15 days after hatching, but the parents continue to feed them until they become independent and leave the parents' territory at 21–31 days old.

Not all bird species build nests. Some species lay their eggs directly on the ground or rocky ledges, while brood parasites lay theirs in the nests of other birds, letting unwitting "foster parents" do all the work of rearing the young. Although nests are primarily used for breeding, they may also be reused in the non-breeding season for roosting and some species build special dormitory nests or roost nests (or winter-nest) that are used only for roosting.[3] Most birds build a new nest each year, though some refurbish their old nests. [4] The large eyries (or aeries) of some eagles are platform nests that have been used and refurbished for several years.

It has also been suggested that the name "chow-chow" is rooted in the French word chou for cabbage[citation needed]; however, despite the geographic affinities as well as a similarity in the written forms, food nomenclature is mostly transmitted orally: the fundamental difference in pronunciation makes this a weak theory. Food historian Luis W. Fernandez claims a connection with Chinese cuisine as an origin[citation needed].

Blue parrots are very numerous there, as well as other birds; among which are a kind, conspicuous for their size, larger than our swans, with huge heads only half covered with skin as if clothed with a hood. These birds lack wings, in the place of which 3 or 4 blackish feathers protrude. The tail consists of a few soft incurved feathers, which are ash coloured. These we used to call 'Walghvogel', for the reason that the longer and oftener they were cooked, the less soft and more insipid eating they became. Nevertheless their belly and breast were of a pleasant flavour and easily masticated.[44]


Question: Where do the neutrons originate from in nuclear fission?

The startup neutron sources, which are crucial for initiating the nuclear fission process, are generally positioned within the reactor core, replacing some of the fuel rods in a systematic arrangement.

The Oddo–Harkins rule holds that elements with even atomic numbers are more common that those with odd atomic numbers, with the exception of hydrogen. This rule argues that elements with odd atomic numbers have one unpaired proton and are more likely to capture another, thus increasing their atomic number. In elements with even atomic numbers, protons are paired, with each member of the pair offsetting the spin of the other, enhancing stability.[164][165][166] All the alkali metals have odd atomic numbers and they are not as common as the elements with even atomic numbers adjacent to them (the noble gases and the alkaline earth metals) in the Solar System. The heavier alkali metals are also less abundant than the lighter ones as the alkali metals from rubidium onward can only be synthesised in supernovae and not in stellar nucleosynthesis. Lithium is also much less abundant than sodium and potassium as it is poorly synthesised in both Big Bang nucleosynthesis and in stars: the Big Bang could only produce trace quantities of lithium, beryllium and boron due to the absence of a stable nucleus with 5 or 8 nucleons, and stellar nucleosynthesis could only pass this bottleneck by the triple-alpha process, fusing three helium nuclei to form carbon, and skipping over those three elements.[163]

The Q value is defined as the total energy released in a given nuclear decay. In beta decay, Q is therefore also the sum of the kinetic energies of the emitted beta particle, neutrino, and recoiling nucleus. (Because of the large mass of the nucleus compared to that of the beta particle and neutrino, the kinetic energy of the recoiling nucleus can generally be neglected.) Beta particles can therefore be emitted with any kinetic energy ranging from 0 to Q.[1] A typical Q is around 1Â MeV, but can range from a few keV to a few tens of MeV.

The convention that EM radiation that is known to come from the nucleus, is always called "gamma ray" radiation is the only convention that is universally respected, however. Many astronomical gamma ray sources (such as gamma ray bursts) are known to be too energetic (in both intensity and wavelength) to be of nuclear origin. Quite often, in high energy physics and in medical radiotherapy, very high energy EMR (in the >10 MeV region)—which is of higher energy than any nuclear gamma ray—is not called X-ray or gamma-ray, but instead by the generic term of "high energy photons."

where

m

N

(

X

Z

A

)

{\displaystyle m_{N}\left({\ce {^{\mathit {A}}_{\mathit {Z}}X}}\right)}

 is the mass of the nucleus of the A
ZX atom,

m

e

{\displaystyle m_{e}}

 is the mass of the electron, and

m

ν
¯

e

{\displaystyle m_{{\overline {\nu }}_{e}}}

 is the mass of the electron antineutrino. In other words, the total energy released is the mass energy of the initial nucleus, minus the mass energy of the final nucleus, electron, and antineutrino. The mass of the nucleus mN is related to the standard atomic mass m by

The proton–neutron model explained the puzzle of dinitrogen. When 14N was proposed to consist of 3 pairs each of protons and neutrons, with an additional unpaired neutron and proton each contributing a spin of 1⁄2 ħ in the same direction for a total spin of 1 ħ, the model became viable.[65][66][67] Soon, neutrons were used to naturally explain spin differences in many different nuclides in the same way.

The proton-rich isotopes with masses 260, 261, and 262 were directly produced by cold fusion, those with mass 262 and 264 were reported in the decay chains of meitnerium and roentgenium, while the neutron-rich isotopes with masses 265, 266, 267 were created in irradiations of actinide targets. The five most neutron-rich ones with masses 270, 271, 272, 274, and 278 (unconfirmed) appear in the decay chains of 282Nh, 287Mc, 288Mc, 294Ts, and 290Fl respectively. These eleven isotopes have half-lives ranging from about ten milliseconds for 262mBh to about one minute for 270Bh and 274Bh, extending to about twelve minutes for the unconfirmed 278Bh, one of the longest-lived known superheavy nuclides.[24]

Some organs concentrate certain elements and hence radionuclide variants of those elements. This action may lead to much lower removal rates. For instance, the thyroid gland takes up a large percentage of any iodine that enters the body. Large quantities of inhaled or ingested radioactive iodine may impair or destroy the thyroid, while other tissues are affected to a lesser extent. Radioactive iodine-131 is a common fission product; it was a major component of the radioactivity released from the Chernobyl disaster, leading to nine fatal cases of pediatric thyroid cancer and hypothyroidism. On the other hand, radioactive iodine is used in the diagnosis and treatment of many diseases of the thyroid precisely because of the thyroid's selective uptake of iodine.

There were still many unknown factors. The properties of pure uranium-235 were relatively unknown, as were those of plutonium, an element that had only been discovered in February 1941 by Glenn Seaborg and his team. The scientists at the Berkeley conference envisioned creating plutonium in nuclear reactors where uranium-238 atoms absorbed neutrons that had been emitted from fissioning uranium-235 atoms. At this point no reactor had been built, and only tiny quantities of plutonium were available from cyclotrons.[24] Even by December 1943, only two milligrams had been produced.[25] There were many ways of arranging the fissile material into a critical mass. The simplest was shooting a "cylindrical plug" into a sphere of "active material" with a "tamper"â€”dense material that would focus neutrons inward and keep the reacting mass together to increase its efficiency.[26] They also explored designs involving spheroids, a primitive form of "implosion" suggested by Richard C. Tolman, and the possibility of autocatalytic methods, which would increase the efficiency of the bomb as it exploded.[27]

In the process of heat transfer from core to photosphere, each gamma ray in the Sun's core is converted during scattering into several million visible light photons before escaping into space. Neutrinos are also released by the fusion reactions in the core, but unlike photons they very rarely interact with matter, so almost all are able to escape the Sun immediately. For many years measurements of the number of neutrinos produced in the Sun were much lower than theories predicted, a problem which was recently resolved through a better understanding of neutrino oscillation.

3H (atomic mass 7000301604928199000♠3.01604928199(23) u) is known as tritium and contains one proton and two neutrons in its nucleus. It is radioactive, decaying into helium-3 through β− decay with a half-life of 12.32 years.[4] Trace amounts of tritium occur naturally because of the interaction of cosmic rays with atmospheric gases. Tritium has also been released during nuclear weapons tests. It is used in thermonuclear fusion weapons, as a tracer in isotope geochemistry, and specialized in self-powered lighting devices.


Question: What is the storyline of Bendy and the Ink Machine?

Bendy and the Ink Machine is an episodic survival horror game created by TheMeatly Games. The story revolves around Henry, a retired animator who revisits the old studio, Joey Drew Studios, at the request of his former colleague and studio owner, Joey Drew. Henry uncovers the studio's dark secrets while being pursued by Bendy, a monstrous ink creature that mirrors the company's most famous character. The game's initial chapter, Moving Pictures, was launched for Linux, macOS, and Microsoft Windows through Game Jolt on February 10, 2017. Following its successful Steam Greenlight campaign on February 28, 2017, the first two chapters were made available on Steam on April 27, 2017. The third chapter, Rise and Fall, debuted on September 28, 2017, and the fourth chapter, Colossal Wonders, was released on April 28, 2018. A fifth and final chapter is currently in the works. Mike Mood, the programmer, refers to the game's popularity as an "unexpected triumph."

The Ren & Stimpy Show is an American animated series created by John Kricfalusi for Nickelodeon. The series follows the adventures of title characters Ren, an emotionally unstable chihuahua, and Stimpy, a good-natured, dimwitted cat. It premiered on August 11, 1991 as one of the original three Nicktoons, along with Rugrats and Doug. Throughout its run, the show was controversial for its off-color humor, sexual innuendo, dark humor, adult jokes, and violence. This controversy contributed to the production staff's altercations with Nickelodeon's Standards and Practices department. The show ended on December 16, 1995, with a total of five seasons and 52 episodes.

The episode was written by series consulting producer Gary Janetti as his second episode of the season,[2] and directed by series regular Dominic Bianchi, also in his second episode of the season.[3] In an interview with Forbes, series producer Kara Vallow revealed that the plot was inspired by an episode of the CBS sitcom All in the Family entitled "Archie in the Cellar," in which Archie Bunker is locked in a cellar, breaking from the show's usual storyline. Vallow and Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane were fans of All in the Family during its original airing and came up with the original concept for the episode.[4] Vallow went on to state that the episode "[is] like a one-act stage play in a way," because it "[doesn't] rely on our standard cutaways and gags."[4] In a first for the series, the only voice actor to perform in the episode was series creator and executive producer Seth MacFarlane, who portrays both characters.[5] In addition, neither composer Ron Jones nor composer Walter Murphy contributed any background music to the episode whatsoever.[6] The writer of the episode, Gary Janetti, wrote the episode based on a loose script written by MacFarlane, as well as various phone conversations about the structure of the storyline, and the various acts.[2]

Each chapter follows a storyline that continues throughout the series. Kelly voices the role of the song's protagonist, Sylvester, who wakes up after a one-night stand with a woman. As he prepares to leave, however, the woman's husband returns and Sylvester is forced to hide in a closet. This sets off an escalating series of events.

In Shanghai during the 1930s, Sing and his friend Bone attempt to join the Deadly Axe Gang, which ruthlessly controls the city under the leadership of Brother Sum. Sing seeks to restore his confidence after being humiliated as a young boy while trying to protect a mute girl from bullies, due to the failure of the Buddhist Palm method he had learned from a pamphlet he bought from a beggar. Sing and Bone attempt to intimidate the residents of Pig Sty Alley but are chased off by its Landlady. Hearing of this, Sum orders the capture of Sing and Bone, while sending the Gang to reassert its authority in the wake of the humiliation. Three of the tenants, Coolie, Tailor, and Donut, reveal themselves to be martial arts masters, defeating more than fifty of the Gang. Fearing retribution, the Landlady evicts the three, but they encounter a pair of hired assassins who fight using a magical guqin that launches invisible blades. Coolie is beheaded, and Tailor and Donut are mortally wounded before the Landlady and her husband the Landlord reveal that they too are martial arts masters, having gone into self-exile after the death of their son. The two defeat the assassins but Tailor and Donut die from their injuries. The Landlords temporarily evacuate the other tenants for their safety.

BuzzFeed Unsolved is the most successful web series on BuzzFeed's BuzzFeedBlue, created by Ryan Bergara. The show features Bergara and Shane Madej (who replaced original co-host Brent Bennett). The show covers some of history's most famous unsolved mysteries, presenting them and the theories that surround them in a comedic manner. In some episodes, they even visit the places involved with the mystery, often ghost hunting during Supernatural episodes.

Maggie is an eccentric American girl from Portland who wins a scholarship to the Fashion Academy of Milan, a prestigious fashion school, on her sixteenth birthday. Bianca is the stylish and chic daughter of a powerful Italian fashion mogul. The two girls meet and are thrown together as roommates at the Fashion Academy, but get off to a rocky start as they have very different personalities and conflicting points of view. However, as they clash over time, they come to understand one another. Together with three of their classmates, they form a band called the MoodBoards in order to pursue their musical dreams, while simultaneously continuing their study of fashion at the Academy. At the end of the first season Maggie and Bianca discover that they are half-sisters, with same father but different mothers.[3][4] In the second season, Maggie's mother, who is a songwriter, comes to the Academy to teach, while members of the MoodBoards' rival band, CoolGhost, attend the Academy as new students.

In the series' present, Marceline eventually comes into contact with Finn and Jake in the first season episode "Evicted!", when she forces them from their home.[20][36][37] In the episode "Henchman", Marceline tricks Finn into becoming her accomplice, but Finn soon discovers that she is not evil, but rather fond of mischief and pranks, and the two develop a friendship.[38][39] In the second season premiere "It Came From the Nightosphere", Abadeer is accidentally summoned to Ooo by Finn. While Abadeer ravages the land, Finn discovers that there is animosity between Marceline and her father. Finn manages to distract Abadeer by playing a recording of Marceline's "Fry Song", which leads to a brief moment of reconciliation between the two before Finn sends him back to the Nightosphere.[25][26] In the third season episode "Memory of a Memory", Ash attempts to rekindle his former relationship with Marceline via trickery. Disguised as Marceline's "spirit animal", he tricks Finn and Jake into believing that Marceline has fallen asleep due to a sleep spell that has been self-inflicted. Following Ash's advice, the two enter into Marceline's mind to retrieve the "memory core" in an attempt to wake her up. Along the way, they encounter various memories of her as a child in the aftermath of the Mushroom War. However, the duo soon learn that it was an elaborate trick by Ash; Finn and Jake actually removed Marceline's memory of their break-up. In the end, Finn is able to convince Marceline, and she promptly attacks her chauvinistic ex-boyfriend.[31][32] In "What Was Missing", past animosity between Marceline and Princess Bubblegum is explored when Finn, Jake, Princess Bubblegum, BMO, and Marceline form a band in order to defeat the Door Lord and recover what was stolen from them.[34]

Brian confronts Stewie when the news gets out and tries to convince him that Penelope is bad news, as while Stewie causes chaos as part of his grand ambition of world domination, she does it just for fun. As she plots to kill another teacher, Stewie confronts her, admitting that Brian suggested they take it easy. Angered, Penelope extracts a vow from Stewie to kill Brian. Although hesitant at first due to their friendship, when Brian starts to write Stewie starts but hesitates again after several misfires. After Stewie admits to Penelope that he could not do it, Penelope decides to do the job herself, leaving Stewie to stop her. After thwarting several attempts, Stewie tells Brian about the threat. Penelope arrives and Stewie does battle with her. As they fight, Stewie gets the upper hand on the top of a lorry and she agrees to leave Brian alone. Penelope kisses Stewie goodbye before causing Stewie to be left hanging from a lampost and riding off with a smile with a possibility that she may come back one day. Brian thanks Stewie for saving his life. Meg then comes out and Brian asks her what she has been doing. Before she can say so the credits start.

"Brian & Stewie" is the 17th episode of the eighth season of the American animated television series Family Guy, and 150th episode of the series overall. It originally aired on Fox in the United States on May 2, 2010. The episode features anthropomorphic dog Brian and baby Stewie after they are accidentally trapped inside a bank vault over a weekend. The two are ultimately forced to reveal their true feelings about each other, and eventually go on to question each other's existence and purpose in life. Brian and Stewie become even closer to each other as time goes on, and climactically help each other survive being trapped inside the vault. The bottle episode breaks from the show's usual set-up, and is the only episode of the series not to feature any music or use any cutaway gags with Brian and Stewie being the only two characters featured in the entire episode. In repeats of the episode there is no main title sequence, nor is any music played over the end credits.

The mysterious Raincoat Man has been stealing all the children's candy, and Pumpkins decides to intervene. They try to confront him in a haunted house, and it turns out to be three pre-teens who bully Kevin. Pumpkins returns the candy in magical floating pumpkins, and he and the skeletons leave.[2]


Question: When was zero initially utilized in mathematical operations?

The ancient Egyptians developed a base 10 numeral system that did not use positional notation. By around 1770 BC, they had introduced a symbol for zero in their accounting texts. This symbol, "nfr," which also meant "beautiful," was used to denote the base level in the design of tombs and pyramids. Distances were then measured relative to this base line, indicating whether they were above or below it.

Historically, promissory notes have acted as a form of privately issued currency. Flying cash or feiqian was a promissory note used during the Tang dynasty (618 – 907). Flying cash was regularly used by Chinese tea merchants, and could be exchanged for hard currency at provincial capitals.[10] The Chinese concept of promissory notes was introduced by Marco Polo to Europe.[11] According to tradition, in 1325 a promissory note was signed in Milan. However, according to a travelogue of a visit to Prague in 960 by Ibrahim ibn Yaqub, small pieces of cloth were used as a means of trade, with these cloths having a set exchange rate versus silver.[12] There is evidence of promissory notes being issued in 1384 between Genoa and Barcelona, although the letters themselves are lost. The same happens for the ones issued in Valencia in 1371 by Bernat de Codinachs for Manuel d'Entença, a merchant from Huesca (then part of the Crown of Aragon), amounting a total of 100 florins.[13] In all these cases, the promissory notes were used as a rudimentary system of paper money, for the amounts issued could not be easily transported in metal coins between the cities involved. Ginaldo Giovanni Battista Strozzi issued an early form of promissory note in Medina del Campo (Spain), against the city of Besançon in 1553.[14] However, there exists notice of promissory notes being in used in Mediterranean commerce well before that date.

During the 19th century, mathematicians started to formalize all the different branches of mathematics. One of the first to do so was Cauchy; his somewhat imprecise results were later made completely rigorous by Weierstrass, who advocated building calculus on arithmetic rather than on geometry, which favoured Euler's definition over Leibniz's (see arithmetization of analysis). According to Smithies, Cauchy thought of functions as being defined by equations involving real or complex numbers, and tacitly assumed they were continuous:

The similarity of the Roman abacus to the Chinese one suggests that one could have inspired the other, as there is some evidence of a trade relationship between the Roman Empire and China. However, no direct connection can be demonstrated, and the similarity of the abaci may be coincidental, both ultimately arising from counting with five fingers per hand. Where the Roman model (like most modern Korean and Japanese) has 4 plus 1 bead per decimal place, the standard suanpan has 5 plus 2. (Incidentally, this allows use with a hexadecimal numeral system, which was used for traditional Chinese measures of weight.) Instead of running on wires as in the Chinese, Korean, and Japanese models, the beads of Roman model run in grooves, presumably making arithmetic calculations much slower.

Sometimes C|Ɔ was reduced to ↀ for 1,000. John Wallis is often credited for introducing the symbol for infinity (modern ∞), and one conjecture is that he based it on this usage, since 1,000 was hyperbolically used to represent very large numbers. Similarly, |ƆƆ for 5,000 was reduced to ↁ; CC|ƆƆ for 10,000 to ↂ; |ƆƆƆ for 50,000 to ↇ; and CCC|ƆƆƆ for 100,000 to ↈ.[14]

In mathematics, a real number is a value of a continuous quantity that can represent a distance along a line. The adjective real in this context was introduced in the 17th century by René Descartes, who distinguished between real and imaginary roots of polynomials. The real numbers include all the rational numbers, such as the integer −5 and the fraction 4/3, and all the irrational numbers, such as √2 (1.41421356..., the square root of 2, an irrational algebraic number).  Included within the irrationals are the transcendental numbers, such as π (3.14159265...).   In addition to measuring distance, real numbers can be used to measure quantities such as time, mass, energy, velocity, and many more.

Chinese theory starts from numbers, the main musical numbers being twelve, five and eight. Twelve refers to the number of pitches on which the scales can be constructed. The Lüshi chunqiu from about 239 BCE recalls the legend of Ling Lun. On order of the Yellow Emperor, Ling Lun collected twelve bamboo lengths with thick and even nodes. Blowing on one of these like a pipe, he found its sound agreeable and named it huangzhong, the "Yellow Bell." He then heard phoenixes singing. The male and female phoenix each sang six tones. Ling Lun cut his bamboo pipes to match the pitches of the phoenixes, producing twelve pitch pipes in two sets: six from the male phoenix and six from the female: these were called the lülü or later the shierlü.[11]

A total of 558 weights were excavated from Mohenjodaro, Harappa, and Chanhu-daro, not including defective weights. They did not find statistically significant differences between weights that were excavated from five different layers, each measuring about 1.5Â m in depth. This was evidence that strong control existed for at least a 500-year period. The 13.7-g weight seems to be one of the units used in the Indus valley. The notation was based on the binary and decimal systems. 83% of the weights which were excavated from the above three cities were cubic, and 68% were made of chert.[3]

Although the astronomical armillary sphere (representing the celestial sphere) existed in China since the 1st century BCE, the mathematician and court astronomer Zhang Heng (78â€“139 CE) provided it with motive power by using the constant pressure head of an inflow water clock to rotate a waterwheel that acted on a set of gears.[67] Zhang Heng was also the first to address the problem of the falling pressure head in the inflow water clock (which gradually slowed the timekeeping) by setting up an additional tank between the reservoir and inflow vessel.[68]

The simplest form of quality control was a sketch of the desired item. If the sketch did not match the item, it was rejected, in a simple Go/no go procedure. However, manufacturers soon found it was difficult and costly to make parts be exactly like their depiction; hence around 1840 tolerance limits were introduced, wherein a design would function if its parts were measured to be within the limits. Quality was thus precisely defined using devices such as plug gauges and ring gauges. However, this did not address the problem of defective items; recycling or disposing of the waste adds to the cost of production, as does trying to reduce the defect rate. Various methods have been proposed to prioritize quality control issues and determine whether to leave them unaddressed or use quality assurance techniques to improve and stabilize production.[6]

In pharmacy, Roman numerals are used in some contexts, including S to denote "one half" and N to mean "nothing".[25] (See the sections below on "zero" and "fractions".)


Question: When was zero initially used in mathematical operations?

The concept of using zero in mathematical operations was first introduced in Brahmagupta's Brahmasputha Siddhanta during the 7th century. This text not only recognized zero but also negative numbers, providing algebraic rules for basic arithmetic operations involving these numbers. However, some of Brahmagupta's rules, such as defining the division of zero by zero as zero, diverge from contemporary mathematical standards.

The early days of digital computing were marked by a lot of competing ideas about both hardware technology and mathematics technology (numbering systems). One of the great debates was the format of negative numbers, with some of the era's most expert people having very strong and different opinions.[citation needed] One camp supported two's complement, the system that is dominant today. Another camp supported ones' complement, where any positive value is made into its negative equivalent by inverting all of the bits in a word. A third group supported "sign & magnitude" (sign-magnitude), where a value is changed from positive to negative simply by toggling the word's sign (high-order) bit.

The Yale Babylonian Collection YBC 7289 clay tablet was created between 1800 BC and 1600 C, showing √2 and √2/2 = 1/√2 as 1;24,51,10 and 0;42,25,35 base 60 numbers on a square crossed by two diagonals.[3]

Music theorists sometimes use mathematics to understand music, and although music has no axiomatic foundation in modern mathematics, mathematics is "the basis of sound" and sound itself "in its musical aspects... exhibits a remarkable array of number properties", simply because nature itself "is amazingly mathematical".[93] The attempt to structure and communicate new ways of composing and hearing music has led to musical applications of set theory, abstract algebra and number theory. Some composers have incorporated the golden ratio and Fibonacci numbers into their work.[94][95] There is a long history of examining the relationships between music and mathematics. Though ancient Chinese, Egyptians and Mesopotamians are known to have studied the mathematical principles of sound,[96] the Pythagoreans (in particular Philolaus and Archytas)[97] of ancient Greece were the first researchers known to have investigated the expression of musical scales in terms of numerical ratios.

Another system is the vinculum, where a conventional Roman numeral is multiplied by 1,000 by adding an overline.[14] Although mathematical historian David Eugene Smith disputes that this was part of ancient Roman usage,[35] the notation was certainly in use in the Middle Ages, and is at least a convenient and "conventional" way to express numbers greater than 3,999 in Roman numerals.

There are various systems of numeration found in various ancient Vedic literatures of India. The following table gives one such system used in the Tamil ancient numbering system.

The Babylonians might have been familiar with the general rules for measuring the areas. They measured the circumference of a circle as three times the diameter and the area as one-twelfth the square of the circumference, which would be correct if π were estimated as 3. The volume of a cylinder was taken as the product of the base and the height, however, the volume of the frustum of a cone or a square pyramid was incorrectly taken as the product of the height and half the sum of the bases. Also, there was a recent discovery in which a tablet used π as 3 and 1/8. The Babylonians are also known for the Babylonian mile, which was a measure of distance equal to about 11 kilometres (7 mi) today. This measurement for distances eventually was converted to a time-mile used for measuring the travel of the Sun, therefore, representing time. (Eves, Chapter 2) The Babylonians used also space time graphs to calculate the velocity of Jupiter. This is an idea that is considered highly modern, traced to the 14th century England and France and anticipating integral calculus.[41]

Although Roman numerals came to be written with letters of the Roman alphabet, they were originally independent symbols. The Etruscans, for example, used

In the 16th century, Simon Stevin created the basis for modern decimal notation, and insisted that there is no difference between rational and irrational numbers in this regard.

The earliest known written documentation of the Chinese abacus dates to the 2nd century BC.[21]

In his 1881 Symbolic Logic Venn was using the words "logical function" and the contemporary symbolism ( x = f(y), y = f−1(x), cf page xxi) plus the circle-diagrams historically associated with Venn to describe "class relations",[41] the notions "'quantifying' our predicate", "propositions in respect of their extension", "the relation of inclusion and exclusion of two classes to one another", and "propositional function" (all on p. 10), the bar over a variable to indicate not-x (page 43), etc. Indeed he equated unequivocally the notion of "logical function" with "class" [modern "set"]: "... on the view adopted in this book, f(x) never stands for anything but a logical class. It may be a compound class aggregated of many simple classes; it may be a class indicated by certain inverse logical operations, it may be composed of two groups of classes equal to one another, or what is the same thing, their difference declared equal to zero, that is, a logical equation. But however composed or derived, f(x) with us will never be anything else than a general expression for such logical classes of things as may fairly find a place in ordinary Logic".[42]


Question: What was one justification that South Carolina provided for its choice to secede from the Union?

A South Carolinian politician, Alfred P. Aldrich, argued that secession was essential if a Republican candidate won the 1860 presidential election. He believed this was crucial for the state to protect the institution of slavery and weaken the anti-slavery Republican Party, whose abolitionist goals posed a significant threat to the Southern way of life.

The Compromise of 1850, devised by Clay and Stephen A. Douglas, a first-term Democratic senator from Illinois, was designed to solve the controversy over the status of slavery in the vast new territories acquired from Mexico. Many pro-slavery Southerners opposed it, and Calhoun helped organize preparations for the Nashville Convention, which would meet that summer to discuss the possibility of Southern secession. The nearly 68-year old Calhoun had suffered periodic bouts of tuberculosis throughout his life. In March 1850, the disease reached a critical stage. Weeks from death and too feeble to speak, Calhoun wrote a blistering attack on the compromise that would become likely his most famous speech. On March 4, a friend, Senator James Mason of Virginia, read the remarks.[105][106] Calhoun affirmed the right of the South to leave the Union in response to Northern subjugation. He warned that the day "the balance between the two sections" was destroyed would be a day not far removed from disunion, anarchy, and civil war. Calhoun queried how the Union might be preserved in light of subjugation by the "stronger" party against the "weaker" one. He maintained that the responsibility of solving the question lay entirely on the North—as the stronger section, to allow the Southern minority an equal share in governance and to cease the agitation. He added:

On March 2, 1861, the United States Senate adopted it, with no changes, on a vote of 24 to 12.[13] Since proposed constitutional amendments require a two-thirds majority, 132 votes were required in the House and 24 in the Senate. The Senators and Representatives from the seven slave states that had already declared their secession from the Union did not vote on the Corwin Amendment.[14] The resolution called for the amendment to be submitted to the state legislatures and to be adopted "when ratified by three-fourths of said Legislatures."[15] Its supporters believed that the Corwin Amendment had a greater chance of success in the legislatures of the Southern states than would have been the case in state ratifying conventions, since state conventions were being conducted throughout the South at which votes to secede from the Union were successfulâ€”just as Congress was considering the Corwin Amendment.

In December 1860, amid the secession crisis, president-elect Abraham Lincoln wrote a letter to Alexander Stephens, in which he summarized the cause of the crisis:

Regional conflict was most pronounced over the issue of slavery. One example of a provision repeatedly supported by the House but blocked by the Senate was the Wilmot Proviso, which sought to ban slavery in the land gained during the Mexican–American War. Conflict over slavery and other issues persisted until the Civil War (1861–1865), which began soon after several southern states attempted to secede from the Union. The war culminated in the South's defeat and in the abolition of slavery. All southern senators except Andrew Johnson resigned their seats at the beginning of the war, and therefore the Senate did not hold the balance of power between North and South during the war.

In 1832, as Vice President under Jackson, Calhoun went public with these ideas, during the Nullification Crisis. This, plus the political fallout from the Petticoat affair ended friendly relations between Calhoun and Jackson. As a result, Calhoun was replaced as Jackson's running mate in the 1832 election by Martin Van Buren. Calhoun resigned the vice presidency in December 1832 to take a seat in the U.S. Senate, where he continued to speak in opposition to the 1828 tariff.

Stampp mentioned Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens' A Constitutional View of the Late War Between the States as an example of a Southern leader who said that slavery was the "cornerstone of the Confederacy" when the war began and then later switched course in saying that the war was not about slavery but states' rights after the Confederacy's defeat. Stampp said that Stephens became one of the most ardent defenders of the Lost Cause.[119]

States' rights was an issue in the 19th century for those who felt that the federal government was superseded by the authority of the individual states and was in violation of the role intended for it by the Founding Fathers of the United States. Kenneth M. Stampp notes that each section used states' rights arguments when convenient, and shifted positions when convenient.[106] For example, the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was enacted by southern representatives to use federal authority to suppress northern states' rights. The constitution gave federal protection to slave property rights, and slaveholders demanded that this federal power should be strengthened and take precedence over northern state laws. Anti-slavery forces in northern legislatures had resisted this constitutional right in the form of state personal liberty laws that placed state laws above the federal mandate.

On December 19, 1828, the report was presented to the South Carolina House of Representatives, which had five thousand copies of it printed and distributed. The presidential election had occurred, and John Quincy Adams had been defeated by Andrew Jackson. Calhoun, who still had designs on succeeding Jackson as president, was not identified as the author but word on this soon leaked out. The legislature took no action on the report at that time.[1]:163â€“164

A "Colored People's Convention" assembled at Zion Church in Charleston, South Carolina, to condemn the Codes. In a memorial (petition) to Congress, the Convention expressed gratitude for emancipation and establishment of the Freedmen's Bureau, but requested (in addition to suffrage) "that the strong arm of law and order be placed alike over the entire people of this State; that life and property be secured, and the laborer as free to sell his labor as the merchant his goods."[68][69]

Some Whites, meanwhile, thought the new laws did not go far enough. One planter suggested that the new laws would require paramilitary enforcement: "As for making the negroes work under the present state of affairs it seems to me a waste of time and energyÂ ... We must have mounted Infantry that the freedmen know distinctly that they succeed the Yankees to enforce whatever regulations we can make."[70] Edmund Rhett (son of Robert Rhett) wrote that although South Carolina might be unable to undo abolition,


Question: Summarize book 1 of Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard.

The Sword of Summer, a young adult fantasy novel by Rick Riordan, is the first book in the Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard trilogy. Centering on Norse mythology, the story follows 16-year-old Magnus Chase, a homeless demigod who learns of his divine parentage after his death. Magnus, the son of the Norse god Frey, is tasked with preventing the Fenris Wolf from breaking free and causing the end of the world.

Kvothe then travels to the city of Severen in order to aid the Maer Alveron in courting the only bride suitable for the Maers high station, and thwarts a plot to kill the Maer. During that time, he discovers Denna living in Severen and, after several weeks of her company, gets to know the song she is working on, the lyrics violating the very core of Kvothe's knowledge about the fall of Myr Tariniel. Not able to share his history Kvothe parts from Denna after an ugly fight. As a last task the Maer charges Kvothe with hunting a group of bandits waylaying taxmen. He is accompanied by a crew of three other mercenaries as they track and kill the bandits. Kvothe then follows the nymph-like Felurian, a being of the Fae, into her own realm, where he stays for an indeterminable time. During this time, Kvothe meets and speaks to the Cthaeh, a malicious, oracular being that reveals disturbing hints of his future.  Upon leaving, he learns that only three days have passed in the mortal world. On the return trip to Severen, the Adem mercenary Tempi is ordered to stand trial for teaching Kvothe the 'Ketan', a secretive form of martial arts; Kvothe accompanies Tempi to the country of Ademre, where he finishes his training in the Ketan and in the Lethani philosophy to justify Tempi in teaching him. Upon completing his training he is rewarded with an Adem legend regarding the names and signs of the "Rhinta"—known to Kvothe as the Chandrian—who he has been seeking revenge upon since he was a child.

Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters (also known as Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters) is a 2013 American fantasy adventure film directed by Thor Freudenthal. It is the second installment in the Percy Jackson film series and is loosely based on the novel The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan. It is a stand-alone sequel to the 2010 film Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief.

Pessimistic 10-year-old Richard Tyler lives life based on statistics and fears everything. His exasperated parents have tried multiple ways to build up the courage of their son, but to little success. Richard is sent to buy a bag of nails for building a treehouse. However, Richard gets caught in a harsh thunderstorm and takes shelter in a library. He meets Mr. Dewey, an eccentric librarian who insists he is in need of a special book and gives him a library card, despite Richard explaining he is only sheltering from the storm. Searching for a phone, Richard finds a large rotunda painted with many famous literary characters. He slips on water dripping from his coat and falls over, knocking himself out. Richard awakens to find the rotunda art melting, which washes over him and the library, turning them into illustrations.

The novel began with an introductory chapter about the graduation day from kindergarten of Maya, Lea's daughter. A program and a celebration were held. In the beginning, everything in Lea's life was going smoothly – her life in connection with her children, with friends of the opposite gender, and with her volunteer work for a human rights organization. But Lea's children were both growing-up – and Lea could see their gradual transformation. There were the changes in their ways and personalities:  Maya's curiosity was becoming more obvious every day, while Ojie was crossing the boundaries from boyhood to teenage to adulthood.[1][2][3][4][6]

Harry wakes up in the school's hospital wing with Dumbledore at his side. Dumbledore explains that the stone has been destroyed and that Ron and Hermione are both fine. Dumbledore also reveals how Harry was able to defeat Quirrel; when Harry's mother died to save him, her death gave Harry a love-based protection against Voldemort. Harry, Ron, and Hermione are rewarded with house points for their heroic performances, tying them for first place with Slytherin. However, Neville Longbottom is awarded 10 points for attempting to stop his friends, giving Gryffindor enough points to win the House Cup. Harry returns home for the summer, happy to finally have a real home in Hogwarts.

For example, the book portrays the medieval people as being very gullible, as when Merlin makes a "veil of invisibility" which, according to him, will make the wearer imperceptible to his enemies, though friends can still see him. The knight Sir Sagramor wears it to fight Hank, who pretends that he cannot see Sagramor for effect to the audience.

Fablehaven (pronounced /ˌfeɪbəlˈheɪvən/) is The New York Times' best-selling children's literature fantasy series written by Brandon Mull.[1] The book series, which includes Fablehaven, Fablehaven: Rise of the Evening Star, Fablehaven: Grip of the Shadow Plague, Fablehaven: Secrets of the Dragon Sanctuary, and Fablehaven: Keys to the Demon Prison, is published by Shadow Mountain in hardcover and Simon & Schuster in paperback.

The chapters of the book are: "Introduction", "You Are Not Your Mind", "Consciousness: The Way Out of Pain", "Moving Deeply into the Now", "Mind Strategies for Avoiding the Now", "The State of Presence", "The Inner Body", "Portals into the Unmanifested", "Enlightened Relationships", "Beyond Happiness and Unhappiness There Is Peace" and "The Meaning of Surrender".[10] Various chapters emphasize a philosophy of destroying the destructive dominance of the mind and ego in an effort to overcome the pain body.[7] According to the author, his philosophy is directed towards people and their search for personal happiness and also has the potential to give insight into historical disasters like the justification of an evil political system such as Communism.[7]

Few reviewers, including Meann Ortiz of GMA Network, criticized the multiple perspective format of the novel. Ortiz felt the different perspectives were tiresome and noted that the plot was very similar to that of previous books, saying it was a "testament to Riordanâ€™s skills that the books never end up being too boring and predictable." He also noted "girlfriend" and "boyfriend" were "bandied around more times than necessary to establish who is with whom". However, he found it interesting to watch the characters grow up in another installment of the series and praised the cliffhanger ending.[13] A reviewer from The Guardian was less troubled, calling this "the best in the series so far" and praising its "funny bits", but concurred with Ortiz on the perspective format, which they felt was lopsided in favor of Annabeth, Percy and Jason.[14] In contrast, Benjamin Boche of KidsReads enjoyed having multiple narrators, writing, "Each one brings a breath of fresh air to whatever is happening and their unique perspectives keep things interesting." He adds, "There are many characters to juggle, but everyone has an important role and all their actions and storylines fit together seamlessly."[15]

The first book of the series, Into the Wild, was generally well-received, with reviewers calling it a "spine-tingling,"[83] "thoroughly engrossing"[84] and "exciting... action-packed adventure."[85] One reviewer praised the authors for "creating an intriguing world... and an engaging young hero",[86] but another criticised the characters and imagined world as being "neither... consistent nor compelling."[87]