text:
Emergency Medicine/Dysbarism

= The “Dirty Bomb” = = Topics Covered = = Radiation = = Basics of Radiation- Irradiation = = Basics of Radiation- Contamination = = Basics of Radiation = = 4 types of ionizing radiation = = Biological Effects of Radiation = = Biological Effects of Radiation = = Radiation Physics for Dummies = = Radiation Physics for Dummies = = Radiation Physics for Dummies = = Biological Effects of Radiation =
 * Radiation Background ==
 * “Dirty Bomb” ==
 * Radioactive Waste / Nuclear Reactors ==
 * Yucca Mountain ===
 * Irradiation is exposure to penetrating radiation ==
 * External irradiation does not make a person radioactive. ===
 * External irradiation can damage tissue through direct or indirect means (generation of free radicals and H2O2 from ionization of water) ===
 * Contamination occurs when material that contains radioactive atoms is deposited on skin, clothing, body cavities, wounds. May also damage tissue, but much more slowly than direct irradiation. ==
 * Person contaminated with radioactive materials will be irradiated until the source of radiation (the radioactive material) is removed ==
 * Ionizing radiation is produced by unstable atoms (isotopes) which have an excess of energy or mass. ==
 * Atoms give off, or emit, the excess energy or mass as radiation which collide with adjacent molecules and ionize (knock off electrons) ==
 * electromagnetic ( gamma or x-rays) ===
 * particulate (i.e., mass given off with the energy of motion - beta and alpha radiation). ===
 * Alpha- little penetration, easily stopped by skin and clothes, dangerous if ingested or inhaled. 20x more damaging than equivalent dose of beta or gamma. ==
 * Beta- light penetration, may cause red “burn” on skin. ==
 * Gamma- deep penetration, like x-rays. ==
 * Neutrons- particles that also penetrate deeply and cause extensive damage. Seen only in nuclear bombs. ==
 * All types of radiation cause damage to DNA of cells. Most vulnerable tissues are heme, GI and reproductive systems. ==
 * Stochastic- effects that are also seen in unexposed individuals, but are increased in frequency with radiation exposure (trigger effect). Not all individuals exposed will get effect. Severity is independent of dose. ==
 * Examples include cancer, mental retardation in exposed fetus, genetic damage. ===
 * Non-stochastic effects- threshold dose, predictable causal relationship with dose related severity in all individuals exposed. ==
 * Sterility, skin burns, cataracts, hemopoietic damage, GI and CNS damage. ===
 * Absorbed dose = energy/mass=joule/kg ==
 * 1 Roentgen=1 rad ==
 * 100 rad= 1Grey(Gy). ==
 * Dose equivalent=energy/mass x (strength of type of radiation). Alpha is 20x. ==
 * 1 rad of gamma is 1 rem ==
 * BUT ==
 * 1 rad of alpha is 20 rem ==
 * 100 rem = 1 Seivert (Sv) ==
 * Natural radioactivity - 40 mrem/year. ==
 * Air travel NYC-London- 4 mrem ==
 * CXR- 10 mrem ==
 * National Council of Radiation Protection ==
 * 5 rem/yr (50 mSv) =annual exposure limit of radiation workers ===
 * 0.5 rem (500 mrem or 5 mSv) = max annual exposure to layperson = 50 CXR. ===
 * 50 rem is max single dose recommended for a first responder acting in a life saving situation ==
 * No risk of Acute Radiation Sickness ===
 * 1-4% estimated increase in Ca risk. ===
 * In this case, rem = rad, since workers in this situation will be wearing PPE, so gamma is only radiation that will penetrate. ==
 * Sterility- 30 rads in men, 300 rads in women. More exposure leads to longer effect. Usually temporary ==
 * 100 rads = N/V ==
 * 200 rads = Cataracts, Hemopoietic syndrome ==
 * 300 = skin erythema ==
 * 400 rads = usually fatal ARS due to heme depression. ==
 * 1,000 rads = GI syndrome → FATAL. ==
 * 2,000 rads = CNS syndrome → FATAL ==

= “Dirty Bomb” FAQ = = What is a “Dirty Bomb”? = = How does a Dirty Bomb do harm? = = Only nuclear experts can make one, right? = = So why aren’t we all dead? = = Why else aren’t we all dead? = = So do we have to worry? = = Acme Radioactive Materials, on sale for 3 payments of $9.99? = = Dirty Bomb- Summary = = Yucca Mountain = = Location = = What is Yucca Mountain? = = Currently = = Why Yucca Mtn? = = How do we get the stuff to Yucca? = = Transportation of Nuclear Waste = = Scenario = = LUDLUM M-3 SURVEY METER = = Decontamination = = Decontamination = = Treatment = = Treatment- internal decontamination = = Treatment = = Treatment = = Treatment = = Great websites = = Questions? = = Acute radiation sickness = = In absence of injury =
 * A conventional explosive packaged with radioactive material that scatters when the bomb goes off. ==
 * Could be a small device, or as big as a truck bomb ==
 * Initial blast of the conventional explosive ==
 * Airborne radiation and contamination ==
 * Nope, requires not much more expertise than it takes to make a conventional bomb ==
 * The hard part is acquiring the radioactive material, not building the bomb. ==
 * There are reports that suggest organizations, such as Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda, probably have radioactive contaminants such as strontium 90 and cesium 137, which could be used to make a dirty bomb, and have succeeded in manufacturing a small dirty bomb ==
 * A dirty bomb is not a nuclear weapon ==
 * (nuclear weapons involve a complex nuclear-fission reaction and are thousands of times more devastating) ==
 * Yes, dirty bombs are WMD’s but… ==
 * More for their capacity to cause terror and disruption than inflicting heavy casualties. ==
 * Panic over radioactivity ===
 * Evacuation measures ===
 * Area struck would be off-limits for at least several months—possibly years—for cleanup efforts ===
 * Radioactive materials for military, industrial, or medical applications: e.g. weapons-grade plutonium or uranium, freshly spent nuclear fuel ==
 * the most deadly ===
 * the most difficult to obtain ===
 * Medical supplies such as radium or certain cesium isotopes used in cancer treatments could be used ===
 * less dangerous
 * A measuring cup’s worth of radioactive material would be needed, but such small amounts would be unlikely to cause severe harm, especially if over a wide area.
 * Explosion and trauma, moderate dispersal of radioactive debris, imbedded fragments, very little irradiation ==
 * http://www.ocrwm.doe.gov ==
 * Nye County, Nevada, ~100 miles NW of Las Vegas ==
 * Remote desert on federally protected land ==
 * Within secure boundaries of the Nevada Test Site. ==
 * A site slated by the federal gov’t to store all nuclear waste from power plants, weapons program, etc. ==
 * Remote ==
 * Dry climate ==
 * Stable geology ==
 * Deep water table ==
 * Closed water basin ==
 * Nat’l experience to date ==
 * 2,700 shipments ===
 * 1.6 million miles ===
 * 30 years; ===
 * → No harmful release of radiation ===
 * Similar to Europe’s safety record- travel shorter distances, but more densely populated ==
 * Highly regulated ==
 * DOT and NRC regulations ==
 * Containers ===
 * Advance route approvals ===
 * Each state’s governor can specify
 * Local trained emergency response teams (34 states)
 * Escorts ===
 * 24-hr satellite surveillance ===
 * A shipment to Yucca Mountain goes flying off an elevate section of the FDR ==
 * FDNY calls to confirm this and informs you that you will be getting 5 victims. ==
 * Soon after this 6 ambulatory patients with minor injuries show up. EMS soon brings 2 critically injured patients and 5 patients with compound fractures. ==
 * What is the most important next step in addition to mobilizing the mass casualties’ disaster plan? ==
 * In any explosion consider a “dirty bomb”. ==
 * So, radiation detection device required ===
 * Screen background radiation. If > 2x → contaminated. ==
 * For gross screening, may be able to use the radiation detection monitor used to monitor radioactive waste from the hospital. ==
 * PPE with an N95 respirator, coveralls/gloves, and eye shields should be worn by personnel treating patients ==
 * PAPR’s and full Decon suits are overkill, unless suspect simultaneous chemical contamination! ==
 * If life saving treatment is done without PPE (personal protective equipment), providers will need to be screened, change clothes and shower as well. ==
 * Personal electronic dosimeters should be worn as soon as available ==
 * The detection device confirms that all these patients are contaminated. DOE sends out word that Cesium 137 has been confirmed as the radioactive agent. No other toxic substances are identified. ==
 * What are the next steps? ==
 * Tendency is to run away from these victims out of fear of suffering harm to oneself. Wrong and unethical. ==
 * Treatment of the LIFE-THREATENING traumatic injuries should take place ASAP, even before decon is done. ==
 * Should don quick respiratory, eye and contact protection as in routine trauma. ==
 * IT IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR A LIVING PATIENT TO BE SO CONTAMINATED AS TO POSE AN IMMEDIATE HEALTH THREAT TO MEDICAL PROVIDERS. ==
 * This is in direct contrast to chemical contamination situations, where there is indeed an immediate hazard to health care providers. ==
 * That being said, non-life-threatening injuries will allow time for screening for radioactivity to take place. Remember, radioactive particles are PARTICLES, and can be washed and stopped by PPE (thin Tyvek suits with hoods, gloves, and respiratory face protection and eye shields). ==
 * If mixed chemical/radiologic incident is suspected, then treat as a chemical incident with greater PPE consideration. ==
 * All victims must be screened for radiation. Those that test positive will need to be decontaminated. ==
 * In the meantime, you will need to treat the most severely injured. ==
 * All victims need nasal swabs to assess degree of exposure prior to showering. Best if done <1 hour after exposure. ==
 * Treat the immediate victims first, then shower them (on gurneys). ==
 * All others can be showered, screened, and then treated. ==
 * Due to inhalation or ingestion, some victims may not be totally decontaminated. Admitted to special isolation rooms as determined by hospital administration and Radiation Safety Officer. ==
 * Radiation may not be detected externally even if ingestion has occurred (hence the nasal swabs, and save body secretions is important) ==
 * All victims should have nasal swabs done to assess degree of exposure.
 * Urine, feces, vomitus should be collected as well, with names and times labeled.
 * Assess samples for radioactivity.
 * Internal decontamination may be necessary
 * Potassium iodide- to protect thyroid if I 131 is suspected ==
 * gastric lavage within 1-2 hrs. until fluid is, 2x background radiation. ==
 * Antacids (AlOH, MgCO3) reduce GI uptake ==
 * Dulcolex or fleet’s phosphosoda cathartic enemas. ==
 * Vomiting- use 5-HT3 blockers (Zofran, Anzemet) ==
 * Draw blood for CBC, ALC, HLA, and Chromosome analysis in consultation with hematology. ==
 * CBC with an absolute lymphocyte count should be done. A drop of 50% in 24–48 hours has prognostic significance. ==
 * Consider anti viral and antibacterial prophylaxis in consultation with ID. ==
 * Isolation if pancytopenia is a risk. ==
 * Prostaglandin (misoprostol) analogues in consultation with GI may prevent GI bleed. ==
 * Colony stimulating factor may help those at risk for pancytopenia. ==
 * DTPA-chelates plutonium and other transuranic elements ==
 * Prussian blue- chelates thallium and cesium ==
 * Consult Nuclear Medicine as well for general management. ==
 * Amifostine- free radical scavenger, protective of cell membranes and DNA. ==
 * Clinically used to offset mucositis of RT. ==
 * Side effects- n/v, hypotension. ==
 * Protective pre exposure, may be valuable for first responders (and us!). ==
 * Post exposure not shown to help ==
 * www.orau.gov ==
 * www.CDC.gov ==
 * www.gnyha.org ==
 * ARS results from direct exposure to radiation from either particles or beams. ==
 * Initially N/V ==
 * More severe exposure → diarrhea, shock, and AMS ==
 * Advanced symptomatic state from radiation exposure alone → unlikely to survive. But, can be difficult to distinguish from trauma related symptoms if an explosion has occurred. ==
 * Acute Radiation Sickness – 4 phases: ==
 * Prodromal phase-nausea /vomiting or no symptoms. ===
 * Latent phase –recovery ===
 * Manifest Illness phase- heme (anemia, infection), GI sloughing, bleeding and fluid loss. ===
 * Recovery or death. ===

title: Emergency Medicine/Dysbarism


text:
User:GatesPlusPlus~enwikibooks

I am unable to make this redirect to a sister project so I will provide a link to my user page ar Wikipedia.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: User:GatesPlusPlus~enwikibooks


text:
Cookbook:Wild Rice

Despite the name, wild rice is not rice. It is a seed native to the Great Lakes region of North America. Compared to other grains, wild rice is highly nutritious. The seeds are purple-tinted black, 1/3 to 1/2 inch long, and about 1/16 to 1/8 inch in diameter.

title: Cookbook:Wild Rice


text:
User talk:PurplePieman

Bonito Tuna

 * http://www.atuna.com/species/species/datasheet%20bonito.htm
 * http://www.hormel.com/kitchen/glossary.asp?id=33064&catitemid=
 * http://www.spanishtable.com/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=TST&Product_Code=3130-10289&Category_Code=10497
 * http://www.basquemarket.com/newcat_i814605.html?catId=33532
 * http://www.outdoorcharts.com/saltwater.htm

Copyright
The cookbook is not a place for you to violate copyright. Hire a lawyer if you need legal advice, but anyway: In the USA, you can get by with fully rewriting the procedure in your own words. The actions of the procedure and the ingredient list can only be subject to patent, not copyright. Patented recepes are extremely rare. Note that Europe is in general stricter about this; merely rewriting the procedure might not do the job. AlbertCahalan 05:56, 2 May 2005 (UTC)
 * Ha. Thanks for the advice! I was not aware of the "procedural rewrite" way of getting around copyright. That is what I had suspected, but was unsure. I prefer to create a recipe from a variety of sources, though, just as I would any other article. I'm not sure what recipe you're talking about, but you must be wrong. The only recipe I've copied directly from a source was from The Grand Union Cookbook, which is over 100 years old, and thus (I assume) falls safely into public domain. Any other recipes were my own creation. PurplePieman 18:42, 2 May 2005 (UTC)

Pickle
Please show me an example of a recipe that:
 * 1) should link to Cookbook:Pickle instead of Cookbook:Pickling (explain why)
 * 2) means anything other than pickled cucumebers

Note that pickled peppers are best linked as I just did, because "pickled" is not a noun.

It's to your benefit that Cookbook:Pickle be primarily about pickled cucumbers, so that you can correctly interpret all the American recipes that specify "pickle".
 * Whew! Well, I tried to address all of the meanings of pickle, while making it crystal clear that if a recipe calls for a "pickle" just exactly which one it is. I melded the edits from you and Redlentil with some of my own stuff, along with a usage note for recipe writers. I hope everybody's happy with it. PurplePieman 07:51, 7 May 2005 (UTC)

bonito flakes
I couldn't find a perfect match for you to look at, though I have seen it in person. The bonito flakes I bought in San Francisco's "Japan Town" area were not as long and bacon-like as these, and the cedar bedding chips I've used were a bit more red. (the lighting might be the cause of the minor color difference though) Notice how both images have light and dark parts. Only the smell is really different. Here, see for yourself:

 * http://www.medaille.edu/vmacer/120_graphic_16bedding_cedar.jpg
 * http://www.gastronews.cz/pictures/poradna/2004-05-05_BONITO%20FLAKES.jpg

So, isn't it helpful to describe the bonito flakes as looking like cedar bedding material? Consider the person who has never seen it before, and who might want to search for it in a Japanese market. If they know to look for a bag full of what appears to be rodent bedding, they'll have no trouble.

BTW, mackeral flakes look like pine bedding.

AlbertCahalan 03:35, 12 May 2005 (UTC)
 * What. PurplePieman 15:56, 12 May 2005 (UTC)

capitalization
I noticed that you've taken a bunch of pages in "Title Case" and redirected them to normal "Wiki case". Since most of our pages are in title case already, I think it would be prudent to try to get consensus from other contributors before redirecting a ton of things to different cases. In Cookbook:Policy I noted this with respect to naming. There was also an argument/discussion between Albert and some other contributors about this in the past... I think there might be archives of this from Talk:Cookbook. Kellen T 01:47, 11 August 2005 (UTC)

Cannabis
You changed Cookbook:Cannabis to say that marijuana was physically addictive, which is inaccurate. At best, addictiveness is highly disputed, and at "worst" it's not physically addictive. Kellen T 02:17, 18 September 2005 (UTC)
 * That wasn't me...I wrote that addiction was "a common myth", but I didn't try to present it as a fact. PurplePieman 20:47, 18 September 2005 (UTC)
 * Oh wow. I just totally misread (several times) that as "a common myth is that cannabis is not physically addictive". Sorry sorry sorry sorry. Kellen T 20:57, 18 September 2005 (UTC)

Thank you for fighting vandalism
Thanks for your help in fighting vandalism. One suggestion I have is that next time you use the "move" tab to move a page back to its original location. This will preserve the edit history of the vandalised page. Thanks again, hagindaz 01:24, 25 June 2006 (UTC)

 * Okay, I was wondering about that. Thanks! PurplePieman 01:59, 25 June 2006 (UTC)

What's up with the Japanese History Book?
Hiya, I was just wondering what's happening to the Japenese history book. I've noticed you've done quite a bit of work on it and I'm thinking of having a go at it. I'm really just wondering if anyone's still actively working on it or something. WietsE 12:02, 6 December 2006 (UTC)
 * I'm not actively working on it. At least, not now. I just put up all my notes from Japanese Culture & Civilization class. (That's why it's so scattered and spotty.) I may get back to it later, or not. So, please, just roll up your sleeves and dive in anywhere! PurplePieman 22:23, 12 December 2006 (UTC)
 * Cheers. I have actually just jumped into another book! If you're getting back into it and need some help at some point give me a shout though! WietsE 18:58, 13 December 2006 (UTC)

Wikibooks Newsletter, Volume 1
(Wikibooks gazette home | Discuss | Bulletin board | Subscription list)

This is a short newsletter that is being distributed to all active wikibookians. You are getting this message because you are recognized as an established contributor to the project. This newsletter will be distributed on a regular basis to help share news, information, and tips. It comes from a bot account, User:The Staff. User:The Staff is currently operated by a team of wikibooks admins, the complete list of which is available on the user page of the bot. If you would like to not receive this newletter anymore, please remove your name from the list at Active wikibookians.

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The Staff 04:17, 19 December 2006 (UTC)

Satanism
Hi - just looking at recent changes I see this one. As it stands it does not seem to be a "text book". What is your target audience for the book and how do you see it being used as a text book by folk. Thanks & regards -- Herby talk thyme 15:10, 21 January 2007 (UTC)
 * Correct. It is the beginning of a textbook. I saw it in the requests, and decided to give it a go. It would be used in a class on alternative religions. (For instance, two colleges in my area have a class called "Magic, Witchcraft, and Religion".) PurplePieman 15:18, 21 January 2007 (UTC)
 * Fair enough - I'll be interested to see how it progresses, regards -- Herby talk thyme 15:20, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

 * From what I found on googling it I have also removed the redlink to "Church of the SubGenius" - this doesn't look like Wikibooks material, thanks -- Herby talk thyme 15:15, 21 January 2007 (UTC)
 * On what grounds? I know it's considered a "joke religion", but that alone doesn't make it an invalid topic for study. I think this should be decided by numbers and influence; otherwise you have to A) argue about what constitutes a "real" religion, or B) let any nut with a cult make a wikibook about it. I would argue that if you look at Wikipedia's article, the church has been around for quite some time, and has accumulated a decent following. If not worthy of study as a religion, it is definitely worthy of study as a countercultural movement. PurplePieman 15:31, 21 January 2007 (UTC)
 * OK I bow to your views and knowledge, I'll put it back in and I won't do it I promise but it could make it to VfD . Never let it be said that I would listen even if I can be a grumpy bastard!!  Cheers -- Herby  talk thyme 15:41, 21 January 2007 (UTC)
 * Heh...I admit this can be a tricky subject. Once WikiBooks becomes popular enough, I'm sure there'll be all kinds of people trying to start a book on their faith-of-choice. But they run into the same problem that, say, the Multi-Level Marketing guys get on Wikipedia...the price of exposure is criticism. Some of this stuff's easy. "Flying Spaghetti Monsterism"?! Give me a break. Entertaining, yes. But not a WikiBook. PurplePieman 15:52, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

Astronomy
Thanks for your interest in Astronomy. It's great to see someone really contributing.

If you're interested in working more on the project, I'm happy to send you some old textbooks to use as reference. (Do remember the copyright policy, though.) Also, if there's anything else I can do to be of help, let me know.

Thanks again, and hope to see more of you. Brian Brondel 20:46, 21 January 2007 (UTC)
 * Cool! Well, I've got a bunch of notes and a workbook to go through, still...Once I get through all those, I may be burnt out on the subject. I'll let you know if I'm still interested at that point. Thanks for the offer! PurplePieman 23:16, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

Cookbook:Khagina
G'day, I just found out via a quick Google that this recipe is very likely a copyright violation. Please don't change any text on this page until this is sorted out (you and I have both been at it, we even had an edit conflict!) Webaware talk 12:40, 5 February 2007 (UTC)
 * Oops! Man, I hate copyvios. PurplePieman 12:51, 5 February 2007 (UTC)
 * Yeah, sucks, and I just found another one also Transwikied: Transwiki:Cookbook:Khichri, so watch out! Webaware talk 12:58, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

US Pop Culture
Hi - while I'm sure it could be one I don't see this as a "textbook" at present. I'll be interested to see how it becomes one -- Herby talk thyme 10:31, 4 March 2007 (UTC)

Economics books
Hey, I saw you are fairly active with the advertising book, and I was wondering if there are any other editors semi-active with other economics books. Smmurphy 17:44, 5 June 2007 (UTC)
 * I really have no idea. I started the Advertising book because I had a bunch of notes from a class I had taken. I have no idea about the other books. My classes were in Communications, so I've studied copywriting and advertising. I don't know much about economics. PurplePieman 20:13, 6 June 2007 (UTC)

Avoid generic names for book project
For instance Kexi could be better label as "Database management with Kexi" (or something that better describes the scope of the book project). --Panic (discuss • contribs) 22:03, 24 April 2012 (UTC)
 * Thanks! I wondered about that, but wasn't sure about naming conventions (e.g. the GIMP book is just called "GIMP"). I've changed it to your suggestion, so it'll be more obvious what the book's about. ---PurplePieman (discuss • contribs) 22:39, 24 April 2012 (UTC)

Sign
About 8 years ago you edited the book "Using Ubuntu Linux" but still has not signed on its credits page. I request you to sign there. ഏത്തപഴം (discuss • contribs) 06:52, 9 May 2016 (UTC)

title: User talk:PurplePieman


text:
Calculus/Precalculus/Exercises

Which one of the following is a true statement?
Hint: the true statement is often referred to as the triangle inequality. Give examples where the other two are false.

Functions
52. Let $$f(x)=x^2$$.

53. Let $$f(x)=x+2$$, $$g(x)=1/x$$.
 * a. Give formulae for

55. Consider the following function
 * $$f(x)=\begin{cases}-\frac{1}{9} & \mbox{if }x<-1 \\2 & \mbox{if }-1\le x\le 0 \\x+3 & \mbox{if }x>0 \end{cases}$$

56. Consider the following function
 * $$f(x)=\begin{cases}x^2 & \mbox{if }x>0 \\-1 & \mbox{if }x\le 0 \end{cases}$$

57. Consider the following function
 * $$f(x)=\frac{\sqrt{2x-3}}{x-10}$$

58. Consider the following function
 * $$f(x)=\frac{x-7}{x^2-49}$$

title: Calculus/Precalculus/Exercises


text:
Calculus/Precalculus/Solutions

Functions
52. Let $$f(x)=x^2$$.

53. Let $$f(x)=x+2$$, $$g(x)=1/x$$.
 * a. Give formulae for

55. Consider the following function
 * $$f(x) = \begin{cases} -\frac{1}{9} & \mbox{if } x<-1 \\ 2 & \mbox{if } -1\leq x \leq 0 \\ x + 3 & \mbox{if } x>0. \end{cases} $$

56. Consider the following function
 * $$f(x) = \begin{cases} x^2 & \mbox{if } x>0 \\ -1 & \mbox{if } x\leq 0. \end{cases} $$

57. Consider the following function
 * $$f(x) = \frac{\sqrt{2x-3}}{x-10} $$

58. Consider the following function
 * $$f(x) = \frac{x-7}{x^2-49} $$

title: Calculus/Precalculus/Solutions


text:
Introduction to Sociology/Groups

Introduction
In sociology, a group is usually defined as a number of people who identify and interact with one another. This is a very broad definition, as it includes groups of all sizes, from dyads to whole societies. While an aggregate comprises merely a number of individuals, a group in sociology exhibits cohesiveness to a larger degree. Aspects that members in the group may share include: interests, values, ethnic/linguistic background, roles and kinship. One way of determining if a collection of people can be considered a group is if individuals who belong to that collection use the self-referent pronoun "we;" using "we" to refer to a collection of people often implies that the collection thinks of itself as a group. Examples of groups include: families, companies, circles of friends, clubs, local chapters of fraternities and sororities, and local religious congregations.

Collections of people that do not use the self-referent pronoun "we" but share certain characteristics (e.g., roles, social functions, etc.) are different from groups in that they usually do not regularly interact with each other nor share similar interests or values. Such collections are referred to as categories of people rather than groups; examples include: police, soldiers, millionaires, women, etc.

Individuals form groups for a variety of reasons. There are some rather obvious ones, like reproduction, protection, trade, protest, and food production. But social categorization of people into groups and categories also facilitates behavior and action. An example may help explain this idea:

 * Suppose you are driving somewhere in a car when you notice red lights flashing in your rearview mirror. Because you have been socialized into society, you know that the red lights mean you should pull over, so you do. After waiting for a minute or two, an individual in a uniform walks toward your car door. You roll down your window and the individual asks you for your "license and registration."

Because groups and categories help facilitate social behavior, you know who this individual is: a member of a law enforcement category like the police or highway patrol. In all likelihood, you do not have to question this individual as to why they are driving a special car with lights on it, why they are wearing a uniform, why they are carrying a gun, or why they pulled you over (you may ask why they pulled you over, but doing so often increases the likelihood they'll give you a ticket). In short, because you recognize that the individual driving the car belongs to a specific social category (or group), you can enter this interaction with a body of knowledge that will help guide your behavior. You do not have to learn how to interact in that situation every single time you encounter it.

In fact, sociologists have long recognized the people experience much of social life by attempting to frame situations in terms they can understand. Specifically, people approach each situation by consciously or unconsciously asking "What is going on here," and seeking to coordinate their activities to the "definition of the situation" they decide upon. To accomplish this, people scan situations for information "given" (e.g., the things people do to signify who they are and what groups they belong to intentionally) and "given off" (e.g., the things people do that inadvertently signify who they are and the groups they belong to) by other people in the situation. Based on this information, people then act in ways they have been socialized to believe is appropriate for the situation. In the case above, for example, you (as the driver) would note the information given (e.g., the special car, the lights, and the uniform worn) to ascertain what was happening and who the other driver was, and then you could note the information given off (e.g., the apparent mood of the police officer based upon her or his body language, verbal language, and mannerisms) to predict (accurately or otherwise) what was about to happen to you. In so doing, you would be using the knowledge of groups at your disposal to manage the situation. Such interpretive work combined with social categorizations to smooth a wide variety of interactional and interpretive experiences.

Social Identity Theory
Social identity is a theory developed by Henri Tajfel and John Turner to understand the psychological basis of intergroup discrimination. As developed by Tajfel, Social Identity Theory is a diffuse but interrelated group of social psychological theories concerned with when and why individuals identify with, and behave as part of, social groups, adopting shared attitudes to outsiders. It is also concerned with what difference it makes when encounters between individuals are perceived as encounters between group members. Social Identity Theory is thus concerned both with the psychological and sociological aspects of group behavior. According to Tajfel and Turner, social identities are composed of three elements.

Categorization
We categorize objects in order to understand them, in a very similar way we categorize people (including ourselves) in order to understand the social environment. We use social categories like black, white, Australian, Christian, Muslim, student, and bus driver because they are useful. If we can assign people to a category then that tells us things about those people. Without an understanding of people's groups and categories, we would have a very difficult time functioning in society. Similarly, we find out things about ourselves by knowing what categories we belong to. We define appropriate behavior by reference to the norms of groups we belong to, but you can only do this if you can tell who belongs to your group.

Identification
We identify with groups that we perceive ourselves to belong to. Identification carries two meanings. Part of who we are is made up of our group memberships. That is, sometimes we think of ourselves as "us" vs. "them" or "we" vs. "they", and at other times we think of ourselves as "I" vs. "he or she" or "me" vs. "him or her". In other words, sometimes we think of ourselves as group members and at other times we think of ourselves as unique individuals. This varies situationally, so that we can be more or less a group member, depending upon the circumstances. What is crucial for our purposes is that thinking of yourself as a group member and thinking of yourself as a unique individual are both parts of your self-concept. The first is referred to as social identity, the latter is referred to as personal identity. In social identity theory, group membership is not something foreign which is tacked onto the person, it is a real, true and vital part of the person. Our groups make up part of who we are.

The other meaning implied by the concept of identity is the idea that we are, in some sense, the same, or identical to other people. This should not be misinterpreted, when we say that we are the same, we mean that for some purposes we treat members of our groups as being similar to ourselves in some relevant way. To take the most extreme example, in some violent conflict such as a war, the members of the opposite group - the outgroup - are treated as identical and completely different to the those people in your group - the ingroup - which is made up of distinct individuals. Thinking about individuals in one's outgroup in such a fashion allows the individual to believe that the enemy is deserving of death by dehumanizing them (more on this below). Treating people this way allows us to justify otherwise unjustifiable behavior.

Comparison
A positive self-concept is a part of normal psychological functioning. There is pretty good evidence that to deal effectively with the world we need to feel good about ourselves. The idea of social comparison is that in order to evaluate ourselves we compare ourselves with similar others. We often gain self-esteem by comparing ourselves with others in our group, particularly if we can claim membership in a prestigious group. The prestige of a group is also often created through comparisons that positively reflect on the group. In other words, people in groups choose to compare their groups with other groups in ways that reflect positively on themselves. In fact, people are motivated to see their own group as relatively better than similar (but inferior) groups (i.e., positive distinctiveness). Inversely, people in a group may minimize differences between their group and another, slightly more prestigious group so one's own group tends to be seen more favorably (i.e., negative distinctiveness).

Groups choose dimensions for comparison in order to maximize the positivity of their own group. Groups which perceive themselves to be of high status on particular dimensions will choose those as the basis of comparison. Groups of low status will minimize differences on those dimensions or choose new dimensions. For example, people from some Middle Eastern Islamic countries might regard their country as inferior to the West in terms of economic and technological advancement but might regard their way of life as being morally superior.

Intriguingly, the notion that inferior or "underdog" groups are hyper-motivated to succeed against superior groups turns out not to be true, generally. Members of a group or team will actually work harder when they are competing against a lower ranked group than when they are competing against a higher-ranked group. This makes sense when framed as a status issue: the superior group has more to lose if it is defeated by an inferior team while the inferior team, if it loses, has not lost anything but rather has affirmed the existing social order. Thus, members of higher status groups work harder when competing against lower status groups.

Primary and Secondary Groups

In sociology we distinguish between two types of groups based upon their characteristics. A Primary group is typically a small social group whose members share close, personal, enduring relationships. These groups are marked by concern for one another, shared activities and culture, and long periods of time spent together. The goal of primary groups is actually the relationships themselves rather than achieving some other purpose. Families and close friends are examples of primary groups

Secondary groups are large groups whose relationships are impersonal and goal-oriented. Some secondary groups may last for many years, though most are short term. Such groups also begin and end with very little significance in the lives of the people involved. People in a secondary group interact on a less personal level than in a primary group. Rather than having as the goal the maintenance and development of the relationships themselves, these groups generally come together to accomplish a specific purpose. Since secondary groups are established to perform functions, people’s roles are more interchangeable. Examples of secondary groups include: classmates in a college course, athletic teams, and co-workers.

The distinction between primary and secondary groups was originally proposed by Charles Horton Cooley. He labeled groups as "primary" because people often experience such groups early in their life and such groups play an important role in the development of personal identity. Secondary groups generally develop later in life and are much less likely to be influential on one's identity.

Group Dynamics
Building on the recognition of primary and secondary groups, sociologists often focus their studies on either group dynamics, group influence (see the next section) or a combination of these two areas of inquiry. In terms of group dynamics, sociologists have long explored the ways people act in groups as a method for bridging individual and societal level forms of meaning making and activity. Drawing heavily on insights from Symbolic Interaction and Structural Functionalist theories, researchers explore the ways that groups are shaped by and in turn shape societal notions of "normal" and "deviant" as well as societal patterns of inequality. At the same time, researchers explore the ways that groups are formed, negotiated, and adjusted by the actions of individual beings interacting with one another on a newfound and/or regular basis. In so doing, studies of group dynamics shed light upon some ways groups reflect, reinforce, and/or shift the ongoing reciprocal relationship between self and society.

Dramaturgy
Much research into group dynamics draws from the dramaturgical approach outlined by Erving Goffman, and refined by other Symbolic Interactionists throughout the latter part of the 20th Century. Utilizing the metaphor of the theatre, Goffman defined social life as an information game wherein people give (i.e., intentionally transmit information) and give off (i.e., accidentally transmit information) details about themselves through the emphasis they place upon the social groups to which they belong. Specifically, people spend much of their lives attempting to demonstrate and affirm their membership within groups that are well regarded while distancing themselves from groups that are stigmatized within society. In so doing, people learn a wide variety of "signifying practices" or ways of showing others who we are and what we do within group contexts, which demonstrate group membership. An average college student, for example, may decide to wear certain brands of clothing, display certain logos of sports teams, adorn oneself with specific types of jewelry, and/or speak in certain manners all to give the impression they are a certain type of person. At the same time, others will constantly "read" the presentations and impressions generated by this college student's signifying practices to guess what type of person they are. For example, if a students is perceived to be wearing a cross, one might think one is a Christian, or if a student is carrying a Coach bag, others may perceive one has some money). Drawing on such information, people can then sort themselves into various groups, which may then establish specific codes of conduct and dress for members.

Identity Work
Building upon Dramaturgical insights, sociologists developed the notion of "identity work," or the things people do (individually and collectively) to give meaning to themselves and others. Examining the ways people constructed personal, collective, group, and social identities, researchers taking an identity work approach have outlined four generic processes whereby people give meaning to themselves and others within group contexts. First, group members must define an identity into existence. For example, as a class we all might decide to call ourselves the dragon class. Second, group members must establish a set of codes or symbolic signals that allow people to tell others they are a member of a group. In our class example, we could say that members of the dragon class always wear pink on Tuesdays, calls things that are cool "fetch", and always skip whenever we leave the classroom while pumping our fists and laughing. While we would likely need to develop other codes as time went by to further demonstrate our group identity, these initial ideas would allow us to begin showing others we are members of a group. Third, group members must establish ritual occasions or opportunities to affirm our membership in the group. In our class example, we could pick meeting times outside of class to get together on Tuesdays when we're all wearing pink, and we could applaud, laugh, or pat others on the back whenever they use the word "fetch." In such cases, we could each demonstrate to other group members that they belong while also having opportunities to remind ourselves that we belong. Finally, group members must come up with ways to police the boundaries of our group. In our class example, we would make sure to stop people when they used any term other than "fetch" to say something was cool and question group members that did not skip out of class. Specifically, we would seek to make sure others within the group behaved in the already agreed upon ways in order to make sure the group norms held. Through the combination of all these processes, we would have created a group identity and a set of norms to demonstrate that identity to others.

A real life example may be illustrative here. Imagine that you have just joined a new religion and you are learning what it means to be a member of that group. To do this, first you will go to other members of that religion to learn what the religion means, what its people believe, what items they consider important, and what actions are allowed for members - all of these would be identity codes. After you defined yourself as a group member, you would then need to adopt some or all of these identity codes so others believe you are a member. By adopting these identity codes correctly in the presence of other group members, you would gain affirmation wherein existing group members approve of your performance of these identity codes and welcome you into the group (in some cases, there may even be a formal ceremony where you profess your membership and other group members affirm that profession). Finally, you will begin to notice that other group members (and over time you will do this to) will check on you to make sure you are doing the identity codes properly. In so doing, they will police your behavior to make sure you still belong to the group. Similar to the religious example just outlined, sociologists have noted similar processes of (1) definition, (2) coding, (3) affirming, and (4) policing in social groups as wide ranging as scientific disciplines, support groups, fraternities, sororities, sports teams, friendship groups or cliques, office or other occupational settings, social movement organizations, and classrooms to name just a few. In fact, it might be interesting for you to ask yourself how many times you have experienced and enacted these patterns in your own group memberships. In all such cases, people engage in identity work to construct, affirm, and signify membership within social groups.

Emotion Work
Similar to identity work processes, scholars have noted the tendency for people to alter their emotional expressions, experiences, and understandings in relation to group memberships. Specifically, social groups and contexts typically contain "feeling rules," or cultural understandings or scripts that provide people with clues to how one should feel, how much one should feel, and how one should display feelings within a given group or situation. When one arrives at a funeral, for example, people will expect one to be sad, appear sad, and do so in a manner that does not detract from the funeral ritual itself (though funeral norms are culture specific). Despite these expectations, one may arrive feeling happy (e.g., "I hated that dude."), appear nervous (e.g., "Can anyone tell I hated that dude?"), or become more emotional than people are comfortable with seeing (e.g., crying "OH MY BABY! OH MY BABY!" before falling on the floor or the casket). In such cases where our actual emotions do not match the feeling rules of a given group or context, we engage in what Arlie Russell Hochschild termed "emotion work," or the processes whereby people seek to manage or change their emotions to align them with normative feeling rules in a given group or context. Drawing on these insights, sociologists have outlined three main strategies of emotion work:

 * Bodily = adjusting the body to shape feelings (e.g., scratching an arm or popping a rubber band on the skin to invoke feelings)
 * Cognitive = adjusting thoughts to shape feelings (e.g., telling ourselves "I need to be happy for him" when our boyfriend is getting ready to marry that other man we don't like)
 * Discursive = using language to reframe feelings (e.g., "Oh, it was...nice" or other phrases used to hide our actual feelings about something)

Further, sociologists have outlined three main types of emotion work people do in the course of their lives:

 * Individual = working on our own emotions (e.g., college students managing anxiety at test time)
 * Interpersonal = working on the emotions of others during interactional exchanges (e.g., people in wheelchairs managing the discomfort of others in their presence)
 * Reciprocal = working with others to manage collective emotions (e.g., employees managing the negative reactions of bosses or other co-workers during tense working situations)

Self & Society
In recent years, Dramaturgical scholars have integrated many of the insights on group dynamics to demonstrate the ways groups reflect the reciprocal relationship between selves and societies. They have demonstrated that the primary codes that individuals use within groups to signify personal and collective identities rely heavily upon existing societal beliefs, values, and norms. People form groups by doing identity work that blends their personal desires with the symbolic materials provided by social structures. Similarly, people manage and maintain groups and group membership by doing emotion work that aligns their personal feelings with existing structural feeling rules. As a result, groups provide opportunities to examine the ways that selves and structures work hand in hand - to varying degrees - to continuously reproduce individuals and societies predicated upon "who we believe ourselves to be," "what we believe this says about us," and "how we feel about these details."

Group Influence
The primary reason sociologists study groups is because of their power over individuals. A large body of research suggests that group membership strongly shapes the everyday behavior of individuals. Following are some of the many ways groups shape individual level behavior.

Conformity

If you've ever done something in a group that you would not do if you were alone, it's likely that you experienced conformity; your attitudes, beliefs, and/or behaviors were influenced by other people. One of the most well-known illustrations of conformity is Solomon Asch's conformity experiments. The experiment was set up as follows:

Research participants would enter a room and sit at a table with several other people (who were confederates, meaning they were actually helping with the research). The participant and confederates would be shown one card that had a reference line and another card that had three comparison lines. Subjects were required to select the comparison line that corresponded in length to the reference line.

This seems like a relatively straightforward task. However, choosing the correct line becomes much more difficult when the confederates choose the wrong answer. Why? Because of our tendency to conform to those around us. Thus, when Asch has the confederates choose the wrong answer, participants also chose the wrong line 37% of the time. How do you think you would respond in such a situation?

Jason Chein and Laurence Steinberg have illustrated why people in groups are more likely to take risks (one form of conforming) using functional magnetic resonance imaging: the presence of peers heightens the benefits that result from risky decisions. Participants in their research remained aware of the risks, but their brains exhibited heightened sensitivity to the benefits of succeeding. Thus, the presence of peers can facilitate risky behavior as it makes the reward more meaningful.

Social Facilitation
Social facilitation is the tendency for people to be aroused into better performance on simple tasks (or tasks at which they are expert or that have become autonomous) when under the eye of others, rather than while they are alone (i.e., the audience effect), or when competing against another (i.e., the coactor effect). Complex tasks (or tasks at which people are not skilled), however, are often performed in an inferior manner in such situations. This effect has been demonstrated in a variety of species. In humans, it is strongest among those who are most concerned about the opinions of others, and when the individual is being watched by someone he or she does not know, or cannot see well.

Social Loafing
Social loafing refers to the phenomenon that can occur when people in a group make less of an effort to achieve a goal than they would working alone. As a result of social loafing, groups can sometimes generate less total output than the combined performance of their members working as individuals. Social loafing results from a lack of motivation when working in a group because individuals do not believe their specific contribution will be evaluated. As a result, they do not put in as much effort as they otherwise would.

Deindividuation
Deindividuation refers to the phenomenon of relinquishing one's sense of identity, self-awareness, or evaluation apprehension. This can happen as a result of becoming part of a group that fosters obedience to group norms rather than an individual's norms, such as an army or mob. Once this happens, individuals no longer think about themselves before they act and may, in fact, be unaware of their own actions.

Deindividuation can have quite destructive effects, like increasing the odds someone will commit a crime, engaging in violence, or even over-enforce the law, such as police in riot situations.

Group Polarization

Group polarization refers to the finding that after participating in a discussion group, members tend to advocate more extreme positions and/or call for riskier courses of action than individuals who did not participate in any such discussion.

Group polarization results from two primary mechanisms: social comparison and informational influence. Social comparison refers to the drive of individuals to appear socially desirable. Informational social influence occurs when a person is in a situation where he or she is unsure of the correct way to behave. In such situations, that person will often look to others for cues concerning the correct behavior. When "we conform because we believe that other's interpretation of an ambiguous situation is more accurate than ours and will help us choose an appropriate course of action," it is informational social influence.

Group polarization has been used to explain the decision-making of juries, particularly when considering punitive damages in a civil trial. Studies have shown that after deliberating together, mock jury members often decided on punitive damage awards that were larger or smaller than the amount any individual juror had favored prior to deliberation. The studies indicated that when the jurors favored a relatively low award, discussion would lead to an even more lenient result, while if the jury was inclined to impose a stiff penalty, discussion would make it even harsher.

Diffusion of Responsibility
Diffusion of responsibility (also called the bystander effect) is a social phenomenon which tends to occur in groups of people above a certain critical size when responsibility is not explicitly assigned. A common example would be observing a minor fender-bender on a busy freeway. Most people, when they observe something like that, do not stop and do not call the police, assuming someone else will do so. This phenomenon rarely ever occurs in small groups. In tests involving groups of three or fewer, everyone in the group took action as opposed to groups of over ten where in almost every test, no one took action.

False Consensus and Illusory Superiority
The false consensus effect is the tendency for people to project their way of thinking onto other people. In other words, people often assume that everyone else thinks the same way they do. This belief is unsubstantiated by statistical and qualitative data, leading to the perception of a consensus that does not exist. This logical fallacy involves a group or individual assuming that their own opinions, beliefs and predilections are more prevalent amongst the general public than they really are. This bias is commonly present in a group setting where one thinks the collective opinion of their own group matches that of the larger population. Since the members of a group reach a consensus and rarely encounter those who dispute it, they tend to believe that everybody thinks the same way. This is done to justify one's own beliefs.

Illusory superiority is a cognitive bias in which people overestimate the degree to which they possess desirable qualities, relative to others, or underestimate their negative qualities relative to others. Such over- and under-estimations serve to bolster peoples' self-esteem. People who succumb to the illusory superiority bias have inflated views of their own characteristics. Some surveys have found all, or nearly all, the participants rate themselves as above the group average. The strongest effect has been found when people rate themselves on abilities at which they are totally incompetent. These subjects have the greatest disparity between their actual performance (at the low end of the distribution) and their self-rating (placing themselves above average). The effect has been found when people compare themselves to others on many different abilities and personality traits:
 * Sorority members perceive those in their sorority as far less likely to be conceited and snobby than those in other sororities
 * 53% of Dutch adults rate their marriage or partnership as better than most others; only 1% rate it as worse than most marriages
 * 66% of adult Americans grade their oldest child's public school with an A or B, but 64% give the nation's public schools a C or D

Groupthink
Groupthink is a term coined by psychologist Irving Janis to describe a process by which a group can make bad or irrational decisions. In a groupthink situation, each member of the group attempts to conform his or her opinions to what they believe to be the consensus of the group. In a general sense this seems to be a very rationalistic way to approach the situation. However this results in a situation in which the group ultimately agrees upon an action which each member might individually consider to be unwise (the risky shift).

Janis' original definition of the term was "a mode of thinking that people engage in when they are deeply involved in a cohesive in-group, when the members' strivings for unanimity override their motivation to realistically appraise alternative courses of action." The word groupthink was intended to be reminiscent of George Orwell's coinages (such as doublethink and duckspeak) from the fictional language Newspeak, which he portrayed in his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Groupthink tends to occur on committees and in large organizations. Janis originally studied the Pearl Harbor bombing, the Vietnam War and the Bay of Pigs Invasion. Recently, in 2004, the US Senate Intelligence Committee's Report on the U.S. Intelligence Community's Prewar Intelligence Assessments on Iraq blamed groupthink for failures to correctly interpret intelligence relating to Iraq's weapons of mass destruction capabilities. Janis provides descriptions of groupthink:

One mechanism which management consultants recommend to avoid groupthink is to place responsibility and authority for a decision in the hands of a single person who can turn to others for advice. Others advise that a pre-selected individual take the role of disagreeing with any suggestion presented, thereby making other individuals more likely to present their own ideas and point out flaws in others' — and reducing the stigma associated with being the first to take negative stances (see Devil's Advocate).

Anonymous feedback via suggestion box or online chat has been found to be a useful remedy for groupthink — negative or dissenting views of proposals can be raised without any individual being identifiable by others as having lodged a critique. Thus the social capital of the group is preserved, as all members have plausible deniability that they raised a dissenting point.

Networks
A social network is a social structure between actors, either individuals or organizations. It indicates the ways in which they are connected through various social familiarities ranging from casual acquaintance to close familial bonds. The study of social networks is called both social network analysis and social network theory. Research in a number of academic fields has demonstrated that social networks operate on many levels, from families up to the level of nations, and play a critical role in determining the way problems are solved, organizations are run, and the degree to which individuals succeed in achieving their goals.

Social network theory views social relationships in terms of nodes and ties. Nodes are the individual actors within the networks, and ties are the relationships between the actors. There can be many kinds of ties between the nodes. In its most simple form, a social network is a map of all of the relevant ties between the nodes being studied. The network can also be used to determine the social capital of individual actors. These concepts are often displayed in a social network diagram, where nodes are the points and ties are the lines.

The shape of the social network helps determine a network's usefulness to its individuals. Smaller, tighter networks can be less useful to their members than networks with lots of loose connections (weak ties) to individuals outside the main network. More "open" networks, with many weak ties and social connections, are more likely to introduce new ideas and opportunities to their members than closed networks with many redundant ties. In other words, a group of friends who only do things with each other already share the same knowledge and opportunities. A group of individuals with connections to other social worlds is likely to have access to a wider range of information. It is better for individual success to have connections to a variety of networks rather than many connections within a single network. Similarly, individuals can exercise influence or act as brokers within their social networks by bridging two networks that are not directly linked (called filling social holes).

The power of social network theory stems from its difference from traditional sociological studies, which assume that it is the attributes of individual actors - whether they are friendly or unfriendly, smart or dumb, etc. - that matter. Social network theory produces an alternate view, where the attributes of individuals are less important than their relationships and ties with other actors within the network. This approach has turned out to be useful for explaining many real-world phenomena, but leaves less room for individual agency, the ability for individuals to influence their success, so much of it rests within the structure of their network. For instance, social networks have been used to examine how companies interact with each other, characterizing the many informal connections that link executives together, as well as associations and connections between individual employees at different companies. These networks provide ways for companies to gather information, deter competition, and even collude in setting prices or policies. Power within organizations has also been found to be tied to social networks. Powerful people in organizations often derive their power from their degree of connectedness within the organization (i.e., the degree to which an individual within a network is at the center of many relationships) rather than from job title or statuses. Social networks also play a key role in hiring, in business success for firms, and in job performance.

The so-called rule of 150 states that the size of a genuine social network is limited to about 150 members (sometimes called the Dunbar Number). The rule arises from cross-cultural studies in sociology and especially anthropology of the maximum size of a village (in modern parlance an ecovillage). It is theorized in evolutionary psychology that the number may be some kind of limit of average human ability to recognize members and track emotional facts about all members of a group. However, it may be due to economics and the need to track "free riders", as larger groups tend to be easier for cheats and liars to prosper in.

The small world phenomenon is the hypothesis that the chain of social acquaintances required to connect one arbitrary person to another arbitrary person anywhere in the world is generally short. The concept gave rise to the famous phrase six degrees of separation after a 1967 small world experiment by psychologist Stanley Milgram which found that two random US citizens were connected by an average of six acquaintances. Current internet experiments continue to explore this phenomenon, including the Ohio State Electronic Small World Project and Columbia's Small World Project. As of 2005, these experiments confirm that about five to seven degrees of separation are sufficient for connecting any two people through the internet.

Sociologists are interested in social networks because of their influence on and importance for the individual. Social networks are the basic tools used by individuals to meet other people, to recreate, and to find social support. Recent research suggests that the social networks of Americans are shrinking and more and more people have no close confidants or people with whom they can share their most intimate thoughts. In 1985, the mean network size of individuals in the U.S. was 2.94 people. Networks declined by almost an entire confidant by 2004, to 2.08 people. Almost half, 46.3% of Americans, say they have only one or no confidants with whom they can discuss important matters. The most frequently occurring response to the question of how many confidants one has was zero in 2004. The decline in confidants has been most notable among non-kin networks, putting greater emphasis on kin and spouses as social confidants. Most social confidants are similar in demographic characteristics to the person doing the sharing. The implications of these findings are potentially disturbing for American society as people have smaller social support networks, which are important for both social but also health reasons.

Additional Reading
Wilkins, Amy. 2008. Wannabes, Christians and Goths:  THE BOUNDARIES OF SEX, STYLE, AND STATUS. University of Chicago Press.

Subcultures: The Basics By Ross Haenfler

Straight Edge Hardcore Punk, Clean Living Youth, and Social Change Ross Haenfler (Author)

Staggenborg, Suzanne. 2001. Beyond culture versus politics: A case study of a local women’s movement. Gender & Society 15(4): 507-530. Zajicek, Anna M. 2002. Race discourses and antiracist practices in a local women's movement. Gender & Society 16(2): 155-174. Kuumba, M. Bahati. 2002. “You’ve struck a rock”: Comparing gender, social movements and transformation in the United States and South Africa. Gender & Society 16(4): 504-523.

Haenfler, Ross. 2012. “Lifestyle Movements: Exploring The Intersection of Lifestyle and Social Movements.” With Brett Johnson and Ellis Jones, in Social Movement Studies 11, 1:1-20.

Anderson, Eric. 2002. Openly gay athletes: Contesting hegemonic masculinity in a homophobic environment. Gender & Society 16(6): 860-877. Hennen, Peter. 2005. Bear bodies, bear masculinity: Recuperation, resistance, or retreat? Gender & Society 19(1): 25-43.

Simon, Robin W., Donna Eder, and Cathy Evans. 1992. “The Development of Feeling Norms Underlying Romantic Love among Adolescent Females.” Social Psychology Quarterly 55: 29-46.

Whalen, Jack and Don H. Zimmerman. 1998. “Observations on the Display and Management of Emotions in Naturally Occurring Activities: The Case of ‘Hysteria’ in Calls to 9-1-1.” Social Psychology Quarterly 61: 141-159.

Cahill, Spencer E. 1999. “Emotional Capital and Professional Socialization: The Case of Mortuary Science Students (and Me).” Social Psychology Quarterly 62:101-116. Katz, Jack. 1996. “Families and Funny Mirrors: A Study of the Social Construction and Personal Embodiment of Humor.” American Journal of Sociology 101: 1194-1237.

Adler, Patricia A. and Peter Adler. 1995. “Dynamics of Inclusion and Exclusion in Preadolescent Cliques.” Social Psychology Quarterly 58: 145-162.

Discussion Questions

 * Why do you belong to the groups you do?
 * Have you ever done something in a group you would not do alone? Why?
 * What are some of the ways the groups you belong to have influenced your behavior?
 * Has the information in this chapter changed the way you think about your group memberships? How? Why?
 * what is the difference between formal and membership group?                                                                   * what is the difference between informal and non_ membership group?

title: Introduction to Sociology/Groups


text:
Talk:Introduction to Sociology/Socialization

Some additional information on group socialization from Levine, John M. in Group Processes (also, look for the graphic): pp. 86-87 "To clarify temporal changes in individual-group relations, Moreland and Levine (1982) developed a model of group socialization that analyzes the passage of individuals through groups. The model seeks to describe and explain the affective, cognitive, and behavioral changes that groups and individuals produce in one another over the course of their relationship. Two fundamental assumptions underlie the model. The first assumption is that relationships between groups and individuals change in systematic ways over time, with individuals moving through different membership phases as a function of the length and quality of their experience with the group. The second assumption, which will prove central to our discussion of innovation, is that groups and individuals exert reciprocal influence on one another, with both parties acting as sources as well as targets of influence."

p. 87 "The dynamic properties of the group socialization model derive from the operation of three psychological processes - evaluation, commitment, and role transition."

p. 91 "Until recently, most of the work on socialization in both organizations and small groups was characterized by a restricted social perspective. During socialization, organizations and groups were assumed to be sources of influence, whereas new members were assumed to be targets. Recently, however, there has been increasing recognition that newcomers play an active role in their socialization and can produce changes (intentional or unintentional) in their organizations or groups (Bauer et al., 1998; Feldman, 1994; Levine & Moreland, 1985; Saks & Ashforth, 1997; Sutton & Louis, 1987)."

p. 96 "Newcomers can also use a variety of additional tactics for producing intended innovation that do not have clear parallels in unintended innovation. One such tactic involves the timing of innovation efforts. In his research on idiosyncrasy credit, Hollander (1960) found that individuals attempting to change a group's procedural norms were less successful if they tried to initiate innovation immediately after entering the group than if they conformed for a while before suggesting any changes. Extrapolating from these findings, newcomers who attempt to produce innovation immediately after entry (when group commitment to them is low) are likely to be less successful than those who wait until later (when group commitment is higher)." I wonder if LDS leaders know this: Mission President advice.

p. 99 "Jones (1986) organized these socialization tactics into two clusters - "institutionalized" tactics (collective, formal, sequential, fixed, serial, investiture) and "individualized" tactics (individual, informal, random, variable, disjunctive, divestiture). He also argued that institutionalized tactics produce custodianship (in which newcomers accept traditional role expectations), whereas individualized tactics produce innovation (in which newcomers challenge these expectations). Subsequent research has provided some support for these hypotheses (e.g., Ashforth & Saks, 1996; Black, 1992; Black & Ashford, 1995; Mignerey, Rubin, & Gorden, 1995). Although little is known about why groups use particular socialization tactics (Bauer et al., 1998), it would not be surprising if institutionalized and individualized tactics were employed by groups with norms favoring custodianship and innovation, respectively."

To do
1) Add "degredation ceremonies" to total institution; (2) Improve the section on social class. It appears to be self-promotion by a minor figure in the field. Emphasis should be on Kohn's work. (3) add section on agents of socialization; (4) define anticipatory socialization (5) add section on socialization into gender; (6) Thomas theorem, social construction of reality.Thomasfbrown (talk) 21:52, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

Seems like a clear if simplified definition of "socialization" should start this entry. Then more implications and subtleties of the concept can unfold as the material is presented, but at least at the start it might help to have a simple idea of what is being discussed -- RlKap 12/28/2010


text:
Talk:Introduction to Sociology/Social Movements

The Aberle graph has a spelling mistake. Should be alternative.

And the four areas for social movements in the modern world should also include religious movements.

Some notes from Reicher, Stephen - in Group Processes:

p. 183 "However, these hostile and external observers never took care to investigate the patterns of crowd action and the conceptions of crowd members to see if their suppositions were warranted. If one did - and there is a growing literature by historians and social scientists that does (e.g. Feagin & Hahn, 1973; Krantz, 1988; Rude, 1964; Williams, 1986) - then two things would become immediately apparent. The first is that crowd action is patterned in such a way as to reflect existing cultures and societies."

p. 183 "The second obvious feature of crowd phenomena is that they are not only shaped by society but also that they in turn bring about social change. Indeed the changes wrought by crowds exist at three levels. There is change in the ways that crowd members see themselves as social actors. Autobiographies and studies of activists (e.g. Biko, 1988; Burns, 1990; Cluster, 1979; Haley, 1980; Teske, 1997) repeatedly show that people do not enter collective movements with fully fledged movement ideologies but that they develop their understanding of society and who they are within it as a consequence of participation."

p. 186 "Both are equally represented in the core concept of submergence which, for Le Bon, marked the transition from individual psychology to crowd psychology. Simply by being part of the crowd, individuals lose all sense of self and all sense of responsibility. Yet, at the same time, they gain a sentiment of invincible power due to their numbers. "Once individual identity and the capability to control behavior disappears, crowd members become subject to contagion. That is, they are unable to resist any passing idea or, more particularly and because the intellect is all but obliterated, any passing emotion. This may even lead crowd members to sacrifice their personal interests - a further sign of irrationality."

p. 186 "The majority of his crowd text is, in fact, essentially a primer on how to take advantage of the crowd mentality, how to manipulate crowds, and how to recruit their enthusiasms to one's own ends. In brief, Le Bon exhorts the would-be demagogue to direct the primitive mass by simplifying ideas, substituting affirmation and exaggeration for proof, and by repeating points over and again. It is important to acknowledge this stress on the power and the potential of crowds as a strength in Le Bon's work which has often been overlooked..." Sounds like a page in the Republican playbook.

p. 189 "Such acceptance is easily obscured by the ferocity with which Allport condemned any notion of a group mind. He considered any reference to a mind that was separate from the psyche of individuals as a meaningless abstraction or even as "a babble of tongues" (Allport, 1933) and, in his seminal text on social psychology (Allport, 1924) he asserted that: "there is no psychology of groups which is not essentially and entirely a psychology of individuals" (p. 4). When it came to collective action, Allport declared, still more famously: "The individual in the crowd behaves just as he would behave alone only more so" (p. 295)." I knew there was a reason I didn't like Allport.

p. 190 "Riots tended to happen in towns and in areas that were stable and had well-established social networks. Feagin and Hahn (1973) provide similar evidence for the American urban revolts of the 1960s. "Next, there are considerable data that show migrants were under-represented and long-standing residents were over-represented in riot events."

p. 194 "To start with, the social identity tradition assumes identity to be multiple and to constitute a complex system rather than being unitary. Most notably, a distinction has been made between personal identity, which refers to the unique characteristics of the individual, and social identity, which refers to an individual's self-understanding as a member of a social category (Tajfel, 1978; Turner & Giles, 1981)." Apparently, social identity theory is 'da bomb in social psychology.

Additional Topics may include:

 * Joining Movements
 * Frame resonance
 * Emotional Motivation and Resonance


text:
Talk:Social Psychology/Introduction

Notes from Abrams, D. in Group Processes:
p. 427 "The split between psychology and more sociological theories of social processes was accentuated with Floyd Allport's pronouncement that, "There is no psychology of groups which is not essentially and entirely a psychology of individuals" (Allport, 1924, p. 4; see Graumann, 1986). By 1925 sociology and psychology had become discrete disciplines (Manicas, 1987), and this meant that social psychology and the study of groups in psychology became separated from its collectivist past. As a result, different levels of analysis were not well articulated in theory and research (Doise, 1986). "According to Farr (1996), there are two social psychologies. The sociological form owes much to collectivist perspectives, and in an extreme form it regards psychological processes as barely relevant for explaining the impact of social categories and institutions on societal change and development. The psychological form is rooted in the behaviorism and reductionism of Watson and Floyd Allport. At its extreme, social categories, institutions, and roles are treated simply as factual inputs that individuals process, without much regard to the way the meaning of the categories is shaped by societal context (see Hopkins, Reicher, & Levine, 1997, for a contentious critique of the way psychologists treat race as a stimulus variable in social cognition research on prejudice). "The direction taken by social psychology throughout the following six decades suggests that, as far as most were concerned, Allport had won the day. For example, the idea that the group somehow dehumanizes us, stripping us of our identity and individuality, re-emerged in the form of deindividuation theory (Diener, 1980; Zimbardo, 1969; see also Reicher, this volume, chapter 8). As a result, James's view that the group may be represented in the self (as distinct from simply influencing the self) was neglected in much of the theorizing that followed his writing (see Hogg & Abrams, 1988; Reicher, 1984; Tajfel, 1978). An individualistic meta-theoretical framework also pervaded the enormous arena of group dynamics, which was dominant from the 1940s to the 1960s (e.g., Cartwright & Zander, 1969; Shaw, 1981). Despite its roots in Lewin's potentially collectivist field theory (e.g., Lewin, 1952), group process research has largely been a study of interpersonal interaction in small face-to-face groups, in which "I" reigns supreme, and any reference to "we" is largely descriptive; "we" is simply an arithmetic aggregation (Hogg, 1992)."

p. 428 "In social psychology, the dominant meta-theory remains one in which the self is a unique, individual entity that is relatively autonomous and independently motivated. For example, Baumeister's (1999) choice of articles in his collection of readings on The Self in Social Psychology reflects a ballot mailed to the membership of the International Society for Self and Identity, and includes topics such as self-regulation, self-awareness, self-presentation, self-esteem, self-evaluation, and self-affirmation. None of the articles focuses on group processes, intergroup relations, or social identity. The collection is largely concerned with (a North American view of) the self as an individual psychological entity. Baumeister (1998) argues that selfhood is based in three human experiences: reflexive consciousness, interpersonal being, and executive function."

plan for the page
Should include:
 * Brief history of the discipline
 * Relation to other fields
 * Basic perspectives Lucidish 22:09, 21 April 2006 (UTC)

Source concern
This is from Wikipedia; it doesn't match the current but is exact to the version that was new when this was created (13 September 2006). I'm placing a subpage with the Wikipedia history at /Sources. JeremyMcCracken (talk) 21:20, 21 January 2008 (UTC)

title: Talk:Social Psychology/Introduction


text:
Calculus/Differentiation/Applications of Derivatives/Exercises

Relative Extrema
Find the relative maximum(s) and minimum(s), if any, of the following functions.

Absolute Extrema
Determine the absolute maximum and minimum of the following functions on the given domain

Determine Intervals of Change
Find the intervals where the following functions are increasing or decreasing

Determine Intervals of Concavity
Find the intervals where the following functions are concave up or concave down

Word Problems

29. A canoe is being pulled toward a dock (normal to the water) using a taut rope. The canoe is normal to the water while it is being pulled. The rope is hauled in at a constant $$ 5 \,\rm ft/s $$. The dock is $$ 5 \,\rm ft $$ above the water. Answer items (a) through (b).

Graphing Functions
For each of the following, graph a function that abides by the provided characteristics

Approximation Problems
By assumption, for these problems, assume $$\pi \approx 3.14$$ and $$e \approx 2.718$$ unless stated otherwise. One may use a calculator or design a computer program, but one must indicate the method and reasoning behind every step where necessary.

Advanced Understanding
45. Consider the differentiable function $$f(x)$$ for all $$x > -2$$ and continuous function $$g(x)$$ below, where $$g(x)$$ is linear for all $$x\ge 1$$ and differentiable for all $$x \in (-2, 1) \cup (1, \infty)$$, and $$f(x)$$ and $$g(x)$$ are continuous for all $$x\ge -2$$.


text:
User talk:Marknewlyn

Mark,

I suggest that you use slashes (/) to organize levels in the textbooks. The reason is that the wiki software recognizes that as a way of grouping or subdividing pages, and on the pages that come after a slash the software makes an automatic link back to the parent page. Check out Seven Habits Study Guide for an example. Hopefully we will able to standardize all the new books on this structure. PS Let me know at any time if there is anything I can do to make your life easier. --Karl Wick 02:14, 2 May 2005 (UTC)

Regarding link on Optics
Hi there. I'm not sure if the author has allowed it to be used under the GFDL (I didn't put the link there). As far as I know, the content on Optics is written at a high school level, so I think most of it (if not all) can be moved to the FHSST section. I should really work on expanding that...I've been neglecting it quite a bit ;)

I'm real sorry for my late response, but I've been really busy lately. -Frazzydee|✍ 19:25, 15 May 2005 (UTC)

Book Order
Hi, I noticed that you were listed as a contributer to the FHSST Physics book. I noticed that wavelike motion is covered before forces in the book. This makes it very hard to explain the simple harmonic motion of a mass oscillating on a spring, which I believe is an example of wavelike motion.

title: User talk:Marknewlyn


text:
Calculus/Differentiation/Basics of Differentiation/Solutions

Implicit Differentiation
Use implicit differentiation to find y'

Logarithmic Differentiation
Use logarithmic differentiation to find $$\frac{dy}{dx}$$:

Equation of Tangent Line
For each function, $$f$$, (a) determine for what values of $$x$$ the tangent line to $$f$$ is horizontal and (b) find an equation of the tangent line to $$f$$ at the given point.


text:
Beekeeping/Langstroth Hive

The Langstroth beehive is a beehive that was designed using the principle of bee space, discovered and published by  L. L. Langstroth, and manipulation. This hive design is characterized by its removable frames, which allow for the inspection of the bees for development, diseases and parasites. In 1860, Langstroth developed and published his design and it has since been the basis for a majority of the world’s man made beehives.

Characteristics
Like most common designs of hives, the Langstroth hive uses frames. These frames are often filled with some form of foundation to give the bees a proper starting position and template for building comb. These frames are then installed in hive bodies. The Langstroth hive is known to impose artificial segregation of the colony by physically dividing honey from brood by use of the brood chambers, for brood development and bee residence, and the  honey supers, for excess honey collection. These separate chambers are stacked onto a bottom board and capped off with some form of cover, most often a  inner cover and an outside fitting  telescopic cover.

Other parts, such as feeders,  entrance reducers,  hive stands,  queen excluders, or similar items may also be used in conjunction with Langstroth style hives.

Interchangeable Parts
Langstroth hives use standard sized hive parts to allow for interchangeability with other hives. This feature of non-unique hive parts allows for mass production, and therefore cheaper prices.

Availability
Langstroth hives are the most common design of retailed hives. Because of this, it is relatively easy to acquire the proper parts to fit them.

Increased Honey Harvesting
Because honey is often extracted from reusable comb only small amounts of wax is lost during honey production. This means that the same comb, when properly stored, may be used season after season, not needing to be replaced by the bees, and is therefore more efficient.

Expansion and Contraction
Because of their modular design, Langstroth hives are perfect for expansion and contraction of particular hives. Hives can be made larger to fit more bees, or smaller to fit fewer depending on seasonal population.

Complex Design
Langstroth hives require exact measurements and must conform to rather precise standards. These standards ensure that parts are actually interchangeable between hives. Attention must also be taken to consider bee space. If bee space is not properly observed it is not uncommon to have parts glued together with propolis or connected with burr comb.

Decreased Wax Harvesting
Though wax may be harvested from Langstroth style hives, especially in the form of old comb, generally the only wax collected is in the form of wax capping during honey harvesting and that of burr comb. Most beekeepers prefer to preserve their wax comb so that it may be reused for as many seasons as possible. If wax production is desired a top bar hive may better suited than a Langstroth hive.

Heavy Lifting
Langstroth hives are known for heavy lifting when it comes time to harvest honey. Some beekeepers choose to use smaller Beekeeping/Honey Supers, but often they too may become difficult to lift when filled with ripe honey.

Difficult Management
Langstroth hives may be more difficult to manage compared to other hive designs, such as the top bar hive, as the entire hive must be opened in order to do even minor management. This difficulty of management is most easily expressed with having to remove the cover, and alerting the entire hive by way of a suddenly well-lit hive where it was once quite dark. Difficulty also arises during inspection of the brood chamber, the  supers must be removed, and so likely would the top most brood chamber, to make a satisfactory hive wide inspection.

title: Beekeeping/Langstroth Hive


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Cookbook talk:Native American Cuisine

to do
to the recipe items to facilitate navigation
 * 1) Add | Native American cuisine

 * 1) Organize additional recipes by region ..--Paul James (discuss • contribs) 09:49, 20 March 2012 (UTC)

Is this real?
Take the Cookbook:Blue Corn-Pinon Pancakes with Apricot-Pinon Compote as an example. Do apricots, pine nuts, almonds, cinnamon, and corn all grow in the same area? I think not, and baking powder is less than 100 years old.

Now consider Cookbook:Wild Rice Blueberry Dessert. Lemon juice with blueberries and wild rice??? Lemons are citrus fruit, which comes from tropical and subtropical southeast Asia. Wild rice does not grow well in places that citrus fruit will tolerate.

Canned food, like the cream of broccoli soup, isn't more than 150 years old AFAIK.

Oogruk is untranslated. Walrus? Seal? Whale? Porpoise? Dolfin?

Certo-brand liquid fruit pectin is seriously inappropriate. The same goes for sugar actually.

Bacon is cured pig meat. Pigs are from the Old World.

AlbertCahalan 04:59, 2 May 2005 (UTC)
 * Well, it does make sense that they would adapt new foods into their recipes over time. Native Americans are still around, and their cuisine is probably still evolving. PurplePieman 08:33, 7 May 2005 (UTC)
 * We call that "Cookbook:Cuisine of the United States". I may be of European descent, but I don't claim to cook "colonial cuisine" or "European cuisine" or "white cuisine". I cook US cuisine, which certainly does contain influences from the first people to settle the area. Probably grits and corn tortillas are still fairly authentic. The tamale recipe, which you might consider to be more Mexican than US, is roughly an old recipe from Central America (ready-to-eat field rations for warriors) if you leave out the pork and black pepper. AlbertCahalan 19:09, 7 May 2005 (UTC)

There is such a thing as "Native American" cuisine, but a lot of it has been absorbed into the cuisines of the respective countries. Succotash and Glot (or Glottucks) are Amerindian dishes, but the inclusion of milk or butter is a European influence.

One can categorize the recipes as "traditional" (pre-colonial or colonial with minimal influence of European cuisine) and "modern" (utilising canned goods, different regions, out-of-season, non-native ingredients).

This should also be broken up into regions. There's a difference between South Western US, Tex-Mex, South-Eastern US, North-Eastern US/Canada, etc. regions.

title: Cookbook talk:Native American Cuisine


text:
User:PurplePieman

 * Easy Maklubi
 * Grand Union Bacon
 * Pickle
 * Tomato Curry

Books I have started, or have made significant contributions to:

 * Inkscape
 * Satanism
 * Scribus
 * Using Gopherspace
 * US Pop Culture
 * Advertising

Important Pages

 * Votes for Deletion
 * Requests for Adminship
 * Requested books
 * Random Module

Currently moving over class notes to Astronomy.
 * Niels Bohr and the Quantum Atom

title: User:PurplePieman


text:
Cookbook:Muffin Pan

| Bakeware A muffin pan is similar to a cupcake pan, but with larger holes. It is a tray intended for oven use, with shallow cup-like depressions (holes) about 4 in in diameter and 1.5 in deep.

title: Cookbook:Muffin Pan


text:
Cookbook:Cupcake Pan

| Bakeware

A cupcake pan is similar to a muffin pan, but usually has smaller cups. It is a tray intended for oven use, with shallow cup-like depressions (cups) about 2.5 inches (60 mm) in diameter and 1.5 inches (40 mm) deep. However, there also exist cupcake pans with "giant" and "miniature" cups.

title: Cookbook:Cupcake Pan


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CAWD/Conclusion

Conclusion
As I have shown so far, EFL learners engage in various interactions in virtual environments for EFL writing development such as 1) authentic writing tasks with authentic audiences 2) direct or indirect feedback from native speakers 3) learning English and English society and culture as well as language 4) involving simulated society 5) creating avatar and various own objects and rooms.

However, because the primary goal of virtual environments is not to help EFL learners to improve their writing, all interaction and activities are not helpful to them. For example, sometimes, virtual environments expose EFL learners to inappropriate relation with partners and improper language input. Thus, I suggest some guidelines to obtain the desired results.

 * Find someone to talk to and ask three questions.
 * Interview a native speaker at some length
 * Gather information from other users or from items, and write a report.
 * Log and print out a conversation, highlighting new vocabulary or idiomatic expressions.
 * Build rooms in response to an in-class reading.
 * Hold a party; invite on-line friends.
 * Start an e-mail correspondence with someone you meet in virtual environments.
 * Design your own tasks, as individuals or in groups.
 * Keep a journal of activities in virtual environments.
 * Write a simple program that helps others learn the language (Lonnie, 1999)

title: CAWD/Conclusion


text:
FHSST Biology/Introduction

Biology is all about life - what affects it, what changes it, about how it's organized, about what makes it possible and predictable.

It can be easy to see how Biology applies to our bodies, or our immediate environment, but sometimes it is less easy to see how it applies to the bigger picture of the world around us. To help in understanding the bigger picture, there are a few things any student should remember:

 * Although Biology is taught in sections, each section has links to other sections. What you learn about the structure of a cell has links to how water-borne diseases spread. If you spend some time trying to see and understand these cross-links when you are learning and revising, you will be more able to see the bigger picture.
 * Similarly, Biology cannot be completely separated from any other science. It is connected to Maths, to Chemistry, to Physics, to Geography, even to Sociology and Philosophy. If you want to do well in Biology, don't be afraid of these other sciences!
 * Biology is not just about what you know, or can describe - it's also about what skills you have. Work hard to develop your skills and you will give yourself a better chance at figuring out the bigger picture. Skills can be used in unfamiliar situations; knowledge is more difficult to apply in unfamiliar situations.

Biology is fun, even though it can be hard work! We hope that as you study and learn, you will discover your own passion for this subject, and that what you learn will make a difference to your life on a daily basis.

Good luck!

The Contributors

Back to
Biology Index

FHSST Biology Main Page

title: FHSST Biology/Introduction


text:
FHSST Biology/Unit Systems

SI Units (Système International d'Unités)
These are the internationally agreed upon units and the ones we will use. Historically these units are based on the metric system which was developed in France at the time of the French Revolution.

All physical quantities have units which can be built from the 7 base units listed in Table 1.1 (incidentally the choice of these seven was arbitrary). They are called base units because none of them can be expressed as combinations of the other six. This is similar to breaking a language down into a set of sounds from which all words are made. Another way of viewing the base units is like the three primary colours. All other colours can be made from the primary colours but no primary colour can be made by combining the other two primaries. Unit names are always written with lowercase initials (e.g. the metre). The symbols (or abbreviations) of units are also written with lowercase initials except if they are named after scientists (e.g. the kelvin (K) and the ampere (A)).

To make life convenient, particular combinations of the base units are given special names. This makes working with them easier, but it is always correct to reduce everything to the base units. Table 1.2 lists some examples of combinations of SI base units assigned special names. Do not be concerned if the formulae look unfamiliar at this stage — we will deal with each in detail in the chapters ahead (as well as many others)!

It is very important that you are able to say the units correctly. For instance, the newton is another name for the kilogram metre per second squared (kg·m·s−2}, while the kilogram metre squared per second squared ((kg·m2·s−2}) is called the joule.

Another important aspect of dealing with units is the prefixes that they sometimes have (prefixes are words or letters written in front that change the meaning). The kilogram (kg) is a simple example: 1 kg is 1000 g or 1×103 g. Grouping the 103 and the g together we can replace the 103 with the prefix k (kilo). Therefore the k takes the place of the 103. Incidentally the kilogram is unique in that it is the only SI base unit containing a prefix.

There are prefixes for many powers of 10 (Table 1.3 lists a large set of these prefixes). This is a larger set than you will need but it serves as a good reference. The case of the prefix symbol is very important. Where a letter features twice in the table, it is written in uppercase for exponents bigger than one and in lowercase for exponents less than one.  Those prefixes listed in boldface should be learnt.

As another example of the use of prefixes, 1×10−3 g can be written as 1 mg (1 milligram).

Other Unit Systems
The remaining sets of units, although not used by us, are also internationally recognised and still in use by others. We will mention them briefly for interest only.

c.g.s Units
In this system the metre is replaced by the centimetre and the kilogram is replaced by the gram. This is a simple change but it means that all units derived from these two are changed. For example, the units of force and work are different. These units are used most often in astrophysics and atomic physics.

Imperial Units
These units (as their name suggests) stem from the days when monarchs decided measures. Here all the base units are different, except the measure of time. This is the unit system you are most likely to encounter if SI units are not used. These units are used by the Americans and British. As you can imagine, having different units in use from place to place makes scientific communication very difficult. This was the motivation for adopting a set of internationally agreed upon units.

Natural Units
This is the most sophisticated choice of units. Here the most fundamental discovered quantities (such as the speed of light) are set equal to 1. The argument for this choice is that all other quantities should be built from these fundamental units. This system of units is used in high energy physics and quantum mechanics.

>> Next: The Importance of Units

title: FHSST Biology/Unit Systems