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Talk:Conlang/Intermediate/Sounds

Untitled
I've copied Ran's phonology article over from the Conlangresource and made a few changes in it. --Ingolemo 19:51, 7 Aug 2004 (UTC)

 * Hmm, the line at the end right now looks a little 'stupid' to me (no offense meant, but it should be reworded): "Consonants are sounds that, well, aren't vowels" (or something like that). Consonants are sounds made by blocking airflow in the vocal tract. And besides, in some places the line between consonant and vowel can be blurred, with sounds in American English like [r\=, 5=, n=], etc. *edits* -- Maknas 14:51, 10 Aug 2004 (UTC)

 * I simply copied Ran's article and had no time to think of a better ending. But I do agree. The consonants section needs a lot more alaboration (especially given the size of the vowel section). I'll try and add a little more now. --Ingolemo 16:27, 10 Aug 2004 (UTC)

 * Okay, I'll take over fixing up this article. I've just elaborated on phonemes, and I'll add/elaborate more sections soon. -- Maknas 18:46, 11 Aug 2004 (UTC)

 * I added a section on manners of articulation. Feel free to correct what I wrote about taps and flaps. I'll try completing the other sections on consonnants later. I think we should dedicate 2 different pages into describing how vowels and consonnants can contrast, though. We could also link to eddy,s great page about vowel systems, or at least describe some ourselves. --Circeus 20:55, 12 Aug 2004 (UTC)

 * Hey, I said I'll take over this page! ;-) Anyways, yeah, I've changed what you wrote on the taps. Also, remember, it's "trill", not "thrill" ;-) I don't think we need seperate pages for consonants and vowels, but I'll finish up the rest here. -- Maknas 21:39, 12 Aug 2004 (UTC)

 * "I don't think we need seperate pages for consonants and vowels" Well, I meant about complex things like phonemic pharingealization, nasalizations, velarization, labialization, aspiration etc. Along with Allophony, it's quite complex (there's easily a whole page to be written about allophony and variation in english!), so i though a separate page would make things easier to control.--Circeus 18:01, 16 Aug 2004 (UTC)

 * Don't forget that we have an "Expert Sounds" page where we can go into all that extra detail. We only need to cover the intermediate stuff here. --Ingolemo 18:54, 16 Aug 2004 (UTC)

 * Oh, good point. --Circeus 17:09, 19 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Okay, I ended up bored, and I just wiped out a voicing section. I don't know enough about things like creaky or breathy voicing to put them in, left a comment about it. If I really cause problem, just tell me and I'll stop, but I don't believe it's such a big deal. Anyway, also corrected little bits here and there in the page. "Fricatvies" annoyed the heck out of me XD. --Circeus 19:45, 24 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Okay, I'm almost done doing the POA section, but can somebody please take on explaining the pharyngeal, epiglottal and glottal POAs?--Circeus 23:36, 8 Sep 2004 (UTC)

HEY, Vladisdead? There's a reason we chose to use X-SAMPA and not IPA in these. Please do not make such radical changes without asking first.--Circeus 23:13, 10 Sep 2004 (UTC)

A need for restructuring?
I think that this article is getting too long (especially given the current lack of content in most other Conlang articles) and is overloading the intermediate with too much information at once. I think that we all need to just sit down and decide what exactly we want this article to say, what we want to save for another article, and what we want to leave for the experts. -- Ingolemo 12:11, 11 Sep 2004 (UTC)

I've come up with a structure that I think would be more accessable to readers;
 * Introduction to phones
 * The phoneme/allophone distinction
 * The vowel/consonant distinction
 * Introduction to syllables
 * Syllable structure
 * Introduction to phonotactics
 * Viable consonant clusters
 * Sonority scale

Any suggestions for improvements? - Ingolemo 19:08, 17 August 2005 (UTC)

 * That sounds pretty good. I would keep the phonotactics section very short and leave most of the detail to the advanced phonology chapters. --Jim Henry 15:29, 22 August 2005 (UTC)

 * Ok, this restructuring will take a little time for me to do, mainly due to the work needed to compress the "what are vowels" and "what are consonants" sections to something more succinct. I'm going to drop the "Sonority scale" section and add a little on stress instead, so the phonotactics section should grow only a little larger than what it is now. - 84.92.170.120 18:45, 22 August 2005 (UTC)
 * Yes, this was me. I forgot to log in. - Ingolemo 18:46, 22 August 2005 (UTC)
 * I finally submited it. I simplified a lot of the concepts, but I'm worried that I may have simplified some parts too much. Opinions anyone? (the pre-revision page is here) - Ingolemo 18:21, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Ng - one sound
''Note that the "ng" is one sound! It's not an "n" sound followed by a "g" sound.'' You ought to be careful with statements like this. There are some dialects where 'sang' is pronounced [s{Ng], and they would probably consider that [N] to be an allophonic variant of /n/. Curlyjimsam 06:25, 26 Jun 2005 (UTC)

 * Would you like to write a better example (perhaps involving the digraphs <th> or <sh>)? - Ingolemo 14:20, 30 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Merging syllables with phonotactics
In my opinion, the structure of syllables is too much defined by phonotactics to discuss them on separate pages. So, I propose a merge of them. Columbus240 (discuss • contribs) 14:28, 23 August 2015 (UTC)

 * @Columbus240: On the other hand, a plausible case might be made for the intermediate level to present them separately. The beginner and intermediate levels of the book are defined by the limits on how much complication they introduce; so one ought to resist creep of each earlier level into compliations that ought to be left for a later level, otherwise the earlier levels start to lose their identity.  The beginner level tries to introduce the basic elements of language without fancy terms; the word "syllable" barely arises, let alone "phototactics".  The intermediate level tries to introduce the internal structure of those basic elements, and basic terminology for discussing them; but perhaps the need to treate syllables and phonotactics together is an advanced-level thing?  The advanced level of the book has been under-attended, which one suspects was partly because during the first flurry of activity on the book there was a weakness on distinguishing the three levels, and part of later effort has gone into strenghthening divisions between levels.

 * If we do want to shift a bit more of the burden here onto the intermediate level, we should try to more clearly define at the same time what goes in the advanced level, so we don't end up piling everything into intermediate. --Pi zero (discuss • contribs) 12:22, 24 August 2015 (UTC)

 * @Pi zero: So maybe do some stuff on 'proper' phonotactics and syllable building in the advanced level, because the intermediate is (in my opinion) fine like that. I myself don't have experience with linguistics, I just had a look into it since last week, and haven't created a conlang yet(but many ideas), so I won't propose myself as writer of advanced level pages.

title: Talk:Conlang/Intermediate/Sounds


text:
User:Jan Philipp Fiedler~enwikibooks

For information about me see my user page in the German Wikipedia.

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

title: User:Jan Philipp Fiedler~enwikibooks


text:
Algebra/Theory

The Natural Numbers
Mathematics requires, in order to avoid confusion or absurdity, an unambiguous definition of vocabulary. While this is true of any science, in mathematics this is achieved absolutely through the abstraction of concepts.

However, the full description of math as above requires time, and is nowhere elementary. Also, in order to have a true axiomization, a math built up from the roots, we will have to use the strongest, in the logical sense, statements possible. This makes them powerful for proofs but often sacrifices intuitiveness. Thus, we will concentrate on the later, only rarely using rigour, as necessary.

To do mathematics we must start by finding a way to think about numbers that is as above, unambiguous, while at the same time obvious and natural. We thus come up with the natural numbers. Intuitively, we define these as the set N = { 1, 2, 3, ... }. We will say a number is a natural number if it belongs to this set. Soon we will find this needs to be expanded even for elementary treatment, but this set alone already has some interesting properties.

If there is a set A such that if we pick an arbitrary number, call it x, and x ∈ N, we say A ⊆ N. In words, A is a subset of N.

By x ∈ A we mean that x is "in" A, or that x is an element of A.

While we have not defined properly a set, membership or inclusion, we have already a feel for what N ought to be like.

Principle of mathematical induction
Let A ⊆ N with the following properties:

(i) $$1\in A$$

(ii) $$n\in A$$ implies $$n+1\in A$$

Then A = N

Remark
The principle of mathematical induction is implied by the 'least element principle' (2.1). For, assume that 1.1 holds and let B be the set of all elements of N not in A. If B has any elements (that is, is not empty) then it must have a least one. Call this least element n. Then, by (i), $$n\ne 1$$. Thus n - 1 is a natural number and is not in B and so is in A. By (ii), $$n=(n-1)+1$$ is a natural number which is in A. But now n is in both A and B which is impossible. So B must have been empty. That is, A = N.

This serves as a fundamental property of the natural numbers, and we, further defining order, will call these numbers well-ordered, primarily because of this principle. In more rigorous terms, we would have to identify a separate axiom, called the axiom of induction, which encompasses this property. However, for our current purposes, this is sufficient.

Principle of mathematical induction (modified)
Let A be a set of natural numbers which has the following properties:

(i) The natural number $$n_0$$ is in A

(ii) If $$n\ge n_0$$ and $$n\in A$$, then $$n+1\in A$$

Then A contains all natural number $$n\ge n_0$$

Numbers
In this section, we shall describe some of the more commonly occurring types of numbers together with some of their properties.

Natural Numbers, N
As already mentioned, these are just ordinary counting numbers 1,2,3,4,...,29... . Note that zero has not been included in this set. This varies with different books or mathematicians and may include zero as a natural number.

An important property of the natural numbers is the ordering. Note that natural numbers come with an idea of size so that we can talk about larger and smaller natural numbers.

Integers, Z
By the integers, we mean the natural numbers together with their negatives and zero. Although we all, presumably, have a reasonably clear practical idea of how to work with the integers, there are definite problems as to what they actually are. Referring to such things as the 'number line' does not solve these problems because it relies heavily on our intuition.

One way that mathematicians solve this problem is to make an artificial construction which produces an artificial object with the properties we expect of the integers. Although we do not use this in everyday mathematics, it gives a precise definition which we can use to justify our use of negative numbers and also provides a model we can use when we wish to develop quite new constructions which are not so intuitively reasonable. We shall not describe this for the integers but will give a brief description next of a similar process starting with the integers and producing the rational numbers.

Rational Numbers, Q
With the integers, we have a number system which is closed under addition, multiplication and subtraction. The next step is to produce a collection numbers which is also closed under division (except by zero). This is the rational numbers. Again we should all be able to manipulate rational numbers but there is some problem with what they actually mean. For example, what does it mean to say that $$\frac{2}{3}=\frac{4}{6}=\frac{6}{9}$$? We usually want the equals sign to denote the fact that two things are identical and the symbols $$\frac{2}{3}$$ and $$\frac{4}{6}$$ are certainly not identical.

So we redefine what we mean by equality of fractions. Let us consider the set of ordered pairs of integers with the second integer non-zero; that is, $$\mathbb{Q}'=\{(x,y):a,b\in \mathbb{Z}$$ and $$b \ne 0\}$$ (An ordered pair is just a pair in which it is specified which comes first and which second.) We want these ordered pairs to represent rational numbers but on a many-to-one basis. So we redefine equality of these ordered pairs by $$(a,b)\equiv (c,d)$$ if and only if ad = bc (Read this as (a,b) is equivalent to (c,d).) This corresponds to the usual definition of equality of fractions. We can then think of one rational number as being represented by a collection of ordered pairs of integers all equivalent to each other. Two ordered pairs represent the same rational number exactly when they are equivalent. WE can then go on to define, in terms of the ordered pairs, the usual operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. For example, (a,b) + (c,d) = (ad+bc,bd) We will define addition of rational numbers by taking an ordered pair for each number and then adding these ordered pairs. There is still a problem however. We need to be sure (without checking each case) that, for example, because $$(2,3)\equiv (4,6)\equiv (6,9)$$, then also $$(2,3)+(5,6)\equiv (4,6)+(5,6)\equiv (6,9)+(5,6)$$

What is order?
Again, as we try to find a way to define, based on the already established ideas of addition, and the intuitive idea of order, in what sense is a number larger than another. In what way can we arrange the numbers?

With N this is easy, we say, if a, b are natural numbers, a < b if there is a natural number c such that a + c = b. From the principle of induction, we can thus order N in the following manner: 1, 2, 3, ... As has been done before with our intuition.

With Z, we run into a problem, where do we start? Since the principle of induction does not apply on Z as a whole, we have to write it as ..., -1, 0, 1, ..., leaving "..." on both sides. However, the definition, as before, applies.

With Q, clearly $$\frac{1}{2}$$ > $$\frac{1}{3}$$, yet $$\frac{1}{6}$$ is not in N and so our definition fails. The new definition would be

Definition: (Order on Q) Let a, b be rational numbers, then a < b if there is a positive rational number c such that a + c = b.

We call a rational c positive if it is equivalent to a rational $$\frac{n}{m}$$ such that n and m are both natural. In other words, if c = $$\frac{p}{q}$$, then c is positive if pq is a natural number. A simple exercise would be to show these are equivalent. (Note: Statements are equivalent if each implies the other.)

Any set such that for each two elements in it we can definitely say a < b, a > b, or a = b is called totally ordered.

The least element property
Any non-empty subset of the natural numbers has a least element. The words 'any non-empty subset' mean that the subset we take should have at least one element in it.

Any set with the least element property is called well-ordered. Thus N is well-ordered as above, while Z and Q are not.

Order properties of natural numbers
(i) There is no largest natural number.

(ii) There are natural numbers which are nearest neighbours in the sense that there is no natural number strictly between them.

Definition
A proof is simply a mathematical argument designed to convince the reader of some fact. However an intuitive proof differs from an inductive proof. The former being a fact that can be assumed to be an observable constant from daily experiences (e.g. when two test tubes of milk are poured into one beaker, then if we divide the final volume again into the two beakers, we should get full test tubes again (almost). This explains why ½+½ will still be 1. Since this follows from intuition/observation/experience alone it can be considered an intuitive proof.). The latter, inductive proof, is of the type where many intuitive proofs can be combined to get the desired result. For example, we know that pouring two test tubes of milk gave us two units in the beaker, so if the volume of the test tube can be regarded as a unit volume, then n such test tubes will give us a total of n units of milk in the beaker. Mathematical proof itself is based on natural logic and philosophy. Modern mathematics generally assumes most proofs to be absolute, not without reason though. This allows them to engage in complex problems using purely inductive reasoning. However the basis for all that still remains natural philosophy and logic. This is reflected in Newton's title to a relatively abstract mathematical treatment of his work being titled as 'Principles of natural philosophy'.

Mathematical terms
and - 'A and B' means that both A is true and B is true

not - This has the usual meaning in English; note that not(not(A)) is the same as A

or - This is always what is called 'inclusive or'. That is 'A or B' means that either A is true or B is true or both.

for all - This has the usual meaning in English

there exists - This has the usual meaning in English

implies; if-then - These kinds of statements are at the centre of mathematical reasoning.

if and only if; equivalent - 'A implies B' and 'B implies A'

Theorem, Proposition, Lemma - They all mean roughly the same thing but are in decreasing order of importance.

Corollary - Something which follows easily from a Theorem but for which the statement is not entirely obvious from the statement of the Theorem.

Summation Notation
The summation notation is a convenient abbreviation for sums of several real numbers. If $$a_1$$,$$a_2$$,...,$$a_n$$ are reals, we define $$\sum_{k=1}^n a_k = a_1+a_2+...+a_n$$ The summation index k is often called a dummy index, as it can be replaced by any other letter: $$\sum_{k=1}^n a_k = \sum_{i=1}^n a_i = \sum_{j=1}^n a_j$$, etc. Sometimes it is convenient to start summation from 0 instead of 1, or from some other integral value. For instance, $$\sum_{k=0}^3 x_k = x_0+x_1+x_2+x_3$$, or $$\sum_{j=2}^5 j^3 = 2^3+3^3+4^3+5^3$$, etc. The most important properties of the summation notation can be summarized as

$$\sum_{k=1}^n (a_k+b_k) = \sum_{k=1}^n a_k +\sum_{k=1}^n b_k $$ (additive property)

$$\sum_{k=1}^n (ca_k) = c \sum_{i=1}^n (a_k)$$ (homogeneous property)

$$\sum_{k=1}^n a_k = \sum_{k=0}^{n-1} a_{k+1} = \sum_{k=2}^{n+1} a_{k-1}$$ (index translation)

$$\sum_{k=1}^n (a_k-a_{k-1}) = a_n-a_0$$ (telescoping)

title: Algebra/Theory


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Primary Mathematics

This book focuses on primary school mathematics for students, whether children or adults. It is assumed that no calculators are used, to encourage mental arithmetic. A parallel project at Wikiversity is underway to provide teaching tools to parents and educators, whether in traditional or home-schooling environments, at Primary School Mathematics.''

 * /General Overview of the Teaching of Mathematics/

Getting started

 * /Numbers/
 * /Adding numbers/
 * /Subtracting numbers/
 * /Multiplying numbers/
 * /Dividing numbers/
 * /Prime numbers/
 * /Factors and Primes/
 * /Method for Factoring/
 * /Negative numbers/
 * /Fractions/ (rational numbers)
 * /Working with fractions/
 * /Decimals/
 * /Percentages/
 * /Metric system/
 * /Time expressions/
 * /Unit expressions/
 * /Introduction to significant digits/
 * /Powers, roots, and exponents/
 * /Scientific and engineering notation/
 * /Average, median, and mode/
 * /Probability/

title: Primary Mathematics


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Conart/Music

Conworld : conart : conmusic

Introduction
Most westerners are unaware of the great variety there exists in music. Music is by no means the universal language it often is supposed to be. Even in such basic areas as the very building blocks of tonality there exist significant differences between Thai, Indian, Arab, Balinese and European music.

In order to be better equipped to create a new system, it is good to have some kind of grasp of what human cultures have created.

Therefore, this chapter will mostly analyze a number of musical systems somewhat superficially, and also go into the necessary math. Firstly, we will go into how scales are constructed. Secondly, we will look at some rather peculiar vocal techniques that mankind has come up with. Thirdly, miscellaneous things having to do with the music itself will be dealt with. Fourthly, the social and religious aspects of music will be discussed, and finally I will provide you with some listening advice.

The building blocks of music
 * Can there be alternatives to C D E F G A B C..?
 * So, what's the difference?
 * So why are pentatonic scales so popular?

The instrumentation and
 * Is it possible to sing in that way?
 * Are there other things to spice it up with?
 * So, how do the people relate to music?
 * Listening recommendations.

title: Conart/Music


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Talk:Conart/Music

if someone knows anything about saame jojk, yoddling, or opera singing technique, some rather short chapters on those would be nice to have, since the two former have interesting characteristics, and the latter is so intimately bound to the evolution of the opera as an art form and the need for achieving volume without amplification and its subsequent effect on vibrato etc.

I will not be able to update this for the next couple of weeks, due to lack of Internet access at my upcoming apartment. However, I will continue the writing of it, plan it, make drafts, etc. and update it as soon as I get my computer plugged. Yep.

Markus Miekk-oja 08:53, 20 Aug 2004 (UTC)

title: Talk:Conart/Music


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Mathematical Proof/Methods of Proof/Proof by Induction

The beauty of induction is that it allows a theorem to be proven true where an infinite number of cases exist without exploring each case individually. Induction is analogous to an infinite row of dominoes with each domino standing on its end. If you want to make all the dominoes fall, you can either:
 * 1) push on the first one, wait to see what happens, and then check each domino afterwards (which may take a long time if there's an infinite number of dominoes!)
 * 2) or you can prove that if any domino falls, then it will cause the domino after it to fall. (i.e. if the first one falls then the second one will fall, and if the second one falls then the third one will fall, etc.)

Induction, essentially, is the methodology outlined in point 2.

Parts of Induction
Induction is composed of three parts:
 * 1) The Base Case (in the domino analogy, this shows the first domino will fall)
 * 2) The Induction Hypothesis (in the domino analogy, we assume that a particular domino will fall)
 * 3) The Inductive Step (in the domino analogy, we prove that the domino we assume will fall will cause the next domino to fall)

Weak Induction
Weak induction is used to show that a given property holds for all members of a countable inductive set, this usually is used for the set of natural numbers.

Weak induction for proving a statement $$P(n)$$ (that depends on $$n$$) relies on two steps:

 * $$P(n)$$ is true for a certain base step. Usually the base case is $$n=1$$ or $$n=0$$

 * $$P(k)\to P(k+1)$$. That is, if $$P(k)$$ is true, then $$P(k+1)$$ is true.

If these two properties hold, one may induce that the property holds for all elements in the set in question. Returning to the example, if you are sure that you called your neighbor, and you knew that everyone who was called in turn called his/her neighbor, then you would be guaranteed that everyone on the block had been called (assuming you had a linear block, or that it curved around nicely).

Examples
The first example of a proof by induction is always 'the sum of the first n terms:'

 * Theorem 2.4.1. For any fixed $$n\in \mathbb N,$$ $$\sum_{i=1}^{n}{i}=\frac{n(n+1)}{2}$$

 * Proof
 * Base step: $$1=\frac{1\cdot2}{2}$$, therefore the base case holds.

 * Inductive step: Assume that $$\sum_{i=0}^ni=\frac{n(n+1)}{2}$$ . Consider $$\sum_{i=1}^{n+1}i$$.

 * $$\begin{align}

\sum_{i=1}^{n+1}i&=\sum_{i=1}^ni+(n+1)=\frac{n(n+1)}{2}+n+1\\ &=\left(\frac{n}{2}+1\right)(n+1)\\ &=\frac{(n+1)(n+2)}{2}\\ &=\frac{(n+1)\big((n+1)+1\big)}{2} \end{align}$$

So the inductive case holds. Now by induction we see that the theorem is true.

Reverse Induction
Reverse induction is a method of using an inductive step that uses a negative in the inductive step. It is a minor variant of weak induction. The process still applies only to countable sets, generally the set of whole numbers or integers, and will frequently stop at 1 or 0, rather than working for all positive numbers.

Reverse induction works in the following case.

 * The property holds for a given value, say $$M$$.

 * Given that the property holds for a given case, say $$n=k+1$$, Show that the property holds for $$n=k$$.

Then the property holds for all values $$n\le M$$.

Reverse induction is also usable in the general case : "to establish the validity of a sequence of propositions $$P(n)\ (n\ge1)$$, it is enough to establish the following

(a) $$P(n)$$ is valid for inﬁnitely many $$n$$.

(b) If $$P(n+1)$$ is valid, then so is $$P(n)$$.

It can be the case that we can easily prove $$P(1)$$ and if $$P$$ for $$n=m$$ so $$P$$ for $$n=2m$$. In this case we have (a) for the infinitely many $$n=2^k\ (k\ge0)$$.

Strong Induction
In weak induction, for the inductive step, we only required that for a given $$n$$, its immediate predecessor $$n-1$$ satisfies the theorem (i.e., $$P(n-1)$$ is true). In strong induction, we require that not only the immediate predecessor, but all predecessors of $$n$$ satisfy the theorem. The variation in the inductive step is:

 * If $$P(k)$$ is true for all $$k<n$$, then $$P(n)$$ is true.

The reason this is called strong induction is fairly obvious — the hypothesis in the inductive step is much stronger than the hypothesis is in the case of weak induction. Of course, for finite induction it turns out to be the same hypothesis, but in the case of transfinite sets, weak induction is not even well-defined, since some sets have elements that do not have an immediate predecessor.

Transfinite Induction
Used in proving theorems involving transfinite cardinals. This technique is used in set theory to prove properties of cardinals, since there is rarely another way to go about it.

Inductive Set
We first define the notion of a well-ordered set. A set $$X$$ is well-ordered if there is a total order $$<$$ on $$X$$ and that whenever $$Y\sub X$$ is non-empty, there is a least-element in $$Y$$. That is, $$\exist p\in Y$$ such that $$p<q\ \forall q\in Y$$.

An inductive set is a set $$A\sub X$$ such that the following hold:

 * 1) $$\alpha\in A$$ (where $$\alpha$$ is the least element of $$X$$)
 * 2) If $$\beta\in A$$ then $$\forall\gamma\in X$$ such that $$\beta<\gamma,\gamma\in A$$

Of course, you look at that and say "Wait a minute. That means that $$A=X$$!" And, of course you'd be right. That's exactly why induction works. The principle of induction is the theorem that says:

 * Theorem 2.4.2. If $$X$$ is a non-empty well-ordered set and $$A\sub X$$ is an inductive subset of $$X$$ then $$A=X$$.

The proof of this theorem is left as a very simple exercise. Here we note that the set of natural numbers is clearly well-ordered with the normal order that you are familiar with, so $$\N$$ is an inductive set. If you accept the axiom of choice, then it follows that every set can be well-ordered.


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User:Jrash~enwikibooks

I read Wikibooks as much as I can, fixing typos and adding little pieces of information as I go along. That's pretty much it.

see Jrash (Wikipedia)

title: User:Jrash~enwikibooks


text:
Conworld/Philosophy

Why make a conworld?
Why do people conworld? Why do people conlang? People go about doing these things for very different reasons, and not surprisingly, the results can also be widely different.

Some people micromanage when they conworld. They draw detailed maps of plate tectonics and then synchronize these with enormous evolutionary trees; they derive meticulously all of their languages from common ancestor languages, tweaking every single irregular verb; their maps are covered with carefully shaded mountainsides and hydrologically plausible drainage systems. For these people, that final satisfaction of everything fitting together perfectly is where the fun lies. But others disagree; their continents are broad strokes of geometrical wonder that utterly defy geological explanation; their flora and fauna are wondrously improbable; their forests are enchanted with magical beings. How did these magical beings originate? Who cares? For what is the fun of conworlding if you can't have some freedom?

Some people willingly and deliberately inject ideas from the real world into their conworld, using their conworld as a kind of test bed for political and philosophical theory (what if an anarchist society existed in ancient times or subjective idealism had practical implications for technology?). People may feel passionately about a real-world culture, or philosophy, and they reflect it into their conworld, when their nations, perhaps, come to resemble greatly those of Medieval Europe, or Arabia, or the Mayans. But others want to create something that is utterly new and completely unlike anything that has ever existed. To them, the real world is boring — and it's what's in your mind that's really unique and interesting!

Some people make their conworlds utopias. Their political beliefs are reflected in their conworlds; all of their citizens are happy, productive, prosperous members of what they think would be a perfect society. Along a similar vein, some people make their conlangs poetic and melodic, their conreligions noble and benevolent. But there are others who take on a more realist, even pessimistic view. These people have conworlds filled with slavery, poverty, lawlessness, and war; their conlangs are quirky, if not downright unpleasant; their conreligions initiate bloody conquests and massacres. And what kind of conworld itself constitutes a utopia is as varied as the religious and political beliefs of the utopians who create these conworlds: a world bordering on the modern and futuristic with beeping electronic technology and commerce and endless entertainment; a medieval world in whose Chain of Being everyone lives beneath a Good King figure; an anarchy; a realization of Christian ideals or Sharia; a peaceful, pastel-colored butterfly-inhabited island where there are no wars; a working model of Communism in which citizens greet their comrades; a theocracy below a God Emperor with tight gender roles into which everyone neatly and dutifully falls to please their ancestors.

Some people conworld for another, different purpose. They are perhaps hosting a role-playing game and need to construct a background with richness and detail; perhaps they are writing a novel and need some place to set it; or perhaps the conworlds exist for the very purpose of expositing their conception of a utopia. And then there are others to whom the conworld itself is the purpose. To them, the creation is the conworld; if they do eventually turn it into the setting of a novel, then the novel is merely an exposition of the great masterpiece behind it — the conworld.

title: Conworld/Philosophy


text:
Talk:Conworld/Philosophy

Okay — after 4 paragraphs I'm rapidly running out of both inspiration and writing skill. Does someone want to help out in expanding this a bit? -- Ran 08:21, 8 Aug 2004 (UTC)

You need more on the general mindset of the CON-worlder. As a CON-worlder myself I see myself in a lot of what you wrote, but, as I said, it needs some work.--Akira417

title: Talk:Conworld/Philosophy


text:
Basic Automobiles

Introduction
This document attempts to describe everyday use of an automobile. The class of automobile considered is an average performance, front-wheel drive consumer vehicle.

Accelerator
The accelerator, also known as the gas pedal controls the engine output. Pressing the accelerator increases the revolutions of the engine, mainly by allowing more air to enter the combustion chambers, or the cylinders, per revolution. The revolutions for various stages in this section depend on the engine, and every engine has a unique set of values. The tachometer gives the value of engine speed at any time. However, an experienced driver is supposed to know the speed of the engine without taking eyes off the road. When the car is first started, the engine moves at a speed called the idle speed. Many consumer cars provide means of changing the idle speed of the engine.

Say the idle speed of an engine is 1000 rpm (revolutions per minute). There is a minimum speed below which the engine will not fire, called the stall speed, and would be about 750 rpm for our engine. The other bounding value for the engine speed is called the red line. This is the maximum speed at which the engine can safely operate. For our engine, it is about 7000 rpm. Thus, it is the job of the driver to make sure that the engine speed stays between the stall speed and the red line. Moreover, the accelerator plays a very important role in the over all working of the engine thereby controlling the intake of the air inside the cylinder.

Steering
Almost all the vehicles on the road today have some sort of steering wheel which is used to turn the tires. Typically, a rack and pinion mechanism is used which will turn the tires by a few degrees for several rotations of the steering wheel. Some vehicles have a dead zone at the center of the rack, so that you don't have to constantly adjust the steering while driving on the highway.

In the normal position, both hands should be on the wheel in the 10-2 position. To make a turn in a vehicle, rotate the steering wheel at the start of the turn. To make a turn to the left while moving forward, move your left hand to the top of the wheel, and pull down to the left. At the same time, let the wheel run through your right hand. As you near the end of the turn, steady the vehicle by moving your right hand to the top of the wheel and pulling down and right. Do not allow the wheel to spin back on its own! Even though this is very tempting, if you do, you will very likely lose control of the vehicle. You should have the wheels straightened when the turn is complete, or the vehicle will travel in an S shape, which is bad form.

Most consumer vehicles are understeered, as it is easier to handle for novices and unskilled drivers. Also, it is difficult to achieve neutral or oversteer in front wheel drive vehicles.

Power Steering
Most modern vehicles marketed towards the average consumer has some sort of power steering installed. This means that the actual task of turning the wheels is performed by indirect means. Power steering is not preferred in racing cars as they reduce road feedback. However, it is much appreciated by the general public, especially for low speed maneuvers. New technology has come up with a very good solution--the speed sensitive power steering. This kind of power steering gives effortless low speed maneuvers, but firms up at higher speeds so that you can judge the grip of the tires accurately.

In general, there are two kinds of power steerings available--hydraulic power steering and electronic power steering. Electronic power steering is the more advanced of the two and is found in more advanced/modern vehicles. However, the feedback in hydraulic power steering is much better, so that driving is much more fun compared to a car with electronic power steering.

Turning Radius and Maneuverability
The turning radius of a vehicle is the radius of the smallest circle in which it can turn. Two different values are given--the often quoted value is the curb turning radius, which is half the width of a road in which you can make a smooth turn without hitting the curb. The other value is called wall to wall turning radius, which is half the distance between parallel walls where the vehicle can turn.

The turning radius of a vehicle depends mainly on the wheel base and the wheel cut of the vehicle. Wheel base is the distance between the front and the rear axle. Wheel cut is the maximum angle through which the tires turn when the steering is rotated from the center. The smaller the wheel base, the smaller the turning radius, while smaller the wheel cut, the larger the turning radius. It may seem that a larger wheel cut is preferable. However, a larger wheel rotation will lead to more side forces on the tires, which might damage them.

Note that when a vehicle turns, the front wheels will have to turn by different angles so that there is no slippage. In a turn, the inner front wheel will have a larger cut. This is achieved by a mechanism known as Ackerman linkage. One of the modifications that you can make on a stock vehicle is increasing the wheel cut.

Given the front and rear overhang, the wheel base, and the wheel cut, we can calculate the wall to wall turning radius for low speed maneuvers for a vehicle.

The turning radius is related to the maneuverability of the vehicle, and also affects the design of parking spaces and driveways. What complicates the design is that the radius of the vehicle's travel varies continuously. Commercial software is available for such applications, but it takes a very simplified view--i.e., that the radius is constant, and equal to the turning radius. While this may enable us to see the absolute minimum space, the assumption is that either the driver stops the vehicle completely before making the turn (a very difficult maneuver without power steering), or that the steering is rotated extremely rapidly. What is more natural is that the vehicle is steered slightly at higher speeds, and more rotation is applied as the speed reduces, with the turning radius being achieved about 20% into the turn. Similar conditions apply to exiting the turn.

Aerodynamic Forces and Stability
Modern automobiles travel at high speeds on flat roads, and this leads to large aerodynamic forces acting on the vehicle. The streamlined, close to airfoil nature of many vehicles lead to a large amount of lift even at moderate speeds. Many sports cars attempt to reduce the lift problem by having rear spoilers. Some of the higher end (though not the highest) cars attempt to provide more downward force using a rear wing. Note that such tricks increase the drag and reduce the top speed of the car.

Racing vehicles have attempted to deal with instability by lowering the body so that air cannot get between the under body and the road. Non racing vehicles are also expected to handle certain amount of unevenness in their path, so that they have a large breakover angle. Another method employed is to use a pump to lower the pressure at the bottom of the car, reducing the lift. However, this is not very practical for a standard car.

Drag Coefficient
The drag coefficient of a car gives an indication of how aerodynamic the car is. However, note that CD, the drag coefficient is defined as

$$C_D = \frac{drag}{\frac{1}{2}\rho V^2A}$$

where V is the air velocity of the car, and A is the frontal area. Thus, a small sports car will have much lower drag compared to a van for the same velocity. Modern automobiles quote a CD value of less than .35, but frontal area is what counts in this situation.

As can be seen from the above equation, the drag force is proportional to the square of the air speed. Thus the horsepower required to overcome drag force is proportional to the third power of the speed of the vehicle. The rolling resistance is approximately independent of the speed of the vehicle, so that the horsepower required to overcome rolling resistance is proportional to the speed of the vehicle (i.e. it increases linearly). Thus, it is easy to see why it most sports vehicles have top speeds around 200 mph--to have a 20 mph increase in top speed a vehicle with 400 HP engine would need an additional 130 HP!

Driving a Standard (or Manual) transmission
Many high performance cars, like older (before 1990) sports cars have manual transmissions. Also, cars with very low power output have manual transmission. For the sports cars, the owners are interested in the highest possible performance, and automatic transmissions, which contain "slush boxes" are not acceptable. The really small cars produce so little power in their engines that they cannot afford to waste any in the automatic transmission. Even a very well designed automatic will have about 5% losses due to the torque converter. Also, automatic transmissions are relatively heavier and more expensive compared to equivalent manual transmissions. The really high performance sports car being sold today have the automatic manual transmissions, which have the best of both worlds.

Preparation
Before driving the car, make sure that you are able to sit in a comfortable position. Adjust the rear view mirrors so that you have a good field of vision. Depress the various pedals to make sure that you are comfortable with the operations necessary for driving the vehicle.

Starting From Rest
Many manual transmissions have a hand brake (also called parking brake). When parked, they are secured by pressing the button and pulling the parking brake upwards until enough pressure is applied to secure the vehicle.

If the vehicle is on a level road, starting is quite straightforward. Place your right leg above the brake pedal and press down just to be safe. You will have to apply a relatively large force because the power brakes depend on engine vacuum to work. Put the vehicle in neutral gear by depressing the clutch and moving the lever down to the neutral position. For a modern vehicle, you can start by turning the key, which will start the engine at idle speed. For older vehicles, you may need to depress the gas pedal when you start. For both cases, after the engine has started, slightly depress the gas pedal to increase engine speed and hold it there. Some sports cars such as the Porsche Carrera GT have variable idle speed, so that the idle speed increases as the clutch engages, which means that you can start the engine without depressing the accelerator at all. You should not race the engine, as it will cause a lot of damage, the only resistance to increase in the engine speed is the inertia of the small fly wheel. Release the clutch to the bite point, where the vehicle starts to move slightly forward. After this, release the clutch slowly and smoothly and this will move the vehicle forward. After the clutch has engaged fully, remove foot from the clutch. You should never drive the vehicle with foot resting on the clutch. Depress the accelerator some more to increase speed.

Follow the same procedure, but with the reverse gear instead of the first gear for moving backwards from rest. Note however, that you will not be running with the clutch fully engaged in most cases since the speed will be too high for basic maneuvers.

Starting on an Incline
Many times, you may be forced to park on a hill or incline. In this case, it is important that you be able to start the vehicle without it going backward, and potentially hitting someone behind you. There is a good way and two bad ways to do this.

The first bad way is to use the handbrake to hold the car while you put your foot on the accelerator and the clutch pedal. Now press the accelerator slightly and hold it there, so that the engine is at a speed somewhat higher than idle speed. Release the clutch till it reaches bite point, and as you feel the car starting to move forward, release the handbrake. This still requires considerable skill, as the engine will stall if you don't release the handbrake in time. Further, it will not work in cars which don't have a handbrake (many manual transmissions don't).

The second bad way is to put the vehicle in first gear and engaging the clutch fast enough while depressing the accelerator. The vehicle might not even move back if you do it fast enough. This can be done in places where you don't have any vehicles right behind you, and even if the vehicle moves back a little, you don't cause any damage.

The good way to start a vehicle on an incline is to hold the vehicle on the incline using the foot brake and slowly release the clutch. When you feel the clutch reach the bite point, remove the foot quickly from the brake and depress the accelerator slightly. Note that if you engage the clutch fully, or very close to that, the engine will stall as it tries to work against the slope and the foot brake. So the ideal point for releasing the brake is at a very small point before the bite point. Now, the engine is at its idle speed, and cannot pull the vehicle up the slope if the clutch is engaged. Even if you engage the clutch slowly at this point, the engine will stall. You will have to depress the accelerator so that the engine speed (and the torque) increases. Now release the clutch smoothly, while releasing the accelerator slightly. If you release the clutch and don't release the accelerator, the vehicle will move forward with a larger speed than you want. If you have done everything right, the vehicle will move forward, and this works in all situations. The usual mistake in this procedure comes from the inability to judge the bite point. On level ground, you can feel the vehicle start to move forward when the clutch starts to engage. However, on the slope, this effect is quite subtle and is easily missed, as the brake prevents the vehicle from moving. If you release the clutch too much, the engine will stall. In that case, depress the clutch, shift to neutral and start the engine again. However, if you don't release the clutch enough when you remove your foot from the brake, then you will be in a lot of trouble. If the clutch has made some contact, then you can depress the accelerator a lot to increase the torque, and move the vehicle forward. However, note that when you do this, you will have to release the accelerator fast as the clutch engages or the vehicle will shoot forward. Also, when you engage the clutch at such high speeds and torques, there is a lot of wear. If you release the accelerator too much, the engine will stall. The other possibility is that the clutch hasn't engaged at all when you remove your foot from the brake. This is the worst result possible, as the vehicle will now move backward, possibly colliding with the vehicle behind you. In driving tests, the vehicle moving back is instant failure. Note that it is a very bad idea to hold the vehicle on an incline using the clutch, as it can cause rapid clutch wear.

Stopping a Vehicle
Depress the brake slightly to slow the vehicle, and once a good amount of speed has been removed depress the clutch fully and apply brakes smoothly to stop the vehicle wherever you want. After the vehicle comes to a stop, put the vehicle in neutral without releasing the brake. Turn off the engine. Now depress the clutch and if it is a downhill slope put the vehicle in reverse. Otherwise, put it in first gear. Release the clutch, and only then release the brake. You can stop a vehicle from any gear, but remember not to run the vehicle with the clutch depressed for a long time as it can still cause clutch wear. If your vehicle has a handbrake, engage the hand brake now.

Shifting to Higher Gears
Once you have successfully engaged the clutch in first gear, you should immediately increase speed and engage the second gear. You should never operate the vehicle only in the first gear. It is used for starting the movement of the car from a dead stop and low speeds under 15 mph constant speed. Also, never shift to first gear while the vehicle is moving. To engage the second gear, release the accelerator and depress the clutch fully.

If you don't depress the clutch fully, you won't be able to move the shift lever in well designed cars. In many cars, no such fool proof method exists and the result will most likely be a sickening grinding sound of your transmission falling apart.

Move the lever down smoothly to the center. It should automatically fall into the neutral position. Now move the lever to the left and then pull down. Release the clutch smoothly and after that is done, depress the accelerator to increase speed suitable for second gear.

Your aim is to operate the vehicle at the highest gear possible considering the state of the road and traffic. Thus you should shift to the third gear as soon as possible, and this is as soon as your vehicle speed reaches the minimum value at which it can be driven in the third gear without stalling. To shift into third gear, release the accelerator and depress the clutch fully. Move the shift lever up slightly, and it will fall into the neutral position. In most passenger cars you can now move the lever up from here to the third gear position.

However, some vehicles may have the neutral position midway between the first and third lever positions, so that you may need to move it slightly to the right to move it up to third. As you can imagine, it takes quite a lot of practice before you can shift to the third gear of such a vehicle, which makes it very difficult to drive. Hopefully, the market will eliminate such unfriendly designs.

For a vehicle which has six gears, however, the standard H is necessarily different. For instance, the typical BMW shift has the reverse in the leftmost top position, with nothing vertically down. The six forward gears are arranged opposite each other in pairs, with the neutral between third and fourth.

Now that you have moved the lever to the third gear position, release the clutch. Depress the accelerator to increase speed and move to the next higher gear.

Moving to fourth gear is straightforward in almost all vehicles (even in the difficult ones mentioned earlier). Remove your foot from the accelerator, and depress the clutch fully. Pull the shift lever all the way down and this will move it to the fourth gear position. Now release the clutch and place your foot on the accelerator and increase the speed by depressing the accelerator.

Most vehicles have five forward gears, and engaging the fifth gear (usually the overdrive gear) is not difficult. Remove your foot from the accelerator, and depress the clutch fully. Move the shift lever up from the fourth gear and it will fall into the neutral position. Now move it all the way to the right and move it up to the fifth gear position. Release the clutch and depress the accelerator to achieve the speed limit value for the road. Note that you should never skip a gear, in most situations. So what exactly happens when you carry out the instructions above? When you take your foot off the accelerator, the engine loses speed due to internal friction and tries to fall back into idle speed. By the time you complete the actions required to shift the gear position, the rpm of the engine has fallen a fair bit. This is good, because you need the engine rpm to decrease when you shift gears up. Thus, taking the foot of the accelerator for the duration achieves the ideal. This clears up the intent of the statement in the beginning of the paragraph. The idea is to reduce the engine rpm to an acceptable value while keeping the road speed up. The reduction in speed will not be possible with skipping gears on a level road. If you wait a long time, then the road speed will also decrease, so that it will not be greater than the minimum required for that gear. Thus, you cannot shift from third to fifth, say, under normal circumstances.

Shifting to Lower Gears
The most fuel efficient setting to drive a vehicle is at the highest gear available. However, there are cases when you might shift to a lower gear. The most common is when you have to reduce speed due to road conditions or traffic. There are two common methods to shift down, and one is much simpler than the other.

The common way to downshift to reduce speed is as follows. Remove foot from the accelerator and apply brake so that the speed of the vehicle reduces. Now depress the clutch fully and continue applying brakes till the desired speed is reached. Now release the brake and move the lever to the gear position appropriate for the speed. Release clutch slowly. Depress accelerator and continue. For instance, if you see that the vehicle in front is temporarily slowing down, you might want to shift down one gear, say, from fifth to fourth. However, if there is a major obstruction in the road, you might want to slow down to walking speed, and this requires engaging the clutch when in second gear. Remember that unlike shifting up, you can choose whatever gear you want when downshifting depending on the vehicle speed, except the first. Choose the first gear only if you have come to a complete stop.

Double De-Clutching
Note that when you need to move to a lower gear, you want the engine to spin at a higher rpm than it is doing while in the higher gear. But if you have read the explanation of up shifting in the previous section, you will see that the engine speed will fall when you remove your foot from the accelerator. Now if you engage the clutch, the car will jerk as the engine tries to pick up speed. This is very hard on the synchro and the engine. The standard way to deal with this is to depress the accelerator while engaging the clutch slowly. However, this causes excessive clutch wear. The other method, which requires some skill, is called double de-clutching.

In this method, you take the foot off the accelerator, and depress the clutch fully. Then move the lever into the neutral position and release the clutch. Now depress the accelerator for a very short duration, which can be safely done as the clutch is engaged. Now release the accelerator and depress the clutch. Move the lever to the next lower gear, and the clutch can be engaged smoothly. Notice that you will be using the brake to slow the vehicle down, and this method requires you to take your foot off the brake to press the accelerator for a while. If you are braking because of some traffic trouble or an obstruction on the road, you may not want to do this. Also, this causes a sudden change in the forces applied on the vehicle, and it can affect the contact between the tire and the surface. Ideally, all the actions in the vehicles must be smooth, and you should avoid sudden acceleration, braking, steering adjustment etc. One way to avoid taking your foot off the brake is the so called "heel and toe" method. In this method, you apply brakes to slow the car down, and then depress the accelerator with your heel while keeping your toe on the brake when the gear position is in neutral. As you can imagine, doing so without changing the pressure on the brake pedal requires a lot of practice, but once done right, it is the best method.

When to Downshift?
While the primary reason for downshifting is to reduce speed, there are other situations where it is useful. You get higher torque in lower gears, and you may want to shift down when facing a hill, if you want to avoid a stall. Another is when you want to overtake a vehicle quickly. You can get much more power when overtaking in, say, the fourth gear rather than the fifth gear if the vehicle has a 5 speed transmission. However, remember that the engine will red line (above recommended "rotations per minute of the crankshaft" which is referred too as "RPM") at much lower speeds in lower gears.

Fuel Efficiency
The manual transmission is very efficient in terms of power transfer in that it doesn't have the fixed 5% loss in automatics. However, another reason many prefer manual transmissions is that it places a lot of control in the hands of the driver. While climbing a hill, you use a lower gear, since it will have larger torque available. However, once at the top, you can shift to neutral and turn off the engine, and roll down the hill. At the foot of the hill, depending on the speed you can shift to the appropriate gear. Note that the above may not be possible on many modern computer controlled cars, where shutting off the engine may lead to damage many of the running parts, and locking of the steering wheel.

Power Band
The power band is the range of engine rpm where it produces good power output and this is between the torque peak and the power peak. In fact, the whole purpose of the gear box is to make sure that the engine works inside the power band at all times. Consider a vehicle going up a hill--as it moves up from level ground, the slope will cause and increased load against which the wheels have to work. If the engine is already in the power band, the reduction in speed will increase the torque (as it is beyond the torque peak), and you won't have to shift down. On the other hand, if the engine is not in the power band, the uphill motion will cause the RPM and torque to fall, requiring a quick down shift. If you enter a slope with the engine already lugging (too slow (low rpm)for that gear), you may have to double de-clutch (modern cars have synchronisers in all gears for upshifts and downshifts except reverse) rapidly to a lower gear or a gear two positions lower. For instance, if you approach a hill at the lower limit of your fourth gear, shifting down to third may not help due to the loss of momentum due to the slope of the hill. You will need to double de-clutch into second gear and then accelerate into third.

Braking
When you encounter an obstacle in the road and want to slow down, you will do so by first removing your foot from the accelerator and allowing the vehicle to slow down before applying the brake. It is a good idea to give the driver behind you a warning in this occasion by blipping the brake. After the vehicle has slowed down a bit (engine braking), apply brakes slowly to reduce speed, and then depress clutch fully and slow down further by braking smoothly. Now you can switch to the appropriate lower gear and remove your foot from the brake.

One place where need for braking is not so obvious is while coming down a speed breaker. If you don't break when the rear wheel moves down the speed breaker, the rear end of your car will strike the ground, especially if it has a large overhang at the rear. So the procedure should be--brake well before the obstacle to make sure that your front is clear of it as the nose dips due to braking, then move smoothly up, making sure you have enough momentum to carry you through (very bad idea to have to rev your engine on a slope), and then when the rear wheel comes off the obstacle reduce the speed even further by smooth braking.

Should you use engine braking? Well, engine braking still acts through the wheels, so there is no great improvement in road handling. However, if you are travelling downhill, engine braking is recommended (and is the preferred method) as using the brake pedal will cause overheating and failure of the brake pads. Another use for engine braking is if you need to come to a stop rapidly. That is, if you have a vehicle suddenly stop before you, or you have a pedestrian jump in front, and you must absolutely stop the vehicle. Here you can switch to the lower gear rapidly (say from the 5th to the 2nd), and use the engine for braking along with the brake pads. Thus, if you have mastered rapid downshifting, you can bring the car to a stop using this method by using all the gears from 5th down to 2nd, instead of skipping gears. This will definitely cause engine damage, but is preferable to loss of life (either to you or the other people on the road). The usual method to use engine braking is to switch to a lower gear for this purpose.

The stopping distance in braking is roughly proportional to the square of the speed of the vehicle. Thus, you will need twice the stopping distance at 40 mph compared to 30 mph. The stopping distance also depends on the road conditions (whether it is wet, the road is sealed) and the condition of the tires. It is very important that you maintain adequate distance between your vehicle and the vehicles in front of you as well as the vehicles behind you. You should reduce speed and increase the distance in wet conditions, for instance.

Engine Damage
If you follow the safe and recommended practices while using your car, your engine will last a long time. Note that the engine should not be raced (high rpm at low loads) or loaded at low rpm. It is easy to get feedback on high rpm--the engine noise increases as speed increases. However, low rpm loading, where you open the throttle at high gear when the rpm is low, is not as easy to detect. If you find yourself depressing the accelerator pedal too much at high gear, shift down to a lower gear to bring the engine speed up. Always be aware of the speed of your vehicle as you drive, and as soon as it drops, shift the gear down, this might result in more gear shifts, and that is all the more reason to choose a vehicle with a good gear box.

You don't usually have much choice in the kind of roads that you drive on, but try to use level roads as far as possible. Also, make sure that your driveway is flat and if it is at a higher level than the road, then make sure that the incline is closer to the road than the final parking position. Remember the warning about low rpms and high loads. A sure fire way to severe engine damage is an inclined driveway, which you drive up everyday at low speeds.

If you look at the load on the bore due to the dynamics of the crank motion of the piston and crankshaft assembly you will find that force acts on one side of the cylinder. Now, a properly designed engine will have the combustion forces act in such a way as to cancel this effect.

Driving Test
You will need a license to drive a vehicle in any country in the world. The specifics of tests will differ, but the general idea is to demonstrate your ability to handle the class of vehicle for which you are applying for a license. A commercial license (to drive trucks, say) will have much more stringent requirements compared to a consumer license (such as for automobiles). There might be additional restrictions too--for instance, in many countries you cannot obtain a license to drive a manual transmission if you take the test on an automatic. The test consists of a written exam to test your knowledge of rules specific to the country/area as well as general rules, and a hands on test where you drive the vehicle in traffic as well as some specific maneuvers that you are required to perform. Also, you might be asked to negotiate some configurations (like the standard 8). The maneuvers might include, among other, parallel parking, and starting on an incline.

Parallel Parking
Parallel parking is used to park a car on the side of a road, between two parked vehicles.

Some of the newer cars (e.g. the Toyota Prius) have automatic parallel parking, where it is done by the onboard computer.

Driving Terrain and Obstructions
When you come across a road with pot holes in it, apart from slowing down, make sure that only one wheel goes into the pothole. Of course, it would be even better if you could avoid it altogether, but sometimes that is not possible.

Sometimes you may have to stop at a speed breaker--a good idea would be to straddle your vehicle across it, if you cannot go past it altogether before stopping. When you start, you can engage the clutch without revving the engine and then use the momentum to carry you over the obstruction.

Sometimes you get into a hole which you cannot climb out of even with a lot of revving. In this case you should unload your passenger and rock your vehicle using the first and reverse gears in sequence, building up amplitude as you would do with a swing. Do not do this for more than a minute or two as you can easily damage the engine. If rocking fails, you can try jacking the vehicle up, and filling the hole with some material from the road.

Low End Performance
Many cars are not driven on highways, but within the city. While automobile manufacturers like to quote highway fuel efficiency and performance for their cars, many vehicles will spend most of their fuel in the city. As was mentioned earlier, the key to fuel efficiency is to run the vehicle at as high a gear as possible without lugging. This can be done by extending the power band to the low rpm range. One way to do this is by way of an exhaust chamber tuned for low end performance. Using resonance, it is possible to reduce the back pressure from the exhaust gases, so that the breathing of the engine is better even at lower speeds.

A hot rod method to increase low end torque is to use a water spray to cool the exhaust, which will reduce its pressure, leading to better engine breathing. A big design issue is to prevent entry of moisture into the combustion chamber. This kind of mechanism was used in the earlier heavy transport aircraft during take off.

Links
Free driving test video tutorials, tips and information Free Driving Theory Test Software

title: Basic Automobiles


text:
Amateur Radio Manual/Sources of Current

We can make electrons move in a conductor by supplying energy. If we apply the energy equally, for instance, by heating it, the electrons will move randomly from atom to atom. This isn't very useful to us. We want to be able to control the direction and flow of the electrons. We can accomplish this by attaching a negative source to one end of our conductor and a positive source to the other end. We have just created a circuit. The electrons will flow from the negative end to the positive end.

As we stated earlier, heat is one method of causing electrons to flow. We can also do this by using friction, pressure (some crystals will create electron flow under pressure see piezoelectric effect), magnetism, photoelectric effect, and chemical reactions. Chemical reactions are perhaps the most common source of direct current, better known as a cell or battery.

A battery usually consists of two conductors, or electrodes, placed in an electrolyte or the chemicals responsible for reacting and producing current flow. There are a large number of different types of batteries. The common carbon-zinc flashlight battery is an example of a primary cell, that is a battery that cannot be recharged. The lead acid car battery is an example of a secondary cell, or a cell that can be recharged. Be cautious with alkaline batteries, some are primary and some are secondary types. Attempting to recharge a primary battery can be dangerous especially if the heat built up inside the cell causes it to explode.

Common Cells

title: Amateur Radio Manual/Sources of Current


text:
Talk:Conhistory

What is the difference between What If and the Courses of History thing? --Pthag 14:36, 8 Aug 2004 (UTC)

 * Well, this was just a basic outline I set up. We can change it later if there are problems.
 * I was planning on "What If" as being 'alternate endings' to real-world events. EG, "Germany won WWII, The Mongols conquered Central Europe, The Romans beat back the Barbarians, the Cold War lead to a Nuclear Exchange", etc. Just some ideas to get people thinking of new courses of history for their conworld.
 * The "New Courses of History" was basically stuff that never happened on Earth. EG, "a major climate shift after the development of civilization", and... okay, I admit it, there's not much difference. *Edits* -- Maknas 15:46, 8 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Eurocentrism
I think the categories need to be reorganized... no civilization other than the Western one experienced the ages in that order (Ancient, Classical, Medieval, Renaissance, Industrial, Modern). Why would a concivilization also go through these stages?

Right now I'm thinking about some way of rearranging everything altogether, by using much more general categories like "Developments in Warfare", "Cultural Interactions", "Migrations", "Spread of Literacy", "Inventions" and so forth. -- Ran 01:59, 9 Aug 2004 (UTC)

 * Well, aren't the "Classical", "Medieval", and "Renaissance" categories the main offenders? Cause, at least on Earth, every other nation passed through the others to various extents. So should we try to somehow break up these three?
 * Oh, and why does it say "Retrieved from Talk:Conhistory below? Not anymore... -- Maknas 12:30, 9 Aug 2004 (UTC)

 * Yeah, breaking up those three would be good. -- Ran 13:33, 9 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Beginning to End
Don't forget 'confuturism' or 'conholism' or whatever you would call the creation of an entire timeline, from beginning to end. This does not need to interfere with local free will, or the freedom of a novelist creating a novel set in a particular time, but (in instances where there is a notion of the 'present') is more general than History. Sj 03:07, 10 Aug 2004 (UTC)

title: Talk:Conhistory


text:
Cookbook:Cuisine of Indonesia

| Southeast Asian cuisines

Indonesian cuisine features a mixture of Chinese, Indian and European influences. Being an archipelago with hundreds of different ethnic groups, Indonesian cuisine is extremely rich in variety, with regional cooking techniques and ingredients.

Vegetarian (Sayuran)
 * Gado-gado Indonesian salad with peanut sauce
 * Rujak Fruit salad
 * Sayur Asem Vegetable soup with tamarind
 * Sambal Telor Boiled egg in Hot Chili Sauce
 * Tempeh Fermented soybean cake
 * Tempe Mendoan

Rice (Nasi/Nasi Putih (white rice))
 * Nasi Goreng Fried rice
 * Nasi Gurih Aromatic rice
 * Nasi Kuning Yellow rice
 * Nasi Uduk Coconut-milk rice
 * Tapai Fermented rice (also peuyeum, fermented cassava)

Poultry (Ayam) For authentic Indonesian dishes, use free range chicken if available
 * Ayam Goreng Kuning Fried chicken with yellow ginger
 * Ayam Goreng Mentega Stir fried chicken with Worcestershire sauce
 * Kare Ayam Chicken Curry
 * Opor Ayam Chicken in coconut milk soup
 * Sate Ayam BBQ Chicken with bamboo skewers and peanut sauce
 * Soto Ayam Spicy chicken soup

Beef (Daging sapi)
 * Rendang Spiced beef
 * Empal Gepuk Fried beef steak
 * Sop Buntut Oxtail soup

Goat (Kambing) Lamb (Domba) may also be used in these recipes
 * Gulai Kambing Spicy goat soup
 * Sate Kambing BBQ Goat with bamboo skewers

Pork (Daging babi)
 * Babi Kecap Pork in Sweet Soy Sauce

Fish and Seafood (Ikan dan Hidangan Laut)
 * Pepes Ikan Fish in Indonesian spices
 * Kepiting Saus Tiram Crab in oyster sauce

Side dishes (Lauk-pauk)
 * Serundeng Grated Coconut with Whole Peanuts
 * Acar Campur Mixed Pickled Vegetables
 * Sambal Ikan Teri Spicy small Anchovies with Peanuts
 * Saus Kacang Peanut sauce

Desserts and Cookies (Hidangan penutup dan kue-kue)
 * Klepon Indonesian Glutinous Rice Balls filled with palm sugar coated with grated coconut
 * Lapis Legit Indonesian Layer Cake
 * Nastar pineapple Cookie
 * Bubur Candil Indonesian Glutinous Rice Balls Sweet Soup

title: Cookbook:Cuisine of Indonesia


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User:Dcljr

I've been editing Wikimedia wikis since 2002, but I don't edit Wikibooks very much these days. For more information about me, see my user page at the English Wikipedia. To discuss any issues related to this wiki, use my talk page here.

Note: This wiki contains book modules. (See also: Statistics, NewPages, RecentChanges, NewFiles, Log, Admins.)

In development (or not)

 * /Math
 * /Series
 * /Mathematics category

title: User:Dcljr


text:
Talk:Myers-Briggs Type Indicator/Introduction

Wait a minute, who owns the trademark, CPP or the Myers Briggs Type Indicator Trust? - Dcljr 22:08, 8 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Oh, and should we really be mentioning "T vs. F", etc., when we haven't even described what the letters mean at this point? - Dcljr 22:09, 8 Aug 2004 (UTC)


text:
Cookbook talk:Kashmiri Pulao

Bit botched.

I made this today and it turned out very well.

I removed some of the info from the summary so it would fit in our template. Perhaps we need a larger template or different ones for different amounts of info... Kellen 22:47, 19 July 2005 (UTC)

title: Cookbook talk:Kashmiri Pulao


text:
Talk:JLPT Guide/JLPT N5 Kanji

Untitled
Does anybody know if this is an official list? If so, where does it come from? All the JLPT sources I've ever seen simply say that "about 100" kanji are required for level 4. --Auximines 09:53, 9 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Yes, there is an official Test Content Specification that was revised in 2002. Before 2002, Level 4 contained 80 kanji. Since 2002, it contains 103. So this list is currently over 4 years old. The Test Content Specification book contains all the kanji lists. Note that they also state that up to 20% of the kanji used in the test may not be in the list. To be honest, I can't see much point in maintaining yet another version of the list - especially in a Wiki like this. Wikis cannot provide the features and convenience of web pages like http://www.jlptstudy.com and http://www.jlpt-kanji.com... even though jlpt-kanji's lists are also out of date.

Not that official, but still very handy
None of the 103 kanji are irrelevant. Please ignore any advice to the contrary and study all 103, as they may all appear on the exam.

JLPT Kanji
What about this site: http://www.jlpt-kanji.com/ ?

hitori
I think "alone" is 独り, and that 一人 means "one person".. Only when you say "一人で", then it can mean alone. Can someone confirm this..?

82.81.220.241 19:32, 21 October 2005 (UTC)

 * Hmm... the differences between them is not significant and 一人で is widely used for both meanings these days. Nebertheless, 独りで might imply "by(for?) oneself" or "using his own power, without help by others" (= 独力で), whereas 一人で can mean both("by oneself" or just "alone"). Also note that hiragana ひとりで is also used sometimes (google, and you'll see). I feel a relatively strong lonliness in the kanji "独" while not in ひとり nor 一人 (they are "plain"). In fact, (as you know perhaps) "loneliness" is translated as 孤独(感)(kodoku(kan)). Or you might prefer 独占 for "monopoly". HTH. - Marsian / talk 11:39, 22 October 2005 (UTC)

Other sources of kanji
This site has some excel sheets of kanji (inc. kanji, kana & meaning in english), and a .utf file at. Are either of these complete?

onyomi/kunyomi
This may be overkill the way this site is designed, but the kanji dictionaries I've seen give onyomi pronunciations in katakana, and kunyomi in hiragana. I don't know how to change the entire table, but it might be nice if someone else could. -Matt Grimes

That's my experience, but since the readings are in separate columns there is already a way to distinguish between the two. Therefore I do not think it is a problem of great importance. But if somebody has some free time on their hands… --Holizz

This is not universal. Unless there is some pressing need, why not focus on other areas of the JLPT pages? --Astrochicken (talk) 07:06, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

Needs moving
The test has been rescaled, and the old level 4 (that this page name references) has become level N5. The new name should be something like "JLPT Guide/JLPT N5 Vocabulary". Anyone opposed? --Astrochicken (talk) 06:56, 30 November 2010 (UTC)
 * Page was moved, thanks! --Astrochicken (talk) 23:18, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

Removing romaji
We list the onyomi and kunyomi in kana and romaji, which is redundant. Kana is the standard way of showing the reading, and the test taker must learn it anyway, so is removing the romaji fine? --Astrochicken (talk) 04:23, 2 December 2010 (UTC)

title: Talk:JLPT Guide/JLPT N5 Kanji


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Primary Mathematics/Numbers

Numbers
This section is for students to read by themselves or with the help of a teacher or parent.

Natural Numbers
When we count apples or oranges or elephants, we are using natural numbers. Natural numbers are 1, 2, 3, and so on without end. There is no largest natural number; one can always get a larger natural number by adding 1 to the previous number.

Zero
Zero represents nothingness. Zero is less than every natural number. If we have zero apples or oranges or elephants, we simply do not have anything.

Teaching Numbers
This section is for teachers or home-schoolers. It is about teaching the basic concepts and conventions of numbers.

Developing a sound concept of number
Children typically learn about numbers at a very young age by learning the sequence of words, "one, two, three, four, five" etc. Usually, in chanting this in conjunction with pointing at a set of toys, or mounting a flight of steps for example. Typically, "mistakes" are made. Toys or steps are missed or counted twice, or a mistake is made in the chanted sequence. Very often, from these sorts of activities (and from informal matching activities), a child's concepts of numbers and counting emerge as their mistakes are corrected. However, here, at the very foundation of numerical concepts, children are often left to "put it all together" themselves, and some start off on a shaky foundation. Number concepts can be deliberately developed by suitable activities. The first one of these is object matching.

Matching Activities
As opposed to the typical counting activity children are first exposed to, matching sets of objects gives them a solid foundation for the concepts of numbers and numerical relationships. It is very important that matching should be a "physical" activity that children can relate to and build on.

Typical activities would be a toy's tea-party. With a set of (say) four toy characters, each toy has a place to sit. Each toy has a cup, maybe a saucer, a plate etc. Without even mentioning "four", we can talk with the child about "the right number" of cups, of plates etc. We can talk about "too many" or "not enough". Here, we are talking about number and important number relations without even mentioning which number we are talking about! Only after a lot of activities of this type should we talk about specific numbers and the idea of number in the abstract.

Number and Numerals
Teachers should print these numbers or show the children these numbers. Ideally, the numbers should be handled by the student. There are a number of ways to achieve this: cut out numerals from heavy card stock, shape them with clay together, purchase wooden numerals or give them sandpaper numerals to trace. Simultaneously, show the definitions of these numbers as containers or discrete quantities (using boxes and small balls, e.g., 1 ball, 2 balls, etc. Note that 0 means "no balls"). This should take some time to learn thoroughly (depending on the student).

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Place Value
The Next step is to learn the place value of numbers.

As you are aware, the number after 9 is 10 (called ten). This number is represented by a new place, the tens, and each time the number in the second place value increases, represents a collection of ten units. After this comes the hundred place, followed by thousands. Even though numbers can be much bigger, we will not need to create larger numbers at this time.

To help visualization, you can represent 10 as a bag of 10 coins, and 100 as a box filled with 10 such bags.

Place Values in other number systems
Other number systems are not the same as the one we currently use. For example, the Maya Culture where there are not the ten symbols above but twenty symbols. Even though there are more symbols, the place value system still remains intact.

A common number system used with computers is the use of binary, which uses the two symbols 0 and 1.

Here is how the system will be created:

If one uses the symbols A and B, you can get:

Trinary, which uses three digits, is also possible:

These external websites may give you enough information to figure the place value idea of any number system.

 * Numbers
 * 1) http://www.michielb.nl/maya/math.html

title: Primary Mathematics/Numbers


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User talk:Jimmy~enwikibooks

Archives
User_talk:Jimmy 2004

Wikiversity
I saw your name on the Wikiversity participant's list, you may be very experienced in mathematics already, but I'm trying out instructing a Calculus course if you're interested, go to Wikiveristy, check out the mathematics department, pure mathematics, and in the course list is included Calculus. Fephisto 22:50, 9 July 2006 (UTC)

Your account will be renamed
Hello,

The developer team at Wikimedia is making some changes to how accounts work, as part of our on-going efforts to provide new and better tools for our users like cross-wiki notifications. These changes will mean you have the same account name everywhere. This will let us give you new features that will help you edit and discuss better, and allow more flexible user permissions for tools. One of the side-effects of this is that user accounts will now have to be unique across all 900 Wikimedia wikis. See the announcement for more information.

Unfortunately, your account clashes with another account also called Jimmy. To make sure that both of you can use all Wikimedia projects in future, we have reserved the name Jimmy~enwikibooks that only you will have. If you like it, you don't have to do anything. If you do not like it, you can pick out a different name.

Your account will still work as before, and you will be credited for all your edits made so far, but you will have to use the new account name when you log in.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Yours, Keegan Peterzell Community Liaison, Wikimedia Foundation 23:20, 17 March 2015 (UTC)

Renamed
 This account has been renamed as part of single-user login finalisation. If you own this account you can |log in using your previous username and password for more information. If you do not like this account's new name, you can choose your own using this form after logging in: . -- Keegan (WMF) (talk) 05:05, 19 April 2015 (UTC)

title: User talk:Jimmy~enwikibooks


text:
User:ArneEide:SOK-3551

SOK-3551 Basic Economics

Autumn 2004

Introduction
Economics is the social science studying the production, distribution and consumption of goods and services. It describes them in terms of the tradeoffs between competing alternatives as observed through measurable quantities such as input, price and output.

Economics is said to be positive when it attempts to explain the consequences of different choices given a set of assumptions and normative when it prescribes a certain route of action.

See also: the Wikipedia article on Economics

title: User:ArneEide:SOK-3551


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User:Ansfans~enwikibooks

Ans Fans

FNLNDR58C19D458V

title: User:Ansfans~enwikibooks