Much Excite, Much Ignite
Sometimes cars don’t start—but when they do, how does it happen? Explore the ways in which cars can be powered on. And that’s only the start(er): once a car is moving, it speeds away propelled by a series of mini-explosions that keep moving it along until the next traffic jam. With your team, explore the science behind internal combustion engines. How do they work, when were they invented, and are they obsolete? Be sure to consider the following topics:
An internal combustion engine (ICE) works by converting the chemical energy in fuel into mechanical energy through controlled explosions inside cylinders. The process begins when air and fuel are mixed and drawn into a cylinder during the intake stroke. The piston then compresses this mixture during the compression stroke, making it highly flammable. A spark plug ignites the compressed mixture (in gasoline engines), causing a rapid combustion that forces the piston down in the power stroke. This motion turns the crankshaft, which ultimately drives the vehicle's wheels. Finally, the exhaust stroke pushes out the burned gases, and the cycle repeats.
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​Diesel engines operate similarly but rely on compression ignition rather than a spark plug—air is compressed to a high temperature, and diesel fuel is injected, igniting spontaneously. Internal combustion engines are highly efficient but produce emissions, leading to advancements in hybrid and electric technologies. The four-stroke cycle (intake, compression, power, exhaust) is the most common, though some engines use a two-stroke design for simpler, lighter operation.
Diagram of a cylinder as found in an overhead cam 4-stroke gasoline engine:
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C – crankshaft
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E – exhaust camshaft
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I – inlet camshaft
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P – piston
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R – connecting rod
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S – spark plug
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V – valves. red: exhaust, blue: intake.
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W – cooling water jacket
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gray structure – engine block
A heat engine is a mechanical machine that changes the thermal or heat energy of the fuel into mechanical power, which is further used to perform useful work. This is achieved by moving the work material from a higher temperature to a lower temperature. In general terms, the larger the difference in temperature between the hot source and the cold sink, the larger is the potential thermal efficiency of the cycle. On Earth, the cold side of any heat engine is limited to being close to the ambient temperature of the environment,
The hot reservoir is a heat source of infinite heat capacity and is kept at a finite temperature. It provides heat or thermal energy to the working substance. However, not all of the supplied heat gets converted into work. A part of it is rejected into the cold reservoir, called the sink. The rest is utilized to perform the desired work. During its operation, the heat engine passes through a series of thermodynamic processes, thus completing a cycle.
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​The amount of work extracted from a heat engine depends upon its efficiency. Not all heat engines are 100% efficient, which means that not all heat supplied to the engine is converted into work. Some heat is lost due to friction and wear of mechanical parts, resulting in reduced efficiency. The Carnot engine is the most efficient heat engine which is theoretically possible. The efficiency depends only upon the absolute temperatures of the hot and cold heat reservoirs between which it operates.
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The Wankel engine is a type of internal combustion engine using an eccentric rotary design to convert pressure into rotating motion. The concept was proven by German engineer Felix Wankel, followed by a commercially feasible engine designed by German engineer Hanns-Dieter Paschke. The Wankel engine's rotor is similar in shape to a Reuleaux triangle, with the sides having less curvature. The rotor spins inside a figure-eight-like epitrochoidal housing around a fixed gear. The midpoint of the rotor moves in a circle around the output shaft, rotating the shaft via a cam.
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In its basic gasoline-fuelled form, the Wankel engine has lower thermal efficiency and higher exhaust emissions relative to the four-stroke reciprocating engine. This thermal inefficiency has restricted the Wankel engine to limited use since its introduction in the 1960s. However, many disadvantages have mainly been overcome over the succeeding decades following the development and production of road-going vehicles. The advantages of compact design, smoothness, lower weight, and fewer parts over reciprocating internal combustion engines make Wankel engines suited for applications such as chainsaws, auxiliary power units (APUs), loitering munitions, aircraft, personal watercraft, snowmobiles, motorcycles, racing cars, and automotive range extenders.
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German mechanical engineer Felix Wankel designed a rotary compressor in the 1920s and received his first patent for a rotary type of engine in 1934. He realized that the triangular rotor of the rotary compressor could have intake and exhaust ports added, producing an internal combustion engine.
The Wankel engine is a type of rotary piston engine and exists in two primary forms, the Drehkolbenmotor (DKM, "rotary piston engine"),
designed by Felix Wankel, and the Kreiskolbenmotor (KKM, "circuitous piston engine"), designed by Hanns-Dieter Paschke, of which only the latter has left the prototype stage. Thus, all production Wankel engines are of the KKM type.
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When it was finally patented and early models emerged, it had a very interesting history with Mazda, the Japanese car maker known for fast and small cars.
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The Otto engine is a large stationary single-cylinder internal combustion four-stroke engine, designed by the German Nicolaus Otto. It was a low-RPM machine, and only fired every other stroke due to the Otto cycle, also designed by Otto. He and his partner, Eugene Langen, designed an 1864 atmospheric engine, and the 1876 Otto cycle engine known today as the petrol engine. The engines were initially used for stationary installations, as Otto had no interest in transportation. Other makers such as Daimler perfected the Otto engine for transportation use. By 1876, Otto and Langen succeeded in creating the first internal combustion engine that compressed the fuel mixture prior to combustion for far higher efficiency than any engine created to this time. However, in 1886, Otto's company Deutz lost its patent for the Otto engine because it found that another Frenchmen Alphonse Beau de Rochas has filed a patent and Deutz was unable to prove how it was different from Rocha's patent. By 1889, more than 50 companies were manufacturing Otto design engines. Later Otto and his manager Gottlieb Daimler also had a falling out. Otto wanted to make engines for large stationary machinery, while Daimler wanted to produce engines for transportation. Daimler later worked with Maybach to manufacture engines
for vehicles and their company eventually merged with Mercedes-Benz. Deutz AG is one of the largest engine-producing companies worldwide and virtually all of the car makers use Otto cycle engines. There are several types of engines on the market: the Otto, Atkinson, and Miller but they all follow Otto's original cycle design.
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A reciprocating piston engine, also known as a reciprocating engine, is an engine that uses one or more pistons to convert pressure into rotary motion. This type of engine operates by utilizing the reciprocating (up-and-down) motion of the pistons to transform thermal energy from fuel into mechanical work. Reciprocating engines are commonly used in various applications, including automobiles and industrial machinery, due to their efficiency and effectiveness in generating power.
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The main types are: the internal combustion engine, used extensively in motor vehicles; the steam engine, the mainstay of the Industrial Revolution; and the Stirling engine for niche applications. Internal combustion engines are further classified in two ways: either a spark-ignition (SI) engine, where the spark plug initiates the combustion; or a compression-ignition (CI) engine, where the air within the cylinder is compressed, thus heating it, so that the heated air ignites fuel that is injected then or earlier.
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Reciprocating engines have the ability to use different fuels, such as natural gas, diesel, and gasoline. These engines have a relatively simple design. They are inexpensive to manufacture, making them ideal for multiple applications.
Piston engines are less efficient than some other types of engines, like gas turbines. They may produce excessive emissions if not properly maintained.
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Rotary engines, also known as Wankel engines, are a type of internal combustion engine that differ from traditional piston engines. They use a rotor instead of pistons to convert linear motion into rotational motion. The engine's crankshaft remains stationary while the entire crankcase and attached cylinders rotate around it. Rotary engines have a dedicated space for each event in the combustion cycle. They were most popularly used in the Mazda RX-7. Its main application was in aviation, although it also saw use in a few early motorcycles and automobiles. By the early 1920s, the inherent limitations of this type of engine had rendered it obsolete.
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A continuous combustion engine is a type of engine where the process of fuel combustion occurs in a continuous manner rather than in separate cycles. This creates an almost constant pressure and temperature within the engine, leading to continuous power production. This characteristic gives these engines a significant advantage in terms of power consistency and efficiency over traditional intermittent engines. Gas turbines, jet engines and most rocket engines, each of which are internal combustion engines using continuous combustion engines.
continuous combustion engines
During operation, these are the stages of the process.
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Intake Stage: where outside air is drawn into the engine through the intake nozzle. The intake air is then transported to the compressor.
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Compression Stage: the intake air is compressed to a higher pressure. This process increases both the temperature and the density of the air, preparing it for combustion.
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Combustion Stage: The high-pressure, high-temperature air then flows into the combustion chamber. Here, it's mixed with fuel and ignited, producing a continuous flame. The combustion of the air-fuel mixture significantly increases its temperature and pressure.
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Expansion Stage: The high-pressure, high-temperature gases from combustion are expanded through the turbine. This expansion process reduces the gas pressure and temperature while generating mechanical work as the turbine blades are set into motion.
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Exhaust Stage: The final stage is the exhaust, where the spent gases, reduced in pressure and temperature, are removed from the engine to make room for more intake air. The exhaust process is also a critical part of controlling engine temperature.​
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Hydrocarbons are the principal constituents of petroleum and natural gas. They serve as fuels and lubricants as well as raw materials for the production of plastics, fibres, rubbers, solvents, explosives, and industrial chemicals. Many hydrocarbons occur in nature. More than 98% of natural crude rubber is a hydrocarbon polymer, a chainlike molecule consisting of many units linked together. The structures and chemistry of individual hydrocarbons depend in large part on the types of chemical bonds that link together the atoms of their constituent molecules.
Diesel fuel, also called diesel oil, heavy oil (historically) or simply diesel, is any liquid fuel specifically designed for use in a diesel engine, a type of internal combustion engine in which fuel ignition takes place without a spark as a result of compression of the inlet air and then injection of fuel. Therefore, diesel fuel needs good compression ignition characteristics.The most common type of diesel fuel is a specific fractional distillate of petroleum fuel oil, but alternatives that are not derived from petroleum, such as biodiesel, biomass to liquid (BTL) or gas to liquid (GTL) diesel are increasingly being developed and adopted. Diesel fuel originated from experiments conducted by German scientist and inventor Rudolf Diesel for his compression-ignition engine which he invented around 1892.
Petroleum diesel is the most common type of diesel fuel. It is produced by the fractional distillation of crude oil between 200 and 350 °C (392 and 662 °F) at atmospheric pressure, resulting in a mixture of carbon chains that typically contain between 9 and 25 carbon atoms per molecule. gasoline and diesel are both derived from crude oil, but they have different properties and uses. Gasoline is thinner, lighter, and more volatile than diesel. It burns faster and ignites easier than diesel, making it suitable for high-speed engines. Diesel is thicker, heavier and less combustible than gasoline. It evaporates more slowly and has more energy density than gasoline, making it ideal for low-speed engines that need more power and fuel efficiency.
Biodiesel is a renewable biofuel, a form of diesel fuel, derived from biological sources like vegetable oils, animal fats, or recycled greases, and consisting of long-chain fatty acid esters. It is typically made from fats. I watched an interesting video about cars being run on fried oil from fast-food restaurants and that is the same idea.
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Diesel's engine, initially designed for mineral oil, successfully ran on peanut oil at the 1900 Paris Exposition. This landmark event highlighted the potential of vegetable oils as an alternative fuel source. The interest in using vegetable oils as fuels resurfaced periodically, particularly during resource-constrained periods such as World War II. However, challenges such as high viscosity and resultant engine deposits were significant hurdles. The modern form of biodiesel emerged in the 1930s, when a method was found for transforming vegetable oils for fuel use, laying the groundwork for contemporary biodiesel production.
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Its calorific value is approximately 9% lower than that of standard diesel, impacting fuel efficiency. Biodiesel production has evolved significantly, with early methods including the direct use of vegetable oils, to more advanced processes like transesterification, which reduces viscosity and improves combustion properties.
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Blends of biodiesel and conventional hydrocarbon-based diesel are most commonly distributed for use in the retail diesel fuel marketplace. Much of the world uses a system known as the "B" factor to state the amount of biodiesel in any fuel mix: 100% biodiesel is referred to as B100, 20% biodiesel, 80% petrodiesel is labeled B20, 10% biodiesel, 90% petrodiesel is labeled B10, and so forth. Currently, scientists from many countries are working on solutions for biodiesel and many car companies are beginning to accept it as additives to petroleum. For example: In 2007, DaimlerChrysler indicated its intention to increase warranty coverage to 20% biodiesel blends if biofuel quality in the United States can be standardized. and the Volkswagen Group has released a statement indicating that several of its vehicles are compatible with B5 and B100 made from rape seed oil and compatible with the EN 14214 standard. Interestingly, in 2007, McDonald's of UK announced it would start producing biodiesel from the waste oil byproduct of its restaurants. The same is also true for Disneyland theme park's train system. This fuel would be used to run its fleet. Expect to see big news about this in the coming decade.
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Ethanol fuel is fuel containing ethyl alcohol, the same type of alcohol as found in alcoholic beverages. It is most often used as a motor fuel, mainly as a biofuel additive for gasoline. Several common ethanol fuel mixtures are in use around the world. The use of pure hydrous or anhydrous ethanol in internal combustion engines (ICEs) is possible only if the engines are designed or modified for that purpose. Anhydrous ethanol can be blended with gasoline (petrol) for use in gasoline engines, but with a high ethanol content only after engine modifications to meter increased fuel volume since pure ethanol contains only 2/3 the energy of an equivalent volume of pure gasoline. High percentage ethanol mixtures are used in some racing engine applications since the very high octane rating of ethanol is compatible with very high compression ratios.
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Ethanol contains approximately 34% less energy per unit volume than gasoline, and therefore in theory, burning pure ethanol in a vehicle reduces range per unit measure by 34%, given the same fuel economy, compared to burning pure gasoline. However, since ethanol has a higher octane rating, the engine can be made more efficient by raising its compression ratio.
Ethyl tertiary-butyl ether (ETBE), also known as ethyl tert-butyl ether, is commonly used as an oxygenate gasoline additive in the production of gasoline from crude oil. ETBE offers equal or greater air quality benefits than ethanol, while being technically and logistically less challenging. Unlike ethanol, ETBE does not induce evaporation of gasoline, which is one of the causes of smog, and does not absorb moisture from the atmosphere. Ethanol, produced by fermentation and distillation, is more expensive than methanol, which is derived from natural gas. Therefore, MTBE, made from methanol is cheaper than ETBE, made from ethanol. However, ETBE has superior qualities as an octane enhancer compared with MTBE; ETBE can be produced from renewable sources, such as bio-ethanol, cellulose, biomass or other farm products. Hence, the production of ETBE creates additional markets for grain products and agricultural waste because bio-ethanol, which is used as the raw material in the production of ETBE, can be produced from agricultural feedstock.
Hydrogen vehicles produce significantly less local air pollution than conventional vehicles. By 2050, the energy requirement for transportation might be between 20% and 30% fulfilled by hydrogen and synthetic fuels. Hydrogen used to decarbonize transportation is likely to find its largest applications in shipping, aviation and to a lesser extent heavy goods vehicles, through the use of hydrogen-derived synthetic fuels such as ammonia and methanol, and fuel cell technology. Hydrogen has been used in fuel cell buses for many years. It is also used as a fuel for spacecraft propulsion. Although hydrogen can be used in adapted internal combustion engines, fuel cells, being electrochemical, have an efficiency advantage over heat engines. Fuel cells are more expensive to produce than common internal combustion engines but also require higher purity hydrogen fuel than internal combustion engines. In the light road vehicle segment including passenger cars, by the end of 2022, 70,200 fuel cell electric vehicles had been sold worldwide, compared with 26 million plug-in electric vehicles. With the rapid
rise of electric vehicles and associated battery technology and infrastructure, hydrogen's role in cars is minuscule. Since 2015, three hydrogen-powered cars have been offered for sale from three different car companies: the Honda Clarity Fuel Cell, the Hyundai Nexo SUV, and the Toyota Mirai. But Honda has now ended production of all models of the Clarity, and Hyundai has sold only about 1600 Nexo SUVs in six years.
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HFCVs have some of the same positive features as battery-electric cars: they’re smooth, quiet, and peaceful to drive—and they emit no carbon dioxide or other harmful exhaust out their tailpipes, just water vapor. They also lack the charging time problem that EVs have; ideally, it takes just five minutes or so to refuel them for another 300- to 400-mile stint. There are a few disadvantages, however, the most challenging being the availability of hydrogen fuel. While plans a decade ago called for California to have 100 hydrogen stations by now, in reality, the number is less than 60. With hydrogen fuel a specialized commodity for the general public, the small network of retail stations naturally charges high prices.
Long before Elon Musk’s Tesla, electric cars were already popular for their convenience, quietness, and lack of horse manure aroma. Electric cars were poised to dominate the twentieth century—and then they disappeared for a hundred years. With your teammates, explore the invention and spread of early automobiles. (alternate link) What happened to electric cars and what led to their return? What were some of the key innovations in automobiles? Have you ever gotten stuck inside a self-driving taxi? And, most importantly, where are our flying cars?
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The automobile was first invented and perfected in Germany and France in the late 1800s, though Americans quickly came to dominate the automotive industry in the first half of the twentieth century. Henry Ford innovated mass-production techniques that became standard, and Ford, General Motors and Chrysler emerged as the “Big Three” auto companies by the 1920s. Manufacturers funneled their resources to the military during World War II, and afterward automobile production in Europe and Japan soared to meet growing demand. Once vital to the expansion of American urban centers, the industry had become a shared global enterprise with the rise of Japan as the leading automaker by 1980.
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Although the automobile was to have its greatest social and economic impact in the United States, it was initially perfected in Germany and France toward the end of the nineteenth century by such men as Gottlieb Daimler, Karl Benz, Nicolaus Otto and Emile Levassor.
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When Were Cars Invented?
T​he 1901 Mercedes, designed by Wilhelm Maybach for Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft, deserves credit for being the first modern motorcar in all essentials. Its thirty-five-horsepower engine weighed only fourteen pounds per horsepower, and it achieved a top speed of fifty-three miles per hour. By 1909, with the most integrated automobile factory in Europe, Daimler employed some seventeen hundred workers to produce fewer than a thousand cars per year. Even though European cars were far superior, American cars were affordable and there was higher production.
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Henry Ford and William Durant
By the late 1800s, there were many American companies in the car business. In 1908 Henry Ford introduced the Model T and William Durant founded General Motors. US was the right market to develop cars as cities were wide apart and people had access to high disposable income.
Model T
The Ford Motor Company greatly outpaced its competitors in reconciling state-of-the-art design with moderate price. Committed to large-volume production of the Model T, Ford innovated modern mass production techniques at his new Highland Park, Michigan, plant, which opened in 1910 (although he did not introduce the moving assembly line until 1913-1914). The Model T runabout sold for $575 in 1912, less than the average annual wage in the United States. By the time the Model T was withdrawn from production in 1927, its price had been reduced to $290 for the coupe, 15 million units had been sold, and mass personal “automobility” had become a reality.
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Automotive Industry Growing Pains
The number of active automobile manufacturers dropped from 253 in 1908 to only 44 in 1929, with about 80 percent of the industry’s output accounted for by Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler, formed from Maxwell in 1925 by Walter P. Chrysler.
Car Sales Stall
As cars market expanded, by1927 replacement demand for new cars was exceeding demand from first-time owners and multiple-car purchasers combined. Thus, middle class Americans adopted the idea of buying on credit to purchase moderately priced cars competing against Ford.
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Planned Obsolescence
Market saturation coincided with technological stagnation: In both product and production technology, innovation was becoming incremental rather than dramatic. To meet the challenges of market saturation and technological stagnation, General Motors under the leadership of Alfred P. Sloan, Jr., in the 1920s and 1930s innovated planned obsolescence of product and put a new emphasis on styling, exemplified in the largely cosmetic annual model change—a planned triennial major restyling to coincide with the economics of die life and
with annual minor face-liftings in between. The goal was to make consumers dissatisfied enough to trade in and presumably up to a more expensive new model long before the useful life of their present cars had ended.
As Sloanism replaced Fordism as the predominant market strategy in the industry, Ford lost the sales lead in the lucrative low-priced field to Chevrolet in 1927 and 1928. By 1936 GM claimed leadership of the car market.
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World War II and the Auto Industry
During the war, the auto industry supplied military vehicles and ceased civilian market production. Thus, after the war was over, the market demand increased. Cars became heavier, with more gadgets and more expensive, following the rule that larger cars were more profitable than smaller ones.
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Rise of Japanese Automakers
After the war, the quality of cars went down and by mid-1960s, American-made cars had a average of 24 defects a unit. Gas-guzzling 'road cruisers" increased air pollution and drained world's oil reserves. Federal standards for automotive safety kicked in in 1996 and pollution emission laws in 1965 and energy consumption laws in 1975. In 1973 and 1979, there was the oil crisis and the entrance of German Volkswagen's "Bug" and fuel-efficient Japanese cars.
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Sales of American-made cars declined drastically from 12.87 million in 1978 to 6.95 million in 1982. Japan became the world's leading auto producer and still is.
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U.S. Carmakers Retool
In response, American automobile industry experienced a major corporate reorg and technological renaissance. Management completely changed into a leaner and more competitive company and plants were modernized and retooled. Cars became more efficient, less polluting and safer. Car design was rationalized by computer-aided design, engineering and manufacturing.
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Legacy of the U.S. Auto industry
The automobile has significantly changed culture in the 20th century. It became the backbone of a new consumer goods-oriented society. As the industry with the highest value by the 1920s, by the 1980s, it created one out of every 6 jobs. Thus, it changed our petroleum and steel industry. Many other related industries were influenced including tourism, recreation, hotels, restaurants, building of highways (Interstate Highway Act of 1956). Cars ended rural isolation and changed the structure of the modern city into industrial and residential suburbs. By the 1980s, 87% of American households owned one of more car and 95% of cars were for replacements. The Automobile Age has then evolved into the Age of Electronics.
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The glory of the automobile industry was made possible by these 10 innovations that changed how we live. These changes were a result of market forces and the government's influence on regulations, leading to safer, more comfortable, powerful and efficient cars. This article comes from the Ford Museum of Automobile History.
#1 Fuel Injections
Injecting fuel into an engine’s intake is an old idea. Henry Ford used a basic mechanical injection system on his 1901 “Sweepstakes” race car, and fuel injection became common on diesel engines in the 1920s. By that time, new technologies such as Volkswagen’s computer-controlled system, introduced in 1968, allowed for more precise metering, delivering just the right amount of gasoline to suit engine temperature and operating conditions. Japanese and European automakers quickly embraced electronic fuel injection.
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​​​​Cruise Control
In the 1950s, to relieve the right foot from holding in position for long period of time on long drives, Chrysler offered "auto-pilot" and Cadillac invented the term "cruise control." Cruise control made it more relaxing and energy efficient.
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Turbochargers
If you cram more air into the cylinder, you can burn more gas and gain more power. This was seen in WW II aircrafts and automakers adopted it in the 1960s. Improved turbochargers found a new purpose in the 1980s to produce more energy efficient cars that are smaller but just as powerful.
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Antilock Brakes
Generations of cold-weather student drivers were taught to pump the brakes when sliding on ice and snow. Slam the pedal and lock up the wheels, and you just keep skidding. But pulse the pedal, and you keep the wheels turning, retaining more control of the car in the process. It’s sound advice but not always easy to remember during a panic stop. Ford unveiled a rear-wheel system in 1969, and Chrysler offered four-wheel, computer-controlled antilock brakes on its Imperial models for 1971. Widespread by the 21st century, antilock brakes became mandatory in the U.S. in 2012. Winter driving has been a little less daunting ever since.
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Catalytic Converters
Through the magic of chemistry, it converts harmful pollutants into safer carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and water. Most gasoline-powered cars sold in the U.S. employed them to meet emissions standards starting in 1975 (with the notable exception of
Honda’s Civic CVCC, which met standards without a converter). The catalyst behind the chemical reaction is usually platinum—resistant to corrosion but also rare and expensive.
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Computer-Controlled Engines
The Clean Air Act of 1970 prompted Ford and Toshiba to partner on electronic engine controls to improve performance and cut emissions. First produced in 1974, their system used a 12-bit microprocessor to control ignition timing and air-fuel mixture, making constant adjustments based on the car’s speed, gear, even the blend of gasoline in the tank. This also led to onboard vehicle diagnostics for service when technicians retrieve the computer codes to find problems. California mandated it in 1998.
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Seat belts
​They were first offered in 1949 by Nash and then by Ford in 1956, but consumers didn't really care about them. Then came Ralph Nader's ​
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Unsafe at Any Speed in 1965 and the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act mandated seat belts in every car since 1968. Later, mandatory set belt ignition interlocks were created. Since 1975, around 375,000 lives have been saved due to seatbelts.
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Airbags
Airbags were patented for automotive use in 1953 and began to appear in American cars in the 1970s. By 1988, airbags were required for driver and front passenger. Different types have been introduced including rear, side and knee airbags.
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​GPS/In-car Navigation
The US military opened its Global Positioning System to civilians in the1980s and Mazda introduced the first GPS-based system in Japan. Early models relied on data cartridges or CDs to supply their maps. Since WiFi, smartphones and Bluetooth have upgraded the
system along with real-time points of interest and traffic rerouting.
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Advanced Driver Assistance Systems
This technology addresses the root problem: human error. Radar and lidar allows the car to help drivers see traffic and obstacles with sensors to monitor the driver's hands, head and eyes to check for drowsiness or inattention. This paves the way for fully-autonomous driving which will reduce crashes, enhance efficiency and improve traffic flow.
At LAX a man named Mike Johns nearly misses his flight because the self-driving Waymo taxi he was using would not stop driving around the parking lot in circles. (Is this a case of of the alignment issue?).
"Why is this thing going in a circle? I'm getting dizzy." He shot a video and posted it to social media and gained 2 million views. His situation really sucked because, he couldn't get out of the car, and the customer service couldn't stop the car either. He also did not know if the customer service was actually AI or a real person with a lack of empathy. It sounds like a half-baked product not ready for market. Waymo responded and said it was just a looping issue and that the man would receive a free ride. Stories like this make people skeptical about the adoption of AI, at least not as optimistic as Sam Altman.
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The technology already exists. Flying cars became a popular concept in the movie "Back to the Future“ featuring Doc Brown and a flying time machine in a DeLorean. According to Du Xiaosong, aerospace engineer at Missouri University of Science and Technology, the technology is there and a real flying car would be a hybrid between a helicopter and airplane. Leveraging rotating blades for takeoff and then
and airplane wings would rotate out from the body of the craft. Another option would be to attach propellers to a flying car's wings. At first the wings would be tilted upwards, so the propellers cold lift the vehicle, then after takeoff, it would tilt to lay flat. They don't resemble our fantasies, but they do look like real-world winged choppers such as the US military's V-22 Osprey.
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The biggest barrier for people is the cost of purchasing a flying car. Alef is one of the leading manufacturers and the cars are estimated to be around $300K. Maybe the more plausible way is to Uber of Lyft to adopt these cars and popularize them. Pat Anderson, former director of the Eagle Flight Research Center at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Fla believes that flying Ubers may become common in 10 or 20 years.
To make this happen, first, aircraft need to be tested over and over for safety. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration also needs to create regulations for flying cars. In October 2024, the FAA brought the industry closer to liftoff by announcing rules on operating and piloting air taxis. The regulation is for electric vehicles which unfortunately have the hurdle of batteries being very heavy. Current rechargeable lithium-ion batteries could only power a flying car for 20-30 minutes. So, even though the tech is there, it is not yet ready.
Even the sun is just a gas puddle—but someday that puddle will run dry. While some people worry about whether they will be able to afford a house in their thirties, and others about whether humanity will survive to see the 22nd century, a few very long-term thinkers are already concerned about the sun going dark—and are contemplating whether it could be revived. Read about the fate of the sun, and study how the sun and other stars actually work (for one, they aren’t technically burning), then discuss with your team: when is it worth it to think about problems that are still far in the future? How soon do they need to be expected to happen for them to become urgent considerations?
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Our sun in a billion year will bloat up into a red giant and our earth will be destroyed by the raise in temperature above the point point of water. By then, humanity better find a way to either move to save our lives. What if there were ways to cool the earth, given that the sun's source of hydrogen is limited. In another 4 billion years, the sun will reach the end it its life and become a white dwarf.
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The only obvious solution is to pack up and head to a new planet and reset the countdown clock until that sun runs out of time. The flaw in this is how it takes an astronomical amount of time and if FTL travel is not possible, it might be completely impractical. So, how do we prolong the life if the sun?
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Solution 1: More Fuel
Let's add fuel to the sun by throwing the gas giants in the outer solar system. This is counterproductive for increasing the sun's lifespan. Adding the gas giants might increase the fuel, but the additional mass of (0.14%) would also increase the gravitational pressure inside the sun, so it would burn hotter. The new hotter equilibrium would actually burn everything at a faster rate and decrease the sun's lifespan by about 30 million years.
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Solution 2: Decrease the sun's mass
If the sun was colder and smaller, we would have to relocate to a closer orbit. Even if we can do this, one risk would be tidal locking, which is when one side of the sun always faces the host star, meaning one side is a scorching wasteland and the other a barren tundra. Another risk would be solar eruptions that could destroy earth with its flares.
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Another crazy option is to siphon just enough mass from the Sun to place Venus in the habitable zone and move Earth's life there after terraforming it. To achieve this, we need to reduce the sun by 17% and this increases the sun's lifespan by 600 million years.
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Solution 3: Replace the Sun's Helium with Hydrogen
The sun is constantly fusing hydrogen into helium in it core and burning through its hydrogen fuel. What if we can split the helium into hydrogen? Fusion in the Sun’s core is governed by the proton-proton chain, in which 6 hydrogen atoms (protons) undergo a series of steps to form a helium-4 atom, composed of 2 protons and 2 neutrons, and 2
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more “new” protons. And if we can split the helium-4 back into its constituent particles we can have this process become a perpetual loop, giving our sun an infinite lifespan through proton-proton fusion.
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The fatal flaw is that to split the helium requires 6% more energy. If we can capture all of the sun's energy output with a Dyson Shell we would still be 6% behind. A Dyson Shell is a shell around a star to capture all its energy. This means, we have to find another energy source to supplement or simply splitting the helium would add about a trillion years to the sun's lifespan.
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​Maybe one of these ideas will work in a billion years or humanity will have developed another solution or conquered faster than light travel. Maybe we can focus on climate change first. Just hope humanity perseveres and does not destroy ourselves before then.
Nothing lasts forever, not even powerful nuclear fuel cells, aka stars. After stars die, fascinating things are still in store. ​
A star must be able of fusing hydrogen into helium. When a star collapses to form a new star, the gravitational potential energy in the diffused state gets converted into kinetic (thermal) energy. If it gets hot enough at around 4 million Kelvin, nuclear fusion will begin for a mass about 8% of our sun or 70 times the mass of Jupiter (the minimum requirement for a star). Once hydrogen fuses into helium, then the fate of the star is determined by the mass which determines its temperature.
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Fate 1: Stars that are low in mass means it will not be hot enough to fuse helium into carbon. This is a M-class (red dwarf) star that is less than 40% the mass of the sun, a majority of the stars in the universe, about 75 to 80%. They last 150 billion to 100 trillion years and all are still alive and shining.
Fate 2: Stars like the Sun will get hot enough to use helium into carbon when it runs out of hydrogen as it swells into a red giant. It will end up being composed of carbon and oxygen with hydrogen and helium layers blown off. This happens for stars about 40% to 800% the Sun's mass. When they die, they become planetary nebula/white dwarfs. For our sun, during the red giant phase, Mercury and Venus will be engulfed and Neptune will melt and sublimate. When the outer layers blow off, the core will be carbon and oxygen and shrink to the size of the earth, into a white dwarf. The white dwarfs are still very hot (about 20,000K) because of the compression and the cooling will take a long time due to the low surface area. This takes about 100 trillion to 1 quadrillion years (10 to the 14th or 15th power) until it becomes black dwarf.
Fate 3: If the star is more than 8x the mass of the Sun, it will fuse hydrogen to helium and helium to carbon and later oxygen fusion, silicon fusion and finally explode into a supernova. Supernovas are rare, about 0.1-0.2%.
What happens then? There is more....
1) Completely unlucky - Most system in the universe are singlet star systems, like our sun. 50% of stars are in binary or trinary systems. This is important as it means the sun will unlikely be swallowed up.
2) Lucky enough to revitalize - It is possible for the sun to shine again if it gets fuel, such as merge with a red dwarf or brown dwarf, accumulate hydrogen from cloud or gaseous planet, or run into another stellar corpse. The second method will lead to a burst of fusion known as a nova.
3) Super lucky, getting devoured by a black hole - There is a supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy but there are also small ones formed by individual stars. If the sun get hit, parts of it will be devoured but most of it will be ejected.
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So, we gotta wait a long long time to find out the ultimate fate of our sun.
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Fun Sun Facts:
Distance between the Sun and Earth: 93 million miles (149 million km)
Amount of time it takes for light from the Sun to reach Earth: about eight minutes
Diameter: 865,370 miles (1.3927 million km)
Size (compared to Earth): about 109 times wider than the Earth – about 1.3 million Earths could fit inside the Sun
Mass: 1.989 x 1030 kg – about 333,000 times the mass of Earth
Age: about 4.6 billion years old – the same as Earth and other planets that formed within our solar system
Average temperature: varies from 5,600 ℃ (surface) to 15 million ℃ (core)
Amount of light energy the Sun produces each second: 3.8 x 1026 terawatts (one trillion watts) – more than the amount of energy all humans will use in 600 years
Amount of the Sun’s energy that reaches Earth each second: 173,000 terawatts – less than one billionth of the total energy created by the Sun each second
Amount of the Sun’s energy currently used for electricity: less than 0.1%
Length of time for one solar cycle: ~11 years
Length of time to orbit the Milky Way galaxy: 250 million years
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What is the Sun Made of? primarily hydrogen 92.1% and helium 7.9% and trace elements of oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, silicon, magnesium, neon, iron and sulfur. Gases are most plasma, high temperature electronically charged gas. 99% of the visible universe is plasma.
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The Sun has layers - Three layers: the interior, the visible surface, and the atmosphere. The interior has 3 parts: core, radiative zone and convective zone. Energy is made at the core. The boundary between the interior and the atmosphere is the photosphere. Corona is the sun's outer atmosphere where there is solar wind. The earth is actually in the atmosphere of the sun! The lower atmosphere is the chromosphere.
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The sun's energy is emitted as light and electromagnetic radiation. Solar winds are high-energy protons and electrons. The energy of the sun is very constant, less than 0.01% variance over each decade, but because it is such as huge amount, even small fluctuations can have an impact on earth, interfering with communications and electrical transmission. Solar storms in the upper atmosphere are called auroras.
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Volcanoes explode, and it’s not baking soda bubbling up inside of them. Explore the science of volcanic eruptions and study their consequences. Review the following cases and research: when and why do dormant volcanoes reawaken, and does human activity play a role? Also, what is an igneous rock?
Just in case some scholars are not familiar with the rock cycle and igneous rocks.
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Igneous rocks form from the solidification of molten rock material: magma or lava. They are categorized based on their origin, texture, and mineral composition.
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Igneous rocks are characterized by several distinct properties:
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Crystalline Texture: They often have a crystalline texture due to the interlocking of crystals that form as the molten rock cools.
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Hardness and Density: Most igneous rocks are hard and dense.
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Mineral Content: They contain a variety of minerals, including quartz, feldspar, mica, and olivine.
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Color Variations: Their color ranges from light (in rocks with high silica content) to dark (in rocks with low silica content).
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The classification of igneous rocks based on composition revolves around the silica (SiO2) content and the proportion of various minerals present in the rock. This classification categorizes igneous rocks into four primary groups: felsic, intermediate, mafic, and ultramafic.
Volcanoes explode, and it’s not baking soda bubbling up inside of them. Explore the science of volcanic eruptions and study their consequences. Review the following cases and research: when and why do dormant volcanoes reawaken, and does human activity play a role? Also, what is an igneous rock?
Most volcanologists would say that a volcano or volcanic field that has erupted within the Holocene, the current geologic epoch, (after the most recent ice age about 11,650 years ago), or that has the potential to erupt again in the future, should be considered “active.” Within active volcanoes there are also “actively erupting” and “potentially active.”
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However, volcanologists use that term as shorthand for “potentially active,” so a “dormant” volcano is one that is not erupting now, but that is considered “active” because it could erupt in the future. Among “dormant” volcanoes there is a sub-category for those that are “restless”—these are volcanoes that are not erupting, but that are experiencing some signs that magma is accumulating or moving beneath the surface.
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​For some volcanoes, volcanologists say with confidence that they are extinct. But, extinct volcanos an reawaken. Mount St. Helens, for example, was dormant from about 11,000 years ago to about 4,000 years ago, after which time it has erupted very frequently. It could be that we lack information about their eruptions in the recent past. These status terms depend heavily on knowledge of the geological deposits of volcanoes, which are a window into their eruption histories. If there is evidence for magma beneath the ground—for example, as indicated by magma-related seismicity and/or ground deformation, or by an active hydrothermal system—then the volcano should be considered “active” but currently “dormant,” regardless of the time since its last eruption.
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Volcanic systems like Yellowstone fall, as well as the other two caldera systems in the USA: Long Valley (California) and Valles (New Mexico) are considered active but currently dormant. Yellowstone last erupted about 70,000 years ago, while Long Valley’s most recent activity was about 16,000–17,000 years ago, and Valles last erupted about 68,000 years ago. All three might be considered “extinct,” since none have erupted in the Holocene, but we know that magma is present beneath all three caldera systems because of geophysical unrest (including seismicity and ground deformation) and/or hydrothermal activity.
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Magma, this burning liquid rock beneath the Earth's surface, largely determines a volcano's ability to erupt. Its texture, called viscosity, directly influences its activity: fluid magma, which is less thick, rises quickly and allows the gases it contains to escape easily, resulting in rather calm eruptions, like gentle lava flows. In contrast, very viscous and thick magma with a lot of silica traps the gases. The result: these gases accumulate, create enormous pressure, and eventually explode violently. The chemical composition, particularly the richness in silica, directly determines whether a volcano remains active or prefers to take a long nap.
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Other clues that a dormant or extinct volcano is awakening include the appearance of hot springs and geysers. Beneath our feet, the heat from the Earth's mantle circulates hot water through the rocks. Where geothermal activity is strong, this heat can gradually awaken a volcano by warming its dormant magma, making it more fluid and mobile. Active volcanoes often release large amounts of volcanic gases, particularly sulfur dioxide, carbon dioxide, and water vapor. These gases come directly from the magma rising to the surface. The greater the pressure exerted by these gases, the faster the magma rises, increasing the chances of an imminent eruption.
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Mount Vesuvius is a somma–stratovolcano located on the Gulf of Naples in Campania, Italy, about 9 km east of Naples and a short distance from the shore. It is one of several volcanoes forming the Campanian volcanic arc. Vesuvius consists of a large cone partially encircled by the steep rim of a summit caldera, resulting from the collapse of an earlier, much higher structure. This is what makes it a somma-stratovolcano. The eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD destroyed the Roman cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum, Oplontis, Stabiae and other settlements.
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The only surviving eyewitness account of the event consists of two letters by Pliny the Younger to the historian Tacitus. Pliny the Younger describes, amongst other things, the last days in the life of his uncle, Pliny the Elder. Observing the first volcanic activity from Misenum across the Bay of Naples from the volcano, approximately 35 kilometres (22 mi), the elder Pliny launched a rescue fleet and
went himself to the rescue of a personal friend. The two men saw an extraordinarily dense cloud rising rapidly above the peak. This cloud and a request by a messenger for an evacuation by sea prompted the elder Pliny to order rescue operations in which he sailed away to participate. Since the eruption of AD 79, Vesuvius has erupted around three dozen times. The eruption of 5 April 1906 killed more than 100 people and ejected the most lava ever recorded from a Vesuvian eruption.
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As it is an active volcano, emergency evacuation plan assumes between two weeks and 20 days notice of an eruption and foresees the emergency evacuation of 600,000 people, almost entirely comprising all those living in the zona rossa ("red zone"), i.e. at greatest risk from pyroclastic flows. The volcano is closely monitored by the Osservatorio Vesuvio in Ercolano with extensive networks of seismic and gravimetric stations, a combination of a GPS-based geodetic array and satellite-based synthetic aperture radar to measure ground movement and by local surveys and chemical analyses of gases emitted from fumaroles. All of this is intended to track magma rising underneath the volcano. The area around Vesuvius was officially declared a national park on 5 June 1995. The summit of Vesuvius is open to visitors, and there is a small network of paths around the volcano that are maintained by the park authorities on weekends.
Huaynaputina is a volcano in a volcanic high plateau in southern Peru. Lying in the Central Volcanic Zone of the Andes, it was formed by the subduction of the oceanic Nazca Plate under the continental South American Plate. Huaynaputina is a large volcanic crater, which lacks an identifiable mountain profile, with an outer stratovolcano and three younger volcanic vents within an amphitheatre-shaped structure that is either a former caldera or a remnant of glacial erosion. A caldera is a large cauldron-like hollow that forms after a volcanic eruption empties the magma chamber. The volcano has erupted dacitic magma. Dacitic magma is a type of volcanic magma that has a high silica content, typically between 62% to 69%, and also very thick.
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Huaynaputina has erupted several times during the Holocene, including on 19 February 1600 – the largest recorded eruption ever witnessed in South America – which continued with a series of events into March. Witnessed by people in the city of Arequipa, it killed at least 1,000–1,500 people in the region, wiped out vegetation, buried the surrounding area with 2 metres (7 ft) of volcanic rock, and damaged infrastructure and economic resources. The eruption had a significant impact on Earth's climate, causing a volcanic winter: temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere decreased; cold waves hit parts of Europe, Asia, and the Americas; and the climate disruption may have played a role in the onset of the Little Ice Age. Floods, famines, and social upheavals resulted, including a probable link with the Russian famine of 1601–1603 and Time of Troubles. This eruption has been computed to measure 6 on the Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI). The volcano has not erupted since 1600.
Huayna means 'new', and Putina means 'fire-throwing mountain'; the full name is meant to suggest the aggressiveness of its volcanic activity and refers to the 1600 eruption being its first one. Two other translations are 'young boiling one' – perhaps a reference to earlier eruptions – or 'where young were boiled', which may refer to human sacrifices.
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The 1600 eruption had far-reaching impacts that reached as far as North America, Ottoman Empire, and even China with areas reporting colder weather and extreme flooding. A repeat of the 1600 eruption would likely cause a considerably greater death toll owing to population growth since 1600, as well as causing substantial socioeconomic disruption in the Andes. Evacuation of the area directly around the volcano would be difficult owing to the poor state of the roads, and the tephra fallout would impact much of Peru's economy. The 1600 eruption is often used as a worst-case scenario model for eruptions at Peruvian volcanoes. Huaynaputina is classified as a "high-risk volcano".
Mount Unzen (雲仙岳, Unzen-dake) is an active volcanic group of several overlapping stratovolcanoes, near the city of Shimabara, Nagasaki on the island of Kyushu, Japan's southernmost main island. In 1792, the collapse of one of its several lava domes triggered a megatsunami that killed 14,524 people in Japan's worst volcanic-related disaster. The volcano was most recently active from 1990 to 1995, and a large eruption in 1991 generated a pyroclastic flow that killed 43 people, including three volcanologists. Mount Unzen was designated a Decade Volcano by the United Nations, in 1991 as part of their International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction, due to its history of violent activity and location in a densely populated area.
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The eruptive activity caused great damage to the Shimabara Peninsula, especially Shimabara City and Fukae Town. The main factor that led to damage were debris flows and lahars, initiated by heavy rain which destabilized pyroclastic flow and ash debris previously deposited on the slopes. A lahar is a violent type of mudflow or debris flow composed of a slurry of pyroclastic material, rocky debris and water.
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​In 1999, an ambitious project began at Mount Unzen to drill deep inside the volcano and sample magma in the 1990–1995 eruption conduit. The project hoped to shed light on some fundamental questions in volcanology, such as why magma repeatedly travels in the same conduits despite the solidification of magma in them at the end of each eruption, and how it can lose enough gas on its ascent to erupt effusively rather than explosively.
Mount Tambora, or Tomboro, is an active stratovolcano in West Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia. Located on Sumbawa in the Lesser Sunda Islands, it was formed by the active subduction zones beneath it. Before the 1815 eruption, its elevation reached more than 4,300 metres (14,100 feet) high, making it one of the tallest peaks in the Indonesian archipelago.
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Tambora underwent a series of violent eruptions, beginning on 5 April 1815, and culminating in the largest eruption in recorded human history and the largest of the Holocene (10,000 years ago to present). The magma chamber under Tambora had been drained by previous eruptions and lay dormant for several centuries as it refilled. Volcanic activity reached a peak that year, culminating in an explosive eruption that was heard on Sumatra island, more than 2,600 kilometres (1,600 mi) away and possibly over 3,350 kilometres (2,080 mi) away in Thailand and Laos.
Heavy volcanic ash rains were observed as far away as Borneo, Sulawesi, Java, and Maluku islands, and the maximum elevation of Tambora was reduced from about 4,300 to 2,850 metres (14,110 to 9,350 feet). Estimates vary, but the death toll was at least 71,000 people. The eruption contributed to global climate anomalies in the following years, while 1816 became known as the "year without a summer" because of the effect on North American and European weather. In the Northern Hemisphere, crops failed and livestock died, resulting in the worst famine of the century. Radiocarbon dating has established that Mount Tambora had erupted three times during the current Holocene epoch before the 1815 eruption, but the magnitudes of these eruptions are unknown.
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Indonesia's population has been increasing rapidly since the 1815 eruption. In 2020, the population of the country reached 270 million people, of which 56% concentrated on the island of Java. An event as significant as the 1815 eruption would impact about eight million people.
Krakatoa is a caldera in the Sunda Strait between the islands of Java and Sumatra in Indonesia. The caldera is part of a volcanic island group (Krakatoa archipelago) comprising four islands. Two of them are known as Lang and Verlaten; another island, Rakata, is the only remnant of an island mostly destroyed by an eruption
in 1883 which created the caldera. In 1927, a fourth island, Anak Krakatoa, or "Child of Krakatoa", emerged from the caldera formed in 1883. There has been new eruptive activity since the late 20th century, with a large collapse causing a deadly tsunami in December 2018.
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The most notable eruptions of Krakatoa culminated in a series of massive explosions over 26–27 August 1883, which were among the most violent volcanic events in recorded history. With an estimated Volcanic explosivity index (VEI) of 6, the eruption was equivalent to 200 megatons of TNT (840 PJ)—about 13,000 times the nuclear yield of the Little Boy bomb (13 to 16 kt) that devastated Hiroshima, Japan.
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Indonesia has over 130 active volcanoes, the most of any nation. They make up the axis of the Indonesian island arc system produced by northeastward subduction of the Indo-Australian Plate. A majority of these volcanoes lie along Indonesia's two largest islands, Java and Sumatra. These two islands are separated by the Sunda Strait located at a bend in the axis of the island arc. Krakatau is directly above the subduction zone of the Eurasian Plate and the Indo-Australian Plate where the plate boundaries make a sharp change of direction, possibly resulting in an unusually weak crust in the region.
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Lake Nyos is a crater lake in the Northwest Region of Cameroon, located about 315 km (196 mi) northwest of Yaoundé, the capital. Nyos is a deep lake high on the flank of an inactive volcano in the Oku volcanic plain along the Cameroon line of volcanic activity. A volcanic dam impounds the lake waters.
A pocket of magma lies beneath the lake and leaks carbon dioxide (CO2) into the water, changing it into carbonic acid. Nyos is one of only three lakes known to be saturated with carbon dioxide in this way, and therefore prone to limnic eruptions. Limnic eruptions also
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known as a lake overturn, is a very rare type of natural hazard in which dissolved carbon dioxide (CO2) suddenly erupts from deep lake waters, forming a gas cloud capable of asphyxiating wildlife, livestock, and humans. In 1986, possibly as the result of a landslide, Lake Nyos suddenly emitted a large cloud of CO2, which suffocated 1,746 people and 3,500 livestock in nearby towns and villages. ​To prevent a recurrence, a degassing tube that siphons water from the bottom layers to the top, allowing the carbon dioxide to leak in safe quantities, was installed in 2001. Two additional tubes were installed in 2011.​
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Another threat is the weakening of the lake's walls due to erosion and a collapse could lead to a flood that rushes all the way to Nigeria and allows a tremendous amount of carbon dioxide to escape. Reinforcing the wall would take a lot of money and Cameroon is asking for support from international organization.
Mount St. Helens is an active stratovolcano located in Washington, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. The volcano is part of the Cascade Volcanic Arc, a segment of the Pacific Ring of Fire. Mount St. Helens had a major eruption on May 18, 1980, which remains the deadliest and most economically destructive volcanic event in U.S. history. 57 people were killed; 200 homes, 47 bridges, 15 miles of railways, and 185 miles of highway were destroyed. A massive debris avalanche, triggered by a magnitude 5.1 earthquake, caused a lateral eruption that reduced the elevation of the mountain's summit from 9,677 to 8,363 ft, leaving a 1 mile wide horseshoe-shaped crater.
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After its 1980 eruption, the volcano experienced continuous volcanic activity until 2008. Geologists predict that future eruptions will be more destructive, as the configuration of the lava domes requires more pressure to erupt.
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Mount St. Helens is geologically young compared with the other major Cascade volcanoes. It formed only within the past 40,000 years, and the summit cone present before its 1980 eruption began rising about 2,200 years ago, within the Holocene epoch.
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The eruption of Mount St. Helens has been subject to more ecological study than has any other eruption, because research into disturbance began immediately after the eruption and because the eruption did not sterilize the immediate area. More than half of the papers on ecological response to volcanic eruption originated from studies of Mount St. Helens.
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Today, Mount St. Helens is a popular hiking and tourist spot and you need a permit to climb above 4800 feet on the slope. Due to the eruption, the state recognizes the month of May as "Volcano Awareness Month" and events are held at Mt. St. Helens, or within the region, to discuss the eruption, safety concerns, and to commemorate lives lost during the natural disaster.
Eyjafjallajökull aka E15, is one of the smaller ice caps of Iceland, north of Skógar and west of Mýrdalsjökull. The ice cap covers the caldera of a volcano with a summit elevation of 1,651 metres (5,417 ft). The volcano has erupted relatively frequently since the Last Glacial Period, most recently in 2010, when, although relatively small for a volcanic eruption, it caused enormous disruption to air travel across northern and western Europe for a week due to the ash that were dispersed several kilometers into the air.
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Eyjafjallajökull consists of a volcano completely covered by an ice cap. The retreating ice cap covered an area of 66 km2 (25 sq mi) in 2019, but was previously more than 80 square kilometres (30 square miles), with many outlet glaciers. The mountain itself, a stratovolcano, stands 1,651 metres (5,417 ft) at its highest point, and has a crater three to four kilometres in diameter. The volcano is fed by a magma chamber under the mountain, which in turn derives from the tectonic divergence of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. It is part of a chain of volcanoes stretching across Iceland. The volcano is thought to be related to Katla geologically, in that eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull have generally been followed by eruptions of Katla.
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In March 2010, almost three thousand small earthquakes were detected near the volcano, all having a depth of 7–10 kilometres. The eruption begun on 20 March 2010, and this first eruption, in the form of a 300-meter-long radial fissure vent. The eruption consisted of 15 lava fountains reaching heights of up to 185 m (607 ft).
Some volcanos are giant peaks while others are under the water. Hunga Tonga is a submarine volcano in the South Pacific located about 65 km (40 mi) north of Tongatapu, Tonga's main island. It is part of the highly active Kermadec-Tonga subduction zone and its associated volcanic arc, which extends from New Zealand north-northeast to Fiji, and is formed by the subduction of the Pacific Plate under the Indo-Australian Plate. The volcano rises around 2,000 m from the seafloor and has a caldera which on the eve of the 2022 eruption was roughly 150 m below sea level and 4 km at its widest extent. The only major above-water part of the volcano are the twin uninhabited islands of Hunga Tonga and Hunga Haʻapai.
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The most recent eruption, in January 2022, triggered a tsunami that reached the coasts of Japan and the Americas, along with a volcanic plume that soared 58 km (36 miles) into the mesosphere. It was the largest volcanic eruption since the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo and the biggest explosion recorded in the atmosphere by modern instrumentation, far surpassing any 20th-century volcanic event or nuclear bomb test. NASA determined that the eruption was "hundreds of times more powerful" than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. It is believed that the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa is the only eruption in recent centuries that rivaled the atmospheric disturbance it produced.
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In August 2022, a NASA report on the January 2022 eruption of Hunga Tonga–Hunga HaÊ»apai stated, "The huge amount of water vapor hurled into the atmosphere, as detected by NASA's Microwave Limb Sounder, The excess water vapor injected by the Tonga volcano... could remain in the stratosphere for several years... may have a small, temporary warming effect... would not be enough to noticeably exacerbate climate change effects." Later it was found that the excess water vapor from the 2022 eruption would remain in the stratosphere for about 8 years, and help making the 2023 ozone hole one of the largest and most persistent in history. In addition, research suggests that the water vapor could influence winter weather across the globe for several years.
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The Yellowstone Caldera, also known as the Yellowstone Plateau Volcanic Field, is a Quaternary caldera complex and volcanic plateau spanning parts of Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana. It is driven by the Yellowstone hotspot and is largely within Yellowstone National Park. The field comprises four overlapping calderas, multiple lava domes, resurgent domes, crater lakes, and numerous bimodal lavas and tuffs of basaltic and rhyolitic composition, originally covering about 17,000 km2 (6,600 sq mi). Volcanism began 2.15 million years ago and proceeded through three major volcanic cycles. The first and also the largest cycle was the Huckleberry Ridge Tuff eruption about 2.08 million years ago. The most recent supereruption, about 0.63 million years ago, produced the Lava Creek Tuff. Post-caldera eruptions included basalt flows, rhyolite domes and flows, and minor explosive deposits, with the last magmatic eruption about 70,000 years ago. Large hydrothermal explosions also occurred during the Holocene.
From 2004 to 2009, the region experienced notable uplift attributed to new magma injection. The 2005 docudrama Supervolcano, produced by the BBC and the Discovery Channel, increased public attention on the potential for a future catastrophic eruption. The Yellowstone Volcano Observatory monitors volcanic activity and does not consider an eruption imminent.
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Volcanic and tectonic actions in the region cause between 1,000 and 2,000 measurable earthquakes annually. Most are relatively minor, measuring magnitude 3 or weaker. Occasionally, numerous earthquakes are detected in a relatively short period of time, an event known as an earthquake swarm. In 1985, more than 3,000 earthquakes were measured over a period of several months.
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The Lava Creek eruption of the Yellowstone Caldera, which occurred 640,000 years ago. It was Yellowstone's third and most recent caldera-forming eruption. Geologists closely monitor the elevation of the Yellowstone Plateau, which has been rising as quickly as 150 millimetres (5.9 in) per year, as an indirect measurement of changes in magma chamber pressure.
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The volcanic eruptions, as well as the continuing geothermal activity, are a result of a great plume of magma located below the caldera's surface. If the pressure is released to a sufficient degree by some geological shift, then some of the gases bubble out and cause the magma to expand. This can cause a chain reaction. If the expansion results in further relief of pressure, for example, by blowing crust material off the top of the chamber, the result is a very large gas explosion. Over 20 large craters have been produced in the past 14,000 years, resulting in such features as Mary Bay, Turbid Lake, and Indian Pond, which was created in an eruption about 1300 BC.
Like dormant volcanoes, not every war can be suppressed forever. Treaties break; truces fail to hold. Explore why some periods of conflict lasted as long as they did, then discuss with your team: what does it take to “put out” a war so that it doesn’t reignite? To what extent were there periods of quiet within the larger scope of the violence around them? Is the best way to achieve a lasting peace for one side to win a conflict decisively?
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​The Second Punic War (218–201 BC), marked by Carthage General Hannibal's famous crossing of the Alps and famous battle with Scipio Africanus. In 219 BC a Carthaginian army under Hannibal besieged, captured and sacked Saguntum and in spring 218 BC Rome declared war on Carthage. Hannibal took the Romans by surprise when he moved the battle all the way to Roman's main territory in Italy with a skilled group of infantry, cavalry and also war elephants. The Romans panicked and appointed Fabius Maximus as dictator. He introduced the Fabian strategy which was to disrupt Hannibal's supply lines and avoid open battle. Romans suffered a horrible defeat at Cannae when they were surrounded by Carthage troops. One notable battle was the Siege of Syracuse in which Roman army won and famous inventor Archimedes was killed. Roman General Scipio Africanus brought the war to Carthage and Carthage's loss led to even harsh indemnities including the loss of rights to declare war, have a navy and banned the use of war elephants. Carthage eventually paid off the fines and its recovery drove Roman fear of its rival's revival.
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Third Punic War (149–146 BC) was sparked by conflict with Roman allies in Africa, the Numidians. It became a long drawn-out siege of Carthage, which lasted into a blockade. The Roman side was led Scipio Aemilianus, an adopted grandson of Scipio Africanus and Carthage was led by Hasdrubal the Boetharch. Eventually, it resulted in a complete destruction of Carthage. Its city in ruins and the people turned to slavery. There was the legend of Roman's sowing salt in Carthage, but that has turned out to be a lie.
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These conflicts were instrumental in shaping the course of ancient history and the rise of Rome as a dominant power in the region. The Punic Wars showed that that it seems the only way to completely put out a rival is to extinguish the entire population or the hatred will fuel its rise time and time again. Harsh fines, peaceful treaty and alliances all failed when fear and resentment drove the conflict. After the Romans took over, they actually left the Carthaginians to keep their own religion, language and way of life. Soon, it slowly became assimilated into Rome. In this case, soft power seemed to have been the path to lasting peace.
The Punic Wars were a series of three significant conflicts fought between the Roman Republic and the Carthaginian Empire from 264 to 146 BC. Through victories and spoils of war, Rome solidified itself as a superpower in the region and later became the Roman Empire.
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The wars included the First Punic War (264–241 BC), primarily over control of Sicily. The spark that ignited the First Punic War in 264 BC was the issue of control of the independent Sicilian city-state of Messana. Romans allied with Syracuse and the two sides collided at the Battle of Agrigentum. Although initially, the Roman's lacked naval experience, but soon, it copied Carthage's ship building designs. Also, with the invention of the Corvus, a bridge between ships for infantry soldiers, Roman took victory. The Treaty of Lutatius was agreed by which Carthage paid 3,200 talents of silver in reparations and Sicily was annexed as the first Roman province, indemnities and were limited in their naval routes, hurting their trade and commerce. Carthage lost control of Sicily, Corsica and Sardinia
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During the Interbellum, the period between the two Punic Wars, the Mercenary, or Truceless, War began in 241 BC as a dispute over the payment of wages owed to 20,000 foreign soldiers who had fought for Carthage on Sicily during the First Punic War. After 700 Carthaginians were tortured by the Romans, the hatred fueled Carthage to take action. An expedition was prepared to reoccupy Sardinia, where mutinous soldiers had slaughtered all Carthaginians. However, the Roman Senate stated they considered the preparation of this force an act of war and demanded ​​
Carthage cede Sardinia and Corsica and pay an additional 1,200-talent indemnity. Weakened by 30 years of war, Carthage agreed rather than again enter into conflict with Rome​
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During the period between the conflict, Carthage reassembled its forces to the Iberian continent, which was modern-day Spain. It was a territory with lots of silver mines and Carthage hoped to regain its economic wealth and power. The region in Iberia was ruled by General Hamilcar the father of Carthage's legendary General Hannibal Barca.
The Hundred Years' War was a series of conflicts between France and England in the Late Middle Ages. It began with disputes over the Duchy of Aquitaine and England's Edward II's claim to the French throne. Remember when William the Conqueror came from France to England? Well, after settling in England, some of the royals still believed they had claim to their ancestral land in France. It was a series of conflicts with truces, interruptions, Black Death
and finally treaty to end it all. Over the course of the war five generations of kinds from the Plantagenets (England) fought with the Valois (France) for the French throne. In the end, England lost all continental possessions except in Calais. Interestingly, if after the war ended, until 1802, the monarch of England and called itself sovereigns of France.
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The war is divided into three periods separated by truces:
1) Edwardian War (1337-1360)
2) Caroline War (1369-1389)
3) Lancastrian War (1415-1453)
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Tension had been rising for centuries of the fiefs English kings held in France and how the French monarch sought to reduce their land rights. By 1337, English only had rights to Guyenne and Gascony. When 1328, Charles IV of France died without a male heir, conflict broke out. England's Edward III (nephew) claimed it while French wanted a native French to be crowned, which was Philip, the Count of Valois. When Philip wanted to take back Gascony, Edward renewed his claim to the crown.
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Edwardian phase
Edward III and his son Edward the Black Prince triumphed at the battles of Crecy and Pitiers and King John II of France was taken prisoner. The Treaty of Bretigny ended this phase and land was given to the English.
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Caroline phase and Black Death
​Under King Charles V, France nearly reclaimed all of its land. However, both countries were struck by the Black Death and France suffered more severely with nearly 50% of its population decimated.
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Lancastrian phase
​King Henry V of England took opportunity to revive the conflict, as French VI of France suffered from mental illness and civil war between Armagnacs and Burgundians. Even ​​
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though the English won notable battles, it eventually lost. One key figure was Joan or Arc which boosted French nationalism. The final battle was at Castillon in 1453.
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The Hundred Years' War almost resumed in 1474 when Charles of Burgundy took up arms against Louis XI and counted on English support. Louis XI offered Edward IV of England lots of money and pension in the Treaty of Picquigny (1475), which officially ended the century long war.
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Full of twists and turns, it was ignited and reignited by inheritance ambiguity, greed, profit, revenge, alliances, and nationalistic pride. It stopped with truces, ransom, surrender, death of leaders, the Black Death, and civil war. Eventually because people just didn't want war anymore. Being unpopular, taxes and loss eventually forced the English to call it quits.
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The English did not tire of war after more than a hundred years of it with the French. The descendants of Edward III, the two cadet branches of the Plantagenets, the House of Lancaster and the House of York continued to fight for the throne in the Wars of the Roses from (1455-1487). The war was ignited for several reasons:
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Economic Depression: The 1440s saw a period of economic hardship across Western Europe, which fueled discontent.
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Political Upheaval: Ongoing political struggles and factional disputes among the nobility exacerbated tensions. The nobles were split into two contentious factions.
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Long story in a few lines. Edward IV defeats the Red forces and becomes king. He marries the beautiful widow Elizabeth Woodville. Warwick, the powerful noble aka "the Kingmaker" that backed Edward IV was unhappy and later married his younger daughter Anne to Margaret and Henry's son, Edward, Prince of Wales, hoping to bring back a Lancastrian King. Warwick's forces were defeated by Edward IV's brother Richard, later Richard the III. Edward IV ruled for 12 years and England was relatively peaceful. When he died abruptly, succession once again became a big issue. His young son, Edward V was crowned and did not actually rule. He was too young and was locked up in London Tower (aka the Princes of the tower, nobody knows what happened to him and his younger brother). His uncle Richard was too powerful and ambitious crowned himself as King Richard III. Toward the end, the series of succession wars finally ended when Henry Tudor aka Henry VII wins at the Battles of Bosworth and kills Richard III. He married Elizabeth of York, the daughter of Edward IV; thus, uniting the two family of roses. This finally led to a golden age for England.
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To put it into WSC context, the Wars of Roses were sparked like many European wars by a combination of profit-seeking by lords, weak monarchy, and ambiguous or unsupported succession. It continued on and on because neither side was able to gain support from the nobles, economic troubles and or revenge for killing my kin. Although the war did not affect the general population, it dragged on because of unvanquished challenges to the right to the throne. It took was a marriage alliance and healthy male heir to stop the perpetual infighting between the two noble houses. ​
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The Mongol invasions and conquests took place during the 13th and 14th centuries, creating the largest contiguous empire in history. The Mongol Empire (1206–1368), which by 1260 covered large parts of Eurasia.
​Genghis Khan (Tiemujin) forged the initial Mongol Empire in Central Asia, starting with the unification of the nomadic tribes. His army depopulated large areas of Central Asia and Northeastern Persia,
1) ecology: threat to their nomadic lifestyle
In the period from 1180-1220, Mongolia experienced a drop in the mean annual temperature, which meant that the growing season for grass was cut short. Less grass meant a real danger to the Mongols' animals, and, since the animals were truly the basis of the Mongols' pastoral-nomadic life, this ecological threat may have prompted them to move out of Mongolia. Additionally, the rise of the Mongols was preceded by 15 years of wet and warm weather conditions from 1211 to 1225 that allowed favourable conditions for the breeding of horses, which greatly assisted their expansion.
2) trade disruption:
Neighbors in the north and northwest of China reduced trade with the Mongols and this can be devastating for the pastoral nomads which needed grain, craft and manufactured articles. The Jin dynasty which controlled North China and the Xia which controlled Northwest China created a crisis for the Mongols to react by raiding.
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3) leadership ambition:
Genghis Khan's shamanic beliefs about ruling the world under one sword might have also been a motivation. He was an orphan and enslaved young boy and those personal experiences prompted him to achieve his ambitions and take revenge on the people (Tartars) who slaughtered his father. Perhaps divination empowered him to begin his conquests. To uphold the loyalty of his growing troops, he also needed to continue raiding for materials goods to reward his men.
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plundering and executing the masses. Heading towards the Middle East, they were skilled in military strategy and their reputation for total destruction led to many victories and voluntary surrender. His descendants also launched progressive invasions in China. Their greatest triumph was when his grandson Kublai became the emperor of China and established the Yuan Dynasty. His descendants also ventured into Russia and Siberia establishing the Golden Horde. Their military invasion even spread to India and Southeast Asia including kingdoms in Burma. Few regions escaped their destruction. including Japan and Vietnam.
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​What caused these nomadic herdsmen to move out of their homebase in central Asia into far off regions in Eurasia? The key causes include: ​
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As a mighty ruler, Genghis Khan's successors continued his wave of invasion. Genghis Khan's four sons feuded during the campaign, leading their father to send them in different directions once the Khwarezmids of Central Asia were conquered.
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Jochi went north and founded the Golden Horde that would rule Russia.
Tolui turned south and sacked Baghdad, the seat of the Abbasid Caliphate.
Ogodei, as his successor, and ruler of the Mongol homelands.
Chagatai was left to rule over Central Asia, consolidating the Mongol victory over Khwarezmid lands.
His successor was his third son, Ögedei, who was chosen by Genghis Khan himself and confirmed by a kurultai (Mongol assembly) in 1229. He ruled the Mongol Empire until his death in 1241. ​​At that time, neither the Russians or the major European powers could organise themselves sufficiently to adequately meet the five-pronged attack the Mongols had launched or deal with their swift cavalry, incendiary-firing catapults and terror tactics. The rest of Eastern and Central Europe was only saved by the death of Ogedei Khan (r. 1229-1241 CE) which caused the Mongols to retreat.
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Ögedei Khan's successor was his son Güyük Khan, who took power after a five-year regency by Ögedei's widow, Töregene Khatun. Güyük's reign was relatively short, lasting from 1246 to 1248. Kublai Khan, grandson of Genghis Khan, rose to power through military prowess and strategic political maneuvering, culminating in the establishment of the Yuan Dynasty in China. After his death, the Mongol empire broke apart, without a supreme khan to gather the forces and with different family members running their own parts of the empire.
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The Reconquista was a monumental era in Spanish history, spanning over 700 years from 711 AD to 1492 AD. It marks the long and complex series of campaigns led by Christian kingdoms to recapture territory taken by Muslim Moors on the Iberian Peninsula. The Reconquista ended in 1492 with the fall of the Nasrid kingdom of Granada to the Catholic Monarchs of Castille and Aragon. (Yes, the couple that sponsored Christopher Columbus's voyage to North America.) Key event linked to the Reconquista is the
Spanish Inquisition, a religious institution established by the monarchs with the approval of the Pope to wipe away heretics (Muslims and Jews). It caused wide spread death and suffering. This is the event that inspired Assassin's Creed.
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Also known as fall of Al-Andalus, religion is a powerful force that combined military and cultural campaigns. By 750 AD, the Umayyad Caliphate controlled much of North Africa after conquering the Visigoth Kingdom. Spain was then an ethically and religious diverse region with many smaller kingdoms. Many Christians or those trying to avoid Islamic authority fled north as refugees. The event that sparked the Reconquista is the Battle of Covadonga (718 AD), about a decade after the Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula. What sparked the war was Pelagius refusing to pay the jizya (tax on non-Muslims). The Umayyad commanders wanted to squash the rebellion after a failed battle in France, but the army of Pelagius of Austurias won against the Umayyad Caliphate and achieved the first Christian victory over the Muslims.
In the 10th century the Umayyad vizier Almanzor waged a series of military campaigns for 30 years to subjugate the norther Christian kingdoms. When the Umayyad state of Cordoba collapsed in the 11th century, it became a series of successor states known as taifas and the Northern Christians attacked aggressively and even intimidated weakened taifas to pay parias "protection".
In the 12th century, the Reconquista was a political action to develop the kingdoms of Portugal, Leon and Castile, and Aragon. Many Muslim strongholds fell to Christian forces, leaving only Grandaa as a tributary state in the south. Granada finally surrender to Christian
rulers in January of 1492. Religious persecution of Jewish communities followed with the Alhambra Decree, which forcibly expelled them. During the Reconquista, Muslims in Castile, Navarre and Aragon were forced to convert. The period is seen today to have had long episodes of relative religious coexistence and tolerance such as the Golden age of Jewish culture in Spain. The idea of a continuous Reconquista has been challenged by modern scholars.
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In actuality, throughout the 7 centuries that the various wars happened, it was not known as the Reconquista, a name given at a much later date. More importantly, historians find that the lines between Christians and Muslims were blurred with many secular rulers changing allegiances and so forth. One notable example is the popular Spanish hero El Cid who originally fought for the Muslim rulers of Zaragoza. He later served under Alfonso VI of Castile. He later ruled as the leader of the Taifa of Valencia after defeating the Moors. He became a folk hero through the epic poem, El Cantar de mi Cid.
Later the on concept of spreading Christianity or aggression in the name of Christianity also spread throughout the world with the discovery of the Americas and the Spanish Empire during the Age of Discovery. One notable example is the popular Spanish hero El Cid who originally fought for the Muslim rulers of Zaragoza. The concept was rekindled by the far-right advocates in the 20th century during the Francisco Franco dictatorship over National Capitalism.
Some wars last many centuries and some modern ones only a few days, but this one might even have been imaginary. It was an alleged state of war from 30 March 1651 – 17 April 1986 between the Netherlands and the Isles of Scilly (a small little island located off the southwest coast of Great Britain). It is said to have been extended by the lack of a peace treaty for 335 years without a single shot being fired, which would make it one of the world's longest wars, and a bloodless war. 'Peace' was finally declared in 1986, bringing an end to this non-existent hypothetical war.
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This silly war happened in the English Civil War between Royalists and Parliamentarians led by Oliver Cromwell. The Dutch had chosen to support the Parliamentarians and the Royalists retaliated by raiding Dutch ships. The Royalist on the losing side had been chased off England and their last stronghold was the Isles of Scilly, a mere 4 square miles in size. The Dutch wanted to recoup some of their financial losses dispatched warships there. The Dutch Commander Admiral Maarten Harpertszoon Tromp demanded the Royalist to pay reparation. The Royalists refused, but since there were so few of them, the Dutch did even bother to fight and just left. The English Civil War as soon over and the whole thing forgotten.
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In 1985, a local historian on the Isles of Scilly named Roy Duncan discovered some documents detailing this event. Duncan wrote to the Dutch Embassy in London and discovered no suspension of hostilities had ever been issued. A peace treaty was sign in 1986 on the tiny island, as a friendly gesture and a humorous act. Historian doubted whether the Dutch commander had the right to even declare war.
For the first time in 335 years the Scillonians could sleep safety in their beds, for as the Ambassador remarked; “It must have been awful to know we could have attacked at any moment.”