A Ton of Crap (112 page)

Temperatures
In order to sustain ionization, extremely high temperatures are needed. (Otherwise, electrons and ions recombine, forming an atom, and the plasma turns into a gas.) Plasmas can be categorized as thermal and nonthermal. Thermal plasma has heavy particles and electrons in thermal equilibrium (meaning at the same temperature). In nonthermal plasma, electrons are much hotter, meaning they are more ionized than the ions and neutrals. The temperature of plasma is measured in kelvins, also known as electronvolts, and is the thermal kinetic energy found in each particle.

AFRIKAANS

Dialects
In the 1800s, there were three dialects of Afrikaans: Cape Afrikaans, Orange River Afrikaans, and Eastern Border Afrikaans. The Malay slaves who and spoke a form of Portuguese, influenced the Cape Afrikaans dialect. Orange River Afrikaans was influenced by the Koi languages of the Griqualand West areas and Namakwaland. The Eastern Border Afrikaans dialect evolved from those traveling out of the Cape and toward Natal. When the language was standardized, it was based on the Eastern dialect.

VIETNAM WAR

The Johnson Years
When Kennedy was assassinated, Lyndon B. Johnson took over, and he was convinced that more needed to be done in Vietnam. In 1968, in the Gulf of Tonkin, two American ships were attacked by North Vietnam. The attack was used by the Johnson administration to get Congress to pass the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which allowed Johnson to order the bombing of North Vietnam. By 1968, North Vietnam had continued success launching attacks on southern cities, with the intention of forcing the United States to make a bargain. That year, Johnson decided not to run for re-election.

CHARLES DICKENS

David Copperfield
Charles Dickens’s eighth novel was
David Copperfield
, published in 1849. The book is considered the closest Charles Dickens ever got to writing an autobiography. In July of 1948, Dickens’s sister, who was a model for Scrooge’s sister Fan in
A Christmas Carol
, became terminally ill and died in September. Dickens intended to write an autobiography, but the process proved too painful for him, so instead, he fabricated a character and told his story through David Copperfield. In the book, many of the events that David Copperfield (whose initials are the inverse of Dickens’s) goes through are dramatizations of Dickens’s life.

THE NUMBER e

Discrete Accumulation
The number
e
is also a very important part of understanding investments and loans. Using
e
, one can easily compute what the limit on the effective rate would be. For example, if you invest $100 into a bank with an annual rate of 4 percent, and your bank offers a monthly compounding, by the end of the year your investment would be worth $104.08. One can use
e
to figure out the limit on the effective rate. For example: 100 × 
e
0.04 = 104.08.

PLASMA

Differences Between Plasma and Gas
Due to the fact that it has no definite volume or form, plasma is most closely related to gas, which shares this property. It is its own form of matter, however, and plasma has several differences from gas. While gas has very low electrical conductivity, plasma has extremely high electrical conductivity that can be seen as infinite. While all gas particles behave similarly, ions, electrons, neutrons, and protons all act independently in plasma. Though for gas, two-particle collisions is the general rule, for plasma, waves that are made up of an organized movement of plasma, interact over long areas.

AFRIKAANS

Afrikaans and Apartheid
The white Afrikaans community increasingly separated itself from the English-speaking community, which eventually led to the Anglo-Boer War that lasted from 1899 to 1902. Though the Afrikaners lost, they began a campaign to promote the language. In 1948, the National Party, which was Afrikaans-oriented, won the elections, and instituted apartheid and made it so that black children would only be taught the Afrikaans language. This would link the language to apartheid and the horrible political system of the National Party, and this association still remains.

VIETNAM WAR

Antiwar Movement
Johnson had wished to go to war in Vietnam and have little change in terms of everyday life back home. The Vietnam War, however, was met with a great antiwar movement. In major cities and college campuses across the United States, antiwar protests erupted. One of the most famous events occurred during the 1968 Democratic National Convention, where hundreds of thousands of people came to Chicago to protest the war, leading to a police riot.

CHARLES DICKENS

A Tale of Two Cities
Published in 1859,
A Tale of Two Cities
, Dickens’s twelfth novel, was a departure in many ways for the author. The story is historical, with the backdrop being the events of the French Revolution, and is less character-driven and more focused on political events. Dickens shows both the cruelty of the French aristocracy and the suffering of the poor, justifying the need to revolt, but he also depicts the heinous deeds of those revolutionaries as they come to power.

THE NUMBER E