A Ton of Crap (16 page)

Society of the Ottoman Empire
One of the reasons the Ottoman Empire was so successful was its ability to unify a wide variety of people through its tolerance of other religions. This was done by establishing Millets. Millets were religious groups of people that were able to practice and retain their own laws, language, and traditions of their religions. The many different ethnicities, however, led to a weakness in nationalism, one of the contributing factors of the empire’s decline.

LANGUAGE

Pragmatics
Pragmatics studies how the context of an utterance leads to meaning. It is used to explain how humans are able to overcome the ambiguities of language that are so closely related to time, space, manner, etc. An utterance is a concrete example of speech with a specific context, and pragmatics aims to understand how the specific context affects the meaning of the utterance.

CHINESE MATHEMATICS

Math of the Song and Yuan Dynasties
There were many great mathematicians during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries whose work revolved around cubic, quadratic, and root equations. Yang Hui was the first person to have discovered and proved Pascal’s triangle. Qin Jiushao introduced zero to mathematics in China. Li Zhi studied algebraic geometry and revolutionized the process of inscribing triangles in a circle, using the Pythagorean theorem to solve his equations.

THE RESPIRATORY SYSTEM

The Nose and Nasal Cavity
The nose and throat are the first line of defense when it comes to protecting the respiratory system. As air is inhaled through the nose, the dirt is cleaned by the hairs in the nose, and further cleaned by mucus. The nasal cavity is lined with tissue that consists of many blood vessels. These blood vessels provide heat, which warms the air as it is taken in. The nasal cavity also adds moisture to this air, making it suitable for the lungs.

GERMAN

Modern German
Modern German began around 1500 and is still being used today. In 1880, the first grammatical rules were established, and in 1901, these were declared the standards for the German language. It is now the official language used in the church, state, education, and the arts.

THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE

Decline of the Ottoman Empire
From the sixteenth to the eighteenth century, the Ottoman Empire faced many wars, rebellions, and treaties. This took a great toll on the empire economically. The Ottoman Empire would come to lose control of Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia, Romania, Herzegovina, Greece, and Egypt. The once-flourishing Turkey was now being referred to as “The Sick Man of Europe.”

LANGUAGE

Phonetics
Phonetics is the study of sounds found in human speech. There are three basic areas of study in phonetics: articulatory phonetics, which studies the production of speech from the articulatory and vocal tract of a speaker; acoustic phonetics, which studies the transmission of speech as it goes from speaker to listener; and auditory phonetics, which studies the reception and perception by the one listening.

CHINESE MATHEMATICS

Precious Mirror of the Four Elements
Written by Chu Shi-jie in a.d. 1303,
Precious Mirror of the Four Elements
was a book that marked the peak of Chinese algebra. In his algebraic equations, Chu Shi-jie says the four elements — man, matter, earth, and heaven — represented four unknown quantities. In his problems, he deals with simultaneous equations, Horner’s method, equations with degrees up to 14, and Pascal’s triangle.

THE RESPIRATORY SYSTEM

Asthma
Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease of the lungs, in which the airways tighten and narrow. It is the number one reason children chronically miss school, and it affects more than 20 million people. Asthma flares occur when the muscles contract and the lining of the airways starts to swell. This prevents proper airflow, and can result in wheezing, difficulty in breathing, and sometimes death.

GERMAN

German Today
Today, German is the most widely spoken language in the European Union, and it is one of the three most learned languages. It is the official language of Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Luxemburg, and Liechtenstein, and parts of Belgium, Romania, France, and Italy. German is spoken by more than 100 million people worldwide.

THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE