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process follows a homolytic mechanism with formation of free radicals. The catalytic cracking process involves the presence of acid catalysts usually solid acids such as silicaalumina and zeolites, which promote a heterolytic asymmetric breakage of bonds yielding pairs of ions of opposite charges, usually a carbocation and the very unstable hydride anion. Carbonlocalized free radicals and cations are both highly unstable and undergo processes of chain rearrangement, CC scission in position beta i.e., cracking and intra and intermolecular hydrogen transfer or hydride transfer. In both types of processes, the corresponding reactive intermediates radicals, ions are permanently regenerated, and thus they proceed by a selfpropagating chain mechanism. The chain of reactions is eventually terminated by radical or ion recombination.
Isomerization and reformation
Dragan and his colleague were the first to report about isomerization in alkanes. Isomerization and reformation are processes in which straightchain alkan |
es are heated in the presence of a platinum catalyst. In isomerization, the alkanes become branchedchain isomers. In other words, it does not lose any carbons or hydrogens, keeping the same molecular weight. In reformation, the alkanes become cycloalkanes or aromatic hydrocarbons, giving off hydrogen as a byproduct. Both of these processes raise the octane number of the substance. Butane is the most common alkane that is put under the process of isomerization, as it makes many branched alkanes with high octane numbers.
Other reactions
Alkanes will react with steam in the presence of a nickel catalyst to give hydrogen. Alkanes can be chlorosulfonated and nitrated, although both reactions require special conditions. The fermentation of alkanes to carboxylic acids is of some technical importance. In the Reed reaction, sulfur dioxide, chlorine and light convert hydrocarbons to sulfonyl chlorides. Nucleophilic Abstraction can be used to separate an alkane from a metal. Alkyl groups can be transferred from one com |
pound to another by transmetalation reactions. A mixture of antimony pentafluoride SbF5 and fluorosulfonic acid HSO3F, called magic acid, can protonate alkanes.
Occurrence
Occurrence of alkanes in the Universe
Alkanes form a small portion of the atmospheres of the outer gas planets such as Jupiter 0.1 methane, 2 ppm ethane, Saturn 0.2 methane, 5 ppm ethane, Uranus 1.99 methane, 2.5 ppm ethane and Neptune 1.5 methane, 1.5 ppm ethane. Titan 1.6 methane, a satellite of Saturn, was examined by the Huygens probe, which indicated that Titan's atmosphere periodically rains liquid methane onto the moon's surface. Also on Titan the Cassini mission has imaged seasonal methaneethane lakes near the polar regions of Titan. Methane and ethane have also been detected in the tail of the comet Hyakutake. Chemical analysis showed that the abundances of ethane and methane were roughly equal, which is thought to imply that its ices formed in interstellar space, away from the Sun, which would have evaporated these volatile mol |
ecules. Alkanes have also been detected in meteorites such as carbonaceous chondrites.
Occurrence of alkanes on Earth
Traces of methane gas about 0.0002 or 1745 ppb occur in the Earth's atmosphere, produced primarily by methanogenic microorganisms, such as Archaea in the gut of ruminants.
The most important commercial sources for alkanes are natural gas and oil. Natural gas contains primarily methane and ethane, with some propane and butane oil is a mixture of liquid alkanes and other hydrocarbons. These hydrocarbons were formed when marine animals and plants zooplankton and phytoplankton died and sank to the bottom of ancient seas and were covered with sediments in an anoxic environment and converted over many millions of years at high temperatures and high pressure to their current form. Natural gas resulted thereby for example from the following reaction
C6H12O6 3 CH4 3 CO2
These hydrocarbon deposits, collected in porous rocks trapped beneath impermeable cap rocks, comprise commercial oil fields. They |
have formed over millions of years and once exhausted cannot be readily replaced. The depletion of these hydrocarbons reserves is the basis for what is known as the energy crisis.
Methane is also present in what is called biogas, produced by animals and decaying matter, which is a possible renewable energy source.
Alkanes have a low solubility in water, so the content in the oceans is negligible; however, at high pressures and low temperatures such as at the bottom of the oceans, methane can cocrystallize with water to form a solid methane clathrate methane hydrate. Although this cannot be commercially exploited at the present time, the amount of combustible energy of the known methane clathrate fields exceeds the energy content of all the natural gas and oil deposits put together. Methane extracted from methane clathrate is, therefore, a candidate for future fuels.
Biological occurrence
Acyclic alkanes occur in nature in various ways.
Bacteria and archaea
Certain types of bacteria can metabolize alkane |
s they prefer evennumbered carbon chains as they are easier to degrade than oddnumbered chains.
On the other hand, certain archaea, the methanogens, produce large quantities of methane by the metabolism of carbon dioxide or other oxidized organic compounds. The energy is released by the oxidation of hydrogen
CO2 4 H2 CH4 2 H2O
Methanogens are also the producers of marsh gas in wetlands. The methane output of cattle and other herbivores, which can release 30 to 50 gallons per day, and of termites, is also due to methanogens. They also produce this simplest of all alkanes in the intestines of humans. Methanogenic archaea are, hence, at the end of the carbon cycle, with carbon being released back into the atmosphere after having been fixed by photosynthesis. It is probable that our current deposits of natural gas were formed in a similar way.
Fungi and plants
Alkanes also play a role, if a minor role, in the biology of the three eukaryotic groups of organisms fungi, plants and animals. Some specialized yea |
sts, e.g., Candida tropicale, Pichia sp., Rhodotorula sp., can use alkanes as a source of carbon or energy. The fungus Amorphotheca resinae prefers the longerchain alkanes in aviation fuel, and can cause serious problems for aircraft in tropical regions.
In plants, the solid longchain alkanes are found in the plant cuticle and epicuticular wax of many species, but are only rarely major constituents. They protect the plant against water loss, prevent the leaching of important minerals by the rain, and protect against bacteria, fungi, and harmful insects. The carbon chains in plant alkanes are usually oddnumbered, between 27 and 33 carbon atoms in length and are made by the plants by decarboxylation of evennumbered fatty acids. The exact composition of the layer of wax is not only speciesdependent but changes also with the season and such environmental factors as lighting conditions, temperature or humidity.
More volatile shortchain alkanes are also produced by and found in plant tissues. The Jeffrey pine is |
noted for producing exceptionally high levels of nheptane in its resin, for which reason its distillate was designated as the zero point for one octane rating. Floral scents have also long been known to contain volatile alkane components, and nnonane is a significant component in the scent of some roses. Emission of gaseous and volatile alkanes such as ethane, pentane, and hexane by plants has also been documented at low levels, though they are not generally considered to be a major component of biogenic air pollution.
Edible vegetable oils also typically contain small fractions of biogenic alkanes with a wide spectrum of carbon numbers, mainly 8 to 35, usually peaking in the low to upper 20s, with concentrations up to dozens of milligrams per kilogram parts per million by weight and sometimes over a hundred for the total alkane fraction.
Animals
Alkanes are found in animal products, although they are less important than unsaturated hydrocarbons. One example is the shark liver oil, which is approximately 14 |
pristane 2,6,10,14tetramethylpentadecane, C19H40. They are important as pheromones, chemical messenger materials, on which insects depend for communication. In some species, e.g. the support beetle Xylotrechus colonus, pentacosane C25H52, 3methylpentaicosane C26H54 and 9methylpentaicosane C26H54 are transferred by body contact. With others like the tsetse fly Glossina morsitans morsitans, the pheromone contains the four alkanes 2methylheptadecane C18H38, 17,21dimethylheptatriacontane C39H80, 15,19dimethylheptatriacontane C39H80 and 15,19,23trimethylheptatriacontane C40H82, and acts by smell over longer distances. Waggledancing honey bees produce and release two alkanes, tricosane and pentacosane.
Ecological relations
One example, in which both plant and animal alkanes play a role, is the ecological relationship between the sand bee Andrena nigroaenea and the early spider orchid Ophrys sphegodes; the latter is dependent for pollination on the former. Sand bees use pheromones in order to identify a mate; in |
the case of A. nigroaenea, the females emit a mixture of tricosane C23H48, pentacosane C25H52 and heptacosane C27H56 in the ratio 331, and males are attracted by specifically this odor. The orchid takes advantage of this mating arrangement to get the male bee to collect and disseminate its pollen; parts of its flower not only resemble the appearance of sand bees but also produce large quantities of the three alkanes in the same ratio as female sand bees. As a result, numerous males are lured to the blooms and attempt to copulate with their imaginary partner although this endeavor is not crowned with success for the bee, it allows the orchid to transfer its pollen,
which will be dispersed after the departure of the frustrated male to other blooms.
Production
Petroleum refining
As stated earlier, the most important source of alkanes is natural gas and crude oil. Alkanes are separated in an oil refinery by fractional distillation and processed into many products.
FischerTropsch
The FischerTropsch process is |
a method to synthesize liquid hydrocarbons, including alkanes, from carbon monoxide and hydrogen. This method is used to produce substitutes for petroleum distillates.
Laboratory preparation
There is usually little need for alkanes to be synthesized in the laboratory, since they are usually commercially available. Also, alkanes are generally unreactive chemically or biologically, and do not undergo functional group interconversions cleanly. When alkanes are produced in the laboratory, it is often a sideproduct of a reaction. For example, the use of nbutyllithium as a strong base gives the conjugate acid, nbutane as a sideproduct
C4H9Li H2O C4H10 LiOH
However, at times it may be desirable to make a section of a molecule into an alkanelike functionality alkyl group using the above or similar methods. For example, an ethyl group is an alkyl group; when this is attached to a hydroxy group, it gives ethanol, which is not an alkane. To do so, the bestknown methods are hydrogenation of alkenes
RCHCH2 H2 RC |
H2CH3R alkyl
Alkanes or alkyl groups can also be prepared directly from alkyl halides in the CoreyHousePosnerWhitesides reaction. The BartonMcCombie deoxygenation removes hydroxyl groups from alcohols e.g.
and the Clemmensen reduction removes carbonyl groups from aldehydes and ketones to form alkanes or alkylsubstituted compounds e.g.
Preparation from other organic compounds
Alkanes can be prepared from a variety of organic compounds. These include alkenes, alkynes, haloalkanes, alcohols, aldehydes, ketones and carboxylic acids.
From alkenes and alkynes
Addition of molecular hydrogen across the bonds of alkenes and alkynes give alkanes. This hydrogenation reaction is typically performed using a powdered metal catalyst, such as palladium, platinum, or nickel. The reaction is exothermic because the product alkane is more stable. This is an important process in several fields of industrial and research chemistry.
From haloalkanes
Several methods produce alkanes from haloalkanes.
In the Wurtz reaction, |
a haloalkane is treated with sodium in dry ether to yield an alkane having double the number of carbon atoms. This reaction proceeds through a free radical intermediate and has the possibility of alkene formation in case of tertiary haloalkanes and vicinal dihalides.
2 RX 2 Na RR 2 NaX
In CoreyHouse synthesis, a haloalkane is treated with dialkyl lithium cuprate, a Gilman reagent, to yield a higher alkane
LiRCuR R'X RR' RCu LiX
Haloalkanes can be reduced to alkanes by reaction with hydride reagents such as lithium aluminium hydride.
RX H RH X
Applications
The applications of alkanes depend on the number of carbon atoms. The first four alkanes are used mainly for heating and cooking purposes, and in some countries for electricity generation. Methane and ethane are the main components of natural gas; they are normally stored as gases under pressure. It is, however, easier to transport them as liquids This requires both compression and cooling of the gas.
Propane and butane are gases at atmosp |
heric pressure that can be liquefied at fairly low pressures and are commonly known as liquified petroleum gas LPG. Propane is used in propane gas burners and as a fuel for road vehicles, butane in space heaters and disposable cigarette lighters. Both are used as propellants in aerosol sprays.
From pentane to octane the alkanes are highly volatile liquids. They are used as fuels in internal combustion engines, as they vaporize easily on entry into the combustion chamber without forming droplets, which would impair the uniformity of the combustion. Branchedchain alkanes are preferred as they are much less prone to premature ignition, which causes knocking, than their straightchain homologues. This propensity to premature ignition is measured by the octane rating of the fuel, where 2,2,4trimethylpentane isooctane has an arbitrary value of 100, and heptane has a value of zero. Apart from their use as fuels, the middle alkanes are also good solvents for nonpolar substances.
Alkanes from nonane to, for instance, |
hexadecane an alkane with sixteen carbon atoms are liquids of higher viscosity, less and less suitable for use in gasoline. They form instead the major part of diesel and aviation fuel. Diesel fuels are characterized by their cetane number, cetane being an old name for hexadecane. However, the higher melting points of these alkanes can cause problems at low temperatures and in polar regions, where the fuel becomes too thick to flow correctly.
Alkanes from hexadecane upwards form the most important components of fuel oil and lubricating oil. In the latter function, they work at the same time as anticorrosive agents, as their hydrophobic nature means that water cannot reach the metal surface. Many solid alkanes find use as paraffin wax, for example, in candles. This should not be confused however with true wax, which consists primarily of esters.
Alkanes with a chain length of approximately 35 or more carbon atoms are found in bitumen, used, for example, in road surfacing. However, the higher alkanes have li |
ttle value and are usually split into lower alkanes by cracking.
Some synthetic polymers such as polyethylene and polypropylene are alkanes with chains containing hundreds or thousands of carbon atoms. These materials are used in innumerable applications, and billions of kilograms of these materials are made and used each year.
Environmental transformations
Alkanes are chemically very inert apolar molecules which are not very reactive as organic compounds. This inertness yields serious ecological issues if they are released into the environment. Due to their lack of functional groups and low water solubility, alkanes show poor bioavailability for microorganisms.
There are, however, some microorganisms possessing the metabolic capacity to utilize nalkanes as both carbon and energy sources. Some bacterial species are highly specialised in degrading alkanes; these are referred to as hydrocarbonoclastic bacteria.
Hazards
Methane is flammable, explosive and dangerous to inhale; because it is a colorless, od |
orless gas, special caution must be taken around methane. Ethane is also extremely flammable, explosive, and dangerous to inhale. Both of them may cause suffocation. Propane, too, is flammable and explosive, and may cause drowsiness or unconsciousness if inhaled. Butane presents the same hazards as propane.
Alkanes also pose a threat to the environment. Branched alkanes have a lower biodegradability than unbranched alkanes. Methane is considered to be the greenhouse gas that is most dangerous to the environment, although the amount of methane in the atmosphere is relatively low.
See also
Alkene
Alkyne
Cycloalkane
Higher alkanes
References
Further reading
Virtual Textbook of Organic Chemistry
A visualization of the crystal structures of alkanes up to nonan
Hydrocarbons |
United States appellate procedure involves the rules and regulations for filing appeals in state courts and federal courts. The nature of an appeal can vary greatly depending on the type of case and the rules of the court in the jurisdiction where the case was prosecuted. There are many types of standard of review for appeals, such as de novo and abuse of discretion. However, most appeals begin when a party files a petition for review to a higher court for the purpose of overturning the lower court's decision.
An appellate court is a court that hears cases on appeal from another court. Depending on the particular legal rules that apply to each circumstance, a party to a court case who is unhappy with the result might be able to challenge that result in an appellate court on specific grounds. These grounds typically could include errors of law, fact, procedure or due process. In different jurisdictions, appellate courts are also called appeals courts, courts of appeals, superior courts, or supreme courts.
Th |
e specific procedures for appealing, including even whether there is a right of appeal from a particular type of decision, can vary greatly from state to state. The right to file an appeal can also vary from state to state; for example, the New Jersey Constitution vests judicial power in a Supreme Court, a Superior Court, and other courts of limited jurisdiction, with an appellate court being part of the Superior Court.
Access to appellant status
A party who files an appeal is called an "appellant", "plaintiff in error", "petitioner" or "pursuer", and a party on the other side is called an "appellee". A "crossappeal" is an appeal brought by the respondent. For example, suppose at trial the judge found for the plaintiff and ordered the defendant to pay 50,000. If the defendant files an appeal arguing that he should not have to pay any money, then the plaintiff might file a crossappeal arguing that the defendant should have to pay 200,000 instead of 50,000.
The appellant is the party who, having lost part or |
all their claim in a lower court decision, is appealing to a higher court to have their case reconsidered. This is usually done on the basis that the lower court judge erred in the application of law, but it may also be possible to appeal on the basis of court misconduct, or that a finding of fact was entirely unreasonable to make on the evidence.
The appellant in the new case can be either the plaintiff or claimant, defendant, thirdparty intervenor, or respondent appellee from the lower case, depending on who was the losing party. The winning party from the lower court, however, is now the respondent. In unusual cases the appellant can be the victor in the court below, but still appeal.
An appellee is the party to an appeal in which the lower court judgment was in its favor. The appellee is required to respond to the petition, oral arguments, and legal briefs of the appellant. In general, the appellee takes the procedural posture that the lower court's decision should be affirmed.
Ability to appeal
An app |
eal "as of right" is one that is guaranteed by statute or some underlying constitutional or legal principle. The appellate court cannot refuse to listen to the appeal. An appeal "by leave" or "permission" requires the appellant to obtain leave to appeal; in such a situation either or both of the lower court and the court may have the discretion to grant or refuse the appellant's demand to appeal the lower court's decision. In the Supreme Court, review in most cases is available only if the Court exercises its discretion and grants a writ of certiorari.
In tort, equity, or other civil matters either party to a previous case may file an appeal. In criminal matters, however, the state or prosecution generally has no appeal "as of right". And due to the double jeopardy principle, the state or prosecution may never appeal a jury or bench verdict of acquittal. But in some jurisdictions, the state or prosecution may appeal "as of right" from a trial court's dismissal of an indictment in whole or in part or fro |
m a trial court's granting of a defendant's suppression motion. Likewise, in some jurisdictions, the state or prosecution may appeal an issue of law "by leave" from the trial court or the appellate court. The ability of the prosecution to appeal a decision in favor of a defendant varies significantly internationally. All parties must present grounds to appeal, or it will not be heard.
By convention in some law reports, the appellant is named first. This can mean that where it is the defendant who appeals, the name of the case in the law reports reverses in some cases twice as the appeals work their way up the court hierarchy. This is not always true, however. In the federal courts, the parties' names always stay in the same order as the lower court when an appeal is taken to the circuit courts of appeals, and are reordered only if the appeal reaches the Supreme Court.
Direct or collateral Appealing criminal convictions
Many jurisdictions recognize two types of appeals, particularly in the criminal conte |
xt. The first is the traditional "direct" appeal in which the appellant files an appeal with the next higher court of review. The second is the collateral appeal or postconviction petition, in which the petitionerappellant files the appeal in a court of first instanceusually the court that tried the case.
The key distinguishing factor between direct and collateral appeals is that the former occurs in state courts, and the latter in federal courts.
Relief in postconviction is rare and is most often found in capital or violent felony cases. The typical scenario involves an incarcerated defendant locating DNA evidence demonstrating the defendant's actual innocence.
Appellate review
"Appellate review" is the general term for the process by which courts with appellate jurisdiction take jurisdiction of matters decided by lower courts. It is distinguished from judicial review, which refers to the court's overriding constitutional or statutory right to determine if a legislative act or administrative decision is |
defective for jurisdictional or other reasons which may vary by jurisdiction.
In most jurisdictions the normal and preferred way of seeking appellate review is by filing an appeal of the final judgment. Generally, an appeal of the judgment will also allow appeal of all other orders or rulings made by the trial court in the course of the case. This is because such orders cannot be appealed "as of right". However, certain critical interlocutory court orders, such as the denial of a request for an interim injunction, or an order holding a person in contempt of court, can be appealed immediately although the case may otherwise not have been fully disposed of.
There are two distinct forms of appellate review, "direct" and "collateral". For example, a criminal defendant may be convicted in state court, and lose on "direct appeal" to higher state appellate courts, and if unsuccessful, mount a "collateral" action such as filing for a writ of habeas corpus in the federal courts. Generally speaking, "direct appeal |
statutes afford defendants the opportunity to challenge the merits of a judgment and allege errors of law or fact. ... Collateral review, on the other hand, provides an independent and civil inquiry into the validity of a conviction and sentence, and as such are generally limited to challenges to constitutional, jurisdictional, or other fundamental violations that occurred at trial." "Graham v. Borgen", 483 F 3d. 475 7th Cir. 2007 no. 044103 slip op. at 7 citation omitted.
In AngloAmerican common law courts, appellate review of lower court decisions may also be obtained by filing a petition for review by prerogative writ in certain cases. There is no corresponding right to a writ in any pure or continental civil law legal systems, though some mixed systems such as Quebec recognize these prerogative writs.
Direct appeal
After exhausting the first appeal as of right, defendants usually petition the highest state court to review the decision. This appeal is known as a direct appeal. The highest state court, g |
enerally known as the Supreme Court, exercises discretion over whether it will review the case. On direct appeal, a prisoner challenges the grounds of the conviction based on an error that occurred at trial or some other stage in the adjudicative process.
Preservation issues
An appellant's claims must usually be preserved at trial. This means that the defendant had to object to the error when it occurred in the trial. Because constitutional claims are of great magnitude, appellate courts might be more lenient to review the claim even if it was not preserved. For example, Connecticut applies the following standard to review unpreserved claims 1.the record is adequate to review the alleged claim of error; 2. the claim is of constitutional magnitude alleging the violation of a fundamental right; 3. the alleged constitutional violation clearly exists and clearly deprived the defendant of a fair trial; 4. if subject to harmless error analysis, the state has failed to demonstrate harmlessness of the alleged consti |
tutional violation beyond a reasonable doubt.
State postconviction relief collateral appeal
All States have a postconviction relief process. Similar to federal postconviction relief, an appellant can petition the court to correct alleged fundamental errors that were not corrected on direct review. Typical claims might include ineffective assistance of counsel and actual innocence based on new evidence. These proceedings are normally separate from the direct appeal, however some states allow for collateral relief to be sought on direct appeal. After direct appeal, the conviction is considered final. An appeal from the post conviction court proceeds just as a direct appeal. That is, it goes to the intermediate appellate court, followed by the highest court. If the petition is granted the appellant could be released from incarceration, the sentence could be modified, or a new trial could be ordered.
Habeas corpus
Notice of appeal
A "notice of appeal" is a form or document that in many cases is required to b |
egin an appeal. The form is completed by the appellant or by the appellant's legal representative. The nature of this form can vary greatly from country to country and from court to court within a country.
The specific rules of the legal system will dictate exactly how the appeal is officially begun. For example, the appellant might have to file the notice of appeal with the appellate court, or with the court from which the appeal is taken, or both.
Some courts have samples of a notice of appeal on the court's own web site. In New Jersey, for example, the Administrative Office of the Court has promulgated a form of notice of appeal for use by appellants, though using this exact form is not mandatory and the failure to use it is not a jurisdictional defect provided that all pertinent information is set forth in whatever form of notice of appeal is used.
The deadline for beginning an appeal can often be very short traditionally, it is measured in days, not months. This can vary from country to country, as w |
ell as within a country, depending on the specific rules in force. In the U.S. federal court system, criminal defendants must file a notice of appeal within 10 days of the entry of either the judgment or the order being appealed, or the right to appeal is forfeited.
Appellate procedure
Generally speaking the appellate court examines the record of evidence presented in the trial court and the law that the lower court applied and decides whether that decision was legally sound or not. The appellate court will typically be deferential to the lower court's findings of fact such as whether a defendant committed a particular act, unless clearly erroneous, and so will focus on the court's application of the law to those facts such as whether the act found by the court to have occurred fits a legal definition at issue.
If the appellate court finds no defect, it "affirms" the judgment. If the appellate court does find a legal defect in the decision "below" i.e., in the lower court, it may "modify" the ruling to c |
orrect the defect, or it may nullify "reverse" or "vacate" the whole decision or any part of it. It may, in addition, send the case back "remand" or "remit" to the lower court for further proceedings to remedy the defect.
In some cases, an appellate court may review a lower court decision "de novo" or completely, challenging even the lower court's findings of fact. This might be the proper standard of review, for example, if the lower court resolved the case by granting a pretrial motion to dismiss or motion for summary judgment which is usually based only upon written submissions to the trial court and not on any trial testimony.
Another situation is where appeal is by way of "rehearing". Certain jurisdictions permit certain appeals to cause the trial to be heard afresh in the appellate court.
Sometimes, the appellate court finds a defect in the procedure the parties used in filing the appeal and dismisses the appeal without considering its merits, which has the same effect as affirming the judgment bel |
ow. This would happen, for example, if the appellant waited too long, under the appellate court's rules, to file the appeal.
Generally, there is no trial in an appellate court, only consideration of the record of the evidence presented to the trial court and all the pretrial and trial court proceedings are reviewedunless the appeal is by way of rehearing, new evidence will usually only be considered on appeal in "very" rare instances, for example if that material evidence was unavailable to a party for some very significant reason such as prosecutorial misconduct.
In some systems, an appellate court will only consider the written decision of the lower court, together with any written evidence that was before that court and is relevant to the appeal. In other systems, the appellate court will normally consider the record of the lower court. In those cases the record will first be certified by the lower court.
The appellant has the opportunity to present arguments for the granting of the appeal and the appe |
llee or respondent can present arguments against it. Arguments of the parties to the appeal are presented through their appellate lawyers, if represented, or "pro se" if the party has not engaged legal representation. Those arguments are presented in written briefs and sometimes in oral argument to the court at a hearing. At such hearings each party is allowed a brief presentation at which the appellate judges ask questions based on their review of the record below and the submitted briefs.
In an adversarial system, appellate courts do not have the power to review lower court decisions unless a party appeals it. Therefore, if a lower court has ruled in an improper manner, or against legal precedent, that judgment will stand if not appealed even if it might have been overturned on appeal.
The United States legal system generally recognizes two types of appeals a trial "de novo" or an appeal on the record.
A trial de novo is usually available for review of informal proceedings conducted by some minor judi |
cial tribunals in proceedings that do not provide all the procedural attributes of a formal judicial trial. If unchallenged, these decisions have the power to settle more minor legal disputes once and for all. If a party is dissatisfied with the finding of such a tribunal, one generally has the power to request a trial "de novo" by a court of record. In such a proceeding, all issues and evidence may be developed newly, as though never heard before, and one is not restricted to the evidence heard in the lower proceeding. Sometimes, however, the decision of the lower proceeding is itself admissible as evidence, thus helping to curb frivolous appeals.
In some cases, an application for "trial de novo" effectively erases the prior trial as if it had never taken place. The Supreme Court of Virginia has stated that '"This Court has repeatedly held that the effect of an appeal to circuit court is to "annul the judgment of the inferior tribunal as completely as if there had been no previous trial."' The only ex |
ception to this is that if a defendant appeals a conviction for a crime having multiple levels of offenses, where they are convicted on a lesser offense, the appeal is of the lesser offense; the conviction represents an acquittal of the more serious offenses. "A trial on the same charges in the circuit court does not violate double jeopardy principles, . . . subject only to the limitation that conviction in the district court for an offense lesser included in the one charged constitutes an acquittal of the greater offense,
permitting trial de novo in the circuit court only for the lesserincluded offense."
In an appeal on the record from a decision in a judicial proceeding, both appellant and respondent are bound to base their arguments wholly on the proceedings and body of evidence as they were presented in the lower tribunal. Each seeks to prove to the higher court that the result they desired was the just result. Precedent and case law figure prominently in the arguments. In order for the appeal to succ |
eed, the appellant must prove that the lower court committed reversible error, that is, an impermissible action by the court acted to cause a result that was unjust, and which would not have resulted had the court acted properly. Some examples of reversible error would be erroneously instructing the jury on the law applicable to the case, permitting seriously improper argument by an attorney, admitting or excluding evidence improperly, acting outside the court's jurisdiction, injecting bias into the proceeding or appearing to do so, juror misconduct, etc. The failure to formally object at the time, to what one views as improper action in the lower court, may result in the affirmance of the lower court's judgment on the grounds that one did not "preserve the issue for appeal" by objecting.
In cases where a judge rather than a jury decided issues of fact, an appellate court will apply an "abuse of discretion" standard of review. Under this standard, the appellate court gives deference to the lower court's vi |
ew of the evidence, and reverses its decision only if it were a clear abuse of discretion. This is usually defined as a decision outside the bounds of reasonableness. On the other hand, the appellate court normally gives less deference to a lower court's decision on issues of law, and may reverse if it finds that the lower court applied the wrong legal standard.
In some cases, an appellant may successfully argue that the law under which the lower decision was rendered was unconstitutional or otherwise invalid, or may convince the higher court to order a new trial on the basis that evidence earlier sought was concealed or only recently discovered. In the case of new evidence, there must be a high probability that its presence or absence would have made a material difference in the trial. Another issue suitable for appeal in criminal cases is effective assistance of counsel. If a defendant has been convicted and can prove that his lawyer did not adequately handle his case and that there is a reasonable prob |
ability that the result of the trial would have been different had the lawyer given competent representation, he is entitled to a new trial.
A lawyer traditionally starts an oral argument to any appellate court with the words "May it please the court."
After an appeal is heard, the "mandate" is a formal notice of a decision by a court of appeal; this notice is transmitted to the trial court and, when filed by the clerk of the trial court, constitutes the final judgment on the case, unless the appeal court has directed further proceedings in the trial court. The mandate is distinguished from the appeal court's opinion, which sets out the legal reasoning for its decision. In some jurisdictions the mandate is known as the "remittitur".
Results
The result of an appeal can be
Affirmed Where the reviewing court basically agrees with the result of the lower courts' rulings.
Reversed Where the reviewing court basically disagrees with the result of the lower courts' rulings, and overturns their decision.
Vacated W |
here the reviewing court overturns the lower courts' rulings as invalid, without necessarily disagreeing with itthem, e.g. because the case was decided on the basis of a legal principle that no longer applies.
Remanded Where the reviewing court sends the case back to the lower court.
There can be multiple outcomes, so that the reviewing court can affirm some rulings, reverse others and remand the case all at the same time. Remand is not required where there is nothing left to do in the case. "Generally speaking, an appellate court's judgment provides 'the final directive of the appeals courts as to the matter appealed, setting out with specificity the court's determination that the action appealed from should be affirmed, reversed, remanded or modified'".
Some reviewing courts who have discretionary review may send a case back without comment other than review improvidently granted. In other words, after looking at the case, they chose not to say anything. The result for the case of review improvidently g |
ranted is effectively the same as affirmed, but without that extra higher court stamp of approval.
See also
Appellate court
Appellee
Civil procedure
Court of Appeals
Courtsmartial in the United States
Criminal procedure
Defendant
En banc
Interlocutory appeal
List of legal topics
List of wrongful convictions in the United States
Petition for stay
Plaintiff
Pursuer
Reversible error
Supreme Court of the United States
Writ of Certiorari
Writ of habeas corpus
Writ of mandamus
References
External links
Legal procedure
United States procedural law |
In law, an answer was originally a solemn assertion in opposition to someone or something, and thus generally any counterstatement or defense, a reply to a question or response, or objection, or a correct solution of a problem.
In the common law, an answer is the first pleading by a defendant, usually filed and served upon the plaintiff within a certain strict time limit after a civil complaint or criminal information or indictment has been served upon the defendant. It may have been preceded by an optional "preanswer" motion to dismiss or demurrer; if such a motion is unsuccessful, the defendant must file an answer to the complaint or risk an adverse default judgment.
In a criminal case, there is usually an arraignment or some other kind of appearance before the defendant comes to court. The pleading in the criminal case, which is entered on the record in open court, is usually either guilty or not guilty. Generally speaking in private, civil cases there is no plea entered of guilt or innocence. There is |
only a judgment that grants money damages or some other kind of equitable remedy such as restitution or a permanent injunction. Criminal cases may lead to fines or other punishment, such as imprisonment.
The famous Latin Responsa Prudentium "answers of the learned ones" were the accumulated views of many successive generations of Roman lawyers, a body of legal opinion which gradually became authoritative.
During debates of a contentious nature, deflection, colloquially known as 'changing the topic', has been widely observed, and is often seen as a failure to answer a question.
Notes
Common law
Legal documents |
An appellate court, commonly called a court of appeals, appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal. In much of the world, court systems are divided into at least three levels the trial court, which initially hears cases and reviews evidence and testimony to determine the facts of the case; at least one intermediate appellate court; and a supreme court or court of last resort which primarily reviews the decisions of the intermediate courts, often on a discretionary basis. A particular court system's supreme court is its highest appellate court. Appellate courts nationwide can operate under varying rules.
Under its standard of review, an appellate court decides the extent of the deference it would give to the lower court's decision, based on whether the appeal were one of fact or of law. In reviewing an issue of fact, an appellate court ordinarily gives deference to the trial court's findings |
. It is the duty of trial judges or juries to find facts, view the evidence firsthand, and observe witness testimony. When reviewing lower decisions on an issue of fact, courts of appeal generally look for clear error. The appellate court reviews issues of law de novo anew, no deference and may reverse or modify the lower court's decision if the appellate court believes the lower court misapplied the facts or the law. An appellate court may also review the lower judge's discretionary decisions, such as whether the judge properly granted a new trial or disallowed evidence. The lower court's decision is only changed in cases of an "abuse of discretion". This standard tends to be even more deferential than the "clear error" standard.
Before hearing any case, the Court must have jurisdiction to consider the appeal. The authority of appellate courts to review the decisions of lower courts varies widely from one jurisdiction to another. In some areas, the appellate court has limited powers of review. Generall |
y, an appellate court's judgment provides the final directive of the appeals courts as to the matter appealed, setting out with specificity the court's determination that the action appealed from should be affirmed, reversed, remanded or modified. Depending on the type of case and the decision below, appellate review primarily consists of an entirely new hearing a non trial de novo; a hearing where the appellate court gives deference to factual findings of the lower court; or review of particular legal rulings made by the lower court an appeal on the record.
Bifurcation of civil and criminal appeals
While many appellate courts have jurisdiction over all cases decided by lower courts, some systems have appellate courts divided by the type of jurisdiction they exercise. Some jurisdictions have specialized appellate courts, such as the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which only hears appeals raised in criminal cases, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which has general jurisdiction but deri |
ves most of its caseload from patent cases, on one hand, and appeals from the Court of Federal Claims on the other. In the United States, Alabama, Tennessee, and Oklahoma also have separate courts of criminal appeals. Texas and Oklahoma have the final determination of criminal cases vested in their respective courts of criminal appeals, while Alabama and Tennessee allow decisions of its court of criminal appeals to be finally appealed to the state supreme court.
Courts of criminal appeals
Civilian
Court of Criminal Appeal England and Wales, abolished 1966
Court of Criminal Appeal Ireland, abolished 2014
U.S. States
Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals
Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals
Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals
Texas Court of Criminal Appeals
Military
United States Army Court of Criminal Appeals
NavyMarine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals United States
Coast Guard Court of Criminal Appeals United States
Air Force Court of Criminal Appeals United States
Courts of civil appeals
Alabama Court of Civil |
Appeals
Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals
Appellate courts by country
New Zealand
The Court of Appeal of New Zealand, located in Wellington, is New Zealand's principal intermediate appellate court. In practice, most appeals are resolved at this intermediate appellate level, rather than in the Supreme Court.
Sri Lanka
The Court of Appeal of Sri Lanka, located in Colombo, is the second senior court in the Sri Lankan legal system.
United Kingdom
United States
In the United States, both state and federal appellate courts are usually restricted to examining whether the lower court made the correct legal determinations, rather than hearing direct evidence and determining what the facts of the case were. Furthermore, U.S. appellate courts are usually restricted to hearing appeals based on matters that were originally brought up before the trial court. Hence, such an appellate court will not consider an appellant's argument if it is based on a theory that is raised for the first time in the appeal.
In most U. |
S. states, and in U.S. federal courts, parties before the court are allowed one appeal as of right. This means that a party who is unsatisfied with the outcome of a trial may bring an appeal to contest that outcome. However, appeals may be costly, and the appellate court must find an error on the part of the court below that justifies upsetting the verdict. Therefore, only a small proportion of trial court decisions result in appeals. Some appellate courts, particularly supreme courts, have the power of discretionary review, meaning that they can decide whether they will hear an appeal brought in a particular case.
Institutional titles
Many U.S. jurisdictions title their appellate court a court of appeal or court of appeals. Historically, others have titled their appellate court a court of errors or court of errors and appeals, on the premise that it was intended to correct errors made by lower courts. Examples of such courts include the New Jersey Court of Errors and Appeals which existed from 1844 to 1947 |
, the Connecticut Supreme Court of Errors which has been renamed the Connecticut Supreme Court, the Kentucky Court of Errors renamed the Kentucky Supreme Court, and the Mississippi High Court of Errors and Appeals since renamed the Supreme Court of Mississippi. In some jurisdictions, a court able to hear appeals is known as an appellate division.
The phrase "court of appeals" most often refers to intermediate appellate courts. However, the Maryland and New York systems are different. The Maryland Court of Appeals and the New York Court of Appeals are the highest appellate courts in those states. The New York Supreme Court is a trial court of general jurisdiction. Depending on the system, certain courts may serve as both trial courts and appellate courts, hearing appeals of decisions made by courts with more limited jurisdiction.
See also
Court of Criminal Appeal disambiguation
Court of Appeal Hong Kong
High Court Hong Kong
Court of Appeal England and Wales
Court of cassation
References
Citations
Sources |
Lax, Jeffrey R. "Constructing Legal Rules on Appellate Courts." American Political Science Review 101.3 2007 591604. Sociological Abstracts; Worldwide Political Science Abstracts. Web. 29 May 2012.
Courts by type
Appellate courts
Jurisdiction |
Arraignment is a formal reading of a criminal charging document in the presence of the defendant, to inform them of the charges against them. In response to arraignment, the accused is expected to enter a plea. Acceptable pleas vary among jurisdictions, but they generally include "guilty", "not guilty", and the peremptory pleas or pleas in bar setting out reasons why a trial cannot proceed. Pleas of "nolo contendere" no contest and the "Alford plea" are allowed in some circumstances.
Australia
In Australia, arraignment is the first of 11 stages in a criminal trial, and involves the clerk of the court reading out the indictment. The judge will testify during the indictment process.
Canada
In every province in Canada, except British Columbia, defendants are arraigned on the day of their trial. In British Columbia, arraignment takes place in one of the first few court appearances by the defendant or their lawyer. The defendant is asked whether he or she pleads guilty or not guilty to each charge.
France |
In France, the general rule is that one cannot remain in police custody for more than 24 hours from the time of the arrest. However, police custody can last another 24 hours in specific circumstances, especially if the offence is punishable by at least one year's imprisonment, or if the investigation is deemed to require the extra time, and can last up to 96 hours in certain cases involving terrorism, drug trafficking or organised crime. The police need to have the consent of the prosecutor, the procureur. In the vast majority of cases, the prosecutor will consent.
Germany
In Germany, if one has been arrested and taken into custody by the police one must be brought before a judge as soon as possible and at the latest on the day after the arrest.
New Zealand
In New Zealand law, at the first appearance of the accused, they are read the charges and asked for a plea. The available pleas are guilty, not guilty, and no plea. No plea allows the defendant to get legal advice on the plea, which must be made |
on the second appearance.
South Africa
In South Africa, arraignment is defined as the calling upon the accused to appear, the informing of the accused of the crime charged against them, the demanding of the accused whether they plead guilty or not guilty, and the entering of their plea. Their plea having been entered, they are said to stand arraigned.
United Kingdom
In England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, arraignment is the first of 11 stages in a criminal trial, and involves the clerk of the court reading out the indictment.
In England and Wales, the police cannot legally detain anyone for more than 24 hours without charging them unless an officer with the rank of superintendent or above authorises detention for a further 12 hours 36 hours total, or a judge who will be a magistrate authorises detention by the police before charge for up to a maximum of 96 hours, but for terrorismrelated offences people can be held by the police for up to 28 days before charge. If they are not released after being cha |
rged, they should be brought before a court as soon as practicable.
United States
Under the United States Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, "arraignment shall ... consist of an open ... reading of the indictment ... to the defendant ... and call on them to plead thereto. They shall be given a copy of the indictment ... before they are called upon to plead."
In federal courts, arraignment takes place in two stages. The first is called the "initial arraignment" and must take place within 48 hours of an individual's arrest, 72 hours if the individual was arrested on the weekend and not able to go before a judge until Monday. During this stage, the defendant is informed of the pending legal charges and is informed of his or her right to retain counsel. The presiding judge also decides at what amount, if any, to set bail. During the second stage, a postindictment arraignment PIA, the defendant is allowed to enter a plea.
In New York, most people arrested must be released if they are not arraigned within 24 |
hours.
In California, arraignments must be conducted without unnecessary delay and, in any event, within 48 hours of arrest, excluding weekends and holidays.
Form of the arraignment
The wording of the arraignment varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. However, it generally conforms with the following principles
The accused person defendant is addressed by name;
The charge against the accused person is read, including the alleged date, time, and place of offense and sometimes the names of the state's witnesses and the range of punishment for the charges; and,
The accused person is asked formally how he or she pleads.
Video arraignment
Video arraignment is the act of conducting the arraignment process using some form of videoconferencing technology. Use of video arraignment system allows the court to conduct the requisite arraignment process without the need to transport the defendant to the courtroom by using an audiovisual link between the location where the defendant is being held and the courtroo |
m.
Use of the video arraignment process addresses the problems associated with having to transport defendants. The transportation of defendants requires time, puts additional demands on the public safety organizations to provide for the safety of the public, court personnel and for the security of the population held in detention. It also addresses the rising costs of transportation.
Guilty and notguilty pleas
If the defendant pleads guilty, an evidentiary hearing usually follows. The court is not required to accept a guilty plea. During the hearing, the judge assesses the offense, the mitigating factors, and the defendant's character, and passes sentence.
If the defendant pleads not guilty, a date is set for a preliminary hearing or a trial.
In the past, a defendant who refused to plead or "stood mute" was subject to peine forte et dure Law French for "strong and hard punishment". Today, in common law jurisdictions, the court enters a plea of not guilty for a defendant who refuses to enter a plea. The ra |
tionale for this is the defendant's right to silence.
Pretrial release
This is also often the stage at which arguments for or against pretrial release and bail may be made, depending on the alleged crime and jurisdiction.
See also
Desk appearance ticket
References
Legal terminology
Prosecution
United States criminal procedure
Criminal law of the United Kingdom
Australian criminal law |
"America the Beautiful" is a patriotic American song. Its lyrics were written by Katharine Lee Bates and its music was composed by church organist and choirmaster Samuel A. Ward at Grace Episcopal Church in Newark, New Jersey. The two never met.
Bates wrote the words as a poem originally entitled "Pikes Peak". It was first published in the Fourth of July 1895 edition of the church periodical, The Congregationalist. It was at that time that the poem was first entitled "America".
Ward had initially composed the song's melody in 1882 to accompany lyrics to "Materna", basis of the hymn, "O Mother dear, Jerusalem", though the hymn was not first published until 1892. The combination of Ward's melody and Bates's poem was first entitled "America the Beautiful" in 1910. The song is one of the most popular of the many U.S. patriotic songs.
History
In 1893, at the age of 33, Bates, an English professor at Wellesley College, had taken a train trip to Colorado Springs, Colorado, to teach at Colorado College. Several |
of the sights on her trip inspired her, and they found their way into her poem, including the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, the "White City" with its promise of the future contained within its gleaming white buildings; the wheat fields of America's heartland Kansas, through which her train was riding on July 16; and the majestic view of the Great Plains from high atop Pikes Peak.
On the pinnacle of that mountain, the words of the poem started to come to her, and she wrote them down upon returning to her hotel room at the original Antlers Hotel. The poem was initially published two years later in The Congregationalist to commemorate the Fourth of July. It quickly caught the public's fancy. An amended version was published in 1904.
The first known melody written for the song was sent in by Silas Pratt when the poem was published in The Congregationalist. By 1900, at least 75 different melodies had been written. A hymn tune composed in 1882 by Samuel A. Ward, the organist and choir director at Grace |
Church, Newark, was generally considered the best music as early as 1910 and is still the popular tune today. Just as Bates had been inspired to write her poem, Ward, too, was inspired. The tune came to him while he was on a ferryboat trip from Coney Island back to his home in New York City after a leisurely summer day and he immediately wrote it down. He composed the tune for the old hymn "O Mother Dear, Jerusalem", retitling the work "Materna". Ward's music combined with Bates's poem were first published together in 1910 and titled "America the Beautiful".
Ward died in 1903, not knowing the national stature his music would attain. Bates was more fortunate, since the song's popularity was well established by the time of her death in 1929. It is included in songbooks in many religious congregations in the United States.
At various times in the more than one hundred years that have elapsed since the song was written, particularly during the John F. Kennedy administration, there have been efforts to give "Am |
erica the Beautiful" legal status either as a national hymn or as a national anthem equal to, or in place of, "The StarSpangled Banner", but so far this has not succeeded. Proponents prefer "America the Beautiful" for various reasons, saying it is easier to sing, more melodic, and more adaptable to new orchestrations while still remaining as easily recognizable as "The StarSpangled Banner". Some prefer "America the Beautiful" over "The StarSpangled Banner" due to the latter's waroriented imagery; others prefer "The StarSpangled Banner" for the same reason. While that national dichotomy has stymied any effort at changing the tradition of the national anthem, "America the Beautiful" continues to be held in high esteem by a large number of Americans, and was even being considered before 1931 as a candidate to become the national anthem of the United States.
Lyrics
Notable performances
Bing Crosby included the song in a medley on his album 101 Gang Songs 1961.
Frank Sinatra recorded the song with Nelson Riddl |
e during the sessions for The Concert Sinatra in February 1963, for a projected 45 single release. The 45 was not commercially issued however, but the song was later added as a bonus track to the enhanced 2012 CD release of The Concert Sinatra.
In 1976, while the United States celebrated its bicentennial, a soulful version popularized by Ray Charles peaked at number 98 on the US RB chart. His version was traditionally played on New Year's Eve in Times Square following the ball drop.
Three different renditions of the song have entered the Hot Country Songs charts. The first was by Charlie Rich, which went to number 22 in 1976. A second, by Mickey Newbury, peaked at number 82 in 1980. An allstar version of "America the Beautiful" performed by country singers Trace Adkins, Sherri Austin, Billy Dean, Vince Gill, Carolyn Dawn Johnson, Toby Keith, Brenda Lee, Lonestar, Lyle Lovett, Lila McCann, Lorrie Morgan, Jamie O'Neal, The Oak Ridge Boys, Collin Raye, Kenny Rogers, Keith Urban and Phil Vassar reached number 5 |
8 in July 2001. The song reentered the chart following the September 11 attacks.
Popularity of the song increased greatly following the September 11 attacks; at some sporting events it was sung in addition to the traditional singing of the national anthem. During the first taping of the Late Show with David Letterman following the attacks, CBS newsman Dan Rather cried briefly as he quoted the fourth verse.
For Super Bowl XLVIII, The CocaCola Company aired a multilingual version of the song, sung in several different languages. The commercial received some criticism on social media sites, such as Twitter and Facebook, and from some conservatives, such as Glenn Beck. Despite the controversies, CocaCola later reused the Super Bowl ad during Super Bowl LI, the opening ceremonies of the 2014 Winter Olympics and 2016 Summer Olympics and for patriotic holidays.
On January 20, 2017, Jackie Evancho released Together We Stand, a disc containing three patriotic songs including "America the Beautiful". The song charte |
d at No. 4 on Billboard's Classical Digital Song sales chart.
An abbreviated cover with the 1911 lyrics was performed by Greg Jong for the soundtrack of the 2020 video game Wasteland 3, and is played during the final hostile encounters in the Denver section.
Jennifer Lopez performed the song at President Joe Biden's inauguration on January 20, 2021 as the second half of a medley with "This Land Is Your Land" by Woody Guthrie.
Idioms
"From sea to shining sea", originally used in the charters of some of the English Colonies in North America, is an American idiom meaning "from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean" or vice versa. Other songs that have used this phrase include the American patriotic song "God Bless the U.S.A." and Schoolhouse Rock's "Elbow Room". The phrase and the song are also the namesake of the Shining Sea Bikeway, a bike path in Bates's hometown of Falmouth, Massachusetts. The phrase is similar to the Latin phrase "" "From sea to sea", which is the official motto of Canada.
"Purple mou |
ntain majesties" refers to the shade of the Pikes Peak in Colorado Springs, Colorado, which inspired Bates to write the poem.
In 2003, Tori Amos appropriated the phrase "for amber waves of grain" to create a personification for her song "Amber Waves". Amos imagines Amber Waves as an exotic dancer, like the character of the same name portrayed by Julianne Moore in Boogie Nights.
Books
Lynn Sherr's 2001 book America the Beautiful discusses the origins of the song and the backgrounds of its authors in depth. The book points out that the poem has the same meter as that of "Auld Lang Syne"; the songs can be sung interchangeably. Additionally, Sherr discusses the evolution of the lyrics, for instance, changes to the original third verse written by Bates.
Melinda M. Ponder, in her 2017 biography Katharine Lee Bates From Sea to Shining Sea, draws heavily on Bates's diaries and letters to trace the history of the poem and its place in American culture.
See also
"God Bless America"
Notes
References
External l |
inks
MP3 and RealAudio recordings available at the United States Library of Congress
Words, sheet music MIDI file at the Cyber Hymnal
America the Beautiful Park in Colorado Springs named for Katharine Lee Bates' words.
Archival collection of America the Beautiful lantern slides from the 1930s.
Another free sheet music
1895 songs
American Christian hymns
American patriotic songs
Pikes Peak
History of Colorado Springs, Colorado
Songs based on poems
Grammy Hall of Fame Award recipients |
Assistive technology AT is a term for assistive, adaptive, and rehabilitative devices for people with disabilities and the elderly. People with disabilities often have difficulty performing activities of daily living ADLs independently, or even with assistance. ADLs are selfcare activities that include toileting, mobility ambulation, eating, bathing, dressing, grooming, and personal device care. Assistive technology can ameliorate the effects of disabilities that limit the ability to perform ADLs. Assistive technology promotes greater independence by enabling people to perform tasks they were formerly unable to accomplish, or had great difficulty accomplishing, by providing enhancements to, or changing methods of interacting with, the technology needed to accomplish such tasks. For example, wheelchairs provide independent mobility for those who cannot walk, while assistive eating devices can enable people who cannot feed themselves to do so. Due to assistive technology, people with disability have an opportun |
ity of a more positive and easygoing lifestyle, with an increase in "social participation," "security and control," and a greater chance to "reduce institutional costs without significantly increasing household expenses." In schools, assistive technology can be critical in allowing students with disabilities access the general education curriculum. Students who experience challenges writing or keyboarding, for example, can use voice recognition software instead.
Adaptive technology
Adaptive technology and assistive technology are different. Assistive technology is something that is used to help disabled people, while adaptive technology covers items that are specifically designed for disabled people and would seldom be used by a nondisabled person. In other words, assistive technology is any object or system that helps people with disabilities, while adaptive technology is specifically designed for disabled people. Consequently, adaptive technology is a subset of assistive technology. Adaptive technology of |
ten refers specifically to electronic and information technology access.
Occupational therapy
Occupational therapy OT is a healthcare profession that specializes in maintaining or improving the quality of life for individuals that experience challenges when independently performing life's occupations. According to the Occupational Therapy Practice Framework Domain and Process 3rd ed.; AOTA, 2014, occupations include areas related to all basic and instrumental activities of daily living ADLs, rest and sleep, education, work, play, leisure and social participation. Occupational therapists have the specialized skill of employing assistive technology AT in the improvement and maintenance of optimal, functional participation in occupations. The application of AT enables an individual to adapt aspects of the environment, that may otherwise be challenging, to the user in order to optimize functional participation in those occupations. As a result, occupational therapists may educate, recommend, and promote the u |
se of AT to improve the quality of life for their clients.
Mobility impairments
Wheelchairs
Wheelchairs are devices that can be manually propelled or electrically propelled, and that include a seating system and are designed to be a substitute for the normal mobility that most people have. Wheelchairs and other mobility devices allow people to perform mobilityrelated activities of daily living which include feeding, toileting, dressing, grooming, and bathing. The devices come in a number of variations where they can be propelled either by hand or by motors where the occupant uses electrical controls to manage motors and seating control actuators through a joystick, sipandpuff control, head switches or other input devices. Often there are handles behind the seat for someone else to do the pushing or input devices for caregivers. Wheelchairs are used by people for whom walking is difficult or impossible due to illness, injury, or disability. People with both sitting and walking disability often need to use |
a wheelchair or walker.
Newer advancements in wheelchair design enable wheelchairs to climb stairs, go offroad or propel using segway technology or additional addons like handbikes or power assists.
Transfer devices
Patient transfer devices generally allow patients with impaired mobility to be moved by caregivers between beds, wheelchairs, commodes, toilets, chairs, stretchers, shower benches, automobiles, swimming pools, and other patient support systems i.e., radiology, surgical, or examining tables.
The most common devices are transfer benches, stretcher or convertible chairs for lateral, supine transfer, sittostand lifts for moving patients from one seated position to another i.e., from wheelchairs to commodes, air bearing inflatable mattresses for supine transfer i.e., transfer from a gurney to an operating room table, gait belts or transfer belt and a slider board or transfer board, usually used for transfer from a bed to a wheelchair or from a bed to an operating table. Highly dependent patients |
who cannot assist their caregiver in moving them often require a patient lift a floor or ceilingsuspended sling lift which though invented in 1955 and in common use since the early 1960s is still considered the stateoftheart transfer device by OSHA and the American Nursing Association.
Walkers
A walker or walking frame or Rollator is a tool for disabled people who need additional support to maintain balance or stability while walking. It consists of a frame that is about waist high, approximately twelve inches deep and slightly wider than the user. Walkers are also available in other sizes, such as for children, or for heavy people. Modern walkers are heightadjustable. The front two legs of the walker may or may not have wheels attached depending on the strength and abilities of the person using it. It is also common to see caster wheels or glides on the back legs of a walker with wheels on the front.
Prosthesis
A prosthesis, prosthetic, or prosthetic limb is a device that replaces a missing body part. |
It is part of the field of biomechatronics, the science of using mechanical devices with human muscular, musculoskeletal, and nervous systems to assist or enhance motor control lost by trauma, disease, or defect. Prostheses are typically used to replace parts lost by injury traumatic or missing from birth congenital or to supplement defective body parts. Inside the body, artificial heart valves are in common use with artificial hearts and lungs seeing less common use but under active technology development. Other medical devices and aids that can be considered prosthetics include hearing aids, artificial eyes, palatal obturator, gastric bands, and dentures.
Prostheses are specifically not orthoses, although given certain circumstances a prosthesis might end up performing some or all of the same functionary benefits as an orthosis. Prostheses are technically the complete finished item. For instance, a CLeg knee alone is not a prosthesis, but only a prosthetic component. The complete prosthesis would consist |
of the attachment system to the residual limb usually a "socket", and all the attachment hardware components all the way down to and including the terminal device. Despite the technical difference, the terms are often used interchangeably.
The terms "prosthetic" and "orthotic" are adjectives used to describe devices such as a prosthetic knee. The terms "prosthetics" and "orthotics" are used to describe the respective allied health fields.
An Occupational Therapist's role in prosthetics include therapy, training and evaluations. Prosthetic training includes orientation to prosthetics components and terminology, donning and doffing, wearing schedule, and how to care for residual limb and the prosthesis.
Exoskeletons
A powered exoskeleton is a wearable mobile machine that is powered by a system of electric motors, pneumatics, levers, hydraulics, or a combination of technologies that allow for limb movement with increased strength and endurance. Its design aims to provide back support, sense the user's mo |
tion, and send a signal to motors which manage the gears. The exoskeleton supports the shoulder, waist and thigh, and assists movement for lifting and holding heavy items, while lowering back stress.
Adaptive seating and positioning
People with balance and motor function challenges often need specialized equipment to sit or stand safely and securely. This equipment is frequently specialized for specific settings such as in a classroom or nursing home. Positioning is often important in seating arrangements to ensure that user's body pressure is distributed equally without inhibiting movement in a desired way.
Positioning devices have been developed to aid in allowing people to stand and bear weight on their legs without risk of a fall. These standers are generally grouped into two categories based on the position of the occupant. Prone standers distribute the body weight to the front of the individual and usually have a tray in front of them. This makes them good for users who are actively trying to car |
ry out some task. Supine standers distribute the body weight to the back and are good for cases where the user has more limited mobility or is recovering from injury.
Visual impairments
Many people with serious visual impairments live independently, using a wide range of tools and techniques. Examples of assistive technology for visually impairment include screen readers, screen magnifiers, Braille embossers, desktop video magnifiers, and voice recorders.
Screen readers
Screen readers are used to help the visually impaired to easily access electronic information. These software programs run on a computer in order to convey the displayed information through voice texttospeech or braille refreshable braille displays in combination with magnification for low vision users in some cases. There are a variety of platforms and applications available for a variety of costs with differing feature sets.
Some example of screen readers are Apple VoiceOver, Google TalkBack and Microsoft Narrator. This software is |
provided free of charge on all Apple devices. Apple VoiceOver includes the option to magnify the screen, control the keyboard, and provide verbal descriptions to describe what is happening on the screen. There are thirty languages to select from. It also has the capacity to read aloud file content, as well as web pages, Email messages, and word processing files.
As mentioned above, screen readers may rely on the assistance of texttospeech tools. To use the texttospeech tools, the documents must in an electronic form, that is uploaded as the digital format. However, people usually will use the hard copy documents scanned into the computer, which cannot be recognized by the texttospeech software. To solve this issue, people always use Optical Character Recognition technology accompanied with texttospeech software.
Braille and braille embossers
Braille is a system of raised dots formed into units called braille cells. A full braille cell is made up of six dots, with two parallel rows of three dots, but other |
combinations and quantities of dots represent other letters, numbers, punctuation marks, or words. People can then use their fingers to read the code of raised dots.
A braille embosser is, simply put, a printer for braille. Instead of a standard printer adding ink onto a page, the braille embosser imprints the raised dots of braille onto a page. Some braille embossers combine both braille and ink so the documents can be read with either sight or touch.
Refreshable braille display
A refreshable braille display or braille terminal is an electromechanical device for displaying braille characters, usually by means of roundtipped pins raised through holes in a flat surface. Computer users who cannot use a computer monitor use it to read a braille output version of the displayed text.
Desktop video magnifier
Desktop video magnifiers are electronic devices that use a camera and a display screen to perform digital magnification of printed materials. They enlarge printed pages for those with low vision. A came |
ra connects to a monitor that displays realtime images, and the user can control settings such as magnification, focus, contrast, underlining, highlighting, and other screen preferences. They come in a variety of sizes and styles; some are small and portable with handheld cameras, while others are much larger and mounted on a fixed stand.
Screen magnification software
A screen magnifier is software that interfaces with a computer's graphical output to present enlarged screen content. It allows users to enlarge the texts and graphics on their computer screens for easier viewing. Similar to desktop video magnifiers, this technology assists people with low vision. After the user loads the software into their computer's memory, it serves as a kind of "computer magnifying glass." Wherever the computer cursor moves, it enlarges the area around it. This allows greater computer accessibility for a wide range of visual abilities.
Largeprint and tactile keyboards
A largeprint keyboard has large letters printed on |
the keys. On the keyboard shown, the round buttons at the top control software which can magnify the screen zoom in, change the background color of the screen, or make the mouse cursor on the screen larger. The "bump dots" on the keys, installed in this case by the organization using the keyboards, help the user find the right keys in a tactile way.
Navigation assistance
Assistive technology for navigation has exploded on the IEEE Xplore database since 2000, with over 7,500 engineering articles written on assistive technologies and visual impairment in the past 25 years, and over 1,300 articles on solving the problem of navigation for people who are blind or visually impaired. As well, over 600 articles on augmented reality and visual impairment have appeared in the engineering literature since 2000. Most of these articles were published within the past 5 years, and the number of articles in this area is increasing every year. GPS, accelerometers, gyroscopes, and cameras can pinpoint the exact location of |
the user and provide information on what is in the immediate vicinity, and assistance in getting to a destination.
Wearable technology
Wearable technology are smart electronic devices that can be worn on the body as an implant or an accessory. New technologies are exploring how the visually impaired can receive visual information through wearable devices.
Some wearable devices for visual impairment include
OrCam device
eSight
Brainport
Personal emergency response systems
Personal emergency response systems PERS, or Telecare UK term, are a particular sort of assistive technology that use electronic sensors connected to an alarm system to help caregivers manage risk and help vulnerable people stay independent at home longer. An example would be the systems being put in place for senior people such as fall detectors, thermometers for hypothermia risk, flooding and unlit gas sensors for people with mild dementia. Notably, these alerts can be customized to the particular person's risks. When the alert is |
triggered, a message is sent to a caregiver or contact center who can respond appropriately.
Accessibility software
In humancomputer interaction, computer accessibility also known as accessible computing refers to the accessibility of a computer system to all people, regardless of disability or severity of impairment, examples include web accessibility guidelines. Another approach is for the user to present a token to the computer terminal, such as a smart card, that has configuration information to adjust the computer speed, text size, etc. to their particular needs. This is useful where users want to access public computer based terminals in Libraries, ATM, Information kiosks etc. The concept is encompassed by the CEN EN 13324 Identification Card Systems ManMachine Interface. This development of this standard has been supported in Europe by SNAPI and has been successfully incorporated into the Lasseo specifications, but with limited success due to the lack of interest from public computer terminal suppl |
iers.
Hearing impairments
People in the dDeaf and hard of hearing community have a more difficult time receiving auditory information as compared to hearing individuals. These individuals often rely on visual and tactile mediums for receiving and communicating information. The use of assistive technology and devices provides this community with various solutions to auditory communication needs by providing higher sound for those who are hard of hearing, tactile feedback, visual cues and improved technology access. Individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing utilize a variety of assistive technologies that provide them with different access to information in numerous environments. Most devices either provide amplified sound or alternate ways to access information through vision andor vibration. These technologies can be grouped into three general categories Hearing Technology, alerting devices, and communication support.
Hearing aids
A hearing aid or deaf aid is an electroacoustic device which is designed |
to amplify sound for the wearer, usually with the aim of making speech more intelligible, and to correct impaired hearing as measured by audiometry. This type of assistive technology helps people with hearing loss participate more fully in their hearing communities by allowing them to hear more clearly. They amplify any and all sound waves through use of a microphone, amplifier, and speaker. There is a wide variety of hearing aids available, including digital, intheear, inthecanal, behindtheear, and onthebody aids.
Assistive listening devices
Assistive listening devices include FM, infrared, and loop assistive listening devices. This type of technology allows people with hearing difficulties to focus on a speaker or subject by getting rid of extra background noises and distractions, making places like auditoriums, classrooms, and meetings much easier to participate in. The assistive listening device usually uses a microphone to capture an audio source near to its origin and broadcast it wirelessly over an |
FM Frequency Modulation transmission, IR Infra Red transmission, IL Induction Loop transmission, or other transmission methods. The person who is listening may use an FMIRIL Receiver to tune into the signal and listen at hisher preferred volume.
Amplified telephone equipment
This type of assistive technology allows users to amplify the volume and clarity of their phone calls so that they can easily partake in this medium of communication. There are also options to adjust the frequency and tone of a call to suit their individual hearing needs. Additionally, there is a wide variety of amplified telephones to choose from, with different degrees of amplification. For example, a phone with 26 to 40 decibel is generally sufficient for mild hearing loss, while a phone with 71 to 90 decibel is better for more severe hearing loss.
Augmentative and alternative communication
Augmentative and alternative communication AAC is an umbrella term that encompasses methods of communication for those with impairments or re |
strictions on the production or comprehension of spoken or written language. AAC systems are extremely diverse and depend on the capabilities of the user. They may be as basic as pictures on a board that are used to request food, drink, or other care; or they can be advanced speech generating devices, based on speech synthesis, that are capable of storing hundreds of phrases and words.
Cognitive impairments
Assistive Technology for Cognition ATC is the use of technology usually high tech to augment and assist cognitive processes such as attention, memory, selfregulation, navigation, emotion recognition and management, planning, and sequencing activity. Systematic reviews of the field have found that the number of ATC are growing rapidly, but have focused on memory and planning, that there is emerging evidence for efficacy, that a lot of scope exists to develop new ATC. Examples of ATC include NeuroPage which prompts users about meetings, Wakamaru, which provides companionship and reminds users to take medic |
ine and calls for help if something is wrong, and telephone Reassurance systems.
Memory aids
Memory aids are any type of assistive technology that helps a user learn and remember certain information. Many memory aids are used for cognitive impairments such as reading, writing, or organizational difficulties. For example, a Smartpen records handwritten notes by creating both a digital copy and an audio recording of the text. Users simply tap certain parts of their notes, the pen saves it, and reads it back to them. From there, the user can also download their notes onto a computer for increased accessibility. Digital voice recorders are also used to record "in the moment" information for fast and easy recall at a later time.
Educational software
Educational software is software that assists people with reading, learning, comprehension, and organizational difficulties. Any accommodation software such as text readers, notetakers, text enlargers, organization tools, word predictions, and talking word process |
ors falls under the category of educational software.
Eating impairments
Adaptive eating devices include items commonly used by the general population like spoons and forks and plates. However they become assistive technology when they are modified to accommodate the needs of people who have difficulty using standard cutlery due to a disabling condition. Common modifications include increasing the size of the utensil handle to make it easier to grasp. Plates and bowls may have a guard on the edge that stops food being pushed off of the dish when it is being scooped. More sophisticated equipment for eating includes manual and powered feeding devices. These devices support those who have little or no hand and arm function and enable them to eat independently.
In sports
Assistive technology in sports is an area of technology design that is growing. Assistive technology is the array of new devices created to enable sports enthusiasts who have disabilities to play. Assistive technology may be used in adaptive |
sports, where an existing sport is modified to enable players with a disability to participate; or, assistive technology may be used to invent completely new sports with athletes with disabilities exclusively in mind.
An increasing number of people with disabilities are participating in sports, leading to the development of new assistive technology. Assistive technology devices can be simple, or "lowtechnology", or they may use highly advanced technology. "Lowtech" devices can include velcro gloves and adaptive bands and tubes. "Hightech" devices can include allterrain wheelchairs and adaptive bicycles. Accordingly, assistive technology can be found in sports ranging from local community recreation to the elite Paralympic Games. More complex assistive technology devices have been developed over time, and as a result, sports for people with disabilities "have changed from being a clinical therapeutic tool to an increasingly competitionoriented activity".
In education
In the United States there are two major |
pieces of legislation that govern the use of assistive technology within the school system. The first is Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the second being the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act IDEA which was first enacted in 1975 under the name The Education for All Handicapped Children Act. In 2004, during the reauthorization period for IDEA, the National Instructional Material Access Center NIMAC was created which provided a repository of accessible text including publisher's textbooks to students with a qualifying disability. Files provided are in XML format and used as a starting platform for braille readers, screen readers, and other digital text software. IDEA defines assistive technology as follows "any item, piece of equipment, or product system, whether acquired commercially off the shelf, modified, or customized, that is used to increase, maintain, or improve functional capabilities of a child with a disability. B Exception.The term does not include a medical device th |
at is surgically implanted, or the replacement of such device."
Assistive technology listed is a student's IEP is not only recommended, it is required Koch, 2017. These devices help students both with and without disabilities access the curriculum in a way they were previously unable to Koch, 2017. Occupational therapists play an important role in educating students, parents and teachers about the assistive technology they may interact with Koch, 2017.
Assistive technology in this area is broken down into low, mid, and high tech categories. Low tech encompasses equipment that is often low cost and does not include batteries or requires charging. Examples include adapted paper and pencil grips for writing or masks and color overlays for reading. Mid tech supports used in the school setting include the use of handheld spelling dictionaries and portable word processors used to keyboard writing. High tech supports involve the use of tablet devices and computers with accompanying software. Software supports for |
writing include the use of auditory feedback while keyboarding, word prediction for spelling, and speech to text. Supports for reading include the use of text to speech TTS software and font modification via access to digital text. Limited supports are available for math instruction and mostly consist of grid based software to allow younger students to keyboard equations and auditory feedback of more complex equations using MathML and Daisy.
Dementia care
Assistive technology for memory support
A 2017 Cochrane Review highlighted the current lack of highquality evidence to determine whether assistive technology effectively supports people with dementia to manage memory issues. Thus, it is not presently sure whether or not assistive technology is beneficial for memory problems.
Computer accessibility
One of the largest problems that affect disabled people is discomfort with prostheses. An experiment performed in Massachusetts utilized 20 people with various sensors attached to their arms. The subjects trie |
d different arm exercises, and the sensors recorded their movements. All of the data helped engineers develop new engineering concepts for prosthetics.
Assistive technology may attempt to improve the ergonomics of the devices themselves such as Dvorak and other alternative keyboard layouts, which offer more ergonomic layouts of the keys.
Assistive technology devices have been created to enable disabled people to use modern touch screen mobile computers such as the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. The Pererro is a plug and play adapter for iOS devices which uses the built in Apple VoiceOver feature in combination with a basic switch. This brings touch screen technology to those who were previously unable to use it. Apple, with the release of iOS 7 had introduced the ability to navigate apps using switch control. Switch access could be activated either through an external bluetooth connected switch, single touch of the screen, or use of right and left head turns using the device's camera. Additional accessibility |
features include the use of Assistive Touch which allows a user to access multitouch gestures through preprogrammed onscreen buttons.
For users with physical disabilities a large variety of switches are available and customizable to the user's needs varying in size, shape, or amount of pressure required for activation. Switch access may be placed near any area of the body which has consistent and reliable mobility and less subject to fatigue. Common sites include the hands, head, and feet. Eye gaze and head mouse systems can also be used as an alternative mouse navigation. A user may utilize single or multiple switch sites and the process often involves a scanning through items on a screen and activating the switch once the desired object is highlighted.
Home automation
The form of home automation called assistive domotics focuses on making it possible for elderly and disabled people to live independently. Home automation is becoming a viable option for the elderly and disabled who would prefer to stay in t |
heir own homes rather than move to a healthcare facility. This field uses much of the same technology and equipment as home automation for security, entertainment, and energy conservation but tailors it towards elderly and disabled users. For example, automated prompts and reminders utilize motion sensors and prerecorded audio messages; an automated prompt in the kitchen may remind the resident to turn off the oven, and one by the front door may remind the resident to lock the door.
Impacts
Overall, assistive technology aims to allow disabled people to "participate more fully in all aspects of life home, school, and community" and increases their opportunities for "education, social interactions, and potential for meaningful employment". It creates greater independence and control for disabled individuals. For example, in one study of 1,342 infants, toddlers and preschoolers, all with some kind of developmental, physical, sensory, or cognitive disability, the use of assistive technology created improvements |
in child development. These included improvements in "cognitive, social, communication, literacy, motor, adaptive, and increases in engagement in learning activities". Additionally, it has been found to lighten caregiver load. Both family and professional caregivers benefit from assistive technology. Through its use, the time that a family member or friend would need to care for a patient significantly decreases. However, studies show that care time for a professional caregiver increases when assistive technology is used. Nonetheless, their work load is significantly easier as the assistive technology frees them of having to perform certain tasks. There are several platforms that use machine learning to identify the appropriate assistive device to suggest to patients, making assistive devices more accessible.
See also
Accessibility
Assisted Living
Augmentative and alternative communication
Braille technology
Design for All in ICT
Disability Flag
Durable medical equipment
Matching person and techno |
logy model
OATS Open Source Assistive Technology Software
Occupational Therapy
Transgenerational design
Universal access to education
References
Bibliography
Educational technology
Web accessibility |
The abacus plural abaci or abacuses, also called a counting frame, is a calculating tool which has been used since ancient times. It was used in the ancient Near East, Europe, China, and Russia, centuries before the adoption of the HinduArabic numeral system. The exact origin of the abacus has not yet emerged. It consists of rows of movable beads, or similar objects, strung on a wire. They represent digits. One of the two numbers is set up, and the beads are manipulated to perform an operation such as addition, or even a square or cubic root.
In their earliest designs, the rows of beads could be loose on a flat surface or sliding in grooves. Later the beads were made to slide on rods and built into a frame, allowing faster manipulation. Abacuses are still made, often as a bamboo frame with beads sliding on wires. In the ancient world, particularly before the introduction of positional notation, abacuses were a practical calculating tool. The abacus is still used to teach the fundamentals of mathematics to so |
me children, e.g., in postSoviet states.
Designs such as the Japanese soroban have been used for practical calculations of up to multidigit numbers. Any particular abacus design supports multiple methods to perform calculations, including the four basic operations and square and cube roots. Some of these methods work with nonnatural numbers numbers such as and .
Although calculators and computers are commonly used today instead of abacuses, abacuses remain in everyday use in some countries. Merchants, traders, and clerks in some parts of Eastern Europe, Russia, China, and Africa use abacuses. The abacus remains in common use
as a scoring system in nonelectronic table games. Others may use an abacus due to visual impairment that prevents the use of a calculator.
Etymology
The word abacus dates to at least AD 1387 when a Middle English work borrowed the word from Latin that described a sandboard abacus. The Latin word is derived from ancient Greek abax which means something without a base, and colloquiall |
y, any piece of rectangular material. Alternatively, without reference to ancient texts on etymology, it has been suggested that it means "a square tablet strewn with dust", or "drawingboard covered with dust for the use of mathematics" the exact shape of the Latin perhaps reflects the genitive form of the Greek word, abakos. While the table strewn with dust definition is popular, some argue evidence is insufficient for that conclusion. Greek probably borrowed from a Northwest Semitic language like Phoenician, evidenced by a cognate with the Hebrew word bq , or dust in the postBiblical sense "sand used as a writing surface".
Both abacuses and abaci soft or hard "c" are used as plurals. The user of an abacus is called an abacist.
History
Mesopotamia
The Sumerian abacus appeared between 27002300 BC. It held a table of successive columns which delimited the successive orders of magnitude of their sexagesimal base 60 number system.
Some scholars point to a character in Babylonian cuneiform that may have be |
en derived from a representation of the abacus. It is the belief of Old Babylonian scholars, such as Ettore Carruccio, that Old Babylonians "may have used the abacus for the operations of addition and subtraction; however, this primitive device proved difficult to use for more complex calculations".
Egypt
Greek historian Herodotus mentioned the abacus in Ancient Egypt. He wrote that the Egyptians manipulated the pebbles from right to left, opposite in direction to the Greek lefttoright method. Archaeologists have found ancient disks of various sizes that are thought to have been used as counters. However, wall depictions of this instrument are yet to be discovered.
Persia
At around 600 BC, Persians first began to use the abacus, during the Achaemenid Empire. Under the Parthian, Sassanian, and Iranian empires, scholars concentrated on exchanging knowledge and inventions with the countries around them India, China, and the Roman Empire which is how the abacus may have been exported to other countries.
Greec |
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