Alpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet. Together with Omega, the last letter of the Greek alphabet, is is sometimes used to signify the beginning and the end, or the first and the last of anything; also as a symbol of the Divine Being. Alpha and Omega were also formerly the symbol of Christianity, and engraved accordingly on the tombs of the ancient Christians. Research Alpha
Alphabet (from Alpha, and Beta, the two first letters of the Greek alphabet), is the series of characters used in writing a language, and intended to represent the sounds of which it consists.
The English alphabet, like most of those of modern Europe, is derived directly from the Latin, the Latin from the ancient Greek, and that from the Phoenician, which again is believed to have had its origin in the Egyptian hieroglyphics, the Hebrew alphabet also having the same origin. The names of the letters in Phoenician and Hebrew must have been almost the same, for the Greek names, which, with the letters, were borrowed from the former, differ little from the Hebrew. By means of the names we may trace the process by which the Egyptian characters were transformed into letters by the Phoenicians. Some Egyptian character would, by its form, recall the idea of a house, for example, in Phoenician or Hebrew beth. This character would subsequently come to be used wherever the sound b occurred. Its form might be afterwards simplified, or even completely modified, but the name would still remain, as beth still continues the Hebrew name for b, and beta the Greek. Our letter m, which in Hebrew was called mim, water, has still a considerable resemblance to the zigzag wavy line which had been chosen to represent water, as in the zodiacal symbol for Aquarius.
The letter o, of which the Hebrew name means eye, no doubt originally intended to represent that organ. While the ancient Greek alphabet gave rise to the ordinary Greek alphabet and the Latin, the Greek alphabet of later times furnished elements for the Coptic, the Gothic, and the old Slavic alphabets. The Latin characters are now employed by a great many nations, such as the Italian, the French, the Spanish, the Portuguese, the English, the Dutch, the German, the Hungarian, the Polish, etc, each nation having introduced such modifications or additions as are necessary to express the sound of the language peculiar to it. The Greek alphabet originally possessed only sixteen letters, though the Phoenician had twenty-two.
The original Latin alphabet, as it is found in the oldest inscriptions, consisted of twenty-one letters; namely, the vowels a, e, i, o, and u (v), and the consonants b, c, d, f, h, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, x, z. The Anglo-Saxon alphabet had two characters for the digraph th, which were unfortunately not retained in later English; it had also the character ae. It wanted j, v, y (consonant), and z. The German alphabet consists of the same letters as the English, but the sounds of some of them are different.
Anciently certain characters called Runic were made use of by the Teutonic nations, to which some would attribute an origin independent of the Greek and Latin alphabets. While the alphabets of the west of Europe are derived from the Latin, the Russian, which is very complete, is based on the Greek, with some characters borrowed from the Armenian, etc. Among Asiatic alphabets, the Arabian (ultimately of Phoenician origin) has played a part analogous to that of the Latin in Europe, the conquests of Mohammedanism having imposed it on the Persian, the Turkish, the Hindustani, etc. The Sanskrit or Devanagari alphabet is one of the most remarkable alphabets of the world. As now used it has fourteen characters for the vowels and diphthongs, and thirty-three for the consonants, besides two other symbols. Our alphabet is a very imperfect instrument for what it has to perform, being both defective and redundant. An alphabet is not essential to the writing of a language, since ideograms or symbols may be used instead, as in Chinese.
In the English language there are twenty-six letters, A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H,I,J,K,L,M,N,O,P,Q,R,S,T,U,V,W,X,Y and Z, these twenty-six letters occur in use most disproportionately. At the start of the 20th century the proportion of use was as follows, but this will vary as new words, particularly scientific names are added to the English language:
E - 1000 , T - 770, A - 728, I - 704, S - 680, O - 672, N - 670, H - 540, R - 528, D - 392, L - 360, U - 296, C - 280, M - 272, F - 236, W - 190, Y - 184, P - 168, G - 168, B - 158, V - 120, K - 88, J - 55, Q - 50, X - 46, Z - 22
However, as an initial letter, the proportionate use was very different, with the most popular initial letters being:
S - 1194, C - 937, P - 804, A - 574, T - 571, D - 505, B - 463, M - 439, F - 388, I - 377, E- 340, H - 308, L - 298 and R - 291.
The most commonly occurring end letters are R, S, T, and D. Research Alphabet
Castor is a star (Alpha Geminorum) of magnitude 1.6, the fainter star of the zodiacal constellationGemini, or the Twins. In 1719 it was discovered to be a visual binary star, with components of magnitudes 2.8 and 2.0 separated by 6 seconds of arc and revolving around each other in about 350 years. Each of these components has been found to be a spectroscopic binary. In addition, a faint companion, separated from the other two by 72 sec of arc, has been discovered. This star is also a spectroscopic binary, the two components of which revolve around each other in about one day. Hence, the entire system of the star Castor contains at least six stars. Its distance is about 45 light- years from the earth. Research Castor
Centaurus (the Centaur) is a southern constellation, which is visible chiefly south of the equator. The brightest star in this constellation, Alpha Centauri, is also the third brightest star in the sky. It is about 4.3 light-years from the earth and is the closest visible star to the earth's solar system. The star is actually a double star, with a third star, Proxima Centauri, revolving around the others. Research Centaurus
The North Star (polestar) is a conspicuous star in the northern hemisphere, located closest to the point toward which the axis of the earth is directed, thus roughly marking the location of the north celestial pole. A polestar has been used by navigators throughout recorded history for charting navigation routes and is still used for determining true azimuth and astronomic latitude. The positions of the celestial poles change as the earth's axis moves with the earth's processional motion, and as the north celestial pole assumes different positions relative to the constellations, different stars become the North Star. During the past 5000 years the line of direction of the North Pole has moved from the star Thuban, or Alpha Draconis, in the constellationDraco, to within one degree of the bright starPolaris in the constellation Ursa Minor, which is now the North Star. Research North Star
Vega is the second brightest star of the northern hemisphere. It is the first star, Alpha Lyrae, in the constellation of the Lyre. A very white star, with hydrogen dominant in it, its parallax is 0.082 seconds, and it has a brilliancy equal to that of 100 suns. It will be the Pole Star between AD 15,000 and 16,000. Research Vega
Albumin is one of the three main components of plasma. The other two proteins are globulins and fibrinogen. All three proteins are manufactured by the liver. These three proteins circulate in plasma and act as carriers for small molecules. Albumin, the most plentiful, is similar in texture to egg whites and gives blood its gummy texture. It is soluble in water and coagulable by heat. The globulins, three in number: alpha, beta, and gamma. They are divided on the basis of electrophoretic mobility. The globulins transport certain proteins. They number half the albumin proteins found in plasma. The globulin proteins are insoluble in water, soluble in saline solutions, and coagulable by heat. Globulins are also found in cerebrospinal fluid. Gamma globulins are the antibodies of the blood, giving immunity to disease. Only 3% of plasma is made up of fibrinogen. It is an important link in the chain of reactions that leads to blood clotting (coagulation). It uses the enzyme thrombin to form a web of fine protein fibres, called fibrin, that bindblood cells together, creating a bridge over which injured tissue can rebuild itself while blood continues to flow underneath. As an important factor to coagulation, it is often referred to as factorI. Research Albumin
Abbreviations
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