Friday, February 28, 2020

Quantum Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Quantum - Coursework Example Consequently, LDA is generally related to functionals, which are based on HEG approximation. LDA are implemented in realistic systems measurements and calculations (for example, molecules and solids). In a general view, for a spin-unpolarized system, â€Å"LDA for the exchange-correlation energy is the following where  ?  refers to the  electronic density  and  ?xc, the exchange-correlation energy concentration, is a function of the density. The exchange-correlation energy is split into exchange and correlation terms in a linear view: thus separate expressions for  Ex  and  Ec  are defined. Separate expressions known for the correlation density lead to numerous different approximations for  ?c†. (Parr and Weitao, 1994) LDA is a part of any approximate exchange-correlation functional. Its main function is to â€Å"replicate direct results of the HEG for non-varying densities† (Parr and Weitao 1994, p. 35). As a result, LDA is often mentioned as an exp licit component of such kind of functional. The Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof (PBE) Modern scientists and researchers are greatly concerned about updating GGA functionals in their implementation in molecules and solids. ... Currently, accents in â€Å"generalized gradient approximations are shifted toward the description of free-atom energies† (Perdew et al, 2008). A group of scientists, Perdew et al (2008) have transformed and â€Å"adapted the Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof generalized gradient approximation that updates equilibrium characteristics of dense solids and their surfaces† (Perdew et al, 2008). It is relevant to underline that the Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof is a widely-used tool in solid state calculations. Consequently, a relevant note is that PBE is currently transformed with regard to GGA implementing both the density and its gradient at every space point (Perdew et al, 2008). If to correlate both concepts GGA and PBE, it will be clearly seen that GCA counterbalances â€Å"computational efficiency, numerical accuracy, and reliability† (Perdew et al 2008, p. 4068). Moreover, â€Å"PBE refers to the demands of quantum chemistry and solid-state physics† (Perdew et al 2008, p . 4068). Modern scientists think that it is necessary to ‘widen horizons’ of PBE implementation. Thus during the last decade it has been found out that â€Å"PBE reduces the chronic overbinding of the local spin density approximation (LSDA) [1], but, while LSDA often slightly underestimates equilibrium lattice constants by about 1%, PBE usually overestimates them by about the same amount† (Perdew et al 2008, p. 4070). Moreover, another important point of PBE properties is its equilibrium properties (e.g. bulk moduli, phonon frequencies, magnetism, and ferroelectricity). The abovementioned properties are susceptible to the lattice constant; thus they are ‘overcorrected’ by PBE (Perdew et al, 2008). Moreover, in spite of the fact that LSDA defines low

Wednesday, February 12, 2020

Mortality and the Meaning of Life Research Paper

Mortality and the Meaning of Life - Research Paper Example No one can calculate the exact time of when it will strike. Life has become a hectic burden for the common man. It has become a constant headache of keeping up with the payment of bills. That is all there is to life for most people on earth today. Relations have become secondary, values have become obsolete. The only thing that really matters is money. Money is the new god. But we have miserably faced to realize the most valuable commodity of all; time. There is extensive literature on the management of time. But the major part of it concerns with making the most monetary benefit out of it. We are living an illusion of life. The real essence of life has been buried deep beneath this disturbing rush on earth that we are a part of. Science says that a normal human being becomes aware of death normally around the age of 7 (Landau, 2011). But it is hard to tell when he becomes truly ‘aware’ of it. You don’t expect to die when going out for work in the morning or when coming to dining table for dinner, to be honest, the thought of dying hardly crosses our minds all day long, unless of course you love to listen to the news. You, me, we have all lost ourselves in the fast flow of time. It takes just a moment to stop and analyze whether we are passing through this life or is life passing us by. No one, sadly, has that moment to stop and procrastinate in today’s fast paced world. ... The topic of this essay forced me into a deeper contemplation of death than I have ever delved upon it previously. In my research over the topic, I read accounts of people who were diagnosed with fatal diseases and how the revelation changed and constructed their views about the meaning of life and its purpose (zoom, 2009). I learned that mortality plays the central role in giving our lives meaning. Almost all the people whose accounts I read had the same common realization, i.e. live completely in your today and for your today. They felt like that because they weren’t certain of whether they would live to see the next day or not. They wanted to live to their fullest in that very moment that they possessed, not being sure of even the next moment. That made me think; am I sure of my next moment? The answer is no. Life and death are the most unpredictable of all things we know. We witness people dying in their bedrooms and we also hear of people surviving fatal fires. So no, I d on’t know if I even have any time left after I finish this essay. Should we turn pessimistic over this fact and start living in fear of the inevitable. Religions of the world will teach you to do so, to fear your day of judgment if you believe in one, or to fear the consequences of your action after death. But the concept of mortality made me realize that the only thing I have to be fearful of is my ‘now’, to be fearful of the consequences of my actions that I am undertaking right now. There is an inherent beauty to the unpredictability of death. Since you are not aware of when it might arrive, you feel like you can always amend your ways or make right any wrong you might have done. At the same time, you are aware that you have to accomplish whatever gives you the most

Friday, January 31, 2020

End of White America Essay Example for Free

End of White America Essay Racism and prejudice have always existed in human history. Being a taboo subject and a debated issue, many people have tried to explain and find the reason to such conduct concerning another group of people. Such researches are the hope of many to see the racial discrimination ending. Vincent N. Parillo, through his essay Causes of Prejudice tries to explain the reasons of racism in the U. S. Parillo divides his essay in two parts, one for the psychological causes and one for the social reasons. In the first part, Parillo cites the main psychological causes as: levels of prejudices self-justification, personality and frustration. In the second part he transactions into the social explanations, which are: socialization, economic competition and social norms. For each cause he gives strong arguments based on historical data and actual facts and statistics which made his essay reliable. Along the same lines Hua Hsu in â€Å"The End of White America? † argues that America is becoming post racial. According to him race will matter less and less and whiteness will come to an end. Hsu is positive and confident that Americans will overcome resentment stimulated up by these changes and produce a culture in which race won’t be an important factor. These feelings might have been embedded within the people over a really long time and it will take a lot of time and determination to overcome the resentement that is stirred up from within the people. Parrillo provides a great deal of emphasiz into prejudice and the potential or future problems posed by the changing power dynamic between the roles to help us understand the shift and the reason behind the shift. Will Hsu’s words come true? Will white regain their power? Or will they remain threatened about their fading culture and value in America. In my opinion white people have lost power but the only reason that happened is because now there is a more variety due to people immigrating to America and therefore white people are not a majority anymore and have more competition. A couple of decades ago, children were easily influenced by the decisions of others due to demographic shift. In the 1950’s the culture was mostly white. Either people were white, were forced to be white or wanted to be white to fit in. This was because most of the population was white. Accoring to Hsu by the 2050’s white will no longer be there and that most American’s will no longer be white. Hsu always carefully observed the shift in culture which has already started taking place. He touches upon the subject of the white people not having a strong culture. Parrillo talks about different types of prejudice. He states that in the socialization process, people learn the â€Å"values, attitudes, beliefs, and perceptions of their culture or subculture† (Hsu, 504). Children are being easily swayed because they are taught to obey their parents, and respect that which often takes on the beliefs and ideas of their parents without them knowing what is right or wrong or what they want and don’t. The beliefs of a child’s parents also become the child’s beliefs at a very young age because their parents are the ones that are with them every step of the way. It is believed that people learn from their parents and from others in society may be stereotypes since they don’t have a mind of their own at that age to judge what is true or not. However, many people don’t recognize this, since people are so accustomed to hearing these stereotypes. One example that Parrillo gives is of the Jim Crow laws of the 1890’s and the early 20th century. â€Å"Prejudice, like cultural values is taught and learned through the socialization process. The prevailing prejudicial attitudes and actions may be deeply embedded in custom or law, although socialization explains how prejudicial attitudes may be transmitted from the generation to the next, it does not explain their origin or why they intensify or diminish over the years† (394). The people who grew up with Jim Crow laws accepted them as normal, though they weren’t. Things in the world are slowly and gradually changing. Before, parents used to influence their child’s thoughts and beliefs; however, nowadays other elements influence the child’s beliefs. Watching Dora and more TV shows which give out little facts that are stored in the child’s mind and therefore the child is affected by it. This therefore has influenced the youth greatly, â€Å"the youth market is following the same pattern: consider the cheetah girls or Dora the Explorer, the precocious bilingual seven year old Latina adventurer who is arguably the most successful animated character on children’s television today† (Hsu, 503). They are getting more swayed by the shows. Several decades ago they did what their parents did or asked of them. The only factor that influenced the kids judgment was their parents but now things are different and a lot more influences them like characters, shows, media, and society and therefore parents involvement in their children’s judgment has decreased over the years because so many other factors are more appealing. Hsu gives an explain of Dora, since she is a character who does not conform to the â€Å"white middle class mold†. Referring to different types of prejudice according to Parrillo, it would have to be social norms, since the norms are what society or parents teach their children in that time period. â€Å"By learning and automatically accepting the prevailing prejudices, an individual is simply conforming to the norms. This theory holds that a direct relationship exists between degree of conformity and degree of prejudice† (396). Peoples prejudice would increase or decrease only if the people were introduced to something that is not the norm and most of the kids in today’s world make their own decisions by getting influenced by their own interests and not their parents. Socialization and social norms instill in people certain attitudes, which can manifest themselves under the stress of economic competition. An additional sociological view of prejudice is that of economic competition. The young kids today are the future of tomorrow and therefore economic competition is much more visible in today’s world than it was a few decades ago. People are more â€Å"hostile toward others when they feel that their security is threatened thus many social scientists conclude that economic competition and conflict breed prejudice† (Parrillo, 394). This viewpoint is based on the confidence that when people feel as though their security is being exposed, people are more forceful and unpromising. â€Å"Considerable evidence shows that negative stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination increase markedly whenever competition for available jobs increases† (394). Which is therefore one of the reasons that people are prejudiced because of economic competition which exists a lot in the world of today. Adding Hua Hsu’s thoughts into this, his main example is hip-hop. â€Å"During popular musics rise in the twentieth century while artists and produced main streamed African American innovations. But hip-hop the sound of the post civil-rights, post-soul generation was a global audience on its own terms† (502). Instead of being watered down and whitened like black music in the past, it has remained unmistakably black and yet has taken over the music industry. Sean Combs, like Barack Obama, can be black and yet be accepted by Americans of all colors and reach the top of his field. According to Census data, about 50% of Latinos identify themselves as white. How one identifies them is shaped by both personal and social factors. Due to this de-indianized immigrants click on white in the census. They believed being white was a step closer to being American. This is having a drastic shift according to Hua Hsu. â€Å" Whiteness is no longer a threat or an ideal; its kitsch to be appropriated, whether with gestures like combo’s white parties or the trickle-down epidemic of collared shirts and cuff links currently afflicting rappers†(502) and therefore an expansive multiculturalism is going to be replacing the â€Å"us against the world mentality that lent a thrilling edge to hip-hops mid 1990’s rise† (503). Economic competition now plays a major part in today’s world as it did decades ago. Decades ago, life was a different ball game and people were content with what they had but today every little things are a competition. May it be a battle between the sexes or a competition between who has a better job. To claim that a person is White but against ignorance and oppression is like saying one â€Å"hates the concept of baseball but is a Boston Red Sox fan†. How does white exist outside of the historical background of America’s social rift? Eventually, the same subject pertains to all Americas racial colors that were used for whiteness to even exist. The difference, however, is that behind minority racial colors is a concrete culture whether it be Indian, Mexican, Native American, Chinese etc. that contributes to a greater American background that belongs to everyone, but is institutionally coordinated by the one racial demographic bereft of culture. (Hsu, 504) So again, what do you think defines the identity of whiteness and more importantly how is it exclusive to being a white person? A cultures constitution is formed by how it has come into existence and the methods used to maintain its traditions. White is not a race. It is a arranged social notion designed on isolating the human race. The young is the future of tomorrow, which is why economic competition plays such a big role. Self- Justification and frustration are other levels of prejudice mentioned in Parrillo’s theories. It â€Å"involves denigrating a person or group to justify maltreatment of them. In this situation, self-justification leads to prejudice and discrimination against members of another group† (387). Parrillo also relates this to a person’s financial status; â€Å"a person may avoid social contact with groups deemed inferior and associate only with those identified as being of high status† (387). When people feel inferior to other person, they react to it and want someone to feel inferior to them. According to Hsu â€Å"Pop culture today rallies around an ethic of multicultural inclusion that seems to value every identity—except whiteness† (503). The white culture is declining and the white people are surrounded by so much diversity that they feel like they are so bland compared to them. They don’t feel exotic or different anymore. â€Å"The classic thing white students say when you ask them to talk about who they are is, ‘I don’t have a culture’† (505). A few decades ago white people took pride in being different and exotic. But now slowly and gradually they are becoming a minority because of all the immigrants. â€Å"People tend to be more hostile toward others when they feel that their security is threatened† (Parrillo, 394). White people are more accepting to other cultures and races now since they feel like they are threatened because of the amount of immigrants present in America right now. Since the white people feel like their culture is faded they are getting more paranoid and frustrated. â€Å"Frustration is a result of relative deprivation in which expectations remain unsatisfied† (391). When one does not have sufficient resources in their lives, and their lives are compared to other individuals, they feel inferior and humiliated. With all these immigrants coming to the United States it is making us the majority race, and with all the white people moving away they are giving us the opportunity to overpopulate and put the standards high for whites to accommodate to our lifestyles. This therefore is fading the white culture as due to the immigrants they don’t feel like they are exotic anymore. They believed that everyone wanted to be a white American but now the definition of American itself is changing. It is not a typical rich, white person anymore. I believe that throughout the years, races will all have their chances in population and high power, because it all depends on what race is growing and succeeding at that time of that period. I do not think that whites will become a minority because as i stated before, we all have a time when a race is higher than others and when some are lower than others. If that day does come when whites become minorities, then I sure hope they get the thrive to come up again because I believe that for a country to be successful it needs all types of cultures, races and ethnicity. Even if one race does become the main focus, it is not till to long and it will fade away eventually due to all the immigrants that are present and coming to America.

Thursday, January 23, 2020

Sexuality and Aggression in Hamlet Essay -- GCSE Coursework Shakespear

Sexuality and Aggression in Hamlet  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚           Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In "Man and Wife Is One Flesh": Hamlet and the Confrontation with the Maternal Body, Janet Adelman argues that the motivating force behind the plot action in Hamlet is the collapse of boundaries between relationships of individuals, sexes, and divisions of public (state) and private (love) life. The primary cause of the breakdown results from the bodily contamination spread through overt sexuality, specifically maternal sexuality. Janet Adelman asserts her feminism into the sexist view of psychoanalysis to define the contamination as that power of women that men fear.    Adelman's case for the collapse of boundaries is her strength and weakness. Extensive textual evidence supports her claim for the melding of the men, but her choice to ignore the women's differentiation is a critical error. Gertrude and Ophelia define themselves through sexuality, memory retention and communication, existing as two individual beings separate from the collapsing masculine world. Adelman continues to argue that the power of women's sexuality contaminates all life associated with it. While sexuality is women's most potent power, it is the power to give life and sustain it through maternal fulfillment, not to promote death and further erasure of boundaries through contamination, poison and death. For madness and death follow promptly after the removal of the women's sexuality.    Shakespeare expresses the Freudian concept of sexual and aggressive conflict by assigning the traits to female and male characters respectively. The alternating suppression, sexuality over aggression and aggression over sexuality, plays out in Hamlet ultimately proving their symbiotic relationship. The sup... ... strips away female sexuality, life ends. Aggression does not create life. The eradication of the conflict-boundary is a self-sacrificing effort by the men, who in so doing, deny everyone sexual satisfaction to balance the aggression, thus resorting to fatal violence and ending their immortality through procreation.    Works Cited Adelman, Janet. "Man and Wife is One Flesh": Hamlet and the Confrontation with the Maternal Body. William Shakespeare: Hamlet. Ed. Susanne L. Wofford. Case Studies in Contemporary Criticism. Boston: St. Martin's, 256-282. Calhoun, J. "Personality and Psychoanalytic Theory." Psychology 1101. UGA. Athens, 6 Nov 1998. Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. Ed. Susanne L. Wofford. Case Studies in Contemporary Criticism. Boston: St. Martin's, 1994. Stoppard, Tom. Rozencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. New York: Grove, 1967 Sexuality and Aggression in Hamlet Essay -- GCSE Coursework Shakespear Sexuality and Aggression in Hamlet  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚           Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In "Man and Wife Is One Flesh": Hamlet and the Confrontation with the Maternal Body, Janet Adelman argues that the motivating force behind the plot action in Hamlet is the collapse of boundaries between relationships of individuals, sexes, and divisions of public (state) and private (love) life. The primary cause of the breakdown results from the bodily contamination spread through overt sexuality, specifically maternal sexuality. Janet Adelman asserts her feminism into the sexist view of psychoanalysis to define the contamination as that power of women that men fear.    Adelman's case for the collapse of boundaries is her strength and weakness. Extensive textual evidence supports her claim for the melding of the men, but her choice to ignore the women's differentiation is a critical error. Gertrude and Ophelia define themselves through sexuality, memory retention and communication, existing as two individual beings separate from the collapsing masculine world. Adelman continues to argue that the power of women's sexuality contaminates all life associated with it. While sexuality is women's most potent power, it is the power to give life and sustain it through maternal fulfillment, not to promote death and further erasure of boundaries through contamination, poison and death. For madness and death follow promptly after the removal of the women's sexuality.    Shakespeare expresses the Freudian concept of sexual and aggressive conflict by assigning the traits to female and male characters respectively. The alternating suppression, sexuality over aggression and aggression over sexuality, plays out in Hamlet ultimately proving their symbiotic relationship. The sup... ... strips away female sexuality, life ends. Aggression does not create life. The eradication of the conflict-boundary is a self-sacrificing effort by the men, who in so doing, deny everyone sexual satisfaction to balance the aggression, thus resorting to fatal violence and ending their immortality through procreation.    Works Cited Adelman, Janet. "Man and Wife is One Flesh": Hamlet and the Confrontation with the Maternal Body. William Shakespeare: Hamlet. Ed. Susanne L. Wofford. Case Studies in Contemporary Criticism. Boston: St. Martin's, 256-282. Calhoun, J. "Personality and Psychoanalytic Theory." Psychology 1101. UGA. Athens, 6 Nov 1998. Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. Ed. Susanne L. Wofford. Case Studies in Contemporary Criticism. Boston: St. Martin's, 1994. Stoppard, Tom. Rozencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. New York: Grove, 1967

Wednesday, January 15, 2020

Education Philosophy Outline

Philosophy of Education Outline I. Introduction a. Ever since I was in elementary school, I wanted to become a teacher. I have had some outstanding teachers in my lifetime and I would love to carry on the legacy. I want to inspire the future generation to make the world a better place. b. Every teacher has their own personal views on teaching, learning, goals, and professional development. c. Teaching is not just a job. Teachers mold their students’ futures every day. I believe it is highly important that each teacher strives to make a difference in each student’s life.II. Teaching d. Tools are a necessary part of learning. I plan to use a variety of tools, including SmartBoard technology, books, videos, props, etc. I believe students learn the best by participating in hands-on activities as opposed to only lectures. e. I believe that a teacher should play many roles, not just one. This includes being the motivator, facilitator, challenger, and supporter. f. The School of Thought I agree with is Democratic. This stresses the process of learning, not just the product. It also promotes outside-the-box thinking. g.My preferred educational philosophy is progressivism. I favor an open classroom where students often work together and learn to deal with social problems as well as material from the curriculum. III. Learning h. Learning is something we do every minute of every day. When someone learns, they are broadening their horizons and gaining new experiences. i. Learning is an adventure and a voyage. j. In my classroom, I plan to incorporate a variety of strategies. This includes discussion, but will also include hands-on activities, group work, and presentations. IV. Teaching Goals k.To incorporate out-of-the-box thinking and new ideas. l. To make sure every student understands the subject matter. m. To be open to change and spontaneity. V. Personal or Professional Development n. To make each student truly feel that they are a vital part of the clas sroom, and that they have the power to make a difference. o. To be just as passionate about my work and the subjects studied as I expect my students to be. VI. Conclusion p. When I become a teacher, I hope to change the lives of each and every student. q. Making a difference is inspiring our future generation to change the world.

Tuesday, January 7, 2020

A Modest Proposal Is Protesting - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 2 Words: 491 Downloads: 7 Date added: 2019/05/08 Category Literature Essay Level High school Tags: Modest Proposal Essay Did you like this example? Â  Not everything an author writes is meant to be taken seriously. In Swifts A Modest Proposal he is using sarcasm and litotes to tell england they have to many poor people. This proposal is not meant to make fun of the poor people. Swifts purpose of A Modest Proposal was to show that what was being done to the irish people wasnt right . He was showing the people of Ireland that this is what they were allowing to happen to their people. The poor people were not getting any type of money while the rich people were getting more snobby. Swift uses breeders to refer to women. He is basically saying that they were not needed to do anything else but have baby they could eat. Some of the ideas in A Modest Proposal would confuse people if they didnt know that he was making a fun of how Ireland treats their poor people compared to their rich people. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "A Modest Proposal Is Protesting" essay for you Create order A Modest Proposal is protesting the treatment of the poor people in Ireland by the English government. Swift says that the proposal is giving a solution to preventing the children of the poor people in Ireland from causing more issues in the country. When Swift uses the word modest in the title he is already introducing irony , because the proposal is crazy. You only need to read a few lines to realize that this proposal is not modest. The irony that swift shows throughout the proposal is recognized in the justification s of his arguments it is agreed by all parties that overpopulation of children is a problem that is an additional grievance to the current deplorable state of Ireland (line 230). So whoever could find out a fair, cheap, and easy method of making these children useful members of the commonwealth would deserve so well of the public as to have this statue set up a preserver of the nation (line 230). Further down the text you are able to understand the meaning of the pro posal. Swift also uses litotes for example I have not the least personal interest (line 290). Litotes is when a negative statement is used to conform a positive statement. The litotes in the story suggest that swift is actually concerned for the Irish people. The proposer aka the narrator is cold-hearted, and the ruthless of his logic. He represents the hypocrisy in the story. The narrator never gives away his identity. He is more interested in trying solving all of Irelands problems by suggesting that we eat children, A child will make two dishes at an entertainment for friends, and when the family dines alone, the fore and hind quarter will make a reasonable dish, and seasoned with a little pepper or salt will be very good boiled on the fourth day especially in the winter time (line 274). He is suggesting that if everyone eats the babies and the children that it will help to solve the poverty issues.

Monday, December 30, 2019

Who Came Up With the Alphabet

Up until modern times, the alphabet was a work-in-progress that went as far back as ancient Egypt. We know this because the earliest evidence of a consonant-based alphabet, in the form of graffiti-style inscriptions, was discovered along the Sinai peninsula. Not too much is known about these mysterious scripts except they’re likely a collection of characters adapted from Egyptian hieroglyphs. It’s also unclear whether these early scripts were written by the Canaanites who inhabited the area around 19th century BC or a Semitic population that occupied central Egypt in 15th century BC. Whatever the case, it wasn’t until the emergence of the Phoenician civilization, a collection of city-states strewn along Egypt’s Mediterranean coast, that the Proto-Sinaitic script was widely used. Written from right to left and consisting of 22 symbols, this unique system would eventually spread throughout the middle east and across Europe through maritime merchants who  carried out commerce with nearby groups of people. By the 8th century BC, the alphabet had made its way to Greece, where it was altered and adapted to the Greek language. The biggest change was the addition of vowel sounds, which many scholars believed marked the creation of the first true alphabet that allowed for a clear pronunciation of specific Greek words. The Greeks also later made other significant modifications such as writing letters from left to right. At about the same time toward the east, the Phoenician alphabet would form the early basis for the Aramaic alphabet, which serves as the foundation for Hebrew, Syriac, and Arabic written systems. As a language, Aramaic was spoken throughout the Neo-assyrian empire, Neo-babylonian empire and perhaps most prominently among Jesus Christ and his disciples. Outside of the middle east, remnants of its use have also been found in parts of India and central Asia. Back in Europe, the Greek alphabet system reached the Romans around the 5th century BC, through exchanges between Greek and Roman tribes that resided along the Italian peninsula. The Latins made some minor changes of their own, dropping four letters and adding others. The practice of modifying the alphabet was commonplace as nations began to adopt it as a writing system. The Anglo-Saxons, for instance, used Roman letters to write old English after the kingdom’s conversion to Christianity, and made a series of alterations that later  became the foundation for the modern English we use today. Interestingly enough, the order of the original letters has managed to remain the same even as these variants of the Phoenician alphabet were changed to suit the local language. For example, a dozen stone tablets unearthed in ancient Syrian city of Ugarit, which dated back to the 14th century BC, depicted an alphabet that resembled bits of the Latin alphabet in its standard letter order. New additions to the alphabet often were placed at the end, as was the case with X, Y, and Z. But while the Phoenician alphabet can be considered the father of just about all written systems in the west, there are some alphabets that bear no relation to it. This includes the Maldivian script, which borrows elements from Arabic but derived many of its letters from numerals. Another one is the Korean alphabet, known as Hangul, which groups various letters together into blocks that resemble Chinese characters to produce a syllable. In Somalia, the Osmanya alphabet was devised for the Somali in the 1920s by Osman Yusuf Kenadid, a local poet, writer, teacher, and politician.  Evidence of independent alphabets were also found in  medieval Ireland and the old Persian empire. And in case you’re wondering, the alphabet song used to help young children learn their ABCs only came about relatively recently. Originally copyrighted by Boston-based music publisher Charles Bradlee under the title The ABC: A German Air With Variations for the Flute With an Easy Accompaniment for the Piano Forte, the tune is modeled after Twelve Variations on Ah vous dirai-je, Maman, a piano composition written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The same tune has also been used in Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star and Baa, Baa, Black Sheep.