My Science School

The yen is the official currency of Japan. It is the third most traded currency in the foreign exchange market after the United States dollar and the Euro. It is also widely used as a third reserve currency after the U.S. dollar and the Euro.

The spelling and pronunciation "yen" is standard in English because when Japan was first encountered by Europeans around the 16th century, Japanese /e/ (?) and /we/ (?) both had been pronounced and Portuguese missionaries had spelled them "ye". By the middle of the 18th century, /e/ and /we/ came to be pronounced [e] as in modern Japanese, although some regions retain the [je] pronunciation. Walter Henry Medhurst, who had neither been to Japan nor met any Japanese people, having consulted mainly a Japanese-Dutch dictionary, spelled some "e"s as "ye" in his An English and Japanese, and Japanese and English Vocabulary (1830). In the early Meiji era, James Curtis Hepburn, following Medhurst, spelled all "e"s as "ye" in his A Japanese and English dictionary (1867); in Japanese, e and i are slightly palatalized, somewhat as in Russian. That was the first full-scale Japanese-English/English-Japanese dictionary, which had a strong influence on Westerners in Japan and probably prompted the spelling "yen". Hepburn revised most "ye"s to "e" in the 3rd edition (1886) to mirror the contemporary pronunciation, except "yen". This was probably already fixed and has remained so ever since.

 

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The Korean won has been used in some form for thousands of years. During the occupation of Korea by Japan, which spanned from 1910 to 1945, the won was briefly replaced with a Japanese colonial currency called the Korean yen.1

After World War II, however, the division of North Korea and South Korea resulted in two separate currencies, each called the Korean won. Initially pegged to the USD at a rate of 15 won to 1 dollar, a number of devaluations occurred thereafter due largely to the effects of the Korean War on the nation's economy.

In 1950, the Bank of Korea began operations as South Korea's new central bank. It assumed the duties of the previous monetary authority, the Bank of Joseon, with exclusive authority to issue banknotes and coins for the country.? Today, the Bank of Korea issues banknotes in denominations ranging from 1,000 to 50,000 won. The notes feature early Yi, or Chos?n, dynasty figures, including writers Yi Hwang, featured on the 1,000-won note; Yi I, featured on the 5,000-won note; and King Sejong, who appears on the 10,000-won note.

In the 1980s, South Korea sought to expand the relevance of its currency to international trade by replacing its dollar peg with a basket of currencies. Further changes were made in the late 1990s, when the government responded to the Asian Financial Crisis by allowing the won to float freely on foreign exchange markets.

 

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Morocco is only one of the two countries to call its currency dirham. The UAE Dirham was established in 1971 as an official national currency and is used only in the United Arab Emirates. 1 Dirham is divided into 100 Fils.



The UAE Dirham is tied to the US Dollar with a fixed exchange rate. Therefore, 1 Dirham always equals to 0.2723 US Dollar.

The word "dirham" ultimately comes from drachma the Greek coin. The Greek-speaking Byzantine Empire controlled the Levant and traded with Arabia. It was this currency which was initially adopted as a Persian word (Middle Persian drahm or dram). The "dirham" was the coin of the Persians. The dirham was struck in many Mediterranean countries, including Al-Andalus (Islamic Spain) and the Byzantine Empire (miliaresion), and could be used as currency in Europe between the 10th and 12th centuries, notably in areas with Viking connections, such as Viking York.

In the late Ottoman Empire the standard dirham was 3.207 g; 400 dirhem equal one oka. The Ottoman dirham was based on the Sasanian drachm (in Middle Persian: drahm), which was itself based on the Roman dram/drachm.

In Egypt in 1895, it was equivalent to 47.661 troy grains (3.088 g).

 

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Rupee is the common name for the currencies of India, Indonesia, the Maldives, Mauritius, Nepal, Pakistan, Seychelles, and Sri Lanka, and of former currencies of Afghanistan, all Arab states of the Persian Gulf (as the Gulf rupee), British East Africa, Burma, German East Africa, the Trucial States, and Tibet.

The Indian rupees (?) and Pakistani rupees (?) are subdivided into one hundred paise (singular paisa) or pice. The Mauritian, Seychellois, and Sri Lankan rupees subdivide into 100 cents. The Nepalese rupee subdivides into one hundred paisa (singular and plural) or four Sukaas.

The immediate precursor of the rupee is the r?piya—the silver coin weighing 178 grains (11.53 grams) minted in northern India by first Sher Shah Suri during his brief rule between 1540 and 1545 and adopted and standardized later by the Mughal Empire. The weight remained unchanged well beyond the end of the Mughals till the 20th century.

The Hindustani word rupy? is derived from the Sanskrit word r?pya, which means "wrought silver, a coin of silver", in origin an adjective meaning "shapely", with a more specific meaning of "stamped, impressed", whence "coin". It is derived from the noun r?pa "shape, likeness, image". The word r?pa is further identified as related to the Dravidian root uruppu, which means "a member of the body".  Also, the word r?pam is rooted in Tamil as uru (shape) derived from ur (form) which itself is rooted in ul meaning "appear".

 

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The ngultrum is the currency of the Kingdom of Bhutan. It is subdivided into 100 chhertum. The Royal Monetary Authority of Bhutan is the minting authority of the ngultrum banknotes and coins. The ngultrum is currently pegged to the Indian rupee at parity.

Until 1789, the coins of the Cooch Behar mint circulated in Bhutan. Following this, Bhutan began issuing its own coins known as chetrum, mostly silver 1?2 rupees. Hammered silver and copper coins were the only types issued until 1929, when modern style silver 1?2 rupee coins were introduced, followed by bronze 1 paisa in 1931. Nickel 1?2 rupee coins were introduced in 1950. While the Cooch Behar mint coins circulated alongside Bhutan's own coins, decimalization was introduced in 1957, when Bhutan's first issue of coins denominated in naya paisa. The 1966 issues were 25 naya paisa, 50 naya paisa and 1 rupee coins, struck in cupro-nickel.

While the Bhutanese government developed its economy in the early 1960s, monetization in 1968 led to the establishment of the Bank of Bhutan. As monetary reforms took place in 1974, the Ngultrum was officially introduced as 100 Chhetrum equal to 1 Ngultrum. The Ngultrum retained the peg to the Indian rupee at par, which the Bhutanese coins had maintained.

 

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The birr is the unit of currency in Ethiopia. It is subdivided into 100 santim.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, Maria Theresa thalers and blocks of salt called "amole tchew" served as currency in Ethiopia. The thaler was known locally as the Birr or talari. The Maria Theresa thaler was officially adopted as the standard coin in 1855, although the Indian rupee and the Mexican dollar were also used in foreign trade.

The talari (thaler, dollar, birr) became the standard unit on 9 February 1893 and 200,000 dollars were produced at the Paris Mint in 1894 for Menelik II. The talari, equivalent to the Maria Theresa thaler, was divided into 20 ghersh or 40 bessa.

A new Ethiopian coinage appeared about 1903. The new silver birr maintained the same weight and fineness as the old, but there was now a quarter-birr and a silver ghersh, the latter 1/16 the weight of the birr. The money of account now became 1 birr' = 16 ghersh = 32 bessa.

 

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The peso is the monetary unit of several countries in the Americas and the Philippines. Originating in Spain, the word peso translates to "weight" and uses the peso sign. It is sometimes wrongly spoken as pieces in some countries.

The name peso was given to the 8-real silver coin introduced in 1497, minted at 83?8 pesos to a Castilian mark (230.0465 grams) of silver 134/144 fine (25.56 g fine silver). It was minted in large quantities after the discovery of silver in Mexico, Peru and Bolivia in the 16th century and immediately became a coin of worldwide importance in international trade between Europe, Asia and North America.

Initially the peso was produced in Spanish Latin America in a rapid and simplified manner by cutting off a lump of silver of proper weight and fineness from the end of a silver bar, which was then flattened out and impressed by a hammer. This resulted in a crude, irregular coin called a cob in English, or a macuquina in Spanish. The Crown was entitled to a fifth of all gold and silver mined, the quinto real (royal fifth), and cobs were a convenient means of handling and accounting for silver. In most cases these cobs were immediately melted down by the recipient. However, some did remain in circulation as currency, and these cobs were ideal candidates for clipping and counterfeiting due to their irregular shape and incomplete design.

 

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The lev is the currency of Bulgaria. In old Bulgarian the word "lev" meant "lion", the word 'lion' in the modern language is luv. The lev is divided in 100 stotinki. Stotinka in Bulgarian means "a hundredth" and in fact is a translation of the French term "centime". Grammatically the word "stotinka" comes from the word "sto" - a hundred.

The name of the currency means "lion", and is derived from the Dutch thaler. The Dutch leeuwendaalder was imitated in several German and Italian cities. These coins circulated in Bulgaria, Romania and Moldova and gave their name to the respective currencies the Bulgarian lev, Romanian leu, and Moldovan leu.

The lev was introduced as Bulgaria's currency in 1881 with a value equal to the French franc. The gold standard was suspended between 1899 and 1906 and suspended again in 1912. Until 1916, Bulgaria's silver and gold coins were issued to the same specifications as those of the Latin Monetary Union. Banknotes issued until 1928 were backed by gold or silver.

In 1952, following wartime inflation, a new lev replaced the original lev at a rate of 1 "new" lev = 100 "old" leva. However the rate for banking accounts was different, ranging from 100:3 to 200:1. Prices for goods were replaced at a rate of 25:1. The new lev was pegged to the U.S. dollar at a rate of 6.8 leva = 1 dollar, falling to 9.52 leva on July 29, 1957.

 

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India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi virtually inaugurated the Maitri Setu between India and Bangladesh on March 9. Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina attended the event via videoconferencing. What's the Maitri Setu? Let's find out.

Bridge over the Feni

The Maitri Setu is a double-lane bridge built over the River Feni that flows between the Indian boundary in Tripura and the neighbouring Bangladesh. Originating in South Tripura district, the river flows through the Sabroom town before entering Bangladesh.

The bridge is 1.9 km long and links Sabroom in India with Ramgarh in Bangladesh, facilitating connectivity that is crucial for the socio-economic development of the people in the region. The name "Maitri Setu", meaning "Friendship Bridge", symbolises the growing bilateral ties between the two countries.

Significance

The construction of the bridge was carried out by the National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd, a company owned by the Indian Government, at a cost of Rs. 133 crore. Work on the bridge, entirely funded by the Central Government, began in June 2017.

"The Gateway of Northeast" With the inauguration of the bridge, Tripura is expected to become "the Gateway of Northeast". Poised to boost trade and commerce between India and Bangladesh, the Maitri Setu will enable India's landlocked Northeast to access the Chittagong Port in Bangladesh, which is 80 km from Sabroom, by road. This will also help other states in the region such as Assam, Manipur, and Mizoram to grow and explore the untapped markets across the borders.

Improving transport connectivity between the countries is expected to improve bilateral exports. The Maitri Setu will be the fastest land route from Sabroom to the Bangladesh Port. The bridge also makes Agartala, capital of Tripura, the first Indian city located closest to an international sea port.

 

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When the wind blows across an open area of water it causes waves. You can see this on the edge of lakes and ponds as well as the sea-shore, calm weather when winds are light, the waves are small. As winds strengthen, the waves grow larger. In stormy weather huge waves build up over hundreds of miles of ocean and eventually crash against the shore with terrifying force. But no matter how strong a wind is, the water itself does not move - the waves pass through it. In 1933 an American ship crossing the Pacific Ocean during a hurricane recorded a wave that measured thirty-four metres from its crest at the top to the trough at the bottom.

Huge as this is, earthquakes have produced even larger waves. These are called tsunamis, the Japanese for harbour waves'. Tsunamis are low waves that travel very fast - up to 790 kilometres per hour - across the ocean until they approach the shallow waters near land. There they grow much higher. In 1771 a tsunami estimated to be eighty-five metres high appeared off the Ryukyu Islands of southern Japan. The force of the wave was so great that it threw a boulder weighing 750 tonnes more than two and a half kilometres!

 

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At the moment it is estimated that 15,600,000 square kilometres of the land surface on earth is covered by ice all year round. That is 10.5 per cent of the world's total land area.

This has not always been the case. No one knows for certain what happened to the earth's climate tens of thousands of years ago. But as recently as 10,000 years ago it is likely that the earth was coming out of an ice age. The planet's weather had been so cold for so long that most of northern Europe looked the same as Antarctica does today. In the UK ice sheets spread as far south as the River Thames, and the sites of lots of the main cities of northern Europe like Amsterdam, Berlin, Copenhagen and Stockholm were buried under hundreds of metres of ice. No wonder the mammoths that wandered over northern Europe at that time needed warm woolly coats.

 

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The pound coin in our pockets is the most recent unit of British money. Before that we had a pound note. And before the note there was another coin known as a gold sovereign. The present coin may look a lot smaller than the others, but it has a long history.

The idea of using a pound as a unit of money goes back more than a thousand years. The old Roman pound of pure silver was still used as money then. This was divided into 240 silver pennies. Until 1971 the British pound was also divided into 240 pennies. That was the year in which our currency changed to decimal coinage, though there are still, a few shopkeepers who have used to change with the times. Since then we have had 100 pennies in the pound. The Romans have not been forgotten in our money even today. The 'f' sign we use for the pound stands for the Latin word 'libra', meaning 'a pound'.

The Anglo-Saxons used silver pennies. Copper pennies came in two hundred years ago. They lasted for forty years before being replaced by bronze pennies.

 

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Ayers Rock is one of the great tourist attractions of Australia. Three kilometres long and 348 metres high, it stands right in the middle of the continent, surrounded by flat desert, like a stranded whale. You can see Ayers Rock from nearly 100 kilometres away. It glows red by day, though the best time to see it is at sunrise or sunset. That is when the colour of the rock changes through a fantastic mixture of pinks and reds.

Ayers Rock is sacred to the Aborigines. They associate it with their Dreamtime the time when the earth and everything on it was created. Geologists believe that the middle of Australia was covered by an ocean 500 million years ago. They think that Ayers Rock is what is left of that old ocean floor. Most of it is probably hidden below the surface. After the ocean had disappeared, the land around Ayers Rock gradually turned to the desert that exists today, leaving the massive rock standing alone in its splendour.

 

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All around the world the sea rises and falls twice a day at high and low tide. It happens at different times in different places, and the times of high and low tides change from one day to the next. The difference between high tide and low tide ranges widely. The Mediterranean Sea has hardly any tide at all. Over on the other side of the Atlantic the tide in the Bay of Fundy in eastern Canada rises as much as sixteen metres.

What causes all this water to rise and fall? The sun and the moon do. They both have forces of gravity that pull on the earth's water. The result is that two bulges' are produced in the earth's oceans at opposite sides of the globe every twenty four hours. Since the moon is closer to us than the sun, its gravitational pull is greater. For two periods every month the rise and fall of tides is greater than usual. These are known as spring tides, although they happen all year round, not just in spring. Spring tides are caused by the moon, sun and earth forming a straight line. The gravitational pull of the sun is added to that of the moon when this happens, and the pull on the tides is greater.

At two other times in the month the opposite happens. The sun, moon and earth form a right angle in which the sun's gravitational pull partly wipes out the moon's. As you might expect, the overall pull is smaller when this takes place. So the difference in tides is smaller too. This is when high tides are at their lowest and low tides are at their highest. Under these conditions the tides have a special name too. They are called neap tides.

 

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It is not to prevent it sneezing and scaring away its supper. No polar bears are cleverer than that. They are very cunning hunters.

In summer polar bears stick to a largely vegetarian diet. When the plants they feed on die off or are iced over in winter, they switch to eating meat by catching seals and fish. There is not a lot of cover in the Arctic, where polar bears live. And there is seldom enough to hide a huge bear up to three metres long. Being white helps a polar bear blend in to the background. But it is not all white. Its nose is black. So to hide this from their prey, polar bears have been seen holding paws over their noses to cover the one black spot that might give them away.

 

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