History.

Early history.

The prehistoric pile dwellings around Zürichsee comprise 11 of total 56 prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps in Switzerland, that are located around Lake Zürich in the cantons of Schwyz, St. Gallen and Zürich. Located on the shore of Lake Zürich, there are Freienbach–Hurden Rosshorn, Freienbach–Hurden Seefeld, Rapperswil-Jona/Hombrechtikon–Feldbach, Rapperswil-Jona–Technikum, Erlenbach–Winkel, Meilen–Rorenhaab, Wädenswil–Vorder Au, Zürich–Enge Alpenquai, Grosser Hafner and Kleiner Hafner. Because the lake has grown in size over time, the original piles are now around to under the water level of. Also on the small area of about around Zürichsee, there also the settlements Greifensee–Storen/Wildsberg on "Greifensee" and Wetzikon–Robenhausen on "Pfäffikersee" lakeshore. As well as being part of the 56 Swiss sites of the UNESCO World Heritage Site, each of these 11 prehistoric pile dwellings is also listed as a "Class object" in the Swiss inventory of cultural property of national and regional significance.  "Zurihgauuia" ("Zürichgau") was a subdivision of "Turgowe" (Thurgau) in the Duchy of Alamannia, consisting roughly of the territory between Reuss and Töss. From the 740s, substantial portions of Zürichgau were owned by the Abbey of St. Gall. In c. 760, an administrative re-organisation under counts Ruthard and Warin exempted the castle town of Zürich from comital rule. A county of Zürichgau was established under Louis the Pious, for a count Ruadker, in 820. Zürichgau ("Zurichgeuue") remained a nominally separate territory in the later 9th century but was often ruled by the same count as Thurgau. In 915, Zürichgau together with Thurgau fell to the Bucharding dukes of Swabia. In the late 10th century, the county of Zürich was ruled by the Nellenburger, and during 1077–1172 by the Lenzburger. By the 13th century, Zürichgau was divided between the Habsburgs and the Kyburger, who held the territory west and east of Lake Zürich, respectively.

City state.

The territory of the canton of Zürich corresponds to the lands acquired by the city of Zürich after it became "reichsfrei" in 1218. Zürich pursued a policy of aggressive territorial expansion especially during the century following the revolution of the guilds in 1336. Zürich joined the Swiss Confederacy in 1351. Zürich claimed and lost the Toggenburg in the Old Zürich War of the 1440s. The northern parts up to the river Rhine came to the canton after the city of Zürich purchased Winterthur from the Habsburgs in 1468. In 1651, Zürich purchased Rafzerfeld from the counts of Sulz. At this point, almost all of the territory of the modern canton (as well as some territories beyond its modern borders) was owned by Zürich; exceptions include Wülflingen (acquired 1760), Buch (acquired 1761), Dietikon, which was a condominium, and Rheinau (owned by Rheinau Abbey).  In the 18th century, the "inner bailiwicks" ("Innere Vogteien") were under direct administration of city officials, while the "outer bailiwicks" ("Äussere Vogteien") were ruled by the reeves of Kyburg, Grüningen, Greifensee, Eglisau, Regensberg, Andelfingen, Wädenswil, and Knonau. The city of Winterthur was nominally subject to Zürich but retained far-reaching autonomy.  "Zürichgau", the name of the medieval "pagus", was in use for the territories of the city of Zürich during the 15th and 16th century; the term "canton" ("Kanton") gradually entered use in the 16th century, but "Zürichgau" remained widely used well into the 19th century (becoming obsolescent after the formation of the modern canton in 1831).  Under the short-lived Helvetic Republic (1798–1803), the "canton of Zürich" became a purely administrative division. In 1803, some former possessions of Zürich to the west gained independence as part of the Canton of Aargau. In 1804 the Kantonspolizei Zürich was established as "Landjäger-Corps des Kantons Zürich".

Modern canton.

A cantonal constitution was drawn up in 1814 and replaced in 1831 by a radical-liberal constitution. The Züriputsch, an armed uprising of the conservative rural population against the radical-liberal order, led to the dissolution of the cantonal government, and a provisional conservative government was installed by colonel Paul Carl Eduard Ziegler. Under the threat of intervention of the other radical-liberal cantons of the Confederacy, the provisional government declared that the 1831 constitution would remain in effect. In a tumultuous session on 9 September 1839, the cantonal parliament declared its dissolution In the so-called "Septemberregime", the newly elected cantonal government replaced all cantonal officials with conservatives, but it was again ousted by a radical-liberal election victory in 1844.  Alfred Escher was a member of the new cantonal parliament of 1844; he was elected to the cantonal government in 1848 and later in the same year into the first National Council under the new federal constitution. The radical-liberal era of 1844–1868 was dominated by the so-called "System Escher", a network of liberal politicians and industrialists built by Alfred Escher. Escher governed the canton almost in monarchical fashion, and was popularly dubbed "Alfred I." or "Tsar of All Zürich". Escher controlled all cantonal institutions, at first with very little political opposition, expunging all trace of the conservative takeover of 1839. Under Escher, the city of Zürich rose to the status of economic and financial center it still retains. Opposition against the dominance of "Sytstem Escher" increased after 1863. The cantonal government was accused to continue the system of aristocratic rule liberalism had claimed to abolish. The oppositional "Democratic Movement" was centered in Winterthur, led by mayor Johann Jakob Sulzer and publicist Salomon Bleuler. They succeeded in imposing the introduction of the direct democratic instrument of the popular initiative in 1865, which precipitated a revision of the cantonal constitution. In April 1869, a new cantonal constitution was adopted by popular vote, introducing additional direct democratic elements and the popular election of both the cantonal government and the cantonal representatives in the federal Council of States. The new constitution also abolished the death penalty (the last execution by hanging in Zürich took place in 1810, the last public execution by guillotine in 1865), guaranteed freedom of religion and freedom of association and introduced progressive taxes.  The Cantonal Bank was established in 1870 to regulate cantonal loans at fixed interest rates to farms and businesses.  A law of proportional representation was passed in 1916, favouring the rise of the Social Democrats. A proposal for the introduction of female suffrage was rejected in 1920; female suffrage was introduced on the municipal level in 1969 and on the cantonal level in 1970, shortly before its imposition by federal law, passed in 1971.  Economic growth continued in the 20th century. A first airport was built at Dübendorf in 1910, replaced by the international airport at Kloten in 1948. Rapid urbanisation expanded throughout the canton and beyond in the final decades of the 20th century, further accelerated by the S-Bahn from 1990, with only a few municipalities in Weinland, Knonaueramt and Oberland remaining out of easy commuting distance to the city.  The current constitution replaced the one of 1869 in January 2006.  The Antiquarische Gesellschaft in Zürich is an organization devoted to preserving the canton's history, the Staatsarchiv Zürich houses the state archives.

Geography.

The canton of Zürich is situated in the eastern part of the Swiss plateau. It is entirely within the drainage basin of the High Rhine. It is characterized by Glacial landform and traversed by a series of rivers generally flowing south-east to north-west, listed west to east: Reuss, Reppisch, Sihl, Linth-Limmat (forming Lake Zürich), Glatt, Töss and Thur. The main lakes are the Lake Zürich (Linth-Limmat, 88 km), Greifensee (Glatt, 8.4 km) and Pfäffikersee (Glatt, 3.3 km). Minor lakes include Türlersee (Limmat), Katzensee (Glatt), Hüttnersee (Sihl), Lützelsee (Limmat).  Its neighbouring cantons are Schaffhausen to the north, Aargau to the west, the cantons of Zug and Schwyz to the south and the cantons of Thurgau and St. Gallen to the east.  It also has an international border with the German district of Waldshut and though only for ) the district of Konstanz in Baden-Württemberg owing to its short border with Stemmer, an outlying hamlet belonging to the municipality which forms the small German enclave of Büsingen am Hochrhein.  The canton can be roughly divided into the city and lake, the Unterland in the northwest, the Oberland in the southeast, the Weinland and Winterthur in the northeast, and the Knonaueramt southwest of the Albis. The Greater Zürich Area extends beyond the cantonal borders.  The canton has an area,, of. Of this area, 43.4% is used for agricultural purposes, while 30.7% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 20.1% is settled (buildings or roads) and 5.8% is unproductive land.  Most of the canton consists of shallow river valleys which drain towards the High Rhine to the north. Rafzerfeld is a territory north of the Rhine acquired by the canton in 1651. In the northwest and southeast of the canton the territory rises towards the Jura and Alps, respectively. The valley of the Linth leads into the Lake Zürich and continues as the Limmat. This valley is the most significant valley of the canton of Zürich. The valley of the Glatt originates in the Greifensee and is separated from the Limmat by ridges. The valley of the Töss is gorge-like. It is located in the east of the canton and is separated from the Toggenburg area in the canton of St. Gallen by a mountainous area.  The "Hörnli" (1133 m) is the highest elevation of this mountain ridge. The valley of the river Sihl is located in the west of the canton. In confluences with the Limmat in the city of Zürich. The Sihl is separated from the lake of Zürich by the "Albis Range". The "Albishorn" () is the highest elevation of this range. The Schnebelhorn is a mountain located near Fischenthal in the Töss Valley, between the cantons of Zürich (west) and St. Gallen (east). It is the highest summit () of the canton of Zürich. The "Uetliberg" is part of the Albis Range. This mountain is popular with the population of the city of Zürich for recreation.  The vast majority of the canton lies to the south of the Rhine, the exceptions being Rafzerfeld as mentioned and a tiny portion of the village of Laufen-Uhwiesen called Nohl.

Coat of arms.

The blazon of the coat of arms is "Per bend azure and argent."

Government.

Legislative power.

The Cantonal Council ("Kantonsrat") has 180 members elected every four years.

Executive power.

The canton is governed by a seven-member council ("Regierungsrat"). On 24 March 2019, the following were elected for four years:

Political subdivisions.

Districts.

The canton is divided into 12 districts (German: "Bezirke"):

Municipalities.

There are,, 169 municipalities in the canton ("Politische Gemeinden").

Merger of municipalities.

There were no changes between 1934 and 2013, but the following occurred after 2013.

Politics.

In the 2011 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 29.8% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SP (19.3%), the FDP (11.6%) and the glp (11.5%).  The SVP received about the same percentage of the vote as they did in the 2007 Federal election (33.9% in 2007 vs 29.8% in 2011). The SPS retained about the same popularity (19.8% in 2007), as well as the FDP (13.2% in 2007), while the glp was the big winner of the election (7.0% in 2007).

Demographics.

Zürich has a population () of., 23.7% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (2000–2010) the population has changed at a rate of 12.7%. Migration accounted for 10.3%, while births and deaths accounted for 2.6%.  Most of the population () speaks German (1,040,168 or 83.4%) as their first language, Italian is the second most common (49,750 or 4.0%) and Serbo-Croatian is the third (21,334 or 1.7%). There are 17,685 people who speak French and 2,606 people who speak Romansh.  Of the population in the canton, 314,394 or about 25.2% were born in Zürich and lived there in 2000. There were 291,631 or 23.4% who were born in the same canton, while 284,461 or 22.8% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 310,532 or 24.9% were born outside of Switzerland. , children and teenagers (0–17 years old) make up 20.5% of the population, while adults (18–64 years old) make up 64.4% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 15%., there were 531,094 people who were single and never married in the canton. There were 566,636 married individuals, 66,012 widows or widowers and 84,164 individuals who are divorced. , there were 567,573 private households in the canton, and an average of 2.1 persons per household. There were 223,869 households that consist of only one person and 27,935 households with five or more people., the construction rate of new housing units was 5.3 new units per 1000 residents. the average price to rent an average apartment in the city of Zürich was 1288.84 Swiss francs (CHF) per month (US$1030, £580, €820 approx. exchange rate from 2003). The average rate for a one-room apartment was 733.01 CHF (US$590, £330, €470), a two-room apartment was about 1009.94 CHF (US$810, £450, €650), a three-room apartment was about 1192.66 CHF (US$950, £540, €760) and a six or more room apartment cost an average of 2550.35 CHF (US$2040, £1150, €1630). The average apartment price in the city of Zürich was 115.5% of the national average of 1116 CHF.  The vacancy rate for the canton,, was 0.63%.

Historical population.

The historical population is given in the following chart:

Religion.

In 1519, Huldrych Zwingli became the pastor of the Grossmünster in Zürich, and soon thereafter Zürich became a reformed or Protestant canton. Even though Zwingli died in battle in 1531, the canton remained a stronghold of the Swiss Reformed Church over the following centuries. While a plurality of the population is Protestant (43%), 31% of the population was Roman Catholic in 2004, a legacy of considerable immigration from Southern Europe.  From the, 497,986 or 39.9% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church, while 380,440 or 30.5% were Roman Catholic. Of the rest of the population, there were 29,592 members of an Orthodox church (or about 2.37% of the population), there were 1,435 individuals (or about 0.11% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 70,897 individuals (or about 5.68% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 6,461 individuals (or about 0.52% of the population) who were Jewish, and 66,520 (or about 5.33% of the population) who were Islamic. There were 5,878 individuals who were Buddhist, 6,024 individuals who were Hindu and 1,456 individuals who belonged to another church. 165,324 (or about 13.25% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 50,090 individuals (or about 4.01% of the population) did not answer the question.

Economy.

Most of the land is cultivated, but the canton of Zürich is not considered as an agricultural area. The lands to the north and east are more agricultural, but in every part of the canton manufacturing predominates. The canton of Zürich is noted for machinery. Silk and cotton weaving were important in the past, but have now ceased to be of importance. There is a large paper industry. Small and middle sized companies are important contributors to the economy of the canton of Zürich. The city of Zürich is a major banking centre, and insurance is also of importance.  In 2014, about 1.2% of the workers in Zürich work in the primary sector (the total for all of Switzerland is 3.3%). In 2014 the secondary sector employed 145,744 or about 14.7% of the total, which is much lower than 21.8% for the entire country. Of those in the secondary sector, over a quarter of the workers worked in construction trades and 9.5% worked in general construction. Additionally, almost 9% of the workers manufactured electronics. The tertiary sector employed 836,410 or about 84.1% of the total, which is much higher than 74.9% nationwide. This number has increased by about 180,000 since 2010 while the population in the canton has only increased by 73,000 over the same time period. Of those in the tertiary sector, the fourth largest sub-sector (in 2008) was financial services with 6.2% of the tertiary total. , Zürich had an unemployment rate of 3.9%., there were 12,507 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 4,227 businesses involved in this sector. 143,231 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 11,383 businesses in this sector. 655,848 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 58,796 businesses in this sector.  The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 536,463. In the tertiary sector; 105,226 or 19.6% were in the sale or repair of motor vehicles, 38,005 or 7.1% were in the movement and storage of goods, 33,417 or 6.2% were in a hotel or restaurant, 35,571 or 6.6% were in the information industry, 81,163 or 15.1% were the insurance or financial industry, 65,139 or 12.1% were technical professionals or scientists, 36,792 or 6.9% were in education and 63,800 or 11.9% were in health care.  Of the working population, 37.4% used public transportation to get to work, and 41.8% used a private car.  The cantonal, local and church tax rates in the canton is generally slightly lower than the average rate for the entire country.

Transport.

Railways in standard gauge run through all major valleys in the canton. The centre for transport is Zürich, where a great number of local railways connect to national and international rail links. The railway station of the city of Zürich, Zürich Hauptbahnhof, is one of the busiest in Europe, counting the number of arriving and departing trains. Zürich is well connected to other European cities using rail links. The major trains ICE, TGV and Cisalpino connect to Zürich.  The first Swiss railway ran in the Limmat valley in 1847, connecting Zürich to Baden.  The major airport of Switzerland Zurich Airport is located in Kloten, a mere from the city centre of Zürich. It is home to Swiss International Air Lines.  The A1, A3 and A4 motorways run through the canton. Other motorways and expressways which also run through the canton include the A7, the A51, the A52 and the A53. Major hubs are Zürich and Winterthur.

Education.

In Zürich about 493,209 or (39.5%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 212,154 or (17.0%) have completed additional higher education (either university or a "Fachhochschule"). Of the 212,154 who completed tertiary schooling, 55.8% were Swiss men, 25.5% were Swiss women, 11.6% were non-Swiss men and 7.1% were non-Swiss women.

The canton of Zürich ( ) is a Swiss canton in the northeastern part of the country. With a population of (as of ), it is the most populous canton in the country. Its capital is the city of Zürich. The official language is German. The local Swiss German dialect, called "Züritüütsch", is commonly spoken. In English the name of the canton and its capital is often written without an umlaut.

苏黎世州是瑞士联邦的一个行政州,面积比较大,位于瑞士东北部,北起A4国立高速公路与沙夫豪森州之分界,南至"Mettmenstetten"镇,西起与阿尔高州之分界,东至与图尔高州之分界。并在北面与德国接壤。州人口超过百万人。


Biography and work.

Family and beginnings.

Gottfried Benn was born in a Lutheran country parsonage, a few hours from Berlin, the son and grandson of pastors in Mansfeld, now part of Putlitz in the district of Prignitz, Brandenburg. He was educated in Sellin in the Neumark and Frankfurt an der Oder. To please his father, he studied theology at the University of Marburg and military medicine at the Kaiser Wilhelm Academy in Berlin. After being laid off as a military doctor in 1912, Benn turned to pathology, where he dissected over 200 bodies between October 1912 and November 1913 in Berlin. Many of his literary works reflect on his time as a pathologist.  In the summer of 1912, Benn started a romantic relationship with the Jewish poet Else Lasker-Schüler.  Gottfried Benn began his literary career as a poet when he published a booklet titled "Morgue and other Poems" in 1912, containing expressionist poems dealing with physical decay of flesh, with blood, cancer, and death — for example No III — "Cycle":  Poems like this "were received by critics and public with shock, dismay, even revulsion." In 1913 a second volume of poems came out, titled "Sons. New Poems".  Benn's poetry projects an introverted nihilism, that is, an existentialist outlook that views artistic expression as the only purposeful action. In his early poems Benn used his medical experience, often using medical terminology, to portray humanity morbidly as just another species of disease-ridden animal.

World War I and Weimar Republic.

After the outbreak of World War I he enlisted in 1914, and spent a brief period on the Belgian front, then served as a military doctor in Brussels. Benn attended the trial and execution of Nurse Edith Cavell. He also worked as a physician in an army brothel. After the war, he returned to Berlin and practiced as a dermatologist and venereal disease specialist. During the 1920s, he had a close relationship with Jewish poet Else Lasker-Schüler who addressed love poems to him. This bond to her is the subject of the film "Mein Herz-niemandem" (1997) by Helma Sanders-Brahms.

During the Third Reich.

Hostile to the Weimar Republic, and rejecting Marxism and Americanism, Benn, like many Germans, was upset with ongoing economic and political instability, and sympathized for a short period with the Nazis as a revolutionary force. He hoped that National Socialism would exalt his aesthetics and that expressionism would become the official art of Germany, as Futurism had in Italy. Benn was elected to the poetry section of the Prussian Academy in 1932 and appointed head of that section in February 1933. In May, he defended the new regime in a radio broadcast, saying "the German workers are better off than ever before." He later signed the "Gelöbnis treuester Gefolgschaft", that is, the "vow of most faithful allegiance" to Adolf Hitler.  The cultural policy of the new State didn't turn out the way he hoped, and in June Hans Friederich Blunck replaced Benn as head of the Academy's poetry section. Appalled by the Night of the Long Knives, Benn turned away from the Nazis. He lived quietly, refraining from public criticism of the Nazi Party, but wrote that the bad conditions of the system "gave me the latter punch" and stated in a letter that the developments presented a "dreadful tragedy!" He decided to perform "the aristocratic form of emigration" and joined the Wehrmacht in 1935, where he found many officers sympathetic to his disapproval of the régime. In May 1936 the SS magazine "Das Schwarze Korps" attacked his expressionist and experimental poetry as degenerate, Jewish, and homosexual. In the summer of 1937, Wolfgang Willrich, a member of the SS, lampooned Benn in his book "Säuberung des Kunsttempels"; Heinrich Himmler, however, stepped in to reprimand Willrich and defended Benn on the grounds of his good record since 1933 (his earlier artistic output being irrelevant). In 1938 the Reichsschrifttumskammer (the National Socialist authors' association) banned Benn from further writing.

After the war.

During World War II, Benn was posted to garrisons in eastern Germany where he wrote poems and essays. After the war, his work was banned by the Allies because of his initial support for Hitler. In 1951 he was awarded the Georg Büchner Prize. He died of cancer in West Berlin in 1956, and was buried in Waldfriedhof Dahlem, Berlin.

Reception.

Benn had a great influence on German poetry immediately before World War I (as an expressionist), as well as after World War II (as the 'Static' poet).

Gottfried Benn (2 May 1886 – 7 July 1956) was a German poet, essayist, and physician. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature five times.

戈特弗里德·贝恩(,1886年-5月2日-1956年-7月7日)是德国诗人,作品具有强烈的表现主义色彩。


Shades and variations.

Blue is the colour of light between violet and green on the visible spectrum. Hues of blue include indigo and ultramarine, closer to violet; pure blue, without any mixture of other colours; Cyan, which is midway in the spectrum between blue and

Types.

Blue pigments were originally made from minerals such as lapis lazuli, cobalt and azurite, and blue dyes were

Etymology and linguistic differences.

The modern English word "blue" comes from Middle English "bleu" or "blewe", from the Old French "bleu", a word of Germanic origin, related to the Old High German word "blao" (meaning "shimmering", "lustrous"). In heraldry, the word azure is used for blue.  In Russian and some other languages, there is no single word for blue, but rather different words for light blue (голубой, goluboy) and dark blue (синий, siniy). See Colour term.  Several languages, including Japanese, Thai, Korean, and Lakota Sioux, use the same word to describe blue

Science and nature.

Optics.

Human eyes perceive blue when observing light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 450–495 nanometres. Blues with a higher frequency and thus a shorter wavelength gradually look more violet, while those with a lower frequency and a longer wavelength gradually appear more green. Pure blue, in the middle, has a wavelength of 470 nanometres.  Isaac Newton included blue as one of the seven colours in his first description the visible spectrum. He chose seven colours because that was the number of notes in the musical scale, which he believed was related to the optical spectrum. He included indigo, the hue between blue and violet, as one of the separate colours, though today it is usually considered a hue of blue.  In painting and traditional colour theory, blue is one of the three primary colours of pigments (red, yellow, blue), which can be mixed to form a wide gamut of colours. Red and blue mixed together form violet, blue and yellow together form green. Mixing all three primary colours together produces a dark grey. From the Renaissance

Pigments and dyes.

Blue pigments were made from minerals, especially lapis lazuli and azurite (. These minerals were crushed, ground into powder, and then mixed with a quick-drying binding agent, such as egg yolk (tempera painting); or with a slow-drying oil, such as linseed oil, for oil painting. To make blue stained glass, cobalt blue (cobalt(II) aluminate: )pigment was mixed with the glass. Other common blue pigments made from minerals are ultramarine (), cerulean blue

Why the sky and sea appear blue.

Of the colours in the visible spectrum of light, blue has a very short wavelength, while red has the longest wavelength. When sunlight passes through the atmosphere, the blue wavelengths are scattered more widely by the oxygen and nitrogen molecules, and more blue comes to our eyes. This effect is called Rayleigh scattering, after Lord Rayleigh, the British physicist who discovered it. It was confirmed by Albert Einstein in 1911.  Near sunrise and sunset, most of the light we see comes in nearly tangent to the Earth's

Atmospheric perspective.

The farther away an object is, the more blue it often appears to the eye. For example, mountains in the distance often appear blue. This is the effect of atmospheric perspective; the farther an object is away from

Astronomy.

Blue giants are hot and luminous stars with surface temperatures exceeding 10,000 K. The largest blue supergiant stars

Blue eyes.

Blue eyes do not actually contain any blue pigment. Eye colour is determined by two factors: the pigmentation of the eye's iris and the scattering of light by the turbid medium in the stroma of the iris. In humans, the pigmentation of the iris varies from light brown to black. The appearance of blue, green, and hazel eyes results from the Tyndall scattering of light in the stroma, an optical effect similar to what accounts for the blueness of the sky. The irises of the eyes of people with blue eyes contain less dark melanin than those of people with brown eyes, which means that they absorb less short-wavelength blue light, which is

Lasers.

Lasers emitting in the blue region of the spectrum became widely available to the public in 2010 with the release of inexpensive high-powered 445–447 nm laser diode technology. Previously the blue wavelengths were accessible only through

History.

In the ancient world.

Blue was a latecomer among colours used in art and decoration, as well as language and literature. Reds, blacks, browns, and ochres are found in cave paintings from the Upper Paleolithic period, but not blue. Blue was also not used for dyeing fabric until long after red, ochre, pink and purple. This is probably due to the perennial difficulty of making good blue dyes and pigments. The earliest known blue dyes were made from plants – woad in Europe, indigo in Asia and Africa, while blue pigments were made from minerals, usually either lapis lazuli or azurite.  Lapis lazuli, a semi-precious stone, has been mined in Afghanistan for more

In the Byzantine Empire and the Islamic World.

Dark blue was widely used in the decoration of churches in the Byzantine Empire. In Byzantine art Christ and the Virgin Mary usually wore dark blue or purple. Blue was used as a background colour representing the sky in the magnificent mosaics which decorated Byzantine churches.  In the Islamic world, blue was of secondary

During the Middle Ages.

In the art and life of Europe during the early Middle Ages, blue played a minor role. The nobility wore red or purple, while only the poor wore blue clothing, coloured with poor-quality dyes made from the woad plant. Blue played no part in the rich costumes of the clergy or the architecture or decoration of churches. This changed dramatically between 1130 and 1140 in Paris, when the Abbe Suger rebuilt the Saint Denis Basilica. He installed stained glass windows coloured with cobalt, which, combined with the light from the red glass, filled the church with a bluish violet light. The church became the marvel of the Christian world, and the colour became known as the "bleu de Saint-Denis".

In the European Renaissance.

In the Renaissance, a revolution occurred in painting; artists began to paint the world as it was actually seen, with perspective, depth, shadows, and light from a single source. Artists had to adapt their use of blue to the new rules. In medieval paintings, blue was used to attract the attention of the viewer to the Virgin Mary, and identify her. In Renaissance paintings, artists tried to create harmonies between blue and red, lightening the blue with lead white paint and adding shadows and highlights. Raphael was a master of this technique, carefully balancing the reds and the blues so no one colour dominated the picture.  Ultramarine was the most prestigious blue of the Renaissance, and patrons sometimes specified that it be used in paintings they commissioned. The contract for the "Madone des Harpies" by Andrea del Sarto (1514) required that the robe of the Virgin Mary be coloured with ultramarine costing "at least five good

Blue and white porcelain.

In about the 9th century, Chinese artisans abandoned the Han blue colour they had used for centuries, and began to use cobalt blue, made with cobalt salts of alumina, to manufacture fine blue and white porcelain, The plates and vases were shaped, dried, the paint applied with a brush, covered with a

War of the blues – indigo versus woad.

While blue was an expensive and prestigious colour in European painting, it became a common colour for clothing during the Renaissance. The rise of the colour blue in fashion in the 12th and 13th centuries led to a blue dye industry in several cities, notably Amiens, Toulouse, and Erfurt. They made a dye called pastel from woad, a plant common in Europe, which had been used to make blue dye by the Celts and German tribes. Blue became a colour worn by domestics and artisans, not just nobles. In 1570, when Pope Pius V listed the colours that could

Blue uniform.

In the 17th century, Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg, was one of the first rulers to give his army blue uniforms. The reasons were economic; the German states were trying to protect their pastel dye industry against competition from imported indigo dye. When Brandenburg became the Kingdom of Prussia in 1701, the uniform colour was adopted by the Prussian army. Most German soldiers wore dark blue uniforms until the First World War, with the exception of the Bavarians, who wore light blue.  Thanks in part to the availability of indigo dye, the 18th century saw the widespread use of blue military uniforms. Prior to 1748, British naval officers simply wore upper-class civilian clothing and wigs. In 1748, the British

Search for the perfect blue.

During the 17th and 18th centuries, chemists in Europe tried to discover a way to create synthetic blue pigments, avoiding the expense of importing and grinding lapis lazuli, azurite and other minerals. The Egyptians had created a synthetic colour, Egyptian blue, three thousand years BC, but the formula had been lost. The Chinese had also created synthetic pigments, but the formula was not known in the west.  In 1709 a German druggist and pigment maker named Johann Jacob Diesbach accidentally discovered a new blue while experimenting with potassium and iron sulphides. The new colour was first called Berlin blue, but later became known as Prussian blue. By 1710 it was being used by the French painter Antoine Watteau, and later his successor Nicolas Lancret. It became immensely popular for the manufacture of wallpaper, and in the 19th century was widely used by French impressionist painters.  Beginning in the 1820s, Prussian blue was imported into Japan

Impressionist painters.

The invention of new synthetic pigments in the 18th and 19th centuries considerably brightened and expanded the palette of painters. J. M. W. Turner experimented with the new cobalt blue, and of the twenty colours most used by the Impressionists, twelve were new and synthetic colours, including cobalt blue, ultramarine and cerulean blue.  Another important influence on painting in the 19th century was the theory of complementary colours, developed by the French chemist Michel Eugene Chevreul in 1828 and published in 1839. He demonstrated that placing complementary colours, such as blue and yellow-orange or ultramarine and yellow, next to each other heightened the intensity of each colour "to the apogee of their tonality." In 1879 an American physicist, Ogden Rood, published a book charting the complementary colours of each colour in the spectrum. This principle of painting was used by Claude Monet in his "Impression – Sunrise – Fog" (1872), where he put a vivid blue next to a bright orange sun, (1872) and in "Régate à Argenteuil" (1872), where he painted an orange sun against blue water. The

Blue suit.

Blue had first become the high fashion colour of the wealthy and powerful in Europe in the 13th century, when it was worn by Louis IX of France, better known as Saint Louis (1214–1270). Wearing blue implied dignity and wealth, and blue clothing was restricted to the nobility. However, blue was replaced by black as the power colour in the 14th century, when European princes, and then merchants and bankers, wanted to show their seriousness, dignity and devoutness (see Black).  Blue gradually returned to court fashion in the 17th century, as part of a palette of peacock-bright colours shown off in extremely elaborate costumes. The modern blue business suit has its roots in England in the middle of the 17th century. Following the London plague of 1665 and the London fire of 1666, King Charles II of England ordered that his courtiers wear simple coats, waistcoats and breeches, and the palette of colours became blue, grey, white and buff. Widely imitated, this style of men's fashion

In the 20th and 21st century.

At the beginning of the 20th century, many artists recognised the emotional power of blue, and made it the central element of paintings. During his Blue Period (1901–1904) Pablo Picasso used blue and green, with hardly any warm colours, to create a melancholy mood. In Russia, the symbolist painter Pavel Kuznetsov and the Blue Rose art group (1906–1908) used blue to create a fantastic and exotic atmosphere. In Germany, Wassily Kandinsky and other Russian émigrés formed the art group called Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider), and used blue to symbolise spirituality and

In world culture.

As a national and international colour.

Various shades of blue are

Gender.

Blue was first used as a gender signifier just prior to World

Sports.

Many sporting teams make blue their official colour, or use it as detail on kit of a different colour. In addition, the colour is present on the logos of many sports associations. Along with red, blue is the most commonly used non-white colours for teams.

Association football.

In international association football, blue is a common colour on kits, as a majority of nations wear the colours of their national flag. A notable exception to this link is four-time FIFA World Cup winners Italy, who wear a blue kit based on the "Azzuro Savoia" (Savoy blue) of the royal House of Savoy which unified the Italian states, despite the italian national flag being green, white and red. The team themselves are known as "Gli Azzurri" (the Azures). Another World Cup winning nation with a blue shirt

North American sporting leagues.

In Major League Baseball, the premier baseball league in the United States and Canada, blue is one of the three colours, along with white and red, on the league's official logo. A team from Toronto, Ontario are nicknamed the Blue Jays. Seventeen other teams either regularly feature blue hats or utilise the colour in their uniforms.  The National Basketball Association, the premier basketball league in the United States and Canada, also has blue as one of the colours on their logo, along with red and white also,

Blue is one of the three primary colours of pigments in painting and traditional colour theory, as well as in the RGB colour model. It lies between violet and green on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when observing light with a dominant wavelength between approximately 450 and 495 nanometres. Most blues contain a slight mixture of other colours; azure contains some green, while ultramarine contains some violet. The clear daytime sky and the deep sea appear blue because of an optical effect known as Rayleigh scattering. An optical effect called Tyndall scattering explains blue eyes. Distant objects appear more blue because of another optical effect called aerial perspective. Blue has been an important colour in art and decoration since ancient times. The semi-precious stone lapis lazuli was used in ancient Egypt for jewellery and ornament and later, in the Renaissance, to make the pigment ultramarine, the most expensive of all pigments. In the eighth century Chinese artists used cobalt blue to colour fine blue and white porcelain. In the Middle Ages, European artists used it in the windows of cathedrals. Europeans wore clothing coloured with the vegetable dye woad until it was replaced by the finer indigo from America. In the 19th century, synthetic blue dyes and pigments gradually replaced mineral pigments and synthetic dyes. Dark blue became a common colour for military uniforms and later, in the late 20th century, for business suits. Because blue has commonly been associated with harmony, it was chosen as the colour of the flags of the United Nations and the European Union. Surveys in the US and Europe show that blue is the colour most commonly associated with harmony, faithfulness, confidence, distance, infinity, the imagination, cold, and sometimes with sadness. In US and European public opinion polls it is the most popular colour, chosen by almost half of both men and women as their favourite colour. The same surveys also showed that blue was the colour most associated with the masculine, just ahead of black, and was also the colour most associated with intelligence, knowledge, calm and concentration.

蓝色是一种颜色,它是红绿蓝光的三原色中的其中一元,在这三种原色中它的波长最短(约470-440纳米)。


History.

The city was colonized as a trading post by Henry Morton Stanley in 1881. It was named Léopoldville in honour of King Leopold II of the Belgians, who controlled the Congo Free State, the vast territory that is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, not as a colony but as a private property. The post flourished as the first navigable port on the Congo River above Livingstone Falls, a series of rapids over below Leopoldville. At first, all goods arriving by sea or being sent by sea had to be carried by porters between Léopoldville and Matadi, the port below the rapids and from the coast. The completion of the Matadi-Kinshasa portage railway, in 1898, provided an alternative route around the rapids and sparked the rapid development of Léopoldville. In 1914, a pipeline was installed so that crude oil could be transported from Matadi to the upriver steamers in Leopoldville. By 1923, the city was elevated to capital of the Belgian Congo, replacing the town of Boma in the Congo estuary. The town, nicknamed "Léo" or "Leopold", became a commercial centre and grew rapidly during the colonial period.  After gaining its independence on 30 June 1960, following riots in 1959, the Republic of the Congo elected its first prime minister, Patrice Lumumba. Lumumba's perceived pro-Soviet leanings were viewed as a threat by Western interests. This being the height of the Cold War, the U.S. and Belgium did not want to lose control of the strategic wealth of the Congo, in particular its uranium. Less than a year after Lumumba's election, the Belgians and the U.S. bought the support of his Congolese rivals and set in motion the events that culminated in Lumumba's assassination. In 1965, with the help of the U.S. and Belgium, Joseph-Désiré Mobutu seized power in the Congo. He initiated a policy of "Authenticity" the names of people and places in the country. In 1966, Léopoldville was renamed "Kinshasa", for a village named Kinshasa that once stood near the site, today Kinshasa (commune). The city grew rapidly under Mobutu, drawing people from across the country who came in search of their fortunes or to escape ethnic strife elsewhere, thus adding to the many ethnicities and languages already found there.  In the 1990s, a rebel uprising began, which, by 1997, had brought down the regime of Mobutu. Kinshasa suffered greatly from Mobutu's excesses, mass corruption, nepotism and the civil war that led to his downfall. Nevertheless, it is still a major cultural and intellectual centre for Central Africa, with a flourishing community of musicians and artists. It is also the country's major industrial centre, processing many of the natural products brought from the interior. The city has recently had to fend off rioting soldiers, who were protesting the government's failure to pay them.  Joseph Kabila, president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 2001-2019, was not overly popular in Kinshasa. Violence broke out following the announcement of Kabila's victory in the contested election of 2006; the European Union deployed troops (EUFOR RD Congo) to join the UN force in the city. The announcement in 2016 that a new election would be delayed two years led to large protests in September and in December which involved barricades in the streets and left dozens of people dead. Schools and businesses were closed down.

Geography.

Kinshasa is a city of sharp contrasts, with affluent residential and commercial areas and three universities alongside sprawling slums. It is located along the south bank of the Congo River, downstream on the Pool Malebo and directly opposite the city of Brazzaville, capital of the Republic of the Congo. The Congo River is the second longest river in Africa after the Nile, and has the continent's greatest discharge. As a waterway it provides a means of transport for much of the Congo basin; it is navigable for river barges between Kinshasa and Kisangani; many of its tributaries are also navigable. The river is an important source of hydroelectric power, and downstream from Kinshasa it has the potential to generate power equivalent to the usage of roughly half of Africa's population.  The older and wealthier part of the city ("ville basse") is located on a flat area of alluvial sand and clay near the river, while many newer areas are found on the eroding red soil of surrounding hills. Older parts of the city were laid out on a geometric pattern, with "de facto" racial segregation becoming "de jure" in 1929 as the European and African neighborhoods grew closer together. City plans of the 1920s–1950s featured a "cordon sanitaire" or buffer between the white and black neighborhoods, which included the central market as well as parks and gardens for Europeans.  Urban planning in post-independence Kinshasa has not been extensive. The "Mission Française d'Urbanisme" drew up some plans in the 1960s which envisioned a greater role for automobile transportation but did not predict the city's significant population growth. Thus much of the urban structure has developed without guidance from a master plan. According to UN-Habitat, the city is expanding by eight square kilometers per year. It describes many of the new neighborhoods as slums, built in unsafe conditions with inadequate infrastructure. Nevertheless spontaneously developed areas have in many cases extended the grid street plan of the original city.

Administrative divisions.

Kinshasa is both a city ("ville" in French) and a province, one of the 26 provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Nevertheless it has city subdivisions and is divided into 24 communes (municipalities), which in turn are divided into 369 quarters and 21 embedded groupings. Maluku, the rural commune to the east of the urban area, accounts for 79% of the 9.965 km2 total land area of the city-province, with a population of 200,000–300,000. The communes are grouped into four districts which are not in themselves administrative divisions.

Climate.

Under the Köppen climate classification, Kinshasa has a tropical wet and dry climate ("Aw"). Its lengthy rainy season spans from October through May, with a relatively short dry season, between June and September. Kinshasa lies south of the equator, so its dry season begins around its winter solstice, which is in June. This is in contrast to African cities further north featuring this climate where the dry season typically begins around December. Kinshasa's dry season is slightly cooler than its wet season, though temperatures remain relatively constant throughout the year.

Demographics.

An official census conducted in 1984 counted 2.6 million residents. Since then, all estimates are extrapolations. The estimates for 2005 fell in a range between 5.3 million and 7.3 million. In 2017, the most recent population estimate for the city, it has a population of 11,855,000.  According to UN-Habitat, 390,000 people immigrate to Kinshasa annually, fleeing warfare and seeking economic opportunity. Many float on barges down the Congo River.  According to a projection (2016) the population of metropolitan Kinshasa will increase significantly, to 35 million by 2050, 58 million by 2075 and 83 million by 2100,making it one of the largest metropolitan areas in the world.

Language.

The official language of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, of which Kinshasa is the capital, is French (See: Kinshasa French vocabulary). Kinshasa is the largest officially Francophone city in the world although Lingala is widely used as a spoken language. French is the language of street signs, posters, newspapers, government documents, schools; it dominates plays, television, and the press, and it is used in vertical relationships among people of different social classes. People of the same class, however, speak the Congolese languages (Kikongo, Lingala, Tshiluba or Swahili) among themselves.

Government and politics.

The head of Kinshasa "ville-province" has the title of Gouverneur. Gentiny Ngobila has been governor since 2019. Each commune has its own Bourgmestre.  Although political power in the DRC is fragmented, Kinshasa as the national capital represents the official center of sovereignty, and thus of access to international organizations and financing, and of political powers such as the right to issue passports. Kinshasa is also the primate city of the DRC with a population several times larger than the next-largest city, Lubumbashi.  The United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, known by its French acronym MONUSCO (formerly MONUC) makes its headquarters in Kinshasa. In 2016 the UN placed more peacekeepers on active duty in Kinshasa in response to the recent unrest against Kabila. Critics, including recently the US ambassador to the UN, have accused the peacekeeping mission of supporting a corrupt government.  Other non-governmental organizations play significant roles in local governance. The Belgian development agency ("Coopération technique belge"; CTB) since 2006 sponsors the "Programme d’Appui aux Initiatives de Développement Communautaire" (Paideco), a 6-million-euro program aimed at economic development. It began work in Kimbanseke, a hill commune with population verging on one million.

Economy.

Big manufacturing companies such as Marsavco S.A., All Pack Industries and Angel Cosmetics are located in the centre of town (Gombe) in Kinshasa.  There are many other industries, such as Trust Merchant Bank, located in the heart of the city. Food processing is a major industry, and construction and other service industries also play a significant role in the economy.  Although home to only 13% of the DRC's population, Kinshasa accounts for 85% of the Congolese economy as measured by gross domestic product. A 2004 investigation found 70% of inhabitants employed informally, 17% in the public sector, 9% in the formal private sector, and 3% other, of a total 976,000 workers. Most new jobs are classified as informal.  The People's Republic of China has been heavily involved in the Congo since the 1970s, when they financed the construction of the Palais du Peuple and backed the government against rebels in the Shaba war. In 2007–2008 China and Congo signed an agreement for an $8.5 billion loan for infrastructure development. Chinese entrepreneurs are gaining an increasing share of local marketplaces in Kinshasa, displacing in the process formerly successful Congolese, West African, Indian, and Lebanese merchants.  Mean household spending in 2005 was the equivalent of US$2,150, amounting to $1 per day per person. The median household spending was $1,555, 66 cents per person per day. Among the poor, more than half of this spending goes to food, especially bread and cereal.

Education.

Kinshasa is home to several higher-level education institutes, covering a wide range of specialities, from civil engineering to nursing and journalism. The city is also home to three large universities and an arts school:  Primary and secondary schools:  In 2005, 93% of children over six attended school and 70% of people over 15 were literate in French.

Health and medicine.

There are twenty hospitals in Kinshasa, plus various medical centres and polyclinics.  Since 1991, Monkole Hospital is operating as a non-profit health institution collaborating with the Health Department as district hospital in Kinshasa. Directed by Pr Léon Tshilolo, paediatrician and haematologist, Monkole Hospital opened a 150-bed building in 2012 with improved clinical services as laboratory, diagnostic radiology, intensive care, neonatal unit, family medicine, emergencies unit and a larger surgical area.

Culture.

There are the National Museum and the Kinshasa Fine Arts Academy.  Kinshasa is the home to much of the Congo's intelligentsia, including a political class which developed during the Mobutu era.  Kinshasa has a flourishing music scene which since the 1960s has operated under the patronage of the city's elite. The Orchestre Symphonique Kimbanguiste, formed in 1994, began using improved musical instruments and has since grown in means and reputation.  In 1974, Kinshasa hosted The Rumble in the Jungle boxing match between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman, in which Ali defeated Foreman, to regain the World Heavyweight title.  A pop culture ideal type in Kinshasa is the "mikiliste", a fashionable person with money who has traveled to Europe. Adrien Mombele, a.k.a. Stervos Niarcos, and musician Papa Wemba, were early exemplars of the mikiliste style. La Sape, a linked cultural trend also described as dandyism, involves wearing flamboyant clothing.  Many Kinois have a negative view of the city, expressing nostalgia for the rural way of life, and a stronger association with the Congolese nation than with Kinshasa.

Places of worship.

Among the places of worship, which are predominantly Christian churches and temples: Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Kinshasa (Catholic Church), Kimbanguist Church, Baptist Community of Congo (Baptist World Alliance), Baptist Community of the Congo River (Baptist World Alliance), Assemblies of God, Province of the Anglican Church of the Congo (Anglican Communion), Presbyterian Community in Congo (World Communion of Reformed Churches). There are also Muslim mosques.

Media.

Kinshasa is home to several media outlets, including radio and television stations, including state-run Radio-Télévision nationale congolaise (RTNC) and privately run Digital Congo and Raga TV. The private channel RTGA is also based in Kinshasa.  Several national radio stations, including La Voix du Congo, which is operated by RTNC, MONUC-backed Radio Okapi and Raga FM are based in Kinshasa, as well as numerous local stations. The BBC is also available in Kinshasa on 92.6 FM.  The state-controlled Agence Congolaise de Presse news agency is based in Kinshasa, as well as several daily and weekly newspapers and news websites, including "L'Avenir" (daily), "La Conscience", "LeCongolais" (online),"L'Observateur" (daily), "Le Phare", "Le Potentiel", and "Le Soft".  Most of the media uses French and Lingala to a large extent; very few use the other national languages.

Sports.

Sports, especially football and martial arts are popular in Kinshasa. The Vita Club, now owned by General Gabriel Amisi Kumba frequently draws large crowds, enthusiastic and sometimes rowdy, to the Stade des Martyrs. Dojos are popular and their owners influential.  Kinshasa is home to the country's national stadium, the Stade des Martyrs (Stadium of the Martyrs).

Buildings and institutions.

Kinshasa is home to the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo including:  The Central Bank of the Congo has its headquarters on Boulevard Colonel Tshatshi, across the street from the Mausoleum of Laurent Kabila and the presidential palace.  The quartier Matonge is known regionally for its nightlife.  Notable features of the city include the Gecamines Commercial Building (formerly SOZACOM) and Hotel Memling skyscrapers; L'ONATRA, the impressive building of the Ministry of Transport; the central market; the Tour de l'Echangeur. The face of Kinshasa is changing as new buildings are being built on the Boulevard du 30 Juin: Crown Tower (on Batetela) and Congofutur Tower.

Infrastructure and housing.

The city's infrastructure for running water and electricity is generally in bad shape. The electrical network is in disrepair to the extent that prolonged and periodic blackouts are normal, and exposed lines sometimes electrify pools of rainwater.  Regideso, the national public company with primary responsibility for water supply in the Congo, serves Kinshasa only incompletely, and not with uniformly perfect quality. Other areas are served by decentralized "Associations des Usagers des Réseau d’Eau Potable" (ASUREPs). Gombe uses water at a high rate (306 liters per day per inhabitant) compared to other communes (from 71 l/d/i in Kintambo down to 2 l/d/i in Kimbanseke).  The city is estimated to produce 6,300 m of trash and 1,300 m of industrial waste per day.  The housing market has seen rising prices and rents since the 1980s. Houses and apartments in the central area are expensive, with houses selling for a million dollars and apartments going for $5000 per month. High prices have spread outward from the central area as owners and renters move out of the most expensive part of the city. Gated communities and shopping malls, built with foreign capital and technical expertise, began to appear in 2006. Urban renewal projects have led in some cases to violent conflict and displacement. The high prices leave incoming refugees with few options for settlement besides illegal shantytowns such as Pakadjuma.  In 2005, 55% of households had televisions and 43% had mobile phones. 11% had refrigerators and 5% had cars.

Transport.

The ville-province has 5000 km of roadways, 10% of which are paved. The Boulevard du 30 Juin (Boulevard of 30 June) links the main areas of the central district of the city. Other roads also converge on Gombe. The east-west road network linking the more distant neighborhoods is weak and thus transit through much of the city is difficult. The quality of roads has improved somewhat, developed in part with loans from China, since 2000.  The public bus company for Kinshasa, created in 2003, is Transco (Transport au Congo).  Several companies operate registered taxis and taxi-buses, identifiable by their yellow colour.

Air.

The city has two airports: N'djili Airport (FIH) is the main airport with connections to other African countries as well as to Istanbul, Brussels, Paris and some other destinations. N'Dolo Airport, located close to the city centre, is used for domestic flights only with small turboprop aircraft. Several international airlines serve Ndjili Airport including Kenya Airways, South African Airways, Ethiopian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Air France and Turkish Airlines. An average of ten international flights depart each day from N'djili Airport. A small number of airlines provide domestic service from Kinshasa, for example Congo Airways and flyCAA. Both offer scheduled flights from Kinshasa to a limited number of cities inside DR Congo.

Rail.

The Matadi–Kinshasa Railway connects Kinshasa with Matadi, Congo's Atlantic port. The line reopened in September 2015 after around a decade without regular service. There is an intermittent service, with a poor safety record.  According to the Commercial Corporation of Transport and Ports (SCTP), the Matadi-Kinshasa Railway (CFMK) has the highest transport of goods in import, 8 746 tonnes in January, 11,318 tonnes in February 10,032 tonnes in March, 7,244 tonnes in April, 5,024 tonnes in March and 7,745 tonnes in June. The monthly tonnage of exported goods reached only 1,000 tonnes in the month of March 2018. In January some 284 tonnes of goods were exported from the ports of Boma and Matadi, via the railway, and 711 tonnes in February, then 1,058 tonnes in March, 684 tonnes in April, 818 tonnes in May and 853 tonnes in June.  The monthly statistics for passenger traffic are as follows: 2,294 persons in January, 1,836 in February, 2065 in March, 2,660 in April, 1,952 in May and 2,660 in June.  The line connecting the port of Matadi to Kinshasa is 366 km long. Its distance has been since 3111 of 3112 feet or 42 inches (lane capped 1,067 meter): This railway belongs, in fact, to the National Society, Congo Railways (SNCC). It is only exploited by the SCTP, formerly ONATRA, according to an agreement signed by the two companies.  But this line lost large shares of the market, following its lamentable state, insecurity on the rail (some trains are attacked) and the rehabilitation of the road along the rail in 2000. According to Congolese sources, an agreement with a Chinese construction company was signed in 2006, according to which this Chinese company will finance the renovation of the track, the rolling stock, the communication channels the signaling and the electrical energy, the ex -ONATRA has, in fact, opted for an aggressive commercial policy to revive the rail.  On June 30, 2018, the SCTP received two locomotives and 50 wagons from the African firm ARSS (African-Rolling Stock Solution).  In 2017, some 2.2 million tonnes of cement were produced by the two new start-up companies, PPC Barnet and Kongo Cement Factory (CIMKO). The SCTP did indeed transport part of this production to Kinshasa but the exact quantity was not communicated by the railway department of the company, the former DG Kimbembe Mazunga had communicated an agreed protocol of agreements with the cement manufacturers of Kongo-Central for the transport of their productions.

External transport.

Kinshasa is the major river port of the Congo. The port, called 'Le Beach Ngobila' extends for about along the river, comprising scores of quays and jetties with hundreds of boats and barges tied up. Ferries cross the river to Brazzaville, a distance of about. River transport also connects to dozens of ports upstream, such as Kisangani and Bangui.  There are road and rail links to Matadi, the sea port in the Congo estuary from the Atlantic Ocean.  There are no rail links from Kinshasa further inland, and road connections to much of the rest of the country are few and in poor condition.

Social issues.

Crime and punishment.

Since the Second Congo War, the city has been striving to recover from disorder, with many youth gangs hailing from Kinshasa's slums. The U.S. State Department in 2010 informed travelers that Kinshasa and other major Congolese cities are generally safe for daytime travel, but to beware of robbers, especially in traffic jams and in areas near hotels and stores.  Some sources say that Kinshasa is extremely dangerous, with one source giving a homicide rate of 112 per 100,000 people per year. Another source cites a homicide rate of 12.3 per 100,000. By some accounts, crime in Kinshasa is not so rampant, due to relatively good relations among residents and perhaps to the severity with which even petty crime is punished.  While the military and National Police operate their own jails in Kinshasa, the main detention facility under the jurisdiction of the local courts is the Kinshasa Penitentiary and Re-education center in Malaka. This prison houses more than double its nominal capacity of 1,000 inmates. The Congolese military intelligence organization, Détection Militaire des Activités Anti-Patrie (DEMIAP) operates the Ouagadougou prison in Kintambo commune with notorious cruelty.  By 2017 the population of Malaka prison was reported at 7,000–8,000. Of these, 3,600–4,600 escaped in a jailbreak in May 2017.

Street children.

In the 2010s, street children or "Shegués", often orphaned, are subject to abuse by the police and military. Of the estimated 20,000 children living on Kinshasa's streets, almost a quarter are beggars, some are street vendors and about a third have some kind of employment. Some have fled from physically abusive families, notably step-parents, others were expelled from their families as they were believed to be witches, and have become outcasts. Previously a significant number were civil war orphans.  Street children are mainly boys, but the percentage of girls is increasing according to UNICEF. Ndako ya Biso provides support for street children, including overnight accommodation for girls. There are also second generation street children: "they referred to their sub-culture of violence as "kindoubill"".  These children have been the object of considerable outside study.

International relations.

Kinshasa is twinned with:

Kinshasa (; ; Lingala: Kinsásá), formerly Léopoldville (), is the capital and the largest city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The city is situated alongside the Congo River.

金沙萨(),也译-{zh-cn:金沙萨;zh-hk:金沙萨;zh-tw:金沙萨;zh-sg:金沙萨;}-,原名利奥波德维尔或利奥波德城(,),是刚果民主共和国的首都和最大城市,位于刚果河畔。曾为渔村的金沙萨现为一个人口超过9百万人的大都市,在漠南非洲的城市排名里,它与南非的约翰内斯堡一直在抢夺亚军的排行,仅次于居冠的拉各斯。但庞大的人口数量再加上运作效率不佳的政府管理也衍生严重的社会问题,金沙萨治安极差,是非洲最不安全的城市之一。其抢劫、强奸、绑架率常年居高不下。


Types of lunar eclipse.

Earth's shadow can be divided into two distinctive parts: the umbra and penumbra. Earth totally occludes direct solar radiation within the umbra, the central region of the shadow. However, since the Sun's diameter appears about one-quarter of Earth's in the lunar sky, the planet only partially blocks direct sunlight within the penumbra, the outer portion of the shadow.  A penumbral lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes through Earth's penumbra. The penumbra causes a subtle dimming of the lunar surface, which is only visible to the naked eye when about 70% of the Moon's diameter has immersed into Earth's penumbra. A special type of penumbral eclipse is a total penumbral lunar eclipse, during which the Moon lies exclusively within Earth's penumbra. Total penumbral eclipses are rare, and when these occur, the portion of the Moon closest to the umbra may appear slightly darker than the rest of the lunar disk.  A partial lunar eclipse occurs when only a portion of the Moon enters Earth's umbra, while a total lunar eclipse occurs when the entire Moon enters the planet's umbra. The Moon's average orbital speed is about, or a little more than its diameter per hour, so totality may last up to nearly 107 minutes. Nevertheless, the total time between the first and the last contacts of the Moon's limb with Earth's shadow is much longer and could last up to four hours.  The relative distance of the Moon from Earth at the time of an eclipse can affect the eclipse's duration. In particular, when the Moon is near apogee, the farthest point from Earth in its orbit, its orbital speed is the slowest. The diameter of Earth's umbra does not decrease appreciably within the changes in the Moon's orbital distance. Thus, the concurrence of a totally eclipsed Moon near apogee will lengthen the duration of totality.  A central lunar eclipse is a total lunar eclipse during which the Moon passes through the centre of Earth's shadow, contacting the antisolar point. This type of lunar eclipse is relatively rare.

Selenelion.

A selenelion or selenehelion occurs when both the Sun and an eclipsed Moon can be observed at the same time. This can occur only just before sunset or just after sunrise, when both bodies will appear just above the horizon at nearly opposite points in the sky. This arrangement has led to the phenomenon being also called a horizontal eclipse.  Typically, a number of high ridges undergoing sunrise or sunset can view it. Although the Moon is in Earth's umbra, both the Sun and an eclipsed Moon can be simultaneously seen because atmospheric refraction causes each body to appear higher in the sky than their true geometric positions.

Danjon scale.

The following scale (the Danjon scale) was devised by André Danjon for rating the overall darkness of lunar eclipses:

Lunar versus solar eclipse.

There is often confusion between a solar eclipse and a lunar eclipse. While both involve interactions between the Sun, Earth, and the Moon, they are very different in their interactions.

Lunar eclipse appearance.

The Moon does not completely darken as it passes through the umbra because of the refraction of sunlight by Earth's atmosphere into the shadow cone; if Earth had no atmosphere, the Moon would be completely dark during the eclipse. The reddish coloration arises because sunlight reaching the Moon must pass through a long and dense layer of Earth's atmosphere, where it is scattered. Shorter wavelengths are more likely to be scattered by the air molecules and small particles; thus, the longer wavelengths predominate by the time the light rays have penetrated the atmosphere. Human vision perceives this resulting light as red. This is the same effect that causes sunsets and sunrises to turn the sky a reddish color. An alternative way of conceiving this scenario is to realize that, as viewed from the Moon, the Sun would appear to be setting (or rising) behind Earth.  The amount of refracted light depends on the amount of dust or clouds in the atmosphere; this also controls how much light is scattered. In general, the dustier the atmosphere, the more that other wavelengths of light will be removed (compared to red light), leaving the resulting light a deeper red color. This causes the resulting coppery-red hue of the Moon to vary from one eclipse to the next. Volcanoes are notable for expelling large quantities of dust into the atmosphere, and a large eruption shortly before an eclipse can have a large effect on the resulting color.

Lunar eclipse in culture.

Several cultures have myths related to lunar eclipses or allude to the lunar eclipse as being a good or bad omen. The Egyptians saw the eclipse as a sow swallowing the Moon for a short time; other cultures view the eclipse as the Moon being swallowed by other animals, such as a jaguar in Mayan tradition, or a three legged toad in China. Some societies thought it was a demon swallowing the Moon, and that they could chase it away by throwing stones and curses at it. The Greeks were ahead of their time when they said the Earth was round and used the shadow from the lunar eclipse as evidence. Some Hindus believe in the importance of bathing in the Ganges River following an eclipse because it will help to achieve salvation.

Incans.

Similarly to the Mayans, the Incans believed that lunar eclipses occurred when a jaguar would eat the Moon, which is why a blood moon looks red. The Incans also believed that once the jaguar finished eating the Moon, it could come down and devour all the animals on Earth, so they would take spears and shout at the Moon to keep it away.

Mesopotamians.

The ancient Mesopotamians believed that a lunar eclipse was when the Moon was being attacked by seven demons. This attack was more than just one on the Moon, however, for the Mesopotamians linked what happened in the sky with what happened on the land, and because the king of Mesopotamia represented the land, the seven demons were thought to be also attacking the king. In order to prevent this attack on the king, the Mesopotamians made someone pretend to be the king so they would be attacked instead of the true king. After the lunar eclipse was over, the substitute king was made to disappear (possibly by poisoning).

Chinese.

In some Chinese cultures, people would ring bells to prevent a dragon or other wild animals from biting the Moon. In the nineteenth century, during a lunar eclipse, the Chinese navy fired its artillery because of this belief. During the Zhou Dynasty in the Book of Songs, the sight of a red Moon engulfed in darkness was believed to foreshadow famine or disease.

Blood moon.

Certain lunar eclipses have been referred to as "blood moons" in popular articles but this is not a scientifically-recognized term. This term has been given two separate, but overlapping, meanings.  The first, and simpler, meaning relates to the reddish color a totally eclipsed Moon takes on to observers on Earth. As sunlight penetrates the atmosphere of Earth, the gaseous layer filters and refracts the rays in such a way that the green to violet wavelengths on the visible spectrum scatter more strongly than the red, thus giving the Moon a reddish cast.  The second meaning of "blood moon" has been derived from this apparent coloration by two fundamentalist Christian pastors, Mark Blitz and John Hagee. They claimed that the 2014–15 "lunar tetrad" of four lunar eclipses coinciding with the feasts of Passover and Tabernacles matched the "moon turning to blood" described in the Book of Joel of the Hebrew Bible. This tetrad was claimed to herald the Second Coming of Christ and the Rapture as described in the Book of Revelation on the date of the first of the eclipses in this sequence on April 15, 2014.

Occurrence.

At least two lunar eclipses and as many as five occur every year, although total lunar eclipses are significantly less common. If the date and time of an eclipse is known, the occurrences of upcoming eclipses are predictable using an eclipse cycle, like the saros.

Recent and forthcoming lunar eclipses.

Eclipses occur only during an eclipse season, when the Sun appears to pass near either node of the Moon's orbit.

A lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon moves into the Earth's shadow. This can occur only when the Sun, Earth, and Moon are exactly or very closely aligned (in syzygy), with Earth between the other two. A lunar eclipse can occur only on the night of a full moon. The type and length of a lunar eclipse depend on the Moon's proximity to either node of its orbit.

-{zh-hans:月食;zh-hant:月食;zh-hk:月蚀;}-,又称-{zh-hans:月蚀;zh-hant:月蚀;zh-hk:月食;}-,是一种当月球运行进入地球的阴影(阴影又分本影和半影两部分)时,原本可被太阳光照亮的部分,有部分或全部不能被直射阳光照亮,使得位于地球的观测者无法看到普通的月相的天文现象。月食发生时,太阳、地球、月球恰好或几乎在同一条直线上,因此月食必定发生在满月的晚上(农历十五、十六、或十七),如《说文》所说“日食则朔,月食则望”。地球阴影位于地球公转轨道面(黄道面)内,此平面与月球轨道面(白道面)并不重合,黄白道面交角约5度;大多数满月时,月球不在黄道面内,而是或偏北或偏南,不在地球阴影内,因此并不是每个满月时,都发生月食。每年全球至少发生两次月食。最近一次月全食发生于2019年1月21日。


History.

For a long time, scholars believed that the alphorn had been derived from the Roman-Etruscan lituus, because of their resemblance in shape, and because of the word "liti", meaning Alphorn in the dialect of Obwalden. There is no documented evidence for this theory, however, and, the word "liti" was probably borrowed from 16th–18th century writings in Latin, where the word "lituus" could describe various wind instruments, such as the horn, the crumhorn, or the cornett. Swiss naturalist Conrad Gesner used the words "lituum alpinum" for the first known detailed description of the alphorn in his "De raris et admirandis herbis" in 1555. The oldest known document using the German word "Alphorn" is a page from a 1527 account book from the former Cistercian abbey St. Urban near Pfaffnau mentioning the payment of two Batzen for an itinerant alphorn player from the Valais.  17th–19th century collections of alpine myths and legends suggest that alphorn-like instruments had frequently been used as signal instruments in village communities since medieval times or earlier, sometimes substituting for the lack of church bells. Surviving artifacts, dating back to as far as ca. AD 1400, include wooden labrophones in their stretched form, like the alphorn, or coiled versions, such as the "Büchel" and the "Allgäuisches Waldhorn" or "Ackerhorn". The alphorn's exact origins remain indeterminate, and the ubiquity of horn-like signal instruments in valleys throughout Europe may indicate a long history of cross influences regarding their construction and usage.

Construction and qualities.

The alphorn is carved from solid softwood, generally spruce but sometimes pine. In former times the alphorn maker would find a tree bent at the base in the shape of an alphorn, but modern makers piece the wood together at the base. A cup-shaped mouthpiece carved out of a block of hard wood is added and the instrument is complete.  An alphorn made at Rigi-Kulm, Schwyz, and now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, measures in length and has a straight tube. The Swiss alphorn varies in shape according to the locality, being curved near the bell in the Bernese Oberland. Michael Praetorius mentions an alphorn-like instrument under the name of Hölzern Trummet (wooden trumpet) in "Syntagma Musicum" (Wittenberg, 1615–1619; Pl. VIII).  The alphorn has no lateral openings and therefore gives the pure natural harmonic series of the open pipe. The notes of the natural harmonic series overlap, but do not exactly correspond, to notes found in the familiar chromatic scale in standard Western equal temperament. Most prominently within the alphorn's range, the 7th and 11th harmonics are particularly noticeable, because they fall between adjacent notes in the chromatic scale. Accomplished alphornists often command a range of nearly three octaves, consisting of the 2nd through the 16th notes of the harmonic series. The availability of the higher tones is due in part to the relatively small diameter of the bore of the mouthpiece and tubing in relation to the overall length of the horn. The well-known "Ranz des Vaches" (score; audio) is a traditional Swiss melody often heard on the alphorn. The song describes the time of bringing the cows to the high country at cheese making time. Rossini introduced the "Ranz des Vaches" into his masterpiece "William Tell," along with many other delightful melodies scattered throughout the opera in vocal and instrumental parts that are well-suited to the alphorn. Brahms wrote to Clara Schumann that the inspiration for the dramatic entry of the horn in the introduction to the last movement of his First Symphony was an alphorn melody he heard while vacationing in the Rigi area of Switzerland. For Clara's birthday in 1868 Brahms sent her a greeting that was to be sung with the melody.

Music for alphorn.

Among music composed for the alphorn:

The alphorn or alpenhorn or alpine horn is a labrophone, consisting of a straight several-meter-long wooden natural horn of conical bore, with a wooden cup-shaped mouthpiece. It is used by mountain dwellers in the Swiss Alps, Austrian Alps, Bavarian Alps in Germany, French Alps, and elsewhere. Similar wooden horns were used for communication in most mountainous regions of Europe, from the Alps to the Carpathians. Alphorns are today used as musical instruments.

阿尔卑斯长号()是阿尔卑斯山区的传统乐器之一,原是牧人召唤牲畜,或在山区传递资讯的工具。吹奏长号呼唤安抚乳牛的形象可溯及16世纪末玻璃画中。


Mechanism.

Consider a pair of co-orbiting objects, A and B. The change in rotation rate necessary to tidally lock body B to the larger body A is caused by the torque applied by A's gravity on bulges it has induced on B by tidal forces.  The gravitational force from object A upon B will vary with distance, being greatest at the nearest surface to A and least at the most distant. This creates a gravitational gradient across object B that will distort its equilibrium shape slightly. The body of object B will become elongated along the axis oriented toward A, and conversely, slightly reduced in dimension in directions orthogonal to this axis. The elongated distortions are known as tidal bulges. (For the solid Earth, these bulges can reach displacements of up to around.) When B is not yet tidally locked, the bulges travel over its surface due to orbital motions, with one of the two "high" tidal bulges traveling close to the point where body A is overhead. For large astronomical bodies that are nearly spherical due to self-gravitation, the tidal distortion produces a slightly prolate spheroid, i.e. an axially symmetric ellipsoid that is elongated along its major axis. Smaller bodies also experience distortion, but this distortion is less regular.  The material of B exerts resistance to this periodic reshaping caused by the tidal force. In effect, some time is required to reshape B to the gravitational equilibrium shape, by which time the forming bulges have already been carried some distance away from the A–B axis by B's rotation. Seen from a vantage point in space, the points of maximum bulge extension are displaced from the axis oriented toward A. If B's rotation period is shorter than its orbital period, the bulges are carried forward of the axis oriented toward A in the direction of rotation, whereas if B's rotation period is longer, the bulges instead lag behind.  Because the bulges are now displaced from the A–B axis, A's gravitational pull on the mass in them exerts a torque on B. The torque on the A-facing bulge acts to bring B's rotation in line with its orbital period, whereas the "back" bulge, which faces away from A, acts in the opposite sense. However, the bulge on the A-facing side is closer to A than the back bulge by a distance of approximately B's diameter, and so experiences a slightly stronger gravitational force and torque. The net resulting torque from both bulges, then, is always in the direction that acts to synchronize B's rotation with its orbital period, leading eventually to tidal locking.

Orbital changes.

The angular momentum of the whole A–B system is conserved in this process, so that when B slows down and loses rotational angular momentum, its "orbital" angular momentum is boosted by a similar amount (there are also some smaller effects on A's rotation). This results in a raising of B's orbit about A in tandem with its rotational slowdown. For the other case where B starts off rotating too slowly, tidal locking both speeds up its rotation, and "lowers" its orbit.

Locking of the larger body.

The tidal locking effect is also experienced by the larger body A, but at a slower rate because B's gravitational effect is weaker due to B's smaller mass. For example, Earth's rotation is gradually being slowed by the Moon, by an amount that becomes noticeable over geological time as revealed in the fossil record. Current estimations are that this (together with the tidal influence of the Sun) has helped lengthen the Earth day from about 6 hours to the current 24 hours (over ≈ 41⁄2 billion years). Currently, atomic clocks show that Earth's day lengthens, on average, by about 2.3 milliseconds per century. Given enough time, this would create a mutual tidal locking between Earth and the Moon. The length of the Earth's day would increase and the length of a lunar month would also increase. The Earth's sidereal day would eventually have the same length as the Moon's orbital period, about 47 times the length of the Earth's day at present. However, Earth is not expected to become tidally locked to the Moon before the Sun becomes a red giant and engulfs Earth and the Moon.  For bodies of similar size the effect may be of comparable size for both, and both may become tidally locked to each other on a much shorter timescale. An example is the dwarf planet Pluto and its satellite Charon. They have already reached a state where Charon is visible from only one hemisphere of Pluto and vice versa.

Eccentric orbits.

For orbits that do not have an eccentricity close to zero, the rotation rate tends to become locked with the orbital speed when the body is at periapsis, which is the point of strongest tidal interaction between the two objects. If the orbiting object has a companion, this third body can cause the rotation rate of the parent object to vary in an oscillatory manner. This interaction can also drive an increase in orbital eccentricity of the orbiting object around the primary – an effect known as eccentricity pumping.  In some cases where the orbit is eccentric and the tidal effect is relatively weak, the smaller body may end up in a so-called "spin–orbit resonance", rather than being tidally locked. Here, the ratio of the rotation period of a body to its own orbital period is some simple fraction different from 1:1. A well known case is the rotation of Mercury, which is locked to its own orbit around the Sun in a 3:2 resonance.  Many exoplanets (especially the close-in ones) are expected to be in spin–orbit resonances higher than 1:1. A Mercury-like terrestrial planet can, for example, become captured in a 3:2, 2:1, or 5:2 spin–orbit resonance, with the probability of each being dependent on the orbital eccentricity.

Occurrence.

Moons.

Most major moons in the Solar System, the gravitationally rounded satellites, are tidally locked with their primaries, because they orbit very closely and tidal force increases rapidly (as a cubic function) with decreasing distance. Notable exceptions are the irregular outer satellites of the gas giants, which orbit much farther away than the large well-known moons.  Pluto and Charon are an extreme example of a tidal lock. Charon is a relatively large moon in comparison to its primary and also has a very close orbit. This results in Pluto and Charon being mutually tidally locked. Pluto's other moons are not tidally locked; Styx, Nix, Kerberos, and Hydra all rotate chaotically due to the influence of Charon.  The tidal locking situation for asteroid moons is largely unknown, but closely orbiting binaries are expected to be tidally locked, as well as contact binaries.

Earth's Moon.

Earth's Moon's rotation and orbital periods are tidally locked with each other, so no matter when the Moon is observed from Earth, the same hemisphere of the Moon is always seen. The far side of the Moon was not seen until 1959, when photographs of most of the far side were transmitted from the Soviet spacecraft "Luna 3".  When the Earth is observed from the Moon, the Earth does not appear to translate across the sky but appears to remain in the same place, rotating on its own axis.  Despite the Moon's rotational and orbital periods being exactly locked, about 59 percent of the Moon's total surface may be seen with repeated observations from Earth, due to the phenomena of libration and parallax. Librations are primarily caused by the Moon's varying orbital speed due to the eccentricity of its orbit: this allows up to about 6° more along its perimeter to be seen from Earth. Parallax is a geometric effect: at the surface of Earth we are offset from the line through the centers of Earth and Moon, and because of this we can observe a bit (about 1°) more around the side of the Moon when it is on our local horizon.

Planets.

It was thought for some time that Mercury was in synchronous rotation with the Sun. This was because whenever Mercury was best placed for observation, the same side faced inward. Radar observations in 1965 demonstrated instead that Mercury has a 3:2 spin–orbit resonance, rotating three times for every two revolutions around the Sun, which results in the same positioning at those observation points. Modeling has demonstrated that Mercury was captured into the 3:2 spin–orbit state very early in its history, within 20 (and more likely even 10) million years after its formation.  The 583.92-day interval between successive close approaches of Venus to Earth is equal to 5.001444 Venusian solar days, making approximately the same face visible from Earth at each close approach. Whether this relationship arose by chance or is the result of some kind of tidal locking with Earth is unknown.  The exoplanet Proxima Centauri b, discovered in 2016 that orbits around Proxima Centauri, is tidally locked, expressing either synchronized rotation or a 3:2 spin–orbit resonance like that of Mercury.  One form of hypothetical tidally locked exoplanets are eyeball planets, which in turn are divided into "hot" and "cold" eyeball planets.

Stars.

Close binary stars throughout the universe are expected to be tidally locked with each other, and extrasolar planets that have been found to orbit their primaries extremely closely are also thought to be tidally locked to them. An unusual example, confirmed by MOST, may be Tau Boötis, a star that is probably tidally locked by its planet Tau Boötis b. If so, the tidal locking is almost certainly mutual. However, since stars are gaseous bodies that can rotate with a different rate at different latitudes, the tidal lock is with Tau Boötis's magnetic field.

Timescale.

An estimate of the time for a body to become tidally locked can be obtained using the following formula:  where  formula_12 and formula_13 are generally very poorly known except for the Moon, which has formula_14. For a really rough estimate it is common to take formula_15 (perhaps conservatively, giving overestimated locking times), and where  Even knowing the size and density of the satellite leaves many parameters that must be estimated (especially "ω", "Q", and "μ"), so that any calculated locking times obtained are expected to be inaccurate, even to factors of ten. Further, during the tidal locking phase the semi-major axis formula_20 may have been significantly different from that observed nowadays due to subsequent tidal acceleration, and the locking time is extremely sensitive to this value.  Because the uncertainty is so high, the above formulas can be simplified to give a somewhat less cumbersome one. By assuming that the satellite is spherical, formula_21, and it is sensible to guess one revolution every 12 hours in the initial non-locked state (most asteroids have rotational periods between about 2 hours and about 2 days)  with masses in kilograms, distances in meters, and formula_23 in newtons per meter squared; formula_23 can be roughly taken as 3 N·m for rocky objects and 4 N·m for icy ones.  There is an extremely strong dependence on semi-major axis formula_20.  For the locking of a primary body to its satellite as in the case of Pluto, the satellite and primary body parameters can be swapped.  One conclusion is that, "other things being equal" (such as formula_12 and formula_23), a large moon will lock faster than a smaller moon at the same orbital distance from the planet because formula_6 grows as the cube of the satellite radius formula_29. A possible example of this is in the Saturn system, where Hyperion is not tidally locked, whereas the larger Iapetus, which orbits at a greater distance, is. However, this is not clear cut because Hyperion also experiences strong driving from the nearby Titan, which forces its rotation to be chaotic.  The above formulae for the timescale of locking may be off by orders of magnitude, because they ignore the frequency dependence of formula_30. More importantly, they may be inapplicable to viscous binaries (double stars, or double asteroids that are rubble), because the spin–orbit dynamics of such bodies is defined mainly by their viscosity, not rigidity.

Bodies likely to be locked.

Solar System.

Based on comparison between the likely time needed to lock a body to its primary, and the time it has been in its present orbit (comparable with the age of the Solar System for most planetary moons), a number of moons are thought to be locked. However their rotations are not known or not known enough. These are:

Tidal locking (also called gravitational locking, captured rotation and spin–orbit locking), in the best-known case, occurs when an orbiting astronomical body always has the same face toward the object it is orbiting. This is known as synchronous rotation: the tidally locked body takes just as long to rotate around its own axis as it does to revolve around its partner. For example, the same side of the Moon always faces the Earth, although there is some variability because the Moon's orbit is not perfectly circular. Usually, only the satellite is tidally locked to the larger body. However, if both the difference in mass between the two bodies and the distance between them are relatively small, each may be tidally locked to the other; this is the case for Pluto and Charon.

潮汐锁定(或同步自转、受俘自转)发生在重力梯度使天体永远以同一面对着另一个天体;例如,月球永远以同一面朝向着地球。潮汐锁定的天体绕自身的轴旋转一圈要花上绕着同伴公转一圈相同的时间。这种同步自转导致一个半球固定不变的朝向伙伴。通常,在给定的任何时间里,只有卫星会被所环绕的更大天体潮汐锁定,但是如果两个天体的物理性质和质量的差异都不大时,各自都会被对方潮汐锁定,这种情况就像冥王星与凯伦。