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HandWiki is the world's largest wiki-style encyclopedia dedicated to science, technology and computing. It allows you to create and edit articles as long as you have external citations and login account. In addition, this is a content management environment that can be used for collaborative editing of original scholarly content, such as books, manuals, monographs and tutorials.

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Luxury Vehicle
A luxury vehicle provides increased levels of comfort, equipment, amenities, quality, performance, and status relative to regular cars for an increased price. The term is subjective and reflects both the qualities of the car and the brand image of its manufacturer. Luxury brands rank above premium brands, though there is no fixed demarcation between the two. Traditionally, most luxury cars were large vehicles, though smaller sports-oriented models were always produced. “Compact“ luxury vehicles such as hatchbacks, and off-road capable sport utility vehicles, are relatively modern trends.
  • 7.8K
  • 27 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Glossary of Nanotechnology
This glossary of nanotechnology is a list of definitions of terms and concepts relevant to nanotechnology, its sub-disciplines, and related fields. For more inclusive glossaries concerning related fields of science and technology, see Glossary of chemistry terms, Glossary of physics, Glossary of biology, and Glossary of engineering.
  • 980
  • 02 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Bayt Al-mal
Bayt al-mal (بيت المال) is an Arabic term that is translated as "House of money" or "House of Wealth." Historically, it was a financial institution responsible for the administration of taxes in Islamic states, particularly in the early Islamic Caliphate. It served as a royal treasury for the caliphs and sultans, managing personal finances and government expenditures. Further, it administered distributions of zakat revenues for public works. Modern Islamic economists deem the institutional framework appropriate for contemporary Islamic societies.
  • 1.9K
  • 27 Oct 2022
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Non-Hispanic or Latino Whites
Non-Hispanic whites or Non-Latino whites are European Americans, Middle Eastern Americans, and North African Americans as defined by the United States Census Bureau. Americans of European ancestry represent ethnic groups and more than half of the white population are German, Irish, English, Italian and Polish Americans. In the United States , this population was first derived from English (and, to a lesser degree, French) settlement of the Americas, as well as settlement by other Europeans such as the Germans and Dutch that began in the 17th century (see History of the United States). Continued growth since the early 19th century is attributed to sustained very high birth rates alongside relatively low death rates among settlers and natives alike as well as periodically massive immigration from European countries, especially Germany, Ireland, England, Italy, Greece, the Netherlands, France and Wales, as well as Poland, Russia, and many more countries. It typically refers to an English-speaking American in distinction to Spanish speakers in Mexico and the Southwestern states. In some parts of the country, the term Anglo-American is used to refer to non-Hispanic white English speakers as distinct from Spanish speakers although the term is more frequently used to refer to people of British or English descent and might include white people of Hispanic descent who no longer speak Spanish.
  • 9.1K
  • 27 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Earth Sheltering
Earth sheltering is the architectural practice of using earth against building walls for external thermal mass, to reduce heat loss, and to easily maintain a steady indoor air temperature. Earth sheltering has become relatively more popular in modern times, especially among environmentalists and advocates of passive solar and sustainable architecture. However, the practice has been around for nearly as long as humans have been constructing their own shelters.
  • 2.6K
  • 27 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Gramian Matrix
In linear algebra, the Gram matrix (or Gramian matrix, Gramian) of a set of vectors [math]\displaystyle{ v_1,\dots, v_n }[/math] in an inner product space is the Hermitian matrix of inner products, whose entries are given by [math]\displaystyle{ G_{ij}=\langle v_i, v_j \rangle }[/math]. An important application is to compute linear independence: a set of vectors are linearly independent if and only if the Gram determinant (the determinant of the Gram matrix) is non-zero. It is named after Jørgen Pedersen Gram.
  • 10.1K
  • 27 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Osmium-173
Osmium (76Os) has seven naturally occurring isotopes, five of which are stable: 187Os, 188Os, 189Os, 190Os, and (most abundant) 192Os. The other natural isotopes, 184Os, and 186Os, have extremely long half-life (1.12×1013 years and 2×1015 years, respectively) and for practical purposes can be considered to be stable as well. 187Os is the daughter of 187Re (half-life 4.56×1010 years) and is most often measured in an 187Os/188Os ratio. This ratio, as well as the 187Re/188Os ratio, have been used extensively in dating terrestrial as well as meteoric rocks. It has also been used to measure the intensity of continental weathering over geologic time and to fix minimum ages for stabilization of the mantle roots of continental cratons. However, the most notable application of Os in dating has been in conjunction with iridium, to analyze the layer of shocked quartz along the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary that marks the extinction of the dinosaurs 66 million years ago. There are also 30 artificial radioisotopes, the longest-lived of which is 194Os with a half-life of six years; all others have half-lives under 94 days. There are also nine known nuclear isomers, the longest-lived of which is 191mOs with a half-life of 13.10 hours. All isotopes and nuclear isomers of osmium are either radioactive or observationally stable, meaning that they are predicted to be radioactive but no actual decay has been observed.
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  • 27 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Khatt Shebib
The Khatt Shebib is an ancient wall in Southern Jordan. The remains of the wall are 150 km long, making it the longest linear archaeological site in Jordan. The archaeological ruins were first identified by British diplomat Sir Alec Kirkbride in 1948. Ever since, a range of disciplines, including archaeologists, scientists and anthropologists, have studied the wall. The date of the Khatt Shebib's construction is still unknown, however, it has been widely debated by archaeologists. This is evident as some archaeologists argue that the wall was built in the Iron Age, whilst others argue it was constructed in the Nabataean period. The Khatt Shebib was built and used by the semi-nomadic Bedouin people, whose livelihoods consisted of herding and farming in the harsh, arid environment of the Jordan desert. The Khatt Shebib was not used for military purposes rather the ancient wall served as a border. At the time of its construction, the wall was approximately no taller than a meter and a half high. Due to various threats to the integrity of the wall, including climatic issues and growing population pressures, the wall is significantly smaller. The Khatt Shebib has gained increasing attention amongst archaeologists. The leading method of studying the wall is aerial archaeology and multiple international archaeological organisation have established projects in order to understand and discover more about the wall.
  • 1.3K
  • 27 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Cooperative Learning
Cooperative learning is an educational approach which aims to organize classroom activities into academic and social learning experiences. . There is much more to cooperative learning than merely arranging students into groups, and it has been described as "structuring positive interdependence." Students must work in groups to complete tasks collectively toward academic goals. Unlike individual learning, which can be competitive in nature, students learning cooperatively can capitalize on one another's resources and skills (asking one another for information, evaluating one another's ideas, monitoring one another's work, etc.). Furthermore, the teacher's role changes from giving information to facilitating students' learning. Everyone succeeds when the group succeeds. Ross and Smyth (1995) describe successful cooperative learning tasks as intellectually demanding, creative, open-ended, and involve higher order thinking tasks. Cooperative learning has also been linked to increased levels of student satisfaction. Five essential elements are identified for the successful incorporation of cooperative learning in the classroom: According to Johnson and Johnson's meta-analysis, students in cooperative learning settings compared to those in individualistic or competitive learning settings, achieve more, reason better, gain higher self-esteem, like classmates and the learning tasks more and have more perceived social support.
  • 1.9K
  • 27 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Harvestman Anatomy
Harvestmen (Opiliones) are an order of arachnids and share many common characteristics with other arachnids. However, several differences separate harvestmen from other arachnid orders such as spiders. The bodies of opliones are divided into two tagmata (arthropod body regions): the abdomen (opisthosoma) and the cephalothorax (prosoma). Unlike spiders, the juncture between the abdomen and cephalothorax is often poorly defined. Harvestmen have chelicerae, pedipalps and four pairs of legs. Most harvestmen have two eyes, although there are eyeless species.
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  • 27 Oct 2022
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