A window is an opening in an otherwise solid and opaque surface that allows the passage of light and, if not closed or sealed, air and sound. Windows are usually glazed or covered in some other transparent or translucent material. Windows are held in place by frames, which prevent them from collapsing.
Etymology:
The word Window originates from the Old Norse vindauga, from vindr "wind" and auga "eye." "Vindauga" is still used in Icelandic, as well as some Norwegian and Swedish dialects to mean exactly the same thing: window. It is first recorded in the early 13th century, and originally referred to an unglazed hole in a roof. Window replaced the Old English eagþyrl, which literally means "eye-hole," and eagduru, "eye-door". Most Germanic languages however adopted the Latin word fenestra to describe a window with glass, such as Swedish fönster, or German Fenster. Notable exceptions to this, apart from English, are Danish and Norwegian, with the English word window closely resembling the words vindue and vindu respectively. This is probably due to the Scandinavian influence on the English language by means of loanwords during the Viking Age. In English the word fenester was used as a parallel until the mid-1700s and fenestration is still used to describe the arrangement of windows within a facade.
Definition and types of windows:
A window is an opening in a wall that lets light and possibly air into the room and allows occupants to see out. Primitive windows were just holes. Later, they were covered with animal hide, cloth, or wood. Shutters that could be opened and closed came next. Over time, windows were built that both protected the inhabitants from the elements and transmitted light: mullioned glass windows, which joined multiple small pieces of glass with leading, paper windows, flattened pieces of translucent animal horn, and plates of thinly sliced marble. Mullioned glass windows were the windows of choice among European well-to-do, whereas paper windows were economical and widely used in ancient China and Japan. In England, glass became common in the windows of ordinary homes only in the early 17th century whereas windows made up of panes of flattened animal horn[citation needed] were used as early as the 14th century in Northern Britain. Modern-style floor-to-ceiling windows became possible only after the industrial glass making process was perfected. Evidence of glass window panes in Italy dates back nearly 3000 years.
Modern windows are customarily large rectangles or squares with glass surfaces. Churches traditionally have stained glass windows.
Modern domestic windows come in many styles. The choice of design varies throughout the world, and is largely dictated by the prevailing weather conditions. Coastal climates tend to have smaller outward-opening windows due to the stronger winds experienced - e.g. England. Continental climates tend to have larger windows, many of which open inwards - e.g. France and Germany. Styles available include:Double-hung sash window.
The traditional style of window in the USA, and many other places that were formerly colonized by the UK, with two parts (sashes) that overlap slightly and slide up and down inside the frame. The two parts are not necessarily the same size. Nowadays, most new double-hung sash windows use spring balances to support the sashes, but traditionally, counterweights held in boxes either side of the window were used. These were and are attached to the sashes using pulleys of either braided cord or, later, purpose-made chain. Double-hung sash windows were traditionally often fitted with shutters. Sash windows may be fitted with simplex hinges which allow the window to be locked into hinges on one side, while the rope on the other side is detached, allowing the window to be opened for escape or cleaning.
Single-hung sash window:
One sash is movable (usually the bottom one) and the other fixed. This is the earlier form of sliding sash window, and is obviously also cheaper.
Horizontal sliding sash window:
Has two or more sashes that overlap slightly but slide horizontally within the frame. In the UK, these are sometimes called Yorkshire sash windows, presumably because of their traditional use in that county.
Casement window:
A window with a hinged sash that swings in or out like a door comprising either a side-hung, top-hung, or occasionally bottom-hung sash or a combination of these types, sometimes with fixed panels on one or more sides of the sash. In the USA these are usually opened using a crank, but in Europe they tend to use projection friction stays and espagnolette locking. Formerly, plain hinges were used with a casement stay. Handing applies to casement windows to determine direction of swing.
Jalousie window
Also known as a louvred window, this window is comprised of many slats of glass that open and close like a Venetian blind, usually using a crank or a lever. The hinges may be at the top or middle of the short end of the slats of glass. They are used extensively in tropical and subtropical architecture, for instance, throughout the Philippines and in Queensland, Australia. A Jalousie door is a door with a Jalousie window.
Technical terms:
Etymologically speaking, any window can be called a "light". However, within the window industry, particularly in insulated glass production, the term "lite" (so-spelled to keep the meaning differentiated from actual sunlight) is used to mean a single glass pane, several of which may be used to construct the final window product. For example, a sash unit, consisting of at least one sliding glass component, is typically composed of two lites, while a fixed window is composed of one lite. The terms "single-light", "double-light" etc refer to the number of these glass panes in a window.
The lights in a window sash are divided horizontally and vertically by narrow strips of wood or metal called muntins. More substantial load bearing or structural vertical dividers are called mullions, with the corresponding horizontal dividers referred to as transoms.
In the USA, the term replacement window means a framed window designed to slip inside the original window frame from the inside after the old sashes are removed. In Europe, however, it usually means a complete window including a replacement outer frame.
The USA term new construction window means a window with a nailing fin designed to be inserted into a rough opening from the outside before applying siding and inside trim. A nailing fin is a projection on the outer frame of the window in the same plane as the glazing, which overlaps the prepared opening, and can thus be 'nailed' into place).
In the UK and Europe, windows in new-build houses are usually fixed with long screws into expanding plastic plugs in the brickwork. A gap of up to 13mm is left around all four sides, and filled with expanding polyurethane foam. This makes the window fixing weatherproof but allows for expansion due to heat.
Insulated window frames:
Windows can be a significant source of heat transfer[2]. Different kinds of glazing and window frames can reduce thermal losses and gains.
Frames and sashes are traditionally made of wood, but metal, vinyl or PVC, and composites are also common. The cost and availability of may vary from country to country. Solid metal frames and sashes are poor insulators because metals conduct heat quickly. Vinyl frames are popular in Europe because they conduct heat poorly. Wood is also a good insulator. Composite frames may combine materials to obtain aesthetics of one material with the functional benefits of another. Modern metal window parts typically consist of two surfaces separated by insulating spacer material.
Many windows have movable window coverings such as blinds or curtains to keep out light, provide additional insulation, or ensure privacy.
Air infiltration and hence convective heat losses can be reduce by good window seals and attention to construction. Evacuated or argon-filled Insulated glazing units are also dependent on meticulous frame construction to prevent entry of air and loss of efficiency.
Window construction:
Modern windows are usually glazed with one large sheet of glass per sash, while windows in the past were glazed with multiple panes separated by "glazing bars", or "muntins", due to the unavailability of large sheets of glass. Today, glazing bars tend to be decorative, separating windows into small panes of glass even though larger panes of glass are available, generally in a pattern dictated by the architectural style at use. Glazing bars are typically wooden, but occasionally lead glazing bars soldered in place are used for more intricate glazing patterns.
A beam over the top of a window is known as the lintel or transom.
Saturday, March 15, 2008
DOORS,TYPES AND CONSTRUCTION OF DOORS
The DOOR is a panel or barrier, usually hinged, sliding, or electronic, that is used to cover an opening in a wall or partition going into a building or space. A door can be opened to give access and closed more or less securely. The term door is also applied to the opening itself, more properly known as the doorway.
Doors are nearly universal in buildings of all kinds, allowing passage between the inside and outside, and between internal rooms. When open, they admit ventilation and light.
The purpose of a door closure is primarily to give occupants of a space privacy and security by regulating access. For this purpose doors are equipped with a variety of fittings ranging from simple latches to locks.
The door is used to control the physical atmosphere within a space by enclosing it, excluding air drafts, so that interiors may be more effectively heated or cooled. Doors are significant in preventing the spread of fire.
Doors also have an aesthetic role in creating an impression of what lies beyond. They are also used to screen areas of a building for aesthetic purposes, keeping formal and utility areas separate. They act as a barrier to noise.
Doors are often symbolically endowed with ritual purposes, and the guarding or receiving of the keys to a door, or being granted access to a door can have special significance. [1] Similarly, doors and doorways frequently appear in metaphorical or allegorical situations, literature and the arts, often as a portent of change.
When framed in wood for snug fitting of a door, the doorway consists of two vertical jambs on either side, a lintel or head jamb at the top, and perhaps a threshold at the bottom. When a door has more than one movable panel, one of the panels may be called a leaf.
See door furniture for a discussion of attachments to doors such as doorhandles and doorknobs. Doors are also found in cupboards and other furniture, cages, and vehicles.
TYPES OF DOORS:
A door may slide along tracks, pivot on hinges or fold.
The door may also slide between two wall panels (pocket door).
In the case of rotation, the axis is usually vertical, but e.g. for garage doors often horizontal, above the door opening. Sometimes the axis of rotation is, with a special construction, not in the plane of the door, on the other side than that in which the door opens, to reduce the space required on the side to which the door opens. This is sometimes the case in a train, for the door to the toilet, opening inward.
Many kinds of doors have specific names, depending on their purpose. The most common variety of door consists of a single rigid panel that fills the doorway, hinged along one side so that it can fold away from the doorway in one direction but not in the other. Many variations on this basic design are possible, such as "double" doors that have two adjacent independent panels hinged on each side of the doorway.
A trapdoor is a door that is oriented horizontally in a floor or ceiling, often accessed via a ladder.
A stable door is divided in half horizontally. The top half can be opened to allow the horse to be fed, while the bottom half can be closed to keep the animal inside. Stable doors are also known as dutch doors.
A swing door has special hinges that allow it to open either outwards or inwards, and is usually sprung to keep it closed. Saloon doors are a pair of lightweight swing doors often found in public bars. Saloon doors, also known as cafe doors, often use double action hinges, which will return the door to the center, regardless of which direction it is opened, due to the double action springs in the doors.
A blind door is a door with no visible trim or operable components. It is designed to blend with the adjacent wall in all finishes, and visually to be a part of the wall, a disguised door.
An up-and-over door is often used in garages. Instead of hinges it has a mechanism, often counterbalanced or sprung, that allows it to be lifted so that it rests horizontally above the opening. Also known as an overhead door.
A barn door is a door on a barn. It is often/always found on barns, and because of a barn's immense size (often) doors are subsequently big for utility.
A French door, also called a French window, is a door that has multiple windows ("lights") set into it, the full length of the door. Traditional French doors are assembled from individual small pieces of glass and mullions. These doors are also known as true divided lite[sic] French doors. French doors made of double-pane glass (on exterior doors for insulation reasons) may have a decorative grille embedded between the panes, or may also be true divided lite French doors. The decorative grille may also be superimposed on top of single pane of glass in the door.
A louver door has fixed or movable wooden fins (often called slats or louvers) which permit open ventilation whilst preserving privacy and preventing the passage of light to the interior. Being relatively weak structures, they are most commonly used for wardrobes and drying rooms, where security is of less importance than good ventilation, although a very similar structure is commonly used to form window shutters.
A flush door is a completely smooth door, having plywood or MDF fixed over a light timber frame, the hollow parts of which are often filled with a cardboard core material. Flush doors are most commonly employed in the interior of a dwelling, although slightly more substantial versions are occasionally used as exterior doors, especially within hotels and other buildings containing many independent dwellings.
A moulded door has the same structure as that of flush door. The only difference is that the surface material is a moulded skin made of HDF / MDF. It is commonly used as interior doors.
A ledge and brace door is a door made from multiple vertical planks fixed together by two horizontal planks (the ledges) and kept square by a diagonal plank (the brace).
A garden door is any door that opens to a garden or backyard. It is often used specifically for double French doors in place of a sliding glass door. In such a configuration, it has the advantage of a very large opening for moving large objects in and out.
A pet door is an opening in a door to allow pets to enter and exit without the main door being opened. It may be simply covered by a rubber flap or it may be an actual door hinged on the top that the pet can push through. Pet doors may be mounted in a sliding glass door as a new (permanent or temporary) panel. Pet doors may be unidirectional, only allowing pets to exit. Pet doors may be electronic, only allowing pets with a special electronic tag to enter.
A bifold door is door unit that has 2 to 4 sections, folding in pairs. The doors can open from either side for one pair, or fold off both sides for two pairs. Wood is the most common material, and doors may also be metal or glass. Bifolds are most commonly made for closets, but may also be used as units between rooms.
A bypass door is a door unit that has 2 or more sections. The doors can slide from each direction on an overhead track, sliding past each other. They are most commonly used in closets, in order to access one side of the closet at a time. The doors in a bypass unit will overlap slightly, in order not to have a gap between them.
A pocket door is a door that slides on rails, rather than swinging on hinges, and, when opened, slides into an open cavity within a wall.
A sliding glass door, sometimes called an Arcadia door, is a door made of glass that slides open and sometimes has a screen. Sliding glass doors are common in many houses, particularly as an entrance to the backyard. Such doors are also popular for use for the entrances to commercial structures.
A false door is a wall decoration that looks like a door. In ancient Egyptian architecture, this was a common element in a tomb, the false door representing a gate to the afterlife. They can also be found in the funerary architecture of the desert tribes (e.g., Libyan Ghirza). It may have influenced the mihrab in a mosque.
A revolving door typically consists of three or four doors (wings/leaves) that hang on a center shaft and rotate one way about a vertical axis. Between the point of access and the point of exit the user walks through an airlock. The door may be motorized, or manually people use pushbars. People can walk out and into the building at the same time. Revolving doors are a good air seal from the outside. Also minimize A/C and Heating Costs climate control from the building. This type of door is also often seen as a mark of prestige and glamour for a building and it not unusual for neighbouring buildings to install their own revolving doors when a rival building gets one.
A Butterfly Door is so-called because of its two "wings". It consists of a double-wide panel with its rotation axle in the centre, effectively creating two separate openings when the door is opened. Butterfly doors are made to rotate open in one direction (usually counterclockwise), and rotate closed in the opposite direction. The door is not equipped with handles, so it is a "push" door. This is for safety, because if it could open in both directions, someone approaching the door might be caught off guard by someone else opening the other side, thus impacting the first person. Such doors are popular in public transit stations, as it has a large capacity, and when the door is opened, traffic passing in both directions keeps the door open. They are particularily popular in underground subway stations, because they are heavy, and when air currents are created by the movement of trains, the force will be applied to both wings of the door, thus equalizing the force on either side, keeping the door shut.
Automatic doors are powered open and closed, a door fitted with a spring to close it is not an automatic door. There are three methods by which an automatic door is activated.
Inward opening doors are doors that can only be opened or forced open from outside a building. Such doors pose a substantial fire risk to occupants of occupied buildings when they are locked. As such doors can only be forced open from the outside, those within buildings are prevented from escape, unless people outside the building can force the doors open and off their hinges as there is no way to lever a door open from inside.
A tambour door is made of narrow horizontal slats and rolls up and down along vertical tracks and is typically found in entertainment centres and cabinets.
A selfbolting door is a door that has special hinges that allows a door leaf to slide into the place of the bolt after complete closing.
DOOR CONSTRUCTION:
(doors built with frame and panel, construction, also called stile and rail doors):
Stiles - Vertical boards that run the full height of a door and compose its right and left edges. The hinges are mounted to the fixed side (known as the "hanging stile"), and the handle, lock, bolt, and/or latch are mounted on the swinging side (known as the "latch stile").
Rails - Horizontal boards at the top, bottom, and optionally in the middle of a door that join the two stiles and split the door into two or more rows of panels. The "top rail" and "bottom rail" are named for their positions. The bottom rail is also known as "kick rail". A middle rail at the height of the bolt is known as the "lock rail", other middle rails are commonly known as "cross rails".
Mullions - Smaller optional vertical boards that run between two rails, and split the door into two or more columns of panels, the term is used sometimes for verticals in doors, but more often (UK and Australia) it refers to verticals in windows.
Muntin - Optional vertical members that divide the door into smaller panels.
Panels - Large, wider boards used to fill the space between the stiles, rails, and mullions. The panels typically fit into grooves in the other pieces, and help to keep the door rigid. Panels may be flat, or in raised panel designs.
Lights,(UK); Lites,(US) - Pieces of glass used in place of a panel, essentially giving the door a window.
Plank and batten doors, (an older design consisting primarily of vertical slats):
Planks - Vertical boards that extend the full height of the door, and are placed side by side filling the door's width.
Battens - Smaller slats that extend horizontally across the door which the planks are affixed to. The battens hold the planks together. Sometimes a long diagonal slat or two are also implemented to prevent the door from skewing. On some doors, especially antique ones, the battens are replaced with iron bars that are often built into the hinges as extensions of the door-side plates.
Ledged and braced doors Consists of vertical tongue and grooved boards held together with battens and diagonal braces.
Frame and filled door Consists of a solid timber frame, filled on one face, face with Tongue and Grooved boards. Quite often used externally with the boards on the weather face.
Flush doors (many modern doors, including most interior doors):
Stiles and rails - As above, but usually smaller. They form the outside edges of the door.
Core material: Material within the door used simply to fill space, provide rigidity and reduce druminess.
Hollow-core - Often consists of a lattice or honeycomb made of corrugated cardboard, or thin wooden slats. Can also be built with staggered wooden blocks. Hollow-core flush doors are commonly used as interior doors.
Lock block - A solid block of wood mounted within a hollow-core flush door near the bolt to provide a solid and stable location for mounting the door's hardware.
Stave-core - Consists of wooden slats stacked upon one another in a manner similar to a plank & batten door (though the slats are usually thinner) or the wooden-block hollow-core (except that the space is entirely filled).
Solid-core - Can consist of low-density particle board or foam used to completely fill the space within the door. Solid-core flush doors (especially foam-core ones) are commonly used as exterior doors because they provide more insulation and strength.
Skin - The front and back faces of the door are then covered with wood veneer, thin plywood, sheet metal, fiberglass, or vinyl. The wooden materials are usually layered with the grain alternating direction between layers to prevent warping. Fiberglass and metal-faced doors are sometimes given a layer of cellulose so that they may be stained to look like real wood.
Moulded doors
Stiles and rails - As above, but usually smaller. They form the outside edges of the door.
Core material: Material within the door used simply to fill space, provide rigidity and reduce druminess.
Hollow-core - Often consists of a lattice or honeycomb made of corrugated cardboard, or thin wooden slats. Can also be built with staggered wooden blocks. Hollow-core flush doors are commonly used as interior doors.
Lock block - A solid block of wood mounted within a hollow-core flush door near the bolt to provide a solid and stable location for mounting the door's hardware.
Stave-core - Consists of wooden slats stacked upon one another in a manner similar to a plank & batten door (though the slats are usually thinner) or the wooden-block hollow-core (except that the space is entirely filled).
Solid-core - Can consist of low-density particle board or foam used to completely fill the space within the door. Solid-core flush doors (especially foam-core ones) are commonly used as exterior doors because they provide more insulation and strength.
Skin - The front and back faces of the door are covered with HDF / MDF skins.Door swings
Door swings, or handing, are always determined from the secure side of the door (ie. the side you use the key on, outside to inside, or public to private).
Left hand (LH): If the hinges are on the left and the door opens in, it's a left hand door. You push the door with your left hand.
Right hand (RH): If the hinges are on the right and the door opens in, it's a right hand door. You push the door with your right hand.
Left hand reverse (LHR): If the hinges are on the left and the door pulls away from you, it's a left hand reverse door. You pull the door with your left hand.
Right hand reverse (RHR): If the hinges are on the right and the door pulls away from you, it's a right hand reverse door. You pull the door with your right hand.
Note: In Australia, this is different. The fridge rule applies (you can't stand in a fridge, the door always opens towards you) - If the hinges are on the left then its a left hand (or left hung) door. If the hinges are on the right then its a right hand (or right hung) door. See the Australian Standards for Installation of Timber Doorsets.
HISTORY:
The earliest records are those represented in the paintings of the Egyptian tombs, in which they are shown as single or double doors, each in a single piece of wood. In Egypt, where the climate is intensely dry, there would be no fear of their warping, but in other countries it would be necessary to frame them, which according to Vitruvius (iv. 6.) was done with stiles (sea/si) and rails (see: Frame and panel): the spaces enclosed being filled with panels (tympana) let into grooves made in the stiles and rails. The stiles were the vertical boards, one of which, tenoned or hinged, is known as the hanging stile, the other as the middle or meeting stile. The horizontal cross pieces are the top rail, bottom rail, and middle or intermediate rails. The most ancient doors were in timber, those made for King Solomon's temple being in olive wood (I Kings vi. 31-35), which were carved and overlaid with gold. The doors dwelt upon in Homer would appear to have been cased in silver or brass. Besides Olive wood, elm, cedar, oak and cypress were used.
All ancient doors were hung by pivots at the top and bottom of the hanging stile which worked in sockets in the lintel and sill, the latter being always in some hard stone such as basalt or granite. Those found at Nippur by Dr. Hilprecht, dating from 2000 B.C. were in dolerite. The tenons of the gates at Balawat were sheathed with bronze (now in the British Museum). These doors or gates were hung in two leaves, each about 8 ft.4 in. wide and 27 ft. high; they were encased with bronze bands or strips, 10 in. high, covered with repouss decoration of figures, etc. The wood doors would seem to have been about 3 in. thick, but the hanging stile was over 14 inches diameter. Other sheathings of various sizes in bronze have been found, which proves this to have been the universal method adopted to protect the wood pivots. In the Hauran in Syria, where timber is scarce the doors were made in stone, and one measuring 5 ft. 4 in. by 2 ft. 7 in. is in the British Museum; the band on the meeting stile shows that it was one of the leaves of a double door. At Kuffeir near Bostra in Syria, Burckhardt found stone doors, 9 to 10 ft. high, being the entrance doors of the town. In Etruria many stone doors are referred to by Dennis.
The ancient Greek and Roman doors were either single doors, double doors, sliding doors or folding doors, in the last case the leaves were hinged and folded back. In Eumachia, is a painting of a door with three leaves. In the tomb of Theron at Agrigentum there is a single four-panel door carved in stone. In the Blundell collection is a bas-relief of a temple with double doors, each leaf with five panels. Among existing examples, the bronze doors in the church of SS. Cosmas and Damiano, in Rome, are important examples of Roman metal work of the best period; they are in two leaves, each with two panels, and are framed in bronze. Those of the Pantheon are similar in design, with narrow horizontal panels in addition, at the top, bottom and middle. Two other bronze doors of the Roman period are in the Lateran Basilica.
The doors of the church of the Nativity at Bethlehem (6th century) are covered with plates of bronze, cut out in patterns: those of Hagia Sophia at Constantinople, of the 8th and 9th century, are wrought in bronze, and the west doors of the cathedral of Aix-la-Chapelle (9th century), of similar manufacture, were probably brought from Constantinople, as also some of those in St. Marks, Venice.Of the 11th and 12th centuries there are numerous examples of bronze doors, the earliest being one at Hildesheim, Germany (1015). Of others in South Italy and Sicily, the following are the finest: in Sant Andrea, Amalfi (1060); Salerno (1099); Canosa (1111); Troia, two doors (1119 and 1124); Ravello (1179), by Barisano of Trani, who also made doors for Trani cathedral; and in Monreale and Pisa cathedrals, by Bonano of Pisa. In all these cases the hanging stile had pivots at the top and bottom. The exact period when the hinge was substituted is not quite known, but the change apparently brought about another method of strengthening and decorating doors, viz, with wrought-iron bands of infinite varieties of design. As a rule three bands from which the ornamental work springs constitute the hinges, which have rings outside the hanging stiles fitting on to vertical tenons run into the masonry or wooden frame. There is an early example of the 12th century in Lincoln; in France the metal work of the doors of Notre Dame at Paris is perhaps the most beautiful in execution, but examples are endless throughout France and England.
Returning to Italy, the most celebrated doors are those of the Battistero di San Giovanni (Florence), which together with the door frames are all in bronze, the borders of the latter being perhaps the most remarkable: the modeling of the figures, birds and foliage of the south doorway, by Andrea Pisano (1330), and of the east doorway by Ghiberti (1425-1452), are of great beauty; in the north door (1402-1424) Ghiberti adopted the same scheme of design for the paneling and figure subjects in them as Andrea Pisano, but in the east door the rectangular panels are all filled, with bas-reliefs, in which Scripture subjects are illustrated with innumerable figures, these being probably the gates of Paradise of which Michelangelo speaks.
The doors of the mosques in Cairo were of two kinds; those which, externally, were cased with sheets of bronze or iron, cut out in decorative patterns, and incised or inlaid, with bosses in relief; and those in wood, which were framed with interlaced designs of the square and diamond, this latter description of work being Coptic in its origin. The doors of the palace at Palermo, which were made by Saracenic workmen for the Normans, are fine examples and in good preservation. A somewhat similar decorative class of door to these latter is found in Verona, where the edges of the stiles and rails are beveled and notched.
In the Renaissance period the Italian doors are quite simple, their architects trusting more to the doorways for effect; but in France and Germany the contrary is the case, the doors being elaborately carved, especially in the Louis XIV and Louis XV periods, and sometimes with architectural features such as columns and entablatures with pediment and niches, the doorway being in plain masonry. While in Italy the tendency was to give scale by increasing the number of panels, in France the contrary seems to have been the rule; and one of the great doors at Fontainebleau, which is in two leaves, is entirely carried out as if consisting of one great panel only.
The earliest Renaissance doors in France are those of the cathedral of St. Sauveur at Aix (1503). In the lower panels there are figures 3 ft. high in Gothic niches, and in the upper panels a double range of niches with figures about 2 ft. high with canopies over them, all carved in cedar. The south door of Beauvais Cathedral is in some respects the finest in France; the upper panels are carved in high relief with figure subjects and canopies over them. The doors of the church at Gisors (1575) are carved with figures in niches subdivided by classic pilasters superimposed. In St. Maclou at Rouen are three magnificently carved doors; those by Jean Goujon have figures in niches on each side, and others in a group of great beauty in the center. The other doors, probably about forty to fifty years later, are enriched with bas-reliefs, landscapes, figures and elaborate interlaced borders.
In England in the 17th century the door panels were raised with bolection or projecting moldings, sometimes richly carved, round them; in the 18th century the moldings worked on the stiles and rails were carved with the egg and tongue ornament.
Doors are nearly universal in buildings of all kinds, allowing passage between the inside and outside, and between internal rooms. When open, they admit ventilation and light.
The purpose of a door closure is primarily to give occupants of a space privacy and security by regulating access. For this purpose doors are equipped with a variety of fittings ranging from simple latches to locks.
The door is used to control the physical atmosphere within a space by enclosing it, excluding air drafts, so that interiors may be more effectively heated or cooled. Doors are significant in preventing the spread of fire.
Doors also have an aesthetic role in creating an impression of what lies beyond. They are also used to screen areas of a building for aesthetic purposes, keeping formal and utility areas separate. They act as a barrier to noise.
Doors are often symbolically endowed with ritual purposes, and the guarding or receiving of the keys to a door, or being granted access to a door can have special significance. [1] Similarly, doors and doorways frequently appear in metaphorical or allegorical situations, literature and the arts, often as a portent of change.
When framed in wood for snug fitting of a door, the doorway consists of two vertical jambs on either side, a lintel or head jamb at the top, and perhaps a threshold at the bottom. When a door has more than one movable panel, one of the panels may be called a leaf.
See door furniture for a discussion of attachments to doors such as doorhandles and doorknobs. Doors are also found in cupboards and other furniture, cages, and vehicles.
TYPES OF DOORS:
A door may slide along tracks, pivot on hinges or fold.
The door may also slide between two wall panels (pocket door).
In the case of rotation, the axis is usually vertical, but e.g. for garage doors often horizontal, above the door opening. Sometimes the axis of rotation is, with a special construction, not in the plane of the door, on the other side than that in which the door opens, to reduce the space required on the side to which the door opens. This is sometimes the case in a train, for the door to the toilet, opening inward.
Many kinds of doors have specific names, depending on their purpose. The most common variety of door consists of a single rigid panel that fills the doorway, hinged along one side so that it can fold away from the doorway in one direction but not in the other. Many variations on this basic design are possible, such as "double" doors that have two adjacent independent panels hinged on each side of the doorway.
A trapdoor is a door that is oriented horizontally in a floor or ceiling, often accessed via a ladder.
A stable door is divided in half horizontally. The top half can be opened to allow the horse to be fed, while the bottom half can be closed to keep the animal inside. Stable doors are also known as dutch doors.
A swing door has special hinges that allow it to open either outwards or inwards, and is usually sprung to keep it closed. Saloon doors are a pair of lightweight swing doors often found in public bars. Saloon doors, also known as cafe doors, often use double action hinges, which will return the door to the center, regardless of which direction it is opened, due to the double action springs in the doors.
A blind door is a door with no visible trim or operable components. It is designed to blend with the adjacent wall in all finishes, and visually to be a part of the wall, a disguised door.
An up-and-over door is often used in garages. Instead of hinges it has a mechanism, often counterbalanced or sprung, that allows it to be lifted so that it rests horizontally above the opening. Also known as an overhead door.
A barn door is a door on a barn. It is often/always found on barns, and because of a barn's immense size (often) doors are subsequently big for utility.
A French door, also called a French window, is a door that has multiple windows ("lights") set into it, the full length of the door. Traditional French doors are assembled from individual small pieces of glass and mullions. These doors are also known as true divided lite[sic] French doors. French doors made of double-pane glass (on exterior doors for insulation reasons) may have a decorative grille embedded between the panes, or may also be true divided lite French doors. The decorative grille may also be superimposed on top of single pane of glass in the door.
A louver door has fixed or movable wooden fins (often called slats or louvers) which permit open ventilation whilst preserving privacy and preventing the passage of light to the interior. Being relatively weak structures, they are most commonly used for wardrobes and drying rooms, where security is of less importance than good ventilation, although a very similar structure is commonly used to form window shutters.
A flush door is a completely smooth door, having plywood or MDF fixed over a light timber frame, the hollow parts of which are often filled with a cardboard core material. Flush doors are most commonly employed in the interior of a dwelling, although slightly more substantial versions are occasionally used as exterior doors, especially within hotels and other buildings containing many independent dwellings.
A moulded door has the same structure as that of flush door. The only difference is that the surface material is a moulded skin made of HDF / MDF. It is commonly used as interior doors.
A ledge and brace door is a door made from multiple vertical planks fixed together by two horizontal planks (the ledges) and kept square by a diagonal plank (the brace).
A garden door is any door that opens to a garden or backyard. It is often used specifically for double French doors in place of a sliding glass door. In such a configuration, it has the advantage of a very large opening for moving large objects in and out.
A pet door is an opening in a door to allow pets to enter and exit without the main door being opened. It may be simply covered by a rubber flap or it may be an actual door hinged on the top that the pet can push through. Pet doors may be mounted in a sliding glass door as a new (permanent or temporary) panel. Pet doors may be unidirectional, only allowing pets to exit. Pet doors may be electronic, only allowing pets with a special electronic tag to enter.
A bifold door is door unit that has 2 to 4 sections, folding in pairs. The doors can open from either side for one pair, or fold off both sides for two pairs. Wood is the most common material, and doors may also be metal or glass. Bifolds are most commonly made for closets, but may also be used as units between rooms.
A bypass door is a door unit that has 2 or more sections. The doors can slide from each direction on an overhead track, sliding past each other. They are most commonly used in closets, in order to access one side of the closet at a time. The doors in a bypass unit will overlap slightly, in order not to have a gap between them.
A pocket door is a door that slides on rails, rather than swinging on hinges, and, when opened, slides into an open cavity within a wall.
A sliding glass door, sometimes called an Arcadia door, is a door made of glass that slides open and sometimes has a screen. Sliding glass doors are common in many houses, particularly as an entrance to the backyard. Such doors are also popular for use for the entrances to commercial structures.
A false door is a wall decoration that looks like a door. In ancient Egyptian architecture, this was a common element in a tomb, the false door representing a gate to the afterlife. They can also be found in the funerary architecture of the desert tribes (e.g., Libyan Ghirza). It may have influenced the mihrab in a mosque.
A revolving door typically consists of three or four doors (wings/leaves) that hang on a center shaft and rotate one way about a vertical axis. Between the point of access and the point of exit the user walks through an airlock. The door may be motorized, or manually people use pushbars. People can walk out and into the building at the same time. Revolving doors are a good air seal from the outside. Also minimize A/C and Heating Costs climate control from the building. This type of door is also often seen as a mark of prestige and glamour for a building and it not unusual for neighbouring buildings to install their own revolving doors when a rival building gets one.
A Butterfly Door is so-called because of its two "wings". It consists of a double-wide panel with its rotation axle in the centre, effectively creating two separate openings when the door is opened. Butterfly doors are made to rotate open in one direction (usually counterclockwise), and rotate closed in the opposite direction. The door is not equipped with handles, so it is a "push" door. This is for safety, because if it could open in both directions, someone approaching the door might be caught off guard by someone else opening the other side, thus impacting the first person. Such doors are popular in public transit stations, as it has a large capacity, and when the door is opened, traffic passing in both directions keeps the door open. They are particularily popular in underground subway stations, because they are heavy, and when air currents are created by the movement of trains, the force will be applied to both wings of the door, thus equalizing the force on either side, keeping the door shut.
Automatic doors are powered open and closed, a door fitted with a spring to close it is not an automatic door. There are three methods by which an automatic door is activated.
Inward opening doors are doors that can only be opened or forced open from outside a building. Such doors pose a substantial fire risk to occupants of occupied buildings when they are locked. As such doors can only be forced open from the outside, those within buildings are prevented from escape, unless people outside the building can force the doors open and off their hinges as there is no way to lever a door open from inside.
A tambour door is made of narrow horizontal slats and rolls up and down along vertical tracks and is typically found in entertainment centres and cabinets.
A selfbolting door is a door that has special hinges that allows a door leaf to slide into the place of the bolt after complete closing.
DOOR CONSTRUCTION:
(doors built with frame and panel, construction, also called stile and rail doors):
Stiles - Vertical boards that run the full height of a door and compose its right and left edges. The hinges are mounted to the fixed side (known as the "hanging stile"), and the handle, lock, bolt, and/or latch are mounted on the swinging side (known as the "latch stile").
Rails - Horizontal boards at the top, bottom, and optionally in the middle of a door that join the two stiles and split the door into two or more rows of panels. The "top rail" and "bottom rail" are named for their positions. The bottom rail is also known as "kick rail". A middle rail at the height of the bolt is known as the "lock rail", other middle rails are commonly known as "cross rails".
Mullions - Smaller optional vertical boards that run between two rails, and split the door into two or more columns of panels, the term is used sometimes for verticals in doors, but more often (UK and Australia) it refers to verticals in windows.
Muntin - Optional vertical members that divide the door into smaller panels.
Panels - Large, wider boards used to fill the space between the stiles, rails, and mullions. The panels typically fit into grooves in the other pieces, and help to keep the door rigid. Panels may be flat, or in raised panel designs.
Lights,(UK); Lites,(US) - Pieces of glass used in place of a panel, essentially giving the door a window.
Plank and batten doors, (an older design consisting primarily of vertical slats):
Planks - Vertical boards that extend the full height of the door, and are placed side by side filling the door's width.
Battens - Smaller slats that extend horizontally across the door which the planks are affixed to. The battens hold the planks together. Sometimes a long diagonal slat or two are also implemented to prevent the door from skewing. On some doors, especially antique ones, the battens are replaced with iron bars that are often built into the hinges as extensions of the door-side plates.
Ledged and braced doors Consists of vertical tongue and grooved boards held together with battens and diagonal braces.
Frame and filled door Consists of a solid timber frame, filled on one face, face with Tongue and Grooved boards. Quite often used externally with the boards on the weather face.
Flush doors (many modern doors, including most interior doors):
Stiles and rails - As above, but usually smaller. They form the outside edges of the door.
Core material: Material within the door used simply to fill space, provide rigidity and reduce druminess.
Hollow-core - Often consists of a lattice or honeycomb made of corrugated cardboard, or thin wooden slats. Can also be built with staggered wooden blocks. Hollow-core flush doors are commonly used as interior doors.
Lock block - A solid block of wood mounted within a hollow-core flush door near the bolt to provide a solid and stable location for mounting the door's hardware.
Stave-core - Consists of wooden slats stacked upon one another in a manner similar to a plank & batten door (though the slats are usually thinner) or the wooden-block hollow-core (except that the space is entirely filled).
Solid-core - Can consist of low-density particle board or foam used to completely fill the space within the door. Solid-core flush doors (especially foam-core ones) are commonly used as exterior doors because they provide more insulation and strength.
Skin - The front and back faces of the door are then covered with wood veneer, thin plywood, sheet metal, fiberglass, or vinyl. The wooden materials are usually layered with the grain alternating direction between layers to prevent warping. Fiberglass and metal-faced doors are sometimes given a layer of cellulose so that they may be stained to look like real wood.
Moulded doors
Stiles and rails - As above, but usually smaller. They form the outside edges of the door.
Core material: Material within the door used simply to fill space, provide rigidity and reduce druminess.
Hollow-core - Often consists of a lattice or honeycomb made of corrugated cardboard, or thin wooden slats. Can also be built with staggered wooden blocks. Hollow-core flush doors are commonly used as interior doors.
Lock block - A solid block of wood mounted within a hollow-core flush door near the bolt to provide a solid and stable location for mounting the door's hardware.
Stave-core - Consists of wooden slats stacked upon one another in a manner similar to a plank & batten door (though the slats are usually thinner) or the wooden-block hollow-core (except that the space is entirely filled).
Solid-core - Can consist of low-density particle board or foam used to completely fill the space within the door. Solid-core flush doors (especially foam-core ones) are commonly used as exterior doors because they provide more insulation and strength.
Skin - The front and back faces of the door are covered with HDF / MDF skins.Door swings
Door swings, or handing, are always determined from the secure side of the door (ie. the side you use the key on, outside to inside, or public to private).
Left hand (LH): If the hinges are on the left and the door opens in, it's a left hand door. You push the door with your left hand.
Right hand (RH): If the hinges are on the right and the door opens in, it's a right hand door. You push the door with your right hand.
Left hand reverse (LHR): If the hinges are on the left and the door pulls away from you, it's a left hand reverse door. You pull the door with your left hand.
Right hand reverse (RHR): If the hinges are on the right and the door pulls away from you, it's a right hand reverse door. You pull the door with your right hand.
Note: In Australia, this is different. The fridge rule applies (you can't stand in a fridge, the door always opens towards you) - If the hinges are on the left then its a left hand (or left hung) door. If the hinges are on the right then its a right hand (or right hung) door. See the Australian Standards for Installation of Timber Doorsets.
HISTORY:
The earliest records are those represented in the paintings of the Egyptian tombs, in which they are shown as single or double doors, each in a single piece of wood. In Egypt, where the climate is intensely dry, there would be no fear of their warping, but in other countries it would be necessary to frame them, which according to Vitruvius (iv. 6.) was done with stiles (sea/si) and rails (see: Frame and panel): the spaces enclosed being filled with panels (tympana) let into grooves made in the stiles and rails. The stiles were the vertical boards, one of which, tenoned or hinged, is known as the hanging stile, the other as the middle or meeting stile. The horizontal cross pieces are the top rail, bottom rail, and middle or intermediate rails. The most ancient doors were in timber, those made for King Solomon's temple being in olive wood (I Kings vi. 31-35), which were carved and overlaid with gold. The doors dwelt upon in Homer would appear to have been cased in silver or brass. Besides Olive wood, elm, cedar, oak and cypress were used.
All ancient doors were hung by pivots at the top and bottom of the hanging stile which worked in sockets in the lintel and sill, the latter being always in some hard stone such as basalt or granite. Those found at Nippur by Dr. Hilprecht, dating from 2000 B.C. were in dolerite. The tenons of the gates at Balawat were sheathed with bronze (now in the British Museum). These doors or gates were hung in two leaves, each about 8 ft.4 in. wide and 27 ft. high; they were encased with bronze bands or strips, 10 in. high, covered with repouss decoration of figures, etc. The wood doors would seem to have been about 3 in. thick, but the hanging stile was over 14 inches diameter. Other sheathings of various sizes in bronze have been found, which proves this to have been the universal method adopted to protect the wood pivots. In the Hauran in Syria, where timber is scarce the doors were made in stone, and one measuring 5 ft. 4 in. by 2 ft. 7 in. is in the British Museum; the band on the meeting stile shows that it was one of the leaves of a double door. At Kuffeir near Bostra in Syria, Burckhardt found stone doors, 9 to 10 ft. high, being the entrance doors of the town. In Etruria many stone doors are referred to by Dennis.
The ancient Greek and Roman doors were either single doors, double doors, sliding doors or folding doors, in the last case the leaves were hinged and folded back. In Eumachia, is a painting of a door with three leaves. In the tomb of Theron at Agrigentum there is a single four-panel door carved in stone. In the Blundell collection is a bas-relief of a temple with double doors, each leaf with five panels. Among existing examples, the bronze doors in the church of SS. Cosmas and Damiano, in Rome, are important examples of Roman metal work of the best period; they are in two leaves, each with two panels, and are framed in bronze. Those of the Pantheon are similar in design, with narrow horizontal panels in addition, at the top, bottom and middle. Two other bronze doors of the Roman period are in the Lateran Basilica.
The doors of the church of the Nativity at Bethlehem (6th century) are covered with plates of bronze, cut out in patterns: those of Hagia Sophia at Constantinople, of the 8th and 9th century, are wrought in bronze, and the west doors of the cathedral of Aix-la-Chapelle (9th century), of similar manufacture, were probably brought from Constantinople, as also some of those in St. Marks, Venice.Of the 11th and 12th centuries there are numerous examples of bronze doors, the earliest being one at Hildesheim, Germany (1015). Of others in South Italy and Sicily, the following are the finest: in Sant Andrea, Amalfi (1060); Salerno (1099); Canosa (1111); Troia, two doors (1119 and 1124); Ravello (1179), by Barisano of Trani, who also made doors for Trani cathedral; and in Monreale and Pisa cathedrals, by Bonano of Pisa. In all these cases the hanging stile had pivots at the top and bottom. The exact period when the hinge was substituted is not quite known, but the change apparently brought about another method of strengthening and decorating doors, viz, with wrought-iron bands of infinite varieties of design. As a rule three bands from which the ornamental work springs constitute the hinges, which have rings outside the hanging stiles fitting on to vertical tenons run into the masonry or wooden frame. There is an early example of the 12th century in Lincoln; in France the metal work of the doors of Notre Dame at Paris is perhaps the most beautiful in execution, but examples are endless throughout France and England.
Returning to Italy, the most celebrated doors are those of the Battistero di San Giovanni (Florence), which together with the door frames are all in bronze, the borders of the latter being perhaps the most remarkable: the modeling of the figures, birds and foliage of the south doorway, by Andrea Pisano (1330), and of the east doorway by Ghiberti (1425-1452), are of great beauty; in the north door (1402-1424) Ghiberti adopted the same scheme of design for the paneling and figure subjects in them as Andrea Pisano, but in the east door the rectangular panels are all filled, with bas-reliefs, in which Scripture subjects are illustrated with innumerable figures, these being probably the gates of Paradise of which Michelangelo speaks.
The doors of the mosques in Cairo were of two kinds; those which, externally, were cased with sheets of bronze or iron, cut out in decorative patterns, and incised or inlaid, with bosses in relief; and those in wood, which were framed with interlaced designs of the square and diamond, this latter description of work being Coptic in its origin. The doors of the palace at Palermo, which were made by Saracenic workmen for the Normans, are fine examples and in good preservation. A somewhat similar decorative class of door to these latter is found in Verona, where the edges of the stiles and rails are beveled and notched.
In the Renaissance period the Italian doors are quite simple, their architects trusting more to the doorways for effect; but in France and Germany the contrary is the case, the doors being elaborately carved, especially in the Louis XIV and Louis XV periods, and sometimes with architectural features such as columns and entablatures with pediment and niches, the doorway being in plain masonry. While in Italy the tendency was to give scale by increasing the number of panels, in France the contrary seems to have been the rule; and one of the great doors at Fontainebleau, which is in two leaves, is entirely carried out as if consisting of one great panel only.
The earliest Renaissance doors in France are those of the cathedral of St. Sauveur at Aix (1503). In the lower panels there are figures 3 ft. high in Gothic niches, and in the upper panels a double range of niches with figures about 2 ft. high with canopies over them, all carved in cedar. The south door of Beauvais Cathedral is in some respects the finest in France; the upper panels are carved in high relief with figure subjects and canopies over them. The doors of the church at Gisors (1575) are carved with figures in niches subdivided by classic pilasters superimposed. In St. Maclou at Rouen are three magnificently carved doors; those by Jean Goujon have figures in niches on each side, and others in a group of great beauty in the center. The other doors, probably about forty to fifty years later, are enriched with bas-reliefs, landscapes, figures and elaborate interlaced borders.
In England in the 17th century the door panels were raised with bolection or projecting moldings, sometimes richly carved, round them; in the 18th century the moldings worked on the stiles and rails were carved with the egg and tongue ornament.
FUNNY NEWTONS LAWS
THREE LAWS WHICH NEWTON FORGET TO STATEfirst law:a boy in love with a girl, continue to be in love with her and a girlin love with a boy, continue to be in love with him, untill on unlessany external agent(brother or father of the gal) comes into play andbreak the legs of the boy.second law:the rate of change of intensity of love of a girl towards a boy isdirectly proportional to the instantaneous bank balance of the boy and thedirection of this love is same to as increament or decreament of thebank balance.third law:the force applied while proposing a girl by a boy is equal and oppositeto the force applied by the girl while using her sandals .
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
PRECIPITATION
precipitation (also known as one class of hydrometeors, which are atmospheric water phenomena) is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that is deposited on the earth's surface. It occurs when the atmosphere (being a large gaseous solution) becomes saturated with water vapour and the water condenses and falls out of solution (i.e., precipitates).[1] Air becomes saturated via two processes, cooling and adding moisture. 
A distant storm producing rain 
Condensation and coalescence are important parts of the water cycle 
Convective precipitation 
Orographic precipitation
Precipitation that reaches the surface of the earth can occur in many different forms, including rain, freezing rain, drizzle, snow, sleet, and hail. Virga is precipitation that begins falling to the earth but evaporates before reaching the surface. Precipitation is a major component of the hydrologic cycle, and is responsible for depositing most of the fresh water on the planet. Approximately 505,000 km³ of water falls as precipitation each year, 398,000 km³ of it over the oceans.[2] Given the Earth's surface area, that means the globally-averaged annual precipitation is about 1 m, and the average annual precipitation over oceans is about 1.1 m.
Types of precipitation
Precipitation that forms aloft is divided into three categories:
- Liquid precipitation;
- Freezing precipitation; and
- Frozen precipitation.
- Types of freezing precipitation:
- Freezing drizzle (FZDZ)
- Freezing rain (FZRA)
- Types of frozen precipitation:
- Snow (SN)
- Snow pellets (SHGS)
- Snow grains (SG)
- Ice pellets (PL)
- Hail (SHGR)
- Graupel (GS)
- Ice crystals (IC)
The code in the brackets is the METAR code for each phenomenon.[3]
[edit] How air becomes saturated
Air contains moisture, measured in grams of water per kilogram of dry air (g/kg), but most commonly reported as a relative humidity percentage. How much moisture a parcel of air can hold before it becomes saturated (100% relative humidity) depends on its temperature. Warmer air has a higher capacity for holding moisture than cooler air. Because of this property of the air, one way to saturate a parcel of air is to cool it. The dew point is the temperature that a parcel needs to be cooled to for saturation to occur.
Some cooling mechanisms include:
- Lift (convective, mechanical, positive vorticity advection)
- Conductive cooling (warm air moves over a cool surface)
- Radiational cooling (heat radiates off into space at night)
- Evaporative cooling (air temperature falls as liquid water uses the energy to change phase to vapour)
The other way to saturate an air parcel is to add moisture to it, by:
- Precipitation falling from above (stratus forming in the rain under a higher cloud)
- Daytime heating evaporating water from the surface of oceans/lakes
- Drier air moving over open water (snow streamers off the Great Lakes in winter)
[edit] How precipitation forms
[edit] Condensation
Precipitation begins forming when warm, moist air rises. As the air cools, water vapor begins to condense on condensation nuclei, forming clouds. After the water droplets grow large enough, two processes can occur to form precipitation.
[edit] Coalescence
Coalescence occurs when water droplets fuse to create larger water droplets, or when water droplets freeze onto an ice crystal. Air resistance typically causes the water droplets in a cloud to remain stationary. When air turbulence occurs, water droplets collide, producing larger droplets. As these larger water droplets descend, coalescence continues, so that drops become heavy enough to overcome air resistance and fall as rain. Coalescence generally happens most often in clouds above freezing
[edit] Bergeron process
The Bergeron process occurs when ice crystals acquire water molecules from nearby supercooled water droplets. As these ice crystals gain enough mass, they begin to fall. This generally requires more mass than coalescence when occurring between the crystal and neighboring water droplets. This process is temperature dependent, as supercooled water droplets only exist in a cloud that is below freezing. In addition, because of the great temperature difference between cloud and ground level, these ice crystals may melt as they fall and become rain.
[edit] Ways of precipitation
[edit] Frontal activity
Stratiform or dynamic precipitation occurs as a consequence of slow (cm/s) ascent of air in synoptic systems, such as along cold fronts, and in advance of warm fronts. Similar ascent is seen around tropical cyclones outside of the eyewall, and in comma head precipitation patterns around mid-latitude cyclones.[4]
[edit] Convection
Convection rain or showery precipitation occurs from convective clouds, e.g., cumulonimbus or cumulus congestus. It falls as showers with rapidly changing intensity. Convective precipitation falls over a certain area for a relatively short time, as convective clouds have limited horizontal extent. Most precipitation in the tropics appears to be convective; however, it has been suggested that stratiform precipitation also occurs.[4][5] Graupel and hail always indicate convection. In mid-latitudes, convective precipitation is associated with cold fronts (often behind the front), squall lines, and warm fronts with significant available moisture.
[edit] Orographic effects
Orographic precipitation occurs on the windward side of mountains and is caused by the rising air motion of a large-scale flow of moist air across the mountain ridge, resulting in adiabatic cooling and condensation.
In mountainous parts of the world subjected to relatively consistent winds (for example, the trade winds), a more moist climate usually prevails on the windward side of a mountain than on the leeward (downwind) side. Moisture is removed by orographic lift, leaving drier air (see katabatic wind) on the descending (generally warming), leeward side where a rain shadow is observed.
Orographic precipitation is well known on oceanic islands, such as the Hawaiian Islands, where much of the rainfall received on an island is on the windward side, and the leeward side tends to be quite dry, almost desert-like, by comparison. This phenomenon results in substantial local gradients of average rainfall, with coastal areas receiving on the order of 500 to 750 mm per year (20 to 30 inches), and interior uplands receiving over 2.5 m per year (100 inches). Leeward coastal areas are especially dry 500 mm per year (20 inches)at Waikiki), and the tops of moderately high uplands are especially wet – ~12 m per year (~475 inches) at Wai'ale'ale on Kaua'i).
In South America, the Andes mountain range blocks most of the Atlantic moisture that arrives in that continent, resulting in a desert-like climate on the Pacific coast of Peru and northern Chile, since the cold Humboldt Current ensures that the air off the Pacific is dry as well. On the leeward side of the Andes is the Atacama Desert of Chile. It is also blocked from moisture by mountains to its west as well. Not coincidentially, it is the driest place on earth.[6] The Sierra Nevada range creates the same effect in North America forming the Great Basin desert, Mojave Desert and Sonoran Desert.
[edit] Tropical activity
Tropical activity in general consists of large air masses several hundred miles across with low pressure at the centre and with winds blowing around the centre in either a clockwise direction (southern hemisphere) or counterclockwise (northern hemisphere). Precipitation arises when a warm front is formed by an advancing mass of warm air, which moves up an inclined surface of retreating cold air and is chilled in the process of being lifted up resulting in rainfall.
The Great Sandy Desert has nearly all its rain during from monsoonal thunderstorms or the occasional tropical cyclone rain depression. Thunderstorms occur on an average of 20–30 days annually through most of the area.[7] Although the desert has fairly high precipitation rates, due to the high rates of evaporation, this area remains an arid environment with vast areas of sands.
Other areas of the world which see these rare precipitation events in deserts are northwest Mexico, the southwestern United States, and southwest Asia. In North America, the Sonoran and Chihuahuan Deserts have received some tropical rainfall in the last 10 years. Tropical activity is rare in all deserts, but what rain does arrive there is important to the existence of the delicate ecosystem.
[edit] Rainfall characteristics
[edit] Size and shape
Raindrops have sizes ranging from 0.1 to up to approximately 9 mm mean diameter, above which they tend to break up. Smaller drops are called cloud droplets, and their shape is spherical. As a raindrop increases in size, its shape becomes more oblate, with its largest cross-section facing the oncoming airflow. Contrary to the cartoon pictures of raindrops, their shape does not resemble a teardrop.
[edit] Intensity and duration
These are usually inversely related, i.e., high intensity storms are likely to be of short duration and low intensity storms can have a long duration.
[edit] Intensity and area
We can expect a less intense rainfall over a large area than we can over a small area.
[edit] Intensity and drop size
High intensity storms have a larger drop size than low intensity storms.
[edit] Measurement of precipitation
- See also: Rain gauge, Disdrometer, and Snow gauge
The standard way of measuring rainfall or snowfall is the standard rain gauge, which can be found in 4-inch/100 mm plastic and 8-inch/200 mm metal varieties.[8] The inner cylinder is filled by 25 mm/1 inch of rain, with overflow flowing into the outer cylinder. Plastic gages will have markings on the inner cylinder down to 0.25 mm/0.01" resolution, which metal gages will require use of a stick designed with the appropriate 0.25 mm/0.01" markings. After the inner cylinder is filled, the amount inside it is discarded, then filled with the remaining rainfall in the outer cylinder until all the fluid in the outer cylinder is gone, adding to the overall total until the outer cylinder is empty. These gages are winterized by removing the funnel and inner cylinder and allowing the snow/freezing rain to collect inside the outer cylinder. Once the snowfall/ice is finished accumulating, or as you approach 300 mm/12", one can either bring it inside to melt, or use luke warm water to fill the inner cylinder with in order to melt the frozen precipitation in the outer cylinder, keeping track of the warm fluid added, which is subsequently subtracted from the overall total once all the ice/snow is melted.
Other types of gages include the popular wedge gage (the cheapest rain gage and most fragile), the tipping bucket rain gage,[9] and the weighing rain gage.[10] The wedge and tipping bucket gages will have problems with snow. Attempts to compensate for snow/ice by warming the tipping bucket meet with limited success, since snow may sublimate if the gage is kept much above freezing. Weighing gages with antifreeze should do fine with snow, but again, the funnel needs to be removed before the event begins. For those looking to measure rainfall the most inexpensively, a can that is cylindrical with straight sides will act as a rain gage if left out in the open, but its accuracy will depend on what ruler you use to measure the rain with. Any of the above rain gages can be made at home, with enough know-how.[11]
Once someone has a device to measure precipitation, various networks exist across the United States and elsewhere where rainfall measurements can be submitted through the internet, such as CoCoRAHS[12] or GLOBE.[13] If a network is not available in the area where one lives, the nearest local weather office will likely be interested in the measurement.[14] An important use of precipitation data is for forecasting of river flows and river water quality using hydrological transport models such as SWMM, SHE or the DSSAM Model.
[edit] Return period
The likelihood or probability of an event with a specified intensity and duration, is called the return period or frequency. The intensity of a storm can be predicted for any return period and storm duration, from charts based on historic data for the location.
[edit] Frequency of flooding
There is no way of telling when the next flood will arrive or how big it will be, but past flooding events can help provide some information as to what to expect.
[edit] 1 in 10 year storm
The term “1 in 10 year storm” describes a rainfall event which is rare and is only likely to occur once every 10 years, so it has a 10% likelihood any given year. The amount of rain which will fall will be greater and cause the flooding to be worse than for a 1 in 1 year event.
[edit] 1 in 100 year storm
The term “1 in 100 year storm” (see also 100-year flood) describes a rainfall event which is extremely rare and which will occur with a likelihood of only once in a century, so has a 1% likelihood in any given year. The amount of rain which will fall will be extreme and cause far greater flooding to be worse than for a 1 in 1 year event.
As with all “probability” events, it is still possible to have two “1 in 100 Year Storms” in the same year.
ANDHRA PRADESH
Andhra Pradesh (Telugu: ఆంధ్ర ప్రదేశ్, Urdu: آندھرا پردیش [aːnd̪ʱɾə pɾədeːʃ] ) or AP, the "Rice Bowl of India", is a state in southern India. It lies between 12°41' and 22°N latitude and 77° and 84°40'E longitude, and is bordered by Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Orissa in the north, the Bay of Bengal in the East, Tamil Nadu to the south and Karnataka to the west. Andhra Pradesh is the 4th largest state in India by area and population. It is the largest and most populous state in South India. The state is crossed by two major rivers, the Godavari and the Krishna. Historically this land was known as Andhrapatha, Andhradesa, Andhra-avani, Andhra-mandalamu, Andhra-vishaya, etc.[1] 
Kakateeya Sculpture at warangal 
Chowmahalla palace 
Paddy fields beside NH5 
Cyber towers at Hyderabad, the state capital and largest city in the state
Nagarjuna sagar, world's largest masonry dam 
The Andhra Pradesh State LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY at the centre of the Hyderabad City 
High Court at Hyderabad, the main judicial body for the state 
Major road links of Andhra Pradesh 
Krishna jinka, the state animal 
Indian school of business 
Rishikonda beach
History
An Andhra Kingdom was mentioned in the Sanskrit epics such as Aitareya Brahmana and Mahabharata. Inscriptional evidence showed that there was a kingdom in coastal Andhra ruled by Kuberaka with Pratipalapura (Bhattiprolu) as his capital in 5th century BCE. This probably was the oldest known kingdom in south India. Around the same time Dhanyakatakam/Dhranikota (present day Amaravati) seemed to be a very important place. According to Taranatha: "On the full moon of the month Chaitra in the year following his enlightenment, at the great stupa of Dhanyakataka, the Buddha emanated the mandala of "The Glorious Lunar Mansions" (Kalachakra)[2][3]. The Mauryans extended their rule over Andhra in 4th century BCE. With the fall of the Mauryan Empire Andhra Satavahanas became independent in 3rd century BCE. After the decline of the Satavahanas in 220 CE, Ikshvakus, Pallavas, Vishnukundinas, Anandagotrikas and Cholas ruled the Telugu land. Inscriptional evidence of Telugu was found during the rule of Renati Cholas (Kadapa region) in 5th century CE[citation needed]. During this period the Telugu language, emerged as a popular medium undermining the predominance of Prakrit and Sanskrit[citation needed]. Telugu was made official language during Vishnukundina Kings[citation needed] who ruled from Vinukonda as the capital. Eastern Chalukyas ruled for a long period after the decline of Vishnukundinas. Their capital was Vengi. As early as 1st century CE, they were mentioned as being the vassals and chieftains under the Satavahanas and later under Ikshvakus.
The battle of Palnadu resulted in the weakening of Chalukyan power and emergence of the Kakatiyadynasty in the 12th and the 13th centuries CE.
The Kakatiyas were at first the feudatories of the Western Chalukyas of Kalyani, ruling over a small territory near Warangal. In 1323 CE, Delhi Sultan Ghiaz-ud-din Tughlaq sent a large army under Ulugh Khan to conquer the Telugu country and capture Warangal. King Prataprudra was taken prisoner. Musunuri Nayaks recaptured Warangal from the Delhi Sultanate and ruled for fifty years. The Vijayanagar empire, one of the greatest empires in the history of Andhra Pradesh and India, was founded by Harihara and Bukka, who served as as treasury officers of the Kakatiyas of Warangal[4]. In 1347 CE, an independent Muslim state, the Bahmani kingdom, was established in south India by Alla-ud-din Hasan Gangu as a revolt against the Delhi Sultanate. The Qutb Shahi dynasty held sway over the Andhra country for about two hundred years from the early part of the 16th century to the end of the 17th century.
In Colonial India, Northern Circars became part of the British Madras Presidency. Eventually this region emerged as the Coastal Andhra region. Later the Nizam had ceded five territories to the British which eventually emerged as Rayalaseema region. The Nizams retained control of the interior provinces as the Princely state of Hyderabad, acknowledging British rule in return for local autonomy.
India became independent from the United Kingdom in 1947. The Muslim Nizam of Hyderabad wanted to retain his independence from India, but the people of the region launched movement to join Indian Union. His state of Hyderabad was forced to become part of the Republic of India in 1948, after Indian Military Occupatin as Hyderabad State.
In an effort to gain an independent state, and protect the interests of the Telugu people of Madras State, Amarajeevi Potti Sriramulu fasted until death. Public outcry and civil unrest after his death forced the government to announce the formation of a new state for Telugu speakers. Andhra attained statehood in October 1953 with Kurnool as its capital.
On 1 November 1 1956 Andhra State merged with the Telangana region of Hyderabad State to form the state of Andhra Pradesh, which would be mainly Telugu-speaking. Hyderabad, the former capital of the Hyderabad State, was made the capital of the new state Andhra Pradesh.
[edit] Economy
[edit] Agriculture
Agriculture has been the chief source of income for the state's economy. Two important rivers of India, the Godavari and Krishna, flow through the state, providing irrigation. Rice, sugarcane, cotton, mirchi, Mangoes and tobacco are the local crops. There are many multi-state irrigation projects in development, including Godavari River Basin Irrigation Projects.[5][6]
[edit] Information technology
The state has also started to focus on the fields of information technology and biotechnology. In 2004 - 2005, Andhra Pradesh is at the fifth position in the list of top IT exporting states of India. The IT exports from the State were Rs.1,800 million in 2004. But by a percentage increase of 52.3% every year, the IT exports reached Rs.19,000 million in 2006 - 2007 and ranked fourth in India. The service sector of the state already accounts for 43% of the GSDP and employs 20% of the work force.[7]
[edit] Mineral wealth
Andhra Pradesh is a mineral rich state, ranking second in India in terms of mineral wealth. For example, the state has about one third of India's limestone reserves, at about 30 billion tonnes.[8]
The state ranks first nationwide in hydro electricity generation with national market share of over 11%.
Andhra Pradesh's gross state domestic product for 2005 is estimated at $62 billion in current prices. This is a chart of trend of gross state domestic product of Andhra Pradesh at market prices estimated by Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation with figures in millions of Indian Rupees.
| Year | State GDP (Rs. MM) |
|---|---|
| 1980 | 81,910 |
| 1985 | 152,660 |
| 1990 | 333,360 |
| 1995 | 798,540 |
| 2000 | 1,401,190 |
| 2007 | 2,294,610 |
[edit] Andhra's Annapurna
Nagarjuna Sagar Dam is a Masonry dam built across Krishna River in Nagarjuna Sagar, Andhra Pradesh, India. It is the world's tallest masonry dam, at a height of 124 metres, and creates a reservoir holding up to 11,472 million cubic metres.
It is one of the earliest irrigation and hydro-electric projects in India. The dam provides irrigation water to the Nalgonda District, Prakasam District, Khammam District and Guntur District. The right canal (AKA "Jawahar canal") is 203 kilometres long and irrigates 1.113 million acres (4,500 km²) of land. The left canal (AKA "Lalbahadur Shastri canal") is 295 kilometres long and irrigates 1.03 million acres (4,200 km²) of land. The project transformed the economy of above districts. The hydro electric plant has a power generation capacity of 815.6 MW with 8 units (1x110 MW+7x100.8 MW). Along with these there are many dams and projects like SRISAILAM DAM,SRIRAM SAGAR,SOMASILA DAM,TUNGABADRA RIGHT CANAL and the newly constructing POLAVARAM(Indira sagar) & PULICHINTHALA(K.L.RAO sagar) DAM.
[edit] Government and politics
Andhra Pradesh has a Legislative Assembly of 294 seats. The state has 60 members in the Parliament of India: 18 in the Rajya Sabha, Upper House and 42 in the Lok Sabha, Lower House.[9][10]
Andhra Pradesh had a series of governments headed by Indian National Congress (INC)Party until 1982. Kasu Brahmananda Reddy held the record for the longest serving chief minister which was broken by N.T. Rama Rao in 1983. P.V. Narasimha Rao also served as the chief minister of the state, who later went on to become the Prime Minister of India in 1991. Among the notable chief ministers of the state are Tanguturi Prakasam, CM for only the Andhra state,[ The first Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, was Neelam Sanjiva Reddy],others include Kasu Brahmananda Reddy, Marri Chenna Reddy, Jalagam vengal Rao,Nedurumalli Janardhana Reddy, Nadella Bhaskara Rao,Kotla Vijaya Bhaskara Reddy, N.T. Rama Rao, Nara Chandrababu Naidu and Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy.
In 1983 Telugu Desam Party (TDP) won the State elections and N.T. Rama Rao (NTR) became the chief minister of the state for the first time introducing a formidable second political party to Andhra Pradesh's politics and thus breaking the virtually-single party monopoly on Andhra Pradesh's politics. After few months, Nadendla Bhaskar Rao attempted a hijack when NTR was away to the US for a medical treatment. After coming back, NTR successfully convinced the then State Governor to dissolve the Assembly and call on for a fresh election. TDP won the elections with a large majority and NTR became Chief Minister of the State for the second time. His government's policies included investment in education, rural development and in holding corrupt government offices accountable.
In 1989 group elections ended the 7-year rule of NTR with INC party returning to power with Dr. Marri Chenna Reddy at the helm of affairs. He was replaced by N. Janardhan Reddy who was in turn replaced by Kotla Vijaya Bhasker Reddy.
In 1994, Andhra Pradesh gave a mandate to TDP again and saw NTR becoming the chief minister again who was soon thrown out of power by his finance minister and his own son-in-law N. Chandrababu Naidu. NTR died of heart attack before the next elections and again Naidu won a second term before he was defeated by the INC-led coalition in the May'04 polls.
Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy of INC, became Chief Minister of state after May 2004. Rajasekhara Reddy fought the 2004 Assembly elections in an alliance with the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), which was formed by the politician Chandrasekhar Rao whose aim is to form a separate state.
[edit] Divisions
Andhra Pradesh can be divided into four governance regions, namely Coastal Andhra, Uttarandhra or North Coastal Andhra, Rayalaseema and Telangana.[11]
Andhra Pradesh has 23 districts:
- Adilabad (yedlapuram)
- Anantapur
- Chittoor
- Kadapa
- East Godavari (Kakinada)
- Guntur
- Hyderabad
- Karimnagar (Sriramapuram)
- Khammam
- Krishna (Machilipatnam)
- Kurnool
- Mahbubnagar, (Palamuru)
- Medak
- Nalgonda
- Nellore
- Nizamabad (Induru)
- Prakasam (Ongole)
- Rangareddi
- Srikakulam
- Visakhapatnam
- Vizianagaram
- Warangal
- West Godavari
[edit] Important cities
A list of the most important cities in the state:
- Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh's main seaport, is home to the Indian Navy's Eastern Naval Command.
- Hyderabad is the capital and with the adjoining twin city of Secunderabad, is the largest city in the state.
- Kurnool, is famous for kurnool sona rice. Andhra Pradesh|Kurnool]] is the former capital of Andhra State.
- Vijayawada is an important trading centre and a prominent railway junction.
- Guntur is the heart of tobacco, chilli and cotton industries, features many nearby ancient sites(A,N,S,B).
- Tirupati is the place of richest temple in the world and the most visited pilgrimage site in India.
- Warangal is one of the oldest cities in the state with a history of 800 years. It was the capital of the Kakatiya dynasty.[12]
- Nellore is famous for its high [paddy] yields,and rapid industrial development like krishnapatnam ultramega project,port,apache etc.
- Nizamabad(induru) is famed for the Nizamsagar dam, Nizam Sugar factory and Bodhan a historical place since the periods of Mahabharatha and Buddha.
- Rajahmundry also hosts corporates and multinationals like ITC Ltd, ILTD Division, GlaxoSmithKline,AndhraPaper Mills,(ONGC) etc.
[edit] Transport
[edit] Railways
[edit] Airports
- Hyderabad (Begumpet)
- Shamshabad (Expected to start from March 16, 2008)
- Visakhapatnam
- Vijayawada (Gannavaram)
- Rajahmundry (Madhurapudi)
- Tirupati (Renigunta)
- Warangal (Mamnoor)(Orugallu)
Government also have plans to start airports in 6 other cities including Nellore, Warangal ,Kadapa,Kothagudem and Ongole.
[edit] Road
Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) is the major public transport corporation owned by government of andhra pradesh connecting all the cities and villages. APSRTC has also the distinction of being in the Guinness book of World records for having the largest fleet of vehicles, and the longest area covered/commuted daily (Rahil). Apart from this thousands of private operators run buses connecting major cities and towns of the state. Private vehicles like autorickshaws occupy a major share of the local transport in the cities and adjoining villages.
[edit] Demographics
Telugu is the regional and official language of the state, spoken by 84.86% of the population. Telugu is the Second largest Spoken language in India. The major linguistic minority groups in the state include the speakers of Urdu(7.86%), the 2nd official language of Andhra Pradesh, Hindi(2.65%)
The minority language speakers who constitute less than 1% are the speakers of Tamil(0.97%), Kannada(0.94%), Marathi(0.84%), Oriya(0.42%), Gondi(0.21%) and Malayalam(0.1%). The speakers of minority languages who constitute less than 0.1% are the speakers of Gujarati(0.09%), Savara(0.09%), Koya(0.08%), Jatapu(0.04%), Punjabi(0.04%), Kolami(0.03%), Konda(0.03%), Gadaba(0.02%), Sindhi(0.02%), Gorkhali / Nepali(0.01%) and Khond / Kondh(0.01%).
[edit] Music
The state has a rich musical heritage. Legends of the Carnatic music (that started during Vijayanagara Dynasty's Sri Krishna Deva Raya) Trinity - Thyagaraja were of Telugu descent. Other great composers include Annamacharya, Kshetrayya, and Bhadrachala Ramadasu. Mangalampalli Balamuralikrishna is a contemporary legend.
Qawwali and Sama are most popular forms of devotional Sufi songs, Akbar Hussain & Ehsan Hussain are notable Qawwals.
[edit] Literature
Nannayya, Tikkana, and Yerrapragada form the trinity who translated the great epic Mahabharatha into Telugu. Bammera Potana is another great poet from Orugallu (Now Warangal) famous for his great classic Sri Madandhra Maha Bhagavatamu, a Telugu translation of 'Sri Bhagavatham' authored by Veda Vyasa in Sanskrit. EmperorKrishnadevaraya wrote Amuktamalyada. Modern writers include Jnanpith Award winners Sri Viswanatha Satyanarayana and Dr. C.Narayana Reddy.
Mohammad Quli Qutub Shah was the first Deewan Shayar of Urdu Literary History. Makhdoom Mohiuddin regarded as revellutionary poet. Many classical writers like, Wali Mohammed Wali Dakhni, Amjad Hyderabadi, Charagh Hyderabadi, Aqeel Hashmi, Suleman Athhar Javed, Aslam Farshori, Ahmadnisar, Barq Kadapavi, Qamar Ameeni and many others.
Mushaira is a poets meet. It is widely organised in Telangana & Rayalaseema Regions. In Coasta districts, Krishna Guntur districts found fond of it.
[edit] Dance
- Kuchipudi, the traditional dance of Andhra
Jayapa Senani (Jayapa Nayudu) is the first person who wrote about the dances prevalent in Andhra Pradesh [13]. Both Desi and Margi forms of dances have been included in his Sanskrit treatise 'Nritya Ratnavali'. It contains eight chapters. Folk dance forms like Perani, Prenkhana, Suddha Nartana, Carcari, Rasaka, Danda Rasaka, Shiva Priya, Kanduka Nartana, Bhandika Nrityam, Carana Nrityam, Chindu, Gondali and Kolatam are described. In the first chapter the author deals with discussion of the differences between Marga and desi, tandava and lasya, Natya and nritta. In the 2nd and 3rd chapters he deals with angikabhinaya, caris, Sthanakas and mandalas. In the 4th Chapter Karnas, angaharas and recakas are described. In following chapters he described the local dance forms i.e. desi nritya. In the last chapter he deals with art and practice of dance.
Classical dance in Andhra can be performed by both men and women, however women tend to learn it more often. Kuchipudi is the state's best-known classical dance forms of Andhra Pradesh. The various dance forms that existed through the states's history are Chenchu Bhagotham, Kuchipudi, Bhamakalapam, Burrakatha, Veeranatyam, Butta bommalu, Dappu, Tappeta Gullu, Lambadi, Bonalu, Dhimsa, and Kolattam.
[edit] Movies
Andhra Pradesh is the state with the most cinema halls in India, at around 3000[citation needed]. The state also produces about 200[citation needed] movies a year. It has around 40%( 330 cinema halls out of 930 dts cinema halls in India((http://www.dtsonline.com/digitalcinema/find/index.php)) of all Dolby digital theatres in India. Now it also houses an IMax theatre with a big 3D screen and also 3-5 multiplexes. It is also the largest movie industry in India, producing more movies than any other industry.
[edit] State symbols
- State language - Telugu & Urdu
- State symbol - Poorna Kumbham
- State song - Maa telugu thalliki by Sankarambadi Sundarachari
- State animal - Blackbuck, (Krishna Jinka)
- State bird - Indian Roller, (Paala Pitta)
- State tree - Neem (Vepa)
- State sport - Kabaddi, in Telugu Chedugudu
- State dance - Kuchipudi, Andhra Natyam
- State flower - Water lily
[edit] Temples
Tirupati: Tirupati is the abode for the famous Hindu temple of Lord Venkateswara. It is the richest and the most visited religious place (of any faith) in the world[14]. It records an annual income of about 100 Billion Rupees (2.5 Billion US Dollars), mostly from offerings by the devotees.
Yadagiri Gutta:Lord Vishnu (whose reincarnation is Lord Narasimha)
Vemulavada:Notable for the Sri Raja Rajeshwara Swamy Temple complex, a site of pilgrimage for both Hindu (particularly devotees of Vishnu and Shiva) and Muslim worshippers. Built by Chaluka Kings between AD 750 and 975, the complex is named for its presiding deity Sri Raja Rajeswara Swamy, an incarnation of Shiva. It houses several temples dedicated to other deities including Sri Rama, Lakshmana, Lakshmi, Ganapathy, Lord Padmanabha Swamy and Lord Bhimeshwara. The complex also contains a 400 year old mosque.
Vijayawada: Vijayawada houses the second biggest and equally famous temple of Goddess Durga also known as Kanaka Durga.
Narayanpet: Sri Sri Sri Sadguru Avadhuth Narasimha Swami Math is located in Narayanpet of Mahabubnagar dist. www.srisadguru.com
Srisailam: Abode for Lord Siva worshipped with the name of Mallikarjuna and Goddess Parvathi, worshipped with the name of Bhramaramba. Srisailam has a unique distinction amongst the Hindu temples of the world; it is the only place to be one of 18 Shaktipithas and one of 12 Jyothirlingas. Huge hydro-electric multi-purpose dam has also been constructed at this place on river Krishna.
Mantralayam: Abode for Sri Raghavendra Swamy worshipped with the name of Raghavendra Swamy or Rayaru. The original name for the place was Maanchale, has been sanskritised into Mantralaya. It lies on the banks of the Tungabhadra river.
Bhadrachalam: Abode for Lord Rama. The legend goes back a few hundred years. There was a devotee by name Bhakta Ramadas, who was a tax collector in Taneesha (a Muslim ruler of Golkonda)'s government. Apparently he spent all the tax collection money on building a temple for lord Rama, eventually was put in prison by the Taneesha. Bhakta Ramdas has offered his prayers to lord Rama in the form of Kirtanas, and one fine day, lord Rama and his brother Lakshmana come in disguise to re-pay the money to Taneesha. Taneesha finally realized his mistake and from that day, not only freed Bhakta Ramadas, but also agreed to supply the required alms for the temple at Bhadrachalam. Till date, in independent India, the state administration maintains the ritual.
Srikalahasti: SriKalahasti is one of the Panchabhoota Sthalams signifying the 5 elements, 1) wind (Kalahasti), 2) water (Thiruvanaikaval), 3) fire (Tiruvannamalai), 4) earth (Kanchipuram) and 5) space (Chidambaram) that Siva embodies.
Ahobilam: Ahobilam or Ahobala is a complex of 9 temples of Lord Narasimha. Tandur : Sri Bhavigi Bhadreshar Temple in Tandur Rangareddy Dist of Andhra Pradesh
Mangalagiri: A temple town between Vijayawada and Guntur. Adobe of Lord Narasimha. The unique distinction at this shrine is that, the deity is offered payers in the form of 'Panakam' or Jaggery Water.
Annavaram: The holy shrine is the sanctum sanctorum of Lord "Satyadeva" or "Satyanarayana".
Simhachalam:This holy shrine is the adobe of Lord Narasimha, worshipped in the name of "Narasimha".
Arasavalli:This holy shrine is the adobe of sun god, worshipped in the name of "suryadeva".This is thee only sun god temple in asia where rituals are taking place every day.This is very nearer to Srikakulam town(2km).
Pechalakona:It is the place of Penchala Narasimha Swamy Temple. It is located in Rapur mandal of Nellore Dist.
Srikakulam: There are two places with the same name in the state. A district and town by the same name on the north east corner of the state as well as a small village on the bank of river Krishna in Krishna district. The village Srikakulam houses the "Andhra Mahavishnu" temple. Legend says that this temple was constructed by the great Krishnadevaraya of the Vijayanagara Kingdom.
Ramappa Temple: a Shiva temple in the temple town of Palampet, near Warangal.
Thousand Pillars Temple : a Shiva temple in Hanamkonda city center, near Warangal.
Veerabhadra temple in the temple town of Lepakshi is an example of the Vijayanagar architectural style and art.
Ujjaini Mahakali Temple: The Temple is located in Secunderabad, Monda Market. The Temple is very famous for its Festival called Bonalu.
Sri Mogileeswara Temple: The temple is located at a small village known as mogili which is by the side of NH4,which is 10 km far from palamaneru.The temple is abode for the Lordsiva and parvathi.In this temple water is coming from the mouth of Nandi(ox)but it is stopped due to some natural changes. From this 3 km away a hill called as Devara Kondais abode for Parvathi
Yaganti: This is the holy place of Lord Venkateshwara swamy,also known for, Veerabramendra swamy writing of Kalagnanam at this place. There is a NANDI which grows in size every year(According to archaeological dept. the NANDI statue has grown 20 inches more when compared with 20 years back.
[edit] Cultural institutions
Andhra Pradesh has many museums, including the Archaeological Museum at Amaravati near Guntur City that features relics of nearby ancient sites, the Salar Jung Museum in Hyderabad, which features a varied collection of sculptures, paintings, and religious artifacts, the Visakha Museum in Vizag (Visakhapatnam), which displays the history of the pre-Independence Madras Presidency in a rehabilitated Dutch bungalow and Victoria Jubilee Museum in Vijayawada, which has a nice collection of ancient sculptures, paintings, idols, weapons, cutlery, and inscriptions.
[edit] Other elements of Culture
Bapu's paintings, Nanduri Subbarao's Yenki Paatalu (Songs on/by a washerwoman called Yenki), mischievous Budugu (a character by Mullapudi), Annamayya's songs, Aavakaaya (a variant of mango pickle in which the kernel of mango is retained), Gongura (a chutney from Roselle plant), Atla saddi (a seasonal festival predominantly for teenage girls), banks of river Godavari, Dudu basavanna (The ceremonial ox decorated for door-to-door exhibition during the harvest festival Sankranti) have long defined Telugu culture. The village of Durgi is known for originating stone craft, carvings of idols in soft stone that must be exhibited in the shade because they are prone to weathering.
[edit] Festivals
- New Year in January
- Sankranthi in January.
- Maha Shivaratri in February/March.
- Ugadi or the Telugu New Year in March/April.
- Rama Navami celebrated in March/April 9 days after Ugadi.
- Good Friday in March/April.
- Varalakshmi Vratham in August.
- Vinayaka Chavithi in August.
- Ramzan in October, 2007.
- Dasara in September/October.
- Atla Tadde 3rd day in bright half of Aswiyuja month (falls in September/October in Gregorian calendar)
- Deepavali in October/November.
- Bakrid in January, 2008.
- Bonalu in Sravanam. (Celebrated in Telangana region).
- Bathukamma celebrated during September/October in Telangana region.
- Christmas celebrated in December all over the state.
[edit] Cuisine
The cuisine of Andhra Pradesh is reputedly the spiciest of all Indian cuisine. There are many variations to the Andhra cuisine depending on caste, geographical regions, traditions etc. Pickles and chutneys, called pachchadi in Telugu are particularly popular in Andhra Pradesh and many varieties of pickles and chutneys are unique to the state. Chutneys are made from practically every vegetable including tomatoes, brinjals, and roselle (Gongura, ). The mango pickle Aavakaaya is probably the best known of the Andhra pickles.
Rice is the staple food and is used in a wide variety of ways. Typically, rice is either boiled and eaten with curry, or made into a batter for use in a crepe-like dish called attu (pesarattu) or dosas.
Meat, vegetables, and greens are prepared with different masalas into a variety of strongly flavoured dishes.
Hyderabadi cuisine is influenced by the Muslims who arrived in Telangana in the 14th century. Much of the cuisine revolves around meat. It is rich and aromatic, with a liberal use of exotic spices and ghee. Lamb, chicken and fish are the most widely used meats in the non-vegetarian dishes. The biryanis are perhaps the most distinctive and popular of Hyderabadi dishes.
[edit] Education
Andhra Pradesh is served by more than 20 leading institutes of excellence in higher education. All major arts, humanities, science, engineering, law, medicine, business and veterinary science are offered, leading to first degrees as well as postgraduate awards. Advanced research is conducted in all major areas.
Andhra Pradesh has 1330 arts, science and commerce colleges, 238 engineering colleges and 53 medical colleges. The student to teacher ratio is 19:1 in the higher education. According to census taken in 2001, Andhra Pradesh has an overall literacy rate of 60.5%. While male literacy rate is at 70.3%, the female literacy rate however is only at 50.4%, a cause for concern.
The state has recently made strides in setting up several institutes of high quality. International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) and Indian School of Business (ISB) are gaining international attention for their standards. National Institute of Fashion Technology, Hyderabad (NIFT)[1]is well reputed among those interested in a career in fashion.
Major Universities/Institutes in Andhra Pradesh:
- Birla Institute Of Technology[BITS], hyd
- IIIT,hyderabad [International Institute of Information Technology]
- National Institute of Technology NIT,Warangal
- Acharya N. G. Ranga Agricultural University: Andhra Pradesh Agricultural University, Hyderabad
- Sri Venkateswara Veterinary University, Tirupathi (Veterinary science has been separated from N.G.Ranga Agri. university to form this separate university)
- Dr. B. R. Ambedkar Open University: Andhra Pradesh Open University, Hyderabad
- Acharya Nagarjuna University, Guntur
- Andhra University, Visakhapatnam
- Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad
- Kakatiya University, Warangal
- Maulana Azad National Urdu University, Hyderabad
- Osmania University, Hyderabad
- Potti Sreeramulu Telugu University, Hyderabad
- Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati
- Sri Padmawati University, Tirupati
- Sri Krishnadevaraya University, Anantapur
- Sri Sathya Sai University, Puttaparthi
- University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad
- ICFAI University, Hyderabad
- NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad
- NTR University of Health Sciences, Vijayawada
- Gitam University ,Visakhapatnam
(See also List of institutions based in Hyderabad India)
[edit] Media
Andhra Pradesh has several newspapers. Prominent among them are:
- Telugu Newspapers - Eenadu, Andhra Jyothi, Vaartha, Praja Shakti, Andhra Bhoomi, Visalandra, (surya)(hyderabad mirror)Andhra Prabha, Telugu Journal and KalamPotu
- Urdu Newspapers - Siasat Daily, Munsif Daily, Rehnuma-e-Deccan, Itimad Urdu Daily and The Milap Daily.
- English Newspapers - Deccan Chronicle, The Hindu, The Times of India, Indian Express, The Economic Times, The Business Line
[edit] Tourism
Andhra Pradesh is the home of many religious pilgrim centres. Tirupati, the abode of Lord Venkateswara, is the richest and most visited Hindu temple in India. Srisailam, the abode of Sri Mallikarjuna, is one of twelve Jyothirlingalu in India, Amaravati's Siva temple is one of the Pancharamams, and Yadagirigutta, the abode of an avatara of Vishnu, Sri Lakshmi Narasimha. The Ramappa temple and Thousand Pillars temple in Warangal are famous for some fine temple carvings. The state has numerous Buddhist centres at Amaravati, Nagarjuna Konda, Bhattiprolu, Ghantasala, Nelakondapalli, Dhulikatta, Bavikonda, Thotlakonda, Shalihundam, Pavuralakonda, Sankaram, Phanigiri and Kolanpaka.
The golden beaches at Visakhapatnam,the one-million-year old limestone caves at Borra, picturesque Araku Valley, hill resorts of Horsley Hills, river Godavari racing through a narrow gorge at Papi Kondalu, waterfalls at Ettipotala, Kuntala and rich bio-diversity at Talakona, are some of the natural attractions of the state.
The Borra Caves are located in the Anatagiri Hills of Eastern Ghats, near Vishakapatnam, Andhra Pradesh State in India. They are at a height of about 800 to 1300 metres above Mean Sea Level and are famous for millions of years old stalactite and stalagmite formations. They were discovered by William King George, the British geologist in the year 1807.The caves get their name from a formation inside the caves that looks like the human brain, which in the local language, Telugu, is known as borra.Similarly Belum caves was formed due to erosion in limestone deposite in the area by Chitravati River, millions of years ago. This limestone caves was formed due to action of carbonic acid — or weakly acidic groundwater formed due to reaction between limestone and water.
Charminar, Golconda Fort, Chandragiri Fort, Chowmahalla Palace and Falaknuma Palace are some of the monuments in the state.
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