Friday, June 25, 2010

Amazing Photos of Northern Lights

The beauty of the Northern Lights, more properly called Auroras, can only be seen in the Northern hemisphere. The colorful display of lights is due to charged particles colliding with Earth’s atmosphere. These charged particles originate from the Sun and travel through space to Earth.
The Aurora Borealis (Boreal means Northern) is usually only visible above the Arctic Circle, but on rare occasions, when there is unusually high amounts of Solar activity, the displays can be seen farther south. During a large Solar storm in August of 1859, Aurora colors were seen in Honolulu, Hawaii, only 21 degrees north of the Equator!
Now that you have a brief description of what causes the Northern Lights, here’s its beauty through pictures:
Northern Lights
Northern Lights
Northern Lights
Northern Lights

Earth Facts

Earth holds a collection of facts about the planet Earth and some of the lifeforms living on it, as well as some creatures that no longer exist on Earth.
We know more today than ever before about our planet Earth and what’s going on around us.
Science is always continuing to connect the dots through Earth research, study, and experimentation.
As technology advances, we continue to learn and find more out about our planet Earth.
Earth Facts
Here are some quick Earth facts, browse our Earth Facts categories to see more.
Age: 4.6 billion years old.
Position: 3rd planet from the sun.
Size: 5th largest planet in our solar system.
Surface Area: 197 million square miles, about 70 percent of the Earth's surface is covered with water..
Diameter: The Earth has an average diameter of 12,742 kilometers. (7,926 miles)
Average Temperature: The temperature at the Earth's core is estimated to be between 5000 and 7000 degrees Celsius.
Length of Year: 365.25 days
Inclination of Axis: The Earth's axis has a tilt of about 23 ½ degrees. It is this tilt which causes the seasons.
Chemical Composition: The Earth is made mostly of iron, oxygen, silicon, magnesium, nickel and sulfur: 34.6%  Iron, 29.5%  Oxygen, 15.2%  Silicon, 12.7%  Magnesium, 2.4%  Nickel, 1.9%  Sulfur, 0.05% Titanium

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Solar Facts

The Sun is a low mass star on the outer reaches of the Milky Way galaxy. The Sun is some 30,000 light years from the center of the Milky Way and lies on one of the spiral arms. At this distance, ittakes about 250 million years to complete an orbit around the galaxy. One light year is the distance travelled by light in one year. One light year is about 10,000 billion kilometers.

Image of the Milky Way galaxy taken from the Earth.The Andromeda Galaxy is much like our own Milky Way and can be used to illustrate the approximate location of the Sun in our own galaxy, marked by the circle and arrow.


Vital Statistics

SunEarthSun/Earth
Radius (km)696,0006,376109
Mass (kg)2,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,0006,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000333,000
Volume (m³)1,400,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,0001,100,000,000,000,000,000,0001.3 million
Average density (kg/m³)140055061/4
Surface gravity (m/s²)2749.8128
Rotation period (days)26 (at equator)11/26
Temperature at surface (C)~5700~2020
Escape velocity at surface (km/hr)~2 million~40,000~55


  • Earth-Sun Distance: 150 million km (93 million miles)
  • Elemental Composition of Sun: 74% Hydrogen, 25% Helium, 1% other (by mass).
  • Solar Luminosity: ~ 4 x 10³³ erg/s. [As bright as 4 trillion trillion 100-watt light bulbs]
  • Age of Sun: 4.5 billion years.


Structure

Much like the earth, the Sun has many different layers that define its structure. Unlike the earth, the Sun is completely gaseous, there is no solid surface on the Sun.Solar structure
RegionTemperatureDensity
Core15,000,000150,000
Radiation zone5,000,000-2,000,00020,000-200
Convection zone2,000,000-660,0000.0002
Surface6,0000.0002
Chromosphere6,000-20,0000.0000000001
Transition region20,000-1,000,0000.00000000001
Corona2,000,0000.000000000001
Temperatures are in degrees
Densities are in milligrams per cubic centimeter


Activity


The Sun is a very active star. No matter when or where you look, the Sun is always doing something interesting. One of the most dramatic properties of the Sun's activity is the existence of a solar cycle, which is best seen in the pattern of sunspots. The graph to the right shows the behavior of the average number of sunspots over time for the last 300 years. We see from that this figure that the number of sunspots on the Sun is not constant but varies significantly with a peak number showing up, approximately every 11 years. The Sun, thus, has a cycle of behavior which repeats every 11 years.
It is not known exactly what causes this repeatable behavior but processes in the deep interior of the Sun, which generate 
magnetic field, are thought to be responsible. Over the last 30 years scientists have developed theories to exlpain this behavior and improved observations from telescopes in space are providing much needed information to help track down the answer to this particular solar conundrum.

An interesting pattern develops when we ask where on the Sun do the sunspots appear. The figure on the left is known as a butterfly diagram, because the pattern looks like the wings of a butterfly. The figure shows the butterfly pattern for the last 11 solar cycles (each taking 11 years).
The vertical axis shows the latitude on the Sun which we measure just like on the Earth (equator is at 0, north pole is at 90N, south pole at 90S). This pattern tells us that at the beginning of a particular solar cycle, sunspots appear mostly at high latitudes (30N or 30S). As time goes on the sunspots appear nearer and nearer to the equator, until a new cycle begins and the process starts all over again.
A more dramatic form of solar activity can be found in solar flares and coronal mass ejections. These are short-lived disruptions of the solar atmosphere which create fantastic displays the images of the Sun. Coronal mass ejections and flares are the solar causes of geomagnetic stroms at the Earth which disrupt telecommunications, satellites and power grids.



Rotation


One of the most obvious signs that the Sun is not just sitting there is its rotation. The Sun rotates on its axis about once every 26 days. Because the Sun is made of gas the rotation is quite different from that of, say, a basketball spinning on your finger. Different parts of the Sun rotate at different speeds with the fastest rotation rate occurring at the Sun's equator. The higher the latitude (north or south) the slower rotation. The Sun's polar regions have a rotation period greater than 30 days. This is known as differential rotation and is similar to the phenomenon which produces the distinct bands on the planet Jupiter.



Evolution

It has often been said that the Sun is a fairly mediocre star in a fairly boring neighborhood of the Galaxy. This is true if you ignore the fact that the Sun is the only star we know of which supports life. However, it is still illustrative to compare the Sun with other stars in order to understand how stars form, evolve and eventually die. The Sun is about half way through its prime and will not change significantly as a star for another 5 billion years.
The basic stages in the Sun's life can be summarized as follows:

Gas cloudProto-starMain sequenceRed giantPlanetary nebulaRemnant

1. Gas cloud: Initially the gas and dust which go to make up stars is in the form of a large dense cloud that is relatively cold (temperatures around 10 degrees K, or, -440 degrees F). Parts of this gloud start to fragment and collapse under their own gravity to form blobs called proto-stars.
2. Proto-star: As the blob collapses it starts to heat up in its center (gravitational energy is being converted into heat). The proto-star gets hot enough to glow red (temperatures are around 2000-3000 K). The proto-star continues to condense until nuclear reactions in its core halt the gravitational collapse.
3. Main sequence: The star is stable, burning Hydrogen gas to Helium in its core through nuclear fusion. The energy released causes the star to shine. Stars spend about 90% of their active lifetime as main sequence stars.
4. Red giant: As the star runs out of core fuel to "burn" the stability of the star is disrupted and the core begins to shrink. The star then starts to turn Helium into Carbon, allowing it to "shine" for a while longer. The rapid burning of helium causes the outer layers of the star to puff out, cooling the star and causing it to glow red. It is now a red giant. Red giants can eject a lot of mass through ``winds''. While a red giant may be much larger than the main sequence star from which it came it has less mass. The Sun will spend approximately 250 million years as a red giant.
5. Planetary nebula: The outer layers of the star are ejected as core continues to shrink. For stars like the Sun this process produces what is known as a planetary nebula (Strangely, these nebulae have nothing whatsoever to do with planets). A planetary nebula is defined as a shell of hot gas that has been expelled from a star going through its late stages of evolution. The material in the nebula comes from the outer layers of the star, leaving its core exposed.
6. Remnant: The low mass core continues shrinking to form a star known as a white dwarf surrounded by the planetary nebula.
The Sun is currently in its Main Sequence stage, where its spends most of its active life. About 90% of all stars are in this stage of their evolution.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

4600-year-old Skeleton Discovered in Northern Ontario


4600-year-old Skeleton Discovered in Northern Ontario

4,600 years ago a man was buried here, on the south shore of Big Trout Lake, in Northern Ontario. Photo courtesy Professor Scott Hamilton.
A team of archaeologists, working with the Kitchenuhmaykoosik Inninuwug First Nation, has discovered a 4,600-year-old burial at the mouth of the Bug River, on the south side of Big Trout Lake in Canada.
Big Trout Lake is located in the far northwest of the province of Ontario. Even today it’s difficult to access. The province’s road system stops nearly 400 kilometres south of the area, making planes the most practical way to get in and out.
The lake is located on the same latitude as Manchester, but the climate is far colder. In the winter the temperature can go down below -30 degrees Celsius. The area around the lake is heavily forested with evergreen trees. The population encompassed by the Kitchenuhmaykoosik Inninuwug First Nation community is estimated to be around 1,200.
Kitchenuhmaykoosik Inninuwug chief Donny Morris told me in an interview that a group of fishermen were the first to come across the bones. Water levels were high on the lake last fall causing the shoreline to erode, exposing the burial. 
Chief Morris called in local police to investigate. He also contacted Lakehead University archaeology Professor Scott Hamilton. The police determined that the bones were ancient and Professor Hamilton took over the task of determining who this fellow was.

The burial

Big Trout Lake is in the far northwest of Ontario. Map courtesy Professor Scott Hamilton.
Hamilton said that it’s very unusual for aboriginal burials to be studied in Canada as laws and ethics generally prohibit excavation. “In Canada, certainly in Ontario, human burial excavations simply don’t happen except in salvage circumstances,” he said.
“This is one of those circumstances.”
So what did they find?
The skeleton is of a fully grown adult male, likely in his late 30’s or early 40’s. “It’s pretty much intact from the knees and forearms upward,” said Hamilton. He was roughly five and a half feet tall with a “very, very robust muscular build.” Investigators could determine this because parts of the bone, which attach to the muscles, were well developed.
It is not known why he died, however he appears to have been given a formal burial. “There’s a flat slab of granite that’s associated directly with the bones,” said Hamilton. “It looks very much like a purposeful grave.”
The team is not certain why this slab was buried with him, “we’ll be taking a closer look at the stone as part of our analysis to see if we can see any evidence of function,” said Hamilton. He added that the team also found red ochre covering the bones. “(It’s) a very faint red ochre staining in the sediments and on the bones.” It would have been applied to the man’s body before he was buried.
The use of red ochre is seen in burials all over the world, including prehistoric North America. The color may have held religious significance to the people who buried the man. 
Radiocarbon dates indicate that he lived around 4,600 years ago – although that number may change slightly as the date is calibrated. To put this in context, the man would have lived in Big Trout Lake at roughly the same time that the Great Pyramidswere being built in Egypt.

What did he eat?

The team is performing oxygen and nitrogen isotope tests on the skeleton to determine what kind of diet he consumed. So far tests indicate that – in addition to hunting land animals – the man loved fish!
“Fish is clearly an important part of the diet, we can see that in the nitrogen numbers,” said Professor Hamilton. The team also examined the calculus around the teeth and found starch. “Clearly plant food was also an important part of his diet,” said Hamilton adding, “we haven’t been able to figure out what plants contributed that starch.”

How did he live?

A cross-polarized light image of a large starch grain. Researchers found starch on the man's teeth. It indicates that he consumed plant food as well as meat. They are trying to determine what plant(s) it belongs to. Photo courtesy Professor Scott Hamilton.
This man's lifestyle would have been very different to those of people living in Ancient Egypt or the Near East at that time. The -30 degree temperature calls for an approach that doesn’t involve building pyramids.
“These folks are very much adapted to the kinds of resources that one finds in the boreal forest,” said Hamilton.  “These resources are highly seasonal in their availability – and the season of comparative plenty is often spring, summer and perhaps early fall.”
These seasonal resources include fish spawns, migratory water fowl, caribou migration and even wild rice.
“This results in very, very low population density (and) very high population mobility as people are moving over very large territories over the course of the year.” This means that the man would have been part of a “family-based band.” That is a small number of related people who travel together.
The hardest part of the year was, of course, winter. “The winter seasons are generally a time of some scarcity and hardship as spatially concentrated food disappears,” said Hamilton.
“That means that sub-arctic people, in order to survive year in, year out through generations, have to have a seasonal cycle that’s highly mobile,” he said. “They can place themselves on the landscape where they can predict resources will be available and follow the seasonal cycles of availability.”

“The past is very recent...”

Hamilton’s research indicates that this lifestyle continued for an exceptionally long period of time. “The past is very recent in the far north,” he said. 
"Back in the 20’s and before, people at that time were nomadic living in the bush and not staying in one place...."
When Europeans appeared in the 17th century the people continued to live this lifestyle. “These northern hunters, trappers and fishers (continued) to supply themselves with food predominately from the land – from the product of their hunt – from the product of their gathering of wild produce,” said Hamilton.
“They may be gathering and harvesting those resources with European technology but they’re (still using a) fairly significant amount of traditional technology – canoes, snowshoes, footwear, clothing,” he said. “What we see is this really interesting mix, an admixture, of traditional technology and the incorporation of new technology to practice a traditional life.”
This continues into the 20th century. In fact a fascinating story, described on the Kitchenuhmaykoosik Inninuwug First Nationwebsite, talks about encountering a hairy being out in the forest:
Researchers built a rockwall to protect the site from further erosion. Photo courtesy Professor Scott Hamilton.
“Back in the 20’s and before, people at that time were nomadic living in the bush and not staying in one place. During rainy and snowy weathers, they said there is a being covered with some hair and was mostly constructed with skeleton. (It) used to fly and made (an) awful horrible scream/sound. If you saw it, you would go insane.”

“Canada didn’t really have much of a presence in far northern Ontario until very recently,” said Hamilton. In fact many communities, including Kitchenuhmaykoosik Inninuwug, did not sign a treaty with Canada until 1929.
In this rather technical treaty they were forced to cede land to the crown:
“NOW THEREFORE we, the said Ojibeway, Cree and other Indian inhabitants, in consideration of the provisions of the said foregoing Treaty being extended to us, do hereby cede, release, surrender and yield up to the Government of the Dominion of Canada for His Majesty the King and His Successors forever, all our rights, titles and privileges whatsoever in all that tract of land, and land covered by water in the Province of Ontario, comprising part of the District of Kenora (Patricia Portion) containing one hundred and twenty-eight thousand three hundred and twenty square miles, more or less, being bounded on the South by the Northerly limit of Treaty Number Nine; on the West by Easterly limits of Treaties Numbers Three and Five, and the boundary between the Provinces of Ontario and Manitoba; on the North by the waters of Hudson Bay, and on the East by the waters of James Bay and including all islands, islets and rocks, waters and land covered by water within the said limits, and also all the said Indian rights, titles and privileges whatsoever to all other lands and lands covered by water, wherever situated in the Dominion of Canada.”
The crown did, however, promise that a reserve would be set aside for them:
“AND HIS MAJESTY through His said Commissioners agrees and undertakes to set side reserves for each band as provided by the said aforementioned Treaty, at such places or locations as may be arranged between the said Commissioners and the Chiefs and headmen of each Band.”

Change comes to an ancient lifestyle

he site where the man was buried. Chief Donny Morris, Darryl Sainnawap and Const. Barry McKay monitor the coroner's investigation into the burial. It was determined that the remains were ancient. Photo courtesy Professor Scott Hamilton.
Major changes started to occur in Ontario’s Far North at around the time the treaty was signed. The ancient practice of people living in small bands declined and communities became larger and less mobile.
“The really big changes come about surprisingly recently perhaps as late as the end of the Second World War in many cases,” said Professor Hamilton. Despite these changes important elements of this ancient lifestyle live on, including the language. “If you go to many of the communities of the far north now, the elders still predominately speak Cree or Ojibway.”
Today the Kitchenuhmaykoosik Inninuwug First Nation has a nursing station, restaurant, band office, airport and ice skating rink. They even have a website. But despite all the modern conveniences, the people still practice hunting, fishing and trapping.
Old legends also live on, here’s another interesting one, available on the Kitchenuhmaykoosik Inninuwug website:
“A weird, odd looking foot-long animal (a cross breed of an otter & beaver or  muskrat) with a rat tail with white almost a human face was discovered floating on the mainland shore of Kitchenuhmaykoosib drowned. No one knows what it is but our ancestors used to call it the Ugly One. It is rarely seen but when seen especially if it is dead, it's bad omen and something bad will happen according to our elders and ancestors.”
Chief Morris said that soon, after all the archaeological analysis is complete, the 4,600-year-old man will be laid to rest again. Although the world has changed this fellow will, once again, receive the dignity of a proper burial – in the land of his descendents.
I asked the chief to describe the ceremony – how do you honor a 4,600-year-old man who was buried very simply, with red ochre and a granite slab? Do you buck history and have an elaborate gathering? The chief replied simply, “it will probably just be a memorial service.”

TAMIL NADU COMMON ENTRANCE TEST 2010

TAMIL NADU COMMON ENTRANCE TEST 2010

Sunday, June 20, 2010

FIFA World Cup



FIFA World Cup
Fifa world cup org.jpg
The current FIFA World Cup Trophy, awarded to the World Cup champions since 1974
Founded1930
RegionInternational (FIFA)
Number of teams32 (finals)
204 (qualifiers for 2010)
Current champions Italy (4th title)
Most successful team Brazil (5 titles)
Websitehttp://www.fifa.com/worldcup/
 2010 FIFA World CupThe FIFA World Cup, also called the Football World Cup or the Soccer World Cup, but usually referred to simply as the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the men's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The championship has been awarded every four years since the first tournament in 1930, except in 1942 and 1946 when it was not contested because of World War II.
The current format of the tournament involves 32 teams competing for the title at venues within the host nation(s) over a period of about a month – this phase is often called the World Cup Finals. A qualification phase, which currently takes place over the preceding three years, is used to determine which teams qualify for the tournament together with the host nation(s).
During the 18 tournaments that have been held, seven national teams have won the title. Brazilhave won the World Cup a record five times, and they are the only team to have played in every tournament. Italy, the current champions, have won four titles, and Germany are next with three titles. The other former champions are Uruguay, winners of the inaugural tournament, andArgentina, with two titles each, and England and France, with one title each.
The World Cup is the most widely viewed sporting event in the world; an estimated 715.1 million people watched the final match of the 2006 World Cup held in Germany.[1] The current World Cup is being held in South Africa, between 11 June and 11 July 2010, and the 2014 World Cupwill be held in Brazil.

Contents

 [hide]

History

Previous international competitions

The world's first international football match was a challenge match played in Glasgow in 1872 between Scotland and England,[2] with the first international tournament, the inaugural edition of the British Home Championship, taking place in 1884.[3] At this stage the sport was rarely played outside the United Kingdom. As football began to increase in popularity in other parts of the world at the turn of the century, it was held as a demonstration sport with no medals awarded at the 1900 and 1904 Summer Olympics (however, the IOC has retroactively upgraded their status to official events), and at the 1906 Intercalated Games.
After FIFA was founded in 1904, there was an attempt made by FIFA to arrange an international football tournament between nations outside of the Olympic framework in Switzerland in 1906. These were very early days for international football, and the official history of FIFA describes the competition as having been a failure.[4]
At the 1908 Summer Olympics in London, football became an official competition. Planned by The Football Association (FA), England's football governing body, the event was for amateur players only and was regarded suspiciously as a show rather than a competition. Great Britain (represented by the England national amateur football team) won the gold medals. They repeated the feat in 1912 in Stockholm, where the tournament was organised by the Swedish Football Association.
With the Olympic event continuing to be contested only between amateur teams, Sir Thomas Lipton organised the Sir Thomas Lipton Trophytournament in Turin in 1909. The Lipton tournament was a championship between individual clubs (not national teams) from different nations, each one of which represented an entire nation. The competition is sometimes described as The First World Cup,[5] and featured the most prestigious professional club sides from Italy, Germany and Switzerland, but the FA of England refused to be associated with the competition and declined the offer to send a professional team. Lipton invited West Auckland, an amateur side from County Durham, to represent England instead. West Auckland won the tournament and returned in 1911 to successfully defend their title, and were given the trophy to keep forever, as per the rules of the competition.
In 1914, FIFA agreed to recognise the Olympic tournament as a "world football championship for amateurs", and took responsibility for managing the event.[6] This paved the way for the world's first intercontinental football competition, at the 1920 Summer Olympics, contested by Egypt and thirteen European teams, and won by Belgium.[7] Uruguay won the next two Olympic football tournaments in 1924 and 1928.

First World Cup


Estadio Centenario, the location of the first World Cup final in 1930 in Montevideo,Uruguay
Due to the success of the Olympic football tournaments, FIFA, with President Jules Rimet the driving force, again started looking at staging its own international tournament outside of the Olympics. On 28 May 1928, the FIFA Congress in Amsterdam decided to stage a world championship organised by FIFA.[8] With Uruguay now two-time official football world champions (as 1924 was the start of FIFA's professional era) and to celebrate their centenary of independence in 1930, FIFA named Uruguay as the host country of the inaugural World Cup tournament.
The national associations of selected nations were invited to send a team, but the choice of Uruguay as a venue for the competition meant a long and costly trip across the Atlantic Ocean for European sides. Indeed, no European country pledged to send a team until two months before the start of the competition. Rimet eventually persuaded teams from BelgiumFranceRomania, andYugoslavia to make the trip. In total thirteen nations took part: seven from South America, four from Europe and two from North America.
The first two World Cup matches took place simultaneously on 13 July 1930, and were won byFrance and USA, who defeated Mexico 4–1 and Belgium 3–0 respectively. The first goal in World Cup history was scored by Lucien Laurentof France.[9] In the finalUruguay defeated Argentina 4–2 in front of a crowd of 93,000 people in Montevideo, and in doing so became the first nation to win the World Cup.[10]

World Cups before World War II

After the creation of the World Cup, the 1932 Summer Olympics, held in Los Angeles, did not plan to include football as part of the schedule due to the low popularity of the sport in the United States, as American football had been growing in popularity. FIFA and the IOC also disagreed over the status of amateur players, and so football was dropped from the Games.[11] Olympic football returned at the 1936 Summer Olympics, but was now overshadowed by the more prestigious World Cup.
The issues facing the early World Cup tournaments were the difficulties of intercontinental travel, and war. Few South American teams were willing to travel to Europe for the 1934 and 1938 tournaments, with Brazil the only South American team to compete in both. The 1942 and 1946 competitions were cancelled due to World War II and its aftermath.

World Cups after World War II

The 1950 World Cup, held in Brazil, was the first to include British participants. British teams withdrew from FIFA in 1920, partly out of unwillingness to play against the countries they had been at war with, and partly as a protest against foreign influence on football,[12] but rejoined in 1946 following FIFA's invitation.[13] The tournament also saw the return of 1930 champions Uruguay, who had boycotted the previous two World Cups. Uruguay won the tournament again by defeating the host nation Brazil in one of the most famous matches in World Cup history, which was later called the "Maracanazo" (Portuguese: Maracanaço).

Map of countries' best results
In the tournaments between 1934 and 1978, 16 teams competed in each tournament, except in 1938, when Austria was absorbed into Germany after qualifying, leaving the tournament with 15 teams, and in 1950, when IndiaScotland and Turkey withdrew, leaving the tournament with 13 teams.[14] Most of the participating nations were from Europe and South America, with a small minority from North America, Africa, Asia and Oceania. These teams were usually defeated easily by the European and South American teams. Until 1982, the only teams from outside Europe and South America to advance out of the first round were:USA, semi-finalists in 1930; Cuba, quarter-finalists in 1938; Korea DPR, quarter-finalists in1966; and Mexico, quarter-finalists in 1970.

Expansion to 32 teams

The tournament was expanded to 24 teams in the 1982,[15] and then to 32 in 1998,[16] allowing more teams from Africa, Asia and North America to take part. In recent years, teams from these regions have enjoyed more success, and those who have reached the quarter-finals include: Mexico, quarter-finalists in 1986Cameroon, quarter-finalists in 1990Korea Republic, finishing in fourth place in 2002; and Senegaland USA, both quarter-finalists in 2002. European and South American teams have remained the stronger forces; for example, the quarter-finalists in 2006 were all from Europe or South America.
198 nations attempted to qualify for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, while a record 204 countries entered qualification for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.[17]

Other FIFA tournaments

An equivalent tournament for women's football, the FIFA Women's World Cup, was first held in 1991 in the People's Republic of China.[18] The women's tournament is smaller in scale and profile than the men's, but is growing; the number of entrants for the 2007 tournament was 120, more than double that of 1991.
Football has been included in every Summer Olympic Games except 1896 and 1932. Unlike many other sports, the men's football tournament at the Olympics is not a top-level tournament, and since 1992, an under-23 tournament with each team allowed three over-age players.[19] Women's football made its Olympic debut in 1996, and is contested between full national sides with no age restrictions.
The FIFA Confederations Cup is a tournament held one year before the World Cup at the World Cup host nation(s) as a dress-rehearsal for the upcoming World Cup. It is contested by the winners of each of the six FIFA confederation championships, along with the FIFA World Cup champion and the host country.[20]
FIFA also organizes international tournaments for youth football (FIFA U-20 World CupFIFA U-17 World CupFIFA U-20 Women's World CupFIFA U-17 Women's World Cup), club football (FIFA Club World Cup), and football variants such as futsal (FIFA Futsal World Cup) andbeach soccer (FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup).

Trophy


The FIFA World Cup Trophy on a Germanstamp
From 1930 to 1970, the Jules Rimet Trophy was awarded to the World Cup winner. It was originally simply known as the World Cup or Coupe du Monde, but in 1946 it was renamed after the FIFA president Jules Rimet who set up the first tournament. In 1970Brazil's third victory in the tournament entitled them to keep the trophy permanently. However, the trophy was stolen in 1983, and has never been recovered, apparently melted down by the thieves.[21]
After 1970, a new trophy, known as the FIFA World Cup Trophy, was designed. The experts of FIFA, coming from seven different countries, evaluated the 53 presented models, finally opting for the work of the Italian designer Silvio Gazzaniga. The new trophy is 36 cm (14.2 in) high, made of solid 18 carat (75%) gold and weighs 6.175 kg (13.6 lb). The base contains two layers of semi-precious malachite while the bottom side of the trophy bears the engraved year and name of each FIFA World Cup winner since 1974. The description of the trophy by Gazzaniga was: "The lines spring out from the base, rising in spirals, stretching out to receive the world. From the remarkable dynamic tensions of the compact body of the sculpture rise the figures of two athletes at the stirring moment of victory."[22]
This new trophy is not awarded to the winning nation permanently. World Cup winners retain the trophy until the next tournament and are awarded a gold-plated replica rather than the solid gold original.[23]

Format

Qualification

Since the second World Cup in 1934, qualifying tournaments have been held to thin the field for the final tournament.[24] They are held within the six FIFA continental zones (AfricaAsiaNorth and Central America and CaribbeanSouth AmericaOceania, and Europe), overseen by their respective confederations. For each tournament, FIFA decides the number of places awarded to each of the continental zones beforehand, generally based on the relative strength of the confederations' teams.
The qualification process can start as early as almost three years before the final tournament and last over a two-year period. The formats of the qualification tournaments differ between confederations. Usually, one or two places are awarded to winners of intercontinental play-offs. For example, the winner of the Oceanian zone and the fifth-placed team from the Asian zone entered a play-off for a spot in the 2010 World Cup.[25] From the 1938 World Cup onwards, host nations have received automatic qualification to the final tournament. This right was also granted to the defending champions between 1938 and 2002, but was withdrawn from the 2006 FIFA World Cup onward, requiring the champions to qualify. Brazil, winners in 2002, thus became the first defending champions to play in a qualifying match.[26]

Final tournament

The current final tournament features 32 national teams competing over a month in the host nation(s). There are two stages: the group stage followed by the knockout stage.[27]
In the group stage, teams compete within eight groups of four teams each. Eight teams are seeded, including the hosts, with the other seeded teams selected using a formula based on the FIFA World Rankings and/or performances in recent World Cups, and drawn to separate groups.[28] The other teams are assigned to different "pots", usually based on geographical criteria, and teams in each pot are drawn at random to the eight groups. Since 1998, constraints have been applied to the draw to ensure that no group contains more than two European teams or more than one team from any other confederation.[29]
Each group plays a round-robin tournament, guaranteeing that every team will play at least three matches. The last round of matches of each group is scheduled at the same time to preserve fairness among all four teams.[30] The top two teams from each group advance to the knockout stage. Points are used to rank the teams within a group. Since 1994three points have been awarded for a win, one for a draw and none for a loss (prior to this, winners received two points rather than three). If two or more teams end up with the same number of points,tiebreakers are used: first is goal difference, then total goals scored, then head-to-head results, and finally drawing of lots (i.e., determining team positions at random).[31]
The knockout stage is a single-elimination tournament in which teams play each other in one-off matches, with extra time and penalty shootouts used to decide the winner if necessary. It begins with the "round of 16" (or the second round) in which the winner of each group plays against the runner-up of another group. This is followed by the quarter-finals, the semi-finals, the third-place match (contested by the losing semi-finalists), and the final.[27]

Selection of hosts

Early World Cups were given to countries at meetings of FIFA's congress. The choice of location gave rise to controversies, a consequence of the three-week boat journey between South America and Europe, the two centres of strength in football. The decision to hold the first World Cup in Uruguay, for example, led to only four European nations competing.[32] The next two World Cups were both held in Europe. The decision to hold the second of these, the 1938 FIFA World Cup, in France was controversial, as the American countries had been led to understand that the World Cup would rotate between the two continents. Both Argentina and Uruguay thus boycotted the tournament.[33]
Since the 1958 FIFA World Cup, to avoid future boycotts or controversy, FIFA began a pattern of alternating the hosts between the Americas and Europe, which continued until the 1998 FIFA World Cup. The 2002 FIFA World Cup, hosted jointly by South Korea and Japan, was the first one held in Asia, and the only tournament with multiple hosts.[34] In 2010, South Africa will become the first African nation to host the World Cup. The 2014 FIFA World Cup will be hosted by Brazil, the first held in South America since 1978,[35] and will be the first occasion where consecutive World Cups are held outside Europe.
The host country is now chosen in a vote by FIFA's Executive Committee. This is done under asingle transferable vote system. The national football association of a country desiring to host the event receives a "Hosting Agreement" from FIFA, which explains the steps and requirements that are expected from a strong bid. The bidding association also receives a form, the submission of which represents the official confirmation of the candidacy. After this, a FIFA designated group of inspectors visit the country to identify that the country meets the requirements needed to host the event and a report on the country is produced. The decision on who will host the World Cup is usually made six or seven years in advance of the tournament. However, there have been occasions where the hosts of multiple future tournaments were announced at the same time, as will be the case for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.
For the 2010 and 2014 World Cups, the final tournament is rotated between confederations, allowing only countries from the chosen confederation (Africa in 2010, South America in 2014) to bid to host the tournament. The rotation policy was introduced after the controversysurrounding Germany's victory over South Africa in the vote to host the 2006 tournament. However, the policy of continental rotation will not continue beyond 2014, so any country, except those belonging to confederations that hosted the two preceding tournaments, can apply as hosts for World Cups starting from 2018.[36] This is partly to avoid a similar scenario to the bidding process for the 2014 tournament, where Brazil was the only official bidder.

Organisation and media coverage

The World Cup was first televised in 1954 and is now the most widely viewed and followed sporting event in the world, exceeding even theOlympic Games. The cumulative audience of all matches of the 2006 World Cup is estimated to be 26.29 billion.[1] 715.1 million individuals watched the final match of this tournament (a ninth of the entire population of the planet). The 2006 World Cup draw, which decided the distribution of teams into groups, was watched by 300 million viewers.[37]
Each FIFA World Cup since 1966 has its own mascot or logo. World Cup Willie, the mascot for the 1966 competition, was the first World Cup mascot.[38] Recent World Cups have also featured official match balls specially designed for each World Cup.

Results

Summaries of previous tournaments

YearHostFinalThird Place Match
WinnersScoreRunners-upThird PlaceScoreFourth Place
1930
Details
Uruguay
Uruguay
4–2
Argentina

United States
[note 1]
Yugoslavia
1934
Details
Italy
Italy
2–1
(a.e.t.)

Czechoslovakia

Germany
3–2
Austria
1938
Details
France
Italy
4–2
Hungary

Brazil
4–2
Sweden
1950
Details
Brazil
Uruguay
[note 2]
Brazil

Sweden
[note 2]
Spain
1954
Details
Switzerland
West Germany
3–2
Hungary

Austria
3–1
Uruguay
1958
Details
Sweden
Brazil
5–2
Sweden

France
6–3
West Germany
1962
Details
Chile
Brazil
3–1
Czechoslovakia

Chile
1–0
Yugoslavia
1966
Details
England
England
4–2
(a.e.t.)

West Germany

Portugal
2–1
Soviet Union
1970
Details
Mexico
Brazil
4–1
Italy

West Germany
1–0
Uruguay
1974
Details
West Germany
West Germany
2–1
Netherlands

Poland
1–0
Brazil
1978
Details
Argentina
Argentina
3–1
(a.e.t.)

Netherlands

Brazil
2–1
Italy
1982
Details
Spain
Italy
3–1
West Germany

Poland
3–2
France
1986
Details
Mexico
Argentina
3–2
West Germany

France
4–2
(a.e.t.)

Belgium
1990
Details
Italy
West Germany
1–0
Argentina

Italy
2–1
England
1994
Details
United States
Brazil
0–0
(a.e.t.)
(3–2 pens.)

Italy

Sweden
4–0
Bulgaria
1998
Details
France
France
3–0
Brazil

Croatia
2–1
Netherlands
2002
Details
Korea Republic
Japan

Brazil
2–0
Germany

Turkey
3–2
Korea Republic
2006
Details
Germany
Italy
1–1
(a.e.t.)
(5–3 pens.)

France

Germany
3–1
Portugal
2010
Details
South Africa
Notes
  1. ^ There was no official World Cup Third Place match in 1930; The United States and Yugoslavia lost in the semi-finals. FIFA now recognizes the United States as the third-placed team and Yugoslavia as the fourth-placed team, using the overall records of the teams in the tournament.[39]
  2. a b There was no official World Cup final match in 1950.[40] The tournament winner was decided by a final round-robin group contested by four teams (Uruguay, Brazil, Sweden, and Spain). However, Uruguay's 2–1 victory over Brazil was the decisive match (and also coincidentally one of the last two matches of the tournament) which put them ahead on points and ensured that they finished top of the group as world champions. Therefore, this match is often considered the final of the 1950 World Cup.[41] Likewise, Sweden's 3–1 victory over Spain (played at the same time as Uruguay vs Brazil) ensured that they finished third.

Map of winning countries
In all, 76 nations have played in at least one World Cup.[42] Of these, seven national teams have won the World Cup, and they have added stars to their crests, with each star representing a World Cup victory. (However, Uruguay are an exception to this unwritten rule; They choose to display four stars on their crest, representing their two gold medals at the 1924 and 1928 Summer Olympics and their two World Cup titles in 1930 and 1950). With five titles, Brazil are the most successful World Cup team and also the only nation to haveplayed in every World Cup to date.[43] Italy (1934 and 1938) and Brazil (1958 and 1962) are the only nations to have won consecutive titles. Brazil and Germany have both made the most appearances in the final, with seven, while Germany have made the most appearances in the top four, with eleven.
TeamTitlesRunners-upThird placeFourth place
 Brazil5 (19581962197019942002)2 (1950*1998)2 (19381978)1 (1974)
 Italy4 (1934*193819822006)2 (19701994)1 (1990*)1 (1978)
 Germany^3 (19541974*1990)4 (1966198219862002)3 (193419702006*)1 (1958)
 Argentina2 (1978*1986)2 (19301990)
 Uruguay2 (1930*1950)2 (19541970)
 France1 (1998*)1 (2006)2 (19581986)1 (1982)
 England1 (1966*)1 (1990)
 Netherlands2 (19741978)1 (1998)
 Czechoslovakia#2 (19341962)
 Hungary2 (19381954)
 Sweden1 (1958*)2 (19501994)1 (1938)
 Poland2 (19741982)
 Austria1 (1954)1 (1934)
 Portugal1 (1966)1 (2006)
 Chile1 (1962*)
 Croatia1 (1998)
 Turkey1 (2002)
 United States1 (1930)
 Yugoslavia#2 (19301962)
 Belgium1 (1986)
 Bulgaria1 (1994)
 Korea Republic1 (2002*)
 Soviet Union#1 (1966)
 Spain1 (1950)
* = hosts
^ = includes results representing West Germany between 1954 and 1990
# = states that have since split into two or more independent nations
Other nations have also been successful when hosting the tournament. Sweden (runners-up in 1958), Chile (third place in 1962), Korea Republic (fourth place in 2002), Mexico (quarter-finals in 1970 and 1986), and Japan (second round in 2002) all have their best results when serving as hosts. So far, all host nations have progressed beyond the first round.

Best performances by continental zones

Brazil's victory in 1958 in Sweden is the only time a non-European team won a World Cup in Europe. A European team has never won the World Cup outside of Europe, as all World Cups hosted in either South America, North America, or Asia have been won by a South American team. Only twice have consecutive World Cups been won by teams from the same continent – when Italy and Brazil successfully defended their titles in 1938 and 1962 respectively.

Awards

At the end of each World Cup, awards are presented to the players and teams for accomplishments other than their final team positions in the tournament. There are currently six awards:
  • The Golden Ball for the best player, determined by a vote of media members (first awarded in 1982); the Silver Ball and the Bronze Ballare awarded to the players finishing second and third in the voting respectively;
  • The Golden Shoe (sometimes called the Golden Boot) for the top goalscorer (first awarded in 1982, but retrospectively applied to all tournaments from 1930); most recently, the Silver Shoe and the Bronze Shoe have been awarded to the second and third top goalscorers respectively;
  • The Yashin Award for the best goalkeeper, decided by the FIFA Technical Study Group (first awarded in 1994);
  • The Best Young Player Award for the best player aged 21 or younger at the start of the calendar year, decided by the FIFA Technical Study Group (first awarded in 2006).
  • The FIFA Fair Play Trophy for the team with the best record of fair play, according to the points system and criteria established by the FIFA Fair Play Committee (first awarded in 1978);
  • The Most Entertaining Team for the team that has entertained the public the most during the World Cup, determined by a poll of the general public (first awarded in 1994);
  • An All-Star Team consisting of the best players of the tournament is also announced for each tournament since 1998.

Records and statistics

Two players share the record for playing in the most World Cups; Mexico's Antonio Carbajal and Germany's Lothar Matthäus both played in five tournaments.[50] Matthäus has played the most World Cup matches overall, with 25 appearances. Brazil's Pelé is the only player to have won three World Cup winners' medals,[52] with 20 other players who have won two World Cup medals.
The overall top goalscorer in World Cups is Brazil's Ronaldo, scorer of 15 goals in three tournaments. West Germany's Gerd Müller is second, with 14 goals in two tournaments. The third placed goalscorer, France's Just Fontaine, holds the record for the most goals scored in a single World Cup. All his 13 goals were scored in the 1958 tournament.
Brazil's Mário Zagallo and West Germany's Franz Beckenbauer are the only people to date to win the World Cup as both player and head coach. Zagallo won in 1958 and 1962 as a player and in 1970 as head coach.Beckenbauer won in 1974 as captain and in 1990 as head coach.Italy's Vittorio Pozzo is the only head coach to ever win two World Cups.All World Cup winning head coaches were natives of the country they coached to victory.
As of the end of the 2006 tournament, Brazil and Germany have both played 92 matches, the most by any nation, with Brazil scoring the most goals, 201.[59] The two teams have played each other only once in the World Cup, in the 2002 final.