document_title: Penny (The Big Bang Theory)

question_text: who was going to play penny in the big bang theory

text: Penny (The Big Bang Theory)

text: Personality[edit]

text: Originally from a small town outside of Omaha, Nebraska, Penny has aspirations of becoming an actress. Until season 7, she worked as a waitress at the local Cheesecake Factory.[5][6] She is a Sagittarius, born on December 2.[7] She has full confidence in horoscopes and psychics, which has led to arguments with Sheldon and Leonard about their accuracy.[6][7]

text: In contrast to the rest of the group, Penny is not well educated nor savvy in a specific technical field, but she has great social skills and is more streetwise than her neighbors. She is very knowledgeable about popular culture.[8] She is messy and disorganized but appears to like it that way.[9] Having dropped out of community college prior to the start of the series, she is the only regular character with less education than Howard Wolowitz, who has a master's degree. She initially feels insulted when Leonard shows her a list of community colleges to go to at the beginning of season 2, but in season 6, she does go back to college, taking a history class. By the middle of the season, she is also taking an acting class, and at the beginning of season 7, she is taking a psychology class as well. Despite her weak education, she is insightful. While Sheldon routinely disparages both Penny's and Howard's educations, he occasionally acknowledges her intelligence and potential, though he rarely treats Howard so. He has also asked for her advice more than once regarding various social situations.

text: Leonard has likened her to The Hulk when she gets angry,[10] while Sheldon once said to recurring character Stuart Bloom that she would "maul [him] like a rabid wolverine" if Stuart woke her up from a sound sleep.[11]

text: A recurring theme is Penny's poor driving. She fails to service her vehicle regularly, and ignores her check engine light, which has been mentioned in multiple episodes.[12][13] She once left her car's passenger side wing mirror in a parking lot.[14] She once hit a Mercedes in a parking lot and left without leaving a note.[15] She also inadvertently reveals that she knocked the mirror off Bernadette's car and did not leave a note.[16] When her car's engine finally fails in Season 7, Leonard buys her a new one so she can go to auditions and pursue her dream of becoming an actress. In Season 8, after finding a job as a highly paid pharmaceutical sales representative at Bernadette's company, she obtains a company car and sells the one Leonard bought for her, returning him the money.[17]

text: In the fifth-season episode "The Speckerman Recurrence", it is revealed that Penny was a bully during her time at school. However, she seems to be genuinely unaware of the hurt her actions caused, and upon her realization, she attempts to make amends with a classmate she tormented, with little success.[18]

text: A recurring personality trait is her consumption of alcohol, specifically wine. In "The Flaming Spittoon Acquisition", Penny, while spending the evening with Bernadette and Amy, observes that they have finished the bottle of wine, and when Bernadette and Amy point out that they consumed only half a glass and no wine at all, respectively, Penny snaps, "Okay, don't judge me! So, what do you want to do, go to the movies, go dancing, lay down for a little bit?" At the end of that episode, she passes out while the three of them play Twister, and when Bernadette initially fails to revive her, she says "Penny, we're out of wine", which manages to wake Penny. In "The Intimacy Acceleration", Sheldon asks her, "If you could wake up tomorrow having gained any one quality or ability, what would it be?" Penny replied, “Well, not to steal from the Bible, but turning water into wine sounds pretty good.”. In "The Locomotive Manipulation", Leonard declines Amy's suggestion that the group spend a weekend in Napa Valley, leading to this exchange:

text: Interaction with Sheldon[edit]

text: A staple of the series' humor is Penny's awkward interactions with Sheldon, which are fueled by the fact that they are almost polar opposites in terms of intellect and social aptitude.

text: In one episode, Sheldon tries to "improve" Penny, rewarding her with chocolate for what he considers "correct behavior", as in operant conditioning of lab rats. Leonard noticed it and accused Sheldon of modifying her like Pavlov's dogs.[19] Although the two characters sometimes clash, and Penny is frequently irritated by Sheldon's obstinacy and lack of social awareness, she has developed an affection for him. She and Leonard occasionally behave as if Sheldon were their child (once alluded to in season 11's "The Collaboration Contamination" when Penny actually uses a parenting book of Bernadette's on Sheldon), and Penny is very pleased whenever Sheldon acts tenderly towards her. Penny often calls Sheldon "sweetie", a term of endearment she frequently uses with other characters (a fact that Sheldon has himself pointed out), and Penny and Amy are the only principal characters who ever openly demonstrate their genuine fondness for Sheldon.

text: Evidence of Penny's affection for Sheldon is apparent in various episodes. Penny takes care of Sheldon while he is ill[20] and lets him stay at her apartment when he is locked out of his, or if he has a bad dream or is feeling unsafe;[21] Sheldon lent her money when she needed it[22] and takes care of her when she dislocates her shoulder.[14] Despite not being as well versed as the men in geek culture, Penny has shown attention to what each of her friends likes, although she still remains dismissive of them: during a Christmas episode, Penny gives Sheldon a signed napkin autographed by Leonard Nimoy. In return, Sheldon gives Penny several baskets of bath products and then a long hug, to both her and Leonard's surprise. When Sheldon's World of Warcraft account is hacked and the four men all back down from the much larger hacker who also steals Sheldon's Klingon Bat'leth, Penny kicks the hacker in the groin. Following her breakup with Leonard, Penny takes Sheldon along when she and some friends from work went to Disneyland, for which he is thankful. In the same episode, "The Spaghetti Catalyst", she notes that she takes Sheldon shopping for his linens. (This episode also shows her and Leonard acting like a divorced couple and Sheldon is their "son", a dynamic that recurs in successive seasons). She has also helped Sheldon resolve conflicts with Amy, as in "The Shiny Trinket Maneuver".

text: In "The Panty Pinata Polarization" Penny has a fight with Sheldon as he banishes her from his apartment and using their Wi-Fi as she got "three strikes". She defends herself by refusing to take down his order at the restaurant and then ruins his weekly Saturday laundry night but then he puts Penny's underwear on the telephone wire. After having a heated argument with his mother, Sheldon apologises to Penny and then they make amends with one another.

text: Sheldon has also acknowledged that he likes Penny, although he claims this was only because he was forced to because Leonard "made him", and that Sheldon liking her was a "hard row to hoe",[23] although in "The Intimacy Acceleration" Sheldon has admitted that he considers Penny a sisterly or motherly figure.

text: Nerd traits[edit]

text: A number of episodes depict Penny's assimilation of nerd culture through her relationship with the men, and has developed to quote some science fiction shows (like Star Trek), and movies (Star Wars). After Sheldon introduces her to the online role-playing game Age of Conan, Penny becomes addicted, to the point of ignoring her friends, her hygiene, her general appearance and her job, and pesters Sheldon incessantly for gaming advice. She finally overcomes her addiction when she realizes she has agreed to go on a virtual date within the game with Howard.[24]

text: In episodes such as "The Apology Insufficiency", "The Dead Hooker Juxtaposition", "The Wheaton Recurrence" and "The Love Car Displacement", she makes casual references to Star Trek.[25] In "The Bakersfield Expedition", Penny, Amy and Bernadette read some of the men's comics, believing there is nothing interesting in them, only to get into a huge heated argument about whether or not only Thor could wield his enchanted hammer Mjolnir.[26] In season 7's "The Proton Transmogrification", she alarms herself when she realizes that she understands Raj and Howard's corny Star Wars-related puns.

text: Penny sometimes references science and technology-related ideas. In "The Codpiece Topology", Penny, having previously learned of Schrödinger's cat in "The Tangerine Factor", is seen explaining that concept to her date. In "The Beta Test Initiation", Penny references beta testing when Leonard uses a software development analogy, to describe their attempt to start a romantic relationship again, although he points out he was technically talking about alpha testing. In "The Veracity Elasticity" she demonstrates fluency in Ubbi Dubbi by having a secret conversation with Amy Farrah Fowler in front of Sheldon and Leonard, when the guys are having their own secret conversation in Klingon.

text: Financial issues[edit]

text: A recurring theme throughout the series is Penny's ongoing financial problems. This is seen in "The Financial Permeability", when she finds herself behind on her bills, and borrows money from Sheldon, only to later become paranoid that he is pestering her for repayment, even though he makes no such indications of this - he misinterprets Penny's paranoia and even offers her more money, while Leonard points out that one of the few things about Sheldon that isn't insufferable is that he genuinely doesn't care about how long it will take to repay the money. More subtle references are seen in the fact that she once attempted to pay for her electric bill using a Starbucks gift card, an apology note and pictures of her in underwear.[27]

text: A subset of this trait is addressed by other characters is her freeloading. In the second-season episode "The Financial Permeability", when Penny is short on money, Leonard pays for her share of a group dinner, which causes Raj and Howard to joke that they would get free food too if they wore skintight jeans and a tank top. A recurring gag in the fourth season is Sheldon's frequent change of his and Leonard's Wi-Fi password to address Penny's use of their signal. In "The Thespian Catalyst", he changes the password to "Penny is a freeloader",[28] in "The Roommate Transmogrification" he has changed it to "Penny, get your own Wi-Fi",[29] and in the episode "The Speckerman Recurrence", he has changed it into "Penny already eats our food, she can pay for Wi-Fi". In the seventh season "The Convention Conundrum", when the women go out for drinks, and ponder their own maturity, and Penny questions the significance of that trait, Bernadette replies that it would mean that their check would be split three ways.[16]

text: Penny's financial situation takes a turn at the start of season eight, when she lands a job in "The Locomotion Interruption" as a sales representative at the pharmaceutical company at which Bernadette works. By "The Expedition Approximation", she is making enough money to be financially self-sufficient, able to sell the automobile Leonard previously gave her ("The Friendship Turbulence") and gives him back the money for it—changing their dynamic and leading to discussions on whether her future financial windfalls may prove difficult for him, given his insecurities. This situation was later exacerbated when it was revealed that Penny now actually earns significantly more than Leonard.

text: In the season nine episode "The Big Bear Precipitation", Penny reveals she hates her job as a representative but sticks with it because she still has large debts and also does not want to go back to waitressing or acting.

text: Family[edit]

text: In "The Maternal Capacitance", Penny reveals that her father Wyatt (Keith Carradine)[30] tried to raise her like a boy, which is a source of pain for her, leading her to have father issues. When she and Leonard begin dating, Wyatt comes to appreciate that she is dating an accomplished academic, rather than an uneducated hick, so much so that when he visits Penny in the fourth-season episode "The Boyfriend Complexity" following her and Leonard's breakup, it is revealed that she has not revealed the breakup to her father. When she later informs Wyatt of the breakup, Wyatt secretly encourages Leonard to not give up on her. In contrast to all other characters, Penny and her father's last name have not been revealed. Co-creator Bill Prady stated that Penny's last name will be revealed eventually.[31] Executive producer Steve Molaro, however, has since stated her last name will remain a secret.[32]

text: In an early episode, Penny talked to Raj about her sister having shot her brother-in-law.[9] In another episode, Penny accompanied the men to the comic book store to shop for a gift for her 13-year-old nephew.[11] In "The Boyfriend Complexity" (4–9), Wyatt (Penny's father) tells Leonard he wants grandchildren one day, "and I want them to grow up on a house without wheels".[30] In "The Dumpling Paradox", Penny has an unwanted guest, Christy, staying with her who had slept with her brother while being engaged to her cousin, saying, "she's kind of family". Christy knows Penny from back in Omaha and, according to Penny, she slept with nearly every man in the city, earning her the nickname "Whore of Omaha". While staying with Penny, Christy sleeps with Howard.[33]

text: In the Season 5 episode "The Pulled Groin Extrapolation", after Penny quickly grabs and eats the last dumpling of a group dinner after a brief disagreement over who should get it, Sheldon makes the sarcastic comment, "I've seen pictures of your mother. Keep eating", a reference to Penny's mother's weight, that clearly unsettles her. In "The Flaming Spittoon Acquisition", Penny confesses to Bernadette that her mother smoked pot while she was pregnant with her.

text: Penny has mentioned having a sister who appears to be the mother of her 13-year-old nephew mentioned in Season 2. In "The Bachelor Party Corrosion", Penny tells Bernadette, Amy and viewers that at her sister's wedding she was heavily pregnant since she and their father started a father-daughter dance and then her water broke.

text: Penny has mentioned having a brother on parole, who she says is "kind of a chemist". In "The Rhinitis Revelation" (5–6), she is more explicit in revealing that he is in the practice of cooking crystal meth.[34] She mentions that he is back in prison for 12–18 months, depending on his behavior, in the seventh-season finale, "The Status Quo Combustion".

text: Penny's mother Susan, who Penny has occasionally spoken with on the phone in prior episodes (usually about other family members), finally appears in the Season 10 premiere episode "The Conjugal Conjecture", portrayed by Katey Sagal. She is shown to be very embarrassed by her family's shortcomings: her son's criminal record and jailing, Wyatt's drinking, and their overall humble existence as a farming family. Although she has previously met Leonard and likes him, she is uncomfortable about meeting his academic parents, not wanting them to think of her family as "white trash". She goes to great lengths to present them in the best possible light, including buying dental implants for her son.

text: Work[edit]

text: Until the seventh season, Penny's main job was as a waitress at her local The Cheesecake Factory, although in the first-season episode "The Grasshopper Experiment" she trained as a bartender. It seemed that she occasionally picked up the bartending shift in the restaurant. In 2010, when actress Kaley Cuoco broke her leg, Penny was shown working as a bartender in several season 4 episodes to hide the cast on her leg.

text: Her work at The Cheesecake Factory, was initially meant to be a temporary job for her desired profession as an actress, although her expectations are somewhat high and naive at the beginning. She admits in season two that her plan was to be a waitress for six months and then become a movie star, and her back-up plan was to become a TV star. She regularly goes to castings, but often ends up unsuccessful, or finding the role being auditioned to be quite different from what she expected, as was the case when she thought she was auditioning for a cat food commercial and it instead turned out to be a casting for a pornographic film. In the season one episode "The Loobenfeld Decay", she is cast in a production of Rent, and in "The Terminator Decoupling" she refers to another of her roles as "Anne Frank in a theater above a bowling alley". Frustrated with her acting career, in the season five premiere, she briefly considers returning to Nebraska until landing a part in a commercial for hemorrhoid cream. In "The Monster Isolation", Penny is seen performing the role of Blanche DuBois in her acting class' production of A Streetcar Named Desire. In this episode Sheldon, who attended the show along with Leonard and Amy, is impressed with Penny's ability to memorize lines, but still couldn't remember customers' orders as a waitress. In the season seven premiere, she was revealed to have had a topless shower scene in a low budget horror film named "Serial Apeist" when she first moved to California, which she did not realise had been uploaded to the internet until Sheldon revealed it was available online and the gang saw it on the day they met her.

text: In the season seven episode "The Hesitation Ramification", Penny believes she has finally found stardom when she lands a brief role in NCIS. She is devastated when her scene is cut, but later decides it is time to focus solely on acting; she quits her job at The Cheesecake Factory to devote herself to become an actress.

text: Despite usually going to her neighbors for technical assistance when she has problems with her computer, Penny does have some mechanical skills of her own. When she was a child, she rebuilt a tractor engine on the farm where she grew up[9] and competed in a junior rodeo.[35]

text: During season eight, Penny gives up her acting career and gets a job as a salesperson at Bernadette's pharmaceutical company. The next season has Penny admitting that she hates her job flirting with her customers for sales.

text: Relationships[edit]

text: Unlike the rest of the main characters, Penny is very outgoing and assertive, and has many romantic relationships over the course of the series. She often dates, and in one way or another all the men have gone to her for dating advice. In the fourth season opener, Sheldon estimates that Penny has dated 193 men, and had sex with 31 of them. Penny strenuously denies it was ever that many. Amy asks Penny in the same conversation if, in light of her sex partners, she considers herself a "slut", Penny responds uncertainly, "No. No. ... No?"[12]

text: In the series premiere, Penny moves in across the hall from Leonard and Sheldon because of her recent split from her boyfriend, Kurt, after living together for four years. She says she still loves him, even though he cheated on her.[6] Kurt makes two more appearances in the series.[22][36]

text: From the beginning,[6] Leonard's infatuation with Penny becomes a major force that drives the series. Howard also shows interest in her (primarily sexual), but he is always rejected abruptly due to his unsettling approaches. Although Penny occasionally teases Raj for his inability to speak to her, she is sympathetic and kind towards him, and as with Sheldon, she almost always overlooks his idiosyncrasies and appreciates that his intentions are good.

text: In the first-season episode "The Fuzzy Boots Corollary", Penny describes her approach after a failed relationship: she picks up an attractive man to have rebound sex with over the course of a 36-hour weekend, then leaves him.[37]

text: In the first-season finale, Penny breaks up with her boyfriend after he posts intimate details about their private life on his blog. This gives Leonard the opportunity to ask her out on a first official date.[38] Although the date is successful, Penny becomes worried after she lies to Leonard about graduating from community college (it is mentioned in a later episode, "The Cohabitation Formulation", that she was enrolled in one, but dropped out). When Sheldon asks her why she lied, she indicates that she is self-conscious about her comparative level of education. Leonard eventually learns the truth, but makes matters worse when he tries to encourage Penny to enroll in Pasadena City College, as Penny interprets his suggestion as an insult to her intelligence, and rebuffs him.[39]

text: In "The Maternal Capacitance", Penny's introduction to Leonard's mother, Dr. Beverly Hofstadter, causes Penny and Leonard to seek comfort in each other. They nearly have sex, but when Leonard comments in bed that she was attracted to him because of a psychological need to be closer to her father, her revulsion at this causes her to rebuff him.[40]

text: Afterwards, Penny dates Stuart, from the comic book store, but their dates do not lead to a relationship. The first time, Penny and Stuart are interrupted by Sheldon, who argues at length with Stuart over whether Dick Grayson or Jason Todd should be Batman's successor, while Penny falls to sleep.[11] Their dating ends in "The Classified Materials Turbulence", when Penny and Stuart are kissing, and Penny mistakenly calls him "Leonard".[41]

text: In the second-season finale Penny finally shows strong romantic feelings for Leonard. When she discovers that Leonard, Sheldon, Howard, and Raj will be spending three months at the magnetic North Pole for a scientific experiment, she becomes sad and gives Leonard a Snuggie and a long hug, that Leonard perceives as unusually long. Although Penny dismisses the meaning into which Leonard reads the gift and the hug, she later admits to herself that it meant that she did not want him to leave.[42]

text: In the third-season premiere, after the men returned from the expedition, Penny kisses Leonard immediately upon his return, having missed him immensely.[43] Initially, Leonard and Penny feel uncomfortable with their new relationship, and they agreed to remain only friends, but are unable to maintain this resolution and began a stable relationship.[44] Their relationship sours, however, when Leonard tells Penny he loves her for the first time, and an unsure Penny simply replied, "Thank you." The resulting tension eventually led to Penny breaking up with Leonard during a bowling match.[45] However, they remain friends and even sleep together once after breaking up after Penny gets drunk following a bad date with Zack Johnson, after she realizes Leonard ruined her ability to tolerate and date unintelligent men.[46]

text: In the fourth season, Penny reveals to her friends Bernadette Rostenkowski and Amy Farrah Fowler during a "Truth or Dare?" game that she has still not moved on from Leonard. This is further implied in "The Justice League Recombination" when she indicates to Leonard that her reunion with Zack, and Zack's decision to have the two of them join the men in dressing up as the Justice League for New Year's Eve costume party at Stuart's comic shop is made difficult by her history with Leonard. In "The Love Car Displacement", Penny and the rest of the cast attend an academic conference in Big Sur. She and Leonard share the same hotel room for the night and they almost have sex until Raj walks in on them. The next day, bored with the conference, Penny accepts a ride back to Los Angeles from Professor Glenn, Bernadette's tall and attractive ex-boyfriend. When Raj's sister, Priya, returns in the episode "The Cohabitation Formulation", Priya and Leonard begin a romantic relationship. Penny appears to be initially accepting of their relationship, but is later discovered by Amy to be heartbroken over it.

text: In the Season four finale, Penny reveals to Raj that she regrets breaking up with Leonard. However, even though she and Raj both agree to be friends, they get drunk and wake up in bed together, apparently both naked, the next morning. Leonard, Sheldon, and Howard discover Penny leaving the apartment, deducing that they just had sex. In the Season 5 premiere, Raj confides to her that they had not consummated their encounter, prompting Penny to refer to Raj as "Quickdraw" because of that. She spends the rest of the episode with Amy, avoiding the men due to her embarrassment over her encounter with Raj

text: In "The Ornithophobia Diffusion" Leonard and Penny go on a platonic date as friends, but after Leonard decides that he does not have to pay for everything or defer to her because they are not a couple, they end up bickering and sabotaging each other's attempts to socialize with members of the opposite sex. Penny realizes that she finds Leonard's more assertive demeanor attractive, but when he regresses to groveling in order to have sex with her, she rebuffs him.

text: On the spur of the moment in "The Recombination Hypothesis", Leonard asks Penny out on a date after he imagines what getting back with her might be like. In "The Beta Test Initiation", their date goes well until Leonard asks about the status of their relationship. This causes conflict, due to Penny's subsequent admission that commitment frightens her, but they agree to take their relationship slowly. On a spur of the moment while having sex in "The Launch Acceleration", however, Leonard proposes to her, causing Penny great distress. After discussing the matter, Penny declines his proposal, while affirming her feelings for him, and her desire to remain with him. In the season 6 episode "The Date Night Variable", Leonard wants a reluctant Penny to define their relationship. In "The Decoupling Fluctuation", she wonders if she is really in love with him, but cannot bring herself to discuss it with Leonard. In "The Date Night Variable", Raj shows up unannounced at a private dinner of Penny and Leonard's, and inserts himself into their discussion of where their relationship is headed. When Leonard complains that Penny has yet to say "I love you" to Leonard, Raj attempts to get her to say it, causing Penny to eject him from the apartment.

text: In "The 43 Peculiarity", Leonard becomes jealous of Penny's classmate, an attractive Englishman. At the end of the episode, Penny and Leonard discuss this, during which Penny casually mentions that she loves him, which Leonard notes is the first time she has said this to him. In "The Egg Salad Equivalency" Penny learns that Sheldon's attractive assistant Alex asked Leonard out to dinner and eventually admits to Leonard her own insecurity about their relationship. After a major argument with Sheldon, Leonard suggests moving in with Penny in "The Spoiler Alert Segmentation", but she indicates that she is not ready for this. In "The Tangible Affection Proof", Leonard again tries to propose to Penny on Valentine's Day, but she expresses that she is not ready for this, and is unnerved by that level of commitment. They resolve that when she is ready to get married, she can propose to him. In "The Bon Voyage Reaction", Penny deals with Leonard going off to Europe for a summer science assignment, resolving that they are more secure in their relationship.

text: In "The Hesitation Ramification", Penny, inebriated and frustrated over the state of her acting career, proposes to Leonard, who is hesitant to answer, given the circumstances. Though this further frustrates Penny, she admits in the following episode, "The Occupation Recalibration", that Leonard did the right thing.

text: By season 5, Penny has formed strong friendships with Doctors Amy Farrah Fowler and Bernadette Rostenkowski, and the three are often seen spending time together. However, Amy and Bernadette occasionally prefer to meet without Penny, and often tease her incessantly.

text: In the penultimate episode of season 7, "The Gorilla Dissolution", she and Leonard become engaged, after Penny realizes that it is not fame she wants out of life, but happiness with Leonard. Throughout season 8, a running gag is their reluctance to decide upon a wedding date. In the season 8 finale, Penny asks Leonard to marry her that night in Las Vegas. Leonard happily accepts, but during the journey, after Penny expresses happiness that they will get married while knowing everything about each other, Leonard confesses to having shared a drunken kiss with another woman while on the boat in Europe, though he adds that the woman started it and he rejected her. Penny becomes hurt by the revelation, and even though she claims to forgive Leonard, there is clearly tension between them, leaving the season ending in a cliffhanger as to whether or not they will go through with the wedding.

text: At the beginning of season 9, Leonard and Penny marry, although not without some initial problems. They both reveal that they were subconsciously trying to sabotage their relationship, feeling unworthy of the other. After an aborted attempt for Leonard to move into Penny's apartment and live with his wife, Sheldon forces them to spend most of the nights a week in Leonard's old room. Although CBS now refers to the character with the married name Penny Hofstadter, it has not been explicitly indicated in series whether she took Leonard's surname.[47] In season 10, Sheldon moves into Penny's old apartment with Amy allowing Penny and Leonard to live on their own as husband and wife.

text: Development[edit]

text: In the original, unaired pilot of the series, the conception of the female lead was very different. She was called Katie, and was envisioned as "a street-hardened, tough-as-nails woman with a vulnerable interior". Sheldon and Leonard would "approach her with honesty, to draw the real, sensitive Katie out".[31] The role was played by Amanda Walsh.[48] However, the test audiences reacted to the character negatively, seeing her as too mean. Because of this, the character was changed, and the role was recast.[31]

text: Tom Jicha of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel praised Cuoco's portrayal of Penny, stating: "Her character had the potential to be a bimbo, but she [Cucco] has developed it into a fully fleshed-out woman, who isn't as book-smart as the other characters but is wiser in so many ways. She's also a great straight person, who can get off zingers of her own".[49]


document_title: Education in Canada

question_text: what age does a child start school in canada

root

text: Education in Canada

text: Canada-wide[edit]

text: Elementary, secondary, and post-secondary education in Canada is a provincial responsibility and there are many variations between the provinces. The federal government's responsibilities in education are limited to the Royal Military College of Canada, and funding the education of indigenous peoples.

tag: p

text: About one out of ten Canadians does not have a high school diploma – one in seven has a university degree – the adult population that is without a high school diploma is a combination of both immigrant and Canadian-born. In many places, publicly funded high school courses are offered to the adult population. The ratio of high school graduates versus non diploma-holders is changing rapidly, partly due to changes in the labour market that require people to have a high school diploma and, in many cases, a university degree. Nonetheless, more than 51% of Canadians have a college degree, the highest rate in the world by far.[20] The majority of schools, at 67%, are co-educational.

text: Canada spends about 5.4% of its GDP on education.[12] The country invests heavily in tertiary education (more than 20 000 USD per student).[21] Recent reports suggest that from 2006 the tuition fees of Canadian universities have increased by 40 percent.[22] Since the adoption of section 23 of the Constitution Act, 1982, education in both English and French has been available in most places across Canada (if the population of children speaking the minority language justifies it), although French Second Language education/French Immersion is available to anglophone students across Canada.

text: According to an announcement of Canadian Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, Canada is introducing a new, fast-track system to let foreign students and graduates with Canadian work experience become permanent eligible residents in Canada.[23]

text: Most schools have introduced one or more initiatives such as programs in Native studies, antiracism, Aboriginal cultures and crafts; visits by elders and other community members; and content in areas like indigenous languages, Aboriginal spirituality, indigenous knowledge of nature, and tours to indigenous heritage sites.[24] Although these classes are offered, most appear to be limited by the area or region in which students reside. "The curriculum is designed to elicit development and quality of people's cognition through the guiding of accommodations of individuals to their natural environment and their changing social order"[25]

text: Subjects that typically get assessed (i.e., language arts, mathematics, and science) assume greater importance than non-assessed subjects (i.e., music, visual arts, and physical education) or facets of the curriculum (i.e., reading and writing versus speaking and listening).[26]

text: Some scholars view academics as a form of "soft power" helping to educate and to create positive attitudes,[27] although there is criticism that educators are merely telling students what to think, instead of how to think for themselves, and using up a large proportion of classroom time in the process.[28][29] Efforts to keep students happy and socially conscious often come at the expense of academic achievement. Social promotion policies, grade inflation, lack of corrective feedback for students, teaching methods that slow the development of basic skills compared to past decades, reform mathematics, and failure to objectively track student progress have collectively forced high schools and colleges to lower their academic standards.[30][31][32]

text: Divisions by religion and language[edit]

text: The Constitution of Canada provides constitutional protections for some types of publicly funded religious-based and language-based school systems.

text: The Constitution Act, 1867 contains a guarantee for publicly funded religious-based separate schools, provided the separate schools were established by law prior to the province joining Confederation. Court cases have established that this provision did not apply to Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Manitoba, British Columbia, and Prince Edward Island, since those provinces did not provide a legal guarantee for separate schools prior to Confederation. The provision did originally apply to Ontario, Quebec, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and Newfoundland and Labrador, since these provinces did have pre-existing separate schools. This constitutional provision was repealed in Quebec by a constitutional amendment in 1997, and for Newfoundland and Labrador in 1998. The constitutional provision continues to apply to Ontario, Saskatchewan and Alberta. There is a similar federal statutory provision which applies to the Northwest Territories.

text: Section 23 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees the right of citizens who were educated in the minority language in a particular province to have their children educated in the minority language in publicly funded schools. In practice, this guarantee means that there are publicly funded English schools in Quebec, and publicly funded French schools in the other provinces and the territories.

text: Quebec students must attend a French school up until the end of high school unless one of their parents qualifies as a rights-holder under s.23 of the Charter. In Ontario, French language schools automatically admit students recognized under section 23 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and may admit non-francophone students through the board's admissions committee consisting of the school principal, a school superintendent and a teacher.

text: Length of study[edit]

text: Most education programs in Canada begin in kindergarten (age five) or grade one (age six) and go to grade twelve (age 17 or 18), except in Quebec, where students finish a year earlier. After completion of a secondary school diploma, students may go on to post-secondary studies.

text: Authorities[edit]

text: Normally, for each type of publicly funded school (such as Public English or Public French), the province is divided into districts (or divisions). For each district, board members (trustees) are elected only by its supporters within the district (voters receive a ballot for just one of the boards in their area). Normally, all publicly funded schools are under the authority of their local district school board. These school boards would follow a common curriculum set up by the province the board resides in. Only Alberta allows public charter schools, which are independent of any district board. Instead, they each have their own board, which reports directly to the province.

text: Pre-university[edit]

text: Primary education and secondary education combined are sometimes referred to as K-12 (Kindergarten through Grade 12). Secondary schooling, known as high school, collegiate institute, école secondaire or secondary school, consists of different grades depending on the province in which one resides. Furthermore, grade structure may vary within a province or even within a school division and may or may not include middle school or junior high school.

text: Kindergarten (or its equivalent) is available for children in all provinces in the year they turn five (except Ontario and Quebec, where it begins a year earlier), but the names of these programs, provincial funding, and the number of hours provided varies widely. For example, the Department of Education in Nova Scotia refers to Kindergarten as Grade Primary.[33]

text: Ontario offers two years of optional kindergarten (junior kindergarten for four-year-olds and senior kindergarten for five-year-olds). At French schools in Ontario, these programs are called Maternelle and Jardin.[34] In 2010, Ontario increased both years to full-day programs, while BC's single year of kindergarten became full-day in 2012. Quebec offers heavily subsidized preschool programs and introduced an early kindergarten program for children from low-income families in 2013. Students in the Prairie provinces are not required by statute to attend kindergarten. As a result, kindergarten often is not available in smaller towns.

text: Dependent on the province the age of mandatory entry to the education system is at 4–7 years. Starting at grade one, at age six or seven, there is universal publicly funded access up to grade twelve (age seventeen to eighteen), except in Quebec, where secondary school ends one year earlier. Children are required to attend school until the age of sixteen (eighteen in Manitoba, Ontario, and New Brunswick). In Quebec, the typical high school term ends after Secondary V/Grade eleven (age sixteen to seventeen); following this, students who wish to pursue their studies to the university level have to attend college (see Education in Quebec). Quebec is currently the only province where Grade 12 is part of postsecondary, though Grade 11 was also the end of secondary education in Newfoundland and Labrador prior to the introduction of grade 12 in 1983.

text: Ontario had a "Grade 13" known as Ontario Academic Credit (OAC) year, but this was abolished in 2003 by the provincial government to cut costs. As a result, the curriculum has been compacted, and the more difficult subjects, such as mathematics, are comparatively harder than before. However, the system is now approximately equivalent to what has been the case outside of Quebec and Ontario for many years.

text: Students may continue to attend high school until the ages of 19 to 21 (the cut-off age for high school varies between provinces). Those 19 and over may attend adult school. Students of high school age who have received long-term suspensions or have been expelled, or are otherwise unable or unwilling to attend conventional schools may be offered alternative learning options to complete their secondary education, such as drop-in programs, night school, or distance/online classes.

text: An increasing number of international students are attending pre-university courses at Canadian high schools.

text: History[edit]

text: Post-secondary education[edit]

text: Post-secondary education in Canada is also the responsibility of the individual provinces and territories. Those governments provide the majority of funding to their public post-secondary institutions, with the remainder of funding coming from tuition fees, the federal government, and research grants. Compared to other countries in the past, Canada has had the highest tertiary school enrollment as a percentage of their graduating population.[36]

text: Nearly all post-secondary institutions in Canada have the authority to grant academic credentials (i.e., diplomas or degrees). Generally speaking, universities grant degrees (e.g., bachelor's, master's or doctorate degrees) while colleges, which typically offer vocationally oriented programs, grant diplomas and certificates. However, some colleges offer applied arts degrees that lead to or are equivalent to degrees from a university. Private career colleges are overseen by legislative acts for each province. For example, in British Columbia training providers will be registered and accredited with the (PCTIA) Private Career Training Institutions Agency regulated under the Private Career Training Institutions Act (SBC 2003) [37] Each province with their own correlating agency. Unlike the United States, there is no "accreditation body" that oversees the universities in Canada. Universities in Canada have degree-granting authority via an Act or Ministerial Consent from the Ministry of Education of the particular province.

text: Post-secondary education in Quebec begins with college following graduation from Grade 11 (or Secondary V). Students complete a two- or three-year general program leading to admission to a university, or a professional program leading directly into the labour force. In most cases, bachelor's degree programs in Quebec are three years instead of the usual four; however, in many cases, students attending a university in Quebec that did not graduate from college must complete an additional year of coursework. When Ontario had five years of high school, a three-year bachelor's degree was common, but these degrees are being phased out in favour of the four-year degree.

text: The main variation between the provinces, with respect to the universities, is the amount of funding they receive and the amount of tuition and other fees they charge.

text: The Royal Military College of Canada (RMC), is the military academy of the Canadian Forces and is a full degree-granting university. RMC is the only federal institution with degree-granting powers.

text: Private schools[edit]

text: About 5.6% of students are in private schools.[38] A minority of these are elite private schools, which are attended by only a small fraction of students, but do have a great deal of prestige and prominence. A far larger portion of private schools are religious based institutions. Private schools are also used to study outside the country. For example, Canadian College Italy has an Ontario curriculum, but the school is located in Italy.

text: Private schools have historically been less common on the Canadian Prairies and were often forbidden under municipal and provincial statutes enacted to provide equality of education to students regardless of family income. This is especially true in Alberta, where successive Social Credit (or populist conservative) governments denounced the concept of private education as the main cause of denial of opportunity to the children of the working poor.

text: Private universities[edit]

text: In the past, private universities in Canada maintained a religious history or foundation. However, since 1999, the Province of New Brunswick passed the Degree Granting Act[39] allowing private universities to operate in the Province.[40][41] The University of Fredericton is the newest university to receive designation in New Brunswick.

text: Trinity Western University, in Langley British Columbia, was founded in 1962 as a junior college and received full accreditation in 1985. In 2002, British Columbia's Quest University became the first privately funded liberal arts university without a denominational affiliation (although it is not the first private liberal arts university). Many provinces, including Ontario and Alberta, have passed legislation allowing private degree-granting institutions (not necessarily universities) to operate there.

text: Many Canadians remain polarized on the issue of permitting private universities into the Canadian market. On the one hand, Canada's top universities find it difficult to compete with the private American powerhouses because of funding, but on the other hand, the fact that the price of private universities tends to exclude those who cannot pay that much for their education could prevent a significant portion of Canada's population from being able to attend these schools.

text: In addition to the issue of access, some Canadians find issue with protections instituted within the Charter of Rights and Freedoms as ruled by the Supreme Court of Canada in 2001 and consistent with federal and provincial law that (private) faith-based universities in Canada based on the long established principles of freedom of conscience and religion can exempt itself from more recent human rights legislation when they insist in their “community covenant” code signed by staff, faculty and students that they act in accordance with the faith of the school. The covenant may require restraint from those acts considered in contradiction with the tenets of their faith such as homosexual relationships, sex outside marriage or more broadly abstain from consuming alcohol on campus or viewing pornography.[42] However, private-Christian based schools do not preclude homosexual or lesbian students from attending.[43] Some faith-based universities have been known to fire staff and faculty which refused to adhere or whose actions were in opposition with the tenets of the faith, although in some provinces, their dismissals have been successfully challenged in court based on the circumstances.[44]

text: Religious schools[edit]

text: Each province deals differently with private religious schools. In Ontario the Catholic system continues to be fully publicly funded while other faiths are not. Ontario has several private Jewish, Muslim, and Christian schools all funded through tuition fees. Since the Catholic schools system is entrenched in the constitution, the Supreme Court has ruled that this system is constitutional. However, the United Nations Human Rights Committee has ruled that Ontario's system is discriminatory, suggesting that Ontario either fund no faith-based schools, or all of them.[45] In 2002 the government of Mike Harris introduced a controversial program to partially fund all private schools, but this was criticized for undermining the public education system and the program was eliminated after the Liberals won the 2003 provincial election.

text: In other provinces privately operated religious schools are funded. In British Columbia the government pays independent schools that meet rigorous provincial standards up to 50% of the per-student operating cost of public schools. The province has a number of Sikh, Hindu, Christian, and Muslim schools. Alberta also has a network of charter schools, which are fully funded schools offering distinct approaches to education within the public school system. Alberta charter schools are not private and the province does not grant charters to religious schools. These schools have to follow the provincial curriculum and meet all standards, but are given considerable freedom in other areas. In all other provinces private religious schools receive some funding, but not as much as the public system.

text: An example of how schools can be divided by religion, Toronto has two English boards; Toronto Catholic District School Board and Toronto District School Board, and two French boards; Conseil scolaire de district catholique Centre-Sud and Conseil scolaire Viamonde.

text: History of religious schools[edit]

text: Levels in education[edit]

text: Canada outside Quebec[edit]

text: As the education system in Canada is managed by the varying provincial governments in Canada, the way the educational stages are grouped and named may differ from each region, or even between districts and individual schools. The ages are the age of the students when they end the school year in June.

text:
Early childhood education

Junior Kindergarten or Pre-Kindergarten (ages 3–5) (Ontario only)[46]
Grade Primary or Kindergarten (ages 5–6)

Elementary education

Grade 1 (ages 6–7)
Grade 2 (ages 7–8)
Grade 3 (ages 8–9)
Grade 4 (ages 9–10)
Grade 5 (ages 10–11)
Grade 6 (ages 11–12)
Grade 7 (ages 12–13) (outside Ontario, most provinces and territories group grades 7, 8 and 9 into junior high, others include grade 5 or 6 through grade 8 into middle school, in B.C. high school starts in Grade 8)
Grade 8 (ages 13–14)

High School

Grade 9 (ages 14–15)
Grade 10 (ages 15–16)
Grade 11 (ages 16–17)
Grade 12 (ages 17–18)
Grade 12+ (ages 18–21) (Ontario only)b

Tertiary education

College: In Canada, the term college usually refers to a community college or a technical, applied arts, or applied science school. These are post-secondary institutions granting certificates, diplomas, associates degree, and bachelor's degrees.
University: A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is a corporation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education.
Graduate school: A graduate school is a school that awards advanced academic certificates, diplomas and degrees (i.e. master's degree, Ph.D.)

tag: ul

text: Quebec[edit]

text:
Pre-school ((in French):Garderie); under 5
Kindergarten ((in French):Maternelle); 5-6
Grade School ((in French):école primaire, literally Primary school, equivalent to Elementary School)

Grade 1; 6-7
Grade 2; 7-8
Grade 3; 8-9
Grade 4; 9-10
Grade 5; 10-11
Grade 6; 11-12

High School ((in French): école secondaire, literally Secondary school)grade names

Grade 7/Secondary 1; 12-13
Grade 8/Secondary 2; 13-14
Grade 9/Secondary 3; 14-15
Grade 10/Secondary 4; 15-16
Grade 11/Secondary 5; 16-17

College

Pre-university program, two years (typically Social Sciences, Natural Sciences, or Arts)
Professional program, three years (e.g. Paralegal, Dental Hygienist, Nursing, etc.)

University (Usually requires a College degree (DCS (in French):'DEC) or equivalent)

Undergraduate

Three years for most programs (or four years for Engineering, Education, Medicine, and Law) leading to a Bachelor's degree. Non-Quebec students require an extra year to complete the same degree because of the extra year in college.

Graduate (or postgraduate)

One or two years leading to a Master's degree.
three or more years leading to a Doctoral degree.

text: English schools in Quebec have the same grade system as French schools, but with English names. For example, "elementary school" is not called "école primaire" in an English school, but has the same grading system.

text: Grade structure by province[edit]

text: The following table shows how grades are organized in various provinces. Often, there will be exceptions within each province, both with terminology for groups, and which grades apply to each group.

text:
Alberta
(source)

Elementary
Junior High
Senior High

Kindergarten
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12

British Columbia
(source)[not in citation given]

Primary
Intermediate

Secondary

Kindergarten
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12

Manitoba[47]

Early Years
Middle Years
Senior Years

Kindergarten
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12

New Brunswick
(source)

Elementary
Middle School
High School

Kindergarten
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12

Newfoundland and Labrador
(source)

Primary
Elementary
Junior High
Senior High

Kindergarten
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Level I (10)
Level II (11)
Level III (12)

Northwest Territories
(source)

Primary
Intermediate
Junior Secondary
Senior Secondary

Kindergarten
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12

Nova Scotia
(source)

Elementary
Junior High
Senior High

Primary
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12

Ontario[48]
Elementary
Secondary

Junior Kindergarten
Kindergarten
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12

PEI
(source)

Elementary
Intermediate School
Senior High

Kindergarten
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12

Quebec

Primary School
Secondary School
College

Garderie
Maternelle
1
2
3
4
5
6
7 (Sec I)
8 (Sec II)
9 (Sec III)
10 (Sec IV)
11 (Sec V)
first
second
third

Saskatchewan
(source[permanent dead link])

Elementary Level
Middle Level
Secondary Level

Kindergarten
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12

Yukon
(source)

Elementary
Junior Secondary
Senior Secondary

Kindergarten
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12

tag: table

text: Notes:

text:
In British Columbia some schools may group together the higher Elementary and lower Secondary Grades. These schools are referred to as Middle Schools or Jr. Secondary Schools. Some Elementary Schools consist solely of grades K-5. Likewise, some Secondary Schools may only have grades 11 and 12. In addition, some school districts may use just elementary (K-7) and secondary (8-12) schools. British Columbia informally subcategorizes the Elementary level into "Primary" (K-3) and "Intermediate" (4-6 or 7).
In Ontario, the terms used in French schooling consist of Maternelle in regards to Junior Kindergarten, Kindergarten is then referred to as Jardin. This differs from Quebec's Maternelle which is the equivalent of Ontario's Kindergarten.
In Manitoba, grade-9 - grade 12 was for a short time referred to as Senior 1-Senior 4;
In Nova Scotia the terms for groups, and grades they apply to varies significantly throughout the province. A common, but not universal, organization is shown.
In Quebec college is two or three years, depending on what a student selects, based usually on what their post-secondary plans are. College in Quebec overlaps what other provinces consider the boundary between secondary education (high school) and post-secondary education (college and university). "Sec I" = "Secondary Year One" = "Grade 7"
In Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, schools are now set up as elementary schools with grades K-5, middle schools with grades 6-8, and high schools with grades 9-12. However, high school graduation requirements only include courses taken in grades 10-12.
In Saskatchewan Elementary school is most often from k-8 and high school from 9-12, High school graduation requirements only taken grades 10-12 and require 24 credits to graduate.

text: Provincial and Territorial Departments and Ministries[edit]

text:
Provincial and Territorial Departments and Ministries

Provincial Education(Wikipedia)
Provincial Department Or Ministry(External Link)

Education in Alberta
Alberta Education

Education in British Columbia
Ministry of Education

Education in Manitoba
Ministry of Education

Education in New Brunswick
Ministry of Education, Ministère de l'Éducation

Education in Newfoundland and Labrador
Ministry of Education

Education in Northwest Territories
Department of Education, Culture and Employment

Education in Nova Scotia
Department of Education

Education in Nunavut
Department of Education

Education in Ontario
Ministry of Education

Education in Prince Edward Island
Department of Education

Education in Quebec
Ministère de l'Éducation, du Loisir et du Sport

Education in Saskatchewan
Ministry of Education

Education in Yukon
Department of Education, Culture and Employment


document_title: History of the world's tallest buildings

question_text: what was the tallest building in new york in 1930

text: Definition of terms[edit]

text: Meaning of "building"[edit]

text: The earliest structures now known to be the tallest in the world were the Egyptian pyramids, with the Great Pyramid of Giza, at an original height of 146.5 metres (481 ft), being the tallest man–made structure in the world for over 3,800 years, until the construction of Lincoln Cathedral in 1300. From then until the completion of the Washington Monument (capped in 1884) the world's tallest buildings were churches or cathedrals. Later, the Eiffel Tower and, still later, some radio masts and television towers were the world's tallest structures.

text: However, though all of these are structures, some are not buildings in the sense of being regularly inhabited or occupied. It is in this sense of being regularly inhabited or occupied that the term "building" is generally understood to mean when determining what is the world's tallest building. The non-profit international organization Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH), which maintains a set of criteria for determining the height of tall buildings, defines a "building" as "(A) structure that is designed for residential, business or manufacturing purposes" and "has floors".[1]

text: Tall churches and cathedrals occupy a middle ground: their lower areas are regularly occupied, but much of their height is in bell towers and spires which are not. Whether a church or cathedral is a "building" or merely a "structure" for the purposes of determining the title of "world's tallest building" is a subjective matter of definition (this article treats churches and cathedrals as buildings).

text: Determination of height[edit]

text: The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat based in Chicago uses three different criteria for determining the height of a tall building, each of which may give a different result. "Height of the highest floor" is one criterion, and "height to the top of any part of the building" is another, but the default criterion used by the CTBUH is "height of the architectural top of the building", which includes spires but not antennae, masts or flag poles.[1]

text: Tallest buildings (13th century–1901)[edit]

text: Churches and cathedrals[edit]

text: From the 13th century until 1901, the world's tallest building was always a church or cathedral. In the 13th century Old St Paul's Cathedral with its spire was completed. Completed in the early 14th century, the central spire of Lincoln Cathedral surpassed it. In 1549 this spire collapsed, beginning a long sequence where the status of world's tallest building was borne by shorter and shorter buildings. On the collapse of Lincoln Cathedral's spire, then St. Mary's Church in Stralsund became the world's tallest building. In 1647, the bell tower of St. Mary's burned down, thus making the shorter Strasbourg Cathedral the world's tallest building.

text: It was not until the completion of the Ulm Minster in 1890 that the world's tallest building was again also the tallest building ever, surpassing the original configuration of Lincoln Cathedral.

text: Note: all percentages are calculated on the difference in metres, not feet.

text:
Years tallest
Name
Location
Height
Increase

13th century–1300
Old St Paul's Cathedral*
 London
149 metres (489 ft)
0

1300–1549
Lincoln Cathedral*
 Lincoln
159.7 metres (524 ft)
7.2%

1549–1569
St. Mary's Church
 Stralsund
151 metres (495 ft)
-5.4%

1569–1573
St. Pierre's Cathedral
Beauvais
153 metres (502 ft)
-5.4%

1573–1647
St. Mary's Church
 Stralsund
151 metres (495 ft)
-5.4%

1647–1874
Strasbourg Cathedral
 Strasbourg
142 metres (466 ft)
-6%

1874–1876
Church of St. Nicholas
 Hamburg
147 metres (482 ft)
3.5%

1876–1880
Rouen Cathedral
 Rouen
151 metres (495 ft)
2.7%

1880–1890
Cologne Cathedral
 Cologne
157.38 metres (516.3 ft)
4.2%

1890–1901
Ulm Minster*
 Ulm
161.53 metres (530.0 ft)
2.6%

text: * – Also set record at time of completion as tallest building ever built.

text: The 524 feet (160 m) height of Lincoln Cathedral is disputed by some,[2] but accepted by most sources.[3][4][5][6][7][8] The completion date for the spire is given as 1311 rather than 1300 by some sources.[9] Also the 489 feet (149 m) height of the spire of Old St Paul's Cathedral, destroyed by lightning in 1561, is disputed, for example Christopher Wren (1632–1723) judged that an overestimate and gave a height of 460 feet (140 m).[10]

text: The spire of Mole Antonelliana in Turin, completed in 1889, is claimed to have been 167.5 metres (550 ft) tall;[11] however, the upper part of the structure was destroyed by a 1953 tornado and rebuilt. If the original spire was 167.5 metres tall, then the Mole Antonelliana was the world's tallest building from 1889 to 1908, surpassing Philadelphia City Hall by just 0.5 metres (2 ft).

text: Skyscrapers[edit]

text: The buildings that were the tallest secular skyscrapers, which excludes religious buildings, were:

text:
Years tallest
Name
Location
Height
Increase

1797–1885
Ditherington Flax Mill
 Shrewsbury
16 metres (52 ft)
0

1885–1890
Home Insurance Building
 Chicago
42 metres (138 ft)
162.5%

1890–1894
New York World Building
 New York
94 metres (308 ft)
123.8%

1894–1908
Philadelphia City Hall
 Philadelphia
167 metres (548 ft)
77.7%

text: Tallest buildings (from 1908)[edit]

text:
Years tallest
Name
Location
Height
Increase

1908–1909
Singer Building
 New York City
186.57 metres (612.1 ft)
11.7%

1909–1913
Metropolitan Life Tower
 New York City
213.36 metres (700.0 ft)
14.4%

1913–1930
Woolworth Building
 New York City
241.4 metres (792 ft)
13.1%

1930
Bank of Manhattan Trust Building
 New York City
283 metres (928 ft)
17.2%

1930–1931
Chrysler Building
 New York City
318.8 metres (1,046 ft)
12.65%

1931–1972
Empire State Building
 New York City
381 metres (1,250 ft)
19.5%

1972–1974
World Trade Center
 New York City
417 metres (1,368 ft)
9.45%

1974–1998
Sears Tower
 Chicago
442 metres (1,450 ft)
6%

1998–2004
Petronas Towers
 Kuala Lumpur
451.9 metres (1,483 ft)
2.24%

2004–2010
Taipei 101
 Taipei
509.2 metres (1,671 ft)
12.68%

2010–present
Burj Khalifa
 United Arab Emirates
828 metres (2,717 ft)
62.61%

text: The list of tallest buildings is based on the default metric of the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH), that of measuring to the highest architectural element. Other criteria would generate a different list. Shanghai World Financial Center is not on the above list, but it surpassed Taipei 101 in 2008 to become the building with the highest occupied floor. Using the criteria of highest tip (including antennae), the World Trade Center in New York City was the world's tallest building from 1972 to 2000, until the Sears Tower in Chicago (which already had a higher occupied floor than the World Trade Center) had its antenna extended to give that building the world's tallest tip; a title it held until the 2010 completion of Burj Khalifa. Petronas Towers and Taipei 101 were never the world's tallest buildings by the highest–tip criteria.

text: Since 2010, Burj Khalifa has been the tallest building by any criteria. It has the highest architectural element, tip and occupied floor, and is indeed the tallest structure of any kind ever built, surpassing the (now destroyed) 646.38 metres (2,120.7 ft) Warsaw Radio Mast.

text: Since the completion of the Washington Monument in 1884, the world's tallest building has not usually also been the world's tallest structure. The exceptions are 1930–1954, when the Chrysler Building and then the Empire State building surpassed the Eiffel Tower (to be surpassed in turn by a succession of broadcast masts, starting with the Griffin Television Tower in Oklahoma), and from 2010 with the completion of Burj Khalifa.

text: Charts[edit]

text: In this chart, time progresses from right to left. Note the early buildings that lost the title as their spires collapsed.

text: History of increment in height of skyscrapers[edit]

text: After the construction of the Home Insurance Building in Chicago in the 19th century, the incrementation in the height of skyscrapers began with the construction of the Chrysler Building, followed by the Empire State Building, in New York City. The Chrysler Building was the first building in the world to break the 300 metres (984 ft) barrier, and the Empire State Building was the first building to have more than 100 floors. It stands at 381 metres (1,250 ft) and has 102 floors. The next tallest skyscraper was the World Trade Center, which was completed in 1971. The north tower was 417 m (1,368 ft) and the south 415 m (1,362 ft) tall. It surpassed the height of the Empire State Building by 36 m (118 ft). Two years later the Sears Tower was built in Chicago, standing at 442 m (1,450 ft) with 110 floors, surpassing the height of the World Trade Center by 25 metres (82 ft). The Petronas Towers rose 10 meters above the Sears Tower, standing at a height of 452 m (1,483 ft) and each having 88 floors.

text: In 2004, the construction of Taipei 101 brought the height of skyscrapers to a new level, standing at 509 m (1,670 ft) with 101 floors. It is 59 metres (194 ft) taller than the previous record holders, the Petronas Towers. Burj Khalifa surpassed the height of Taipei 101 by 319 metres (1,047 ft) in 2009, making it 60% taller.[12] It has broken several skyscraper records, and it is almost twice as tall as the Empire State Building. Burj Khalifa has also broken the record of the world's tallest structure.

text: NOTE: The CTBUH defines a building as a supertall if it is 300 metres (984 ft) or taller.[13]

text: History of supertall skyscrapers by location[edit]

text: Since the early skyscraper boom that took place in North America, the significant number of skyscrapers in North America have dominated the 100 tallest buildings in the world. In 1930, 99 of the 100 tallest buildings in the world were located in North America. In the future, this percentage is expected to decline to only 22 percent.[12] The predominance of skyscrapers in North America is decreasing due to the building of skyscraper construction in other parts of the world, especially in Asia, that are finally catching up to progress that began in North America in the 19th century.[citation needed]

text: In Asia, there has been an increase in the number of supertall skyscrapers beginning with the construction of Petronas Twin Towers. There are currently sixty buildings in the world's 100 tallest that are located in Asia (including the Middle East). However, skyscraper construction is still prevalent in the United States.[citation needed]

text: Increment in usage of skyscrapers[edit]

text: Since the skyscraper boom, the great majority of skyscrapers in the world were used predominantly as office space. From 1930 to 2000 the percentage of office towers never fell below 86 percent, but in the future it is expected to be as low as 46 percent.[12] In 2010 less than half of the 100 tallest buildings in the world were office towers with the majority utilized as residential and mixed use.[12] Today, only four out of the ten tallest buildings in the world, and twenty eight out of the fifty tallest in the world, are used primarily as offices.[14]

text: A mixed-use tall building contains two or more functions (uses), where each of the functions occupies a significant proportion of the tower's total space[A]. Support areas such as car parks and mechanical plant space do not contribute towards mixed-use status.[13]

text: Skyscrapers used as hotels and as residential space are generally smaller. There are only a few super tall skyscrapers of that type among the 100 tallest skyscrapers in the world. The tallest residential building in the world is 432 Park Avenue.[citation needed] There are few supertall hotel skyscrapers in the world.[citation needed] The Emirates Park Towers Hotel & Spa, Rose Tower and Burj Al Arab are the only three supertall hotels standing, while the topped-out Emirates Park Towers Hotel & Spa is currently the tallest hotel in the world at 377 m (1,237 ft).[citation needed]


document_title: List of Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles of 2008

question_text: what was the number one song on november 25 2008

text: Chart history

text:
Key

Indicates best-performing single of 2008

text:
Issue date
Song
Artist(s)
Reference(s)

January 5
"Low"
Flo Rida featuring T-Pain
[21]

January 12
[22]

January 19
[23]

January 26
[24]

February 2
[25]

February 9
[26]

February 16
[27]

February 23
[28]

March 1
[29]

March 8
[2]

March 15
"Love in This Club"
Usher featuring Young Jeezy
[30]

March 22
[31]

March 29
[32]

April 5
"Bleeding Love"
Leona Lewis
[33]

April 12
"Touch My Body"
Mariah Carey
[14][15]

April 19
[34]

April 26
"Bleeding Love"
Leona Lewis
[35]

May 3
"Lollipop"
Lil Wayne featuring Static Major
[8]

May 10
"Bleeding Love"
Leona Lewis
[36]

May 17
[37]

May 24
"Take a Bow"
Rihanna
[38][39]

May 31
"Lollipop"
Lil Wayne featuring Static Major
[40]

June 7
[41]

June 14
[42]

June 21
[43]

June 28
"Viva la Vida"
Coldplay
[9][44]

July 5
"I Kissed a Girl"
Katy Perry
[10][45]

July 12
[46]

July 19
[47]

July 26
[48]

August 2
[49]

August 9
[50]

August 16
[51]

August 23
"Disturbia"
Rihanna
[52]

August 30
[53]

September 6
"Whatever You Like"
T.I.
[11]

September 13
[54]

September 20
[55]

September 27
"So What"
Pink
[56]

October 4
"Whatever You Like"
T.I.
[57]

October 11
[58]

October 18
"Live Your Life"
T.I. featuring Rihanna
[59]

October 25
"Womanizer"
Britney Spears
[60][61]

November 1
"Whatever You Like"
T.I.
[62]

November 8
[5]

November 15
"Live Your Life"
T.I. featuring Rihanna
[63]

November 22
[64]

November 29
[65]

December 6
[66]

December 13
"Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)"
Beyoncé
[67]

December 20
"Live Your Life"
T.I. featuring Rihanna
[12]

December 27
"Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)"
Beyoncé
[68]