document_title: Sheldon Cooper

question_text: who is the character sheldon cooper based on

root

text: Sheldon Cooper

text: Creation and casting[edit]

text: The character of Sheldon Cooper was inspired by a computer programmer personally known to series co-creator Bill Prady.[11] He is named in honor of actor/producer Sheldon Leonard[12] and Nobel Prize Laureate Leon Cooper.[13] Chuck Lorre originally intended Johnny Galecki to play the role, but Galecki thought he would be "better suited" for the character of Leonard.[14] Lorre said that when Jim Parsons auditioned for the role, he was "so startlingly good" that he was asked to reaudition "to make sure he hadn't gotten lucky".[15] Sheldon is one of four characters to appear in every episode of the series, along with Leonard, Howard, and Raj.

tag: p

text: Characterization[edit]

text: Early life[edit]

text: Sheldon was raised in Galveston, Texas[16] along with his elder brother (George Jr.) and fraternal twin sister (Missy) by his mother, Mary Cooper, an overtly devout Evangelical Christian; and George Cooper, an alcoholic who was rarely around. Sheldon once got his father fired when he told Mr. Hinckley, the store owner, that George was stealing from the cash register. (Sheldon was rewarded with a fudgsicle.) [17] In Young Sheldon, this is retconned: his father is a football coach who was fired from his coaching position in Galveston because he disclosed that other coaches were illegally recruiting players to their school, forcing the family to return to Medford. He does drink, but is a loving father who is trying to understand his intellectually gifted son. The only member of his family to have actively encouraged his work in science was his grandfather, whom he cherished and affectionately called "Pop-Pop", and who died when Sheldon was five years old. Pop-Pop's loss is what caused Sheldon to despise Christmas when his Christmas wish to bring Pop-Pop back didn't come true. Sheldon's closest relative is his maternal grandmother who he affectionately calls "Meemaw", and who in turn calls him "Moon Pie". His aunt also encouraged Sheldon by giving him medical equipment, "in case his work in physics failed, he'd have a 'trade' to fall back on".

text: Sheldon was interested in science from an early age, and was a child prodigy,[18] although due to his behavioral quirks and his lack of humility about his superior intellect, he was bullied by classmates and neighbors. (This has been semi-retconned on Young Sheldon, as most of his high school classmates hardly ever interact with him, and the only neighbor kid shown so far, Billy Sparks, hardly ever does anything to Sheldon, other than scare him with a rooster in the pilot episode - although Young Sheldon begins when Sheldon is 9, so it is possible that Sheldon was bullied before the age of 9.) Sheldon entered college at the age of eleven,[19] and at age fourteen he graduated from college summa cum laude.[20] (To this day, the college he went to for undergraduate studies has yet to be revealed, but he feels it is superior to his fellow Big Bang Theory colleagues' alma maters.) From then, he worked on his doctorate, was a visiting professor at the University of Heidelberg in Germany, was the youngest person at the time to receive the Stevenson Award,[3] and has appeared on the cover of Journal of Physical Chemistry A.[21] Sheldon is now a theoretical physicist doing research at Caltech.

text: Personality[edit]

text: Sheldon is often described as a stereotypical "geek". He is usually characterized as being extremely intelligent, detail-oriented, eccentric, and occasionally disturbing. Despite his intelligence, he often displays childlike qualities, such as being extremely stubborn and a lack of common sense. It is claimed by Bernadette that the reason Sheldon is sometimes unpleasant is because the part of his brain that tells him it is wrong to be nasty is "getting a wedgie from the rest of his brain", although, in season 8's "The Space Probe Disintegration", Sheldon tearfully admits to Leonard that he is aware of his peculiarities and how his behavior comes across. The first four episodes of The Big Bang Theory portray Sheldon slightly inconsistently with respect to his later characterization, in which he is depicted as rather witty and sarcastic, and slightly flirtatious towards Penny in the pilot episode: according to Prady, the character "began to evolve after episode five or so and became his own thing".[22]

text: Sheldon possesses an eidetic memory and an IQ of 187,[23] although he claims his IQ cannot be accurately measured by normal tests.[24] He originally claimed to have a master's degree and two doctoral degrees, but this list has increased.[25][26] Sheldon has an extensive general knowledge in many subjects including physics, chemistry, biology, astronomy, cosmology, algebra, calculus, economics, computers, vexillology, engineering, history, geography, linguistics, football, trains, and in addition to being fluent in Klingon, has some knowledge of Finnish, Hindi and Mandarin.[27] He also shows great talent in music, knowing how to play the piano (as does Parsons in real life), the bongos, the recorder, theremin (which Jim Parsons learned to play in real life), showing some skill in Tuvan throat singing and also having perfect pitch.[28] Although his friends have similar intellects to him, his eccentricities, stubbornness, and lack of empathy often frustrate them. Sheldon occasionally uses slang (in a very unnatural fashion), and follows jokes with his catchphrase "Bazinga!" which is now an officially registered trademark of Warner Bros.[29][30] He is uncomfortable with human physical contact and has germophobia, which makes his exceptionally rare hugs extremely awkward and painful-looking. He also has hemophobia.[31] Sheldon has difficulty coping when asked to keep a secret, when he is interrupted, or when he hears arguing.[32][33][34] He is also a notary public and uses his knowledge in law and contracts usually for his own advantage and is always distressed when challenged in a legal aspect that he cannot logically defend. In his mannerisms, Sheldon also shows symptoms associated with obsessive-compulsive personality disorder. Whenever approaching a person's home, he must knock three times, then say the person's name, and must repeat this at least three times (where "The first one is traditional, but two and three are for people to get their pants on"), as a result of him walking in on his father with another woman when he was thirteen.[35] Upon entering a person's home, he must select the proper seat before sitting down. When it is suggested by Penny that he "just sit anywhere", his response is "Oh, no, if only it were that simple!" This extends to his inability to accept change. His rigidity in maintaining homeostasis often causes him frustration. Because of his rigidity and stubbornness, only his mother and Bernadette[36] – both possessing strong maternal instincts – are able to control him.

text: Like his friends, Sheldon is fond of comic books (especially the DC Universe), costumes, video games, roleplaying games, tabletop games, collectible card games, and action figures. Sheldon has restraining orders from his heroes Leonard Nimoy, Carl Sagan, and Stan Lee,[37][38][39][40] as well as television scientist Bill Nye.[41] Sheldon often wears vintage T-shirts adorned with superhero logos. One of his shirts is emblazoned with the number 73, and in the episode "The Alien Parasite Hypothesis" he explains that 73 is the 21st prime number, its mirror, 37, is the 12th prime number and its mirror (21) is the product of multiplying 7 and 3, also in binary, 73 is a palindrome, 1001001 which backwards is 1001001. The boys use video games like bowling and archery for "exercise" and use the traditional sport rules.

text: Sheldon has sometimes showed empathy, including lending money to Penny without expecting it back quickly (although that may just have been his logical Spock-like response to a problem to be solved; it was, after all, money he was not using and would not miss[42]) and driving her to a hospital when her shoulder was dislocated.[43] Sheldon admits he is overly fond of koalas munching on eucalyptus so much that he has a facial expression that he refers to as his koala face.[44] He dislikes gifts, because the "social contract" in his view creates either a debt or burden on the receiver of the gift which will not stop until one of the two involved in the "gift-relationship" dies leaving the other either in debt or with an undue surplus.[45] Sheldon also does not take drugs, not even legal ones such as caffeine, due to a promise to his mother, and is hypersensitive when he accidentally consumes them.[46][32] It has been shown, however, that alcohol often causes Sheldon to loosen up significantly,[3] although it will also cloud his judgment – on occasion, after drinking alcoholic drinks (both deliberately and accidentally), he has done things that he would never do while sober, such as singing out loud,[47]mooning an audience full of people,[20]confronting Wil Wheaton [48] and affectionately slapping Amy's rear.[49]

text: In response to criticism from his friends that he is mentally ill, Sheldon often retorts, "I'm not crazy; my mother had me tested" – which his mother has confirmed to be true (once while wishing she had gone through with a follow-up examination).[50][51][52]

text: Family[edit]

text: Sheldon contrasts strongly with his family, who are neither scientists nor intellectuals. His father George died before the start of The Big Bang Theory, when Sheldon was 14,[53] while his mother Mary is a devout born-again Christian and loving parent. Sheldon has two siblings: a twin sister, Missy, who is a tall, attractive brunette as an adult; and an older brother, George Jr., seen thus far only on Young Sheldon.[54] Both Missy and George Jr. beat up Sheldon during their childhoods (again, something yet to be shown on Young Sheldon, as they mostly try to disassociate with him there, with the exception of Sheldon twice telling his father that Georgie “breaks wind on my head”), and their mother describes them to be "dumb as soup".[55] In the pilot episode of The Big Bang Theory, Sheldon tells Leonard that DNA is not a guarantee of an intelligent offspring as he himself is a theoretical physicist and his twin sister is a hostess at Fuddruckers. Sheldon is very fond of his maternal grandmother, whom he calls "Meemaw" and who calls him "Moon Pie".[56] He called his grandfather, who died when Sheldon was five, "Pop Pop".[57] Sheldon was also very close to his grandfather, stating once that his grandfather is the only relative he had who encouraged him to become involved in science.

text: Sheldon has a maternal uncle, Edward, who is called "Stumpy" as the result of a time when he cleaned a wood chipper by hand. He also has a maternal aunt, Charlene, which was revealed in Young Sheldon when his mother told Meemaw that she made dinner for “Charlene and Edward” more times than her. Sheldon had another uncle, named Carl Cooper, who was killed by a badger while cleaning a chimney and another uncle that may have done things to children that were legal in Oklahoma per "The Clean Room Infiltration".

text: Sheldon had an uncle, Roger and aunt, Ruth. In "The Engagement Reaction", Sheldon mentions Ruth died in a hospital when she went to visit Roger, caught something and bit the dust a week later and the two of them now share a coffee can on Sheldon's mother’s mantle.

text: Relationships[edit]

text: Sheldon's closest friends are Leonard Hofstadter, Howard Wolowitz, and Raj Koothrappali. Of the three, Sheldon is openly dismissive of Howard and constantly opines that a master's degree in engineering demonstrates a lesser intellect than that of the others, who all possess science doctorates. Despite that, Sheldon has referred to Howard as a "treasured acquaintance"[58] and later his friend[59] at various points. Sheldon considers Leonard his best friend, as they used to live together and can tolerate each other: in "The Space Probe Disintegration", Sheldon admits to Leonard that he is aware of how difficult he can be, and tearfully expresses his gratitude for having Leonard in his life in spite of himself, causing Leonard to break down beside him. Prady stated that "the fact that, despite everything, Leonard considers Sheldon his best friend reminds us of Sheldon's essential humanity".[60] Sheldon can only handle having a limited number of friends in his life at a time, but later shows flexibility when he accepts Bernadette and Amy as part of the social group. In season 6, the guys ask if comic book store owner Stuart can be part of the group while Howard is in space.[citation needed]

text: Despite Penny's neither being a scientist nor sharing many of the group's interests,[61] and having constant fights with Sheldon in the early episodes, they became close friends.[62] While some fans support a romantic relationship between Sheldon and Penny,[63][64] Lorre has stated his opposition to it by saying: "We've stumbled into creating a character who has chosen a lifestyle for himself that is unique. And I don't see any reason to modify it."[65]

text: It has been speculated that Sheldon may be asexual or aromantic. Series co-creator Chuck Lorre said: "Part of what's wonderful and unique about [Sheldon] is he has chosen not to play in the relationship game either way  – heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, any sexuality."[65] This is referenced in "The Cooper-Nowitzki Theorem", when Sheldon unknowingly attracts the attention of grad student Ramona Nowitzki, and Penny, seeing this, asks his friends what his "deal" (i.e., sexual orientation) is, to which Leonard responds, "Honestly, we've been operating under the assumption that he has no 'deal'."

text: In the season 3 finale, Howard and Raj blackmail Sheldon into meeting Amy Farrah Fowler, with whom they matched him on a dating website. After some obnoxious comments about the dating website, Sheldon finds that Amy agrees with him, and he grows fond of her when she says that "Any or all physical contact up to and including coitus is off the table". Their relationship continues in season 4, although Sheldon often points out that they are not in a romantic relationship. The two enjoy intellectual games they create, and Amy and Sheldon openly express the same type of intellectual superiority.[66]

text: In season 5, when Leonard inadvertently implies that he and Amy may have had sex after a wedding reception that they both attended, Sheldon unexpectetdly reacts violently, karate-chopping Leonard's neck while telling Leonard "She is not for you... not for you!"[67] Later, Sheldon formally asks Amy to be his girlfriend in "The Flaming Spittoon Acquisition". During their relationship, Amy begins a campaign to give Sheldon more attention to increase his feelings for her by embracing his interests.[68] As they watch Howard being launched into space in its season finale, Amy is surprised when Sheldon takes her hand for emotional support.[69]

text: During the first half of season 6, in "The Parking Spot Escalation" and "The Fish Guts Displacement", Sheldon is pushed further after seeing Amy partially exposed and taking care of her while she is ill respectively. In "The Cooper/Kripke Inversion", after being directly asked by Penny if he would ever have sex with Amy, Sheldon admits to Penny and Leonard that a physical relationship with Amy is a possibility, and being touched is something he is working on. While upset about Kripke, Amy does give him a consoling hug that Sheldon seems to need, and want. Even so, Amy has offered other romantic physical contact, and was very uncomfortable when they had to cuddle. In "The Spoiler Alert Segmentation", Leonard temporarily moves out and Amy proposes that she would be his perfect roommate and tries to move in, though Sheldon is uncomfortable with this change in their relationship. While playing Dungeons and Dragons during "The Love Spell Potential", Sheldon's and Amy's characters are commanded to have sex within the game. A very upset Amy asks Sheldon if they are ever going to be intimate and he again admits that it is a possibility.

text: In season 7, Sheldon passionately kisses Amy on the lips for the first time. Initially to prove a point, he later prolonged it, implying he enjoyed the feeling.[70] Later episodes showed him willingly kissing Amy, implying he has gotten more comfortable in such a position of physical intimacy.

text: The ultimate proof of Sheldon having feelings for Amy is given in the season 8 episode "The Prom Equivalency", when he finally admits being in love with her: "I love you too. There's no denying I have feelings for you that can't be explained in any other way. I briefly considered I had a brain parasite, but that seems even more far-fetched. The only conclusion was love." In the season 8 finale, "The Commitment Determination", Sheldon and Amy get into a fight over their definition of "commitment". Sheldon feels his relationship with Amy is going fast on its own, but Amy argues he is taking things too slowly and does not properly bestow on her unlimited affection. By the episode's end she has decided to take a break from their relationship while Sheldon is left numb from Amy's revelation. He glumly turns to his Gollum figurine and asks it, "Well, Gollum, you're an expert on rings, what do I do with this one?", while simultaneously taking his grandmother's ring, a family heirloom, out of this desk drawer.

text: In the season 9 premiere, Sheldon keeps pushing Amy to make up her mind about their relationship, but goes too far and insults her to her face and she angrily breaks up with him for good, thus officially ending their relationship. In "The Platonic Permutation" Amy offers Sheldon to get back together with her after spending time together in an aquarium at Thanksgiving, but sadly learns that he simply just wants to be her friend, with him revealing to her that "I excel at many things, but getting over you wasn't one of them". In "The Earworm Reverberation", Sheldon can't get a song out his head, but after suddenly remembering the title and the lyrics, he realizes that the song was about Amy and that she changed his life for the better, which prompts him to go to her apartment to profess his love. He finds Amy on a date with Dave, who has a great adoration for Sheldon because of his intellect. Seeing how much they love each other, Dave gleefully urges Sheldon to kiss Amy, leading to their reunion. In the following episode, "The Opening Night Excitation" Leonard, Howard and Raj go to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens without Sheldon as while he was initially reluctant, ultimately opted to celebrate Amy's birthday with her instead. To make Amy's birthday enjoyable and memorable, Sheldon seeks out Penny and Bernadette as he respects their opinions regarding all things socially appropriate. He reveals to them that he has narrowed things down to three options, the first being a chance to play the harp with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the second being an all-expense paid trip to the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival (though Amy would have to go alone because Sheldon's ornithophobia is nothing compares to his ovinaphobia), and the third being the two of them engaging in coitus, at which point Penny squeezes and shatters the wine glass in her hand due to disbelief and/or shock. After Penny and Bernadette convince him that finally being intimate with her is the most beautiful gift that he could give to her, Sheldon and Amy have sex for the first time on the latter's birthday.

text: In season 10, Sheldon and Amy move in together for a five-week experiment to test out their compatibility,[71] and after its successful run, decide to move in together permanently.[5] In its season finale, Sheldon unexpectedly proposes to Amy after being hit on by Ramona Nowitzki; the eleventh season premiere was basically a continuation of this, and Amy accepts his proposal.

text: He once idolized fictional prodigy Wesley Crusher from Star Trek: The Next Generation, portrayed by Wil Wheaton, until Wheaton did not show up at a convention attended by Sheldon in 1995. Sheldon had spent 15 hours on a bus travelling to the convention during which time he was forced to break his rule about urinating in a moving vehicle. After this moment Wil Wheaton became number six on Sheldon's mortal enemy list (a list he started when he was 9 on a 5¼-inch floppy disk). Wheaton was one of Sheldon's mortal enemies, along with his coworkers Barry Kripke and Leslie Winkle. Later, Wheaton managed to patch things up with Sheldon, only to inadvertently pass the enemy list spot to Brent Spiner.[72] Sheldon would later resume his enmity with Wheaton in season 11's "The Proton Regeneration" when they compete for the lead role in a reboot of Sheldon's childhood favorite science TV show and Wheaton gets the part: however, this ends when he sees how good Wheaton is in the role and on the advice of Howard, he apologizes to him.

text: Reception and legacy[edit]

text: General[edit]

text: Jim Parsons' portrayal of Sheldon has received widespread acclaim, and is often cited as the main reason for the program's success by critics and fans alike.[73][74][75] James Chamberlin of IGN wrote: "It's hard to imagine what The Big Bang Theory would be if it weren't for Jim Parsons' great portrayal of Sheldon Cooper".[76] Matt Roush of TV Guide stated that "there's a spark of divine inspiration in Jim Parsons' uproarious Sheldon Cooper".[77] Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly wrote that: "Parsons is doing something rare on network TV: making intellectualism admirable, even heroic".[9]

text: On July 16, 2009, Jim Parsons was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series.[78] He was nominated again for the same award on July 8, 2010, and eventually won the award on August 29, 2010.[79] On August 1, 2009, he won the TCA Award for Individual Achievement in Comedy, with the show itself winning the award for Outstanding Achievement in Comedy for season two.[80] He was nominated again for the same award in 2010 and 2012. Parsons was also nominated for the People's Choice Award for Favorite TV Comedy Actor[81] and a Satellite Award for Best Actor – Television Series Musical or Comedy in 2009, 2010, and 2012.[82] On January 16, 2011, Parsons won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Musical or Comedy, presented by co-star Kaley Cuoco, for his work on seasons 3 and 4. On June 20, 2011, he won the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Actor in a Comedy Series at the 1st Critics' Choice Television Awards for his work on season 4, and was nominated again for the same award in 2012. On September 18, 2011, he won his second consecutive Primetime Emmy Award - Lead Actor in Comedy, and was nominated again for the same award on July 19, 2012. In 2013, Parsons was nominated once again for the Golden Globe and received his first nomination for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series. In 2013 & 2014, Jim was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award - Lead Actor in Comedy for the 5th and 6th time, respectively, both of which he won for his 3rd and 4th Primetime Emmy Awards - Lead Actor in a Comedy Series meaning that Parsons had won this award 4 times in the last 5 years, including back-to-back in 2010/2011and 2013/2014. No actor, in the history of this award has won back-to-back awards on two separate occasions, and his total of 4 awards puts Parsons in a four-way tie at the top with comedy legends Carroll O'Connor, Kelsey Grammer, and Michael J. Fox.

text: The asteroid 246247 Sheldoncooper was named after Sheldon.[83] In 2012, a newly discovered species of bee was named Euglossa bazinga, after the character's noted catch phrase, "Bazinga!"[84]

text: In March 2013, the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium named a black-and-white colobus after Sheldon.[85] In 2015, a new echinocaridid phyllocaridan from the Lower Devonian of central-eastern Poland, was named Ptychocaris sheldoni after Sheldon.[86]

text: Asperger syndrome[edit]

text: Some viewers have asserted that Sheldon's behavior is consistent with Asperger syndrome.[8][10][87][88] The writers have stated that they did not use Asperger syndrome as a basis for the character, but instead thought of his actions as "Sheldony".[87] Series co-creator Bill Prady stated: "We write the character as the character. A lot of people see various things in him and make the connections. Our feeling is that Sheldon's mother never got a diagnosis, so we don't have one."[22] Prady also told Alan Sepinwall of the New Jersey Star-Ledger that while Sheldon shares traits with people with Asperger's, he was uncomfortable labeling Sheldon as having Asperger's.[89]

text: In an interview, Jim Parsons noted the writers' response, but added that, in his opinion, Sheldon "couldn't display more traits" of Asperger's.[87][90] Parsons, who plays Sheldon, has read John Elder Robison's memoir Look Me in the Eye about his life with Asperger syndrome, and said that: "A majority of what I read in that book touched on aspects of Sheldon." He also stated that "the way his brain works, it's so focused on the intellectual topics at hand that thinking he's autistic is an easy leap for people watching the show to make".[91]

text: When another actor on the series, Mayim Bialik, who plays Amy and has a Ph.D. in Neuroscience, was being interviewed about Sheldon having Asperger's with Neil deGrasse Tyson on StarTalk, she stated, "All of our characters are in theory on the neuropsychiatric spectrum, I would say. Sheldon often gets talked about in terms of Asperger’s or OCD. He has a thing with germs, he has a thing with numbers, he’s got a lot of that precision that we see in OCD. There’s a lot of interesting features to all of our characters that make them technically unconventional socially.... And what we’re trying to show with our show is that this is a group of people who likely were teased, mocked, told that they will never be appreciated or loved, and we have a group of people who have successful careers, active social lives (that involve things like Dungeons and Dragons and video games), but they also have relationships, and that’s a fulfilling and satisfying life.”[92]


document_title: Number sign

question_text: what is a pound key on your phone

question_tokens: what is a pound key on your phone

text: Number sign

text: Origin and names[edit]

text: It is often claimed that the symbol traces its origins to the symbol ℔, an abbreviation of the Roman term libra pondo, which translates as "pound weight".[5][6] This abbreviation was printed with a dedicated ligature type, with a horizontal line across, so that the lowercase letter "l" would not be mistaken for the numeral "1": ℔. Ultimately, the symbol was reduced for clarity as an overlay of two horizontal strokes "=" across two slash-like strokes "//".[6]

text: The symbol is described as the "number" character in an 1853 treatise on bookkeeping.[7] Examples of it being used to indicate pounds exist at least as far back as 1850,[8] and its double meaning is described in a bookkeeping text from 1880.[9] The symbol appears to be used primarily in handwritten material, while in the printing business, the numero (№) symbol and barred-lb (℔) are used for "number" and "pounds" respectively. It appeared on the keyboard of the Remington Standard typewriter (c. 1886),[10] but was not used on the keyboards used for typesetting.[8] The instruction manual of the Blickensderfer model 5 (c. 1896) appears to refer to the symbol as the "number mark".[11] Some early 20th-century U.S. sources refer to it as the "number sign",[12] although this could also refer to the numero sign.[13]

text: A 1917 manual distinguishes between two uses of the sign: "number (written before a figure)"; and "pounds (written after a figure)".[14] The use of the phrase "pound sign" to refer to this symbol is found from 1932 in U.S. usage. Before this time, and still outside the United States, the term "pound sign" was used to refer to the pound currency symbol (£) or the pound weight symbol (lb).[15]

text: An alternative theory is that this name arose from the fact that character encodings used the same code for both the number sign and the British pound sign "£". Claims have included ISO 646-GB as well as the Baudot code in the late 19th century.[16] The apparent use of the sign to mean pounds weight in 1850 appears to rule out both of these code sets as the origin, although that same reference admits that the earliest reference in print was a decade after Baudot code.[8]

text: "Hash sign" is found in South African writings from the late 1960s,[17] and from other non-North-American sources in the 1970s.[citation needed]

text: Usage in North America[edit]

text: Mainstream use in the United States is as follows: when it prefixes a number, it is read as "number", as in "a #2 pencil" (indicating "a number-two pencil"). The one exception is with the # key on a phone, which is always referred to as the "pound key" or "pound." Thus instructions to dial an extension such as #77 are always read as "pound seven seven."

text: When the symbol follows a number, the symbol indicates weight in pounds. (Five pounds are indicated as 5#.) This traditional usage still finds handwritten use, and may be seen on some signs in markets and groceries. It is also commonly known as the "pound sign".[18]

text: In Canada the symbol is called both the "number sign" and the "pound sign".[19] The American company Avaya has an option in their programming to denote Canadian English, which in turn instructs the system to say "number sign" to callers instead of "pound sign".[20]

text: Usage in the United Kingdom and Ireland[edit]

text: In the United Kingdom and Ireland, it is generally[21] called a hash (probably ultimately from "hatch",[22] referring to cross-hatching, although the exact derivation is disputed[23]). It is never used to denote pounds, either as weight (lb or lbs is used for this) or currency (pounds sterling, for which "£" is used). It is never called the "pound sign"; that term is understood to mean the currency symbol "£", for pound sterling or (formerly) Irish pound.

text: The use of "#" as an abbreviation for "number" is often understood in Britain and Ireland, especially where there has been business or educational contact with American usage, but use in print is rare[24] and British typewriters had "£" in place of the American "#".[25] Where Americans might write "Symphony #5", the British and Irish are more likely to write "Symphony No. 5", or perhaps use the numero sign "Symphony № 5" (as in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians).

text: To add to the confusion between "£" and "#", in BS 4730 (the UK national variant of the ISO/IEC 646 character set), 0x23 represents "£" whereas in ASCII (the US variant), it represents "#", thus it was common for the same character code to display "#" on US equipment and "£" on British equipment.

text: Other names in English[edit]

text: The symbol has many other names (and uses) in English:

text:
a line space (the space between two adjacent lines denoted by line # in the margin),
a hair space (the space between two letters in a word, denoted by hr #)
a word space, or letter space (the space between two words on a line, two letter spaces being ##)

tag: ol

text: In mathematics[edit]

text:
In set theory, #S is the cardinality of the set S. That is, for a set

S
=
{

s

1

,

s

2

,

s

3

,
…
,

s

n

}

{\displaystyle S=\{s_{1},s_{2},s_{3},\dots ,s_{n}\}}

,

#
S
=
n
.

{\displaystyle \#S=n.}

In topology, where A and B are manifolds, A#B is the manifolds' connected sum. In knot theory (a branch of topology), where A and B are knots, A#B is the knots' knot sum.
In number theory, n# is the primorial of n.

tag: ul

text: In computing[edit]

text:
In many scripting languages and data file formats, especially ones that originated on Unix, the # introduces a comment that goes to the end of the line. The combination #! at the start of an executable file is a "shebang", "hash-bang" or "pound-bang", used to tell the operating system which program to use to run the script (see magic number). This combination was chosen so it would be a comment in the scripting languages.

#! is the symbol of the CrunchBang Linux distribution.

In the Perl programming language, # is used as a modifier to array syntax to return the index number of the last element in the array, e.g., @array's last element is at $array[$#array]. The number of elements in @array is $#array + 1, since Perl arrays default to using zero based indices. If the array has not been defined, the return is also undefined. If the array is defined but has not had any elements assigned to it, e.g., @array = (); then $#array returns −1. See the section on Array functions in the Perl language structure article.
In the C preprocessor (and the C++ preprocessor, and other syntactically C-like languages), # is used to start a preprocessor directive. Inside macros (after #define) it is used for various purposes, including the double pound sign ## used for token concatenation.
In Unix shells, # is placed by convention at the end of a command prompt to denote that the user is working as root.
# is used in a URL of a webpage or other resource to introduce a "fragment identifier" – an id which defines a position within that resource. For example, in the URL http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_sign#In_computing the portion after the # (In_computing) is the fragment identifier, in this case denoting that the display should be moved to show the tag marked by ... in the HTML.[40]
Internet Relay Chat: on (IRC) servers, # precedes the name of every channel that is available across an entire IRC network.
In blogs, # is sometimes used to denote a permalink for that particular weblog entry.
In lightweight markup languages, such as wikitext, # is often used to introduce numbered list items.
# is used in the Modula-2 and Oberon programming languages designed by Niklaus Wirth and in the Component Pascal language derived from Oberon to denote the not equal symbol, as a stand-in for the mathematical unequal sign ≠, being more intuitive than <> or !=. For example: IF i # 0 THEN ...
In OCaml, # is the operator used to call a method.
In Common Lisp,[41] # is a dispatching read macro character used to extend the S-expression syntax with short cuts and support for various data types (complex numbers, vectors and more).
In Scheme, # is the prefix for certain syntax with special meaning.
In Standard ML, #, when prefixed to a field name, becomes a projection function (function to access the field of a record or tuple); also, # prefixes a string literal to turn it into a character literal.
In Mathematica syntax, #, when used as a variable, becomes a pure function (a placeholder that is mapped to any variable meeting the conditions).
In LaTeX, #, when prefixing a number, references an arguments for a user defined command. For instance \newcommand{\code}[1]{\texttt{#1}}.
In Javadoc,[42] # is used with the @see tag to introduce or separate a field, constructor, or method member from its containing class.
In some dialects of assembly language, # is used to denote immediate mode addressing, e.g., LDA #10, which means "load the accumulator with the value 10" in MOS 6502 assembly language.
in HTML, CSS, SVG, and other computing applications "#" is used to identify a color specified in hexadecimal format, e.g., #FFAA00. This usage comes from X11 color specifications, which inherited it from early assembler dialects that used "#" to prefix hexadecimal constants, e.g.: ZX Spectrum Z80 assembly[43].
In Be-Music Script, every command line starts with #. Lines starting with characters other than # are treated as comments.
The use of the # symbol in a hashtag is a phenomenon conceived by Chris Messina, and popularized by social media network Twitter, as a way to direct conversations and topics amongst users. This has led to an increasingly common tendency to refer to the symbol itself as "hashtag", but this is technically incorrect.[1]
In programming languages like PL/1 and Assembler used on IBM mainframe systems, as well as JCL (Job Control Language), the # symbol (along with $ and @) are used as additional letters in identifiers, labels and data set names.

text: Other uses[edit]

text:
Press releases: the notation "###" denotes "end", i.e. that there is no further copy to come.[44]
Chess notation: # after a move denotes checkmate, being easier to type than the traditional ‡.
Scrabble: Putting a number sign after a word indicates that the word is found in the British word lists, but not the North American lists.[45]
Prescription drug delimiter: in some countries, such as Norway or Poland, # is used as a delimiter between different drugs on medical prescriptions.
Copy writing and editing: technical writers often use three hash signs ("###") as a marker in text where more content will be added or there are errors to be corrected.
Mining: in underground mining, the hash sign is sometimes used as a shorthand for "seam" or "shaft". An example would be "4#", which would mean "four shaft" or "four seam" depending on the context.[citation needed]
Medical shorthand: # is often used to indicate a bone fracture.[46] For example, '#NOF' is often used for 'fractured neck of femur'.
Linguistic phonology: # denotes a word boundary. For instance, /d/ → [t] / _# means that /d/ becomes [t] when it is the last segment in a word (i.e. when it appears before a word boundary).
Linguistic syntax: a # before an example sentence denotes that the sentence is semantically ill-formed, though grammatically well-formed. For instance, "#The toothbrush is pregnant" is a grammatically correct sentence, but the meaning is odd.[47]
Teletext and DVB subtitles (in the UK): the # symbol is used to mark text that is either sung by a character or heard in background music. e.g. # For he's a jolly good fellow #
American sign language transcription: the # prefixing an all-caps word identifies a lexicalized fingerspelled sign, having some sort of blends or letter drops. All-caps words without the prefix are used for standard English words that are fingerspelled in their entirety.[48]
Footnote symbols (or endnote symbols): due to ready availability in many fonts and directly on computer keyboards, # and other symbols (such as the caret) have in recent years begun to be occasionally used in catalogues and reports in place of more traditional symbols (esp. dagger, double-dagger, pilcrow).

text: Unicode[edit]

text: In Unicode, several # characters are assigned:

text:
U+0023 # Number sign (HTML #). Other attested names in Unicode are: pound sign, hash, crosshatch, octothorpe.
U+FF03 ＃ FULLWIDTH NUMBER SIGN (HTML ＃)
U+FE5F ﹟ SMALL NUMBER SIGN (HTML ﹟)
U+E0023 TAG NUMBER SIGN (HTML )

text: At least three orthographically distinct number signs from other languages are also assigned:

text:
U+0600 ؀ ARABIC NUMBER SIGN (HTML ؀)
U+0BFA ௺ TAMIL NUMBER SIGN (HTML ௺)
U+110BD KAITHI NUMBER SIGN (HTML 𑂽)

text: On keyboards[edit]

text: On the standard US keyboard layout, the # symbol is ⇧ Shift+3. On standard UK and some other European keyboards, the same keystrokes produce the pound currency symbol (£), and # is moved to a separate key above the right shift. On UK Mac keyboards, # is generated by ⌥ Opt+3, whereas on some other European Mac keyboards, the # can be found above the right shift key.


document_title: Misophonia

question_text: what is it called when you dont like to hear someone chew

text: Misophonia

text: Signs and symptoms[edit]

text: As of 2016 the literature on misophonia was limited.[1] Some small studies show that people with misophonia generally have strong negative feelings, thoughts, and physical reactions to specific sounds, which the literature calls "trigger sounds". These sounds are apparently usually soft, but can be loud. One study found that around 80% of the sounds were related to the mouth (eating, slurping, chewing or popping gum, whispering, etc.), and around 60% were repetitive. A visual trigger may develop related to the trigger sound.[1][3] It also appears that a misophonic reaction can occur in the absence of an actual sound.[1]

text: Reactions to the triggers can include aggression toward the origin of the sound, leaving, or remaining in its presence but suffering, trying to block it, or trying to mimic the sound.[3]

text: The first misophonic reaction may occur when a person is young and can originate from someone in a close relationship, or a pet.[3]

text: People with misophonia are aware they experience it and some consider it abnormal; the disruption it causes in their lives ranges from mild to severe.[3] Avoidance and other behaviors can make it harder for people with this condition to achieve their goals and enjoy interpersonal interactions.[2]

text: Mechanism[edit]

text: Misophonia's mechanism is not known, but it appears that, like hyperacusis, it may be caused by a dysfunction of the central auditory system in the brain and not of the ears.[1] The perceived origin and context of the sound appears to be essential to triggering a reaction.[1]

text: Diagnosis[edit]

text: There are no standard diagnostic criteria.[3] Misophonia is distinguished from hyperacusis, which is not specific to a given sound and does not involve a similar strong reaction, and from phonophobia, which is a fear of a specific sound,[3] but it may occur with either.[4]

text: It is not clear whether people with misophonia usually have comorbid conditions, nor whether there is a genetic component.[3]

text: Classification[edit]

text: The diagnosis of misophonia is not recognized in the DSM-IV or the ICD 10, and it is not classified as a hearing, neurological, or psychiatric disorder.[3] It may be a form of sound–emotion synesthesia, and has parallels with some anxiety disorders.[1] As of 2015 it was not clear if misophonia should be classified as a symptom or as a condition.[2][5]

text: Management[edit]

text: There are no evidence-based treatments for the condition; health care providers generally try to help people cope with it by recognizing what the person is experiencing, and by working on coping strategies with the person.[1][3] Some small studies have been published on the use of sound therapy similar to tinnitus retraining therapy and on cognitive behavioral therapy and particularly exposure therapy, to help people become less aware of the trigger sound.[1][2] None of these approaches has been sufficiently studied to determine their effectiveness.[2][6]

text: Epidemiology[edit]

text: The prevalence is not known; it is not known whether males or females, or older or younger people, are more likely to have misophonia.[1][3]

text: History[edit]

text: The term "misophonia" was first coined by audiologists Pawel and Margaret Jastreboff in a publication in 2000.[2]

text: Society and culture[edit]

text: People who experience misophonia have formed online support groups.[7]

text: The press has sometimes overemphasized the strength of misophonic reactions, which are usually mild to moderate.[2]

text: In 2016, Quiet Please, a documentary about misophonia, was released.[8][9]

text: Notable cases[edit]

text:
Barron Lerner[10]
Kelly Ripa[11]
Julie Atella


document_title: Eastern Front (World War I)

question_text: how many troops did russia have in ww1

question_tokens: how many troops did russia have in ww1

text: Eastern Front (World War I)

text: Geography[edit]

text: The front in the east was much longer than that in the west. The theater of war was roughly delimited by the Baltic Sea in the west and Minsk in the east, and Saint Petersburg in the north and the Black Sea in the south, a distance of more than 1,600 kilometres (990 mi). This had a drastic effect on the nature of the warfare.

text: While World War I on the Western Front developed into trench warfare, the battle lines on the Eastern Front were much more fluid and trenches never truly developed. This was because the greater length of the front ensured that the density of soldiers in the line was lower so the line was easier to break. Once broken, the sparse communication networks made it difficult for the defender to rush reinforcements to the rupture in the line, mounting rapid counteroffensives to seal off any breakthrough.

text: Propaganda[edit]

text: Propaganda was a key component of the culture of World War I. It was most commonly deployed through the state-controlled media to glorify the homeland and demonize the enemy. Propaganda often took the form of images which portrayed stereotypes from folklore about the enemy or from glorified moments from the nation's history. On the Eastern Front, propaganda took many forms such as opera, film, spy fiction, theater, spectacle, war novels and graphic art. Across the Eastern Front the amount of propaganda used in each country varied from state to state. Propaganda took many forms within each country and was distributed by many different groups. Most commonly the state produced propaganda, but other groups, such as anti-war organizations, also generated propaganda.[24]

text: Initial situation in belligerent countries[edit]

text: Germany[edit]

text:
Prior to the outbreak of war, German strategy was based almost entirely on the Schlieffen Plan. With the Franco-Russian Agreement in place, Germany knew that war with either of these combatants would result in war with the other, which meant that there would be war in both the west and the east. Therefore, the German General Staff, Alfred von Schlieffen, planned a quick, all-out ground war on the Western Front to take France and, upon victory, Germany would turn its attention to Russia in the east.
Von Schlieffen believed Russia would not be ready or willing to move against and attack Germany due to the huge losses of military equipment that Russia suffered in the Russo-Japanese war, her low population density and lack of railroads.

text: Conversely, the German Navy believed it could be victorious over Britain with Russian neutrality, something which von Moltke knew would not be possible.

text: Romania[edit]

text: In the immediate years preceding the First World War, the kingdom of Romania was involved in the Second Balkan War on the side of Serbia, Montenegro, Greece and the Ottoman Empire against Bulgaria. The Treaty of Bucharest, signed on August 10, 1913, ended the Balkan conflict and added 6,960 square kilometers to Romania’s territory.[25] Although militarized, Romania decided upon a policy of neutrality at the start of the First World War, mainly due to having territorial interests in both Austria-Hungary (Transylvania and Bukovina) and in Russia (Bessarabia). Strong cultural influences also affected Romanian leanings, however. King Carol I, as a Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, favoured his Germanic roots, while the Romanian people, influenced by their Orthodox church and Latin-based language, were inclined to join France. Perhaps King Carol’s attempts at joining the war on the side of the Central powers would have been fruitful had he not died in 1914, but Romanian disenchantment with Austria-Hungary had already influenced public and political opinion. French endorsement of Romanian action against Bulgaria, and support of the terms of the Treaty of Bucharest was particularly effective at inclining Romania towards the Entente. Furthermore, Russian courting of Romanian sympathies, exemplified by the visit of the Tsar to Constanta on June 14, 1914, signaled in a new era of positive relations between the two countries.[26] Nevertheless, King Ferdinand I of Romania maintained a policy of neutrality, intending to gain the most for Romania by negotiating between competing powers. According to historian John Keegan, the enticements offered by the Allies were never concrete, for in secret, Russia and France agreed not to honor any conventions when the end of the war came.[27]

text: Russia[edit]

text: The immediate reason for Russia's involvement in the First World War was a direct result of the decisions made by the statesmen and generals during July 1914. The July crisis was the culmination of a series of diplomatic conflicts that took place in the decades prior to 1914, and this is fundamental to an understanding of Russia's position immediately prior to the War. According to D. C. Lieven, Russia was formidable and was able to back up her diplomatic policies with force. In 1870–1914, the four leading powers in Europe were Russia, Prussia, Austria and France, each of whom exercised a similar proportion of power at the time. One of the most significant factors in bringing Russia to the brink of war was the downfall of her economy.[28] The 20 percent jump in defense expenditure during 1866–77 and in 1871-5 forced them to change their position within Europe and shift the balance of power out of her favour.[29] At the time, Russian infrastructure was backward and the Russian government had to invest far more than its European rivals in structural changes. In addition there were overwhelming burdens of defense, which would ultimately result in an economic downfall for the Russians. This was a major strain on the Russian population, but also served as a direct threat to military expenditure.[30] Thus the only way the Russians could sustain the strains of European war would be to place more emphasis on foreign investment from the French who essentially came to Russia's aid for industrial change.[31] The Franco-Russian Alliance allowed for the Russian defense to grow and aid the European balance of power during the growth of the German Empire's might. In 1914, Germany was the most powerful state in all of Europe. Nevertheless, one of the key factors was that of the Russian foreign policy between 1890 and 1914.

text: Russian propaganda[edit]

text: In order for the Russians to legitimise their war efforts the government constructed an image of the enemy through state instituted propaganda. Their main aim was to help overcome the legend of the “invincible” German war machine, in order to boost the morale of civilians and soldiers. Russian propaganda often took the form of showing the Germans as a civilised nation, with barbaric “inhuman” traits. Russian propaganda also exploited the image of the Russian POWs who were in the German camps, again in order to boost the morale of their troops, serving as encouragement to defeat the enemy and to get their fellow soldiers out of the “inhuman” German POW camps.[32]

text: An element of the Russian propaganda was the Investigate Commission formed in April 1915. It was led by Aleksei Krivtsov and the study was tasked with the job of studying the legal violations committed by of the Central Powers and then getting this information to the Russian public. This commission published photographs of letters that were allegedly found on fallen German soldiers. These letters document the German correspondents saying to “take no prisoners.” A museum was also set up in Petrograd, which displayed pictures that showed how “inhumanly” the Germans were treating prisoners of war.[32]

text: Austria-Hungary[edit]

text: Austria-Hungary's participation in the outbreak of World War I has been neglected by historians, as emphasis has traditionally been placed on Germany's role as the prime instigator.[33] However, the "spark" that ignited the First World War is attributed to the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand by Gavrilo Princip, which took place on June 28, 1914. Approximately a month later, on July 28, 1914, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. This act led to a series of events that would quickly expand into the First World War; thus, the Habsburg government in Vienna initiated the pivotal decision that would begin the conflict.[33]

text: The causes of the Great War have generally been defined in diplomatic terms, but certain deep-seated issues in Austria-Hungary undoubtedly contributed to the beginnings of the First World War.[34] The Austro-Hungarian situation in the Balkans pre-1914 is a primary factor in its involvement in the war. The movement towards South Slav unity was a major problem for the Habsburg Empire, which was facing increasing nationalist pressure from its multinational populace. As Europe's third largest state, the Austro-Hungarian monarchy was hardly homogeneous; comprising over fifty million people and eleven nationalities, the Empire was a conglomeration of a number of diverse cultures, languages, and peoples.[35]

text: Specifically, the South Slavic people of Austria-Hungary desired to amalgamate with Serbia in an effort to officially solidify their shared cultural heritage. Over seven million South Slavs lived inside the Empire, while three million lived outside it.[36] With the growing emergence of nationalism in the twentieth century, unity of all South Slavs looked promising. This tension is exemplified by Conrad von Hötzendorf's letter to Franz Ferdinand:

text: The unification of the South Slav race is one of the powerful national movements which can neither be ignored nor kept down. The question can only be, whether unification will take place within the boundaries of the Monarchy – that is at the expense of Serbia's independence – or under Serbia's leadership at the expense of the Monarchy. The cost to the Monarchy would be the loss of its South Slav provinces and thus of almost its entire coastline. The loss of territory and prestige would relegate the Monarchy to the status of a small power.[37]

text: The annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1908 by Austrian foreign minister Baron von Aehrenthal in an effort to assert domination over the Balkans inflamed Slavic nationalism and angered Serbia. Bosnia-Herzegovina became a "rallying cry" for South Slavs, with hostilities between Austria-Hungary and Serbia steadily increasing.[38] The situation was ripe for conflict, and when the Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip assassinated Austrian imperial heir, Franz Ferdinand, these longstanding hostilities culminated into an all-out war.

text: The Allied Powers wholeheartedly supported the Slavs' nationalistic fight. George Macaulay Trevelyan, a British historian, saw Serbia's war against Austria-Hungary as a "war of liberation" that would "free South Slavs from tyranny."[39] In his own words: "If ever there was a battle for freedom, there is such a battle now going on in Southeastern Europe against Austrian and Magyar. If this war ends in the overthrow of the Magyar tyranny, an immense step forward will have been taken toward racial liberty and European peace."[40]

text: Russia prior to 1914[edit]

text:
Prior to 1914, the Russian’s lack of success in war and diplomacy in the six decades before 1914 sapped the country’s moral strength. The triumphs of Britain and Germany in the martial, diplomatic and economic spheres put these countries in the front rank of the world's leading nations.[41] This was a source of national pride, self-confidence and unity. It helped reconcile the worker to the state and the Bavarian or Scotsman to rule from Berlin or London.
In the years prior to 1914, Austro-Russian co-operation was both crucial for European peace and difficult to maintain. Old suspicions exacerbated by the Bosnian crisis stood in the way of agreement between the two empires, as did ethnic sensitivities. Russia’s historical role as liberator of the Balkans was difficult to square with Austria’s determination to control adjacent territories. [42] In 1913–1914 Saint Petersburg was too concerned with its own weakness and what it saw as threats to vital Russian interests, to spare much thought for Vienna’s feelings. The Russians were, with some justice, indignant that the concessions they had made after the First Balkan War in the interest of European peace had not been reciprocated by the Central Powers.[43]

text: This was doubly dangerous given the growing evidence flowing into Petersburg about Germany’s aggressive intentions. Both Bazarov and the agents of the Russian secret political police in Germany reported the concern aroused in public opinion by the press war against Russia, which raged in the spring of 1914.[44]

text: The Russian military was the largest in the world consisting of 1.4 million men prior to the war. They could also mobilize up to 5 million men, but only had 4.6 million rifles to give them. It also had poor leadership.

text: First combat (August 1914)[edit]

text: The war in the east began with the Russian invasion of East Prussia on 17 August 1914 and the Austro-Hungarian province of Galicia.[45] The first effort quickly turned to a defeat following the Battle of Tannenberg in August 1914.[46] A second Russian incursion into Galicia was completely successful, with the Russians controlling almost all of that region by the end of 1914, routing four Austrian armies in the process. Under the command of Nikolai Ivanov and Aleksei Brusilov, the Russians won the Battle of Galicia in September and began the Siege of Przemyśl, the next fortress on the road towards Kraków.[47]

text: This early Russian success in 1914 on the Austro-Russian border was a reason for concern to the Central Powers and caused considerable German forces to be transferred to the East to take pressure off the Austrians, leading to the creation of the new German Ninth Army. At the end of 1914, the main focus of the fighting shifted to central part of Russian Poland, west of the river Vistula.[48] The October Battle of the Vistula River and the November Battle of Łódź brought little advancement for the Germans, but at least kept the Russians at a safe distance.[49]

text: The Russian and Austro-Hungarian armies continued to clash in and near the Carpathian Mountains throughout the winter of 1914–1915. Przemysl fortress managed to hold out deep behind enemy lines throughout this period, with the Russians bypassing it in order to attack the Austro-Hungarian troops further to the west. They made some progress, crossing the Carpathians in February and March 1915, but then the German relief helped the Austrians stop further Russian advances. In the meantime, Przemysl was almost entirely destroyed and the Siege of Przemysl ended in a defeat for the Austrians.[50]

text: In 1915 the German command decided to make its main effort on the Eastern Front, and accordingly transferred considerable forces there. To eliminate the Russian threat the Central Powers began the campaign season of 1915 with the successful Gorlice-Tarnow Offensive in Galicia in May 1915.

text: After the Second Battle of the Masurian Lakes, the German and Austro-Hungarian troops in the Eastern Front functioned under a unified command. The offensive soon turned into a general advance and a corresponding strategic retreat by the Russian Army. The cause of the reverses suffered by the Russian Army was not so much errors in the tactical sphere, as the deficiency in technical equipment, particularly in artillery and ammunition as well as the corruption and incompetence of the Russian officers. Only by 1916 did the buildup of Russian war industries increase production of war material and improve the supply situation.

text: By mid-1915, the Russians had been expelled from Russian Poland and hence pushed hundreds of kilometers away from the borders of the Central Powers, removing the threat of Russian invasion of Germany or Austria-Hungary. At the end of 1915 German-Austrian advance was stopped on the line Riga–Jakobstadt–Dünaburg–Baranovichi–Pinsk–Dubno–Ternopil. The general outline of this front line did not change until the Russian collapse in 1917.

text: Russo-Turkish offensive, winter 1915–16[edit]

text: After the Battle of Sarikamish, the Russo-Turkish front quickly turned in favor of Russian forces. The Turks were concerned with reorganizing their army and committing the Armenian Genocide.[51] Meanwhile, Russia was preoccupied with other armies on the Eastern Front. However, the appointment of Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich as Viceroy and Commander in the Caucasus in September 1915 revived the situation of the Russo-Turkish front.

text: When the Allies withdrew from Gallipoli in December, the Caucasus Army's Chief of Staff General Nikolai Yudenich believed Turkish forces would take action against his army. This concern was legitimate: Bulgaria's entry into the war as Germany's ally in October caused serious alarm, as a land route from Germany to Turkey was now open and would allow for an unrestricted flow of German weapons to the Turks.[51] A "window of opportunity" appeared that would allow the Russians to destroy the Turkish Third Army, as the British required assistance in Mesopotamia (now modern day Iraq). Britain's efforts to besiege Baghdad had been halted at Ctesiphon, and they were forced to retreat. This led to an increasing number of attacks by Turkish forces. The British requested the Russians to attack in an attempt to distract the Turks, and Yudenich agreed. The resulting offensive began on January 10, 1916.[52]

text: This offensive was unanticipated by the Turks, as it was in the middle of winter. The Turkish situation was exacerbated by the Third Army's commander Kamil Pasha and Chief of Staff Major Guse absence. Coupled with an imbalance of forces – the Russians had 325 000 troops, while the Turks only 78 000 – the situation appeared grim for the Central Powers.[52] After three months of fighting, the Russians captured the city of Trabzon on April 18, 1916.

text: Allied operations in 1916 were dictated by an urgent need to force Germany to transfer forces from its Western to Eastern fronts, to relieve the pressure on the French at the Battle of Verdun. This was to be accomplished by a series of Russian offensives which would force the Germans to deploy additional forces to counter them. The first such operation was the Lake Naroch Offensive in March–April 1916, which ended in failure.

text: Brusilov Offensive[edit]

text: The Italian operations during 1916 had one extraordinarily positive result: Austrian divisions were pulled away from the Russian southern front. This allowed the Russian forces to organize a counter-offensive. The Brusilov Offensive was a large tactical assault carried out by Russian forces against Austro-Hungarian forces in Galicia. General Aleksei Brusilov believed victory against the Central Powers was possible if close attention was paid to preparation. Brusilov suggested that the Russians should attack on a wide front, and to position their trenches a mere seventy-five yard away from Austrian trenches.[53]

text: Brusilov's plan worked impeccably. The Russians outnumbered the Austrians 200,000 to 150,000, and held a considerable advantage in guns, with 904 large guns to 600. Most importantly innovative new tactics similar to those independently invented by Erwin Rommel were used to perform quick and effective close-range surprise attacks that allowed a steady advance.[54] The Russian Eighth Army overwhelmed the Austrian Fourth and pushed on to Lutsk, advancing forty miles beyond the starting position. Over a million Austrians were lost, with over 500,000 men killed or taken prisoner by mid-June.[54]

text: Although the Brusilov Offensive was initially successful, it slowed down considerably. An inadequate number of troops and poorly maintained supply lines hindered Brusilov's ability to follow up on the initial victories in June. The Brusilov Offensive is considered to be the greatest Russian victory of the First World War.[22]:52 Although it cost the Russians half a million casualties, the offensive successfully diverted substantial forces of the Central Powers from the Western front, and persuaded Romania to join the war, diverting even more Central Powers forces to the East.[55]

text: Romania enters the war[edit]

text: Romania may be the turning point of the campaign. If the Germans fail there it will be the greatest disaster inflicted upon them. Afterwards it will only be a question of time. But should Germany succeed, I hesitate to think what the effect will be on the fortunes of our campaign. … and yet no one seems to have thought it his particular duty to prepare a plan.

text: Up until 1916, the Romanians followed the tides of war with interest, while attempting to situate themselves in the most advantageous position. French and Russian diplomats had begun courting the Romanians early on, but persuasion tactics gradually intensified. For King Ferdinand to commit his force of half a million men, he expected the Allies to offer a substantial incentive.[57] Playing on Romanian anti-Hungarian sentiment the Allies promised the Austria-Hungarian territory of Ardeal (Transylvania) to Romania. Transylvanian demographics strongly favoured the Romanians. Romania succumbed to Allied enticement on August 18, 1916.[58] Nine days later, on August 27, Romanian troops marched into Transylvania.

text: Romania's entry into the war provoked major strategic changes for the Germans. In September 1916, German troops were mobilized to the Eastern Front. Additionally, the German Chief of the General Staff, General Erich Von Falkenhayn was forced to resign from office in order to command the combined Central Powers forces against Romania, along with General August von Mackensen. Kaiser Wilhelm II immediately replaced Falkenhayn with Paul von Hindenburg.[59] Von Hindenburg's deputy, the more adept Erich Ludendorff, was given effective control of the army and ordered to advance on Romania. On September 3, the first troops of the Central Powers marched into Romanian territory. Simultaneously, the Bulgarian Air Force commenced an incessant bombing of Bucharest.[60] In an attempt to relieve some pressure, French and British forces launched a new offensive known as the Battle of the Somme, while the Brusilov Offensive continued in the East.

text: It is certain that so relatively small a state as Rumania had never before been given a role so important, and, indeed, so decisive for the history of the world at so favorable a moment. Never before had two Great Powers like Germany and Austria found themselves so much at the mercy of the military resources of a country which had scarcely one twentieth of the population of the two great states. Judging by the military situation, it was to be expected that Rumania had only to advance where she wished to decide the world war in favor of those Powers which had been hurling themselves at us in vain for years. Thus everything seemed to depend on whether Rumania was ready to make any sort of use of her momentary advantage.

text: The entrance of Romania into the war was disconcerting for von Hindenburg. On September 15, Paul von Hindenburg issued the following order, stating that: "The main task of the Armies is now to hold fast all positions on the Western, Eastern, Italian and Macedonian Fronts, and to employ all other available forces against Rumania."[62] Fortunately for the Central Powers, the quantity and quality of the Romanian Army was overestimated. Although numbering half a million men, the Romanian Army suffered from poor training and a lack of appropriate equipment.

text: The initial success of the Romanian Army in Austria-Hungarian territory was quickly undermined by the Central Powers. German and Austro-Hungarian troops advanced from the north, while Bulgarian-Turkish-German forces marched into Romania from the south. Although thought to be a tactical blunder by contemporaries, the Romanians opted to mount operations in both directions.[63] By the middle of November the German force passed through the Carpathians, suffering significant casualties due to determined Romanian resistance. By December 5, Bulgarian troops had crossed the Danube and were approaching the capital, Bucharest. At the same time as the Austro-Hungarian troops moved east, and as the Bulgarians marched north, the Turks had sent in two army divisions by sea to the Dobruja from the east.[64] Eventually, the Romanian forces were pushed back behind the Siret in northern Moldavia.

text: Aftermath of 1916[edit]

text: By January 1917, the ranks of the Romanian army had been significantly thinned. Roughly 150,000 Romanian soldiers had been taken prisoner, 200,000 men were dead or wounded, and lost two thirds of their country, including the capital.[65] Importantly, the Ploiești oilfields, the only significant source of oil in Europe west of the Black Sea, had been destroyed before they were abandoned to the Central Powers.

text: Russia – the February Revolution[edit]

text: The Russian February Revolution aimed to topple the Russian monarchy and resulted in the creation of the Provisional Government. The revolution was a turning point in Russian history, and its significance and influence can still be felt in many countries today.[66] Although many Russians wanted a revolution, no one had expected it to happen when it did – let alone how it did.

text: On International Women's Day, Thursday, February 23, 1917/March 8, 1917, as many as 90,000 female workers in the city of Petrograd left their factory jobs and marched through the streets, shouting "Bread", "Down with the autocracy!" and "Stop the War!" These women were tired, hungry, and angry,[67] after working long hours in miserable conditions to feed their families because their menfolk were fighting at the front. They were not alone in demanding change; more than 150,000 men and women took to the streets to protest the next day.

text: By Saturday, February 25, the city of Petrograd was essentially shut down. No one was allowed to work or wanted to work.[68] Even though there were a few incidents of police and soldiers firing into the crowds, those groups soon mutinied and joined the protesters.[69] Tsar Nicholas II, who was not in Petrograd during the revolution, heard reports of the protests but chose not to take them seriously. By March 1, it was obvious to everyone except the czar himself, that his rule was over. On March 2 it was made official.[70]

text: Romania – the Summer Campaign and aftermath[edit]

text: In early July 1917, on the Romanian front, a relatively small area, there was one of the largest concentrations of combat forces and means known during the conflagration: nine armies, 80 infantry divisions with 974 battalions, 19 cavalry divisions with 550 squadrons and 923 artillery batteries, whose effectives numbered some 800,000 men, with about one million in their immediate reserve. The three great battles, decisive for the Romanian nation's destiny, delivered at Mărăști, Mărășești and Oituz represented a turning point in the world war on the Eastern front. These battles, named by the localities and zones where they took place, were fought approximately on the front alignment stabilized in early 1917, which the conflicting sides had thoroughly consolidated for half a year.[71]

text: Between late July and early September, the Romanian Army fought the battles of Mărăști, Mărășești and Oituz, managing to stop the German-Austro-Hungarian advance, inflicting heavy losses in the process and winning the most important Allied victories on the Eastern Front in 1917.

text: As a result of these operations, the remaining Romanian territories remained unoccupied, tying down nearly 1,000,000 Central Powers troops and prompting The Times to describe the Romanian front as "The only point of light in the East".

text: On May 7, 1918, in light of the existing politico-military situation, Romania was forced to conclude the Treaty of Bucharest with the Central Powers, imposing harsh conditions on the country but recognizing its union with Bessarabia. Alexandru Marghiloman became the new German-sponsored Prime Minister. King Ferdinand, however, refused to sign the treaty.

text: The Germans were able to repair the oil fields around Ploiești and by the end of the war had pumped a million tons of oil. They also requisitioned two million tons of grain from Romanian farmers. These materials were vital in keeping Germany in the war to the end of 1918.[72]

text: Russia – the October Revolution[edit]

text: By September 1917, just months after the February Revolution, Lenin believed the Russian people were ready for another revolution, this time on Marxist principles.[73] On October 10, at a secret meeting of the Bolshevik party leaders, Lenin used all his power to convince the others that it was time for armed insurrection. Troops who were loyal to the Bolsheviks took control of the telegraph stations, power stations, strategic bridges, post offices, train stations, and state banks.[74]

text: Petrograd was officially in the hands of the Bolsheviks, who greatly increased their organization in factory groups and in many barracks throughout Petrograd. They concentrated on devising a plan for overturning the Provisional Government, with a coup d’état.[75] On October 24, Lenin emerged from hiding in a suburb, entered the city, set up his headquarters at the Smolny Institute and worked to complete his three-phase plan. With the main bridges and the main railways secured, only the Winter Palace, and with it the Provisional Government, remained to be taken. On the evening of November 7, the troops that were loyal to the Bolsheviks infiltrated the Winter Palace. After an almost bloodless coup, the Bolsheviks were the new leaders of Russia.[75] Lenin announced that the new regime would end the war, abolish all private land ownership, and create a system for workers' control over the factories.

text:
On 7 November 1917, the Communist Bolsheviks took power under their leader Vladimir Lenin. Lenin’s new Bolshevik government tried to end the war, with a ceasefire being declared on December 15, 1917 along lines agreed in November. At the same time Bolsheviks launched a full-scale military offensive against its opponents: Ukraine and separatist governments in the Don region. During the peace negotiations between Soviets and Central Powers, the Germans demanded enormous concessions, eventually resulting in the failure of the long-drawn-out peace negotiations on February 17, 1918. At the same time the Central Powers concluded a military treaty with Ukraine which was losing ground in the fight with invading Bolshevik forces. [76] The Russian Civil War, which started just after November 1917, would tear apart Russia for three years. As a result of the events during 1917, many groups opposed to Lenin’s Bolsheviks had formed. With the fall of Nicholas II, many parts of the Russian Empire took the opportunity to declare their independence, one of which was Finland, which did so in December 1917; however, Finland too collapsed into a civil war. Finland declared itself independent Dec. 6th 1917, and this was accepted by Lenin a month later.
The Finnish Parliament elected a German prince as King of Finland. However, the Socialists (The Reds) and the Whites in Finland fell into war with each other in January 1918. The Reds wanted Finland to be a Soviet republic, and was aided by Russian forces still in Finland.
The Whites of Finland were led by General Carl Gustaf Mannerheim, a Finnish baron who had been in the Tsars service since he was 15 years old.
The Whites were also offered help by a German Expeditionary Corps led by the German General Goltz. Mannerheim never approved this. The German corps landed in Finland in April 1918.

text: Formation of the Red Army[edit]

text: After the disintegration of the Russian imperial army and navy in 1917, the Council of People's Commissars headed by Leon Trotsky set about creating a new army. By a decree on January 28, 1918 the council created the Workers' and Peoples' Red Army; it began recruitment on a voluntary basis, but on April 22, the Soviet government made serving in the army compulsory for anyone who did not employ hired labor. While the majority of the army was made up of workers and peasants, many of the Red Army's officers had served a similar function in the imperial army before its collapse.[77]

text: Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (March 1918)[edit]

text: With the German Army just 85 miles (137 km) from the Russian capital Petrograd (St. Petersburg) on March 3, 1918, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed and the Eastern Front ceased to be a war zone. While the treaty was practically obsolete before the end of the year, it did provide some relief to the Bolsheviks, who were embroiled in a civil war, and affirmed the independence of Ukraine. However, Estonia and Latvia were intended to become a United Baltic Duchy to be ruled by German princes and German nobility as fiefdoms under the German Kaiser. Finland's sovereignty had already been declared in December 1917, and accepted by most nations, including France and the Soviet Union, but not by the United Kingdom and the United States. The Germans were able to transfer substantial forces to the west in order to mount an offensive in France in the spring of 1918.[citation needed]

text: This offensive on the Western Front failed to achieve a decisive breakthrough, and the arrival of more and more American units in Europe was sufficient to offset the German advantage. Even after the Russian collapse, about a million German soldiers remained tied up in the east until the end of the war, attempting to run a short-lived addition to the German Empire in Europe. In the end, Germany and Austria lost all their captured lands, and more, under various treaties (such as the Treaty of Versailles) signed after the armistice in 1918.[citation needed]

text: Role of women on the Eastern Front[edit]

text: The examples and perspective in this section may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. You may improve this article, discuss the issue on the talk page, or create a new article, as appropriate. (January 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

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text: In comparison to the attention directed to the role played by women on the Western Front during the First World War, the role of women in the east has garnered limited scholarly focus. It is estimated that 20 percent of the Russian industrial working class was conscripted into the army; therefore, women's share of industrial jobs increased dramatically. There were percentage increases in every industry, but the most noticeable increase happened in industrial labour, which increased from 31.4 percent in 1913 to 45 percent in 1918.[78]

text: Women also fought on the Eastern Front. In the later stages of Russia's participation in the war, Russia began forming all-woman combat units, the Women's Battalions, in part to fight plummeting morale among male soldiers by demonstrating Russian women's willingness to fight. In Romania, Ecaterina Teodoroiu actively fought in the Romanian Army and is remembered today as a national hero.

text: British nursing efforts were not limited to the Western Front. Nicknamed the "Gray partridges" in reference to their dark gray overcoats, Scottish volunteer nurses arrived in Romania in 1916 under the leadership of Elsie Inglis. In addition to nursing injured personnel, Scottish nurses manned transport vehicles and acted as regimental cooks.[79] The "Gray Partridges" were well respected by Romanian, Serbian and Russian troops and as a result, the Romanian press went as far as to characterize them as "healthy, masculine, and tanned women." As a testament to her abilities, Elsie Inglis and her volunteers were entrusted to turn an abandoned building in the city of Galati into an operational hospital, which they did in a little more than a day.[80] Yvonne Fitzroy's published journal, "With the Scottish Nurses in Roumania," provides an excellent first hand account Scottish nursing activities in the Eastern Front.[81]

text: Prisoners of War in Russia[edit]

text: During World War I, approximately 200,000 German soldiers and 2.5 million soldiers from the Austro-Hungarian army entered Russian captivity. During the 1914 Russian campaign the Russians began taking thousands of Austrian prisoners. As a result, the Russian authorities made emergency facilities in Kiev, Penza, Kazan, and later Turkestan to hold the Austrian prisoners of war. As the war continued Russia began to detain soldiers from Germany as well as a growing number from the Austro-Hungarian army. The Tsarist state saw the large population of POWs as a workforce that could benefit the war economy in Russia. Many POWs were employed as farm laborers and miners in Donbas and Krivoi Rog. However, the majority of POWs were employed as laborers constructing canals and building railroads. The living and working environments for these POWs was bleak. There was a shortage of food, clean drinking water and proper medical care. During the summer months malaria was a major problem, and the malnutrition among the POWs led to many cases of scurvy. While working on the Murmansk rail building project over 25,000 POWs died. Information about the bleak conditions of the labor camps reached the German and Austro-Hungarian governments. They began to complain about the treatment of POWs. The Tsarist authorities initially refused to acknowledge the German and Habsburg governments. They rejected their claims because Russian POWs were working on railway construction in Serbia. However, they slowly agreed to stop using prison labor.[82] Life in the camps was extremely rough for the men who resided in them. The Tsarist government could not provide adequate supplies for the men living in their POW camps. The Russian government's inability to supply the POWs in their camps with supplies was due to inadequate resources and bureaucratic rivalries. However, the conditions in the POW camps varied; some were more bearable than others.[82]

text: Disease on the Eastern Front[edit]

text: Disease played a critical role in the loss of life on the Eastern Front. In the East, disease accounted for approximately four times the number of deaths caused by direct combat, in contrast to the three to one ratio in the West.[83] Malaria, cholera, and dysentery contributed to the epidemiological crisis on the Eastern Front; however, typhoid spotted fever, transmitted by pathogenic lice and previously unknown to German medical officers before the outbreak of the war, was the most deadly. There was a direct correlation between the environmental conditions of the East and the prevalence of disease. With cities excessively crowded by refugees fleeing their native countries, unsanitary medical conditions created a suitable environment for diseases to spread. Primitive hygienic conditions, along with general lack of knowledge about proper medical care was evident in the German occupied Ober Ost.[84]

text: Ultimately, a large scale sanitation program was put into effect. This program, named Santitätswesen (Medical Affairs), was responsible for ensuring proper hygienic procedures were being carried out in Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland. Quarantine centers were built, and diseased neighbourhoods were isolated from the rest of the population. Delousing stations were prevalent in the countryside and in cities to prevent the spread of typhoid spotted fever, with mass numbers of natives being forced to take part in this process at military bathhouses. A "sanitary police" was also introduced to confirm the cleanliness of homes, and any home deemed unfit would be boarded up with a warning sign.[84] Dogs and cats were also killed for fear of possible infection.

text: To avoid the spread of disease, prostitution became regulated. Prostitutes were required to register for a permit, and authorities demanded mandatory medical examinations for all prostitutes, estimating that seventy percent of prostitutes carried a venereal disease.[84] Military brothels were introduced to combat disease; the city of Kowno emphasized proper educational use of contraceptives such as condoms, encouraged proper cleansing of the genital area after intercourse, and gave instructions on treatment in the case of infection.[84]

text: Casualties[edit]

text: The Russian casualties in the First World War are difficult to estimate, due to the poor quality of available statistics.

text: Cornish gives a total of 2,006,000 military dead (700,000 killed in action, 970,000 died of wounds, 155,000 died of disease and 181,000 died while POWs). This measure of Russian losses is similar to that of the British Empire, 5% of the male population in the 15 to 49 age group. He says civilian casualties were five to six hundred thousand in the first two years, and were then not kept, so a total of over 1,500,000 is not unlikely. He has over five million men passing into captivity, the majority during 1915.[85]

text: When Russia withdrew from the war, 2,500,000 Russian POWs were in German and Austrian hands. This by far exceeded the total number of prisoners of war (1,880,000) lost by the armies of Britain, France and Germany combined. Only the Austro-Hungarian Army, with 2,200,000 POWs, came even close.[86]

text: Territorial changes[edit]

text: Austria[edit]

text: The empire of Austria lost approximately 60% of its territory as a result of the war, and evolved into a smaller state with a small homogeneous population of 6.5 million people. With the loss Vienna was now an imperial capital without an empire to support it. The states that were formed around Austria feared the return of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and put measures into place to prevent it from re-forming.[87]

text: Czechoslovakia[edit]

text:
Czechoslovakia was created through the merging of the Czech provinces of Bohemia and Moravia, previously under Austrian rule, united with Slovakia and Ruthenia, which were part of Hungary. Although these groups had many differences between them, they believed that together they would create a stronger state.
The new country was a multi-ethnic state. The population consisted of Czechs (51%), Slovaks (16%), Germans (22%), Hungarians (5%) and Rusyns (4%), with other ethnic groups making up 2%.[88] Many of the Germans, Hungarians, Ruthenians and Poles[89] and some Slovaks, felt oppressed because the political elite did not generally allow political autonomy for minority ethnic groups.
The state proclaimed the official ideology that there are no Czechs and Slovaks, but only one nation of Czechoslovaks (see Czechoslovakism), to the disagreement of Slovaks and other ethnic groups. Once a unified Czechoslovakia was restored after World War II the conflict between the Czechs and the Slovaks surfaced again.

text: Hungary[edit]

text: After the war Hungary was severely disrupted by the loss of 72% of its territory, 64% of its population and most of its natural resources. The loss of territory was similar to that of Austria after the breaking up the Austria-Hungary territory. They lost the territories of Transylvania, Slovakia, Croatia, Slavonia, Syrmia, and Banat.[87]

text: Italy[edit]

text: Italy incorporated the regions of Trieste and Tyrol from Austria.

text: Poland[edit]

text: The creation of a free and Independent Poland was one of Wilson’s fourteen points. At the end of the 18th century the state of Poland was broken apart by Prussia, Russia, and Austria. During the Paris Peace Conference, 1919, the Commission on Polish Affairs was created which recommended there be a passageway across West Prussia and Posen, in order to give Poland access to the Baltic through the port of Danzig at the mouth of the Vistula River. The creation of the state of Poland would cut off 1.5 million Germans in East Prussia from the rest of Germany. Poland also received Upper Silesia. British Foreign Secretary Lord Curzon proposed Poland’s eastern border with Russia. Neither the Soviet Russians nor the Polish were happy with the demarcation of the border.[87]

text: Romania[edit]

text: The state of Romania was enlarged greatly after the war. As a result of the Paris peace conference Romania kept the Dobrudja and Transylvania. Between the states of Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, and Romania an alliance named the Little Entente was formed. They worked together on matters of foreign policy in order to prevent a Habsburg restoration.[87]

text: Yugoslavia[edit]

text: Initially Yugoslavia began as the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. The name was changed to Yugoslavia in 1929. The State secured its territory at the Paris peace talks after the end of the war. The state suffered from many internal problems because of the many diverse cultures and languages within the state. Yugoslavia was divided on national, linguistic, economic, and religious lines.[87]