Who is the main character in Jim O'Connor's What Was the Battle of Gettysburg?

It is not really fair to request a "main character" in regards to this book because it is a non-fiction book about a particular event.  However, there are quite a few real people mentioned in the book that could be considered "characters":  Mathew Brady (a famous civil war photographer), Jeb Stuart (a lesser-known general for the Confederacy), George Meade (the general leading the Confederacy during this particular battle), Abraham Lincoln (the President of the United States at the time), and Robert E. Lee (the legendary general of the Confederacy).  Of these four characters, only Abraham Lincoln and Robert E. Lee could be considered main characters.  Lincoln, of course, is famous for his "Gettysburg Address" and his role in leading the Union during the entire Civil war.  Robert E. Lee led the soldiers from the South into the bloody battle that gives the book its title.  The battle is often deemed the "turning point" of the Civil War.

Who are the credible characters in Arthur Conan Doyle's Hound of the Baskervilles?

As with most crime fiction, most of the characters withhold information or lie about it. What creates and resolves suspense in this sort of story is precisely the way readers are only gradually given the information needed to fully understand the events we witness. For characters:

Narrator: The third person narrator is reliable but is mainly restricted to the viewpoint of Watson and only knows or reveals information to us gradually.

Watson: He has an open and honest character and tells the truth, but is not as intellectually acute as Holmes, and does not always understand what lies behind the events he observes and records.

Holmes: The consulting detective is brilliant and seeks and discovers the truth in all of the works featuring him. At times, he will lie or engage in other forms of deception to achieve his ultimate ends, but in the end he will reveal the truth.

Sir Henry Baskerville and Dr. Mortimer: Both honest but puzzled by events.

Barrymore and Mrs. Barrymore: Lie initially to help Selden but otherwise truthful. 

Mr. Stapleton: Not credible.

What are some questions that I could ask in an interview with someone [not white], regarding the Separate Amenities Act during apartheid?

Here are some questions that you could ask in such an interview.  Of course, the specific questions that you ask might vary depending on the person you are interviewing and, perhaps, your own particular interests.

• What were things like before this law was passed?  Were things really any different?  (Since this law was passed in 1953, you may have a hard time finding people who remember the time before it, but this is a question that would be interesting if you could interview an older person.)


• What kinds of public amenities do you remember that were separate for the different races?


• Did they have separate facilities for blacks, coloreds, and Asians, or was it just white and non-white?


• Do you remember if there were amenities that were white only, with no segregated facilities for other races?  (In other words, were there things like beaches where there was a white only beach but no beaches where non-whites could go?)


• Were there any places where whites and non-whites mixed?


• Did you ever get to go inside a white-only area or facility (perhaps as someone who was caring for a white child)?


• If so, what were they like compared to the facilities for your race?


• How did this law make you feel?  How did it feel to be kept separate from the white people?


• What things in your life changed after this law was repealed and what things did not? 


• Do you think that there was anything positive about the Separate Amenities Act?

Hopefully this gives you some ideas of what questions you could ask.  Perhaps these examples will help you to think of additional questions that are of interest to you.

In Shakespeare's Macbeth, what is "nose-painting"?

In Act 2, Scene 3 of Macbeth, on the second page, the Porter says that drinking provokes "nose-painting, sleep and urine." While we know what the last two things are, it is a little more unclear what the term "nose-painting" refers to. While many people assume that it means the turning red of your nose when you drink, other sources point to the real meaning being a little more bawdy than that.

Shakespeare uses many euphemisms to refer to sexual acts, and this might be no exception. If we look at the context surrounding the quote, we get a clue as to what it might signify: "Lechery, sir, it provokes and unprovokes; it provokes the desire, but it takes away the performance... makes him stand to and not stand to." If we take this to mean that he is using these phrases as a metaphor for sexual behavior, such as the desire to perform and not to perform and the ability to "stand to" (achieve an erection), then we might assume that painting one's nose could refer to some sort of sexual act. 

Furthermore, the term "lechery" is used, and this is a strong indicator of a sexual reference. Lechery is defined as excessive sexual desire, or lustfulness. This seems to suggest that although the drunk person in question has the desire to engage in sexual activity, he will be unable to "get it up," so to speak, and will thus be unable to perform sexually. 

Why do you think it's important to learn about the physical features of other countries?

Within the context of the social sciences, the physical features of a country matter a great deal more than most people realize.  Physical features are a country's geography and climate, and these have a bearing on the history, culture, and collective behavior of a people. Even the mythology of a people is influenced by its geography, as, for example, the ocean features prominently in Japanese myths. How people get their food, how and what they build, how they worship, and how they raise their children are inevitably influenced by the terrain and the weather.  Malcolm Gladwell offers an excellent example of this in The Outliers, in which he discusses how growing rice in China has produced generations of hard-working, problem-solving, math-savvy students.  This culture is to some degree a consequence of the physical terrain in many parts of China.  Sociologists take note of how different cultures are in warmer climates as opposed to colder climates and how people who live at the shore are different in many ways from those who live inland. In my own city, which comprises mostly hills and valleys, neighborhoods preserve their separate identities and cultures more than in other cities because of the physical features.  Geography and climate are powerful influences on people, and the social sciences need to take this into account.

`F(x) = int_pi^ln(x) cos e^t dt` Find the derivative.

`F(x)=int_pi^(lnx) cos(e^t)dt`

`F'(x)=?`

Take note that if the function has a form

`F(x)=int_a^(u(x)) f(t)dt`

its derivative is

`F'(x)=f(u(x))*u'(x)`

Applying this formula, the derivative of the function

`F(x)=int_pi^(ln(x)) cos(e^t)dt`

will be:

`F'(x) = cos(e^(ln(x))) *(ln(x))'`

`F'(x) = cos(e^(ln(x)))*1/x`

`F'(x)= cos(x)*1/x`

`F'(x)= cos(x)/x`

Therefore, the derivative of the given function is `F'(x)=cos(x)/x` .

Find the area of the parallelogram whose vertices are at `A(0,8),` `B(-2,6),` `C(-4,-6)` and `D(-2,-4).`

Hello!

This figure is really a parallelogram, for example because the opposite sides
have the same length: `|AB| = |CD| = 2sqrt(2)` and `|BC| = |AD| = 2sqrt(37).` Or we can check that the opposite sides have the same slope.

The area of a parallelogram `ABCD` is twice the area of the triangle `ABC` (or `BCD,`  or `CDA,` or `DAB` ). Therefore it is `|AB|*|BC|*|sin(B)|.`

The simplest way to compute this for the points with known coordinates is to note that this expression is the absolute value of the cross product:

`A = |vec(BA) xx vec(BC)| = |lt2,2gt xx lt-2,-12gt| = `

`= |2*(-12)-2*(-2)| = |-24 + 4| = |-20| = 20.`

This is the answer. If you don't know the cross product, you can use Heron's formula for any mentioned triangle (and multiply by 2).