Camel

A camel is an even-toed ungulate within the genus Camelus, bearing distinctive fatty deposits known as "humps" on its back. The two surviving species of camel are the dromedary, or one-humped camel (C. dromedarius), which inhabits the Middle East and the Horn of Africa; and the bactrian, or two-humped camel (C. bactrianus), which inhabits Central Asia. Both species have been domesticated; they provide milk, meat, hair for textiles or goods such as felted pouches, and are working animals with tasks ranging from human transport to bearing loads.

The term "camel" is derived via Latin and Greek (camelus and κάμηλος kamēlos respectively) from Hebrew or Phoenician gāmāl.

"Camel" is also used more broadly to describe any of the six camel-like mammals in the family Camelidae: the two true camels and the four New World camelids: the llama, alpaca, guanaco, and vicuña of South America.

Biology

The average life expectancy of a camel is 40 to 50 years. A full-grown adult camel stands 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in) at the shoulder and 2.15 m (7 ft 1 in) at the hump. Camels can run at up to 65 km/h (40 mph) in short bursts and sustain speeds of up to 40 km/h (25 mph). Bactrian camels weigh 300 to 1,000 kg (660 to 2,200 lb) and dromedaries 300 to 600 kg (660 to 1,320 lb).

Camel (chess)

The camel (or long knight) is a fairy chess piece that moves like an elongated knight. When it moves, it can jump to a square that is three squares horizontally and one square vertically, or three squares vertically and one square horizontally, regardless of intervening pieces; thus, it is a (1,3)-leaper. Below, it is given the symbol L from Betza notation.

History and nomenclature

The camel is a very old piece, appearing in some very early chess variants, such as Tamerlane chess. It is still known as such in fairy chess problems.

Value

The camel by itself is worth about two pawns (appreciably less than a knight), because of its colorboundedness and lack of sufficient freedom of movement on an 8×8 board. However a camel and a bishop and a king can force checkmate on a bare king (assuming that the attacking pieces are not on the same color); a camel, a knight and a king can force checkmate on a bare king, but not easily (there are thirteen types of fortress draws); a camel, a wazir and a king can sometimes force checkmate on a bare king, but it can take up to 77 moves. Even if they are on different colours, two camels cannot checkmate a lone king. While the rook versus camel endgame is a draw in general, there are more winning positions than there are in rook versus knight and rook versus bishop: the longest win takes 35 moves. (All endgame statistics mentioned are for the 8×8 board.)

Camel (color)

Camel is a color that resembles the color of the hair of a camel.

The first recorded use of camel as a color name in English was in 1916.

The source of this color is: ISCC-NBS Dictionary of Color Names (1955)--Color Sample of Camel (color sample #76).

Camel in human culture

Fashion

See also

References