Oval

An oval (from Latin ovum, "egg") is a closed curve in a plane which "loosely" resembles the outline of an egg. The term is not very specific, but in some areas (projective geometry, technical drawing, etc.) it is given a more precise definition, which may include either one or two axes of symmetry. In common English, the term is used in a broader sense: any shape which reminds one of an egg.

The 3-dimensional version of an oval is called an ovoid.

Oval in geometry

The term oval when used to describe curves in geometry is not well-defined, except in the context of projective geometry. Many distinct curves are commonly called ovals or are said to have an "oval shape". Generally, to be called an oval, a plane curve should resemble the outline of an egg or an ellipse. In particular, the common traits that these curves have are:

Oval, London

Coordinates: 51°28′53″N 0°07′11″W / 51.4813°N 0.1197°W / 51.4813; -0.1197

Oval is a geographically small area of Kennington, south London, in the London Borough of Lambeth. It is situated 2.1 miles (3.38 km) to the south-east of Charing Cross. Oval straddles the border of south-west London and south-east London, and is where the postcode SE11 converges with the postcodes SW8 and SW9. Oval is best known for The Oval cricket ground, the home-ground of Surrey County Cricket Club.

Oval is within the borough constituency of Vauxhall. The Member of Parliament for the area is Kate Hoey of the Labour Party.

History

The land here was, from the seventeenth century, used for a market garden. The name "Oval" emerged from a street layout which was originated in 1790 but never completely built. The Montpelier Cricket Club leased ten acres of land from the Duchy of Cornwall in 1844, and Surrey County Cricket Club was formed soon thereafter at a meeting at the Horns Tavern (since demolished) on Kennington Park Road.

Oval (projective plane)

In mathematics, an oval in a projective plane is a set of points, no three collinear, such that there is a unique tangent line at each point (a tangent line is defined as a line meeting the point set at only one point, also known as a 1-secant). If the projective plane is finite of order q, then the tangent condition can be replaced by the condition that the set contains q+1 points. In other words, an oval in a finite projective plane of order q is a (q+1,2)-arc, or a set of q+1 points, no three collinear. Ovals in the Desarguesian projective plane PG(2,q) for q odd are just the nonsingular conics. Ovals in PG(2,q) for q even have not yet been classified. Ovals may exist in non-Desarguesian planes, and even more abstract ovals are defined which cannot be embedded in any projective plane.

Odd q

In a finite projective plane of odd order q, no sets with more points than q + 1, no three of which are collinear, exist, as first pointed out by Bose in a 1947 paper on applications of this sort of mathematics to statistical design of experiments.

River Mersey

The River Mersey /ˈmɜːrzi/ is a river in North West England. Its name is derived from the Anglo-Saxon language and translates as "boundary river". The river may have been the border between the ancient kingdoms of Mercia and Northumbria and for centuries it formed part of the boundary between the historic counties of Lancashire and Cheshire.

The start of the Mersey is at the confluence of the River Tame and River Goyt in Stockport. It flows westwards through the suburban areas of south Manchester towards Warrington where the river widens before it then narrows as it passes between the towns of Runcorn and Widnes. From Runcorn the river widens into a large estuary, which is 3 miles (4.8 km) wide at its widest point near Ellesmere Port. The course of the river then heads north, with Liverpool to the east and the Wirral Peninsula to the west and finishes at Liverpool Bay. In total the river flows 70.33 miles (113 km).

Two road tunnels pass under the estuary from Liverpool, the Queensway Tunnel opened in 1934 connecting the city to Birkenhead, and the Kingsway Tunnel, opened in 1971, connects with Wallasey. The Silver Jubilee Bridge completed in 1961, crosses between Runcorn and Widnes. There is a Railway bridge adjacent to the Silver Jubilee Bridge and between Liverpool and Birkenhead there is a railway tunnel. The Mersey Ferry operates between Pier Head in Liverpool and Woodside in Birkenhead and Seacombe and has become a tourist attraction offering cruises that provide an overview of the river and surrounding areas.

Mersey (1801 ship)

For the River, see River Mersey.

The Mersey was a ship wrecked in the Torres Strait, Australia about mid-June 1804.

The Mersey was built in Chittagong, Bangladesh in 1801 and registered at Fort William, India. It was 350 tons and carried 10 guns (cannon). It was owned and captained by James Wilson. The ship had been chartered by Governor Philip Gidley King to purchase 250 cows from Bengal and deliver them to Hobart, Tasmania. The Mersey sailed from Port Jackson on 24 May 1804 with a cargo of timber for Bengal. While passing through the Torres Strait, the Mersey was totally wrecked. Only 17 crew and the Captain were saved by sailing in a longboat to Timor; 56 others drowned. After refitting the longboat at Dili they reached Bencoolen from where they sailed to Madras on an Acheen vessel. Captain Wilson arrived in Calcutta 20 September 1804 on board the Margaret, from Madras.

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References

Mersey (1894 ship)

The Mersey was a 1,829 ton iron-hulled sailing ship with a length of 270.7 feet (82.5 m), beam of 39 feet (12 m) and depth of 22.5 feet (6.9 m). She was built by Charles Connell and Company of Glasgow, named after the River Mersey in north-western England and launched on 18 May 1894 for the Nourse Line. Nourse Line used her primarily to transport of Indian indentured labourers to the British colonies. Details of some of these voyages are as follows:

In 1908 the Mersey was sold to the White Star Line for use as a training ship for 60 cadets, making six voyages to Australia as a White Star training ship, traveling around the Cape of Good Hope outbound and Cape Horn inbound. In 1910 she became the first sailing ship to be equipped with a radio. She was also the first sailing ship aboard which an operation for appendicitis was performed on a cadet. In 1915 the White Star Line gave up their training scheme due to the war and sold the Mersey to Norwegian owners. She changed hands a number of times and her name was changed to Transatlantic then to Dvergso. She was scrapped in 1923.