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WorldTerra, Earth, Zemla, Земля, Erde, Terre
Demonym(s)	Earthling, Terran
Area
• Total	149,000,000 km (58,000,000 sq mi)
Population
• 2009 estimate	6,750,000,000
• Density	45/km (116.5/sq mi)
GDP (PPP)	2008 estimate
• Total	USD $70.650 trillion
• Per capita	USD $9,600
GDP (nominal)	2007 estimate
• Total	USD $55 trillion
• Per capita	USD $8,100
HDI (2006)	0.747 high

World is a common name for the planet Earth seen from a human point of view, as a place inhabited by human beings. It is often used to signify the sum of human experience and history, or the 'human condition' in general.

In a metaphysical context, World may refer to the Universe, everything that constitutes reality: see World (philosophy)

Etymology

In English, the etymology of world may be a compound of the obsolete words were, "man", and eld, "age"; thus, its etymology would be semantically rendered as "age or life of man". Compare to the word for "world" in a closely related language to English, Dutch, which is "wereld."

Usage

'World' distinguishes the entire planet or population from any particular country or region: world affairs are those which pertain not just to one place but to the whole world, and world history is a field of history which examines events from a global (rather than a national or a regional) perspective. Earth, on the other hand, refers to the planet as a physical entity, and distinguishes it from other planets and physical objects.

'World' can also be used attributively, as an adjective, to mean 'global', 'relating to the whole world', forming usages such as World community. See World (adjective).

By extension, a 'world' may refer to any planet or heavenly body, especially when it is thought of as inhabited.

'World', when qualified, can also refer to a particular domain of human experience.

• The world of work describes paid work and the pursuit of a career, in all its social aspects, to distinguish it from home life and academic study.
• The fashion world describes the environment of the designers, fashion houses and consumers that make up the fashion industry.
• The New World is a part of the world discovered or colonized by Europeans later than other parts; it usually refers to the American continents or to Australia. Native Americans and Native Australians tend to dislike this usage. For them America and Australia are not new. Their ancestors have lived there since time immemorial. The Old World refers, by contrast, to the continents of Europe, Asia and north Africa.

Earth

Creationist world-view

  According to the Christian doctrines of Genesis, the Earth was created by God roughly 6,000 years ago. (The best estimates say that it started 4004 BC.) The Christians claim that the world looked a lot different than what we see today: there were plants of all kinds from pole to pole; the pre-Flood world had a seventh layer to its atmosphere which was made mostly out of water suspeded, somehow, above the earth, probably by the magnetic field which was stronger back then. (This concludes that the water layer would increase oxygen in the earth's atmosphere, protecting the people from any harmful UV light, X-rays, or Gamma rays from the sun, so they could grow much, much older; this was also causing many animals grew much bigger than they do today, and that many reptiles also grew enormous sizes resluting that they looked like dinosaurs. The first people God created were Adam and Eve, and He put them to live in the Garden of Eden. According to the Bible, God told them that they were not to eat of a certain tree "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" for they would surely die. And one day the Devil (disguised as a serpent) lied to Eve to eat of it, and she also shared some with Adam, in which they both disobeyed God. A curse was put upon God's good creation, and death and suffering would result.  Adam and Eve began to have many children (the Bible states that Adam lived 930 years in the pre-Flood world.) Soon, sin was all over the earth oin the days of Noah. Everyone else in the world was coirrupt in God's eyes, except Noah. He warned Noah to build a huge Ark, along with his three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. (The Bible claims in Genesis 6:4 "There were giants in the earth in those days." This could mean that they built the Ark much bigger than we thought since their cubits would larger than modern-day people.) After 120 years of building, God commanded Noah to bring every "kind" of animal, two by two, male and female, into the Ark. Many Creationists claim that since Noah was 600 years old when he went on the Ark, he was smart enough to figure out that he wouldn't have to bring the biggest animals, but just bring the baby animals. Noah, his wife, his three sons, and their wives (8 people) all were inside that Ark. Soon, the world-wide Flood happened; the Bible says it began to rain, and "the fountains of the great deep broke open", the water started bursting all over the earth. The Creationists state that it was the greatest disaster in history, and that the fault lines we see at the bottom of many of the oceans are the remains of those bursts, and the Flood it would have been able to form many canyons, burying billions of dead things in many layers of rock making them fossils, rapid uplifting of land creating mountains, and creating a rapid Ice Age; they say the fact is the Earth looks old because the Flood was so destructive, it messed up what the earth really looked like; Creationists estimate that the Earth is much younger than most people think, and that the world-wide Flood shows that God wanted to leave behind evidense that their was a Judgement of sin, that God hates sin.  "After 40 days and 40 nights, the Ark rested on Mt. Ararat", which is the possible mountain in present-day Turkey. (A lot of archeologists have gone there, and many have come back saying that they believe they have founbd remnants of a big boat or barge of some kind.) After the Flood, Noah and his family, and all the animals got out of the Ark and started repopultaing the planet. The Bible records claim that a couple hundred years after the Flood , they all decided to build a great tower, the Tower of Babel, to reach Heaven and they would be a great people. The Bible states that God saw their foolishness and they did not spread out across the earth, like He told them to, but stayed in one area. So He confused them all by individually changing their languages, so they wouldn't be able to communicate and build their tower. They pretty soon gave up the project and decided to move to different nations and became their own cultures to the present day. Best research states that the descendants of Shem were the Orientals, the descendants of Ham were the Africans, and the descendants of Japheth were the Europeans. When the animals spread out, so did the dinosaurs. The Creationsits claim that the dinosaurs had two major problems after the Flood: the climate was a lot different, so they couldn't live long enough to get big enough; second problem, people hunted them. And there are thousands of stories and legends of people killing off "dragons". 

Evolutionist world-view

Earth is the only place in the universe where life is known by humanity to exist at this time. Most scientists theorize that the planet formed itself 4.6 billion years ago, and life appeared on its surface within a billion years. Since then, Earth's biosphere has significantly altered the atmosphere and other abiotic conditions on the planet, enabling the proliferation of aerobic organisms as well as the formation of the ozone layer which, together with Earth's magnetic field, blocks harmful radiation, permitting life on land.

Earth's outer surface is divided into several rigid segments, or tectonic plates, that gradually migrate across the surface over periods of many millions of years. About 71% of the surface is covered with salt-water oceans, the remainder consisting of continents and islands; liquid water, necessary for all known life, is not known to exist on any other planet's surface. Earth's interior remains active, with a thick layer of relatively solid mantle, a liquid outer core that generates a magnetic field, and a solid iron inner core.

The earth consists of seven continents listed as follows: North America, South America, Antarctica, Africa, Europe, Asia and Australia; the largest of which is Asia. There are several other methods of determining the continents.

Earth is impacted upon by other objects in outer space, including the Sun and the Moon. At present, Earth orbits the Sun once for every roughly 365.26 times it rotates about its axis. This length of time is a sidereal year, which is equal to 365.26 solar days. The Earth's axis of rotation is tilted 23.4° away from the perpendicular to its orbital plane, producing seasonal variations on the planet's surface with a period of one tropical year (365.24 solar days). Earth's only known natural satellite, the Moon, which began orbiting it about 4.53 billion years ago, provides ocean tides, stabilizes the axial tilt and gradually slows the planet's rotation. A cometary bombardment during the early history of the planet played a role in the formation of the oceans. Later, asteroid impacts caused significant changes to the surface environment.

Humanity

Humans are bipedal primates belonging to the mammalian species Homo sapiens. Compared to other animals, humans have a relatively highly developed brain capable of abstract reasoning, language, and introspection. This mental capability, combined with an erect body carriage that frees their upper limbs for manipulating objects, has allowed humans to make far greater use of tools than any other species. DNA evidence indicates that modern humans originated in Africa about 200,000 years ago. Humans now inhabit every continent and low Earth orbit, with a total population of over 6.73 billion humans as of January 2009.

Like most primates, humans are social by nature. However, humans are particularly adept at utilizing systems of communication for self-expression, the exchange of ideas, and organization. Humans create complex social structures composed of many cooperating and competing groups, from families to nations. Social interactions between humans have established an extremely wide variety of traditions, rituals, ethics, values, social norms, and laws which form the basis of human society. Humans have a marked appreciation for beauty and aesthetics which, combined with the human desire for self-expression, has led to cultural innovations such as art, literature and music.

Humans are noted for their desire to understand and influence the world around them, seeking to explain and manipulate natural phenomena through science, philosophy, mythology and religion. This natural curiosity has led to the development of advanced tools and skills.

Development

A summary of world development:

• The universe is continuing its metric expansion.
• Our galaxy is approaching its neighbor.
• The Sun is shining brighter and brighter.
• Species are becoming fewer.
• Humans are increasing in number.
• Human life expectancy, literacy, education, standard of living, and GDP per capita are increasing.
• Technology and socioculture are also developing.

See also

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• The World in plate carrée projection
• The World in Gall-Peters projection
• The World in Polar azimuthal equidistant projection.

External links

• "World". The World Factbook (2025 ed.). Central Intelligence Agency.

References

1. American Heritage Dictionary
2. Het Van Dale woordenboek van de Nederlandse taal
3. Dalrymple, G.B. (1991). The Age of the Earth. California: Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-1569-6.
4. Newman, William L. (July 9, 2007). "Age of the Earth". Publications Services, USGS. Retrieved 2007-09-20. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
5. Dalrymple, G. Brent (2001). "The age of the Earth in the twentieth century: a problem (mostly) solved". Geological Society, London, Special Publications. 190: 205–221. doi:10.1144/GSL.SP.2001.190.01.14. Retrieved 2007-09-20.
6. Stassen, Chris (September 10, 2005). "The Age of the Earth". TalkOrigins Archive. Retrieved 2007-09-20. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
7. Harrison, Roy M. (2002). Causes and Environmental Implications of Increased UV-B Radiation. Royal Society of Chemistry. ISBN 0854042652. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
8. Other planets in the solar system are either too hot or too cold to support liquid water. However, it is confirmed to have existed on the surface of Mars in the past, and may still appear today. See: Msnbc (March 2, 2007). "Rover reveals Mars was once wet enough for life". NASA. Retrieved 2007-08-28. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)Staff (November 7, 2005). "Simulations Show Liquid Water Could Exist on Mars". University of Arkansas. Retrieved 2007-08-08. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
9. As of 2007, water vapor has been detected in the atmosphere of only one extrasolar planet, and it is a gas giant. See: G. Tinetti; et al. (July, 2007). "Water vapour in the atmosphere of a transiting extrasolar planet". Nature. 448: 169–171. doi:10.1038/nature06002. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Explicit use of et al. in: |last= (help)
10. The number of solar days is one less than the number of sidereal days because the orbital motion of the Earth about the Sun results in one additional revolution of the planet about its axis.
11. Ahrens, Global Earth Physics: A Handbook of Physical Constants, p. 8.
12. Morbidelli, A.; Chambers, J.; Lunine, J. I.; Petit, J. M.; Robert, F.; Valsecchi, G. B.; Cyr, K. E. (2000). "Source regions and time scales for the delivery of water to Earth". Meteoritics & Planetary Science. 35 (6): 1309–1320. Retrieved 2007-03-06.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
13. The Smithsonian Institution, Human Origins Program
14. "World POPClock Projection". U.S. Census Bureau, Population Division/International Programs Center. Retrieved 2007-06-14.

• Earth
• World