Table Of ContentTHE CAMBRIDGE
FACTFINDER
Edited by
DAVID CRYSTAL
FOURTH EDITION
UPDATED, REVISED, EXPANDED
All areas of knowledge covered
Indispensable index to help track
down information
TH! CAlVi SRI! IE
FACTFINDER
FOURTH EDITION
Edited by
DAVID CRYSTAL
C
ambridge
UNIVERSITY PRESS
PUBLISHED BY THE PRESS SYNDICATE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 1RP
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 2RU, UK www.cup.cam.ac.uk
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Compilation © Cambridge University Press 2000
Copyright in the content © AND Classification Data Limited
This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception
and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,
no reproduction of any part may take place without
the written permission of Cambridge University.
First published in 1993
Second edition published 1997
Third edition published 1998
Fourth edition published 2000
Typeset in 8/8.5pt Swift in QuarkXPress™ [se]
Cartography and illustrations by European Map Graphics Ltd, Finchampstead
Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress cataloging-in-publication data
The Cambridge factfinder / edited by David Crystal. - 4th edn
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 0 521 79435 8 (pbk.)
1. Encyclopedias and dictionaries. I. Crystal, David, 1941- .
AG5.C264 1998
032-dc21 97-35278
CIP
ISBN 0 521 79435 8 paperback
About this book
A0OUT III
The Cambridge Factfinder contains more facts than any other book of its kind. We also believe it is
much easier to use than other such books. What might seem at first the most simple of books -
a collection of bits of information for use in the home, at school or in the office - is actually the
product of much hard thinking about how best to organize the information, and, indeed, what
the nature of this information is.
What is a fact?
Something that has really occurred or is actually the case; something certainly known to be of
this character; hence a particular truth known by actual observation or authentic testimony, as
opposed to what is merely inferred, or to a conjecture or fiction; a datum of experience, as
opposed to the conclusions which may be based upon it.
This definition, one of the longest in the Oxford English Dictionary, gives a hint of the difficulty
involved in saying what exactly counts as a ‘fact’ and thus of the difficulties facing any editor
who has to decide what should be included in a book of them. At first glance, the answer is obvi
ous: there are facts about objects and animals (what are the characteristics ofX?), people (who is
X?), places (where is X?), and times (when did X happen?), and these facts can be numerical (how
many X? how often did X happen?), verbal (how to describe X?), and tabular (how to classify X?).
At second glance, the situation becomes more complicated (and more interesting). There are
facts about fictions (X in mythology or literature) and fictions about facts (disputes over the
longest or largest X). There are situations where we cannot decide whether something is fiction
or fact (the changing politics of country X). There are near-facts (estimates ofX), transient facts
(world records about X), qualified facts (the majority ofX), arguable facts (the most important X),
politically biased facts (the growth or decline ofX), and contrived facts (neat classifications ofX).
A factbook must not ignore these awkward and marginal cases, but having included them it
must always remember to warn readers if ‘there’s something they should know’ before swal
lowing a ‘fact’ whole. Examples of this advice are given on p. 42 (about longest rivers) and p. 420
(about saints* days). Many bitter arguments (such as those that arise out of a disputed answer in
a quiz game) could be avoided if more attention were paid to this issue.
What isn't a fact?
On the other hand, certain notions are not part of a factbook. Definitions of words, for example,
really have no place. It is a fact that Memphis and its necropolis is a World Heritage Site (p. 45).
However, if you don’t know what a necropolis is you had best look the word up in a dictionary.
Nor do explanations of concepts have any place in a factbook. If, to continue the example, you
are unclear about who would be buried in a necropolis, you had better look this up in an ency
clopedia. A factbook is not intended to do the job of a glossary, a manual, or a textbook.
Nor is a fact a single, isolated piece of information. An enquirer may have a single question in
mind, and want a single fact for an answer, but any factbook worth its salt should show how this
enquiry fits into a broader frame of reference. No fact exists in isolation. Eveiything is part of a
About this book
pattern. It is therefore important to show the pattern. A factbook should say to a reader: ‘You
asked about X, and here’s the answer - but don’t forget there’s also Y and Z, which can help you
understand X further. And, while you’re here, have a look at Y and Z anyway, as they’re interest
ing too.’ A good factbook, once entered, should put questions in perspective, and also be difficult
to leave. There should be a strong temptation to stay awhile, and browse. In The Cambridge
Factfinder, the organization of information into fields of meaning, sequenced logically, and
grouped hierarchically, provides both motivation and means. If the job is done well, answering
factual questions proves to be the least trivial of pursuits.
Selecting the facts
A factbook could, in theory, be any size, from a few dozen to thousands of pages. Whatever the
size, two considerations are paramount. There should be a balance between the various areas of
knowledge covered; and there should be a pragmatic principle at work by which the editor tries
to answer those questions that readers are most likely to ask.
Balance is relatively easy to achieve, by devising a scheme that works systematically through the
various well-recognized domains of enquiry. In The Cambridge Factfinder, this is handled by start
ing with the most general perspective (the Universe) and finding a coherent path (one of many
possible) through physical, biological, historical, geographical, and social domains.
Justifying the selection within each domain is less simple, and any editor has to fall back on the
well-tried principle that ‘one can please all of the people some of the time...’ In the present case,
the task was much aided by the experience of running the Cambridge Encyclopedia Datasearch pro
ject in the early 1990s. This project enabled readers of the Encyclopedia to interrogate its database
to obtain further information about topics that interested them. By keeping a record of the types
of enquiiy, it proved possible to develop a sharpened sense of the kinds of things people wanted
to know about. Examining the question-lists of innumerable pub quiz competitions, and other
such games, has provided a further dimension.
Finding your way about
A factbook should be as accurate and as up-to-date as the state of knowledge permits, and The
Cambridge Factfinder team has made every effort to ensure that these criteria are met. Full use has
been made of the database compiled for The Cambridge Encyclopedia, which is continually being
updated. The comprehensive coverage of the Encyclopedia has helped to guarantee the breadth of
the present project; and the many specialized reference books in the Cambridge list have proved
to be of great value in developing the project’s depth of detail. Directly or indirectly, over 250
experts have been involved in generating the information that the Factfinder contains.
But it is no use having marvellously up-to-date and accurate facts if readers cannot find them.
Critical to the success of any factbook, therefore, is an appropriate means of information
retrieval. This is where most factbooks fall down. They may advertise that there are ‘hundreds of
thousands of facts’ within their covers, but if it proves impossible to find the answer to a simple
question without having to spend several minutes combing through the pages, the factbook has
to be judged a failure. The solution is simple: proper indexing, with a preparedness to set aside
sufficient space so that the project gets the index it deserves.
vi
About this book
There are, broadly speaking, two ways into a factbook, and both are represented in
The Cambridge Factfinder:
• One way suits the person who is interested in a general area of knowledge, and who
wishes to explore it systematically. This person may not have a specific question in mind,
only a vague uncertainty or need for clarification. Often a precise question does not
become apparent until a range of possible answers has been presented. Such enquirers
need a thematic guide to the factbook, where the various types of information are pre
sented conceptually, with as much logical order relating the concepts as it is possible to
impose. The logic underlying The Cambridge Factfinder is shown on p. ix. Using this infor
mation, it should be possible to ‘home in’ quickly on a broad area, and then to focus on a
chosen topic.
• The other way suits the person who does have a precise question in mind - a who, a
what, a when, a where. For this person, a thematic approach is of relatively little value. If
you wish to find out a fact about the gull, for example, you want to be able to go immedi
ately to wherever in the book this item is located, and not waste time searching for it
unffuitfully under such a heading as sea birds (it is in fact a shore bird). Similarly, under
which heading would you look for information about a particular thing or person? (Does
the Forth Bridge appear under Communications, Scotland, or UK? Is Leonardo da Vinci under
sculptors, architects, or painters?) All of this uncertainty is avoided through the expedi
ent of an in-depth letter-by-letter index, with appropriate cross-references to handle alter
native points of entry. Thus, in the index to this book, Forth Bridge is under F and Leonardo
da Vinci is under!. The headings are there, too (bridges underB etc.), as an alternative route
to themes and sub-themes. The index of The Cambridge Factfinder is far and away the most
comprehensive ever prepared for a book of this kind, and it is space well used.
In short, the opening pages present in a thematic way the various fields or systems of informa
tion dealt with in this book. The closing pages present in an alphabetical way the items those sys
tems contain. This dual perspective has been called, in lexicography, an ‘index-to-system’
approach, and it is the first time that it has been used to its full potential in a factbook. Such an
approach adds coherence, increases speed of item look-up, makes the information more acces
sible, and promotes flexibility by providing alternative routes to answering a question. I hope
that, after using the book, this is an opinion that readers will share.
David Crystal
vii
Editor
David Crystal
Editorial assistant
Hilary Crystal
Database Research and
Text Editing
Ann Rowlands
Database Management
Tony McNicholl
Esther Pritchard
Index Revision
Lee McOwan
Illustrators
David Brogan
George Kilgour
John Marshall
Joanna Cameron
European Map Graphics Ltd
Cartography
European Map Graphics Ltd
Design
Sally Jeffery
viii
Areas of knowledge
AREAS OF KNOWLEDGE
This page shows how The Cambridge Factfinder is divided into broad areas of knowledge. Also
indicated (in roman numerals) are the pages where you will find a much more detailed
breakdown of each section in the Table of Contents which follows. For really
specific queries, you should use the Index at the back of the book.
The universe 1-14 Society 383-411
The cosmos 3 Social institutions 385
The solar system 6 Armed forces 395
Space exploration 10 Politics 397
Economy 404
The Earth 15-52
History 17 Religion and mythology 413-428
Structure 20
Gods of mythology 415
Atmosphere 29
Modern religions 417
Climate 30
Surface 36 Communications 429-506
The environment 53-80 Transportation 431
Climate 55 Telecommunications 463
Pollution 58 Languages 465
Deforestation 68 Media 488
Recent notable environmental disasters 70
Science and technology 507-558
Flora and fauna 72
Conservation 75 Mathematics 509
Measurement 517
Natural history 81-118 Physics 530
Classification of living organisms 83 Chemistry 536
Animals 83 Technology 541
Plants 108 Computers 545
Fungi 118
Arts and culture 559-691
Human beings 119-47
Literature 561
Early humans 121 Theatre 579
The body 123 Film and television 591
Medical matters 129 Music 632
Nutrition 136 Dance 667
History 144-200 Design 673
Fashion 675
The calendar 151
Architecture 678
World chronology 158
Painting 685
Military wars and campaigns 183
Sculpture 689
Exploration and discovery 191
Photography 691
Revolutions 194
Political leaders and rulers 196 Knowledge 693-726
Human geography 201-382 Academic study 695
The nations of the world: area and
Sports and games 727-803
population data 204
The nations of the world: 209 Olympic games 729
A-Z listing giving local name, timezone, Commonwealth games 729
area, population total, status, date of Individual sports and games: 730
independence, capital, languages, ethnic A-Z listing giving background
groups, religions, physical features, information, main events, and recent
climate, currency, economy, GNP/GDP, winners
history, head of state/government World records 786
The nations of the world: general data 373 Sports personalities 789
Population 381 Governing bodies in sport 803
ix
Table of contents
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The universe 1-14 Major volcanoes and eruptions 27
The cosmos 3-6 Major tsunamis 28
Star distances 3 Recent hurricanes 29
Star magnitudes 3 Atmosphere 29
The constellations 3 Layers of the atmosphere 29
The northern sky 4 The composition of diy air at sea level 29
‘Alpha’ stars within constellations 4-5 Climate 30-5
The southern sky 5 World temperatures 30-1
Meteor showers 6 World precipitation 32
Historic comets 6 Meteorological records 33
The solar system 6-9 Cloud types 33
The Sun 6 Depressions 33
Solar eclipses 2000-2015 6 Meteorological sea areas 34
Planetary data (1) 6 Wind force and sea disturbance 35
Planetary data (2) 7 Surface 36-49
Planetary satellites 7 World physical map 36
The near side of the Moon 8 Maj or ocean-surface currents 3 7
The lunar ‘maria’ 8 Continents 38
The far side of the Moon 9 Oceans 38
Lunar eclipses 2000-2010 9 Major island groups 38-40
Space exploration 10-14 Largest seas 41
Major space astronomy events/ Largest islands 41
missions 10 Largest lakes 41
Satellite launch centres 11 Largest deserts 41
International space launchers 11-14 Highest mountains 42
Highest waterfalls 42
The Earth 15-52 Deepest caves 42
History 17-19 Longest rivers 42
The developing world 17 The Earth’s largest drainage basins 43
Major ice-age periods 17 World heritage sites 44-50
Geological time scale 18-19 National Parks in England and Wales 51
Structure 20-9 National Parks in the USA 52
The Earth 20
The structure of the Earth 20
Earth’s crust composition 20 The environment_________ 53-80
Mineral composition of rocks 21 Climate 55-8
Chemical composition of rocks 21 The climate system 55
Mohs scale of hardness 21 Climate alterations produced by cities 55
World minerals map 22 Temperature change 56-7
Continental drift 23 The greenhouse effect 58
Major lithospheric plates 24 Greenhouse gases 58
Earthquake distribution 25 Pollution 58-67
Major earthquakes 26 Pollutants and the ecosystem 58
Earthquake severity 26 Carbon dioxide 59
xi
