West

West is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. West is one of the four cardinal directions or compass points. It is the opposite of east and is perpendicular to north and south.

Etymology

The word "West" is a Germanic word passed into some Romance languages (ouest in French, oest in Catalan, ovest in Italian, oeste in Spanish and Portuguese). As is apparent in the Gothic term vasi (Visigoths), it stems from the same Indo-European root that gave the Sanskrit vas-ati (night) and vesper (evening) in Latin.

Navigation

To go west using a compass for navigation, one needs to set a bearing or azimuth of 270°.

West is the direction opposite that of the Earth's rotation on its axis, and is therefore the general direction towards which the Sun appears to constantly progress and eventually set.

Moving continuously west is following a circle of latitude.

Cultural

The phrase "the West" is often spoken in reference to the Western world, which includes Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the European Union, and the United States of America.

West, Texas

West is a city in McLennan County, Texas, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 2,807. It is named after T.M. West, the first postmaster of the city.

The city is located in the north-central part of Texas, approximately 70 miles south of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, 20 miles north of Waco and 120 miles north of Austin, Texas, the state's capital.

History

The first settlers of northern McLennan County arrived in the 1840s. They were farm and ranch families drawn from the east by the rich lands made available by the government sale of land to build schools in Texas. The area farmers cultivated the land and grew cotton, wheat, and grain sorghum, and raised cattle. The farming community centered around a freshwater spring that became known as Bold Springs. In 1860, Bold Springs had a population of about 300 and provided services such as a blacksmith, churches, and a post office.

The Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad was laid between Hillsboro and Waco in the fall of 1881. The path of the railroad passed through land owned by Thomas West, who had moved to the area in 1859. He farmed land that he had purchased and served as postmaster of Bold Springs. A train depot was built on the land he sold to the railroad company and the land running beside the tracks was divided into small sections and sold to people wanting to start businesses. The new depot included a post office, and from that time forward it was known as the West Post Office. Mr. West served as postmaster and opened the first general store. He became a successful businessman and later owned a hotel, a furniture store, and a bank.

Cardinal direction

The four cardinal directions or cardinal points are the directions of north, east, south, and west, commonly denoted by their initials: N, E, S, W. East and west are at right angles to north and south, with east being in the clockwise direction of rotation from north and west being directly opposite east. Intermediate points between the four cardinal directions form the points of the compass. The intermediate (intercardinal, or ordinal) directions are northeast (NE), southeast (SE), southwest (SW), and northwest (NW). Further, the intermediate direction of every set of intercardinal and cardinal direction is called a secondary-intercardinal direction, the eight shortest points in the compass rose to the right, i.e. NNE, ENE, ESE, and so on.

Locating the directions

Direction versus bearing

To keep to a bearing is not, in general, the same as going in a straight direction along a great circle. Conversely, one can keep to a great circle and the bearing may change. Thus the bearing of a straight path crossing the North Pole changes abruptly at the Pole from North to South. When travelling East or West, it is only on the Equator that one can keep East or West and be going straight (without need to steer). Anywhere else, maintaining latitude requires a change in direction, requires steering. However, this change in direction becomes increasingly negligible as one moves to lower latitudes.

Southwestern United States

The Southwestern United States (also known as the American Southwest) is the United States portion of the Southwest (which is situated in both the United States and Mexico). It is a region of the United States defined in different ways by different sources. The definition of what constitutes the American Southwest has evolved over the last one hundred and fifty years, moving steadily farther south and west, as well as becoming more confined in scope. Broad definitions have included nearly a quarter of the United States, including Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, and Utah. Narrowly defined, the "core" Southwest is centered on Arizona and western New Mexico, the extreme western part of Texas, and the very southern parts of Colorado and Utah. This is one of the most common definitions of the term, as exemplified by archeologists such as Erik Reed and geologists such as D. W. Meinig. The other variations are discussed in a separate section, the main article will deal with this core definition, which includes all of Arizona, the western portion of New Mexico, bordered on the east by the Llano Estacado, the southern portions of Colorado and Utah below the 39th parallel, the "horn" of Texas (the Trans-Pecos section, below New Mexico, which includes El Paso), the southernmost triangle of Nevada, and the very most southeastern portion of California, which encompasses the Mojave and Colorado Deserts.

Southwest Airlines Flight 1248

Southwest Airlines Flight 1248 (WN1248, SWA1248) was a scheduled passenger flight from Baltimore-Washington International Airport, in Baltimore, Maryland, to Chicago Midway International Airport, in Chicago, Illinois, to Salt Lake City International Airport in Salt Lake City, Utah, and then to McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas, Nevada. On December 8, 2005, the airplane slid off a runway at Chicago-Midway while landing in a snowstorm and crashed into automobile traffic, killing six-year-old Joshua Woods. This is the only accident involving Southwest Airlines to result in a fatality.

Accident

On Thursday, December 8, 2005, Southwest Airlines Flight 1248 was scheduled to arrive at Chicago Midway International Airport from Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, and then continue on to Salt Lake City International Airport, then to Las Vegas McCarran International Airport. The flight circled over a small area in northwest Indiana several times before attempting to land in a snowstorm. The snowstorm had reduced visibility to less than one mile.

Southwest Airlines Flight 2294

Southwest Airlines Flight 2294 (SWA 2294, WN 2294) was a scheduled US passenger aircraft flight which made an emergency landing at Yeager Airport (CRW) in Charleston, West Virginia, on July 13, 2009, after suffering a rapid depressurization of the passenger cabin. The aircraft landed safely with no fatalities or major injuries to passengers and crew. An NTSB investigation found that the incident was caused by a failure in the fuselage skin due to metal fatigue.

Incident

The aircraft involved was a Boeing 737-3H4 N387SW, serial number 26602, operating a scheduled flight between Nashville, Tennessee (KBNA), and Baltimore, Maryland (KBWI). The aircraft took off and climbed for about 25 minutes, leveling off at a cruising altitude of approximately 35,000 feet (11,000 m). At about 5:45 pm Eastern Standard Time, the cabin altitude warning activated in the cockpit, indicating a dangerous drop in cabin pressure. The captain disengaged the autopilot and began an emergency descent to bring the aircraft down into denser air to prevent passenger hypoxia. The cabin altitude alarm ceased as the aircraft passed through about 9,000 feet (2,700 m). The flight crew then landed the aircraft safely at CRW. After landing, the aircraft was found to have a three-sided hole in the fuselage, 17.4 inches (44 cm) long, and between 8.6 to 11.5 inches (22–29 cm) wide, forward of the leading edge of the vertical stabilizer, at the rear end of the aircraft.