Mexico

Coordinates: 23°N 102°W / 23°N 102°W / 23; -102

Mexico (ⁱ/ˈmɛksᵻkoʊ/; Spanish: México [ˈmexiko]), officially the United Mexican States (Spanish: Estados Unidos Mexicanos,  listen ), is a federal republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of Mexico. Covering almost two million square kilometres (over 760,000 sq mi), Mexico is the fifth largest country in the Americas by total area and the 13th largest independent nation in the world. With an estimated population of over 120 million, it is the eleventh most populous country and the most populous Spanish-speaking country in the world and the second most populous country in Latin America. Mexico is a federation comprising thirty-two states, including Mexico City, its capital and largest city, which is also a state.

International System of Units

The International System of Units (French: Système international d'unités, SI) is the modern form of the metric system, and is the most widely used system of measurement. It comprises a coherent system of units of measurement built on seven base units. It defines twenty-two named units, and includes many more unnamed coherent derived units. The system also establishes a set of twenty prefixes to the unit names and unit symbols that may be used when specifying multiples and fractions of the units.

The system was published in 1960 as the result of an initiative that started in 1948. It is based on the metre-kilogram-second system of units (MKS) rather than any variant of the centimetre-gram-second system (CGS). SI is intended to be an evolving system, so prefixes and units are created and unit definitions are modified through international agreement as the technology of measurement progresses and the precision of measurements improves. The 24th and 25th General Conferences on Weights and Measures (CGPM) in 2011 and 2014, for example, discussed a proposal to change the definition of the kilogram, linking it to an invariant of nature rather than to the mass of a material artefact, thereby ensuring long-term stability.

Toluca

Toluca [toˈluka], officially called Toluca de Lerdo [toˈluka ðe ˈlerðo], is the state capital of State of Mexico as well as the seat of the Municipality of Toluca. It is the center of a rapidly growing urban area, now the fifth largest in Mexico. It is located 63 kilometres (39 mi) west-southwest of Mexico City and only about 40 minutes by car to the western edge of the Distrito Federal. According to the 2010 census, the city of Toluca has a population of 819,561. The city is the fifth largest in Mexico in population. The municipality of Toluca, along with thirteen other municipalities, make up the metropolitan population of 1,775,337 in Greater Toluca as of 2009, making it the fifth most populous metropolitan area in Mexico.

Name

When Toluca was founded by the Matlatzincas, its original name was Nepintahihui (land of corn, tierra del maíz). The current name is based on the Náhuatl name for the area when it was renamed by the Aztecs in 1473. The name has its origin in the word tollocan that comes from the name of the god, Tolo, plus the locative suffix, can, to denote "place of Tolo". It is also referred to in a number of Aztec codices as Tolutépetl, meaning hill of the god, Tolo, an allusion to the nearby volcano. The name Toluca de Lerdo was adopted in 1861 in honor of President Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada.