Form 710: Fill & Download for Free

Alpha Centauri has been the closest star system to our solar system for about 60,000 years. Prior to that the closest system was a binary red dwarf and brown dwarf system known as WISE J072003.20-084651.2 or more colloquially as Scholz's star. There is a good deal of uncertainty about the timing which could be off by up to 15,000 years.The illustration is from Astronomy magazine at Astronomers recently discovered that Scholz's star passed close to thScholz’s star certainly came very close, and within the outer Oort cloud. Closest approach was estimated by a team led by Eric Mamajek at 0.8 light years, or 50,000 AU. (An AU is the distance of the Earth from the sun). Their report is at The Closest Known Flyby of a Star to the Solar System. Scholz’s star is now 22 light years away in the direction of the constellation Monoceros. The closest approach is estimated to have been 70,000 years ago, give or take 15,000 years. The uncertainties arise from uncertainties about the star’s current speed and gravitational influences.Scholz’s star is moving quite fast (82 kilometers per second away from us), so it would only have been our closest star for about 20,000 years.Even at closest approach the binary system would have been too faint to see with the naked eye, with an apparent magnitude of 11.2. It is now much fainter at magnitude 18.3.Mamajek gave the star its unofficial name after astronomer Ralf-Dieter Scholz, who discovered the star in 2013. The Wikipedia entry gives more detail and is at Scholz's Star - Wikipedia.A much more impressive star - with unimpressive name TYC 2730-1701-1 - came within 2.3 light-years of Earth 700,000 years ago. This star is about the same size as our sun and would have shone at about twice the brightness of Sirius, the brightest current star in our skies. TYC 2730-1701-1 is hurtling away from us as 358 kilometers per second and is already 718 light-years away.And then 1.2 million years in the future the star Gliese 710 will come very close - within 0.2 light-years. Gliese 710 is a bit more than half the mass of the sun and will shine brighter than Jupiter.

The Roman calendar was complicated. Originally there were only ten months, but Julius Caesar reformed the calendar to increase it to twelve months. We still use derivations of the same names today.Within each month, there were three named days: the Kalendae, Nonae, and Idūs.The Kalendae ('Kalends' in English) was always the first day of the month.The Nonae ('Nones') was the 5th day of January, February, April, June, August, September, November and December, and the seventh day of March, May, July and October.The Idūs (Ides) was the 13th day of the first eight months I listed above, and the 15th day of March, May, July and October.(Mnemonic: "In March, July, October, May: the Nones are on the seventh day".)Julius Caesar was assassinated on the Ides of March: that's 15 March by our calendar. In Latin it would be written (in the ablative case) as Idibus Martiis, abbreviated Id. Mar.Likewise, 7 March is Nonis Martiis (Non. Mar.) and 1 March is Kalendis Martiis (Kal. Mar.).The day before each of those festivals would be called just that: for example 14 March is pridie Idūs Martias, where pridie is Latin for 'the day before'. A literal translation in English would be something like "Ides of March Eve". It would be abbreviated as prid. Id. Mar.Likewise, the day before the Nones (6 March) would be pridie Nonas Martias (prid. Non. Mar.), and the day before the Kalends (28 February) would be pridie Kalendas Martias (prid. Kal. Mar.)Other days were counted back from the next festival - counting both the current day and the day of the festival itself. In other words, 13 March was, by Roman reckoning, three days before 15 March, although by modern Western counting methods we'd say it's two days before."Three days before the Ides of March" in Latin is ante diem tres Idūs Martias, which was abbreviated a.d. III Id. Mar. You see that a Roman numeral, for 'three', has finally appeared in the date!25 December, in Roman counting, is eight days before the Kalends of January. It would thus be written ante diem octem Kalendas Ianuarias, or a.d. VIII Kal. Ian.I'm writing this on 4 November. That's the day before the nones of November, or pridie Nonas Novembres.As for the year, the Romans normally counted this either by the names of the two consuls governing Rome, or by the year since the founding of the city. In 44 BC, the year Caesar was assassinated, he and Mark Antony were the consuls, so that year was written Iulio Caesare M. Antonio consulibus (literally, "While Julius Caesar and Mark Antony were consuls"). Alternatively, the year was 710 since the foundation of Rome, or 'ab urbe condita'. 710 (septingenti decem) in Roman numerals is DCCX.Therefore, the full date of Julius Caesar's assassination (15 March, 44 BC) would be written as either of the following:Idibus Martiis, Iulio Caesare M. Antonio consulibus- abbreviated as Id. Mar. I. Caesare M. Antonio cos.Idibus Martiis, septingenti decem ab urbe condita- abbreviated as Id. Mar. DCCX a.u.c.2013 is 2766 years since the foundation of Rome, so the date I'm writing this (4 November 2013) would be :pridie Nonas Novembres MMDCCLXVI ab urbe condita- abbreviated as prid. Non. Nov. MMDCCLXVI a.u.c.Or if you prefer the Christian calendar, pridie Nonas Novembres anno Domini MMXIII- abbreviated as prid. Non. Nov. A.D. MMXIII.So, tl;dr version:The Romans didn't do it in any of the ways you suggest. They had a more complicated system. :)

I am going to be a bit blunt here.first things first - You Don't NEED a 750. It's a myth. It's an exaggeration of facts. It's paranoia to think you NEED it absolutely. If I was in your place, I would have applied with a 710. That score is good enough. GMAT is not the decider of things, it is just a tick-mark on your profile checklist. 710 is a great tick-mark.second - If you still are unsure about your profile and your own capabilities, and still believe that you need a GMAT score of 750 in order to be able to go for your dream education, here's what you need to do.1. Improve your Quants - You have a 48 and 49 in Quants. It needs to be a 51. If you want to score a 750, Q needs to be a 51. Why? Because it's much easier than scoring V42 or higher.How to improve quants? -a. Read the questions very carefullyb. Always write down everything you calculate (every single thing),c. Beware of DS questions - they often lead you to wasting time by trying to solve the questions (you don't need to).d. Solve questions with a constrained timer - Take 30 minutes for 20 questions.Everyone knows all these steps. You just need to practice it in actuality, religiously.2. Keep your Verbal score up - Most of the points mentioned in the above apply to Verbal too. But, I wouldn't suggest you to study more for Verbal. It's much more difficult to get a higher score in Verbal than in Quants.So, if you get a Q51, V39, that should be a 740 already. When I gave the test in Sep, 2013, (Q51,V40) was a 750.Good Luck.