Friday, August 27, 2010

Difference Between Visa and MasterCard


In an economy which relies mostly on a credit system, it pays to be a wise consumer and deal with a credit card company that will give you the best set of benefits. This is precisely the reason why you need to make a comparison of the different credit card companies available – two of which are Visa and MasterCard.
To start right off, here’s a quick background of how these two credit card companies started. MasterCard was founded in 1966, and they are a multinational corporation dealing with the processing of payments between banks and merchants. Besides from credit cards, MasterCard debit cards can also be used to make purchases.
Visa, on the other hand, is a California-based company, founded in 1970, and the name stands for Visa International Service Association. They are considered as the world’s largest retail electronic payment network – which processes payments between merchants, businesses, consumers and even government entities. They also offer debit cards in addition to credit cards.
You should understand that both Visa and MasterCard are not themselves the ones issuing credit cards to consumers. Instead, they negotiate the setting up of the payment system between banks, merchants and other business establishments from around the world.
There was a time when Visa was accepted in more stores around the world compared to MasterCard, but this is no longer the case. Today, MasterCards are accepted wherever Visa card payments are processed. In terms of security for shopping online, Visa offers the ‘Verified by Visa’ scheme, while MasterCard uses the ‘SecureCode’ system. Both Visa and MasterCard also offer reward schemes which you can take advantage of when making purchases.
The interest rate, however, is something that will be determined by your bank – so always make a comparison of the Visa and MasterCard rates offered by the different banks.
Summary:
1. MasterCard was founded in 1966, while Visa was founded in 1970.
2. MasterCard’s headquarters is based in New York, while Visa has its main location in San Francisco, California.
3. MasterCard offers rewards schemes, and is a universally accepted card, while Visa also offers points for making purchases, and is a globally-recognized form of payment.

What is the difference between mass and weight?

From: WikiAnswers

There is a lot of confusion between mass and weight because we use them interchangeably in everyday speech but in physics the difference is important.

In brief - Mass is a measurement of the matter in an object; weight is a measurement of the force from gravity on the object.
Or simpler - A mass measures the quantity of something e.g - a person or an object and a weight is a force which depends on its mass or where it is.

Mass is a fundamental property of an object, matter has mass. The SI unit for mass is the kilogram (kg.) The mass of an object remains the same wherever the object is. A 1kg mass will be a 1kg mass on Earth, the Moon, Mars or in deep space. In very simplified terms mass is how much matter is in the object. Mass stays the same where ever the object is because the amount of matter in the object remains the same.

Weight
is the force due to gravity that attracts 2 objects together, typically a planet and the object you are weighing. *)
Gravitational attraction (weight) depends on the mass of the 2 objects and how far apart they are so it is not constant for an object, it depends what other mass is near the object. A 1kg mass will have a weight of:
  • 9.81N on Earth
  • 3.71N on Mars
  • 1.62N The Moon


*) The newton is the unit of force in the SI system; it is equal to the amount of force required to accelerate a mass of one kilogram at a rate of one meter per second per second. In dimensional analysis, F=m x a, multiplying m (kg) by a (m/s2).

Mass is the measure of the amount of matter within an object.
  • Weight is the measure of the gravitational pull on an object

Learn the Difference Between AFFECT and EFFECT

by Tina Blue
August 11, 2000

Confusion between the words affect and effect is so common that I almost never see either of the words used correctly. Since I read anything that doesn't move fast enough to get away from me, and since I read hundreds of essays by college students each semester, I have reason to believe that this error is not just a misspelling, but an actual misapprehension of the two words and how they are used.

Generally speaking, affect is a verb and effect is a
noun. When you affect something, you produce an effect on it. Even in the passive voice, something would be
affected, not effected.

There are certain situations where effect is used as a verb and situations where affect is used as a noun, but very few people ever have a need to use them thus, so unless you are already confident of your ability to use these words correctly, just treat as general the rule that effect is a noun and affect a verb.

(If you feel the need to get fancy, however, here are the meanings of effect as a verb and affect as a noun. As a verb, effect means to execute, produce, or accomplish something; as a noun, affect is used primarily by psychologists to refer to feelings and desires as factors in thought or conduct.)

If you find that you have sometimes made the mistake of switching these two troublesome words, you probably should proofread specifically for them until you have formed the habit of using them correctly without having to think about it.