Split
Split is the second-largest city in Croatia by urban agglomeration size, situated on a peninsula along the eastern Adriatic coast in the region of Dalmatia, serving as the administrative center of Split-Dalmatia County and a key Mediterranean port.[1][2] The city's origins trace to the early 4th century AD, when Roman Emperor Diocletian constructed a massive fortified palace complex there as his retirement residence, spanning roughly 300 by 150 meters and blending military architecture with luxurious private quarters; following invasions by Avars and Slavs in the 7th century, surviving populations resettled within its walls, evolving the site into a medieval town that preserved much of the original structure amid continuous habitation.[3][4] The Historical Complex of Split with the Palace of Diocletian was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979 for its exceptional preservation of late Roman architecture and layered historical development, influencing urban planning and serving as a living museum integrated into modern life.[3] As of 2023 estimates, Split's city proper population stands at approximately 159,000, with the metropolitan area encompassing over 300,000 residents amid a national trend of gradual depopulation due to emigration and low birth rates; its economy centers on tourism, shipping via the deep-water harbor, and light industry, bolstered by natural defenses from the Mosor and Kozjak mountain ridges that shield it from northerly winds.[5][6][7] The city hosts significant cultural institutions, including theaters and universities, and functions as a gateway to nearby islands and national parks, though it faces challenges from seasonal overtourism straining infrastructure without corresponding long-term investment in diversification.[1]Places
Split, Croatia
Split is a seaport city on the Dalmatian coast of Croatia, situated on a peninsula along the eastern Adriatic Sea in Split-Dalmatia County. It functions as the county's administrative center and Croatia's second-largest city by population. The urban area encompasses approximately 23 square kilometers, with the historic core dominated by the ruins of Diocletian's Palace, a UNESCO World Heritage Site inscribed in 1979 for its architectural and historical significance as one of the best-preserved Roman complexes.[3][8] The city's development traces to the late Roman era, when Emperor Diocletian commissioned the construction of his palace complex between 295 and 305 CE as a fortified retirement residence spanning about 4 hectares, featuring peristyle courts, mausoleums, and defensive walls. After the 7th-century Avars and Slavs destroyed the nearby Roman provincial capital of Salona, refugees repopulated the palace, transforming it into a nucleated settlement that evolved into medieval Split; by the 12th century, it had become a key Byzantine and later Venetian stronghold until Croatia's integration into the Habsburg Empire in 1815. The port expanded significantly in the 20th century, particularly after World War I when Split absorbed economic functions from nearby Rijeka, fostering shipbuilding and trade amid Yugoslavia's industrialization drives.[9][10] As of the 2021 Croatian census conducted on August 31, Split's city proper recorded 161,312 inhabitants, reflecting a decline from the 1991 peak of over 200,000 due to post-independence emigration and aging demographics common across Croatia. The broader metropolitan area supports around 330,000 people, with the population density in the urban core exceeding 6,500 per square kilometer; ethnic Croats comprise the vast majority, alongside small communities of Serbs and others, per official statistics.[11][12] Split's economy relies heavily on maritime transport, tourism, and services, with the port handling over 1.5 million passengers annually via ferries to islands like Hvar and Brač, as well as international routes to Ancona, Italy. Tourism generates substantial local income, drawing over 3 million overnight stays yearly in the county, bolstered by the palace's allure and coastal access; however, seasonal fluctuations and over-reliance on visitors expose vulnerabilities, as evidenced by Croatia's national tourism sector contributing 11.3% directly to GDP in recent data, with indirect effects amplifying this figure. Industrial activities include legacy shipyards like Brodosplit, though restructuring post-1990s wars shifted emphasis toward lighter manufacturing and logistics.[13][14] Culturally, Split preserves a blend of Roman, Venetian, and modern Dalmatian elements, with the palace now housing residences, shops, and the Cathedral of Saint Domnius—originally Diocletian's mausoleum—featuring a 13th-century Romanesque bell tower. The city hosts the annual Split Summer Festival since 1924, showcasing opera and theater in historic venues, while its university, founded in 1974, enrolls over 20,000 students, supporting research in maritime and tourism fields. Infrastructure includes an international airport 25 kilometers northwest, handling 3 million passengers in peak years, and connections via the A1 motorway to Zagreb.[8]Other places named Split
No other settlements or populated places worldwide bear the exact name "Split", making the Croatian city unique according to comprehensive geographical databases that index over 4 million locations.[15] This scarcity contrasts with more common toponyms derived from words meaning division or cleft, which often describe natural features rather than human habitations. While minor geographical elements like Split Creek in British Columbia, Canada—a stream in the province's northern interior—or Split Mountain in the Sierra Nevada range of California, an approximately 4,294-meter peak, exist, they do not constitute towns, villages, or cities.[16]Finance
Stock split
A stock split is a corporate action whereby a company increases the number of its outstanding shares by distributing additional shares to current shareholders in proportion to their existing holdings, while simultaneously adjusting the par value and market price per share downward to preserve the aggregate market capitalization and shareholders' equity.[17][18] This process does not alter the company's underlying fundamental value or total equity position, as the increase in share count is offset by a corresponding reduction in per-share metrics.[19] Stock splits are categorized into forward splits, which expand the share base, and reverse splits, which contract it. In a forward split, such as a 2-for-1 ratio, each shareholder receives one additional share for every share held, doubling the total shares outstanding and halving the price per share.[20] Reverse splits operate inversely; for instance, a 1-for-10 ratio consolidates ten shares into one, reducing shares outstanding by 90% and multiplying the price per share by ten, often employed by companies facing delisting risks due to low per-share prices on exchanges like the NYSE or Nasdaq.[17][21] The mechanics of a stock split involve board approval, shareholder notification, and an ex-split date when adjusted trading begins. To calculate post-split holdings, multiply pre-split shares by the split ratio numerator and divide by the denominator; for a 3-for-2 split on 100 shares, the result is 150 shares (100 × 3/2).[22] The adjusted price equals the original price divided by the split factor (numerator/denominator), ensuring no net change in investment value—for example, 100 shares at $100 each ($10,000 total) become 200 shares at $50 each after a 2-for-1 split.[23] Companies execute forward splits primarily to enhance share affordability for retail investors, boost trading liquidity by lowering nominal prices to attract higher volume, and signal managerial optimism about future growth, as high pre-split prices may deter participation from smaller investors or complicate employee equity grants.[19][24] Reverse splits, conversely, aim to comply with minimum price thresholds for exchange listings or to project a stronger financial image, though they frequently correlate with underlying distress and can precede further declines if fundamentals remain weak.[21] Empirical evidence indicates forward splits often yield short-term positive abnormal returns upon announcement, averaging 2-3% in U.S. markets, attributable to perceived positive signals rather than intrinsic value creation.[22] Post-split effects on liquidity are empirically mixed: while forward splits can temporarily elevate trading volume and narrow bid-ask spreads by making shares more accessible, studies show no proportional long-term liquidity gains and occasional worsening of effective spreads over 60-180 days, as optimal trading prices cluster around $20-50 regardless of split adjustments.[25] Reverse splits tend to impair liquidity further and signal higher risk, with post-event underperformance common. Overall, splits redistribute ownership without generating new capital or altering cash flows, emphasizing perceptual rather than causal impacts on valuation.[22] Notable examples include Apple's 4-for-1 forward split effective August 31, 2020, which reduced its share price from approximately $500 to $125 and preceded a 28% rise in the subsequent year, and Tesla's 5-for-1 split on the same date (adjusting from ~$2,200 to ~$440), followed by a near-doubling, and a subsequent 3-for-1 split on August 25, 2022.[25][26] These actions aligned with periods of rapid appreciation, illustrating splits' role in broadening investor access amid elevated valuations.[22]Science and computing
Scientific concepts
In neuroscience, split-brain refers to the condition resulting from severing the corpus callosum, the bundle of nerve fibers connecting the brain's two hemispheres, typically to treat severe epilepsy. Experiments conducted by Roger Sperry and colleagues from 1959 to 1968 on such patients, including cats, monkeys, and humans, demonstrated hemispheric specialization: the left hemisphere dominates language and analytical tasks, while the right excels in spatial and holistic processing.[27] When visual stimuli are presented exclusively to one hemisphere—via controlled tachistoscopic displays—patients exhibit behaviors indicating independent cognition, such as the left hand (controlled by the right hemisphere) selecting objects unrecognized verbally by the left hemisphere.[28] This work, earning Sperry the 1981 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, challenged unified consciousness models and informed understandings of brain lateralization, though later studies suggest some interhemispheric communication persists via subcortical pathways.[29] In molecular biology, split genes describe eukaryotic DNA sequences interrupted by non-coding introns between coding exons, requiring RNA splicing to produce mature mRNA. Discovered independently in 1977 by Phillip Sharp and Richard Roberts through adenovirus studies—revealing heterogeneous nuclear RNA (hnRNA) transcripts longer than mRNA, with looped-out introns—this structure enables alternative splicing for protein diversity from fewer genes.[30] In humans, approximately 22,000 genes yield over 100,000 proteins via this mechanism, contrasting continuous prokaryotic genes.[31] The 1993 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine awarded to Sharp and Roberts underscored its evolutionary antiquity, potentially linking to an RNA world, and its role in diseases like cancer when splicing errors occur.[32] In physics and optics, a beam splitter is a device that divides an incident light beam into reflected and transmitted components, often at a 50:50 ratio, using partial mirrors, prisms, or dielectric coatings exploiting interference.[33] Employed in interferometers, laser systems, and quantum optics experiments—like Hong-Ou-Mandel interference demonstrating photon indistinguishability—their quantum description involves unitary transformations on beam modes, with phase shifts distinguishing transmission from reflection.[34] Cube beam splitters, formed by cementing two right-angle prisms with a half-silvered hypotenuse, minimize polarization dependence and are integral to applications in spectroscopy and telecommunications.[35]Computing terms
In programming, the split operation commonly refers to a method or function that divides a string or sequence into substrings or subarrays based on specified delimiters, such as whitespace, commas, or custom characters. For instance, in languages like Python, thestr.split() method defaults to splitting on whitespace and returns a list of substrings, enabling tasks like parsing delimited data.[36] Similarly, JavaScript's String.prototype.split() method takes a pattern and produces an array of substrings, supporting regular expressions for complex delimitations.[37] In C#, the String.Split method accepts character arrays or strings as delimiters to break input into substrings, facilitating data processing in applications like file parsing or CSV handling.[38] This operation is foundational for text manipulation, with implementations varying by language but sharing the goal of efficient substring extraction without modifying the original data.
In distributed systems and clustering, split-brain denotes a failure condition where nodes in a cluster lose communication, leading to divergent data states and potential inconsistencies during input/output operations. This arises when redundant systems, intended to maintain synchronized data, partition due to network failures, causing each subset to operate independently and accept writes that conflict upon reconnection.[39] Mitigation strategies include quorum mechanisms, fencing protocols, or manual intervention to designate a primary node and discard divergent data, as unresolved split-brain can result in data corruption or loss.[40] The term originates from maintaining overlapping data sets that desynchronize, a risk heightened in high-availability setups like database clusters or storage arrays.
Networking protocols employ split horizon to prevent routing loops in distance-vector algorithms, such as RIP, by prohibiting routers from advertising routes back through the interface on which they were learned. This simple rule—do not re-advertise a route to its source—reduces the risk of count-to-infinity problems where loops inflate metrics indefinitely.[41] Often combined with poison reverse, where invalid routes are advertised with infinite metrics, split horizon enhances loop prevention without requiring global topology knowledge, though it may withhold valid redundant paths in certain topologies.[42]
VPN configurations utilize split tunneling to route select traffic through the encrypted tunnel while allowing other traffic direct internet access, balancing security with performance by excluding non-sensitive applications like local printers or streaming services. This contrasts with full tunneling, which encrypts all traffic, potentially increasing latency; however, it introduces risks if bypassed traffic lacks endpoint protection.[43] Enterprise implementations often restrict split tunneling via policy to corporate resources only, using IP-based or app-based rules to enforce compliance.[44]
Sports and physical activities
Gymnastics and dance
A split is a foundational flexibility position in gymnastics and dance, achieved by extending the legs in opposite directions to form a straight line from toe to toe, typically at a 180-degree angle relative to the torso while maintaining an upright body posture.[45] This position demands significant hip mobility, hamstring extensibility, and adductor strength, with improper execution risking strains to the pelvic floor or lower back if flexibility is pursued without concurrent strengthening.[46][47] Front splits, also known as left-leg or right-leg splits depending on which leg extends forward, position one leg anteriorly and the other posteriorly, primarily stretching the hip flexors of the rear leg and hamstrings of the front leg.[48] These are integral to gymnastic elements like split leaps and jumps on floor exercise or balance beam, where they appear as early as introductory levels to build foundational range of motion.[49] In dance forms such as ballet or contemporary, front splits underpin high extensions like grand battement or floor poses, requiring not only passive stretch but active control to sustain lines during dynamic sequences.[50] Side splits, often termed straddle or middle splits, extend the legs laterally to either side of the torso, targeting the inner thighs (adductors) and demanding greater hip abduction than front variants.[51] Gymnasts incorporate them into straddle positions on bars or vault for amplitude, while dancers use them in wide-legged écarté or floor work to enhance turnout and spatial coverage.[52] Achieving oversplits—beyond 180 degrees—amplifies demands on joint stability, often necessitating progressive training with holds of 30 seconds to one minute per side to adapt tissues without overload.[53] Both types emphasize that true proficiency integrates strength training alongside stretching, as isolated flexibility efforts can lead to compensatory imbalances or injury susceptibility.[54]Combat sports
A split decision in combat sports, including boxing and mixed martial arts (MMA), is rendered when two of three judges score the bout in favor of one fighter, while the third judge scores it for the opponent, awarding victory to the fighter supported by the majority.[55][56] This outcome reflects a closely contested fight where judicial opinions diverge, often prompting debate among observers due to the narrow margin of consensus.[57] Unlike a unanimous decision, which requires all judges to favor the same competitor, or a majority decision, where two judges select one winner and the third scores a draw, a split decision underscores the subjective elements of round-by-round scoring under the 10-point must system, where winners of individual rounds typically receive 10 points and losers 9, with totals aggregated at the fight's end.[55][58]| Decision Type | Judicial Scoring Breakdown |
|---|---|
| Unanimous Decision | All three judges score for the same fighter |
| Split Decision | Two judges for one fighter, one for the other |
| Majority Decision | Two judges for one fighter, one draw |