An address is a code and abstract concept expressing the fixed location of a home, business or other building on the earth's surface. CODE is a visual programming language and system for parallel programming, letting users compose sequential programs into parallel ones. ...

Functions

Addresses have several functions:

1. Providing a means of physically locating a building, especially in a city where there are many buildings and streets,
2. Identifying buildings as the end points of a postal system,
3. A social function: someone's address can have a profound effect on their social standing,
4. As parameters in statistics collection, especially in census-taking or the insurance industry.

A British pillar box The postal system is a system by which written documents typically enclosed in envelopes, and also small packages containing other matter, are delivered to destinations around the world. ... A census is the process of obtaining information about every member of a population (not necessarily a human population). ... Insurance, in law and economics, is a form of risk management primarily used to hedge against the risk of potential financial loss. ...

History

Until the advent of modern postal systems, most houses and buildings were not numbered. Streets may have been named for landmarks, such as a city gate or market, or for the professions of their inhabitants. In many cities in Asia, most minor streets were never named. This is still the case today in much of Japan. When postal systems were introduced, it became necessary to number buildings to aid in mail delivery. A street in Ynysybwl, Wales, relatively stereotypical of a small town A street is a public strip of land adjoining buildings in a town or urban environment. ... World map showing location of Asia Asia is the central and eastern part of the continent of Eurasia, defined by subtracting the European peninsula from Eurasia. ...

Current addressing schemes

In most English-speaking countries the standard has become an alternating numbering scheme progressing in one direction up a street, with odd numbers running up one side and even numbers up the other, although there is significant variation on this basic pattern. Cities in North America, particularly those planned on a grid plan, often incorporate block numbers (explained below), quadrants (explained below), and cardinal directions into their street numbers, so that in many such cities, addresses roughly follow the Cartesian coordinate system. Detroit and its suburbs have long addresses. Japanese cities usually number buildings by block and neighbourhood (chome) rather than street; as a result most Japanese streets are unnamed. World map showing location of North America A satellite composite image of North America North America is a continent in the northern hemisphere, bounded on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the south by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west... The grid plan is a type of city plan in which streets run at right angles to each other, forming a grid. ... A city block is a central element of urban planning and urban design. ... A compass rose showing the cardinal directions Cardinal directions or cardinal points are the four principal directions or points of the compass, north, east, south and west. ... Cartesian means relating to the French mathematician and philosopher Descartes, who, among other things, worked to merge algebra and Euclidean geometry. ... This article refers to the largest city of Michigan. ... The Japanese addressing system is used to identify a specific location in Japan. ...

When building numbers were assigned in Florence, Italy, residential addresses were assigned blue or black numbers, while commercial addresses were assigned red numbers (written with a "/r" after the number). The two numbering sequences are independent; thus, 40/r is not necessarily anywhere near 40. Founded 59 BC as Florentia Region Tuscany Mayor Leonardo Domenici (Democratici di Sinistra) Area  - City Proper  102 km² Population  - City (2004)  - Metropolitan  - Density (city proper) 356,000 almost 500,000 3,453/km² Time zone CET, UTC+1 Latitude Longitude 43°47 N 11°15 E www. ...

Block numbers in the United States

Block numbers are a system of assigning numbers based on distance rather than strictly sequentially. Typically, each block is assigned 100 numbers, such that the building numbers on that block vary only in the two least significant digits. For example, in Washington, D.C., the block of 7th Street, N.W., between D and E streets, N.W., is designated as the 400 block, meaning that building numbers on that block are in the range from 400 to 499 inclusive. It is common to indicate block numbers on street signs; for instance, the article on Pennsylvania Avenue shows a street sign indicating what is probably the most famous block number in the world. Aerial photo (looking NW) of the Washington Monument and the White House in Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., officially the District of Columbia (also known as D.C.; Washington; the Nations Capital; the District; and, historically, the Federal City) is the capital city and administrative district of the... Pennsylvania Avenue street sign, 2004. ...

Some localities, such as the Borough of Queens in New York City, use a block numbering system in which a hyphen separates the hundreds digit from the tens digit. For example, a building number that might elsewhere be written 16709 is instead written 167-09. Queens Borough in New York City Queens, the most ethnically diverse county in the United States, is geographically the largest of the five boroughs of New York City. ... Midtown Manhattan, looking north from the Empire State Building, 2005 New York City (officially named the City of New York) is the most populous city in the United States, and is at the center of international finance, politics, communications, music, fashion, and culture. ...

Some localities in the Midwest have a more elaborate system of block numbering. Such localities use compound block numbers to indicate the number of blocks from both the north-south and the east-west dividing lines. For example, an address might be of the form "N112 W16709 Such-and-such Street" rather than "16709 W. Such-and-such Street." Of course, such an address is in the northwest quadrant (see below) of the addressing system. The Midwest is a common name for a region of the United States of America. ...

Quadrants

In cities with Cartesian-coordinate-based addressing systems, the streets that form the north-south and east-west dividing lines constitute the x and y axes of a Cartesian coordinate plane and thus divide the city into quadrants. The quadrants are typically identified in the street names, although the manner of doing so varies from city to city. For example, in one city, all streets in the northeast quadrant may have "NE" prefixed or suffixed to their street names, while in another, the intersection of North Calvert Street and East 27th Street can only be in the northeast quadrant. Cartesian means relating to the French mathematician and philosopher Descartes, who, among other things, worked to merge algebra and Euclidean geometry. ...

Street-naming conventions

Street names may follow a variety of themes. In new developments, streets may all follow the same theme (e.g. bird species), or start with the same letter. Streets in Europe and Latin America are often named for auspicious dates. In many North American cities, such as Manhattan and Edmonton, Alberta, streets are simply numbered sequentially across the street grid. Washington, D.C., uses a system of numbered north-south streets combined with lettered and alphabetically named east-west streets; diagonal avenues are typically named after states. Orders Many - see section below. ... World map showing location of Europe Europe is geologically and geographically a peninsula, forming the westernmost part of Eurasia. ... Latin America consists of the countries of South America and some of North America (including Central America and some the islands of the Caribbean) whose inhabitants mostly speak Romance languages, although Native American languages are also spoken. ... Manhattan is an island bordering the lower Hudson River. ... {{Canadian City/Disable Field={{{Disable Motto Link}}}}} Motto: Industry Integrity Progress City of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada Location. ...

Postal codes

Postal codes are a relatively recent development in addressing, designed to speed the sorting and processing of mail by assigning unique numeric or alphanumeric codes to each geographical locality. A postal code is a series of letters and/or digits appended to a postal address for the purpose of sorting mail. ...

Postal alternatives to physical addresses

For privacy and other purposes, postal services have made it possible to receive mail without revealing one's physical address or even having a fixed physical address. Examples are post office boxes and poste restante (general delivery). A Post Office box is a uniquely-addressable lockable box located on the premises of a Post Office station. ... Poste restante is a service provided by postal systems where the post office holds mail that has a notation written on it until the recipient calls for it. ...

Internet Usage

People may be said generally to get used to the form of geographical address used in their home location. However, this can cause confusion when people naturally extend their written generalisations from the physical medium to the electronic. A good example of this is Wikipedia, where a significant number of the contributors are Americans. For example it can be guessed that the contributors writing these phrases are Americans: Wikipedia is a Web-based, multi-language, free-content encyclopedia written collaboratively by volunteers and sponsored by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. ...

• Birmingham, England
• Birmingham, AL

In the former example, the contributor can be guessed not to be from Birmingham in the UK because, whilst correct, someone from Birmingham would be more likely to describe their citys location in written form slightly differently ( such as "Birmingham, UK" or "Birmingham in England", for example ) although this is not without certainty. In the latter example it is common in the US ( or is that "the U.S." ) to list state codes in addresses, which are somewhat meaningless to the rest of the English-speaking world outside of North America ( leading to people guessing what on earth "SD" could stand for ). In addition, the contributor in this latter example has assumed that others would not only understand from the use of a state code that their city of Birmingham is in the state of Alabama, but also that their city is in the USA. Another example of this phenomenon of US address forms being exported to a global audience is with Google Earth which is marketed globally and not just to Columbians - try a search for Birmingham and then Birmingham, England. Next try St. Petersburg and St. Petersburg, Russia. This article is about the city in England. ... Royal motto: Dieu et mon droit (French: God and my right) Englands location within the UK Official language English de facto Capital London de facto Largest city London Area  - Total Ranked 1st UK 130,395 km² Population  - Total (2001)  - Density Ranked 1st UK 49,138,831 377/km² Ethnicity... Nickname: The Magic City, Pittsburgh of the South Location in Alabama Founded  -Incorporated 1871 1871  County Jefferson County Mayor Bernard Kincaid Area  - Total  - Water 393. ... Look up AL in Wiktionary, the free dictionary AL or al may stand for: Alabama a state in the southern United States Albania a country in southeastern Europe. ... US,Us or us may stand for the United States of America us, the oblique case form of the English language pronoun we. ... For other uses, see United States (disambiguation) and US (disambiguation). ... States AK: Alaska AL: Alabama AR: Arkansas AZ: Arizona CA: California CO: Colorado CT: Connecticut DE: Delaware FL: Florida GA: Georgia HI: Hawaii IA: Iowa ID: Idaho IL: Illinois IN: Indiana KS: Kansas KY: Kentucky LA: Louisiana MA: Massachusetts MD: Maryland ME: Maine MI: Michigan MN: Minnesota MO: Missouri MS... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... World map showing location of North America A satellite composite image of North America North America is a continent in the northern hemisphere, bounded on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the south by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west... State nickname: Camellia State, The Heart of Dixie¹, Yellowhammer State Other U.S. States Capital Montgomery Largest city Birmingham Governor Bob Riley (R) Official languages English Area 84,360 mi²/135,765 km² (30th)  - Land 81,664 mi²/131,426 km²  - Water 2,696 mi²/4,338 km² (3. ... Google Earth is a free virtual globe developed by Google for use on personal computers running Microsoft Windows. ... Note: The similar sounding country uses a different spelling--see Colombia. ... Saint Petersburg (Russian: Санкт-Петербу́рг, English transliteration: Sankt-Peterburg), colloquially known as Питер (transliterated Piter), formerly known as Leningrad (Ленингра́д, 1924–1991) and Petrograd (Петрогра́д, 1914–1924), is a city located in Northwestern Russia on the delta of the river Neva at the east end of the Gulf of Finland... Saint Petersburg (or St. ...

See Also

• Delivery point
• Japanese addressing system

In a postal system, a delivery point (sometimes DP) is a single mailbox or other place at which mail is delivered. ... The Japanese addressing system is used to identify a specific location in Japan. ...

External Links

• Frank's compulsive guide to postal addresses