Each year on December 10, the Nobel Foundation (诺贝尔基金会) presents six prizes. These prizes are named after Alfred Nobel, the man who invented dynamite (火药). It was Mr. Nobel's idea to create the prizes. During his life, Mr. Nobel made a lot of money from his invention. He put his money in a bank, and the money earned more money through interest (利息) from the bank. The money grew to be a very large amount.

Mr. Nobel decided to use his money to help scientists, artists, and people who worked to help others around the world. He created the Nobel Prizes to do this.

 The prizes set up by Mr. Nobel include physics, medicine, chemistry, literature, and peace. These five Nobel Prizes were first given out in 1901. Later, the Central Bank of Sweden (瑞典) made the Alfred Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic (经济) Science in 1968 to celebrate the bank's 300th year of business. All of the prizes are handed out in Stockholm (斯德哥尔摩) except the Peace Prize, which is presented in Oslo (奥斯陆).

Each person who receives a Nobel Prize is given a cash prize, a medal, and a certificate which explains the prize the person has won. The amount of money that each person receives is calculated from the interest earned from all of Mr. Nobel's money which is still in the bank. This interest is divided equally among the five prize winners in physics, medicine, chemistry, literature, and peace. The Central Bank of Sweden then pays an equal amount to the winner of the prize in economics.