Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

inert gas

(Encyclopedia)inert gas or noble gas, any of the elements in Group 18 of the periodic table. In order of increasing atomic number they are: helium, neon, argon, krypton, xenon, and radon. They are colorless, odorle...

producer gas

(Encyclopedia)producer gas, fuel gas consisting chiefly of carbon monoxide and nitrogen. It is prepared in a furnace or generator in which air is forced upward through a burning fuel of coal or coke. Although the f...

rare gas

(Encyclopedia)rare gas: see inert gas.

noble gas

(Encyclopedia)noble gas: see inert gas.

gas

(Encyclopedia)gas, in physics, one of the three commonly recognized states of matter, the other two being solid and liquid. A substance in the gaseous state has neither definite shape nor definite volume. Like liqu...

laughing gas

(Encyclopedia)laughing gas: see nitrous oxide. ...

marsh gas

(Encyclopedia)marsh gas: see methane.

mustard gas

(Encyclopedia)mustard gas, chemical compound used as a poison gas in World War I. The burning sensation it causes on contact with the skin is similar to that caused by oil from black mustard seeds. The compound is ...

gas, fuel

(Encyclopedia)gas, fuel, gaseous substance that burns in air and releases enough heat to be useful as a fuel, while also remaining sufficiently stable at ordinary temperatures to permit long-term storage without de...

gas laws

(Encyclopedia)gas laws, physical laws describing the behavior of a gas under various conditions of pressure, volume, and temperature. Experimental results indicate that all real gases behave in approximately the sa...