Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

capacitance

(Encyclopedia)capacitance, in electricity, capability of a body, system, circuit, or device for storing electric charge. Capacitance is expressed as the ratio of stored charge in coulombs to the impressed potential...

adenosine monophosphate

(Encyclopedia)adenosine monophosphate (AMP) ədĕnˈəsēn mŏnˌəfŏsˈfāt [key], organic compound composed of an adenine base, the sugar ribose, and one phosphate unit. AMP is one of the possible products of th...

solid

(Encyclopedia)solid, one of the three commonly recognized states in which matter occurs, i.e., that state, as distinguished from liquid and gas, in which a substance has both a definite shape and a definite volume....

Caen

(Encyclopedia)Caen käN [key], city, capital of Calvados dept., N France, in Normandy, on the Orne River. I...

air conditioning

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Cross section of air conditioning unit. air conditioning, mechanical process for controlling the humidity, temperature, cleanliness, and circulation of air in buildings and rooms. Indoor air i...

Cotton, Henry

(Encyclopedia)Cotton, Henry (Thomas Henry Cotton), 1907–87, British golfer, b. Cheshire, England. Although he played as a professional at the age of 17, Cotton did not achieve international recognition until he w...

Sikh Wars

(Encyclopedia)Sikh Wars (1845–49), two conflicts preceding the British annexation of the Punjab. By a treaty with the British in 1809, the Sikh ruler of the Punjab, Ranjit Singh, had accepted the Sutlej River as ...

census

(Encyclopedia)census, periodic official count of the number of persons and their condition and of the resources of a country. In ancient times, among the Jews and Romans, such enumeration was mainly for taxation an...

assembly line

(Encyclopedia)assembly line, manufacturing technique in which a product is carried by some form of mechanized conveyor among stations at which the various operations necessary to its assembly are performed. It is u...

Maryland, University System of

(Encyclopedia)Maryland, University System of, state-supported system of higher education in Maryland, est. 1988 as the University of Maryland System, renamed 1997. It includes all but two of the publicly supported ...