Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Churchill, Sir Winston Leonard Spencer, British statesman, soldier, and author

(Encyclopedia)Churchill, Sir Winston Leonard Spencer, 1874–1965, British statesman, soldier, and author; son of Lord Randolph Churchill. Churchill was undoubtedly one of the greatest public figures of the 20t...

Richardson, Lewis Fry

(Encyclopedia)Richardson, Lewis Fry, 1881–1953, British physicist and pioneering meteorologist, grad. Cambridge (1903), Univ. of London (B.Sc. 1929). Richardson worked at the National Physical Laboratory (1902–...

module

(Encyclopedia)module. 1 Term derived from the Latin modulus, a unit of measure in classical architecture equal to half the diameter of a column at its base. This unit was used in proportioning the classical orders ...

Santiago del Estero

(Encyclopedia)Santiago del Estero, city (1991 pop. including La Banda 264,273), capital of Santiago del Estero prov., N Argentina. It is a transportation hub of the Argentine Chaco and a commercial center for cattl...

Faridpur

(Encyclopedia)Faridpur fərēdˈpoŏr [key], town, S Bangladesh. It is a district administrative center, a ...

Qa'em Shahr

(Encyclopedia)Qa'em Shahr käˈĕm shär [key], city (1991 pop. 123,684), Mazandaran prov., N Iran. Manufactures include textiles and food products; a thermal power plant is there. It is a road and rail transport c...

Ahuachapán

(Encyclopedia)Ahuachapán äwä chä pänˈ [key], city, W El Salvador, near the Guatemalan border. It is the westernmost city in the country and is the center of an agricultural region...

commando

(Encyclopedia)commando, small, elite military raiding and assault unit or soldier. Although the word was coined in the Boer War (1899–1902), the role is as old as battles themselves. In 1940, when the British org...

Brownian movement

(Encyclopedia)Brownian movement or motion, zigzag, irregular motion exhibited by minute particles of matter when suspended in a fluid. The effect has been observed in all types of colloidal suspensions (see colloid...

quasicrystal

(Encyclopedia)quasicrystal kwāˈzīkrĭsˌtəl, kwäzˈē– [key] or quasiperiodic solid, solid body that exhibits such crystalline features as symmetry and repeating patterns of unit cells (regular arrangements ...