Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Joyner-Kersee, Jackie

(Encyclopedia)Joyner-Kersee, Jackie joiˈnər-kûrˈzē [key], 1962–, American track and field athlete, b. East St. Louis, Ill. One of the world's best all-around women athletes, she won the silver medal in the h...

Oersted, Hans Christian

(Encyclopedia)Oersted or Ørsted, Hans Christian häns krĭsˈtyän örˈstĭᵺ [key], 1777–1851, Danish physicist and chemist. He was professor at Copenhagen from 1806. His discovery (1819) that a magnetic need...

Oil City

(Encyclopedia)Oil City, city (1990 pop. 11,949), Venango co., NW Pa., on the Allegheny River; inc. 1871. The city was founded after Edwin L. Drake struck (1859) oil nearby in Titusville. It was a refining and shipp...

Levi-Civita, Tullio

(Encyclopedia)Levi-Civita, Tullio to͞olˈlyō lāˈvē-chēˈvētä [key], 1873–1942, Italian mathematician. He taught at the universities of Padua (1898–1919) and Rome (1919–38) and was noted for his resear...

Mandan, city, United States

(Encyclopedia)Mandan mănˈdăn, –dən [key], city (1990 pop. 15,177), seat of Morton co., S N.Dak., on the Missouri River opposite Bismarck; inc. 1881. A railroad division point, it is the distribution center fo...

market research

(Encyclopedia)market research, organized use of sample surveys, polls, focus groups, and other techniques to study market characteristics (e.g., ages and incomes of consumers; consumer attitudes) and improve the ef...

Louis, Morris

(Encyclopedia)Louis, Morris, 1912–62, American painter, b. Baltimore. A practitioner of color-field painting, Louis was noted for soaking poured paint through unsized and often unstretched canvas. Prior to 1960 h...

Kasprowicz, Jan

(Encyclopedia)Kasprowicz, Jan yän käsprôˈvēch [key], 1860–1926, Polish poet. His writings progressed from social revolt (e.g., From a Peasant's Field, 1891) to poems of spiritual struggle and philosophical i...

Paisley

(Encyclopedia)Paisley pāzˈlē [key], town (1991 pop. 84,330), Renfrewshire, W Scotland, on the White Cart Water, a stream. It has a thriving textile industry and is an extremely large producer of thread. Other ma...

Pandora, in Greek mythology

(Encyclopedia)Pandora păndôrˈə [key], in Greek mythology, first woman on earth. Zeus ordered Hephaestus to create her as vengeance upon man and his benefactor, Prometheus. The gods endowed her with every charm,...