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Beaufort scale

(Encyclopedia)Beaufort scale, a scale of wind velocity devised (c.1805) by Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort of the British navy. An adaptation of Beaufort's scale is used by the U.S. National Weather Service; it employ...

heat

(Encyclopedia)heat, nonmechanical energy in transit, associated with differences in temperature between a system and its surroundings or between parts of the same system. The study of heat and its relationship ...

specific heat

(Encyclopedia)specific heat, ratio of the heat capacity of a substance to the heat capacity of a reference substance, usually water. Heat capacity is the amount of heat needed to change the temperature of a unit ma...

low-temperature fusion

(Encyclopedia)low-temperature fusion: see cold fusion. ...

temperature-humidity index

(Encyclopedia)temperature-humidity index: see humidity. ...

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...

Enhanced Fujita scale

(Encyclopedia)Enhanced Fujita scale: see Fujita scale. ...

scale, in cartography

(Encyclopedia)scale, in cartography, the ratio of the distance between two points on a map to the real distance between the two corresponding points portrayed. The scale may be expressed in three ways: numerically,...

scale, in music

(Encyclopedia)scale, in music, any series of tones arranged in a step-by-step rising or falling order of pitch. A scale defines the interval relationship of each tone to the others upon which the composition depend...

scale, in zoology

(Encyclopedia)scale, in zoology, an outgrowth, either bony or horny, of the skin of an animal. The major component of the scales of fishes is bone, and they are formed directly in the skin membrane as the fish grow...