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Jodhpur

(Encyclopedia)Jodhpur märˈwär [key], former principality, Rajasthan state, NW India. Except for the eastern section, it is largely an arid wasteland. The principality was founded in the 13th cent. by the Rathor ...

free port

(Encyclopedia)free port, port, or section of a port, exempt from customs regulations (see tariff). Goods may be landed at a free port for storage and handling, and they may even be processed into manufactured goods...

Frank, Jacob

(Encyclopedia)Frank, Jacob, c.1726–1791, Polish Jewish sectarian and adventurer, b. Podolia as Jacob Ben Judah Leib. He founded the Frankists, a heretical Jewish sect that was an anti-Talmudic outgrowth of the my...

cone, in mathematics

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Cone cone or conical surface, in mathematics, surface generated by a moving line (the generator) that passes through a given fixed point (the vertex) and continually intersects a given fixed c...

Continental Divide

(Encyclopedia)Continental Divide, the “backbone” of a continent. In North America, from N Alaska to New Mexico, it moves along the crest of the Rocky Mts., which separates streams with outlets to the west of th...

ellipse

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Ellipse ellipse, closed plane curve consisting of all points for which the sum of the distances between a point on the curve and two fixed points (foci) is the same. It is the conic section fo...

Petronius

(Encyclopedia)Petronius pĭtrōˈnēəs [key], d. c.a.d. 66, Roman satirist, known as Petronius Arbiter because of his now generally accepted identity with Gaius Petronius, to whom Tacitus refers as arbiter elegant...

Smetana, Bedřich

(Encyclopedia)Smetana, Bedřich bĕˈdərzhĭkh smĕˈtänä [key], 1824–84, Czech composer, creator of a national style in Czech music. He studied in Pilsen and in Prague, where in 1848, with the encouragement o...

integration

(Encyclopedia)integration, in U.S. history, the goal of an organized movement to break down the barriers of discrimination and segregation separating African Americans from the rest of American society. Racial segr...

Erie Canal

(Encyclopedia)Erie Canal, artificial waterway, c.360 mi (580 km) long; connecting New York City with the Great Lakes via the Hudson River. Locks were built to overcome the 571-ft (174-m) difference between the leve...