Columbia Encyclopedia

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museums of art

(Encyclopedia)museums of art, institutions or buildings where works of art are kept for display or safekeeping. The word museum derives from the Greek mouseion, meaning temple to the works of the Muses. This articl...

Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm, Baron von

(Encyclopedia)Leibniz or Leibnitz, Gottfried Wilhelm, Baron von both: gôtˈfrēt vĭlˈhĕlm bärônˈ fan līpˈnĭts [key], 1646–1716, German philosopher and mathematician, b. Leipzig. Although known primarily...

Alabama, state, United States

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Alabama ăləbămˈə [key], state in the SE United States. It is bordered by Tennessee (N), Georgia (E), Florida and the Gulf of Mexico (S), and Mississippi (W). In 1954 the U.S. Supreme Co...

Australian literature

(Encyclopedia)Australian literature, the literature of Australia. Because the vast majority of early Australian settlers were transported prisoners, the beginnings of Australian literature were oral rather than wri...

North West Company

(Encyclopedia)North West Company, fur-trading organization in North America in the late 18th and early 19th cent.; it was composed of Montreal trading firms and fur traders. After 1810 the rivalry between the Nor...

seismology

(Encyclopedia)seismology sīzmŏlˈəjē, sīs– [key], scientific study of earthquakes and related phenomena, including the propagation of waves and shocks on or within the earth by natural or artificially genera...

mountain men

(Encyclopedia)mountain men, fur trappers and traders in the Rocky Mts. during the 1820s and 30s. Their activities opened that region of the United States to general knowledge. Since the days of French domination th...

probability

(Encyclopedia)probability, in mathematics, assignment of a number as a measure of the “chance” that a given event will occur. There are certain important restrictions on such a probability measure. In any exper...

Pacific Ocean

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Pacific Ocean, largest and deepest ocean, c.70,000,000 sq mi (181,300,000 sq km), occupying about one third of the earth's surface; named by the explorer Ferdinand Magellan; the southern part i...

Democratic party

(Encyclopedia)Democratic party, American political party; the oldest continuous political party in the United States. In 1960, John F. Kennedy narrowly defeated the Republican candidate, Richard M. Nixon, in the ...