Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

tangent

(Encyclopedia)tangent, in mathematics. 1 In geometry, the tangent to a circle or sphere is a straight line that intersects the circle or sphere in one and only one point. For other curves and surfaces the tangent l...

moment

(Encyclopedia)moment, in physics and engineering, term designating the product of a quantity and a distance (or some power of the distance) to some point associated with that quantity. The most theoretically useful...

marquetry

(Encyclopedia)marquetry märˈkətrē [key], branch of cabinetwork in which a decorative surface of wood or other substance is glued to an object on a single plane. Unlike inlaying, in which the secondary material ...

collective bargaining

(Encyclopedia)collective bargaining, in labor relations, procedure whereby an employer or employers agree to discuss the conditions of work by bargaining with representatives of the employees, usually a labor union...

water skiing

(Encyclopedia)water skiing, sport of riding on skis along the water's surface while being towed by a motorboat. It probably originated on the French Riviera in the early 1920s, and was known in the United States by...

seasons

(Encyclopedia)CE5 The seasons are caused by the tilt of the earth's axis to the plane of its orbit about the sun. The Northern Hemisphere is tilted toward the sun in the summer and receives more direct rays than...

glycoprotein

(Encyclopedia)glycoprotein glīˌkōprōˈtēn [key], organic compound composed of both a protein and a carbohydrate joined together in covalent chemical linkage. These structures occur in many life forms; they are...

table tennis

(Encyclopedia)table tennis, game played, usually indoors, by two or four players; it is more or less a miniature form of lawn tennis. It is also called Ping-Pong, after the trade name that a manufacturer adopted (c...

bubble chamber

(Encyclopedia)bubble chamber, device for detecting charged particles and other radiation by means of tracks of bubbles left in a chamber filled with liquid hydrogen or other liquefied gas. It was invented in 1952 b...

Yellowstone National Park

(Encyclopedia)Yellowstone National Park, 2,219,791 acres (899,015 hectares), the world's first national park (est. 1872), NW Wyo., extending into Montana and Idaho. It lies mainly on a broad plateau in the Rocky Mt...