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Stikine

(Encyclopedia)Stikine stĭkēnˈ [key], river, 335 mi (539 km) long, rising in the Stikine Mts., NW British Columbia, Canada. It flows in an arc west and southwest, crossing SE Alaska, to the Pacific Ocean N of Wra...

pendulum

(Encyclopedia)pendulum, a mass, called a bob, suspended from a fixed point so that it can swing in an arc determined by its momentum and the force of gravity. The length of a pendulum is the distance from the point...

Piggott, Lester Keith

(Encyclopedia)Piggott, Lester Keith, 1935–, British jockey. A major figure in British horse racing after 1954, Piggott rode over 4,000 winners in Britain. He gained particular success in classic British races suc...

Boutet de Monvel, Louis Maurice

(Encyclopedia)Boutet de Monvel, Louis Maurice lwē mōrēsˈ bo͞otāˈ də môNvĕlˈ [key], 1851–1913, French painter and illustrator. His fame rests chiefly on his decorative illustrations for children's books...

collage

(Encyclopedia)collage kəläzhˈ, kō– [key] [Fr.,=pasting], technique in art consisting of cutting and pasting natural or manufactured materials to a painted or unpainted surface—hence, a work of art in this m...

vernier

(Encyclopedia)vernier vûrˈnēr [key], auxiliary scale, either straight or an arc of a circle, designed to slide along a fixed scale. Its unit divisions, usually smaller than those on the fixed scale, permit a far...

Mayer, Johann Tobias

(Encyclopedia)Mayer, Johann Tobias yōˈhän tōbēˈäs mīˈər [key], 1723–62, German mathematician and astronomer. In 1751 he became professor of economics and mathematics at the Univ. of Göttingen, and in 1...

xenon

(Encyclopedia)xenon zēˈnŏn [key] [Gr.,=strange], gaseous chemical element; symbol Xe; at. no. 54; at. wt. 131.293; m.p. −111.9℃; b.p. −107.1℃; density 5.86 grams per liter at STP; valence usually 0. Xeno...

Limpopo, river, S Africa

(Encyclopedia)Limpopo lĭmpōˈpō [key], river, c.1,100 mi (1,770 km) long, rising in Limpopo prov., South Africa. It flows in a great arc, first north (forming part of the South Africa–Botswana border), then ea...

parsec

(Encyclopedia)parsec pärˈsĕc [key] [parallax + second], in astronomy, basic unit of length for measuring interstellar and intergalactic distances, equal to 206,265 times the distance from the earth to the su...