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chemistry

(Encyclopedia)chemistry, branch of science concerned with the properties, composition, and structure of substances and the changes they undergo when they combine or react under specified conditions. Organic chemi...

electricity

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Electrical and radio symbols electricity, class of phenomena arising from the existence of charge. The basic unit of charge is that on the proton or electron—the proton's charge is designate...

elementary particles

(Encyclopedia)CE5 elementary particles, the most basic physical constituents of the universe. The first subatomic particle to be discovered was the electron, identified in 1897 by J. J. Thomson. After the...

Paris, city, France

(Encyclopedia)Paris pârˈĭs, Fr. pärēˈ [key], city (1999 pop. 2,115,757; metropolitan area est. pop. 11,000,000), N central France, capital of the country, on the Seine River. It is the commercial and industri...

space exploration

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Moon mission assembly CE5 Stages in a moon mission shown counterclockwise from launching on the first day to splashdown on the ninth day. space exploration, the investigation of physical co...

Kenya

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Kenya kĕnˈyə, kēnˈ– [key], officially Republic of Kenya, republic (2015 est. pop. 47,236,000), 224,960 sq mi (582,646 sq km), E Africa. Kenya is bordered by Somalia on the east, the Indi...

photography, still

(Encyclopedia)photography, still, science and art of making permanent images on light-sensitive materials. See also photographic processing; motion picture photography; motion pictures. By the end of ...

Japan

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Japan jəpănˈ [key], Jap. Nihon or Nippon, country (2015 est. pop. 127,975,000), 145,833 sq mi (377,835 sq km), occupying an archipelago off the coast of E Asia. The capital is Tokyo, which, ...

English literature

(Encyclopedia)English literature, literature written in English since c.1450 by the inhabitants of the British Isles; it was during the 15th cent. that the English language acquired much of its modern form. For the...

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