Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

258 results found

Pap test

(Encyclopedia)Pap test, Pap smear, or Papanicolaou test păpˌənēˈkəlou [key], medical procedure used to detect cancer of the uterine cervix (see uterus). A scraping, brushing, or smear, is taken from the surf...

Pap smear

(Encyclopedia)Pap smear: see Pap test.

Papanicolaou test

(Encyclopedia)Papanicolaou test: see Pap test.

flame test

(Encyclopedia)flame test, test used in the identification of certain metals. It is based on the observation that light emitted by any element gives a unique spectrum when passed through a spectroscope. When a salt ...

Marsh test

(Encyclopedia)Marsh test, method for the detection of arsenic, so sensitive that it can be used to detect minute amounts of arsenic in foods (the residue of fruit spray) or in stomach contents. The sample is placed...

stress test

(Encyclopedia)stress test or exercise electrocardiography, in medicine, a test that evaluates the performance of the heart by subjecting it to controlled amounts of physical stress. Such tests, which include walkin...

Szondi test

(Encyclopedia)Szondi test: see psychological tests. ...

bead test

(Encyclopedia)bead test, test used in the identification of certain metals. Some metallic ions that cannot be identified by a flame test are identified by a bead test. The test can also be used to confirm the resul...

Turing test

(Encyclopedia)Turing test, a procedure to test whether a computer is capable of humanlike thought. As proposed (1950) by the British mathematician Alan Turing, a person (the interrogator) sits with a teletype machi...

Test Act

(Encyclopedia)Test Act, 1673, English statute that excluded from public office (both military and civil) all those who refused to take the oaths of allegiance and supremacy, who refused to receive the communion acc...