Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

scale insect

(Encyclopedia)scale insect, common name for members of a highly modified group of insects belonging to several families of the superfamily Coccoidea. Scales possess antennae and are characterized by reduced legs. O...

chromatic scale

(Encyclopedia)chromatic scale, in music: see scale. ...

Fujita scale

(Encyclopedia)Fujita scale fo͞ojēˈtə, fo͞oˈjētə [key] or F-Scale, scale for rating the severity of tornadoes as a measure of the damage they cause, devised in 1951 by the Japanese-American meteorologist Tet...

Fahrenheit temperature scale

(Encyclopedia)Fahrenheit temperature scale fârˈənhītˌ [key], temperature scale in which the temperature difference between two reference temperatures, the melting and boiling points of water, is divided into 1...

Celsius temperature scale

(Encyclopedia)Celsius temperature scale sĕlˈsēəs [key], temperature scale according to which the temperature difference between the reference temperatures of the freezing and boiling points of water is divided ...

scale, in cartography

(Encyclopedia)scale, in cartography, the ratio of the distance between two points on a map to the real distance between the two corresponding points portrayed. The scale may be expressed in three ways: numerically,...

Kelvin temperature scale

(Encyclopedia)Kelvin temperature scale, a temperature scale having an absolute zero below which temperatures do not exist. Absolute zero, or 0K, is the temperature at which molecular energy is a minimum, and it c...

Rankine temperature scale

(Encyclopedia)Rankine temperature scale, temperature scale having an absolute zero, below which temperatures do not exist, and using a degree of the same size as that used by the Fahrenheit temperature scale. Absol...

Enhanced Fujita scale

(Encyclopedia)Enhanced Fujita scale: see Fujita scale. ...

centigrade temperature scale

(Encyclopedia)centigrade temperature scale: see Celsius temperature scale. ...