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pyramid, structure

(Encyclopedia)pyramid. The true pyramid exists only in Egypt and Sudan, though the term has also been applied to similar structures in other countries. Egyptian pyramids are square in plan and their triangular side...

frigate

(Encyclopedia)frigate frĭgˈĭt [key], originally a long, narrow nautical vessel used on the Mediterranean, propelled by either oars or sail or both. Later, during the 18th and early 19th cent., the term was appli...

Boston Public Library

(Encyclopedia)Boston Public Library, founded in 1848, chiefly through the gift of Joshua Bates, and opened to the public in 1854. It is the oldest free public city library supported by taxation in the world and the...

e, in mathematics

(Encyclopedia)e, in mathematics, irrational number occurring widely in mathematics and science, approximately equal to the value 2.71828; it is the base of natural, or Naperian, logarithms. The number e is defined ...

cornice

(Encyclopedia)cornice kôrˈnĭs [key], molded or decorated projection that forms the crowning feature at the top of a building wall or other architectural element; specifically, the uppermost of the three principa...

Close, Chuck

(Encyclopedia)Close, Chuck (Charles Thomas Close), 1940–2021, American painter, b. Monroe, Wash., Univ. of Washington (B.A., 1962), Yale Univ. (B.F.A., 1963; M.F.A...

harpsichord

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Harpsichord harpsichord, stringed musical instrument played from a keyboard. Its strings, two or more to a note, are plucked by quills or jacks. The harpsichord originated in the 14th cent. an...

Golden Section

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Rectangle ABCD is a golden rectangle. Removing the square AEFD leaves the rectangle EBCF Golden Section, in mathematics, division of a line segment into two segments such that the ratio of the...

Jones, Inigo

(Encyclopedia)Jones, Inigo ĭnˈĭgōˌ [key], 1573–1652, one of England's first great architects. Son of a London clothmaker, he was enabled to travel in Europe before 1603 to study paintings, perhaps at the exp...

Moore's Law

(Encyclopedia)Moore's Law, a projection of semiconductor manufacturing trends made by Gordon E. Moore, cofounder of the Intel Corp., in a 1965 magazine article. He observed that the number of transistors per square...