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snow line

(Encyclopedia)snow line, altitude above which or latitude beyond which snow does not melt in summer (usually called the permanent snow line), or, in winter, the line to which snow extends at a given point in time. ...

base line

(Encyclopedia)base line: see geodesy.

international date line

(Encyclopedia)international date line, imaginary line on the earth's surface, generally following the 180° meridian of longitude, where, by international agreement, travelers change dates. Traveling eastward acros...

Oder-Neisse line

(Encyclopedia)Oder-Neisse line, frontier established in 1945 between Germany and Poland; it followed the Oder and W Neisse rivers from the Baltic Sea to the Czechoslovak border. The boundary, desired by most Poles ...

Mason-Dixon Line

(Encyclopedia)Mason-Dixon Line, boundary between Pennsylvania and Maryland (running between lat. 39°43′26.3″N and lat. 39°43′17.6″N), surveyed by the English team of Charles Mason, a mathematician and ast...

ship of the line

(Encyclopedia)ship of the line, large, square-rigged warship, carrying from 70 to 140 guns on two or more completely armed gun decks. In the great naval wars of the 17th, 18th, and early 19th cent., ships of the li...

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