Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

267 results found

flood, in hydrology

(Encyclopedia)flood, inundation of land by the rise and overflow of a body of water. Floods occur most commonly when water from heavy rainfall, from melting ice and snow, or from a combination of these exceeds the ...

election

(Encyclopedia)election, choosing a candidate for office in an organization by the vote of those enfranchised to cast a ballot. In the United States, Canada, Mexico, Great Britain, and many other nations, usuall...

submarine

(Encyclopedia)submarine, naval craft capable of operating for an extended period of time underwater. Submarines are almost always warships, although a few are used for scientific, business, or other purposes (see a...

telephone

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Hand telephone telephone, device for communicating sound, especially speech, usually by means of wires in an electric circuit. The telephones now in general use evolved from the device invente...

sun, in astronomy

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Structure of the sun sun, intensely hot, self-luminous body of gases at the center of the solar system. Its gravitational attraction maintains the planets, comets, and other bodies of the sola...

time , sequential arrangement of all events

(Encyclopedia)time, sequential arrangement of all events, or the interval between two events in such a sequence. The concept of time may be discussed on several different levels: physical, psychological, philosophi...

space science

(Encyclopedia)space science, body of scientific knowledge as it relates to space exploration; it is sometimes also called astronautics. Space science draws on the conventional sciences of physics, chemistry, biolog...

Internet, the

(Encyclopedia)Internet, the, international computer network linking together thousands of individual networks at military and government agencies, educational institutions, nonprofit organizations, industrial and f...

earthquake

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Worldwide pattern of earthquake activity: The dots indicate the epicenters of all earthquakes recorded during a recent 10-year period. CE5 earthquake, trembling or shaking movement of the ea...

deafness

(Encyclopedia)deafness, partial or total lack of hearing. It may be present at birth (congenital) or may be acquired at any age thereafter. A person who cannot detect sound at an amplitude of 20 decibels in a frequ...