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Mössbauer, Rudolf Ludwig

(Encyclopedia)Mössbauer, Rudolf Ludwig, 1929–2011, German physicist, Ph.D. Max Planck Institute for Medical Research, Heidelberg, Germany, 1957. Mössbauer was a professor at the California Institute of Technolo...

Magnus, Heinrich Gustav

(Encyclopedia)Magnus, Heinrich Gustav hīnˈrĭkh go͝osˈtäf mägˈno͝os [key], 1802–70, German chemist, physicist, and educator. In 1831 he became lecturer and in 1834 professor of physics and technology at t...

act of God

(Encyclopedia)act of God, in law, an accident caused by the operation of extraordinary natural force. The effect of ordinary natural causes (e.g., that rain will leak through a defective roof) may be foreseen and a...

Browere, John Henri Isaac

(Encyclopedia)Browere, John Henri Isaac brouˈər [key], 1792–1834, American sculptor, b. New York City, studied painting in New York under Archibald Robertson and sculpture in Europe. He is known for his life ma...

Störmer, Horst Ludwig

(Encyclopedia)Störmer, Horst Ludwig, 1949–, German physicist, Ph.D. Univ. of Stuttgart, 1977. He joined the research staff at Bell Labs in Murray Hill, N.J., in 1978. Störmer and Daniel Tsui were co-recipients,...

Beck, Ludwig

(Encyclopedia)Beck, Ludwig lo͞otˈvĭkh bĕk [key], 1880–1944, German general, leader of resistance to Hitler. A highly cultivated career soldier, he served on the general staff during World War I and by 1933 ha...

Rietveld, Gerrit Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Rietveld, Gerrit Thomas gĕrĭtˈ tōˈməs rētˈfĕlt [key], 1888–1965, Dutch architect and furniture designer. At first a cabinetmaker, Rietveld created (c.1917) a chair that was an important con...

Vickrey, William Spencer

(Encyclopedia)Vickrey, William Spencer, 1914–96, Canadian economist, b. Victoria, B.C., Ph.D. Columbia, 1947. He was on the faculty of Columbia from 1946 until his death. In 1996 he and James Mirrlees shared the ...

Lorentz contraction

(Encyclopedia)Lorentz contraction lôrˈĕnts [key], in physics, contraction or foreshortening of a moving body in the direction of its motion, proposed by H. A. Lorentz on theoretical grounds and based on an earli...

uncertainty principle

(Encyclopedia)uncertainty principle, physical principle, enunciated by Werner Heisenberg in 1927, that places an absolute, theoretical limit on the combined accuracy of certain pairs of simultaneous, related measur...