Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

nationalization

(Encyclopedia)nationalization, acquisition and operation by a country of business enterprises formerly owned and operated by private individuals or corporations. State or local authorities have traditionally taken ...

chemical industry

(Encyclopedia)chemical industry, the business of using chemical reactions to turn raw materials, such as coal, oil, and salt, into a variety of products. During the 19th and 20th cent. technological advances in the...

Mexico, National Autonomous University of

(Encyclopedia)Mexico, National Autonomous University of, at Mexico City, Mexico; founded 1551 by the Spanish king Charles I (Holy Roman Emperor Charles V). It has faculties of accounting and business administration...

melting point

(Encyclopedia)melting point, temperature at which a substance changes its state from solid to liquid. Under standard atmospheric pressure different pure crystalline solids will each melt at a different specific tem...

potassium nitrate

(Encyclopedia)potassium nitrate, chemical compound, KNO3, occurring as colorless, prismatic crystals or as a white powder; it is found pure in nature as the mineral saltpeter, or niter. (The name saltpeter is also ...

kilogram

(Encyclopedia)kilogram, abbr. kg, fundamental unit of mass in the metric system, defined as the mass of the International Prototype Kilogram, a platinum-iridium cylinder kept at Sèvres, France, near Paris. Copies ...

Karle, Jerome

(Encyclopedia)Karle, Jerome kärl [key], 1918–2013, American physicist, b. New York City, Ph.D. Univ. of Michigan, 1943. He worked on the Manhattan Project before beginning a career (1946–2009) at the U.S. Nava...

mixture

(Encyclopedia)mixture, in chemistry, a physical combination of two or more pure substances (i.e., elements or compounds). A mixture is distinguished from a compound, which is formed by the chemical combination of t...

Tartaglia, Niccolò

(Encyclopedia)Tartaglia, Niccolò nēk-kōlôˈ tärtäˈlyä [key], c.1500–1557, Italian engineer and mathematician. Largely self-educated, he taught mathematics at Verona, Brescia, and Venice. A pioneer in appl...

Carleton University

(Encyclopedia)Carleton University, at Ottawa, Ont., Canada; nonsectarian; coeducational; founded 1942 as Carleton College. It achieved university status in 1957. It has faculties of arts, social sciences, science, ...

Browse by Subject