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vibration

(Encyclopedia)vibration, in physics, commonly an oscillatory motion—a movement first in one direction and then back again in the opposite direction. It is exhibited, for example, by a swinging pendulum, by the pr...

Peregrinus, Petrus

(Encyclopedia)Peregrinus, Petrus (Peter the Pilgrim) pēˈtrəs pĕrəgrĭnˈəs [key], c.1220–?, medieval scholar and soldier. The tutor of Roger Bacon, he wrote the first important study of magnetism, Epistola ...

Magnitogorsk

(Encyclopedia)Magnitogorsk məgnyēˌtəgôrskˈ [key], city (1990 pop. 440,000), SW Siberian Russia, on the slopes of Mt. Magnitnaya in the S Urals, on the Ural River. Built (1929–31) under the first Five-Year P...

solenoid

(Encyclopedia)solenoid sōˈlənoidˌ [key], device made of a long wire that has been wound many times into a tightly packed coil; it has the shape of a long cylinder. If current is sent through a solenoid made of ...

lung cancer

(Encyclopedia)lung cancer, cancer that originates in the tissues of the lungs. Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in the United States in both men and women. Like other cancers, lung cancer occurs aft...

mine, in warfare

(Encyclopedia)mine, in warfare, term formerly applied to a system of tunnels dug under an army fortification and ending in a chamber where either explosives were placed to be detonated at a chosen moment or the sup...

David, T. W. E.

(Encyclopedia)David, T. W. E. (Sir Tannatt William Edgeworth), 1858–1935, Australian geologist and explorer, b. near Cardiff, Wales. David came to Australia in 1882 as an assistant geological surveyor. In 1891 he...

Hofstadter, Robert

(Encyclopedia)Hofstadter, Robert, 1915–90, American physicist, b. New York City, Ph.D. Princeton, 1938. He taught at Princeton from 1938 to 1950 and also worked at the National Bureau of Standards during World Wa...

Lawrence, Gertrude

(Encyclopedia)Lawrence, Gertrude, 1902?–1952, English actress and singer. Her original name was Gertrud Alexandra Dagmar Lawrence-Klasen. Performing on the musical stage from childhood, Lawrence made her New York...

South Pole

(Encyclopedia)South Pole, southern end of the earth's axis, by convention at lat. 90° S. Because the earth's rotational axis wobbles slightly over time, the location where the southern end of the axis intersects t...