Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

arachnid

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Internal anatomy of a spider, representative of the class Arachnida arachnid ərăkˈnĭd [key], mainly terrestrial arthropod of the class Arachnida, including the spider, scorpion, mite, tick...

basilica

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Floor plan of a basilica basilica bəsĭlˈĭkə [key], large building erected by the Romans for transacting business and disposing of legal matters. Rectangular in form with a roofed hall, th...

calculus of variations

(Encyclopedia)calculus of variations, branch of mathematics concerned with finding maximum or minimum conditions for a relationship between two or more variables that depends not only on the variables themselves, a...

perception

(Encyclopedia)perception, in psychology, mental organization and interpretation of sensory information. The Gestalt psychologists studied extensively the ways in which people organize and select from the vast array...

phase diagram

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Phase diagram for a substance, like water, which expands on freezing phase diagram, graph that shows the relation between the solid, liquid, and gaseous states of a substance (see states of ma...

bagpipe

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Scottish bagpipe bagpipe, musical instrument whose ancient origin was probably in Mesopotamia from which it was carried east and west by Celtic migrations. It was used in ancient Greece and Ro...

air navigation

(Encyclopedia)air navigation, science and technology of determining the position of an aircraft with respect to the surface of the earth and accurately maintaining a desired course (see navigation). Basic to air ...

set, in mathematics

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Union and intersection of sets A and B: The union of A and B, A∪B, contains all members belonging to either A or B. The intersection of A and B, A∩B, contains all members common to both A a...

photographic processing

(Encyclopedia)photographic processing, set of procedures by which the latent, or invisible, image produced when a photographic film is exposed to light is made into a permanent visible image. The negative may b...

Asherah

(Encyclopedia)Asherah -rŏth [key], Canaanite fertility goddess and the wooden cult symbol that represented her. She is the consort of El in the Ugaritic texts. Several passages in the Bible may refer to the planti...