Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Willamette

(Encyclopedia)Willamette wĭlămˈət [key], river, 294 mi (473 km) long, rising in several headstreams in the Cascade Range, W Oregon. It flows N past Eugene, Salem, and Portland to the Columbia River just NW of P...

potential, electric

(Encyclopedia)potential, electric, work per unit of electric charge expended in moving a charged body from a reference point to any given point in an electric field (see electrostatics). The potential at the refere...

magnetron

(Encyclopedia)magnetron măgˈnĭtrŏnˌ [key], vacuum tube oscillator (see electron tube) that generates high-power electromagnetic signals in the microwave frequency range. Its operation is based on the combined ...

electrostatics

(Encyclopedia)electrostatics, study of phenomena associated with charged bodies at rest (see charge; electricity). A charged body has an excess of positive or negative charges, a condition usually brought about by ...

Carnegie Mellon University

(Encyclopedia)Carnegie Mellon University, at Pittsburgh, Pa.; est. 1967 through the merger of the Carnegie Institute of Technology (founded 1900, opened 1905) and the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research (founde...

shinty

(Encyclopedia)shinty, a game originating in 17th cent. Scotland, in which opposing teams of 12 players each attempt to knock a small ball through their opponent's goal, or hail, using sticks similar to though small...

motor, electric

(Encyclopedia) CE5 Motor: In the AC motor, current fed to the conducting loop of wire causes it to rotate in the magnetic field, thus turning the shaft on which the loop is mounted. In the DC motor, the direction...

Malplaquet, battle of

(Encyclopedia)Malplaquet, battle of mälpläkāˈ [key], a major engagement in the War of the Spanish Succession (see Spanish Succession, War of the). On Sept. 11, 1709, the combined forces of England and the Holy ...

Lew, Jack

(Encyclopedia)Lew, Jack (Jacob Joseph Lew), 1955–, American government official, b. New York City, grad. Harvard (1978), Georgetown Univ. Law School (1983). A Democrat, he first worked politics at 17 in Eugene Mc...

Lamb, Willis Eugene, Jr.

(Encyclopedia)Lamb, Willis Eugene, Jr., 1913–2008, American physicist, b. Los Angeles, Ph.D. Univ. of California, Berkeley, 1938. Lamb was a professor at Columbia (1938–51), Stanford (1951–56), Oxford (1956...
 

Browse by Subject