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weightlessness

(Encyclopedia)weightlessness, the absence of any observable effects of gravitation. This condition is experienced by an observer when he and his immediate surroundings are allowed to move freely in the local gravit...

Bastrop

(Encyclopedia)Bastrop băsˈtrŏpˌ [key], city (2020 pop. 9,711), seat of Morehouse parish, NE La.; founded ...

Leduc

(Encyclopedia)Leduc lədo͞okˈ [key], town (1991 pop. 13,970), central Alta., Canada, S of Edmonton. It is the center of the Leduc oil field (discovered 1947), which is now mostly depleted. The town is an oil stor...

Nizhnevartovsk

(Encyclopedia)Nizhnevartovsk nyēzhˌnyĭvärˈtəfsk [key], city (1989 pop. 241,000), N Siberian Russia. The discovery of a huge oil field at nearby Lake Samotlor in 1965 quickly transformed the small village of N...

East Coolgardie Goldfield

(Encyclopedia)East Coolgardie Goldfield ko͞olgärˈdē [key], Western Australia, SW Australia. It is the richest gold field in Australia. The chief mining center is the town of Kalgoorlie. Coolgardie, of little im...

Hansen, William Webster

(Encyclopedia)Hansen, William Webster, 1909–49, U.S. physicist, b. Fresno, Calif. Hansen received his doctorate in physics from Stanford in 1933 and joined the faculty there in 1934. He invented the high-quality ...

Beers, Clifford Whittingham

(Encyclopedia)Beers, Clifford Whittingham, 1876–1943, American founder of the mental hygiene movement, b. New Haven, Conn., grad. Sheffield Scientific School, Yale, 1897. After the publication of A Mind That Foun...

Shrewsbury, city, United States

(Encyclopedia)Shrewsbury shro͞ozˈbərē [key], town (1990 pop. 24,146), Worcester co., central Mass.; inc. 1727. Plastics, furniture, candy, fire alarm systems, and textiles are manufactured. Gen. Artemas Ward wa...

Proteus, in Greek mythology

(Encyclopedia)Proteus prōˈtēəs, –tyo͞os [key], in Greek mythology, prophetic old man of the sea who tended the seals of Poseidon. He could change himself into any shape he pleased, but if he were nevertheles...

terrace

(Encyclopedia)terrace, a level field built on top of a hillslope into the floor of a deep valley to improve cultivation of crops. Terracing uses the runoff from the hill to increase soil retentiveness and arability...
 

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