Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

184 results found

moment

(Encyclopedia)moment, in physics and engineering, term designating the product of a quantity and a distance (or some power of the distance) to some point associated with that quantity. The most theoretically useful...

celestial meridian

(Encyclopedia)celestial meridian, vertical circle passing through the north celestial pole and an observer's zenith. It is an axis in the altazimuth coordinate system. ...

Badrinath

(Encyclopedia)Badrinath bŭdˈrĭnät [key], peak, 23,210 ft (7,074 m) high, in the central axis of the Himalayas, Uttarakhand state, N India. The peak has several glaciers. At a height of c.10,000 ft (3,050 m), is...

Local Group

(Encyclopedia)Local Group, in astronomy, loose cluster of at least 40 nearby galaxies, including our own Milky Way galaxy, the Andromeda Galaxy, and the Magellanic Clouds. The Local Group is spread over an ellipsoi...

transit instrument

(Encyclopedia)transit instrument or transit, telescope devised to observe stars as they cross the meridian and used for determining time. Its viewing tube swings on a rigid horizontal axis restricting its movements...

lens, in optics

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Lenses lens, device for forming an image of an object by the refraction of light. In its simplest form it is a disk of transparent substance, commonly glass, with its two surfaces curved or wi...

Klaus, Josef

(Encyclopedia)Klaus, Josef yōˈzĕf klous [key], 1910–2001, Austrian politician. He was drafted into the army and fought in World War II on the Axis side. Chosen leader (1963) of the business- and church-oriente...

Kasserine Pass

(Encyclopedia)Kasserine Pass kăsˈərīnˌ [key], gap, 2 mi (3.2 km) wide, central Tunisia, in the Grand Dorsal chain (an extension of the Atlas Mts.). A key point in the Allied offensive in Tunisia in World War I...

sea whip

(Encyclopedia)sea whip, erect colony of marine animals of the phylum Cnidaria, with whiplike branches. The skeleton consists of a horny axis, overlaid with small calcareous bodies called spicules. Often beautifully...

Bradley, James

(Encyclopedia)Bradley, James, 1693–1762, English astronomer. His discovery of the aberration of light, announced in 1728, provided an important line of evidence for the motion of the earth around the sun. In 1742...