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Toland, John

(Encyclopedia)Toland, John tōˈlənd [key], 1670–1722, British deist, b. Ireland. Brought up a Roman Catholic, Toland became a Protestant at 16. He studied at Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Leiden and after 1694 lived ...

trigonometry

(Encyclopedia)trigonometry [Gr.,=measurement of triangles], a specialized area of geometry concerned with the properties of and relations among the parts of a triangle. Spherical trigonometry is concerned with the ...

altazimuth coordinate system

(Encyclopedia)altazimuth coordinate system ăltăzˈəməth [key] or horizon coordinate system, astronomical coordinate system in which the position of a body on the celestial sphere is described relative to an obs...

astronomical coordinate systems

(Encyclopedia)astronomical coordinate systems. A coordinate system is a method of indicating positions. Each coordinate is a quantity measured from some starting point along some line or curve, called a coordinate ...

Three Kingdoms

(Encyclopedia)Three Kingdoms, period of Chinese history from 220 to 265, after the collapse of the Han dynasty. The period takes its name from the three states into which China was divided. Wei occupied the north. ...

geometry

(Encyclopedia)geometry [Gr.,=earth measuring], branch of mathematics concerned with the properties of and relationships between points, lines, planes, and figures and with generalizations of these concepts. Eucli...

dimension, in mathematics

(Encyclopedia)dimension, in mathematics, number of parameters or coordinates required locally to describe points in a mathematical object (usually geometric in character). For example, the space we inhabit is three...

Cassini

(Encyclopedia)Cassini käs-sēˈnē [key], name of a family of Italian-French astronomers, four generations of whom were directors of the Paris Observatory. Gian Domenico Cassini, 1625–1712, was born in Italy and...

Berners-Lee, Tim

(Encyclopedia)Berners-Lee, Tim (Sir Timothy John Berners-Lee), 1955–, British computer scientist, b. London, grad. The Queen's College, Oxford (B.A. 1976). He joined CERN, near Geneva, Switzerland, as a consultan...

Strategic Air Command

(Encyclopedia)Strategic Air Command (SAC), former command of the U.S. air force (see Air Force, United States Department of the) charged with organizing, training, equipping, administering, and preparing strategic ...

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