Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

North Atlantic Treaty Organization

(Encyclopedia)North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), established under the North Atlantic Treaty (Apr. 4, 1949) by Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, N...

ammonia

(Encyclopedia)ammonia, chemical compound, NH3, colorless gas that is about one half as dense as air at ordinary temperatures and pressures. It has a characteristic pungent, penetrating odor. Ammonia forms a minute ...

fog

(Encyclopedia)fog, aggregation of water droplets or ice crystals immediately above the surface of the earth (i.e., a cloud near the ground). A light or thin fog is usually called a mist. Fog may occur when the mois...

Columbus

(Encyclopedia)Columbus. 1 City (2020 pop. 206,922), seat of Muscogee co., W Ga., at the head of navigation on the Chattahoochee River; settled and inc. 1828 on the ...

acids and bases

(Encyclopedia)acids and bases, two related classes of chemicals; the members of each class have a number of common properties when dissolved in a solvent, usually water. Another theory that provides a very broad ...

logarithm

(Encyclopedia)logarithm lŏgˈərĭᵺəm [key] [Gr.,=relation number], number associated with a positive number, being the power to which a third number, called the base, must be raised in order to obtain the give...

Carrier, Willis Haviland

(Encyclopedia)Carrier, Willis Haviland, 1876–1950, American engineer who played a key role in inventing air conditioning, b. Angola, N.Y., grad. Cornell (M.E. 1901). Working for the Buffalo Forge Co. (1901–14),...

dew

(Encyclopedia)dew, thin film of water that has condensed on the surface of objects near the ground. Dew forms when radiational cooling of these objects during the nighttime hours also cools the shallow layer of ove...

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...

Browse by Subject