Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Fillon, François Charles Amand

(Encyclopedia)Fillon, François Charles Amand fräNswäˈ shärl ämäNˈ fēyôNˈ [key], 1954–, French political leader, b. Le Mans. A conservative, he served as an assembly deputy (1981–2002, 2007–17) and ...

unemployment insurance

(Encyclopedia)unemployment insurance, insurance against loss of wages during the time that an able-bodied worker is involuntarily unemployed. The goal of such insurance is to provide a minimal livelihood to unemplo...

Soyer

(Encyclopedia)Soyer, three brothers, American painters, emigrated with their family from Russia in 1912. Two were twins, Raphael Soyer, 1899–1987, and Moses Soyer, 1899–1974, b. Borisoglebsk. They settled in Ne...

Disarmament Conference

(Encyclopedia)Disarmament Conference, 1932–37, meeting for the discussion of general disarmament. The first systematic efforts to limit armaments on an international scale, in either a quantitative or a qualitati...

Wood, Leonard

(Encyclopedia)Wood, Leonard, 1860–1927, American general and administrator, b. Winchester, N.H. After practicing medicine briefly in Boston, he entered the army in 1885 and was made an assistant surgeon; in 1891 ...

micrometer

(Encyclopedia)micrometer mīkrŏmˈətər, mīˈkrōmēˌtər [key]. 1 Instrument used for measuring extremely small distances. Typical examples are devices used in astronomical telescopes to measure the apparent d...

Mieris

(Encyclopedia)Mieris mēˈrĭs [key], family of Dutch genre and portrait painters of Leiden. Frans van Mieris, 1635–81, the most important, was the son of a goldsmith and pupil of Gerard Dou. His tiny, meticulous...

Ghez, Andrea Mia

(Encyclopedia)Ghez, Andrea Mia, 1965–, American astrophysicist, b. New York City, Ph.D. California Institute of Technology, 1992. She has been on the faculty at the Univ. of California, Los Angeles, since 1994. G...

foot-pound

(Encyclopedia)foot-pound, abbr. ft-lb, unit of work or energy in the customary English gravitational system; it is the work done or energy expended by a force of 1 pound acting through a distance of 1 foot. It is e...

escape velocity

(Encyclopedia)escape velocity, the velocity a body must be given in order to escape the gravitational hold of some other larger body, e.g., the earth, moon, or sun. A body given less than the escape velocity will f...