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Oxford, city, England

(Encyclopedia)Oxford, city (1991 pop. 113,847) and district, county seat of Oxfordshire, S central England. In addition to its importance as the site of the Univ. of Oxford, the city has significant industries, inc...

commercial revolution

(Encyclopedia)commercial revolution, in European history, a fundamental change in the quantity and scope of commerce. In the later Middle Ages steady economic expansion had seen the rise of towns and the advent of ...

intuition

(Encyclopedia)intuition, in philosophy, way of knowing directly; immediate apprehension. The Greeks understood intuition to be the grasp of universal principles by the intelligence (nous), as distinguished from the...

fuel cell

(Encyclopedia)fuel cell, electric cell in which the chemical energy from the oxidation of a gas fuel is converted directly to electrical energy in a continuous process (see oxidation and reduction). The efficiency ...

number theory

(Encyclopedia)number theory, branch of mathematics concerned with the properties of the integers (the numbers 0, 1, −1, 2, −2, 3, −3, …). An important area in number theory is the analysis of prime number...

liability

(Encyclopedia)liability, in law, an obligation of one party to another, usually to compensate financially. It is a fundamental aspect of tort law, although liability may also arise from duties entered into by speci...

Wu, Chien-Shiung

(Encyclopedia)Wu, Chien-Shiung chyĕnˈ-shyo͝ongˈ wo͞o [key], 1912–97, Chinese-American physicist. She emigrated to the United States from China in 1936 and received a Ph.D. from the Univ. of California, Berke...

Adventists

(Encyclopedia)Adventists ădˈvĕnˌtĭsts [key] [advent, Lat.,=coming], members of a group of related religious denominations whose distinctive doctrine centers in their belief concerning the imminent second comin...

social contract

(Encyclopedia)social contract, agreement or covenant by which men are said to have abandoned the “state of nature” to form the society in which they now live. The theory of such a contract, first formulated by ...

value, in economics

(Encyclopedia)value, in economics, worth of a commodity in terms of other commodities, or in terms of money (see price). Value depends on both desirability and scarcity. The marginal theory of value, pioneered in t...