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mks system

(Encyclopedia)mks system, system of units of measurement based on the metric system and having the meter of length, the kilogram of mass, and the second of time as its fundamental units. Other mks units include the...

Clarke, Samuel

(Encyclopedia)Clarke, Samuel, 1675–1729, English philosopher and divine. His chief interest was rational theology, and, although a critic of the deists, he was in sympathy with some of their ideas. He supported t...

Boscovich, Ruggiero Giuseppe

(Encyclopedia)Boscovich, Ruggiero Giuseppe ro͞od-jāˈrō jo͞ozĕpˈpā bôsˈkōvēch [key], 1711–87, Italian mathematician, astronomer, and physicist. He became a Jesuit and taught at Rome, Pavia, and Milan. ...

Royal Society

(Encyclopedia)Royal Society, oldest scientific organization in Great Britain and one of the oldest in Europe. It was founded in 1660 by a group of learned men in London who met to promote scientific discussion, par...

Phenix City

(Encyclopedia)Phenix City fēˈnĭks [key], city (1990 pop. 25,312), a seat of Russell co., E Ala., on the Chattahoochee River opposite Columbus, Ga., in a cotton area; inc. 1883. Textiles are manufactured there. I...

Halley, Edmond

(Encyclopedia)Halley, Edmond hălˈē, hôˈlē [key], 1656–1742, English astronomer and mathematician. He is particularly noted as the first astronomer to predict the return of a comet and the first to point out...

centripetal force and centrifugal force

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Centripetal and centrifugal forces: When a ball is swung in a circle at the end of a string, centripetal and centrifugal forces act as shown above. centripetal force and centrifugal force, act...

translation

(Encyclopedia)translation [Lat.,=carrying across], the rendering of a text into another language. Applied to literature, the term connotes the art of recomposing a work in another language without losing its origin...

Watergate affair

(Encyclopedia)Watergate affair, in U.S. history, series of scandals involving the administration of President Richard M. Nixon; more specifically, the burglarizing of the Democratic party national headquarters in t...

Brus, Louis

(Encyclopedia)Louis Brus, 1943– , b. Cleveland, Ohio, American chemist, studied at Rice University (B.S., 1965) and Columbia University (Ph.D., 1969). He is Samuel ...