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automatic tuning control

(Encyclopedia)automatic tuning control (ATC), method or device to keep a radio or television receiver automatically tuned to a desired frequency or channel. Assuming that the receiver is at least approximately tune...

note, in music

(Encyclopedia)note, in musical notation, symbol placed on or between the lines of a staff to indicate the pitch and the relative duration of the tone to be produced by voice or instrument. The largest note value in...

Nordhaus, William Dabney

(Encyclopedia)Nordhaus, William Dabney, 1941–, American economist, b. Albuquerque, N.Mex., Ph.D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1967. A professor at Yale since 1967, he has focused on the economic effects...

Wineland, David Jeffrey

(Encyclopedia)Wineland, David Jeffrey, 1944–, American physicist, b. Milwaukee, Wis., Ph.D. Harvard, 1970. Wineland has been a researcher at the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the Univ. of Col...

sublimation, in chemistry

(Encyclopedia)sublimation sŭblĭmāˈshən [key], change of a solid substance directly to a vapor without first passing through the liquid state. The term is also used to describe the reverse process of the gas ch...

Tavernier, Jean Baptiste

(Encyclopedia)Tavernier, Jean Baptiste zhäN bätēstˈ tävĕrnyāˈ [key], 1605–89, French traveler in Asia. He undertook six voyages, which took him as far as the East Indies and Java, and he acquired a fortun...

Staudinger, Hermann

(Encyclopedia)Staudinger, Hermann, 1881–1965, German chemist, Ph.D. Univ. of Halle, 1903. Staudinger held faculty positions at the Univ. of Strasbourg (1903–7), the Technical Univ. of Karlsruhe (1907–12), and...

special effects

(Encyclopedia)special effects, in motion pictures, cinematographic techniques that create illusions in the audience's minds as well as the illusions created using these techniques. Some common examples are the use ...

Buchan, John, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir

(Encyclopedia)Buchan, John, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir bŭkˈən, twēdzˈmyo͞or [key], 1875–1940, Scottish author and statesman. Included among his works are a history (4 vol., 1921–22) of World War I; biographies ...

Cano, Alonso

(Encyclopedia)Cano, Alonso älōnˈsō käˈnō [key], 1601–67, Spanish baroque painter, sculptor, and architect. Cano studied under Pacheco and received painting and architecture commissions from King Philip IV....