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velocity

(Encyclopedia)velocity, change in displacement with respect to time. Displacement is the vector counterpart of distance, having both magnitude and direction. Velocity is therefore also a vector quantity. The magnit...

Walpole, Sir Spencer

(Encyclopedia)Walpole, Sir Spencer, 1839–1907, English historian. He held a number of minor public offices and served as private secretary in the home office to his father, Sir Spencer Horatio Walpole, whose biog...

Spencer, Anna Garlin

(Encyclopedia)Spencer, Anna Garlin, 1851–1931, American educator, feminist, and Unitarian minister, b. Attleboro, Mass. She married the Rev. William H. Spencer in 1878. She was a leader in the woman-suffrage and ...

Tourgée, Albion Winegar

(Encyclopedia)Tourgée, Albion Winegar to͝orzhāˈ [key], 1838–1905, American author and lawyer, b. Williamsfield, Ohio, studied at the Univ. of Rochester. After serving in the Union army he was for a few years ...

relief

(Encyclopedia)relief, in sculpture, three-dimensional projection from a flat background. In alto-relievo, or high relief, the protrusion is great; basso-relievo, or bas-relief, protrudes only slightly; and mezzo-re...

Robert of Gloucester

(Encyclopedia)Robert of Gloucester glŏsˈtər [key], fl. 1260–1300, English chronicler. Possibly a monk of Gloucester, he is known only from the vernacular metrical chronicle of English history that bears his na...

Czech language

(Encyclopedia)Czech language chĕk [key], in the past sometimes also called Bohemian, member of the West Slavic group of the Slavic subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages (see Slavic languages). The off...

Norman Conquest

(Encyclopedia)Norman Conquest, period in English history following the defeat (1066) of King Harold of England by William, duke of Normandy, who became William I of England. The conquest was formerly thought to hav...

Dibon

(Encyclopedia)Dibon dīˈbŏn [key] or Dibon-gad, ancient city, E of the Dead Sea, now a ruin called Dhiban. The Moabite stone was found there, and important remains from the Moabite period have been excavated. Ref...

Alcántara

(Encyclopedia)Alcántara älkänˈtärä [key], town, Cáceres prov., W Spain, in Extremadura, near the Tagus River. A fine Roman bridge (Arabic al-kantara) built (a.d. 105–106) in ...