Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Goering, Hermann Wilhelm

(Encyclopedia)Goering or Göring, Hermann Wilhelm both: hĕrˈmän vĭlˈhĕlm göˈrĭng [key], 1893–1946, German National Socialist leader. In World War I he was a hero of the German air force. An early member ...

zoning

(Encyclopedia)zoning, legislative regulations by which a municipal government seeks to control the use of buildings and land within the municipality. It has become, in the United States, a widespread method of cont...

moment

(Encyclopedia)moment, in physics and engineering, term designating the product of a quantity and a distance (or some power of the distance) to some point associated with that quantity. The most theoretically useful...

Amherst College

(Encyclopedia)Amherst College, at Amherst, Mass.; founded 1821 as a college for men, coeducational since 1975. A liberal arts institution, Amherst maintains a cooperative program with Smith College, Mount Holyoke C...

Bristol, University of

(Encyclopedia)Bristol, University of, at Bristol, England; established 1876 as University College, Bristol. In 1909 it gained university status. It has faculties of arts, science, medicine, engineering, law, and so...

Reed College

(Encyclopedia)Reed College, at Portland, Oreg.; coeducational; inc. 1908, opened 1911 through a bequest from Mr. and Mrs. Simeon G. Reed. Reed is noted for its program of natural sciences and for its system of tuto...

artificial intelligence

(Encyclopedia)artificial intelligence (AI), the use of computers to model the behavioral aspects of human reasoning and learning. Research in AI is concentrated in some half-dozen areas. In problem solving, one mus...

Wisconsin, University of

(Encyclopedia)Wisconsin, University of, main campus at Madison; land-grant and state supported; coeducational; chartered 1848, opened 1849. Its history was disturbed by storms over the policies of Glenn Frank and o...

deliquescence

(Encyclopedia)deliquescence dĕlˌəkwĕsˈəns [key], conversion of a solid substance into a liquid as a result of absorption of water vapor from the air. Since impurities in a solid lower its melting point, the a...

Hampshire College

(Encyclopedia)Hampshire College, at Amherst, Mass.; coeducational; opened 1970. The emphasis of the academic program is on the individual needs of the students. Hampshire participates in a cooperative arrangement w...