Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

life preserver

(Encyclopedia)life preserver, a personal flotation device (PFD) intended to keep the wearer afloat, particularly in case of shipwreck. A Type I PFD will keep even unconscious people afloat in a face–up position; ...

bobsledding

(Encyclopedia)bobsledding, winter sport in which a bobsled—a partially enclosed vehicle with steerable sledlike runners, accommodating two or four persons—hurtles down a course of iced, steeply banked, twisting...

baud

(Encyclopedia)baud bôd, bōd [key], measure of the rate at which signals are transmitted over a telecommunications link. It is equivalent to the number of elements or pulses transmitted in one second, e.g., in com...

Constitution Island

(Encyclopedia)Constitution Island, in the Hudson River opposite West Point, SE N.Y.; part of the U.S. Military Academy. The ruins of Fort Constitution, built in 1775, are there. During the American Revolution, a ch...

Chelyuskin, Cape

(Encyclopedia)Chelyuskin, Cape chĭlyo͞oˈskĭn [key], northernmost point (lat. 77°43′N) of Asia, Krasnoyarsk Territory, N central Siberian Russia. It is named after the Russian navigator who discovered it in 1...

Jabal ad Duruz

(Encyclopedia)Jabal ad Duruz jäbälˈ äd do͝oro͝ozˈ [key], mountain, c.5,900 ft (1,800 m), S Syria, highest point of the Druze Mts. ...

Hkakabo Razi

(Encyclopedia)Hkakabo Razi käˈkäbō räˈzē [key], peak, 19,296 ft (5,881 m) high, N Myanmar, on an outlier of the Himalayan system. It is the highest point in Myanmar. ...

Kerinci, Mount

(Encyclopedia)Kerinci, Mount, or Mount Kerintji both: kərĭnˈchē [key], peak, 12,467 ft (3,800 m) high, in the Pegunungan Barisan, W central Sumatra, Indonesia. It is Sumatra's highest point. ...

Waianae Mountains

(Encyclopedia)Waianae Mountains wīänäˈā [key], volcanic range, along SW side of Oahu island, Hawaii. It rises to Mt. Kaala (4,025 ft/1,227 m), the highest point on the island. ...

Shibata

(Encyclopedia)Shibata shĭbäˈtä [key], city (1990 pop. 78,170), Niigata prefecture, W central Honshu, Japan, on the Kaji River. It is a distribution point for rice and a center for iron, steel, and chemical indu...