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smart weapon

(Encyclopedia)smart weapon, missile or steerable bomb equipped with a laser, television, or satellite guidance system. Smart weapons, which use guidance systems that rely on external assistance, are distinguished f...

spraying

(Encyclopedia)spraying, horticultural practice of applying fungicides, insecticides, and herbicides, usually in solution, to plants. It may be accomplished by various means, e.g., the watering can, sprinkler attach...

cabildo

(Encyclopedia)cabildo käbēlˈdō [key], autonomous municipal council, the lowest administrative unit in the Spanish government. The institution was especially influential in Spanish America, where it was set up i...

calculus of variations

(Encyclopedia)calculus of variations, branch of mathematics concerned with finding maximum or minimum conditions for a relationship between two or more variables that depends not only on the variables themselves, a...

Caligula

(Encyclopedia)Caligula kəlĭgˈyo͝olə [key], a.d. 12–a.d. 41, Roman emperor (a.d. 37–a.d. 41); son of Germanicus Caesar and Agrippina the Elder. His real name was Caius Caesar Germanicus. As a small child, h...

black fly

(Encyclopedia)black fly, name for any of the flies of the family Simuliidae. The black fly is about 1⁄8 in. (3.2 mm) long and has large eyes, short legs, a stout, humped back, broad gauzy wings, and piercing-suck...

procedure

(Encyclopedia)procedure, in law, the rules that govern the obtaining of legal redress. This article deals only with civil procedure in Anglo-American law (for criminal procedure, see criminal law). Except for evide...

Germanic languages

(Encyclopedia)Germanic languages, subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages, spoken by about 470 million people in many parts of the world, but chiefly in Europe and the Western Hemisphere. All the modern ...

interference

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Constructive interference: Two crests or two troughs meet and combine (A, B, C). Destructive interference: A crest and a trough meet and cancel each other (D, E, F). interference, in physics, ...

Lyme disease

(Encyclopedia)Lyme disease or Lyme borreliosis, a nonfatal bacterial infection that causes symptoms ranging from fever and headache to a painful swelling of the joints. The first American case of Lyme's characteris...