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Olympiad

(Encyclopedia)Olympiad, unit of a chronological era of ancient Greece, a four-year period, each one beginning with the Olympic games. Timaeus (c.356–c.260 b.c.) of Sicily was the first to use, as a check on chron...

Yakima, river, United States

(Encyclopedia)Yakima yăkˈəmô, –mə [key], river, 203 mi (327 km) long, rising in the Cascade Range, central Wash., and flowing SE past Yakima to the Columbia River near Kennewick. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamati...

Sporades

(Encyclopedia)Sporades spôrˈədēz, spŏrˈ– [key], islands, E and SE Greece, in the Aegean Sea. They have been grouped variously at different times. The Northern Sporades are generally understood to include Sk...

Teton , rivers, United States

(Encyclopedia)Teton tētŏnˈ [key]. 1 River, 143 mi (230 km) long, rising in several branches in the Rocky Mts., NW Mont., and flowing E to the Marias River. Bynum Reservoir, on a tributary, is a unit in the irrig...

Oroville Dam

(Encyclopedia)Oroville Dam, 770 ft (235 m) high and 7,600 ft (2,317 m) long, on the Feather River, N Calif., near the city of Oroville. The highest dam in the United States and the largest unit of the Feather River...

vernier

(Encyclopedia)vernier vûrˈnēr [key], auxiliary scale, either straight or an arc of a circle, designed to slide along a fixed scale. Its unit divisions, usually smaller than those on the fixed scale, permit a far...

turbine

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Types of turbines turbine, rotary engine that uses a continuous stream of fluid (gas or liquid) to turn a shaft that can drive machinery. A water, or hydraulic, turbine is used to drive electr...

astronomy

(Encyclopedia)astronomy, branch of science that studies the motions and natures of celestial bodies, such as planets, stars, and galaxies; more generally, the study of matter and energy in the universe at large. ...

charter

(Encyclopedia)charter, document granting certain rights, powers, or functions. It may be issued by the sovereign body of a state to a local governing body, university, or other corporation or by the constituted aut...

epoch

(Encyclopedia)epoch, unit of geologic time that is a subdivision of a period. The Pleistocene and Holocene epochs, for example, are divisions of the Quaternary period. Epoch is also used to describe a short length ...