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shell money

(Encyclopedia)shell money, medium of exchange consisting of shells, the most widely distributed type of ancient currency. Shells are particularly useful as money because they may be strung in long strips of proport...

President's Park

(Encyclopedia)President's Park, c.82 acres (33 hectares), Washington, D.C. A unit of the National Park system, it includes the White House, the official residence of the president of the United States; Lafayette Sq...

capacitance

(Encyclopedia)capacitance, in electricity, capability of a body, system, circuit, or device for storing electric charge. Capacitance is expressed as the ratio of stored charge in coulombs to the impressed potential...

Pierre

(Encyclopedia)Pierre pēr [key], city (1990 pop. 12,906), state capital (since 1889) and seat of Hughes co., central S.Dak., on the east bank of the Missouri River, opposite Fort Pierre; inc. 1883. Its economy is c...

dwarf planet

(Encyclopedia)dwarf planet, a nonluminous body of rock or gas that orbits the sun and has a rounded shape due to its gravity. Unlike a planet, a dwarf planet is not capable of clearing its orbit of smaller objects ...

Copernican system

(Encyclopedia)Copernican system, first modern European theory of planetary motion that was heliocentric, i.e., that placed the sun motionless at the center of the solar system with all the planets, including the ea...

altitude

(Encyclopedia)altitude, vertical distance of an object above some datum plane, such as mean sea level or a reference point on the earth's surface. It is usually measured by the reduction in atmospheric pressure wit...

Newcomb, Simon

(Encyclopedia)Newcomb, Simon no͞oˈkəm, nyo͞oˈ– [key], 1835–1909, American astronomer, b. Nova Scotia, grad. Lawrence Scientific School, Harvard, 1858. Living in the United States from 1853, he was appointe...

Nazca

(Encyclopedia)Nazca or Nasca both: näsˈkä [key], ancient culture of the Nazca, Pisco, and Ica river valleys on the desert coast of S Peru. Flourishing during the first millennium a.d., the Nazca culture seems to...

Lovell, Sir Bernard

(Encyclopedia)Lovell, Sir Bernard (Sir Alfred Charles Bernard Lovell), 1913–2012, English radio astronomer, b. Oldland Common, Gloucestershire, England, Ph.D. Univ. of Bristol, 1936. He was a member of the cosmic...