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Kantrowitz, Adrian

(Encyclopedia)Kantrowitz, Adrian kănˈtrəwĭtsˌ [key], 1918–2008, American surgeon, b. New York City, grad. New York Univ. (1940). The son of a physician, Kantrowitz received his M.D. from the Long Island Coll...

Cambridge Platonists

(Encyclopedia)Cambridge Platonists, group of English philosophers, centered at Cambridge in the latter half of the 17th cent. In reaction to the mechanical philosophy of Thomas Hobbes this school revived certain Pl...

suspension, in vehicles

(Encyclopedia)suspension, in automobiles, system of springs used to suspend the frame, body, engine, and power train above the wheels. Its principal purpose is to lessen the jarring of the automobile that is caused...

air conditioning

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Cross section of air conditioning unit. air conditioning, mechanical process for controlling the humidity, temperature, cleanliness, and circulation of air in buildings and rooms. Indoor air i...

greyhound

(Encyclopedia)greyhound, breed of tall, swift, sight hound developed nearly 5,000 years ago in Egypt. It stands about 26 in. (66 cm) high at the shoulder and weighs about 65 lb (29.5 kg). Its short, smooth coat may...

Bose-Einstein statistics

(Encyclopedia)Bose-Einstein statistics, class of statistics that applies to elementary particles called bosons, which include the photon, pion, and the W and Z particles. Bosons have integral values of the quantum ...

Stoddart, James Fraser

(Encyclopedia)Stoddart, James Fraser, 1942–, British chemist, Ph.D. Univ. of Edinburgh, 1966. He began his career at Sheffield Univ., England, in 1970, then moved to Birmingham Univ., England, in 1990, the Univ. ...

rheostat

(Encyclopedia)rheostat rēˈəstătˌ [key], device whose resistance to electric current depends on the position of some mechanical element or control in the device. Typically a rheostat consists of a resistance el...

coal mining

(Encyclopedia)coal mining, physical extraction of coal resources to yield coal; also, the business of exploring for, developing, mining, and transporting coal in any form. Coal has been historically important indus...

solid-state physics

(Encyclopedia)solid-state physics, study of the properties of bulk matter rather than those of the individual particles that compose it. Solid-state physics is concerned with the properties exhibited by atoms and m...