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Atchafalaya

(Encyclopedia)Atchafalaya əchăˈfəlīˌə [key], navigable river, c.170 mi (270 km) long, S central La. The Atchafalaya meanders south, in a former channel of the Mississippi, to the Gulf of Mexico. A distributa...

Wirt, William Albert

(Encyclopedia)Wirt, William Albert, 1874–1938, American educator, b. Markle, Ind., grad. DePauw Univ. (Ph.B., 1898; Ph.D., 1916). In 1907 he became superintendent of schools in Gary, Ind., where he developed a pl...

heat capacity

(Encyclopedia)heat capacity or thermal capacity, ratio of the change in heat energy of a unit mass of a substance to the change in temperature of the substance; like its melting point or boiling point, the heat cap...

functionalism, in anthropology and sociology

(Encyclopedia)functionalism, in anthropology and sociology, a theory stressing the importance of interdependence among all behavior patterns and institutions within a social system to its long-term survival. It was...

balance of power

(Encyclopedia)balance of power, system of international relations in which nations seek to maintain an approximate equilibrium of power among many rivals, thus preventing the preponderance of any one state. Crucial...

bimetallism

(Encyclopedia)bimetallism bīmĕtˈəlĭzˌəm [key], in economic history, monetary system in which two commodities, usually gold and silver, were used as a standard and coined without limit at a ratio fixed by leg...

Montana, University of

(Encyclopedia)Montana, University of, at Missoula; state supported; coeducational; chartered 1893 as the Univ. of Montana. In 1913 when the Montana Univ. System was established, the school's name was changed to Sta...

Korzybski, Alfred Habdank

(Encyclopedia)Korzybski, Alfred Habdank kôrzĭbˈskē [key], 1879–1950, Polish-American linguist, b. Warsaw. In his system, which he called General Semantics, Korzybski aimed at a distinction between the word an...

kilogram

(Encyclopedia)kilogram, abbr. kg, fundamental unit of mass in the metric system, defined as the mass of the International Prototype Kilogram, a platinum-iridium cylinder kept at Sèvres, France, near Paris. Copies ...

Abreu, José Antonio

(Encyclopedia)Abreu, José Antonio, 1939–2018, Venezuelan music educator, economist, and politician. With degrees in petroleum economics and in organ and composition, Abreu was an economics professor at various V...