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pollution

(Encyclopedia)pollution, contamination of the environment as a result of human activities. The term pollution refers primarily to the fouling of air, water, and land by wastes (see air pollution; water pollution; s...

hurricane

(Encyclopedia)CE5 View into the eye of a hurricane showing the structure of the surrounding cloud wall hurricane, tropical cyclone in which winds attain speeds greater than 74 mi (119 km) per hr. Wind speeds gu...

Indian wars

(Encyclopedia)Indian wars, in American history, general term referring to the series of conflicts between Europeans and their descendants and the indigenous peoples of North America. After 1860 the wars continued...

Japanese literature

(Encyclopedia)Japanese literature, literary works produced in the language of the islands of Japan. See also Asian drama. The immense public demand for fiction in postwar Japan has been fed by the prolific o...

atom

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Bohr-Rutherford atom CE5 Probability distribution of the electron in the hydrogen atom: A. Ground state B. Highly excited state atom [Gr.,=uncuttable (indivisible)], basic unit of matte...

power, electric

(Encyclopedia)power, electric, energy dissipated in an electrical or electronic circuit or device per unit of time. The electrical energy supplied by a current to an appliance enables it to do work or provide some ...

computer

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Schematic diagram of a computer system: Data flow is indicated by solid lines; control signals are indicated by dashed lines. computer, device capable of performing a series of arithmetic or l...

Hawaii, state, United States

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Hawaii həwīˈē, häväˈē [key], 50th state of the United States, comprising a group of eight major islands and numerous islets in the central Pacific Ocean, c.2,100 mi (3,380 km) SW of San...

nucleus, in physics

(Encyclopedia)nucleus, in physics, the extremely dense central core of an atom. Following the discovery of radioactivity by A. H. Becquerel in 1896, Ernest Rutherford identified two types of radiation given off b...

elementary particles

(Encyclopedia)CE5 elementary particles, the most basic physical constituents of the universe. The first subatomic particle to be discovered was the electron, identified in 1897 by J. J. Thomson. After the...