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falsetto

(Encyclopedia)falsetto fôlsĕtˈtō [key] [Ital.,=diminutive of false], high-pitched, unnatural tones above the normal register of the male voice, produced, according to some theories, by the vibration of only the...

margin requirement

(Encyclopedia)margin requirement, that part of a security's price that a buyer must pay for in cash. The balance of the price is met by the broker, who, in effect, is supplying a client with a loan. The smaller the...

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...

tunneling

(Encyclopedia)tunneling, quantum-mechanical effect by which a particle can penetrate a barrier into a region of space that would be forbidden by ordinary classical mechanics. Tunneling is a direct result of the wav...

Zeeman, Pieter

(Encyclopedia)Zeeman, Pieter pēˈtər zāˈmän [key], 1865–1943, Dutch physicist. He was professor of physics at the Univ. of Amsterdam from 1900 and director of the Physical Institute, Amsterdam, from 1908. In...

copernicium

(Encyclopedia)copernicium, artificially produced radioactive chemical element; symbol Cn; at. no. 112; mass number of most stable isotope 285; m.p., b.p., sp. gr., and valence unknown. Situated in Group 12 of the p...

nonmetal

(Encyclopedia)nonmetal, chemical element possessing certain properties by which it is distinguished from a metal. In general, this distinction is drawn on the basis that a nonmetal tends to accept electrons and for...

Thomson, Sir Joseph John

(Encyclopedia)Thomson, Sir Joseph John, 1856–1940, English physicist. From 1884 to 1919 he was Cavendish professor of experimental physics at Cambridge. J. J. Thomson was one of the founders of modern physics. Wi...

rare-earth metals

(Encyclopedia)rare-earth metals, in chemistry, group of metals including those of the lanthanide series and actinide series and usually yttrium, sometimes scandium and thorium, and rarely zirconium. Promethium, whi...

phlox

(Encyclopedia)phlox, common name for plants of the genus Phlox and for members of the Polemoniaceae, a family of herbs (and some shrubs and vines) found chiefly in the W United States. The family includes many popu...