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scalar

(Encyclopedia)scalar, quantity or number possessing only sign and magnitude, e.g., the real numbers (see number), in contrast to vectors and tensors; scalars obey the rules of elementary algebra. Many physical quan...

Oroville Dam

(Encyclopedia)Oroville Dam, 770 ft (235 m) high and 7,600 ft (2,317 m) long, on the Feather River, N Calif., near the city of Oroville. The highest dam in the United States and the largest unit of the Feather River...

particle accelerator

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Linear accelerator (LINAC) CE5 Cyclotron: As the charged particles move faster, they spiral out to the edge of the Ds. particle accelerator, apparatus used in nuclear physics to produce bea...

Angoulême

(Encyclopedia)Angoulême äNgo͞olĕmˈ [key], city, capital of Charente dept., W France, on the Charente River. A former river port, it is now a major road and rail center. Its paper i...

Heaviside, Oliver

(Encyclopedia)Heaviside, Oliver hĕvˈēsīdˌ [key], 1850–1925, English physicist. He did valuable work in telephony and in the theory of electrical conduction in cables and other areas of electric theory. He su...

Athlone

(Encyclopedia)Athlone ăthlōnˈ [key], town, Co. Westmeath, central Republic of Ireland, on the Shannon River. It is an important road and rail junction and a busy inland port, reached...

Ohm, Georg Simon

(Encyclopedia)Ohm, Georg Simon gāˈôrkh zēˈmôn ōm [key], 1787–1854, German physicist. He was professor at Munich from 1852. His study of electric current led to his formulation of the law now known as Ohm's...

Wilson, Charles Erwin

(Encyclopedia)Wilson, Charles Erwin, 1890–1961, American industrialist and cabinet officer, b. Minerva, Ohio. He was an electrical engineer with Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company from 1909 to 1919 a...

vacuum cleaner

(Encyclopedia)vacuum cleaner, mechanical device using a draft of air to remove dust, loose dirt, or other particulate matter from dry surfaces. It is especially useful on highly textured surfaces, such as carpets a...

barrel organ

(Encyclopedia)barrel organ, mechanical musical instrument requiring nothing but the regular rotary motion of a handle to keep it going. It probably originated at the beginning of the 18th cent., and was once used e...