Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

440 results found

statistics

(Encyclopedia)statistics, science of collecting and classifying a group of facts according to their relative number and determining certain values that represent characteristics of the group. The most familiar stat...

Compton effect

(Encyclopedia)Compton effect [for A. H. Compton], increase in the wavelengths of X rays and gamma rays when they collide with and are scattered from loosely bound electrons in matter. This effect provides strong ve...

Cronin, James Watson

(Encyclopedia)Cronin, James Watson, 1931–2016, American nuclear physicist, b. Chicago, Ph.D. Univ. of Chicago, 1955. Cronin and co-researcher Val Logsdon Fitch were awarded the 1980 Nobel Prize in Physics for a 1...

Langmuir, Irving

(Encyclopedia)Langmuir, Irving lăngˈmyo͞or [key], 1881–1957, American chemist, b. Brooklyn, N.Y. Associated (1909–50) with the research laboratory of the General Electric Company, he introduced atomic-hydrog...

Pauli, Wolfgang

(Encyclopedia)Pauli, Wolfgang vôlfˈgäng pouˈlē [key], 1900–1958, Austro-American physicist, b. Vienna. He studied first with A. Sommerfeld at Munich and then with Niels Bohr at Copenhagen. After lecturing (1...

aerogel

(Encyclopedia)aerogel, any of a group of extremely light and porous solid materials; the lightest is less than four times as dense as dry air. Aerogels are produced from certain gels (see colloid) by heating the ge...

zodiacal light

(Encyclopedia)zodiacal light or zodiacal band, a faint band of light sometimes seen in the western sky just after sunset in the spring, extending up from the horizon at the point where the sun has just set, or in t...

stratification

(Encyclopedia)stratification (Lat.,=made in layers), layered structure formed by the deposition of sedimentary rocks. Changes between strata are interpreted as the result of fluctuations in the intensity and persis...

trachea

(Encyclopedia)trachea trāˈkēə [key] or windpipe, principal tube that carries air to and from the lungs. It is about 41⁄2 in. (11.4 cm) long and about 3⁄4 in. (1.9 cm) in diameter in the adult. It extends fr...

sandstorm

(Encyclopedia)sandstorm, strong dry wind blowing over the desert that raises and carries along clouds of sand or dust often so dense as to obscure the sun and reduce visibility almost to zero; also known as a dusts...