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Townsend, Francis Everett

(Encyclopedia)Townsend, Francis Everett tounˈzənd [key], 1867–1960, American reformer, leader of an old-age pension movement, b. Fairbury, Ill., grad. Univ. of Nebraska medical school, 1903. He practiced medici...

distortion

(Encyclopedia)distortion, in electronics, undesired change in an electric signal waveform as it passes from the input to the output of some system or device. In an audio system, distortion results in poor reproduct...

metronome

(Encyclopedia)metronome mĕˈtrənōmˌ [key], in music, originally pyramid-shaped clockwork mechanism to indicate the exact tempo in which a work is to be performed. It has a double pendulum whose pace can be alte...

Stenmark, Ingemar

(Encyclopedia)Stenmark, Ingemar, 1956–, Swedish skier. The “Silent Swede” learned to ski at an early age and in 16 years of competition won a record 86 World Cup races and two gold medals at the 1980 Olympics...

Benaiah

(Encyclopedia)Benaiah bēnāˈyə [key], in the Bible. 1 One of David's warriors, faithful in David's old age to Solomon. 2 Warrior under David. 3 Levite of the reign of Hezekiah. 4 Father of Pelatiah. ...

transistor

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Simple transistor circuit transistor, three-terminal, solid-state electronic device used for amplification and switching. It is the solid-state analog to the triode electron tube; the transist...

Vladikavkaz

(Encyclopedia)Vladikavkaz vlədyēˈkävkäz [key], city (1989 pop. 300,000), capital of North Ossetia-Alania, SE European Russia, on the Terek River and at the northern foot of the Caucasus. It is the starting poi...

Popper-Lynkeus, Josef

(Encyclopedia)Popper-Lynkeus, Josef yōˈzĕf pôpˈər-lünˈkāo͝os [key], 1838–1921, Austrian philosopher, social reformer, and inventor. His unpopular views kept him from any academic position, so he worked ...

autism

(Encyclopedia)autism ôˈtĭzəm [key], developmental disability resulting from a neurological disorder that affects the normal functioning of the brain. It is characterized by the abnormal development of communica...

geologic timescale

(Encyclopedia)CE5 geologic timescale, a chronological scale of earth's history used to measure the relative or absolute age of any part of geologic time. Of the numerous timescales, the most common is based on g...