Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

progression

(Encyclopedia)progression, in mathematics, sequence of quantities, called terms, in which the relationship between consecutive terms is the same. An arithmetic progression is a sequence in which each term is derive...

Galileo

(Encyclopedia)Galileo (Galileo Galilei) gălˌĭlēˈō; gälēlĕˈō gälēlĕˈē [key], 1564–1642, great Italian astronomer, mathematician, and physicist. By his persistent investigation of natural laws he la...

circle

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Circle circle, closed plane curve consisting of all points at a given distance from some fixed point, called the center. A circle is a conic section cut by a plane perpendicular to the axis of...

Peirce, Charles Sanders

(Encyclopedia)Peirce, Charles Sanders pûrs [key], 1839–1914, American philosopher and polymath, b. Cambridge, Mass., grad. Harvard, 1859; son of Benjamin Peirce. Except for occasional lectures he renounced the r...

Carroll, Lewis

(Encyclopedia)Carroll, Lewis, pseud. of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, 1832–98, English writer, mathematician, and amateur photographer, b. near Daresbury, Cheshire (now in Halton). Educated at Christ Church College, ...

DeLillo, Don

(Encyclopedia)DeLillo, Don dəlĭlˈō [key], 1936–, American novelist, b. New York City, grad. Fordham (1958). DeLillo is an accomplished prose stylist with a dark vision and mordant wit. In a steady stream of n...

Arabs

(Encyclopedia)Arabs, name originally applied to the Semitic peoples of the Arabian Peninsula. It now refers to those persons whose primary language is Arabic. They constitute most of the population of Algeria, Bahr...

Cambridge, University of

(Encyclopedia)Cambridge, University of, at Cambridge, England, one of the oldest English-language universities in the world. Originating in the early 12th cent. (legend places its origin even earlier than that of t...

numeration

(Encyclopedia)numeration, in mathematics, process of designating numbers according to any particular system; the number designations are in turn called numerals. In any place value system of numeration, a base numb...

Pythagoras

(Encyclopedia)Pythagoras pĭthăgˈərəs [key], c.582–c.507 b.c., pre-Socratic Greek philosopher, founder of the Pythagorean school. He migrated from his native Samos to Crotona and established a secret religiou...