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Beattie, Ann

(Encyclopedia)Beattie, Ann bēˈtē, bāˈ– [key], 1947–, American writer, b. Washington, D.C. She gained attention in the early 1970s with short stories in the New Yorker; the 48 stories she published (1974–...

vibration

(Encyclopedia)vibration, in physics, commonly an oscillatory motion—a movement first in one direction and then back again in the opposite direction. It is exhibited, for example, by a swinging pendulum, by the pr...

black fly

(Encyclopedia)black fly, name for any of the flies of the family Simuliidae. The black fly is about 1⁄8 in. (3.2 mm) long and has large eyes, short legs, a stout, humped back, broad gauzy wings, and piercing-suck...

Urban II

(Encyclopedia)Urban II, c.1042–1099, pope (1088–99), a Frenchman named Odo (or Eudes) of Lagery; successor of Victor III. He studied at Reims and became a monk at Cluny. He went to Rome, as prior of Cluny, earl...

liquid

(Encyclopedia)liquid, one of the three commonly recognized states in which matter occurs, i.e., that state, as distinguished from solid and gas, in which a substance has a definite volume but no definite shape. T...

impressionism, in painting

(Encyclopedia)impressionism, in painting, late-19th-century French school that was generally characterized by the attempt to depict transitory visual impressions, often painted directly from nature, and by the use ...

recycling

(Encyclopedia)recycling, the process of recovering and reusing waste products—from household use, manufacturing, agriculture, and business—and thereby reducing their burden on the environment. During World War ...

rock

(Encyclopedia)rock, aggregation of solid matter composed of one or more of the minerals forming the earth's crust. The scientific study of rocks is called petrology. Rocks are commonly divided, according to their o...

still life

(Encyclopedia)still life, a pictorial representation of inanimate objects. The term derives from the 17th-century Dutch still-leven, meaning a motionless natural object or objects. In East Asia still-life subj...

atom

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Bohr-Rutherford atom CE5 Probability distribution of the electron in the hydrogen atom: A. Ground state B. Highly excited state atom [Gr.,=uncuttable (indivisible)], basic unit of matte...