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Shepard, Alan Bartlett, Jr.

(Encyclopedia)Shepard, Alan Bartlett, Jr., 1923–98, American astronaut, b. East Derry, N.H., grad. Annapolis, 1944. He served on a destroyer during World War II and later had extensive experience as a test pilot....

samarium

(Encyclopedia)samarium səmârˈēəm [key], metallic chemical element; symbol Sm; at. no. 62; at. wt. 150.36; m.p. 1,072℃; b.p. 1,791℃; sp. gr. 7.54 at 20℃; valence +2 or +3. Samarium is a lustrous silver-wh...

manganese

(Encyclopedia)manganese măngˈgənēs, mănˈ– [key] [Lat.,=magnet], metallic chemical element; symbol Mn; at. no. 25; at. wt. 54.93805; m.p. about 1,244℃; b.p. about 1,962℃; sp. gr. 7.2 to 7.45, depending o...

inferior planet

(Encyclopedia)inferior planet, planet whose orbit lies inside that of the earth. There are two inferior planets, Mercury and Venus. They always seem to be close to the sun in the sky; the greatest elongation of Mer...

Bouaké

(Encyclopedia)Bouaké or Bwake bwäˈkā, bwäkāˈ [key], town, central Côte d'Ivoire. It is a transp...

boron

(Encyclopedia)boron bōrˈŏn [key] [New Gr. from borax], chemical element; symbol B; at. no. 5; interval in which at. wt. ranges 10.806–10.821; m.p. about 2,300℃; sublimation point about 2,550℃; sp. gr. 2.3 ...

silicon

(Encyclopedia)silicon, nonmetallic chemical element; symbol Si; at. no. 14; interval in which at. wt. ranges 28.084–28.086; m.p. 1,410℃; b.p. 2,355℃; sp. gr. 2.33 at 25℃; valence usually +4. Silicon is the ...

synthetic elements

(Encyclopedia)synthetic elements, in chemistry, radioactive elements that were not discovered occurring in nature but as artificially produced isotopes. They are technetium (at. no. 43), which was the first element...

thermometer

(Encyclopedia)thermometer, instrument for measuring temperature. Galileo and Sanctorius devised thermometers consisting essentially of a bulb with a tubular projection, the open end of which was immersed in a liqui...

formula, in chemistry

(Encyclopedia)formula, in chemistry, an expression showing the chemical composition of a compound. Formulas of compounds are used in writing the equations (see chemical equations) that represent chemical reactions....