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interference

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Constructive interference: Two crests or two troughs meet and combine (A, B, C). Destructive interference: A crest and a trough meet and cancel each other (D, E, F). interference, in physics, ...

Straus, Oscar

(Encyclopedia)Straus, Oscar ôsˈkär shtrous [key], 1870–1954, Austrian composer; studied in Vienna and with Max Bruch in Berlin. After a brief career as conductor he turned entirely to composition. His operas a...

Mach's principle

(Encyclopedia)Mach's principle mäks [key] [for E. Mach], assertion that the inertial effects of mass are not innate in a body, but arise from its relation to the totality of all other masses, i.e., to the universe...

looper

(Encyclopedia)looper, name for caterpillars that move with a looping motion, including the inchworm and the cabbage looper. ...

Lenz's law

(Encyclopedia)Lenz's law, physical law, discovered by the German scientist H. F. E. Lenz in 1834, that states that the electromotive force (emf) induced in a conductor moving perpendicular to a magnetic field tends...

Osborne, Dorothy

(Encyclopedia)Osborne, Dorothy ŏzˈbərn [key], later Lady Temple, 1627–95, English letter writer. The daughter of a royalist, she became engaged to Sir William Temple against the wishes of her family. Her lette...

Krusenstjerna, Agnes von

(Encyclopedia)Krusenstjerna, Agnes von ängˈnās vôn kro͞osĕnshĕrˈnä [key], 1894–1940, Swedish novelist. Krusenstjerna's works reflect the aristocratic and emotionally disturbed background from which she c...

Kainan

(Encyclopedia)Kainan kīnäNˈ [key], city (1990 pop. 48,596), Wakayama prefecture, S Honshu, Japan, on the Kii Sound. It is a port, railway junction, and industrial center with lacquer ware, textile, and petrochem...

Santa Rosa Island

(Encyclopedia)Santa Rosa Island, narrow barrier beach between the Gulf of Mexico and Santa Rosa Sound, NW Fla. in the vicinity of Pensacola, extending c.50 mi (80 km) parallel to the coast. It is the site of Fort P...

Democritus

(Encyclopedia)Democritus dĭmŏkˈrĭtəs [key], c.460–c.370 b.c., Greek philosopher of Abdera; pupil of Leucippus. His theory of the nature of the physical world was the most radical and scientific attempted up ...