Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Cherenkov radiation

(Encyclopedia)Cherenkov radiation or Cerenkov radiation [for P. A. Cherenkov], light emitted by a transparent medium when charged particles pass through it at a speed greater than the speed of light in the medium. ...

Roach, Hal

(Encyclopedia)Roach, Hal (Harold Eugene Roach, Sr.), 1892–1992, American move producer and director, b. Elmira, N.Y. He entered (1912) the motion-picture industry as an extra, and by 1914 had founded a production...

Reynolds number

(Encyclopedia)Reynolds number [for Osborne Reynolds], dimensionless quantity associated with the smoothness of flow of a fluid. It is an important quantity used in aerodynamics and hydraulics. At low velocities flu...

Hawks, Howard

(Encyclopedia)Hawks, Howard (Howard Winchester Hawks), 1896–1977, American film director, b. Goshen, Ind. Although not as well known as such contemporaries as John Ford and Alfred Hitchcock, he has been criticall...

jai alai

(Encyclopedia)jai alai hīˈlīˌ [key], handball-like game of Spanish Basque origin. It is also called pelota. Jai alai is played on a three-walled court with a hard rubber ball that must be hurled against the fro...

silkworm

(Encyclopedia)silkworm, name for the larva of various species of moths, indigenous to Asia and Africa but now domesticated and raised for silk production throughout most of the temperate zone. The culture of silkwo...

Kelly, Gene

(Encyclopedia)Kelly, Gene, 1912–96, American dancer, choreographer, movie actor, and director, b. Pittsburgh as Eugene Curran Kelly. Kelly started dancing on Broadway in 1938 and first gained fame in the title ro...

Rogers, Will

(Encyclopedia)Rogers, Will (William Penn Adair Rogers), 1879–1935, American humorist, b. Oolagah, Indian Territory (now in Oklahoma). In his youth he worked as a cowboy in Oklahoma, and after traveling over the w...

Cunningham, Merce

(Encyclopedia)Cunningham, Merce (Mercier Philip Cunningham), 1919–2009, American modern dancer and choreographer, b. Centralia, Wash. Cunningham studied modern dance with Martha Graham and ballet at Balanchine's ...

space-time

(Encyclopedia)space-time, central concept in the theory of relativity that replaces the earlier concepts of space and time as separate absolute entities. In relativity one cannot uniquely distinguish space and time...