Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

diving, springboard and platform

(Encyclopedia)diving, springboard and platform, sport of entering the water from a raised position, often while executing tumbles, twists, and other acrobatic maneuvers. In most dives the upper part of the body ent...

skin diving

(Encyclopedia)skin diving, act of swimming freely underwater. It is done with the aid of a face mask, swimming fins for the feet, and either a snorkel breathing tube or scuba [acronym for self-contained underwater ...

diving beetle

(Encyclopedia)diving beetle: see water beetle. ...

platform tennis

(Encyclopedia)platform tennis, version of lawn tennis played on an elevated wooden or aluminum court that is one fourth the size of a standard court, usually by doubles teams. Unlike lawn tennis, platform tennis al...

Louganis, Greg E.

(Encyclopedia)Louganis, Greg E. lo͞ogāˈnĭs [key], 1960–, American diver, b. San Diego, Calif. He won gold medals in springboard diving and platform diving in the 1984 Olympics and repeated in both categories ...

Saybrook Platform

(Encyclopedia)Saybrook Platform: see Cambridge Platform. ...

diving, deep-sea

(Encyclopedia)diving, deep-sea, act of descending into deep water, generally with some form of breathing apparatus, and remaining there for an extended period. It is used in fishing for sponges, coral, and pearls; ...

Cambridge Platform

(Encyclopedia)Cambridge Platform, declaration of principles of church government and discipline, forming in fact a constitution of the Congregational churches. It was adopted (1648) by a church synod at Cambridge, ...

Russian Platform

(Encyclopedia)Russian Platform: see Baltic Shield. ...

Siberian Platform

(Encyclopedia)Siberian Platform or Angara Shield, large, geologically stable area of Precambrian rocks, N Asia, comprising much of Siberia, Russia. It is bounded, in general, on the west by the Yenisei River, on th...