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causality

(Encyclopedia)causality, in philosophy, the relationship between cause and effect. A distinction is often made between a cause that produces something new (e.g., a moth from a caterpillar) and one that produces a c...

runes

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Examples of runes runes, ancient characters used in Teutonic, Anglo-Saxon, and Scandinavian inscriptions. They were probably first used by the East Goths (c.300), who are thought to have deriv...

purslane

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Purslane, Portulaca oleraceae purslane, common name for some plants of the Portulaceae, a family of herbs and a few small shrubs, chiefly of the Americas. The portulacas or purslanes (genus Po...

calculus

(Encyclopedia)CE5 The derivative f″(x) of the function f(x) at the point P represents the slope of the tangent line at that point. CE5 The area under the curve y=f(x) may be found by calculating the sum of ...

Coco

(Encyclopedia)Coco, river, c.466 mi (750 km) long, rising in S Honduras and flowing E into Nicaragua and then NE to the Caribbean Sea. Part of the Mosquito Coast region, and once the object of dispute between Hondu...

Vyazma

(Encyclopedia)Vyazma vyäzˈmə [key], city (1989 pop. 59,000), N central European Russia, on the Vyazma River, a tributary of the Dnieper. Founded in the 9th cent., Vyazma became an important trade and military ce...

sintering

(Encyclopedia)sintering, process of forming objects from a metal powder by heating the powder at a temperature below its melting point. In the production of small metal objects it is often not practical to cast the...

isomer

(Encyclopedia)isomer īˈsəmər [key], in chemistry, one of two or more compounds having the same molecular formula but different structures (arrangements of atoms in the molecule). Isomerism is the occurrence of ...

trigonometry

(Encyclopedia)trigonometry [Gr.,=measurement of triangles], a specialized area of geometry concerned with the properties of and relations among the parts of a triangle. Spherical trigonometry is concerned with the ...

Estrées, Gabrielle d'

(Encyclopedia)Estrées, Gabrielle d' gäbrēĕlˈ dĕstrāˈ [key], 1573–99, famous beauty, mistress (1592–99) of Henry IV of France, who made her marquise of Monceaux and duchess of Beaufort. She divorced her ...