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refraction

(Encyclopedia)refraction, in physics, deflection of a wave on passing obliquely from one transparent medium into a second medium in which its speed is different, as the passage of a light ray from air into glass. O...

electron

(Encyclopedia)electron, elementary particle carrying a unit charge of negative electricity. Ordinary electric current is the flow of electrons through a wire conductor (see electricity). The electron is one of the ...

breakwater

(Encyclopedia)breakwater, offshore structure to protect a harbor from wave energy or deflect currents. When it also serves as a pier, it is called a quay; when covered by a roadway it is called a mole. In the Unite...

Parisi, Giorgio

(Encyclopedia)Parisi, Giorgio, 1948–, Italian physicist, Ph.D. Sapienza University of Rome, 1970. Parisi is Professor of Theoretical Physics at Sapienza University....

sideband

(Encyclopedia)sideband, any frequency component of a modulated carrier wave other than the frequency of the carrier wave itself, i.e., any frequency added to the carrier as a result of modulation; sidebands carry t...

Ehrenfest, Paul

(Encyclopedia)Ehrenfest, Paul poul āˈrənfĕst [key], 1880–1933, Austrian physicist. In 1904, Ehrenfest received his doctorate in theoretical physics in Vienna and married the Russian mathematician Tatyana Alex...

virtual telescope

(Encyclopedia)virtual telescope, a computerized interferometer (see interference) that merges the images from two or more telescopes to obtain a single, large, enhanced image. The image in each telescope is made fr...

Appleton, Sir Edward Victor

(Encyclopedia)Appleton, Sir Edward Victor, 1892–1965, English physicist, grad. St. John's College, Cambridge. After returning from active service in World War I, he became assistant demonstrator in experimental p...

Yang, Chen-ning

(Encyclopedia)Yang, Chen-ning chĕn-nĭng yäng [key], 1922–, American physicist, b. China, Ph.D. Univ. of Chicago, 1948. Yang was a member of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, N.J. from 1949 to 1955...

Bridgman, Percy Williams

(Encyclopedia)Bridgman, Percy Williams, 1882–1961, American physicist, b. Cambridge, Mass., grad. Harvard (B.A., 1904; Ph.D., 1908). From 1910 he taught at Harvard, as professor from 1919. He won the 1946 Nobel P...