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flight simulator

(Encyclopedia)flight simulator, device providing a controlled environment in which a flight trainee can experience conditions approximating those of actual flight. A simulator generally consists of an enclosure hou...

fluoroscope

(Encyclopedia)fluoroscope flo͝orˈəskōp [key], instrument consisting of an X-ray machine (see X ray) and a fluorescent screen that may be used by physicians to view the internal organs of the body. During medica...

note, in music

(Encyclopedia)note, in musical notation, symbol placed on or between the lines of a staff to indicate the pitch and the relative duration of the tone to be produced by voice or instrument. The largest note value in...

Pan-Germanism

(Encyclopedia)Pan-Germanism, German nationalist doctrine aiming at the union of all German-speaking peoples under German rule. Pan-Germanists considered that not only the German groups in neighboring countries, suc...

Lick Observatory

(Encyclopedia)Lick Observatory, astronomical observatory located on Mt. Hamilton, Calif., near San Jose; the first mountaintop observatory in the world, it was founded through gifts made by James Lick in 1874–75 ...

lettre de cachet

(Encyclopedia)lettre de cachet lĕˈtrə də käshāˈ [key], formerly in French law, private, sealed document, issued as a communication from the king. Such a letter could order imprisonment or exile for an indivi...

tachometer

(Encyclopedia)tachometer tăkŏmˈətər [key], instrument that indicates the speed, usually in revolutions per minute, at which an engine shaft is rotating. Some tachometers, especially those used in automobiles, ...

turn and bank indicator

(Encyclopedia)turn and bank indicator, aircraft instrument containing one indicator to show turning, or rotation about the vertical axis, and another to show banking, or rotation about the longitudinal axis. The tw...

spectroheliograph

(Encyclopedia)spectroheliograph, device for photographing the surface of the sun in a single wavelength of light, usually one corresponding to a chief element contained in the sun, e.g., hydrogen or calcium; the re...

Rohrer, Heinrich

(Encyclopedia)Rohrer, Heinrich, 1933–2013, Swiss physicist, Ph.D. Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, 1960. He joined IBM in 1963 and spent almost his entire career with the company, retiring in 1997. At the I...