Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) plastic, any organic material with the ability to flow into a desired shape when heat and pressure are applied to it and to retain the shape when they are withdrawn. The first important plastic, cel...

(Encyclopedia) golf, game of hitting a small hard ball with specially made clubs over an outdoor course sometimes (particularly if it is near the coast) called a links. The object is to deposit the ball in a specifi...

(Encyclopedia) influenza or flu, acute, highly contagious disease caused by a RNA virus (family Orthomyxoviridae); formerly known as the grippe. There are three types of the virus, designated A, B, and C, but only t...

(Encyclopedia) Beethoven, Ludwig van lŭdˈwĭg văn bāˈtōvən, Ger. lo͝otˈvĭkh fän bātˈhōfən [key], 1770–1827, German composer. He is universally recognized as one of the greatest composers of the West...

(Encyclopedia) artificial intelligence (AI), the use of computers to model the behavioral aspects of human reasoning and learning. Research in AI is concentrated in some half-dozen areas. In problem solving, one mus...

(Encyclopedia) history, in its broadest sense, is the story of humanity's past. It also refers to the recording of that past. The diverse sources of history include books, newspapers, printed documents, personal pap...

(Encyclopedia) criticism, the interpretation and evaluation of literature and the arts. It exists in a variety of literary forms: dialogues (Plato, John Dryden), verse (Horace, Alexander Pope), letters (John Keats),...

(Encyclopedia) Vienna vēĕnˈə [key], Ger. Wien, city and province (1991 pop. 1,539,848), 160 sq mi (414 sq km), capital and largest city of Austria and administrative seat of Lower Austria, NE Austria, on the Dan...

(Encyclopedia) American Revolution, 1775–83, struggle by which the Thirteen Colonies on the Atlantic seaboard of North America won independence from Great Britain and became the United States. It is also called th...

(Encyclopedia)  CE5 New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario ...