Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) erbium ûrˈbēəm [key] [from Ytterby, a town in Sweden], metallic chemical element; symbol Er; at. no. 68; at. wt. 167.259; m.p. 1,529℃; b.p. 2,863℃; sp. gr. 9.05 at 25℃; valence +3. Erbium is...

(Encyclopedia) German East Africa, former German colony, c.370,000 sq mi (958,300 sq km), E Africa. Dar es Salaam was the capital. German influence emerged in the area in 1884 when Carl Peters, the German explorer, ...

(Encyclopedia) Linnaeus, Carolus kärōˈləs lĭnāˈəs [key], 1707–78, Swedish botanist and taxonomist, considered the founder of the binomial system of nomenclature and the originator of modern scientific clas...

(Encyclopedia) centrifuge sĕnˈtrəfyo͞oj [key], device using centrifugal force to separate two or more substances of different density, e.g., two liquids or a liquid and a solid. The centrifuge consists of a fixe...

(Encyclopedia) Kunitz, Stanley Jasspon kyo͞oˈnĭts [key], 1905–2006, American poet, teacher, and editor, b. Worcester, Mass. He graduated from Harvard (B.A., 1926; M.A., 1927), worked as a journalist and editor,...

(Encyclopedia) Wyler, William, 1902–1981, American film director, producer, and writer, b. Mülhausen, Germany (now Mulhouse, France) as Willi Wilder. He came to the United States (1920) at the invitation of Carl ...

(Encyclopedia) extroversion and introversion, terms introduced into psychology by Carl Jung to identify opposite psychological types. Jung saw the activity of the extrovert directed toward the external world and tha...

(Encyclopedia) Liberal Republican party, in U.S. history, organization formed in 1872 by Republicans discontented at the political corruption and the policies of President Grant's first administration. Other disaffe...

(Encyclopedia) Stettheimer, Florine, 1871–1944, American modernist painter, b. Rochester, N.Y., studied Art Students League, New York City (1892–95). She was exposed to the many forms of early modernism while he...

(Encyclopedia) value, in economics, worth of a commodity in terms of other commodities, or in terms of money (see price). Value depends on both desirability and scarcity. The marginal theory of value, pioneered in t...