Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Vance, Cyrus Roberts, 1917–2002, U.S. secretary of state (1977–80), b. Clarksburg, W.Va., grad. Yale (B.A., 1939, LL.B., 1942). After seeing action in the Navy during World War II, Vance practiced...

(Encyclopedia) New York State Canal System, waterway system, 524 mi (843 km) long, traversing New York state and connecting the Great Lakes with the Finger Lakes, the Hudson River, and Lake Champlain. The waterway, ...

(Encyclopedia) Eaton, Dorman Bridgman, 1823–99, American reformer, b. Hardwick, Vt. He was a law partner of William Kent in New York City. His major interests were reform in municipal administration and abolition ...

(Encyclopedia) navigation satellite, artificial satellite designed expressly to aid the navigation of sea and air traffic. Early navigation satellites, from the Transit series launched in 1960 to the U.S. navy's Nav...

(Encyclopedia) Paulson, Henry Merritt, Jr., 1946–, U.S. investment banker and government official, b. Palm Beach, Fla., grad. Harvard (M.B.A., 1970). After working as an assistant to the comptroller at the Pentago...

(Encyclopedia) Merton, Robert Carhart, 1944–, American economist, b. New York City, Ph.D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1970. He has taught at MIT (1970–88, 2010–) and Harvard (1988–2010). Merton in...

(Encyclopedia) ring, in mathematics, system consisting of a set R of elements and two binary operations, such that addition makes R a commutative group and multiplication is associative and distributes over addition...

(Encyclopedia) All-American Canal, 80 mi (129 km) long, SE Calif.; part of the federal irrigation system of the Hoover Dam. Built between 1934 and 1940 across the Colorado Desert, the canal is entirely within the Un...

(Encyclopedia)  CE5 Equatorial coordinate system equatorial coordinate system, the most commonly used astronomical coordinate system for indicating the positions of stars or other celestial objects on the celesti...

(Encyclopedia) court, in law, official body charged with administering justice. The term is also applied to the judge or judges who fill the office and to the courtroom itself. Courts come into existence when legal ...