Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) portal system: see circulatory system. ...

(Encyclopedia) gastrointestinal system: see digestive system. ...

(Encyclopedia) geocentric system: see Ptolemaic system. ...

(Encyclopedia) heliocentric system: see Copernican system. ...

(Encyclopedia) examination system: see Chinese examination system. ...

(Encyclopedia) Copernican system, first modern European theory of planetary motion that was heliocentric, i.e., that placed the sun motionless at the center of the solar system with all the planets, including the ea...

(Encyclopedia) binary system, numeration system based on powers of 2, in contrast to the familiar decimal system, which is based on powers of 10. In the binary system, only the digits 0 and 1 are used. Thus, the fir...

(Encyclopedia) panic, crisis in financial and economic conditions, marked by public loss of confidence in the financial structure. Panics are characterized by a general rush of investors to convert their assets into...

(Encyclopedia) bicameral system bīkămˈərəl [key], governmental system dividing the legislative function between two chambers, an “upper,” such as the U.S. Senate and the British House of Lords, and a “low...

(Encyclopedia) money, term that refers to two concepts: the abstract unit of account in terms of which the value of goods, services, and obligations can be compared; and anything that is widely established as a mean...