Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia)  CE5 Austria ôˈstrēə [key], Ger. Österreich [eastern march], officially Republic of Austria, federal republic (2020 est. pop. 8,917,000), 32,374 sq mi (83,849 sq km...

(Encyclopedia) calendar [Lat., from Kalends], system of reckoning time for the practical purpose of recording past events and calculating dates for future plans. The calendar is based on noting ordinary and easily o...

(Encyclopedia)  CE5 Möbius strip: On the ordinary flat loop (A), an ant walking along the middle of the strip will pass only around the outside of the strip. If the strip is cut along the dotted line, twisted onc...

(Encyclopedia) Roman law, the legal system of Rome from the supposed founding of the city in 753 b.c. to the fall of the Byzantine Empire in a.d. 1453; it was later adopted as the basis of modern civil law. Most aut...

(Encyclopedia)  CE5 Mauritius môrĭshˈēəs, –əs [key], officially Republic of Mauritius, republic (2015 est. pop. 1,259,000), 790 sq mi (2,046 sq km), in the SW Indian Ocean. It is part of the Mascarene Isla...

(Encyclopedia) radio astronomy, study of celestial bodies by means of the electromagnetic radio frequency waves they emit and absorb naturally. Radio waves also come from outside the Milky Way. These extragalact...

(Encyclopedia) Greeley, Horace, 1811–72, American newspaper editor, founder of the New York Tribune, b. Amherst, N.H. Greeley supported Ulysses S. Grant during the first years of his administration but came to r...

(Encyclopedia) Lenin, Vladimir Ilyich lĕnˈĭn, Rus. vlədyēˈmĭr ĭlyēchˈ lyĕˈnĭn [key], 1870–1924, Russian revolutionary, the founder of Bolshevism and the major force behind the Revolution of Oct., 1917...

(Encyclopedia) manorial system sēnyôrˈēəl [key], economic and social system of medieval Europe under which peasants' land tenure and production were regulated, and local justice and taxation were administered. ...

(Encyclopedia) black hole, in astronomy, celestial object of such extremely intense gravity that it attracts everything near it and in some instances prevents everything, including light, from escaping. The term was...