Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Roentgen ray: see X ray.

(Encyclopedia) Röntgen ray: see X ray.

(Encyclopedia) Robinson, Bill, 1878–1949, African-American tap dancer popularly known as “Bojangles,” b. Richmond, Va., as Luther Robinson. An influential virtuoso tap dancer, he was a tap innovator and repute...

(Encyclopedia) Ray, Man, 1890–1976, American photographer, painter, and sculptor, b. Philadelphia. Along with Marcel Duchamp, Ray was a founder of the Dada movement in New York and Paris. He is celebrated for his ...

(Encyclopedia) Robinson, Frank, 1935–2019, American baseball player and manager, b. Beaumont, Tex. Entering major-league baseball as an outfielder for the Cincinnati Reds, Robinson was named the National League's ...

(Encyclopedia) X-ray crystallography, the study of crystal structures through X-ray diffraction techniques. When an X-ray beam bombards a crystalline lattice in a given orientation, the beam is scattered in a defini...

(Encyclopedia) Sugar Land, city (2000 pop. 63,328), Fort Bend co., SE Texas, on the Brazos River and Oyster Creek, a W suburb of Houston; inc. 1959. The city, which now has a diversified economy, began as a pre–Ci...

(Encyclopedia) sugar, compound of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen belonging to a class of substances called carbohydrates. Sugars fall into three groups: the monosaccharides, disaccharides, and trisaccharides. The mono...

(Encyclopedia) X-ray astronomy, study of celestial objects by means of the X rays they emit, in the wavelength range from 0.01 to 10 nanometers. X-ray astronomy dates to 1949 with the discovery that the sun emits X ...

(Encyclopedia) gamma-ray astronomy, study of astronomical objects by analysis of the most energetic electromagnetic radiation they emit. Gamma rays are shorter in wavelength and hence more energetic than X rays (see...