Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Labor, United States Department of, federal executive department established in 1913 and charged with administering and enforcing statutes that promote the welfare of U.S. wage earners, improve their ...

(Encyclopedia) aerodynamics, study of gases in motion. As the principal application of aerodynamics is the design of aircraft, air is the gas with which the science is most concerned. Although aerodynamics is primar...

(Encyclopedia)  CE5 Virginia, state of the S Middle-Atlantic United States. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean (E), North Carolina and Tennessee (S), Kentucky and West Virginia (W), and Maryland and the District...

(Encyclopedia) tornado, dark, funnel-shaped cloud containing violently rotating air that develops below a heavy cumulonimbus cloud mass and extends toward the earth. The funnel twists about, rises and falls, and whe...

(Encyclopedia)  CE5 Minnesota mĭnˌĭsōˈtə [key], upper midwestern state of the United States. It is bordered by Lake Superior and Wisconsin (E), Iowa (S), South Dakota and North Dakota (W), and the Canadian p...

(Encyclopedia) wetlands, low-lying ecosystem where the water table is always at or near the surface. It is divided into estuarine and freshwater systems, which may be further subdivided by soil type and plant life i...

(Encyclopedia)  CE5 Kentucky kəntŭkˈē, kĭn– [key], state of the SE central United States. It is bordered by West Virginia and Virginia (E); Tennessee (S); the Mississippi River, across which lies Missouri (...

(Encyclopedia) Organization of American States (OAS), international organization, created Apr. 30, 1948, at Bogotá, Colombia, by agreement of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican R...

(Encyclopedia) coercion, in law, the unlawful act of compelling a person to do, or to abstain from doing, something by depriving him of the exercise of his free will, particularly by use or threat of physical or mor...

(Encyclopedia) Sault Sainte Marie, city (1990 pop. 14,689), seat of Chippewa co., N Mich., Upper Peninsula, a port of entry on the St. Marys River opposite Sault Ste Marie, Ont.; inc. as a city 1887. A variety of li...