Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Evander ĭvănˈdər [key], in Greek religion, a minor deity worshiped in Arcadia in connection with Pan. In Roman religion, he was said to have introduced the worship of Faunus and to have founded th...

(Encyclopedia) Malcolm III (Malcolm Canmore), d. 1093, king of Scotland (1057–93), son of Duncan I; successor to Macbeth (d. 1057). It took him some years after Macbeth's death to regain the boundaries of his fath...

(Encyclopedia) Roche limit, the closest distance that a celestial body held together only by its own gravity can come to a planet without being pulled apart by the planet's tidal (gravitational) force. This distance...

(Encyclopedia) Polaris pōlârˈĭs [key] or North Star, star nearest the north celestial pole (see equatorial coordinate system). It is in the constellation Ursa Minor (see Ursa Major and Ursa Minor; Bayer designat...

(Encyclopedia) electromotive series, list of metals whose order indicates the relative tendency to be oxidized, or to give up electrons (see oxidation and reduction); the list also includes the gas hydrogen. The ele...

(Encyclopedia) executive, one who carries out the will or plan of another person or of a group. In government, the term refers not only to the chief administrative officer but to all others who execute the laws and ...

(Encyclopedia)  Davis, Sammy, Jr. (Samuel George), 1925-1990, American entertainer, b. Harlem, New York City, N.Y. Both of Davis’s parents were dancers who performe...

(Encyclopedia) wave, in physics, the transfer of energy by the regular vibration, or oscillatory motion, either of some material medium or by the variation in magnitude of the field vectors of an electromagnetic fie...

(Encyclopedia) Boyle, Kay, 1903–93, American writer, b. St. Paul, Minn. A European expatriate in the interwar years, she returned to Europe as a correspondent for the New Yorker (1946–53) and subsequently taught...

(Encyclopedia) Hereward the Wake hĕrˈĭwərd [key], fl. 1070, Anglo-Saxon rebel against William I. A thane, he apparently held land in Lincolnshire. In 1070 he sacked Peterborough with the aid of a Danish fleet an...