Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) sleet, precipitation of small, partially melted grains of ice. As raindrops fall from clouds, they pass through layers of air at different temperatures. If they pass through a layer with a temperature...

(Encyclopedia) Benet, Juan bənetˈ [key], 1927–93, Spanish novelist and essayist. He earned a degree in civil engineering and worked as a highway engineer before publishing (1961) his first work, Nunca llegarás ...

(Encyclopedia) era of good feelings, period in U.S. history (1817–23) when, the Federalist party having declined, there was little open party feeling. After the War of 1812 all sections were anxious to return to a...

(Encyclopedia)  CE5 Bahamas, the bəhäˈməz [key], officially Commonwealth of the Bahamas, independent nation (2020 ...

(Encyclopedia) monopoly mənōpˈəlē [key], market condition in which there is only one seller of a certain commodity; by virtue of the long-run control over supply, such a seller is able to exert nearly total con...

(Encyclopedia) chemical equilibrium, state of balance in which two opposing reversible chemical reactions proceed at constant equal rates with no net change in the system. For example, when hydrogen gas, H2, and iod...

(Encyclopedia)  CE5 Pulleys: The mechanical advantage (MA) of a system of pulleys is equal to the number of supporting strands: in A MA=1 and in B MA=2. pulley, simple machine consisting of a wheel over which a r...

(Encyclopedia) type, for printing, was invented in China (c.1040), using woodblocks. Related devices, such as seals and stamps for making impressions in clay, had been used in ancient times in Babylon and elsewhere....

(Encyclopedia) lots. The casting of lots was an ancient method of making a choice, settling a dispute, or determining a course of action. In biblical times lots were cast to determine the will of God (it is believed...

(Encyclopedia) Cram, Donald James, 1919–2001, American chemist, b. Chester, Vt., Ph.D. Harvard, 1947. A professor at the Univ. of California at Los Angeles, Cram expanded on the work of Charles J. Pedersen by synt...