Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) spark chamber, in physics, device for recording the passage of elementary particles produced by reactions in a particle accelerator. Particles pass through a stack of metal plates or wire grids that a...

(Encyclopedia) Kings, books of the Bible, originally a single work in the Hebrew canon. They are called First and Second Kings in modern Bibles, and Third and Fourth Kingdoms in the Greek versions, where the books o...

(Encyclopedia) Simoïs sĭmˈōĭs [key], small river, NW Turkey, a tributary of the Scamander. It was the scene of many legendary events of Asia Minor, particularly during the siege of Troy. ...

(Encyclopedia) Hart, Doris, 1925–2015, American tennis player, b. St. Louis, Mo. One of the outstanding tennis stars of the 1950s, Hart won her first Grand Slam title in women's doubles at Wimbledon in 1947 and fr...

(Encyclopedia) Charles IV, 1748–1819, king of Spain (1788–1808), second son of Charles III, whom he succeeded in place of his imbecile older brother. Unlike his father, Charles IV was an ineffective ruler and in...

(Encyclopedia) shooting, firing with rifle, shotgun, pistol, or revolver at stationary or moving targets. The term shooting is also used in Great Britain to mean small-game hunting. In the 19th cent. the sport of ri...

(Encyclopedia) miracle, preternatural occurrence that is viewed as the expression of a divine will. Its awe and wonder lie in the fact that the cause is hidden. The idea of the miracle occurs especially with the evo...

(Encyclopedia) Didrikson, Babe (Mildred Didrikson) dēˈdrĭksən [key], 1913–56, American athlete, generally considered the greatest woman athlete of modern times, b. Port Arthur, Tex. At an early age Babe Didrik...

(Encyclopedia) Gestalt gəshtältˈ [key] [Ger.,=form], school of psychology that interprets phenomena as organized wholes rather than as aggregates of distinct parts, maintaining that the whole is greater than the ...

(Encyclopedia) bicycle racing or cycling, an internationally popular sport conducted on closed courses or the open road. Track racing takes place at a velodrome, usually a banked 1,093.6 ft (.333 km) oval. Olympic m...