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Descartes, René

(Encyclopedia)Descartes, René rənāˈ dākärtˈ [key], Lat. Renatus Cartesius, 1596–1650, French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist, b. La Haye. Descartes' methodology was a major influence in the trans...

glacier

(Encyclopedia)glacier, moving mass of ice that survives year to year, formed by the compacting of snow into névé and then into granular ice and set in motion outward and downward by the force of gravity and the s...

canal

(Encyclopedia)canal, an artificial waterway constructed for navigation or for the movement of water. The digging of canals for irrigation probably dates back to the beginnings of agriculture, and traces of canals h...

wolf

(Encyclopedia)wolf, carnivorous mammal of the genus Canis in the dog family. Once distributed over most of the Northern Hemisphere, wild wolves are now confined to the wilder parts of a reduced range. Three wolf sp...

Slavic languages

(Encyclopedia)Slavic languages, also called Slavonic languages, a subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages. Because the Slavic group of languages seems to be closer to the Baltic group than to any other, ...

Mindanao

(Encyclopedia)Mindanao mĭndənäˈō, –nouˈ [key], island (1990 pop. 13,535,738), 36,537 sq mi (94,631 sq km), second largest of the Philippine islands, NE of Borneo. About one fifth of the island's population ...

debt, public

(Encyclopedia)debt, public, indebtedness of a central government expressed in money terms, often referred to as national debt. The debt is computed differently by nearly every nation. Some authorities exclude all g...

German language

(Encyclopedia)German language, member of the West Germanic group of the Germanic subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages (see Germanic languages). It is the official language of Germany and Austria and i...

energy

(Encyclopedia) CE5 Relations between potential energy (PE) and kinetic energy (KE) for a swinging pendulum energy, in physics, the ability or capacity to do work or to produce change. Forms of energy include hea...

Missouri, river, United States

(Encyclopedia)Missouri, river, c.2,565 mi (4,130 km) long (including its Jefferson-Beaverhead-Red Rock headstream), the longest river of the United States and the principal tributary of the Mississippi River. The l...
 

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