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belief

(Encyclopedia)belief, in philosophy, commitment to something, involving intellectual assent. Philosophers have disagreed as to whether belief is active or passive; René Descartes held that it is a matter of will, ...

Tinley Park

(Encyclopedia)Tinley Park, village (1990 pop. 37,121), Cook and Will counties, NE Ill., a residential suburb of Chicago; inc. 1892. Its population grew significantly in the late 20th cent. Brushes and brooms and el...

function

(Encyclopedia)function, in mathematics, a relation f that assigns to each member x of some set X a corresponding member y of some set Y; y is said to be a function of x, usually denoted f(x) (read “f of x ”)....

Gilbert, William

(Encyclopedia)Gilbert, William, 1544–1603, English scientist and physician. He studied medicine at Cambridge (M.D., 1569), where he was elected a Fellow of St. John's College, and set up practice in London, becom...

center of mass

(Encyclopedia)center of mass, the point at which all the mass of a body may be considered to be concentrated in analyzing its motion. The center of mass of a sphere of uniform density coincides with the center of t...

Clark, Jonas Gilman

(Encyclopedia)Clark, Jonas Gilman, 1815–1900, founder of Clark Univ., b. Hubbardston, Mass. After a long career in business and finance, he became interested in higher education, making extended trips of observat...

Very, Jones

(Encyclopedia)Very, Jones, 1813–80, American poet, b. Salem, Mass., studied at Harvard Divinity School. His mystical poems express his belief in total surrender to the will of God and his reverence for nature as ...

gift

(Encyclopedia)gift, in law, voluntary transfer of property from one person to another without any compensation for it and without any obligation of an agreement or contract. The one who gives is the donor; the one ...

Shepard, Sam

(Encyclopedia)Shepard, Sam, 1943–2017, one of the major American playwrights and actors of his era, b. Fort Sheridan, Ill., as Samuel Shepard Rogers 3d. A product of the 1960s counterculture and an important figu...

White, Andrew Dickson

(Encyclopedia)White, Andrew Dickson, 1832–1918, American educator and diplomat, b. Homer, N.Y., briefly attended Geneva (now Hobart) College, grad. Yale, 1853. He studied in France and Germany, served (1854–55)...
 

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