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rhodium

(Encyclopedia)rhodium rōˈdēəm [key], metallic chemical element; symbol Rh; at. no. 45; at. wt. 102.90550; m.p. about 1,966℃; b.p. 3,727±100℃; sp. gr. 12.41 at 20℃; valence +2, +3, +4, +5, or +6. Rhodium ...

tundra

(Encyclopedia)tundra tŭnˈdrə [key], treeless plains of N North America and N Eurasia, lying principally along the Arctic Circle, on the coasts and islands of the Arctic Ocean, and to the north of the coniferous ...

convection

(Encyclopedia)convection, mode of heat transfer in fluids (liquids and gases). Convection depends on the fact that, in general, fluids expand when heated and thus undergo a decrease in density (since a given volume...

growing season

(Encyclopedia)growing season, period during which plant growth takes place. In temperate climates the growing season is limited by seasonal changes in temperature and is defined as the period between the last killi...

thermometer

(Encyclopedia)thermometer, instrument for measuring temperature. Galileo and Sanctorius devised thermometers consisting essentially of a bulb with a tubular projection, the open end of which was immersed in a liqui...

Hertzsprung-Russell diagram

(Encyclopedia) CE5 The Hertzsprung-Russell diagram shows the relation between the luminosity and surface temperature (which is related to spectral class, or color) of the stars in the Milky Way. Most stars fall a...

climate

(Encyclopedia)climate, average condition of the atmosphere near the earth's surface over a long period of time, taking into account temperature, precipitation (see rain), humidity, wind, barometric pressure, and ot...

cline

(Encyclopedia)cline, in biology, any gradual change in a particular characteristic of a population of organisms from one end of the geographical range of the population to the other. Gradients of characteristics us...

Onsager, Lars

(Encyclopedia)Onsager, Lars, 1903–76, American physical chemist, b. Oslo, Ph.D. Yale, 1935. Onsager taught at Brown Univ. from 1928 to 1933 and was on the faculty at Yale from 1933 until his retirement in 1972. H...

spontaneous combustion

(Encyclopedia)spontaneous combustion, phenomenon in which a substance unexpectedly bursts into flame without apparent cause. In ordinary combustion, a substance is deliberately heated to its ignition point to make ...
 

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