Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

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...

Saturn, in astronomy

(Encyclopedia) CE5 Saturn and its ring system as seen from Earth Saturn, in astronomy, 6th planet from the sun. Saturn has 82 confirmed natural satellites, many of which have not been named. Five of the discov...

nucleus, in physics

(Encyclopedia)nucleus, in physics, the extremely dense central core of an atom. Following the discovery of radioactivity by A. H. Becquerel in 1896, Ernest Rutherford identified two types of radiation given off b...

Saint Petersburg, city, Russia

(Encyclopedia)Saint Petersburg, formerly Leningrad, Rus. Sankt-Peterburg, city (1990 est. pop. 5,036,000), capital of the Leningrad region (although not administratively part of it) and the administrative center of...

Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr Isayevich

(Encyclopedia)Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr Isayevich əlyĭksänˈdər ēsīˈəvĭch sôlˌzhənētˈsĭn [key], 1918–2008, Russian writer widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential authors of the 20...

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn

(Encyclopedia)Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn or Ryn rĕmˈbrănt, Du. rĕmˈbränt härˈmənsōn vän rīn [key], 1606–69, Dutch painter, etcher, and draftsman, b. Leiden. Rembrandt is acknowledged as the greate...

pressure

(Encyclopedia)pressure, in mechanics, ratio of the force acting on a surface to the area of the surface; it is thus distinct from the total force acting on a surface. A force can be applied to and sustained by a si...

Romanesque architecture and art

(Encyclopedia)Romanesque architecture and art, the artistic style that prevailed throughout Europe from the 10th to the mid-12th cent., although it persisted until considerably later in certain areas. The term Roma...

Portuguese literature

(Encyclopedia)Portuguese literature, writings in Portuguese. The literature of Brazil is considered separately (see Brazilian literature). The modern period in Portuguese letters dates from the establishment o...

Medieval Latin literature

(Encyclopedia)Medieval Latin literature, literary works written in the Latin language during the Middle Ages. Many literary genres were already being taken over by writing in the vernacular, which had begun in...
 

Browse by Subject