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F region ... faience parlante

F region: highest region of the ionosphere, at altitudes greater than 160 km (100 miles); it has the greatest concentration of free electrons and is the most important of the ionospheric regions. ...
F-100: jet fighter aircraft, the first developed for the U.S. Air Force to exceed the speed of sound in level flight. It was operational from 1953 to 1973. It was made ...
F-104: jet day fighter aircraft built by Lockheed Aircraft Corporation for the U.S. Air Force but adopted by a total of 15 NATO and other countries. It was widely adapted for ...
F-117: single-seat, twin-engine jet fighter-bomber built by the Lockheed Corporation (now part of the Lockheed Martin Corporation) for the U.S. Air Force. It was the first stealth aircraft-i.e., an aircraft designed ...
F-14: two-seat, twin-engine jet fighter built for the U.S. Navy by the Grumman Corporation (now part of the Northrop Grumman Corporation). As a successor to the F-4 Phantom II, it was ...
F-15: twin-engine jet fighter produced by the McDonnell Douglas Corporation of the United States. Based on a design proposed in 1969 for an air-superiority fighter, it has also been built in ...
F-16: single-seat, single-engine jet fighter built by the General Dynamics Corporation (now part of the Lockheed Martin Corporation) for the United States and more than a dozen other countries. The F-16 ...
F-4: two-seat, twin-engine jet fighter built by the McDonnell Aircraft Corporation (later the McDonnell-Douglas Corporation) for the United States and many other countries. The first F-4 was delivered to the U.S. ...
F-86: U.S. single-seat, single-engine jet fighter built by North American Aviation, Inc., the first jet fighter in the West to exploit aerodynamic principles learned from German engineering at the close of ...
Fa Ngum: founder and first king of the Lao kingdom of Lan Xang who created the first unified state of the Lao people.
Fa-hsiang: school of Chinese Buddhism derived from the Indian Yogacara school. See Yogacara.
Fabales: order of dicotyledonous flowering plants, a division of the subclass Rosidae. The characteristic fruit of many members is a pod (legume) consisting, in essence, of an ovary that is a ...
Faber, Frederick William: British theologian, noted hymnist, and founder of the Wilfridians, a religious society living in common without vows.
Faber, Lothar von; and Faber, Eberhard: German brothers who expanded a family pencil business into a worldwide firm preeminent in the manufacture of writing products and art supplies.
Faber, Peter: French Jesuit theologian and a cofounder of the Society of Jesus, who was tutor and friend of Ignatius Loyola at Paris. He was appointed professor of theology at Rome by ...
Faberge, Peter Carl: one of the greatest goldsmiths, jewelers, and designers in Western decorative arts.
Fabert, Abraham de: marshal of France, a leading French commander during the reigns of Louis XIII and Louis XIV.
Fabian Society: socialist society founded in 1883-84 in London, having as its goal the establishment of a democratic socialist state in Great Britain. The Fabians put their faith in evolutionary socialism rather ...
Fabian, Saint: pope from 236 to 250. The successor to St. Anterus, Fabian is said to have divided Rome into seven districts assigned to the seven deacons and to have founded several ...
Fabiola, Saint: Christian noblewoman credited with founding the first public hospital in western Europe.
Fabius Ambustus, Quintus: Roman politician and commander who, according to tradition, was responsible for the sack of Rome by the Gauls in or soon after 390.
Fabius Maximus Cunctator, Quintus: Roman commander and statesman whose cautious delaying tactics (whence the surname Cunctator, meaning "delayer") during the early stages of the Second Punic War (218-201) gave Rome time to recover its ...
Fabius Pictor, Quintus: one of the first Roman prose historians.
fable, parable, and allegory: any form of imaginative literature or spoken utterance constructed in such a way that readers or listeners are encouraged to look for meanings hidden beneath the literal surface of the ...
fabliau: a short metrical tale made popular in medieval France by the jongleurs, or professional storytellers. Fabliaux were characterized by vivid detail and realistic observation and were usually comic, coarse, and ...
Fabre d'Eglantine, Philippe: French political dramatic satirist and prominent figure in the French Revolution; as deputy in the National Convention he voted for the death of Louis XVI.
Fabre, Emile: French playwright and administrator of the Comedie-Francaise (1915-36) who developed it into a vehicle for classical and contemporary repertory.
Fabre, Jean Henri: French entomologist famous for his study of the anatomy and behaviour of insects.
Fabriano: town, Ancona province, in Marche (The Marches) region, central Italy. The town was the home of a minor school of painting founded in the late 14th century by Allegretto Nuzi ...
Fabricius ab Aquapendente, Hieronymus: Italian surgeon, an outstanding Renaissance anatomist who helped found modern embryology.
Fabricius Luscinus, Gaius: Roman commander and statesman whose incorruptibility and austerity were frequently regarded as models of the early Roman virtues.
Fabricius, Johann Albert: German classical scholar and the greatest of 18th-century bibliographers.
Fabricius, Johann Christian: Danish entomologist known for his extensive taxonomic research based upon the structure of insect mouthparts rather than upon their wings. He also advanced theoretical propositions that were progressive for his ...
Fabricius, Johannes: Dutch astronomer who may have been the first observer of sunspots (1610/1611) and was the first to publish information on such observations. He did so in his Narratio de maculis ...
Fabritius, Barent: Dutch painter of portraits and of biblical, mythological, and historical scenes.
Fabritius, Carel: Dutch Baroque painter of portraits, genre, and narrative subjects whose concern with light and space influenced the stylistic development of the mid-17th-century school of Delft.
Fabrizi, Nicola: one of the most militant and dedicated leaders of the Risorgimento, the movement aimed at the unification of Italy.
Fabry's disease: sex-linked hereditary disease in which a deficiency in the enzyme alpha-galactosidase A results in abnormal deposits of a glycosphingolipid (ceramide trihexoside) in the blood vessels. These deposits in turn produce ...
Fabry, Charles: French physicist who discovered in the upper atmosphere the ozone layer that acts as a screen protecting life on the surface of Earth from most of the harmful effects of ...
fabula Atellana: (Latin: "Atellan play"), the earliest native Italian farce, presumably rustic improvisational comedy featuring masked stock characters. The farces derived their name from the town of Atella in the Campania region ...
fabula palliata: any of the Roman comedies that were translations or adaptations of Greek New Comedy. The name derives from the pallium, the Latin name for the himation (a Greek cloak), and ...
face: front part of the head that, in vertebrates, houses the sense organs of vision and smell as well as the mouth and jaws. In humans it extends from the forehead ...
facet: flat, polished surface on a cut gemstone, usually with three or four sides. The widest part of a faceted stone is the girdle; the girdle lies on a plane that ...
facial nerve: nerve that originates in the area of the brain called the pons and that has three types of nerve fibres: (1) motor fibres to the superficial muscles of the face, ...
facon de Venise: (French: "Venetian fashion"), style of glass made in the 16th and 17th centuries at places other than Venice itself but using the techniques that had been perfected there. It may ...
facsimile: in telecommunications, the transmission and reproduction of documents by wire or radio wave. Common fax machines are designed to scan printed textual and graphic material and then transmit the information ...
Fact, Theatre of: German dramatic movement that arose during the early 1960s, associated primarily with Rolf Hochhuth, Peter Weiss, and Heinar Kipphardt. Their political plays examined recent historical events, often through official documents ...
Facta, Luigi: Italy's last prime minister before the Fascist leader Benito Mussolini gained power (Oct. 31, 1922).
factor: in mathematics, a number or algebraic expression that divides another number or expression evenly-i.e., with no remainder. For example, 3 and 6 are factors of 12 because 12 ÷ 3 = 4 exactly and ...
Factor, Max: dean of Hollywood makeup experts. He was a pioneer in developing makeup specifically for motion-picture actors and was given a special Academy Award in 1928 for his achievements.
factorial: in mathematics, the product of all positive integers less than or equal to a given positive integer and denoted by that integer and an exclamation point. Thus, factorial seven is ...
factoring: in finance, the selling of accounts receivable on a contract basis by the business holding them-in order to obtain cash payment of the accounts before their actual due date-to an ...
factory ship: originally, a large ship used in whaling, but now, more broadly, any ship that is equipped to process marine catches for various consumer uses. It most commonly serves as the ...
facula: in astronomy, bright granular structure on the Sun's surface that is slightly hotter or cooler than the surrounding photosphere. A sunspot always has an associated facula, though faculae may exist ...
Fadden, Sir Arthur William: accountant, politician, and for a short time prime minister of Australia (1941).
Fadeyev, Aleksandr Aleksandrovich: Russian novelist who was a leading exponent and theoretician of proletarian literature and a high Communist Party functionary influential in literary politics.
Fadiman, Clifton: American editor, anthologist, and writer known for his extraordinary memory and his wide-ranging knowledge.
Faenza: city, Ravenna provincia, in the Emilia-Romagna regione of northern Italy, on the Lamone River, southeast of Bologna. In the 2nd century BC it was ...
Faenza majolica: tin-glazed earthenware produced in the city of Faenza in the Emilia district of Italy from the late 14th century. Early Faenza ware is represented by green and purple jugs decorated ...
Faerie Queene, The: one of the great long poems in the English language, written in the 16th century by Edmund Spenser. As originally conceived, the poem was to have been a religious-moral-political allegory ...
Faesi, Robert: Swiss poet, dramatist, short-story writer, and literary critic, noted for his trilogy of novels on Zurich life and for important critical studies of literary figures.
Fagales: beech order of dicotyledonous woody flowering plants, a division of the subclass Hamamelidae.
Fagaras: town, Brasov judet (county), central Romania. It lies north of the Fagaras Mountains, a range of the Transylvanian Alps (Southern Carpathian Mountains), on the Olt River. First mentioned in documents ...
Fagaras Mountains: mountain range, the highest section of the Transylvanian Alps (Southern Carpathian Mountains), south-central Romania. Their steep northern face rises above 8,000 feet (2,450 m) and overlooks the Fagaras Depression, through ...
Faguet, Emile: French literary historian and moralist who wrote many influential critical works revealing a wide range of interests.
Faguibine, Lake: isolated lake in Mali, west of Timbuktu (Tombouctou). It lies north of the Niger River in the Macina depression, and it is reached by branches of the Niger in times ...
Fagunwa, D.O.: Yoruba chief whose series of fantastic novels made him one of Nigeria's most popular writers. He was also a teacher.
Fahd: king of the Saudi Arabians from 1982 to 2005. As crown prince and as an active administrator, he had been virtual ruler during the preceding reign (1975-82) of his half ...
Fahrenheit temperature scale: scale based on 32° for the freezing point of water and 212° for the boiling point of water, the interval between the two being divided into 180 equal parts. The ...
Fahrenheit, Daniel Gabriel: German physicist and maker of scientific instruments. He is best known for inventing the alcohol thermometer (1709) and mercury thermometer (1714) and for developing the Fahrenheit temperature scale; this scale ...
Faial Island: Portuguese island forming part of the Azores archipelago, in the North Atlantic Ocean. Its area of 67 square miles (173 square km) was increased by 1 square mile (2.5 square ...
Faidherbe, Louis: governor of French Senegal in 1854-61 and 1863-65 and a major founder of France's colonial empire in Africa. He founded Dakar, the future capital of French West Africa.
faience: tin-glazed earthenware made in France, Germany, Spain, and Scandinavia. It is distinguished from tin-glzed earthenware made in Italy, which is called majolica (or maiolica), and that made in The Netherlands ...
faience blanche: (French: "white faience"), type of French pottery of the late 16th and early 17th centuries; it copied bianchi di Faenza, a sparsely decorated Faenza majolica (tin-glazed earthenware), which appeared about ...
faience fine: fine white English lead-glazed earthenware, or creamware, imported into France from about 1730 onward. Staffordshire "salt glaze" was imported first, followed by the improved Wedgwood "Queen's ware" and the Leeds ...
faience parlante: (French: "talking faience"), in French pottery, popular utilitarian 18th-century earthenware, principally plates, jugs, and bowls, that had inscriptions as part of its decoration. The city of Nevers was the outstanding ...