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Petri, Olaus ... Phags-pa
Petri, Olaus
Lutheran churchman who, with his brother Laurentius, played a decisive role in the reformation of the Swedish church.
Petrie, Sir Flinders
British archaeologist and Egyptologist who made valuable contributions to the techniques and methods of field excavation and invented a sequence dating method that made possible the reconstruction of history from ...
Petrified Forest National Park
desert area containing plant and animal fossils and archaeological sites in eastern Arizona, U.S., 19 miles (30 km) east of Holbrook. Established as a national monument in 1906 and as ...
petrified wood
fossil formed by the invasion of minerals into cavities between and within cells of natural wood, usually by silica (silicon dioxide, SiO2) or calcite (calcium carbonate, CaCO3). The petrified forests ...
Petrillo, James C
American labour leader who served as president of the American Federation of Musicians (AFM) from 1940 to 1958.
Petrine theory
the basis of Roman Catholic doctrine on papal primacy, resting partly on Christ's bestowing the "keys of the Kingdom" on Peter (the first pope, according to Roman Catholic tradition) and ...
Petrobras
Brazilian company that was founded in 1953 as a government-owned monopoly to prospect, extract, and refine domestic petroleum and to transport that oil and its derivatives. Petrobras is an operating ...
petrochemical
in the strictest sense, any of a large group of chemicals (as distinct from fuels) derived from petroleum and natural gas and used for a variety of commercial purposes. The ...
Petrodvorets
city, Leningrad oblast (province), northwestern Russia. It lies on the southern shore of the Gulf of Finland, 18 miles (29 km) southwest of the city of St. Petersburg. Peter I ...
Petrofina SA
major Belgian petroleum conglomerate, engaged in the exploration for and production of crude oil, oil refining, and petrochemical production. Its headquarters are in Brussels.
Petroglyph National Monument
archaeological site featuring some 25,000 prehistoric and historic petroglyphs (rock carvings), central New Mexico, U.S. It is situated on the west side of Albuquerque, near the Rio Grande. In addition ...
Petroleos de Venezuela, SA
state-owned Venezuelan company created through the nationalization of the petroleum industry on Jan. 1, 1976. It earns the largest share of Venezuela's foreign exchange. Its headquarters are in Caracas.
Petroleos Mexicanos
state-owned Mexican company, a producer, refiner, and distributor of oil, natural gas, and petroleum derivatives. Pemex is the largest Latin American oil company. Its headquarters are in Mexico City.
petroleum
complex mixture of hydrocarbons that occur in the Earth in liquid, gaseous, or solid forms. The term is often restricted to the liquid form, commonly called crude oil, but as ...
petroleum engineering
the branch of engineering that involves the development and exploitation of crude oil and natural gas fields as well as the technical analysis and forecasting of their future performance. Its ...
petroleum engineering
field of engineering that involves the optimized development and exploitation of crude oil and natural gas fields, as well as the technical analysis and forecasting of these fields' future performance. ...
petroleum jelly
translucent, yellowish to amber or white, unctuous substance having almost no odour or taste, derived from petroleum and used principally in medicine and pharmacy as a protective dressing and as ...
petroleum production
recovery of crude oil and, often, associated natural gas from the Earth.
petroleum refining
conversion of crude oil into useful products.
petroleum trap
subsurface reservoir of petroleum. The oil is always accompanied by water and often by natural gas; all are confined in porous rock, usually such sedimentary rocks as sands, sandstones, arkoses, ...
petroleum wax
any wax obtained from petroleum, including paraffin wax, microcrystalline wax, and petroleum jelly (qq.v.). By comparison, animal and vegetable waxes are generally higher in cost, of varying chemical constitution, and ...
Petrolina
city, southwestern Pernambuco estado ("state"), northeastern Brazil. It lies on the left (north) bank of the Sao Francisco River, just across from Juazeiro, in Bahia state, with ...
Petrolini, Ettore
Italian theatrical actor and author, creator of numerous caricature sketches, and inventor of a revolutionary and anticonformist way of performing.
petrology
scientific study of rocks that deals with their composition, texture, and structure; their occurrence and distribution; and their origin in relation to physicochemical conditions and geologic processes. It is concerned ...
Petronas Twin Towers
pair of skyscraper office buildings in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, that are among the world's tallest buildings. The Twin Towers, built to house the headquarters of Petronas, the national petroleum company ...
Petronius Arbiter, Gaius
reputed author of the Satyricon, a literary portrait of Roman society of the 1st century AD.
Petropavlovsk
city, northern Kazakhstan. It lies along the Esil (Ishim) River in the centre of the Esil Steppe. Petropavlovsk was founded as a Russian fort in 1752 and soon became an ...
Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky
port and administrative centre of Kamchatka oblast (region), far eastern Russia. It lies along the landlocked Avachinskaya Gulf, on the Pacific coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula. The ...
Petrosani
city, Hunedoara judet (county), west-central Romania, situated on a tributary of the Jiu River. Founded in the 17th century, it is the principal city and cultural centre for the upper ...
Petrosyan, Tigran Vartanovich
Soviet Armenian chess master who won the world championship from Mikhail Botvinnik in 1963, defended it successfully against Boris Spassky in 1966, and was defeated by Spassky in 1969. Petrosyan's ...
Petrozavodsk
city and capital of Karelia, northwestern Russia, situated on the western shore of Lake Onega, south of the Shuya River outflow. The city was founded in 1703 by Peter I ...
Petrpolis
city, central Rio de Janeiro estado (state), southeastern Brazil. It is situated in a valley at 2,667 feet (813 metres) above sea level, in the Orgaos Mountains, ...
Petrucci, Ottaviano dei
Italian music printer whose collection of chansons, Harmonice Musices Odhecaton A (1501), was the first polyphonic music printed from movable type.
Petrucci, Pandolfo
Italian merchant and politician who succeeded in gaining supreme power over Siena. Although an absolute and tyrannical ruler, he did a great deal to augment the artistic splendour of his ...
Petrus Aureoli
French churchman, philosopher, and critical thinker, called Doctor facundus ("eloquent teacher"), who was important as a forerunner to William of Ockham.
Petrus Ky
Vietnamese scholar whose literary works served as a bridge between his civilization and that of the West. He helped popularize the romanized script of the Vietnamese language, Quoc-ngu.
Petry, Ann
African-American novelist, journalist, and biographer whose works offered a unique perspective on black life in small-town New England.
Pettazzoni, Raffaele
Italian historian of religions and educator, a founder and president (1950-59) of the International Association for the Study of History of Religions. His original comparative method is shown in many ...
petticoat
in modern usage, an underskirt worn by women. The petycote (probably derived from the Old French petite cote, "little coat") appeared in literature in the 15th century in reference to ...
Pettit, Bob
American professional basketball player, first to score 20,000 points in the National Basketball Association (NBA). A clumsy player in high school, Pettit turned himself into a graceful 6-ft 9-in (2.06 ...
Pettit, Katherine
American settlement worker, remembered for her extensive work among the mountain people of Kentucky to improve health and living conditions and educational opportunities.
Petty, Richard
American stock-car racer who was the most successful driver in the history of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR). Petty won 200 NASCAR races in his career ...
Petty, Sir William
English political economist and statistician whose main contribution to political economy, Treatise of Taxes and Contributions (1662), examined the role of the state in the economy and touched on the ...
Petty, Tom
American singer and songwriter whose roots-oriented guitar rock arose from the new-wave movement of the late 1970s and resulted in a string of hit singles and albums.
petunia
flowering plant whose showy, trumpet-shaped flowers make it immensely popular for summer beds and window boxes. It is a genus of the nightshade family (Solanaceae), originating in South America, and ...
Petursson, Hallgrimur
poet, one of the greatest religious poets of Iceland.
Petworth
town ("parish"), Chichester district, administrative county of West Sussex, historic county of Sussex, England. The parish adjoins the great park of Petworth House (now owned by the National Trust). The ...
Peuerbach, Georg von
Austrian mathematician and astronomer instrumental in the European revival of the technical understanding of the astronomical ideas of Ptolemy (fl. c. AD 140) and the early use of sines in ...
Peutinger Table
copy of a Roman map, made in 1265 by a monk of Colmar (Alsace) on 12 sheets of parchment. Eleven of the sheets are now in the Nationalbibliothek in Vienna. ...
Pevensey
locality, Wealden district, administrative county of East Sussex, historic county of Sussex, England. Once an English Channel port, it now lies a mile inland along a narrow waterway; from the ...
Pevsner, Antoine
Russian-born French sculptor and painter who-like his brother, Naum Gabo-advanced the Constructivist style.
pew
originally a raised and enclosed place in a church designed for an ecclesiastical dignitary or officer; the meaning was later extended to include special seating in the body of the ...
Pew, J. Howard; and Pew, Joseph N., Jr.
American industrialist brothers who expanded the Sun Oil Company (which their father had founded) by introducing new refining, marketing, and distribution techniques.
pewee
any of eight species of birds of the genus Contopus (family Tyrannidae); it is named for its call, which is monotonously repeated from an open perch. In North America a ...
pewter
tin-based alloy used as a material from which domestic utensils were fashioned.
Peyer patch
any of the nodules of lymphatic cells that aggregate to form bundles or patches and occur usually only in the lowest portion (ileum) of the small intestine; they are named ...
peyote
two species of the cactus genus Lophophora, family Cactaceae, native to North America, almost exclusively to Mexico.
Pez, Jos Antonio
Venezuelan soldier and politician, a leader in the country's independence movement and its first president. In the crucial early years of Venezuelan independence, he led the country as a dictator.
Pfeffer, Wilhelm
German botanist whose work on osmotic pressure made him a pioneer in the study of plant physiology.
Pfefferkorn, Johannes
German controversialist-a Christianized Jew-and opponent of Jewish literature, whose dispute with the Humanist and Hebraist Johannes Reuchlin (q.v.) was a European cause celebre in the early 16th century.
Pfitzner, Hans
German composer who upheld traditional ideals during the post-Wagnerian era.
Pforzheim
city, Baden-Wurttemberg Land (state), southwestern Germany. It lies on the northern edge of the Black Forest (Schwarzwald), where the Nagold and Wurm rivers join the Enz, northwest ...
Pfyffer, Ludwig
Swiss military leader, spokesman for Roman Catholic interests in the cantons, and probably the most important Swiss political figure in the latter half of the 16th century.
pH
quantitative measure of the acidity or basicity of aqueous or other liquid solutions. The term, widely used in chemistry, biology, and agronomy, translates the values of the concentration of the ...
Phacelia
genus of about 200 species of white to blue or purple-flowering annual herbs, native to North America and Andean South America and including several species of garden flowers. It belongs ...
Phacops
genus of trilobites (an extinct group of aquatic arthropods) found as fossils in Silurian and Devonian rocks (between 345,000,000 and 430,000,000 years old) in Europe and North America. Phacops is ...
Phaedo
also spelled Phaedon philosopher, founder of a Socratic school of philosophy at Elis on the Peloponnese, and author of works on dialectics and ethics.
Phaedrus
Roman fabulist, the first writer to Latinize whole books of fables, producing free versions in iambic metre of Greek prose fables then circulating under the name of Aesop.
Phaeophyta
division or phylum of algae the members of which are commonly known as brown algae (q.v.).
Phaeozem
one of the 30 soil groups in the classification system of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Phaeozems are characterized by a humus-rich surface layer covered in the natural state ...
Phaestus
ancient city on the western end of the southern plain of Crete, about 3.5 miles (5.6 km) from the sea. The site was occupied from the 4th millennium BC, and ...
Phaethon
(Greek: "Shining," or "Radiant"), in Greek mythology, the son of Helios, the sun god, and a woman or nymph variously identified as Clymene, Prote, or Rhode. Taunted with illegitimacy, Phaethon ...
phaeton
open, four-wheeled, doorless carriage, popular in the 18th and 19th centuries. It contained one or two seats, usually had a folding, or falling, top, and was owner-driven (i.e., it had ...
Phag-mo-gru Family
Tibetan family that in the 14th century liberated Tibet from Mongol control. The Phag-mo-gru had begun to extend its power over the surrounding countryside in the 13th century at a ...
phagocytosis
process by which certain living cells called phagocytes ingest or engulf other cells or particles. The phagocyte may be a free-living one-celled organism, such as an amoeba, or one of ...
Phags-pa
Tibetan scholar-monk who set up a Buddhist theocracy in Tibet.