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wave motion: propagation of disturbances-that is, deviations from a state of rest or equilibrium-from place to place in a regular and organized way. Most familiar are surface waves on water, but both ... [20 Related Articles]
wave number: a unit of frequency in atomic, molecular, and nuclear spectroscopy equal to the true frequency divided by the speed of light and thus equal to the number of waves in ... [1 Related Articles]
wave ogive: (from the article "glacier") ...of curved bands can be seen. The surface of the glacier may rise and fall in a periodic manner, with the spacing between wave crests approximately equal to the amount ...
wave packet: (from the article "mathematics") ...the new quantum mechanics, von Neumann proposed that the subject be written in the language of functional analysis. The quantum mechanical world of states and observables, with its mysterious wave ...
wave power: electrical energy generated by harnessing the up-and-down motion of ocean waves. Wave power is typically produced by floating turbine platforms. However, it can be generated by exploiting the changes in ...
wave soaring: (from the article "gliding") ...if deftly piloted, to attain substantial increases in altitude. Slope soaring occurs when moving air is forced up by a ridge. By following the ridge, the sailplane can glide for ...
wave spectrum: (from the article "wave") ...on the sea surface are generated by the action of the wind. During generation the disturbed sea surface is not regular and contains many different oscillatory motions at different frequencies. ...
wave theory: (from the article "linguistics") ...method have pointed out that this situation does not generally hold. In 1872 a German scholar, Johannes Schmidt, criticized the family-tree theory and proposed instead what is referred to as ...
wave train: (from the article "interference") in physics, the net effect of the combination of two or more wave trains moving on intersecting or coincident paths. The effect is that of the addition of the amplitudes ...
wave velocity: distance traversed by a periodic, or cyclic, motion per unit time (in any direction). Wave velocity in common usage refers to speed, although, properly, velocity implies both speed and direction. ... [3 Related Articles]
wave-cut bench: (from the article "glacial landform") ...a perfectly horizontal, flat, terracelike feature along its beach. Such a bench may be formed by wave erosion of the bedrock or glacial sediments that form the margin of the ...
wave-cut platform: gently sloping rock ledge that extends from the high-tide level at the steep-cliff base to below the low-tide level. It develops as a result of wave abrasion; beaches protect the ... [1 Related Articles]
wave-cut terrace: (from the article "ocean") ...by ice sheet-sea level relations), is subject to planing by marine erosion. If planing off is complete, a flat-topped submerged platform results; if subsidence or eustatic submergence intervenes, a wave-cut ...
wave-particle duality: possession by physical entities (such as light and electrons) of both wavelike and particle-like characteristics. On the basis of experimental evidence, the German physicist Albert Einstein first showed (1905) that ... [11 Related Articles]
wave-particle interaction: (from the article "geomagnetic field") The particles of the ring current have a finite lifetime before being lost to the Earth's atmosphere. Two processes-charge exchange and wave-particle interactions-contribute to this loss. Charge exchange is a ...
waved albatross: (from the article "procellariiform") ...(the region between 40° and 50° latitude) and moving north with the food-rich cold currents along the west coasts of South America, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. One species, ...
waveguide: any of a class of devices that confines and directs the propagation of electromagnetic waves, such as radio waves, infrared rays, and visible light. Waveguides take many shapes and forms. ... [2 Related Articles]
waveguide dispersion: (from the article "telecommunications media") Other important causes of signal distortion in optical fibres are material dispersion and waveguide dispersion. Material dispersion is a phenomenon in which different optical wavelengths propagate at different velocities, depending ...
wavelength: distance between corresponding points of two consecutive waves. "Corresponding points" refers to two points or particles in the same phase-i.e., points that have completed identical fractions of their periodic motion. ... [23 Related Articles]
wavelength shifter: (from the article "radiation measurement") ...such as toluene, or as a plastic, in which the fluor is dissolved in a monomer that is subsequently polymerized. Frequently, a third component is added to liquid or plastic ...
Wavell, Archibald Percival Wavell, 1st Earl, Viscount Wavell Of Cyrenaica And Of Winchester, Viscount Keren Of Eritrea And Of Winchester: British field marshal whose victories against the Italians in North Africa during the early part of World War II were offset by his inability to defeat the German Afrika Korps ... [2 Related Articles]
wavellite: hydrated aluminum phosphate [Al₃(PO₄)₂(OH)₃·5H₂O], a common phosphate mineral that typically occurs as translucent, greenish, globular masses in crevices in aluminous metamorphic rocks, in limonite and phosphate-rock deposits, and in hydrothermal ...
wavemeter: device for determining the distance between successive wavefronts of equal phase along an electromagnetic wave. The determination is often made indirectly, by measuring the frequency of the wave. Although electromagnetic ...
Waveney: district, administrative and historic county of Suffolk, England. It is bounded on the east by the North Sea and on the northwest by the River Waveney. The interior is rich ...
Waveney, River: stream in England whose whole course of 50 miles (80 km) marks the boundary between the East Anglian counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. The river flows northeastward through agricultural countryside, ...
Waverley: borough (district), administrative and historic county of Surrey, England. It occupies the southwestern corner of the county, along the Hampshire and Sussex borders. Its wooded hills and heathlands have been ...
WAVES: military unit, established on July 30, 1942, as the U.S. Navy's corps of female members. During World War II some 100,000 WAVES served in a wide variety of capacities, ranging ... [1 Related Articles]
Waw: town, southwestern Sudan. It lies on the western bank of the Jur River (a tributary of Al-Ghazal River), about 140 miles (220 km) northwest of Rumbek. Waw serves as a ...
Wawa Belt: (from the article "Precambrian time") ...occurrences are the Barberton belt in South Africa; the Sebakwian, Belingwean, and Bulawayan-Shamvaian belts of Zimbabwe; the Yellowknife belts in the Slave province of Canada; the Abitibi, Wawa, Wabigoon, and ...
Wawat: (from the article "Nubia") ...Pygmy whom he brought to Pepi II. Toward the end of Harkhuf's career, the Nubian chiefs united, imperiling the Aswan expeditions. A new population (called C Group by archaeologists) inhabited ...
Wawel Castle: (from the article "Western architecture") ...style appears in Poland under the late Jagiellon dynasty, and especially in the reign of Sigismund I (1506-48), whose wife came from the Sforza family of Lombardy. The rebuilding of ...
Wawel Cathedral: (from the article "Krakow") ...(Kosciol Mariacki), the main section of which dates from 1497. It contains a stained-glass window from 1370 and a magnificent altar (1477-89) by Veit Stoss (Wit Stosz). Wawel Cathedral houses ...
wax: any of a class of pliable substances of animal, plant, mineral, or synthetic origin that differ from fats in being less greasy, harder, and more brittle and in containing principally ... [15 Related Articles]
wax begonia: (from the article "waxplant") The wax begonia (see begonia) is a waxy-leaved bedding and pot plant. The wax-leaved privet, or white wax tree, is a landscape plant used in warm climates. The wax tree ...
wax dipping: (from the article "poultry processing") An extra process, called wax dipping, is often used for waterfowl, since their feathers are more difficult to remove. Following the mechanical feather picking, the carcasses are dipped in a ...
wax gourd: trailing fleshy vine, of the gourd family (Cucurbitaceae), native to tropical Asia but grown in many warm countries for its edible fruits. A wax gourd has solitary yellow flowers 8 ... [1 Related Articles]
wax mallow: (from the article "mallow") ...(Corchorus olitorius), from tropical Asia, a secondary source of jute; tree mallow (Lavatera arborea), up to 3 metres (10 feet), from Europe but naturalized along coastal California; wax mallow (Malvaviscus ...
wax moth: (from the article "pyralid moth") Other interesting pyralids include the wax moth (Galleria mellonella), also known as bee-moth, or honeycomb moth. The larvae usually live in beehives and feed on wax and young bees and ...
wax myrtle: (from the article "Myricaceae") Useful plants within the family include the sweet gale, or bog myrtle (Myrica gale), a shrub of wet areas with resinous leaves useful in medicines; the wax myrtle, or candleberry ...
wax sculpture: the preparation of finished figures in beeswax by modelling or molding or the use of such figures as a form for casting metal or creating preliminary models. At ordinary temperatures ... [2 Related Articles]
wax tablet: (from the article "paleography") Both papyrus and parchment were expensive and were replaced for everyday use by wax tablets corresponding to today's notebook. Tablets made of wooden blocks were hollowed out and filled with ...
wax tree: (from the article "waxplant") The wax begonia (see begonia) is a waxy-leaved bedding and pot plant. The wax-leaved privet, or white wax tree, is a landscape plant used in warm climates. The wax tree ...
wax vine: (from the article "waxplant") any of a number of unrelated plants that are waxy in some respect. Most popular as greenhouse plants or window plants are several species of Hoya, called wax plants, or ...
wax-rosette: (from the article "Echeveria") The smaller species, such as the wax rosette (E. × gilva), the pearl echeveria, also called Mexican snowball (E. elegans), and the plush plant (E. pulvinata), are handsome as small ...
waxbill: any of several Old World tropical birds named for the prominent red (the colour of sealing wax) of their conical bills. The name is used generally for birds of the ... [2 Related Articles]
Waxman, Albert Samuel: Canadian actor (b. March 2, 1935, Toronto, Ont.-d. Jan. 17, 2001, Toronto), achieved fame with his roles on the television series The King of Kensington and Cagney & Lacey. Waxman ...
Waxman, Franz: (from the article "1950: Other Winners") ...Black-and-White: Hans Dreier and John Meehan for Sunset BoulevardArt Direction, Color: Hans Dreier and Walter Tyler for Samson and DelilahMusic Score of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture: Franz Waxman for ...
Waxman, Meyer: Jewish literary historian, rabbi, educator, and scholar.
waxplant: any of a number of unrelated plants that are waxy in some respect. Most popular as greenhouse plants or window plants are several species of Hoya, called wax plants, or ...
waxwing: any of three species of birds belonging to the songbird family Bombycillidae (order Passeriformes). They are elegant-looking birds named for beads of shiny red material on the tips of the ... [1 Related Articles]
Way, John T.: (from the article "ion-exchange reaction") ...theory. In 1850, nine years before Arrhenius was born, separate papers appeared in the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England by agriculturist Sir H.S.M. Thompson and chemist J.T. ...
wayang: (Javanese: "shadow"), classical Javanese puppet drama that uses the shadows thrown by puppets manipulated by rods against a translucent screen lit from behind. Developed before the 10th century, the form ... [5 Related Articles]
wayang kulit: (from the article "South Asian arts") ...manipulates them from behind with two sticks. Strong lamps are arranged so that the size, position, and angle of the puppets change with the distance of the light. They are ...
wayang wong: (from the article "wayang") ...shapes and movements of the early wayang kulit puppets were imitated by other forms of wayang, notably the wayang golek, or three-dimensional wooden figures manipulated by rods; the wayang wong, ...
Wayback Machine: (from the article "Redefining the Library in the Digital Age") The nonprofit Internet Archive was founded in 1996 by Internet entrepreneur Brewster Kahle as an online collection of Web and multimedia resources. The archive operated the Wayback Machine, which offered ...
Waycross: city, seat (1872) of Ware county, southeastern Georgia, U.S., on the coastal plain, about 50 miles (80 km) west of Brunswick. Early settlers had built blockhouses in the area by ...
Wayland The Smith: in Scandinavian, German, and Anglo-Saxon legend, a smith of outstanding skill. He was, according to some legends, a lord of the elves. His story is told in the Volundarkvida, one ...
Wayne: county, extreme northeastern Pennsylvania, U.S., bounded to the northeast and north by New York state (the West Branch Delaware and Delaware rivers constituting the boundary), to the southeast by Lake ...
Wayne: township (town), Passaic county, northern New Jersey, U.S., 6 miles (10 km) west of Paterson, New Jersey. The site, first settled in 1695, was originally part of New Barbadoes township ...
Wayne: county, north-central New York state, U.S. It comprises a lowland region bordered by Lake Ontario to the north and intersected by the New York State Canal System (completed 1918), which ...
Wayne Morse U.S. Courthouse: (from the article "Architecture") The Wayne Morse U.S. Courthouse in Eugene, Ore., by Mayne, was a very contemporary building, surfaced in stainless steel in bold curving shapes that gave it a streamlined look. A ...
Wayne State University: public, coeducational institution of higher learning in Detroit, Mich., U.S. It is a comprehensive research university, comprising colleges of education; engineering; fine, performing, and communication arts; liberal arts and sciences; ... [1 Related Articles]
Wayne, Anthony: prominent American general during the Revolutionary War, who later destroyed the Northwest Indian Confederation at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in Ohio (Aug. 20, 1794). [8 Related Articles]
Wayne, David: (WAYNE JAMES MCMEEKAN), U.S. actor (b. Jan. 30, 1914, Traverse City, Mich.--d. Feb. 9, 1995, Santa Monica, Calif.), took Broadway by storm as the leprechaun Og in Finian's Rainbow (1947), ...
Wayne, James M.: associate justice of the United States Supreme Court (1835-67).
Wayne, John: major American motion-picture actor, who embodied the image of the strong, taciturn cowboy or soldier, and who in many ways personified the idealized American values of his era. [2 Related Articles]
Wayne, Marshall: American diver who won a gold medal in the platform diving event and a silver medal in the 3-m springboard diving competition at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin; his ...
Waynesboro: city, administratively independent of, but located in, Augusta county, north-central Virginia, U.S. It lies in the Shenandoah Valley along the South River, near the junction of Skyline Drive and the ...
Waynflete, William of: English lord chancellor and bishop of Winchester who founded Magdalen College of the University of Oxford.
ways: (from the article "ship construction") Apart from certain small craft built on inland waterways, which are launched sideways, the great majority of ships are launched stern first from the building berth. Standing structures called ways, ...
Ways and Means Committee: (from the article "government budget") ...subcommittee is concerned with a particular organizational unit. There is virtually no consideration of the budget as a whole by the committee as a whole. Revenues fall under the jurisdiction ...
Wayss, G. A.: (from the article "bridge") The most prolific designers first using reinforced concrete were Hennebique and the German engineer G.A. Wayss, who bought the Monier patents. Hennebique's Vienne River Bridge at Chatellerault, France, built in ...
Waza National Park: (from the article "Principal national parks of the world") ...tiny sunbirds to giant hawks and eagles. A few elephants survive in the forest and in the grassy woodlands, where baboons and several types of antelope are the most common ...
Wazir, Khalil Ibrahim al-: Palestinian leader who became the military strategist and second in command of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). [1 Related Articles]
Wazirabad: town, northern Punjab province, Pakistan, just east of the Chenab River. It is an important rail junction, with the Sialkot and Faisalabad (formerly Lyallpur) lines of the Pakistan Western Railway ...
Waziristan: geographic region of the North-West Frontier Province, Pakistan. It is a barren, mountainous country occupied by part of the Sulaiman Range and bounded north by the Kurram River, south by ... [1 Related Articles]
Wazyk, Adam: Polish poet and novelist who began his career as a propagandist for Stalinism but ended as one of its opponents.
Wazzan, Shafiq Dib al-: Lebanese politician who, as a moderate Sunni Muslim, was a compromise choice for prime minister (1980-82), but he failed in his attempts to end his country's civil war, which had ...
WBCN: (from the article "WBCN") While many progressive rock stations died painful, public deaths, one of the first-WBCN in Boston, Massachusetts-carried on. Founded in 1967 by Ray Riepen, club owner (the Boston Tea Party) and ...
WDIA: (from the article "WDIA") When WDIA went on the air in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1948, its white owners, Bert Ferguson and John R. Pepper, were anything but blues aficionados; however, deejay Nat D. Williams ...
We: (from the article "Mesopotamian religion") ...originality and remarkable depth. It relates, first, how the gods originally had to toil for a living, how they rebelled and went on strike, how Enki suggested that one of ...
Weah, George: Liberian football (soccer) player, who was named African, European, and World Player of the Year in 1995-an unprecedented achievement. He won his first African Player of the Year award in ... [4 Related Articles]
weak completeness: (from the article "formal logic") Relative to a given criterion of validity, an axiomatic system is sound if every theorem is valid, and it is complete (or, more specifically, weakly complete) if every valid wff ...
weak electrolyte: (from the article "liquid") While classification under the heading electrolyte-solution or nonelectrolyte-solution is often useful, some solutions have properties near the boundary between these two broad classes. Although such substances as ordinary salt and ...
weak flour: (from the article "cereal processing") ...the terms strong and weak indicate flour from hard and soft wheats, respectively. The term strength is used to describe the type of flour, strong flours being preferred for bread ...
weak focusing: (from the article "particle accelerator") ...field must be shaped so as to focus the beam of particles. In early synchrotrons the field was caused to decrease slightly with increasing radius, as in a betatron. This ...
weak force: a fundamental force of nature that underlies some forms of radioactivity, governs the decay of unstable subatomic particles such as mesons, and initiates the nuclear fusion reaction that fuels the ... [21 Related Articles]
weak preference: (from the article "applied logic") ...x ≫ y, (2) indifference: x and y are indifferent, x ≊ y, defined as "neither x ≫ y nor y ≫ x," and (3) weak preference: x is no ...
weak principle of equivalence: (from the article "gravitation") ...constitution, and (2) the path of a body or of light in the neighbourhood of a massive body (the Sun, for example) is slightly different from that predicted by Newton's ...
weakened rhyme: (from the article "rhyme") .../ grind). Feminine pararhyme has two forms, one in which both vowel sounds differ, and one in which only one does (ran in / run on; blindness / blandness). Weakened, ...
weakfish: (genus Cynoscion), any member of a group of fishes in the croaker family, Sciaenidae (order Perciformes). A half dozen species inhabit the coastal regions of North America.
weakly interacting massive particle: (from the article "Milky Way Galaxy") ...galaxy clusters. It appears likely that there is more than one form of dark matter, perhaps including brown dwarf stars, massive neutrinos, and possibly hypothetical types of objects, such as ...
Weald, The: ancient raised tract of forest nearly 40 miles (64 km) wide in southeastern England, separating the London basin from the English Channel coast. The Weald (Saxon: Andredsweald) is developed on ... [2 Related Articles]
Wealden: district, administrative county of East Sussex, historic county of Sussex, England. The district takes its name from that of the Weald, a region of forested ridges that lies between the ...
wealth and income, distribution of: the way in which the wealth and income of a nation are divided among its population, or the way in which the wealth and income of the world are divided ... [20 Related Articles]
wealth tax: (from the article "income tax") ...an assessment to be made of accrued but unrealized capital gains and losses, the income tax is generally held to be easier to administer than either an expenditure tax (a ...
weaning: (from the article "lactation") Milk can be regarded as an emulsion of fat globules in a colloidal solution of protein together with other substances in true solution. Two constituents of milk, the protein casein ...
weapon: (from the article "weapon") an instrument used in combat for the purpose of killing, injuring, or defeating an enemy. A weapon may be a shock weapon, held in the hands, such as the club, ...
weapon of mass destruction: weapon with the capacity to inflict death and destruction on such a massive scale and so indiscriminately that its very presence in the hands of a hostile power can be ... [23 Related Articles]
weapon platform: (from the article "weapon") Weapons have been carried and delivered by a wide variety of vehicles, often called weapon platforms. These have included such naval craft as the ship of the line, battleship, submarine, ...
weapons inspection: (from the article "Iraq") The Security Council established a UN Special Commission (UNSCOM) to inspect and verify that Iraq was complying with the ban on WMD. By mid-1991, however, it was becoming clear that ...