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abrasive ... absolution

abrasive: sharp, hard material used to wear away the surface of softer, less resistant materials. Included within the term are both natural and synthetic substances, ranging from the relatively soft particles used in household cleansers and jeweler's polish to the hardest known material, the diamond. Abrasives are indispensable to the manufacture ... [8 Related Articles]
abrasive machining: (from the article "abrasive") Abrasive machining, the use of abrasives rather than high-speed steel or tungsten carbide cutting tools, makes use of the self-sharpening grinding wheel and eliminates tool sharpening costs. The ability to grind hardened materials without the previously necessary prehardening machining saves intermediate part-handling operations.
Abravanel, Maurice: U.S. conductor (b. Jan. 6, 1903, Thessaloniki, Greece--d. Sept. 22, 1993, Salt Lake City, Utah), was of Spanish-Portuguese Sephardic parentage and had his early career in the cultural ferment of Weimar Germany, but he later spent more than three decades as music director and conductor of the Utah Symphony Orchestra. ...
abraxas: sequence of Greek letters considered as a word and formerly inscribed on charms, amulets, and gems in the belief that it possessed magical qualities. In the 2nd century AD, some Gnostic and other dualistic sects, which viewed matter as evil and the spirit as good and held that salvation came ...
Abreu, Caio Fernando: (from the article "Literature") ...and as a writer and mother plagued by self-doubts. The first volume of Caio 3D, titled O essencial da decada de 1970, gathered the early short fiction and other writings by Caio Fernando Abreu (1948-96), one of the most prolific and prized writers during the 1960s through the 1980s. The ...
Abreu, Capistrano de: Brazilian historian best known for his large-scale interpretive work on Brazil's colonial history.
Abrikosov, Alexey A.: Russian physicist, who won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2003 for his pioneering contribution to the theory of superconductivity. He shared the award with Vitaly L. Ginzburg of Russia and Anthony J. Leggett of Great Britain.
Abrocoma: (from the article "chinchilla rat") ...eyes, and large, rounded ears. The forefeet have four digits, the hind feet five, and the hairless soles are padded and covered with tiny tubercles that provide traction on bark or rocks. Abrocoma species have small claws, but claws are large and curved in Cuscomys; the second digits of both ...
Abrocoma boliviensis: (from the article "chinchilla rat") ...occurring along with the degu (Octodon degus). The two animals are approximately the same size, and mothers and young of both species have been found in the same nest burrows. A. boliviensis inhabits rocky, shrubby areas at altitudes of about 2,500 metres in central Bolivia. The ashy chinchilla rat (A. ...
Abrocoma vaccarum: (from the article "chinchilla rat") ...in central Bolivia. The ashy chinchilla rat (A. cinerea) lives only in the Altiplano, between 3,700 and 5,000 metres, from southeastern Peru to northern Chile and Argentina. A. vaccarum is known from rocky cliff faces at 1,880 metres above sea level in west-central Argentina.
abrogative referendum: (from the article "Italy") ...turnout for elections in Italy is high, often reaching well over 80 percent of the electorate for parliamentary elections. Citizens may also subscribe to national referenda or petitions designed to abrogate a law or an executive order; such a petition must be signed by 500,000 members of the electorate or ...
Abron: (from the article "Cote d'Ivoire") ...rise of the Asante empire in the late 17th century led to the migration of numerous Akan peoples into the forest region of Cote d'Ivoire. The most powerful of the states established was the Abron kingdom of Gyaman founded by Tan Date. It was conquered by the Asante in the ...
Abruzzi: regione, central Italy, fronting the Adriatic Sea and comprising the provincie of L'Aquila, Chieti, Pescara, and Teramo. Most of the region is mountainous or hilly, except for such intermontane basins as those of L'Aquila, Sulmona, and Fucino. The Apennines, the dominant physical feature, consist of three chains trending northwest-southeast, of ... [2 Related Articles]
Abruzzi Apennines: (from the article "Europe") ...as well as the arc-shaped Carpathian Mountains and their southern portion, the Transylvanian Alps, also exhibit high altitudes. The highest peaks in these ranges are Mount Corno (9,554 feet) in the Abruzzi Apennines, Bobotov Kuk (8,274 feet) in the Dinaric Alps, Mount Botev (7,795 feet) in the Balkan Mountains, Gerlachovsky ...
Abruzzi, Luigi Amedeo Giuseppe Maria Ferdinando Francesco, Duke (duca) d': Spanish mountaineer and explorer whose ventures ranged from Africa to the Arctic. [2 Related Articles]
Abruzzo, Ben L.: American balloonist who, with three crew mates, made the first transpacific balloon flight and the longest nonstop balloon flight, in the Double Eagle V. [3 Related Articles]
Abs, Hermann J.: German banker and a leading figure in the West German "economic miracle" following World War II. [1 Related Articles]
Absalom: third and favourite son of David, king of Israel and Judah. [3 Related Articles]
Absalon: archbishop, statesman, and close adviser of the Danish kings Valdemar I and Canute VI. [6 Related Articles]
Absaroka Range: mountain segment of the northern Rocky Mountains, in northwestern Wyoming and southern Montana, U.S. Extending in a northwest-southeast direction, the range is 170 miles (270 km) long and 50 miles wide. A large plateau, the result of volcanic action, was uplifted in the area, and stream and glacial erosion have ... [2 Related Articles]
Absaroka Sequence: (from the article "epeirogeny") ...Tippecanoe Sequence (mid-Ordovician to Early Devonian; about 460 to 400 million years ago), the Kaskaskia Sequence (Early Devonian to mid-Carboniferous; about 408 to 320 million years ago), and the Absaroka Sequence (Late Carboniferous to mid-Jurassic; about 320 to 176 million years ago).
abscess: a localized collection of pus in a cavity formed from tissues that have been broken down by infectious bacteria. An abscess is caused when such bacteria as staphylococci or streptococci gain access to solid tissue (e.g., by means of a small wound on the skin). The toxins released by these ... [3 Related Articles]
abscisic acid: (from the article "hormone") Growth inhibitors of various types have been identified in plants. The best characterized one is abscisic acid, which is chemically related to the cytokinins. It is probably universally distributed in higher plants and has a variety of actions; for example, it promotes abscission (leaf fall), the development of dormancy in ...
abscission: (from the article "hormone") ...than those associated with promoting growth; e.g., they play a role in cell division, in cell differentiation, in fruit development, in the formation of roots from cuttings, and in leaf fall (abscission). In experimental conditions, auxins tend to inhibit the progress of plant aging, perhaps because of their stimulating effect ...
abscission layer: (from the article "temperate forest") ...are created, becoming significant tourist attractions in the areas in which the colours are brightest-i.e., eastern North America and western Asia. A weak layer of tissue called the abscission layer develops at the base of each leaf stalk, and at this point the stalk breaks and the leaf is shed. ...
Abse, Dannie: British poet, playwright, essayist, and novelist, known for the characteristically Welsh voice and sensibility of his poetry.
absentee ownership: originally, ownership of land by proprietors who did not reside on the land or cultivate it themselves but enjoyed income from it. The term absentee ownership has assumed a derogatory social connotation not inherent in its literal meaning, based on the assumption that absentee owners lack personal interest in and ...
absentee voting: electoral process that enables persons who cannot appear at their designated polling places to vote from another location. The usual method of absentee voting is by mail, although provision is sometimes made for voting at prescribed places in advance of the polling date. Absentee voting requires special administrative arrangements to ...
Abseron Bank: (from the article "Caspian Sea") ...submerged landslides and canyons. The remains of ancient river valleys have been discovered on the gentler eastern slope; the bottom of the depression comprises a plain that deepens to the west. The Abseron Bank, a belt of shoals and islands rising from submerged elevations of older rocks, marks the transition ...
Abseron Peninsula: peninsula in Azerbaijan that extends 37 miles (60 km) eastward into the Caspian Sea and reaches a maximum width of 19 miles (30 km). An eastern extension of the Caucasus Mountains, the Abseron Peninsula consists of a gently undulating plain, in part dissected by ravines and characterized by frequent salt ... [5 Related Articles]
absinthe: flavoured, distilled liquor, yellowish green in colour, turning to cloudy, opalescent white when mixed with water. Highly aromatic, this liqueur is dry and somewhat bitter in taste. Absinthe is made from a spirit high in alcohol, such as brandy, and marketed with alcoholic content of 68 percent by volume. Wormwood ...
absolute: (from the article "perfume") ...solvent-a solid substance called a concrete. Treatment of the concrete with a second substance, usually alcohol, leaves the waxes undissolved and provides the concentrated flower oil called an absolute. In the extraction method called enfleurage, petals are placed between layers of purified animal fat, which become saturated with flower oil, ...
Absolute: (from the article "philosophy, Western") ...intensity of Kant. He conceived of human self-consciousness as the primary metaphysical fact through the analysis of which the philosopher finds his way to the cosmic totality that is "the Absolute." Just as the moral will is the chief characteristic of the self, so it is also the activating principle ...
absolute dating: (from the article "dating") Although relative ages can generally be established on a local scale, the events recorded in rocks from different locations can be integrated into a picture of regional or global scale only if their sequence in time is firmly established. The time that has elapsed since certain minerals formed can now ...
absolute Empiricism: (from the article "Empiricism") Empiricism, whether concerned with meaning or knowledge, can be held with varying degrees of strength. On this basis, absolute, substantive, and partial Empiricisms can be distinguished.
absolute humidity: (from the article "climate") Absolute humidity is the vapour concentration or density in the air. If m_v is the mass of vapour in a volume of air, then absolute humidity d_v is simply d_v = m_v/ V, in which V is the volume and d_v is expressed in grams per cubic metre. This index ...
Absolute Idea: (from the article "Absolute Idealism") ...rather than a correspondence between thoughts and external realities. As one proceeds from the confusing world of sense experience to the more complex and coherent categories of science, the Absolute Idea, of which all other abstract ideas are merely a part, is approached. Hegel also held that this increasing clarity ...
Absolute Idealism: a philosophical theory chiefly associated with G.W.F. Hegel and Friedrich Schelling, both German idealist philosophers of the 19th century, Josiah Royce, an American philosopher, and others, but, in its essentials, the product of Hegel. Absolute Idealism can generally be characterized as including the following principles: (1) the common everyday world ... [10 Related Articles]
absolute liability: (from the article "liability insurance") ...people or property that the law requires persons engaged in them to assume responsibility for their consequences no matter how much care is taken to avoid damage. Examples of this last type, called absolute liability, vary from one legal jurisdiction to another but may include, for example, the ownership of ...
absolute magnetometer: (from the article "magnetometer") Magnetometers specifically used to measure the Earth's field are of two types: absolute and relative (classed by their methods of calibration). Absolute magnetometers are calibrated with reference to their own known internal constants. Relative magnetometers must be calibrated by reference to a known, accurately measured magnetic field.
absolute magnitude: (from the article "star") The actually measured brightnesses of stars give apparent magnitudes. These cannot be converted to intrinsic brightnesses until the distances of the objects concerned are known. The absolute magnitude of a star is defined as the magnitude it would have if it were viewed at a standard distance of 10 parsecs ...
absolute motion: (from the article "mathematics") ...that Lorentz proposed as a way of converting one observer's data into another's formed a group. This appealed to Poincare and strengthened his belief that there was no sense in a concept of absolute motion; all motion was relative. Poincare thereupon gave an elegant mathematical formulation of Lorentz's ideas, which ...
absolute music: (from the article "program music") instrumental music that carries some extramusical meaning, some "program" of literary idea, legend, scenic description, or personal drama. It is contrasted with so-called absolute, or abstract, music, in which artistic interest is supposedly confined to abstract constructions in sound. It has been stated that the concept of program music does ...
absolute ownership: (from the article "property") In classical Roman law (c. AD 1-250), the sum of rights, privileges, and powers that a legal person could have in a thing was called dominium, or proprietas (ownership). The classical Roman jurists do not state that their system tends to ascribe proprietas to the current possessor of the thing ...
absolute refractory period: (from the article "nervous system") ...to the outside. After repolarization there is a period during which a second action potential cannot be initiated, no matter how large a stimulus current is applied to the neuron. This is called the absolute refractory period, and it is followed by a relative refractory period, during which another action ...
Absolute Spirit: (from the article "Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich") ...knows itself as spirit only by contrast with nature. Hegel's system is monistic in having a single theme: what makes the universe intelligible is to see it as the eternal cyclical process whereby Absolute Spirit comes to knowledge of itself as spirit (1) through its own thinking; (2) through nature; ...
absolute temperature scale: any thermometric scale on which a reading of zero coincides with the theoretical absolute zero of temperature-i.e., the thermodynamic equilibrium state of minimum energy. The standard measure of temperature in the International System of Units is the Kelvin (K) scale, on which the only point established by arbitrary definition is ... [3 Related Articles]
absolute truth: (from the article "Troeltsch, Ernst") Troeltsch had a considerable influence on younger theologians of his time, especially through his insistence that the church must drastically rethink its attitude toward "absolutist" claims made for the truth of its doctrines. He was both fascinated and troubled by "historicism" (historical relativism): the view that whatever is valued, pursued, ...
absolute zero: temperature at which a thermodynamic system has the lowest energy. It corresponds to −273.15 °C on the Celsius temperature scale and to −459.67 °F on the Fahrenheit temperature scale. [3 Related Articles]
Absolutely Fabulous: British television situation comedy that was broadcast on the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in five seasons (1992, 1994, 1995, 2001, 2003), along with several specials, and that built up a loyal following among both its British fans and American cable viewers, who watched the show's rebroadcasts.
absolution: in the Christian religion, a pronouncement of remission (forgiveness) of sins to the penitent. In Roman Catholicism, penance is a sacrament and the power to absolve lies with the priest, who can grant release from the guilt of sin to the sinner who is truly contrite, confesses his sin, and ... [4 Related Articles]