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Leonidas
Leonidas , d. 480 BC, king of Sparta. He succeeded (c.491 BC) his half brother, Cleomenes I. When the Persians invaded Greece under Xerxes (480 BC), Leonidas with 300 Spartans and 5,000 auxiliaries was given the pass at Thermopylae to hold. There was treachery. Most of the Greeks got away, but the S...
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erosion
erosion , general term for the processes by which the surface of the earth is constantly being worn away. The principal agents are gravity, running water, near-shore waves, ice (mostly glaciers), and wind. All running water gathers and transports particles of soil or fragments of rock (formed by we...
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Jozadak
Jozadak , in the Bible, one in the high priests' line who probably never held office, because he was carried away to Babylon. Alternate spellings are Jehozadak and Josedech.
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radial velocity
radial velocity in astronomy, the speed with which a star moves toward or away from the sun. It is determined from the red or blue shift in the star's spectrum .
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taxis
taxis , movement of animals either toward or away from a stimulus, such as light (phototaxis), heat (thermotaxis), chemicals (chemotaxis), gravity (geotaxis), and touch (thigmotaxis). The turning movements of plants in response to stimuli are called tropisms .
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Pied Piper of Hamelin
Pied Piper of Hamelin legendary figure of Hameln, Germany. He rid the town of its rats and mice by charming them away with his flute playing. When the citizens refused to pay him the price they had agreed upon, he charmed away their children out of revenge. Allegedly this occurred in 1284. Among th...
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tsunami
tsunami , series of catastrophic ocean waves generated by submarine movements, which may be caused by earthquakes , volcanic eruptions, landslides beneath the ocean, or an asteroid striking the earth. Tsunamis are also called seismic sea waves or, popularly, tidal waves.
In the open ocean, tsu...
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Abhidharma
Abhidharma [Skt.,=higher dharma, or doctrine], schools of Buddhist philosophy. Early Buddhism analyzed experience into 5 skandhas or aggregates, and alternatively into 18 dhatus or elements. Later schools developed the process of analysis and classification that was called Abhidharma ; their...
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Essen
Essen , city (1994 pop. 622,380), North Rhine-Westphalia, W Germany, on the Ruhr River. The major industrial center of the Ruhr district, it was the seat of the famous Krupp steelworks. Essen is a retail trade center, a rail junction, and a steel and electricity producer. Its diversified industr...
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evaporation
evaporation change of a liquid into vapor at any temperature below its boiling point . For example, water, when placed in a shallow open container exposed to air, gradually disappears, evaporating at a rate that depends on the amount of surface exposed, the humidity of the air, and the temperatu...
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