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Statute of Frauds
Statute of Frauds basis of most modern laws requiring that certain promises must be in writing in order to be enforceable; it was passed by the English Parliament in 1677. In the United States, although state laws vary, most require written agreements in four types of contracts: contracts to assume...
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peristalsis
peristalsis The rhythmic alternating contraction and relaxation of smooth muscle that forces food through the intestinal tract in peristaltic waves....
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contract
contract in law, a promise, enforceable by law, to perform or to refrain from performing some specified act. In a general sense, all civil obligations fall under tort or contract law. Torts are usually characterized as violations of duties that are imposed on all persons and that have been establ...
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e-commerce
e-commerce commerce conducted over the Internet , most often via the World Wide Web . E-commerce can apply to purchases made through the Web or to business-to-business activities such as inventory transfers. A customer can order items from a vendor's Web site, paying with a credit card (the cus...
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social contract
social contract agreement or covenant by which men are said to have abandoned the "state of nature" to form the society in which they now live. The theory of such a contract, first formulated by the English philosophers Thomas Hobbes (in the Leviathan, 1651) and John Locke, assumes that men a...
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stellar evolution
stellar evolution life history of a star , beginning with its condensation out of the interstellar gas (see interstellar matter ) and ending, sometimes catastrophically, when the star has exhausted its nuclear fuel or can no longer adjust itself to a stable configuration. Because a star's total e...
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program trading
program trading a form of securities trading, also known as index arbitrage. Program traders exploit the price discrepancies between indexes of stocks and futures contracts by using sophisticated computer models to hedge positions. Program trading (also called computer-assisted trading) arose with ...
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Lorentz contraction
Lorentz contraction , in physics, contraction or foreshortening of a moving body in the direction of its motion, proposed by H. A. Lorentz on theoretical grounds and based on an earlier suggestion by G. F. Fitzgerald; it is sometimes called the Fitzgerald, or Lorentz-Fitzgerald, contraction. The Lor...
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plasma
plasma in physics, fully ionized gas of low density, containing approximately equal numbers of positive and negative ions (see electron and ion ). It is electrically conductive and is affected by magnetic fields. The study of plasma, called plasma physics, is especially important in research eff...
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commodity market
commodity market organized traders' exchange in which standardized, graded products are bought and sold. Worldwide, there are 48 major commodity exchanges that trade over 96 commodities, ranging from wheat and cotton to silver and oil. Most trading is done in futures contracts, that is, agreements ...
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