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Chaeronea (ancient town, Greece)
in ancient Greece, fortified town on Mt. Petrachus, guarding the entry into the northern plain of Boeotia. Controlled by the Boeotian city of Orchomenus in the 5th century bc, it was the scene of the battle in which Philip II of Macedon defeated Thebes and Athens (338 bc). The battle is commemorated by a statue of a large lion sitt...
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Chaeronea, Battle of (Greek history)
...be treated as slaves. Left in charge of Macedonia in 340 during Philip’s attack on Byzantium, Alexander defeated the Maedi, a Thracian people; two years later he commanded the left wing at the Battle of Chaeronea, in which Philip defeated the allied Greek states, and displayed personal courage in breaking the Sacred Band of Thebes. A year later Philip divorced Olympias; and, after a......
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Chaeropithecus (mammal)
any of five species of large, robust, and primarily terrrestrial monkeys found in dry regions of Africa and Arabia. Males of the largest species, the chacma baboon (Papio ursinus), average 30 kg (66 pounds) or so, but females are only half this size. The smallest is the hamadryas, or sacred baboon (P. hamadryas)...
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Chaeropus ecaudatus (marsupial)
...endangered, they are found only in remote colonies in arid interior Australia. As the name implies, they have big narrow ears, long hind legs, and bushy tails. The 35-centimetre- (14-inch-) long, pig-footed bandicoot (Chaeropus ecaudatus) of interior Australia has feet that are almost hooflike, with two toes functional on the forefoot, one on the hind foot. This herbivorous creature,......
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Chaetochloa italica (plant)
...of Alopecurus, with bristly flower clusters and flat, thin leaf blades. More than 40 species are found in North America. A few are forage grasses, as plains foxtail (S. macrostachya). Foxtail millet (S. italica; see millet) is the only economically valuable species. Yellow foxtail (S. lutescens or S. glauca) and green foxtail (S. viridis), named....
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Chaetodermatida (mollusk class)
...Possibly representive of the primitive molluscan condition or a secondary reduction from more advanced, shelled ancestors. About 300 species.Subclass Chaetodermomorpha (Caudofoveata)Worm-shaped; covered by cuticle and aragonitic scales; ventral gliding area reduced; mantle cavity terminal with 1 pair of ctenidia; midgut with ventrally...
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Chaetodipterus faber (fish)
The Atlantic spadefish (Chaetodipterus faber) is a western Atlantic species that ranges from New England to Brazil. It feeds primarily on marine invertebrates, particularly crustaceans and ctenophores (comb jellies)....
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Chaetodipus (rodent)
The 15 species of coarse-haired pocket mice (genus Chaetodipus) are larger on average, weighing 15 to 47 grams and having a body length of 8 to 13 cm and hairy, tufted tails as long as or much longer than the body (up to 15 cm). Coarse-haired pocket mice are similar in colour to silky pocket mice, but the fur is harsh and the rump has spiny bristles. Silky and coarse-haired......
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Chaetodon (genus of fish)
The family contains 10 genera, with the genus Chaetodon alone accounting for almost 90 species. Among them are the foureye butterfly fish (Chaetodon capistratus; see photograph), a common West Indian species with a white-ringed, black ocellus near its tail; the spotfin butterfly fish (C. ocellatus), a western Atlantic species with yellow fins and a dark spot at the......
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Chaetodontidae (fish)
any of the approximately 115 species of small, quick-moving marine fishes in the family Chaetodontidae (order Perciformes). Butterfly fishes are found among tropical reefs around the world but are concentrated in the Indo-Pacific oceanic region. Butterfly fishes are deep-bodied and thin from side to side, with a single dorsal fin and a small mouth with tiny, bristlelike teeth. The jaws are someti...
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chaetognath (animal phylum)
any member of a group of free-living wormlike marine carnivores that belong to the invertebrate phylum Chaetognatha. The bodies of arrowworms appear transparent to translucent or opaque and are arrow shaped. There are more than 120 species, most of which are in the genus Sagitta. The size of arrowworms ranges from about 3 millimetres to more than 100 millimetres; species inhabiting colder w...
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Chaetognatha (animal phylum)
any member of a group of free-living wormlike marine carnivores that belong to the invertebrate phylum Chaetognatha. The bodies of arrowworms appear transparent to translucent or opaque and are arrow shaped. There are more than 120 species, most of which are in the genus Sagitta. The size of arrowworms ranges from about 3 millimetres to more than 100 millimetres; species inhabiting colder w...
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Chaetophractus (mammal genus)
Several kinds of sounds are reported to be made by fleeing or otherwise agitated armadillos. The peludos, or hairy armadillos (three species of genus Chaetophractus), make snarling sounds. The mulita (D. hybridus) repeatedly utters a guttural monosyllabic sound similar to the rapid fluttering of a human tongue....
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Chaetophractus villosus (mammal)
...of this species are common in some regions. Southernmost armadillo species include the pichi (Zaedyus pichiy), a common resident of Argentine Patagonia, and the larger hairy armadillo (Chaetophractus villosus), which ranges far into southern Chile....
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Chaetopterida (polychaete order)
...feeding tentacles adapted for grasping and arising from prostomium; size, 0.5 to 25 cm; examples of genera: Spio, Polydora.Order ChaetopteridaTwo to 3 distinct body regions; prostomium with palpi; modified setae on segment 4; tube dweller; examples of genera: Chaetopterus (parchment ...
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Chaetopterus (polychaete genus)
(genus Chaetopterus), any of several species of segmented worms of the class Polychaeta (phylum Annelida), especially C. variopedatus of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. They live on the sea bottom in U-shaped tubes that are lined with parchmentlike material. Parchment worms grow to a length of about 25 cm (10 inches). ...
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Chaetopterus variopedatus (annelid)
(genus Chaetopterus), any of several species of segmented worms of the class Polychaeta (phylum Annelida), especially C. variopedatus of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. They live on the sea bottom in U-shaped tubes that are lined with parchmentlike material. Parchment worms grow to a length of about 25 cm (10 inches). ...
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chaetosema (zoology)
...In skippers and butterflies the terminal part is expanded into a clublike shape, on which most of the sensilla are concentrated. In many families there is also a cluster of sensory bristles (the chaetosema) on each side of the head near the eye. On either side of the head is a large compound eye, sometimes consisting of thousands of units (ommatidia). Most moths have, in addition to the......
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Chaetosphaeriales (order of fungi)
...ascospores small; included in subclass Sordariomycetidae; examples of genera include Calosphaeria, Togniniella, and Pleurostoma.Order ChaetosphaerialesSaprobic; ascomata subglobose to globose; paraphyses sparse to abundant; asci unitunicate, may lack apical ring; included in subclass Sordariomycetidae...
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chaetotaxy (zoology)
...evolved families, are bristly; and the strongest bristles have a precise location, particularly on the thorax. The arrangement of bristles and the identification method based on them is called chaetotaxy....
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Chaetothyriales (order of fungi)
...found at various levels within spherical ascocarp; includes subclasses Chaetothyriomycetidae, Eurotiomycetidae, and Mycocaliciomycetidae; contains seven orders.Order ChaetothyrialesPathogenic in humans or saprobic on plants; ascocarps contain sterile filaments on the reproductive organs; included in subclass Chaetothyriomycetidae; exa...
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Chaetura pelagica (bird)
Among the best-known swifts is the chimney swift (Chaetura pelagica), a spine-tailed, uniformly dark gray bird that breeds in eastern North America and winters in South America, nesting in such recesses as chimneys and hollow trees; about 17 other Chaetura species are known worldwide. The common swift (Apus apus), called simply “swift” in Great Britain, is a......
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Chaeturinae (bird)
...Apodidae (sometimes Micropodidae), in the order Apodiformes, which also includes the hummingbirds. The family is divided into the subfamilies Apodinae, or soft-tailed swifts, and Chaeturinae, or spine-tailed swifts. Almost worldwide in distribution, swifts are absent only from polar regions, southern Chile and Argentina, New Zealand, and most of Australia....
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Chafarinas Islands (islands, Spain)
three small rocky islets of the Spanish exclave of Melilla, located off northeastern Morocco, 7 miles (11 km) northwest of the mouth of the Oued Moulouya. They are probably the tres insulae (“three islands”) of the 3rd-century Roman roadbook Itinerarium Antonini and have been occupied by Spain since 1847. Waterless an...
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Chafe, Wallace (American linguist)
...has been estimated at 300; these tongues were spoken by a native population of approximately 1.5 million. The number of languages still used was estimated at about 200 by the American linguist Wallace Chafe in 1962. Some of these had only one or two elderly speakers. The numbers continue to drop, but with some notable exceptions; e.g., Navajo is steadily increasing in number of......
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Chafee, John (American politician)
American politician who served (1976–99) as a Republican U.S. senator from Rhode Island and was instrumental in fostering bipartisan solutions to problems; he championed environmental and health issues and was responsible in the 1980s for the huge expansion of Medicaid, the health program for the poor (b. Oct. 22, 1922, Providence, R.I.—d. Oct. 24, 1999, Bethesda, Md.)....
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Chafee, Lincoln (American politician)
...Chafee was elected) or to the U.S. House of Representatives between 1938 and 1980, and Providence had no Republican mayor between 1938 and 1974. Chafee served until his death in office in 1999, when Lincoln Chafee (also a Republican) was appointed to fill his father’s seat; he was elected to one additional term....
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Chafee, Zechariah, Jr. (American scholar)
U.S. legal scholar known for his advocacy of civil liberties. His first book, Freedom of Speech (1920), was evoked by measures aimed at political dissenters in World War I. A rewritten and expanded version, Free Speech in the United States (1941), became a leading text of U.S. libertarian thought....
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chafer (insect)
any of a group of beetles in the family Scarabaeidae (insect order Coleoptera). Adult leaf chafers (Macrodactylus) eat foliage, whereas grubs feed underground on plant roots. The adult female deposits her eggs in the soil, and the larvae live underground for two to three years, depending on the species. They pupate in the fall, but the adults remain underground until the following spring....
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chaff (radar)
...or repeater jamming, by which hostile jammers introduce additional signals into the radar receiver in an attempt to confuse the receiver into thinking that they are real target echoes, (3) chaff, which is an artificial cloud consisting of a large number of tiny metallic reflecting strips that create strong echoes over a large area to mask the presence of real target echoes or to create......
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Chaffee, Adna R. (United States army officer)
U.S. army officer who enlisted in the Union cavalry in 1861 and rose in rank to become chief of staff of the U.S. army....
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Chaffee, Adna Romanza (United States army officer)
U.S. army officer who enlisted in the Union cavalry in 1861 and rose in rank to become chief of staff of the U.S. army....
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Chaffee, Emory Leon (American physicist)
U.S. physicist known for his work on thermionic vacuum (electron) tubes....
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Chaffee gap (physics)
Chaffee received the Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1911. His dissertation established the “Chaffee gap”—a method of producing continuous oscillations for long-distance telephone transmissions. He taught at Harvard (1911–53) and in 1940 succeeded G.W. Pierce as director of the Cruft Laboratory. He was also co-director of the Lyman Laboratory of Physics (1947–53...
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Chaffee, Roger B. (American astronaut)
U.S. astronaut who was a member of the three-man Apollo 1 crew killed when a flash fire swept their space capsule during a simulation of a launching scheduled for Feb. 21, 1967. Chaffee died along with the veteran space travellers Virgil I. Grissom and Edward H. White II. They were the first casualties of the U.S. space program....
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Chaffee, Roger Bruce (American astronaut)
U.S. astronaut who was a member of the three-man Apollo 1 crew killed when a flash fire swept their space capsule during a simulation of a launching scheduled for Feb. 21, 1967. Chaffee died along with the veteran space travellers Virgil I. Grissom and Edward H. White II. They were the first casualties of the U.S. space program....
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Chaffers, William (English writer)
Of the wares more directly due to European intervention perhaps the best known is Chinese export porcelain, still sometimes known as Oriental Lowestoft. The name is due to an error on the part of William Chaffers (the author of a book on pottery marks), who persisted in attributing these wares to the small English factory at Lowestoft. If this porcelain is important at all, it is as a......
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chaffinch (bird)
(Fringilla coelebs), songbird of the family Fringillidae (order Passeriformes) that breeds in gardens and farmlands of Europe and northern Africa to central Asia (and, by introduction, South Africa). It is the commonest finch in western Europe. The 15-centimetre (6-inch) male is bluish crowned, with rust-brown back, greenish rump, and pinkish to rust face and breast; the female is greenish...
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Chaga (people)
Bantu-speaking people living on the fertile southern slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro in northern Tanzania. They are one of the wealthiest and most highly organized of Tanzanian peoples....
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Chagall, Marc (Russian-French artist)
Belorussian-born French painter, printmaker, and designer. He composed his images based on emotional and poetic associations, rather than on rules of pictorial logic. Predating Surrealism, his early works, such as I and the Village (1911), were among the first expressions of psychic reality in modern art. His works in various media include sets for pl...
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Chagas disease (disease)
infection with the flagellate protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi. It is transmitted to humans by bloodsucking reduviid bugs and is endemic in most rural areas of Central and South America. The disease is most often transmitted by contact with the feces of infected insects, commonly through scratching of the skin at the site of the insects’ bites, or through the mucous mem...
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Chagas’ disease (disease)
infection with the flagellate protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi. It is transmitted to humans by bloodsucking reduviid bugs and is endemic in most rural areas of Central and South America. The disease is most often transmitted by contact with the feces of infected insects, commonly through scratching of the skin at the site of the insects’ bites, or through the mucous mem...
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Chagatai (Mongol ruler)
the second son of Genghis Khan who, at his father’s death, received Kashgaria (now the southern part of Uygur Autonomous Region of Xinjiang, China) and most of Transoxania between the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya (ancient Oxus and Jaxartes rivers, respectively) as his vassal kingdom. His capital was at Almarikh near present-day ...
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Chagatai Khanate (medieval state, Asia)
...stock, which, linked with his famous price regulations, came as a solution to the critical financial problem of maintaining a large standing army. Following their occupation of Afghanistan, the Chagatai Mongols began to penetrate well beyond the Punjab, necessitating a comprehensive defense program for the sultanate, including the capital, Delhi, which underwent a two-month siege in 1303.......
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Chagatai literature
the body of written works produced in Chagatai, a classical Turkic literary language of Central Asia....
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Chagatai Turkic languages
...of Timur, among which Bukhara and Samarkand were the most important. The courts of these rulers witnessed an extraordinary cultural florescence in literature, the arts, and architecture, with Chagatai Turkish, a dialect derived partly from Khakani, the language spoken at the Karakhanid court (and a precursor of modern Uzbek), emerging as a flexible vehicle for sophisticated literary......
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Chagga (people)
Bantu-speaking people living on the fertile southern slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro in northern Tanzania. They are one of the wealthiest and most highly organized of Tanzanian peoples....
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Chaghatai (Mongol ruler)
the second son of Genghis Khan who, at his father’s death, received Kashgaria (now the southern part of Uygur Autonomous Region of Xinjiang, China) and most of Transoxania between the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya (ancient Oxus and Jaxartes rivers, respectively) as his vassal kingdom. His capital was at Almarikh near present-day ...
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Chaghatai Turkish languages
...of Timur, among which Bukhara and Samarkand were the most important. The courts of these rulers witnessed an extraordinary cultural florescence in literature, the arts, and architecture, with Chagatai Turkish, a dialect derived partly from Khakani, the language spoken at the Karakhanid court (and a precursor of modern Uzbek), emerging as a flexible vehicle for sophisticated literary......
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Chaghri Beg (Seljuq ruler)
Alp-Arslan was the son of Chaghri Beg, the ruler of Khorāsān in Iran, and the nephew of Toghrïl, the governor of western Iran, the base of Seljuq expansion. In 1061 his father died. When, in 1063, his uncle died without issue, Alp-Arslan became sole heir to all the possessions of the dynasty except Kerman, in southern Iran, which was held by one of his brothers, whom he......
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Chagos Archipelago (islands, Indian Ocean)
island group in the central Indian Ocean, located about 1,000 miles (1,600 km) south of the southern tip of the Indian subcontinent. It is coterminous with the British Indian Ocean Territory....
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Chagossians (people)
...Soviet military presence in the region. A major British-U.S. military facility was built on Diego Garcia in 1971, and the plantations there were closed. Between 1967 and 1973, Britain removed the Ilois, or Chagossians—indigenous inhabitants of the Chagos Archipelago, descended from African slaves and Indian plantation workers—who were given the choice of resettlement in either......
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Chagres region (region, Panama)
...the vicinity of the canal, on a broad coast-to-coast strip of land that crosses the country where it is at its lowest and narrowest. This area, partly drained by the Chagres River, is known as the Chagres, or Route, region. It includes the cities of Panama City and Colón, the urban district of San Miguelito, and the towns of Balboa, La Chorrera, Gamboa, and Cristóbal. Panama......
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Chagres River (river, Panama)
stream in Panama forming part of the Panama Canal system. It rises in the Cordillera de San Blas, flows south-southwest, and broadens to form Madden Lake (22 square miles [57 square km]) at Madden Dam, which was built in 1935 for navigation, flood control, and hydroelectric power. Below the dam it continues southwest to Gamboa, where it joins the Panama Canal at the north end of...
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Chagri Beg (Seljuq ruler)
Alp-Arslan was the son of Chaghri Beg, the ruler of Khorāsān in Iran, and the nephew of Toghrïl, the governor of western Iran, the base of Seljuq expansion. In 1061 his father died. When, in 1063, his uncle died without issue, Alp-Arslan became sole heir to all the possessions of the dynasty except Kerman, in southern Iran, which was held by one of his brothers, whom he......
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Chagrin Falls (Ohio, United States)
Alp-Arslan was the son of Chaghri Beg, the ruler of Khorāsān in Iran, and the nephew of Toghrïl, the governor of western Iran, the base of Seljuq expansion. In 1061 his father died. When, in 1063, his uncle died without issue, Alp-Arslan became sole heir to all the possessions of the dynasty except Kerman, in southern Iran, which was held by one of his brothers, whom he.........
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Chaguaramas, Treaty of (Caribbean history)
organization of Caribbean nations and dependencies that was established in 1973 by the Treaty of Chaguaramas. It replaced the former Caribbean Free Trade Association (Carifta), which had become effective in 1968. The treaty spurred the development of associate institutions, including the Caribbean Development Bank and the Organization of East Caribbean States, both of which promote economic......
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Chahar (people)
eastern tribe of Mongols, prominent in the 15th and 16th centuries. The Chahar were part of the empire of Dayan Khan (1470–1543), the last great khan of a united Mongolia. After his death the khanate remained formally among the Chahar, although it was substantially weakened. The last noteworthy Chahar khan, Ligdan (1604–34), attempted strenuously...
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Chahar Aimak (people)
eastern tribe of Mongols, prominent in the 15th and 16th centuries. The Chahar were part of the empire of Dayan Khan (1470–1543), the last great khan of a united Mongolia. After his death the khanate remained formally among the Chahar, although it was substantially weakened. The last noteworthy Chahar khan, Ligdan (1604–34), attempted strenuously...
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Chahār Bāgh (avenue, Eṣfahān, Iran)
Nearly 1,800 feet (549 metres) west of the Maydān-e Emām and connected to it by a side road is the Chahār Bāgh (“Four Gardens”), the avenue that ʿAbbās made to give access to his capital from the south. (According to legend the monarch had to purchase four gardens in order to construct the road.) The Chahār Bāgh runs southward t...
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Chahār maqāleh (work by Neẓāmī-ye ʿArūẕī)
...as much as to immortalize their subjects; consequently, their books are important equally as stylistic documents and as historical sources. One of the most remarkable works in this field is Chahār maqāleh (“Four Treatises”) by Neẓāmī-ye ʿArūẕī, a writer from eastern Iran. Written in about 1156, this little book ...
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Chahine, Gabriel Youssef (Egyptian filmmaker)
Egyptian filmmaker who crafted more than 40 films, including musicals, dramas, comedies, and historical epics. Much of his work, however, was critical of the Egyptian government and condemned social oppression and religious fanaticism; his willingness to tackle risky subjects caused some of his films to be censored, notably Al-Mohager (1994; The Emigrant), which was banned in Egypt a...
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Chahinkapa (North Dakota, United States)
city, seat (1873) of Richland county, southeastern North Dakota, U.S. It lies on the Minnesota border across from Breckenridge, Minnesota, at the point where the Bois de Sioux and Otter Tail rivers merge to become the Red River of the North. Settled in 1864 by Morgan T. Rich and initially named Richland, it was the second permanent settlemen...
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Chai Nat (Thailand)
...Yom, and Nan rivers—rise in the mountains of northern Thailand. At Nakhon Sawan, 140 miles north of Bangkok, the main river begins with the Ping-Nan confluence. Its tortuous course flows past Chai Nat (site of a government dam and irrigation scheme), Sing Buri, Ang Thong, Nonthaburi, and Bangkok to its mouth at Samut Prakan. From its formation at Nakhon Sawan, the river falls less than 8...
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Ch’ai-ta-mu P’en-ti (basin, China)
northeastern section of the Plateau of Tibet, occupying the northwestern part of Qinghai province, western China. The basin is bounded on the south by the towering Kunlun Mountains—with many peaks in the western part exceeding 20,000 feet (6,000 metres) above sea level—and on the north and east by the ...
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Chaibasa (India)
city, southern Bihār state, northeastern India. It lies just west of the Rāru River, which is a tributary of the Subarnarekhā. Although known as a road and agricultural-trade centre, the city is also heavily engaged in the mining (especially chromite) industry. Shellac is manufactured, and silk growing is important. Chaibāsā became a municipality in 1875. Pop. (...
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Chaidamu Pendi (basin, China)
northeastern section of the Plateau of Tibet, occupying the northwestern part of Qinghai province, western China. The basin is bounded on the south by the towering Kunlun Mountains—with many peaks in the western part exceeding 20,000 feet (6,000 metres) above sea level—and on the north and east by the ...
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Chaikovskii, Pyotr Ilyich (Russian composer)
the most popular Russian composer of all time. His music has always had great appeal for the general public in virtue of its tuneful, open-hearted melodies, impressive harmonies, and colourful, picturesque orchestration, all of which evoke a profound emotional response. His oeuvre includes 7 symphonies, 11 operas, 3 ballets, 5 suites, 3 piano concertos, a violin concerto, 11 overtures (strictly sp...
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Chaikovsky, Nikolay Vasilyevich (Russian politician)
revolutionary socialist and leader of the early Narodnik movement in Russia (see Narodnik)....
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Chaikovsky, Pyotr Ilyich (Russian composer)
the most popular Russian composer of all time. His music has always had great appeal for the general public in virtue of its tuneful, open-hearted melodies, impressive harmonies, and colourful, picturesque orchestration, all of which evoke a profound emotional response. His oeuvre includes 7 symphonies, 11 operas, 3 ballets, 5 suites, 3 piano concertos, a violin concerto, 11 overtures (strictly sp...
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Chaillé-Long, Charles (American explorer)
...source of the Nile was finally settled when, between 1874 and 1877, General Charles George Gordon and his officers followed the river and mapped part of it. In particular Lake Albert was mapped, and Charles Chaillé-Long, an American, discovered Lake Kyoga. In 1875 Henry Morton Stanley traveled up from the east coast and circumnavigated Lake Victoria. His attempt to get to Lake Albert was...
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Chaillot Palace (palace, Paris, France)
...Works, Paris (1936), now the headquarters of the Economic and Social Council. At the International Exposition of 1937, or Paris World’s Fair, pavilions in a range of styles were dominated by the Chaillot Palace, built from designs by Jacques Carlu, Louis-Hippolyte Boileau, and Léon Azéma. This is a striking example of the austere trabeated classicism that was the most popul...
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Chaillu Massif (mountains, Central Africa)
mountain range in south-central Gabon, which rises to more than 3,300 feet (1,000 m) between the Ngounié and the Ogooué rivers and forms the country’s main watershed. The range contains Mount Milondo (3,346 feet [1,020 m]), which is 53 miles (85 km) southwest of Koula-Moutou. Other high points in the range are Mount Iboundji (3,215 feet [9...
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Chaillu, Paul du (French explorer)
...miles (85 km) southwest of Koula-Moutou. Other high points in the range are Mount Iboundji (3,215 feet [980 m]) and Mount Mimongo (2,822 feet [860 m]). The granite massif is named for the explorer Paul du Chaillu, who noted the mountains during his journeys up the Ngounié River (1855–65)....
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Chaim Lederer’s Return (work by Asch)
...in 1910, returned there in 1914, and became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1920. To this period belong Onkl Mozes (1918; Uncle Moses), Khayim Lederers tsurikkumen (1927; Chaim Lederer’s Return), and Toyt urteyl (1926; “Death Sentence”; Eng. trans. Judge Not—). These novels describe the cultural and economic conflicts experienc...
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chain (connecting device)
series of links, usually of metal, joined together to form a flexible connector for various purposes, such as holding, pulling, hoisting, hauling, conveying, and transmitting power....
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chain (graph theory)
A chain of a graph G is an alternating sequence of vertices and edges x0, e1, x1, e2, · · · en, xn, beginning and ending with vertices in which each edge is incident with the two vertices immediately preceding and following it. This chain joins......
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chain (chemistry)
...of, a polymeric molecule consists of several thousand chemical repeating units, or monomers, linked together by covalent bonds. The assemblage of linked units is often referred to as the “chain,” and the atoms between which the chemical bonding takes place are said to make up the “backbone” of the chain. In most cases polymers are made up of carbon......
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chain (unit of length)
in surveying, a unit of length. See surveyor’s chain....
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chain (machine component)
Inventors have developed a variety of methods to transmit power from the rider’s legs to the bicycle, but none can compete with the high efficiency, reliability, and low cost of chain drives. Derailleurs and internal hub gears are devices that allow riders to match pedaling speed (cadence) to changing terrain....
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chain carrier (chemistry)
...has been found to proceed by a chain reaction; that is, a reaction consisting of a series of successive steps occurring in repetitive cycles, in each of which intermediate products called chain carriers are regenerated. Such a reaction will continue as long as the chain carriers persist. In autoxidation the chain carriers are free radicals, electrically neutral molecular fragments......
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chain coral (fossil coral)
extinct genus of corals found as fossils in marine rocks from the Late Ordovician Period to the end of the Silurian Period (461 million to 416 million years ago). Halysites is also known as the chain coral from the manner of growth observed in fossilized specimens; the genus is colonial, and individual members of the colony construct an elliptical tube next to each other in the manner of c...
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chain drive (machine component)
Inventors have developed a variety of methods to transmit power from the rider’s legs to the bicycle, but none can compete with the high efficiency, reliability, and low cost of chain drives. Derailleurs and internal hub gears are devices that allow riders to match pedaling speed (cadence) to changing terrain....
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chain explosion (chemistry)
It follows from the theory of branched-chain reactions that there is a limit to ignition, or to explosion, without a rise of temperature. In this case, what is called a chain explosion will occur when the probabilities of chain branching and of termination are equal. Usually, however, explosions are of a chain-thermal nature (i.e., both heat accumulation and chain auto-acceleration......
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chain fern family (plant family)
the chain fern family, containing 9 genera and some 200 species, in the division Pteridophyta (the lower vascular plants). The family occurs nearly around the world but is most diverse in tropical regions of the Southern Hemisphere. Nearly all of the species are terrestrial or grow on rocks. Some species of Blechnum and Sadleria develop short, st...
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Chain Home (radar technology)
...in 1935. The British government encouraged engineers to proceed rapidly because it was quite concerned about the growing possibility of war. By September 1938 the first British radar system, the Chain Home, had gone into 24-hour operation, and it remained operational throughout the war. The Chain Home radars allowed Britain to deploy successfully its limited air defenses against the heavy......
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chain length (chemistry)
...referred to as a chain reaction. The two reactions in which bromine is regenerated are known as the chain-propagating steps. The average number of times the pair of steps is repeated is known as the chain length....
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chain lightning (meteorology)
form of lightning of longer duration than more typical lightning that appears as a string of luminous segments instead of a continuous channel. It occurs infrequently but has been observed many times. Its causes are unknown, but among the theories proposed are the following: portions of the lightning channel are slanted toward or away from the observer and thus seem brighter or ...
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chain mail (armour)
form of body armour worn by European knights and other military men throughout most of the medieval period. An early form of mail, made by sewing iron rings to fabric or leather, was worn in late Roman times and may have originated in Asia, where such mail continued to be worn for many centuries....
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Chain of Being (philosophy)
conception of the nature of the universe that had a pervasive influence on Western thought, particularly through the ancient Greek Neoplatonists and derivative philosophies during the European Renaissance and the 17th and early 18th centuries. The term denotes three general features of the universe: plenitude, continuity, and gradation. The principle of plenitude states that the universe is ...
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Chain of Voices, A (work by Brink)
...include ’N Droë wit seisoen (1979; A Dry White Season), in which a white liberal investigates the death of a black activist in police custody; Houd-den-bek (1982; A Chain of Voices), which recounts through many points of view a slave revolt in 1825; States of Emergency (1988); and An Act of Terror (1991). Brink’s works were w...
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chain pickerel (fish)
...American pikes, family Esocidae, distinguished from the related muskellunge and northern pike by its smaller size, completely scaled cheeks and gill covers, and banded or chainlike markings. The chain pickerel (Esox niger) grows to about 0.6 metre (2 feet) and a weight of 1.4 to 1.8 kilograms (3 to 4 pounds). The barred pickerel (E. americanus) and the grass pickerel (E.......
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chain plant (plant)
...has leaves and stems covered with a whitish fuzz. Flowering inch plant (T. blossfeldiana), with leaves green and smooth above, purplish and fuzzy beneath, has purplish hairy blossoms. The chain plant (T. navicularis) has fleshy, narrow, lengthwise-folded leaves about 2.5 cm (1 inch) long. T. × andersoniana comprises a complex series of garden hybrids. Also......
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chain reaction (physics)
Nuclear chain reactions are series of nuclear fissions (splitting of atomic nuclei), each initiated by a neutron produced in a preceding fission. For example, 212 neutrons on the average are released by the fission of each uranium-235 nucleus that absorbs a low-energy neutron. Provided that no more than 112 neutrons per......
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chain reaction (chemistry)
in chemistry and physics, process yielding products that initiate further processes of the same kind, a self-sustaining sequence. Examples from chemistry are burning a fuel gas, the development of rancidity in fats, “knock” in internal-combustion engines, and the polymerization of ethylene to polyethylene. The best-known examples in physics are nuclear fissions brought about by neut...
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chain saw (tool)
...make angle cuts. The sabre saw, which is basically a portable jigsaw, moves up and down and may have a stroke of as much as 2.5 cm (1 inch). It can rip, crosscut, and make angle cuts. The portable chain saw has practically replaced the woodman’s axe and the two-man hand saw for felling trees. It consists of a thin metal frame supporting a steel roller chain carrying saw teeth attached at...
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chain shot (ammunition)
...gun but designed to separate upon leaving the muzzle. Because they dispersed widely upon leaving the gun, the projectiles were especially effective at short range against massed troops. Bar shot and chain shot consisted of two heavy projectiles joined by a bar or a chain. Whirling in their trajectories, they were especially effective at sea in cutting the spars and rigging of sailing vessels....
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chain silicate (chemical compound)
any of a class of inorganic compounds that have structures characterized by silicate tetrahedrons (a central silicon atom surrounded by four oxygen atoms at the corners of a tetrahedron) arranged in chains. Two of the oxygen atoms of each tetrahedron are shared with other tetrahedrons, forming a chain that is potentially infinite in length. Single chains (with a multiple of SiO3 in the ...
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Chain, Sir Ernst Boris (British biochemist)
German-born British biochemist who, with pathologist Howard Walter Florey (later Baron Florey), isolated and purified penicillin (which had been discovered in 1928 by Sir Alexander Fleming) and performed the first clinical trials of the antibiotic. For their pioneering work on penicillin Chain, Florey, and Fleming shared the 1945 Nobel Prize...
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chain store (retailing operation)
any of two or more retail stores having the same ownership and selling the same lines of goods. Chain stores account for an important segment of retailing operations in the Americas, western Europe, and Japan. Together with the department store and the mail-order company, chain stores represent the first successful application of large-scale integrated methods to a form of retailing...
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