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billiards: Year In Review 2001
Swedish carom billiards star Torbjörn Blomdahl defeated American Pedro Piedrabuena in the International Dutch Open, held in Barendrecht, Neth., on January 12–14, 2001. The champion compiled an average of 1.794, with a high run of 12....
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billiards: Year In Review 2002
Swedish carom billiards star Torbjörn Blomdahl ended 2001 with his ninth Billiards Worldcup Association title, scoring 325 points and winning four of seven tournaments during the year. He was trailed by Semih Sayginer of Turkey, with 277 points and two tournament titles, and Dick Jaspers of ...
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billiards: Year In Review 2003
In early 2003 the Billiards Worldcup Association (BWA), the generally recognized professional organization for three-cushion billiards, reorganized, acquired a new board, and announced plans to “relaunch” a new tour with at least three and perhaps as many as five Worldcup tournaments. Two tournaments were held, and a third that w...
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billiards: Year In Review 2004
After 17 years of organizing well-funded three-cushion billiards tournaments, the Billiards Worldcup Association folded in 2004 because of declining corporate sponsorships. As a result, the world’s best players had to depend for income on the Union Mondiale de Billard (UMB), team leagues in several European countries, and a variety of independently produced tournaments around the world. Onc...
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billiards: Year In Review 2005
In January 2005 Sonny Cho of Flushing, N.Y., won his first U.S. championship in three-cushion (carom) billiards by beating defending champion Pedro Piedrabuena 50–45 in the deciding game. Piedrabuena scored the event’s high runs, getting a 14 and a 13 in a single game. The 24-player event was sponsored by the U.S. Billiard Association and hosted by the Elks Lodge in Tacoma, Wash. The...
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Billie Jean (song by Jackson)
...Is Mine, an easygoing duet with Paul McCartney, went to number one on the rhythm-and-blues charts and number two on the pop charts in the fall of 1982. The follow-up single, Billie Jean, an electrifying dance track and the vehicle for Jackson’s trademark “moonwalk” dance, topped the pop charts, as did Beat It, w...
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Billingham, Rupert Everett (British-American immunologist)
British-born American immunologist and transplant researcher (b. Oct. 15, 1921, Warminster, Eng.—d. Nov. 16, 2002, Boston, Mass.), was a pioneer in the field of immunologic theory and transplant science. Under his mentor, zoologist Peter B. Medawar, Billingham helped conduct a series of groundbreaking experiments involving skin grafts...
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Billings (Montana, United States)
city, seat (1883) of Yellowstone county, south-central Montana, U.S., on the Yellowstone River 3,119 feet (951 metres) above sea level. Billings lies at the base of the Rimrock Mountains in the Clark’s Fork Bottom at a point equidistant from Seattle, Washington, and St. Paul, Minn...
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Billings, John James (Australian physician)
March 5, 1918Melbourne, AustraliaApril 1, 2007 Richmond, Vic., AustraliaAustralian physician who devised, with his pediatrician wife, Evelyn, the Billings Ovulation Method, a natural family-planning technique in which a woman could monitor her own fertility by observing specific changes in ...
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Billings, John Shaw (American surgeon and librarian)
American surgeon and librarian whose organization of U.S. medical institutions played a central role in the modernization of hospital care and the maintenance of public health....
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Billings, Josh (American humorist)
American humorist whose philosophical comments in plain language were widely popular after the American Civil War through his newspaper pieces, books, and comic lectures. He employed the misspellings, fractured grammar, and hopeless logic then current among comic writers who assumed the role of cracker-barrel philosophers. Hi...
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Billings, William (American composer)
foremost composer of the early American primitive style, whose works have become an integral part of the American folk tradition. A tanner by trade, he was self-taught in music. Among his friends were many prominent figures of the American Revolution, including Samuel Adams and ...
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Billingsgate (market, London, United Kingdom)
former London market (closed 1982). It was situated in the City of London at the north end of London Bridge beside The Monument, which commemorates the outbreak of the Great Fire of September 1666....
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Billingsley, Barbara (American actress)
Dec. 22, 1915Los Angeles, Calif.Oct. 16, 2010Santa Monica, Calif.American actress who portrayed June Cleaver, the even-tempered and perfectly coiffed stay-at-home mother who kindly shepherded her two sons, Wally and Theodore (“Beaver”), through their childhood travails on the ...
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Billingsley, William (English manufacturer)
...English porcelain produced in Derbyshire from 1796 to 1813. The factory was established by John Coke, who had lived in Dresden, Saxony, with the help of William Billingsley, who had worked as a painter at Derby. Billingsley remained at Pinxton until 1799, concentrating on the production of the porcelain rather than its decoration. He made a ware that......
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Billington, James Hadley (American librarian)
Inspired by the success of the Global Gateway site, in 2005 Librarian of Congress James H. Billington proposed a project called the World Digital Library. Its goal was to make available to anyone with access to the Internet digitized texts and images of “unique and rare materials from libraries and other cultural institutions around the world.” It was designed to be searchable in......
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Billion Dollar Brain, The (work by Deighton)
In Funeral in Berlin (1964), The Billion Dollar Brain (1966), and An Expensive Place to Die (1967), he continued his blend of espionage and suspense. Like The Ipcress File, these novels centre on an unnamed hero and show Deighton’s craftsmanship, crisp prose style, and mastery of plot. In Only When I Larf (1968), Deighton moved from the subject......
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Billiton (island, Indonesia)
island and kabupaten (regency), Bangka-Belitung propinsi (province), Indonesia. With 135 associated smaller islands, it lies between the South China and Java seas, southwest of Borneo and east of Bangka island. Tanjungpandan on the west coast is the main town, port, and site of the air...
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Billiton PLC (Australian company)
international natural resources company, formed in 2001 by the merger of BHP Ltd. and Billiton PLC. One of the world’s largest mining companies, it is involved in the production of iron, steel, copper, silver, aluminum, oil, and gas. The company also has interests in engineering and transportation. BHP Billiton’...
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Billopp House (house, Tottenville, New York, United States)
The Billopp, or Conference, House in Tottenville was the scene (September 11, 1776) of talks between representatives of the Continental Congress and the British in an unsuccessful attempt at reconciliation during the American Revolution. In 1898 Staten Island, as Richmond, became one of......
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Billroth, Christian Albert Theodor (Austrian surgeon)
Viennese surgeon, generally considered to be the founder of modern abdominal surgery....
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Billroth, Theodor (Austrian surgeon)
Viennese surgeon, generally considered to be the founder of modern abdominal surgery....
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Billung dynasty (German history)
the primary ruling dynasty in Saxony in the 10th and 11th centuries. It was founded by Hermann Billung, who in 936 received from the German king (and future emperor) Otto I a march, or border territory, on the lower Elbe River to be held against the pagan Slavic Wends....
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Billung, Hermann (German duke)
the primary ruling dynasty in Saxony in the 10th and 11th centuries. It was founded by Hermann Billung, who in 936 received from the German king (and future emperor) Otto I a march, or border territory, on the lower Elbe River to be held against the pagan Slavic Wends. Otto repeatedly granted Hermann extensive authority in his absences......
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Billung, Magnus (German duke)
...the Saxon national resentment toward the Salian kings and emperors Henry III and particularly Henry IV, who wanted to reestablish imperial authority in Saxony. In August 1106, with the death of Magnus Billung, the family died out....
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Billups, Chauncey (American basketball player)
...season to 2007–08, but the Nuggets failed to advance past the first round on each occasion. The team acquired veteran point guard Chauncey Billups early in 2008–09, and at the end of the season he helped Anthony guide the Nuggets to victories in both the first and second round of the Western Conference play-offs before......
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billy (male goat)
...and hollow-horned mammal belonging to the genus Capra. Related to the sheep, the goat is lighter of build, has horns that arch backward, a short tail, and straighter hair. Male goats, called bucks or billys, usually have a beard. Females are called does or nannys, and immature goats are called kids. Wild goats include the ibex and markhor....
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Billy Bathgate (film by Benton)
...with costar Tom Cruise; the two were married in 1990 (divorced 2001). Over the next decade, Kidman appeared in a dozen films. Her roles included a gangster-loving socialite in Billy Bathgate (1991), an aspiring television journalist in the black comedy To Die For (1995), and an American......
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Billy Budd, Foretopman (novel by Melville)
fictional character, the sinister master-at-arms aboard the ship Indomitable in the novel Billy Budd, Foretopman (written 1888–91, posthumously published 1924), the last work by Herman Melville. Claggert, jealous of Budd’s cheerful personality and masculine beauty, falsely accuses him of fomenting a mutiny. In frustration, Budd lashes out and accidently kills Clag...
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billy club (weapon)
...include electronic devices, chemical agents, and a variety of different striking instruments, such as straight, side-handle, and collapsible batons and an array of saps, truncheons, and clubs. The nightstick carried by police officers was originally made of wood, but most now are made of composite materials....
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Billy Elliot (musical play)
As an antidote to all this edginess, the new musical Billy Elliot was greeted with relief and acclaim, one critic even suggesting that it was the best new British musical since Oliver! Billy Elliot was a huge popular success, even if one felt that the score by Elton John was way below his best and Stephen Daldry’s direction was surprisingly flat-footed. The story of a b...
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Billy Goat, Curse of the (baseball history)
After the 1938 season the Cubs had only one winning year until 1945, when they won the NL pennant. That year’s World Series launched what has become known as the “Curse of the Billy Goat” (versions of the story vary). In the fourth game of the World Series, tavern owner Billy Sianis was forced to leave Wrigley Field after showing up with his goat; upon his ejection, Sianis cur...
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Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (American association)
...his forceful preaching, and his simple, homespun message: anyone who repents of sins and accepts Jesus Christ will be saved. Behind that message, however, stood a sophisticated organization, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, incorporated in 1950, which performed extensive advance work in the form of favourable media coverage, cooperation with political leaders, and coordination with......
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Billy Liar (work by Waterhouse)
...Daily Mirror and Punch) for most of his life. His first novel, There Is a Happy Land (1957), was followed by the best-selling Billy Liar (1959), its hero a young man who compensates for his mundane existence by a series of fantastic daydreams. Billy Liar was turned into a successful play in 1960, a film in 1963,......
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Billy Madison (motion picture [1995])
...Coneheads (1993), which was based on a SNL sketch; and Mixed Nuts (1994). He took his first starring role in Billy Madison (1995), playing the oafish scion of a wealthy businessman who must prove his worthiness to succeed his father by repeating his schooling. Sandler’s humour, while derided by som...
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Billy Phelan’s Greates Game (novel by Kennedy)
...black humour in his next novel, Legs (1975), about Jack (“Legs”) Diamond, an Irish-American gangster who was killed in Albany in 1931. Billy Phelan’s Greatest Game (1978), also set in Albany, chronicles the life of a small-time streetwise hustler who sidesteps the powerful local political machine. Ironweed (1983), which......
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Billy the Kid (ballet by Copland and Loring)
...system used a vertical staff and simple signs to record four categories of movement: Emotion, Direction, Degree, and Special. It was used to record Loring’s signature ballet, Billy the Kid (1938)....
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Billy the Kid (American outlaw)
one of the most notorious gunfighters of the American West, reputed to have killed at least 27 men before being gunned down at about age 21....
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billycock (hat)
...levels of informality extended to hat design, with new styles being introduced. The bowler, also known by such other names as the colloquial British “billycock” and, in America, the derby, was introduced about 1850 by the hatter William Bowler. The straw boater, originally meant to be worn on the river, became popular for all summer activities. The homburg felt hat, introduced......
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Bilma (oasis, Niger)
...an extremely hot and dry climate and virtually no plant life. Vast expanses of sand and sand dunes in the southeast are known as ergs, and the gravel-covered plains of the northwest are called regs. Bilma oasis, near the centre of the Ténéré, has maximum and minimum July temperatures (summer average) of 108 °F (42 °C) and 75 °F (24 °C). Hot, dust...
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Bilney, Thomas (English religious reformer)
...revolt; known to be inclined to the new way of thinking, they were dubbed “Little Germany.” Among the group that was to lead the English Reformation were William Tyndale, Robert Barnes, Thomas Bilney, and, above all, Cranmer, who by 1525 included among his prayers one for the abolition of papal power in England....
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bilocal residence (anthropology)
...near the kin of the wife, the residence is said to be matrilocal or uxorilocal. When the couple alternates between the wife’s group and the husband’s group, their household arrangements are called bilocal residence....
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bilongo (African magic)
...whether they are made of wood, horn, ivory, or even calabash, must contain a number of magical substances such as blood along with animal, vegetable, and mineral matter. These ingredients, called bilongo, are placed in a cavity, usually in the figure’s stomach but sometimes in the back or head. The opening of the cavity is covered by a shell or, in some modern fetishes, by a piece...
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Biloxi (Mississippi, United States)
city, coseat (with nearby Gulfport) of Harrison county, southern Mississippi, U.S. The city lies on a narrow Gulf Coast peninsula between the Gulf of Mexico (south) and Back Bay of Biloxi (north)....
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Bilozerchev, Dmitri (Russian athlete)
Russian athlete who is considered to be one of the greatest male gymnasts of all time....
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Bilqīs (queen of Sabaʾ)
according to Jewish and Islāmic traditions, ruler of the Kingdom of Sabaʾ (or Sheba) in southwestern Arabia. In the Old Testament account of the reign of King Solomon, she visited his court at the head of a camel caravan bearing gold, jewels, and spices. The story provides ...
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Bilqīs, Mount (mountain, Iran)
Kūh-e Belqeys is located about 5 miles (8 km) northeast of Takht-e Soleymān. The highest point on the mountain’s dual peak rises to about 11,000 feet (3,300 metres) above sea level. A fortress located there dates to the Sāsānian period....
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bilsted (plant)
...round, drooping clusters of female flowers on the same tree. Spiny, dark-brown balls of seeds develop and often persist through the winter. The American sweet gum, or bilsted (A. styraciflua), which sometimes reaches 45 metres (150 feet) in moist lowlands but is usually half that height at maturity, is grown for its handsome foliage,...
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Bilston enamelware (art)
enameled products made in Bilston, Eng., which was one of the most prolific centres of enameling in the 18th century. A large number of enamelers worked in Bilston decorating small objects primarily by the transfer printing process. Bilston enamelware is often technically brilliant, displaying a great range of colours and o...
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Biltmore (estate, North Carolina, United States)
...of W.K. Vanderbilt (1879–82; destroyed), J.J. Astor (1891–95; destroyed), and Henry G. Marquand (1881–84; destroyed) in New York City; George W. Vanderbilt’s country house at Biltmore, N.C., near Asheville (1888–95; the largest American house ever built); and several of the large, opulent summer houses in Newport, R.I., including Marble House (1888–92) ...
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Bilwa Mangal (play by Hashr)
...period is Agha Hashr (1876–1935), a poet-dramatist of flamboyant imagination and superb craftsmanship. Among his famous plays are Sita Banbas, based on an incident from the Ramayana; Bilwa Mangal, a social play on the life of a poet, whose blind passion for a prostitute results in remorse; and Aankh ka Nasha (“The Witchery of the Eyes”), about the treac...
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Bily Clocks Museum (museum, Spillville, Iowa, United States)
...Iowa’s development and offers stories of Iowan families from different generations. The Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum is located in West Branch. A nonconventional attraction is the Bily Clocks Museum in Spillville, which displays a collection of antique hand-carved wooden clocks made by the Bily brothers. On the second floor of what is now this museum was where Czech com...
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bima (Judaism)
(from Arabic al-minbar, “platform”), in Jewish synagogues, a raised platform with a reading desk from which, in the Ashkenazi (German) ritual, the Torah and Hafṭarah (a reading from the prophets) are read on the Sabbath and festivals. In the Sephardic (Spanish) rite, the entire service is conducted from a platform called a teba (“box”). At a...
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bimah (Judaism)
(from Arabic al-minbar, “platform”), in Jewish synagogues, a raised platform with a reading desk from which, in the Ashkenazi (German) ritual, the Torah and Hafṭarah (a reading from the prophets) are read on the Sabbath and festivals. In the Sephardic (Spanish) rite, the entire service is conducted from a platform called a teba (“box”). At a...
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Bimal (Somali clan subgroup)
...by the 10th century. The first Somalis to settle near there arrived in the 13th century, and in the 17th century the town, its hinterland, and caravan routes from the interior were controlled by the Bimal, a subgroup of one of the four major Somali clans, who traded extensively in ivory, slaves, cattle, and hides. Offshore coral reefs make....
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Bimbashi, Selim (Ottoman officer)
...as its exit from the Ethiopian foothills, and the White Nile as far as the mouth of the Sobat River. Three expeditions under a Turkish officer, Selim Bimbashi, were made between 1839 and 1842, and two got to the point about 20 miles (32 km) beyond the present port of Jūbā, where the country rises and rapids make navigation ver...
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Bimberi Peak (mountain, Australian Capital Territory, Australia)
...watershed of the Brindabella Range, a northern extension of the Snowy Mountains. The territory’s southern and western parts are mountainous, reaching a maximum height of 6,279 feet (1,914 metres) at Bimberi Peak. In the northeastern section there are broad valleys between rounded hills. While much of the generally rugged topography of the Australian Capital Territory allows small-scale f...
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Bimbisara (king of Magadha)
one of the early kings of the Indian kingdom of Magadha. His expansion of the kingdom, especially his annexation of the kingdom of Anga to the east, is considered to have laid the foundations for the later expansion of the Mauryan empire. He is also known for his cultural achievements and was a great friend and protector of the Buddha. Bimbi...
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Bimbo’s Initiation (film by Fleischer brothers)
...mid-1930s Fleischer cartoons was urban, gritty, dark, and obsessed with sex and death; it was the opposite of Disney’s rural, bright, and colourful image of the world. The short Bimbo’s Initiation (1931) is a prime example of the Fleischers’ quirky perverseness. In it, Betty Boop’s dog, Bimbo, is trapped in an underground labyrinth by a chara...
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bimetal strip (thermometer)
...voltage-measuring device at the other. A temperature difference between the two ends creates a voltage that can be measured and translated into a measure of the temperature of the junction end. The bimetallic strip constitutes one of the most trouble-free and durable thermometers. It is simply two strips of different metals bonded together and held at one end. When heated, the two strips expand...
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bimetallism (monetary system)
monetary standard or system based upon the use of two metals, traditionally gold and silver, rather than one (monometallism). The typical 19th-century bimetallic system defined a nation’s monetary unit by law in terms of fixed quantities of gold and silver (thus automatically establishing a rate of exchange between the two metals). The system also provided a free and unlimited market for t...
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Bimini Islands (islands, The Bahamas)
string of islands, northwestern Bahamas. They extend 40 miles (65 km) north to south and lie about 50 miles (80 km) east of the Florida coast of the United States and 110 miles (175 km) west of the Bahamian capital of Nassau. The main island, North Bimini, on the northern end, contains many yacht harbours and tourist beaches...
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Biminis (islands, The Bahamas)
string of islands, northwestern Bahamas. They extend 40 miles (65 km) north to south and lie about 50 miles (80 km) east of the Florida coast of the United States and 110 miles (175 km) west of the Bahamian capital of Nassau. The main island, North Bimini, on the northern end, contains many yacht harbours and tourist beaches...
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bimolecular dehydration (chemistry)
In the presence of acid, two molecules of an alcohol may lose water to form an ether. In practice, however, this bimolecular dehydration to form an ether competes with unimolecular dehydration to give an alkene. Bimolecular dehydration produces useful yields of ethers only with simple, primary alkyl groups such as those in dimethyl ether and diethyl ether. Dehydration is used commercially to......
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bimolecular nucleophilic substitution reaction (chemistry)
...of Freiburg, Ger., and colleagues. By using high-vacuum techniques to react beams of methyl iodide molecules and chloride ions, the team recorded direct evidence of a reaction mechanism called bimolecular nucleophilic substitution (SN2), but they found that the reaction did not always proceed in the way that had been taught for decades in introductory organic-chemistry courses....
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bimolecular substitution reaction (chemistry)
...of Freiburg, Ger., and colleagues. By using high-vacuum techniques to react beams of methyl iodide molecules and chloride ions, the team recorded direct evidence of a reaction mechanism called bimolecular nucleophilic substitution (SN2), but they found that the reaction did not always proceed in the way that had been taught for decades in introductory organic-chemistry courses....
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bin (musical instrument)
any of several stringed musical instruments of India, including arched harps (before 1000 ce), stick zithers, and lutes....
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bin Laden, Osama (Saudi Arabian militant)
mastermind of numerous terrorist attacks against the United States and other Western powers, including the 1993 bombing of New York City’s World Trade Center, the 2000 suicide bombing of the U.S. warship Cole in the Yemeni port of Aden, and the Septe...
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bin Laden, Osama bin Mohammad (Saudi Arabian militant)
mastermind of numerous terrorist attacks against the United States and other Western powers, including the 1993 bombing of New York City’s World Trade Center, the 2000 suicide bombing of the U.S. warship Cole in the Yemeni port of Aden, and the Septe...
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bin Laden, Usama (Saudi Arabian militant)
mastermind of numerous terrorist attacks against the United States and other Western powers, including the 1993 bombing of New York City’s World Trade Center, the 2000 suicide bombing of the U.S. warship Cole in the Yemeni port of Aden, and the Septe...
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bin Lādin, Usāmah (Saudi Arabian militant)
mastermind of numerous terrorist attacks against the United States and other Western powers, including the 1993 bombing of New York City’s World Trade Center, the 2000 suicide bombing of the U.S. warship Cole in the Yemeni port of Aden, and the Septe...
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bin Munas, Muhammad Hasan (Malaysian political leader)
Malay leader of a peasant rebellion in Malaya in 1915, directed against British colonial rule....
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Bin Salman, Ahmed, Prince (Saudi Arabian businessman)
Saudi businessman and racehorse owner (b. Nov. 17, 1958, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia—d. July 22, 2002, Riyadh), fulfilled a lifelong goal when his recently purchased horse War Emblem won the 2002 Kentucky Derby; he lost his bid for a Triple Crown, however, when War Emblem captured the ...
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BINAC
...Automatic Computer, or UNIVAC. (In the meantime, they contracted with the Northrop Corporation to build the Binary Automatic Computer, or BINAC, which, when completed in 1949, became the first American stored-program computer.) The partners delivered the first UNIVAC to the U.S. Bureau of the Census in......
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Binaisa, Godfrey (Ugandan politician)
...Lule, as president, took office in April 1979. Because of disagreement over economic strategy and the fear that Lule was promoting the interests of his own Ganda people, he was replaced in June by Godfrey Binaisa, but Binaisa’s term of office was also short-lived. Supporters of Obote plotted Binaisa’s overthrow, and Obote returned to Uganda in May 1980....
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Binary Automatic Computer
...Automatic Computer, or UNIVAC. (In the meantime, they contracted with the Northrop Corporation to build the Binary Automatic Computer, or BINAC, which, when completed in 1949, became the first American stored-program computer.) The partners delivered the first UNIVAC to the U.S. Bureau of the Census in......
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binary circuit (electronics)
...digital circuit, on the other hand, is designed to accept only voltages of specific given values. A circuit that uses only two states is known as a binary circuit. Circuit design with binary quantities, “on” and “off” representing 1 and 0 (i.e., true and false), uses the logic of Boolean algebra. The three basic logic......
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binary code (computer science)
Code used in digital computers, based on a binary number system in which there are only two possible states, off and on, usually symbolized by 0 and 1. Whereas in a decimal system, which employs 10 digits, each digit position represents a power of 10 (100, 1,000, etc.), in a binary system each digit positio...
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binary compound (chemical compound)
...Two electrons are transferred from the cations to the anions, leaving each with a closed shell. The alkaline earth chalcogenides form ionic binary crystals such as barium oxide (BaO), calcium sulfide (CaS), barium selenide (BaSe), or strontium oxide (SrO). They have the same structure as sodium chloride, with each atom having six......
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binary digit (communications)
in communication and information theory, a unit of information equivalent to the result of a choice between only two possible alternatives, as between 1 and 0 in the binary number system generally used in ...
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binary fission (cell division)
asexual reproduction by a separation of the body into two new bodies. In the process of binary fission, an organism duplicates its genetic material, or deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), and then divides into two parts (cytokinesis), with e...
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binary form (music)
in music, the structural pattern of many songs and instrumental pieces, primarily from the 17th to the 19th century, characterized by two complementary, related sections of more or less equal duration that may be represented schematically as ab. In 18th-century compositions, including dance-inspired movements by J.S. Bach and keyboard sonatas...
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binary large object (computing)
...to extended relational data models in which table entries need not be simple values but can be programs, text, unstructured data in the form of binary large objects (BLOBs), or any other format the user requires. Another development has been the incorporation of the object concept that has become significant in programming languages. In......
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binary number system (mathematics)
in mathematics, positional numeral system employing 2 as the base and so requiring only two different symbols for its digits, 0 and 1, instead of the usual 10 different symbols needed in the decimal system. The importance of the binary system to information theory and co...
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binary opposition (linguistics)
It has been maintained that the human brain has a preference for binary oppositions, or polarities. If this is so, it will help explain the numerous pairs of related antonyms that are found: good, bad; hot, cold; high, low; right, wrong; dark, light; and so on. For finer discriminations, these terms can be put into more narrowly specified fields containing......
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binary pulsar (astronomy)
...star, much like the beacon from a rotating lighthouse lamp. In 1974, using the Arecibo Observatory, American astronomers Joseph Taylor and Russell Hulse observed a binary pulsar (two pulsars in orbit around each other) and found that their orbital period was decreasing because of gravitational radiation at exactly the rate predicted by Albert Einstein’s theory......
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binary relation (logic and mathematics)
Consider the closed wff,(∀x)(∀y)(ϕxy ⊃ ϕyx),which means that, whenever the relation ϕ holds between one object and a second, it also holds between that second object and the first. This expression is not valid, since it is true for some relations but false for others. A relation for which it is t...
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binary signal (communications)
...best possible reproduction of the original message without the degradations imposed by signal distortion and noise. The basis of relatively noise-free and distortion-free telecommunication is the binary signal. The simplest possible signal of any kind that can be employed to transmit messages, the binary signal consists of only two possible values. These values are represented by the......
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binary star (astronomy)
pair of stars in orbit around their common centre of gravity. A high proportion, perhaps one-half, of all stars in the Milky Way Galaxy are binaries or members of more complex multiple systems. Some binaries form a class of ...
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binary symmetric channel (communications)
...bits per error correction symbol. Thus, for every bit transmitted at least E bits have to be reserved for error corrections. A reasonable measure for the effectiveness of a binary symmetric channel at conveying information can be established by taking its raw throughput of bits and subtracting the number of bits necessary to transmit error corrections. The limit on the......
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binary system (mathematics)
in mathematics, positional numeral system employing 2 as the base and so requiring only two different symbols for its digits, 0 and 1, instead of the usual 10 different symbols needed in the decimal system. The importance of the binary system to information theory and co...
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binary system (chemistry and physics)
Consider the binary system (Figure 2) that describes the freezing and melting of the minerals titanite (CaSiTiO5) and anorthite feldspar (CaAl2Si2O8). The melt can range in composition from pure CaSiTiO5 to pure CaAl2Si2O8, but the solids show no compositional substitution. All phases therefore have the......
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binary tree (computing)
...These data structures have components, each containing data and references to further components (in machine terms, their addresses). Such self-referential structures have recursive definitions. A bintree (binary tree) for example, either is empty or contains a root component with data and left and right bintree “children.”.....
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binary weapon
...weapons might be delivered as aerosols, mortars, artillery shells, missile warheads, mines, or aerial bombs. Most of these have all the ingredients premixed, but newer chemical arms may be so-called binary weapons in which the ingredients are mixed in flight while the weapon is being delivered. Binary weapons are safer and easier to store and handle than more traditional chemical arms....
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binasal hemianopia
...present in corresponding halves of the right and left eye fields is called homonymous hemianopia, whereas defects involving the outer or inner halves of both visual fields are called bitemporal or binasal hemianopia, respectively....
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binaural beat (acoustics)
...to each other: the farther the instruments are out of tune, the faster the beats. Other types of beats are also of interest. Second-order beats occur between the two notes of a mistuned octave, and binaural beats involve beating between tones presented separately to the two ears, so that they do not mix physically....
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binaural effect
The paths from the ears to the brain are separate; that is, each ear converts the sound reaching it into electrical impulses, so that sounds from the two ears mix in the brain not as physical vibrations but as electrical signals. This separation of pathways has the direct result that, if two pure tones are presented to each ear separately (i.e., binaurally) at low levels, it will be very......
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binaural hearing
The paths from the ears to the brain are separate; that is, each ear converts the sound reaching it into electrical impulses, so that sounds from the two ears mix in the brain not as physical vibrations but as electrical signals. This separation of pathways has the direct result that, if two pure tones are presented to each ear separately (i.e., binaurally) at low levels, it will be very......
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Binbirdirek (reservoir, Istanbul, Turkey)
...some comparatively small. In some, like the great cistern near Hagia Sophia called by the Turks the Yerebatan (Underground) Palace, old material was reused; in others, like the even more impressive Binbirdirek (Thousand and One Columns) cistern, new columns of unusually tall and slender proportions and new capitals of cubic form were designed specially. These cisterns assured an adequate supply...
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Binche (Belgium)
town, Walloon Region, Belgium. It lies 9 miles (15 km) southeast of Mons. Situated on a hill, Binche remains encircled by fortifications built in the 12th century and flanked by 27 towers. Its town hall was constructed in the second half of the 14th ce...
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