996 résultats pour "cana"
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Electronics.
electronic circuits. The resistors are made from carbon mixtures, metal films, or resistance wire and have two connecting wires attached. Variable resistors, with anadjustable sliding contact arm, are often used to control volume on radios and television sets. E Capacitors Capacitors consist of two metal plates that are separated by an insulating material ( see Capacitor). If a battery is connected to both plates, an electric charge will flow for a short time and accumulate on each plate. If th...
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Hardware (computer).
Magnetic tape drives use magnetic tape similar to the tape used in VCR cassettes. Tape drives have a very slow read/write time, but have a very high capacity; in fact,their capacity is second only to hard disk drives. Tape drives are mainly used to back up data. Compact disc drives store information on pits burned into the surface of a disc of reflective material ( see CD-ROM). CD-ROMs can store up to 737 megabytes (MB) of data. A Compact Disc-Recordable (CD-R) or Compact Disc-ReWritable (CD-RW)...
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Diabetes Mellitus.
Once diabetes is diagnosed, treatment consists of controlling the amount of glucose in the blood and preventing complications. Depending on the type of diabetes, thiscan be accomplished through regular physical exercise, a carefully controlled diet, and medication. Individuals with Type 1 diabetes must receive insulin, often two to four times a day, to provide the body with the hormone it does not produce. Insulin cannot be takenorally, because it is destroyed in the digestive system. Consequent...
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Volcano.
before eruption. Very violent explosive eruptions are called Plinian eruptions, after Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder. These eruptions can last for several hours to daysand eject a large amount of pyroclastic material. Some volcanoes can produce much more energetic eruptions that eject materials farther from the vents because oftheir andesitic and dacitic composition. Andesitic and dacitic lava is generally thicker than basaltic lava. Stiff lava generally produces more-explosive eruptions. B No...
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Schizophrenia.
alcohol than other people. The use of alcohol and drugs often worsens the symptoms of schizophrenia, resulting in relapses and hospitalizations. IV CAUSES Schizophrenia appears to result not from a single cause, but from a variety of factors. Most scientists believe that schizophrenia is a biological disease caused by geneticfactors, an imbalance of chemicals in the brain, structural brain abnormalities, or abnormalities in the prenatal environment. In addition, stressful life events maycontri...
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To have a conscience involves being conscious of the moral quality
ends up doing the right thing. Talk of a ‘perverted' conscience may mean that a person's ultimate convictions are judged to be perverse, as in the first strand identified; or that their capacity to know good from evil, in general or in the particular case, has been distorted or corrupted. Building on the above, we may note a third emphasis in the idea of conscience, to do with the care, intensity and frequency with which someone examines the moral credentials of their desires, feelings,...
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Drug Dependence.
these drugs develops rapidly, no withdrawal syndrome is apparent when they are discontinued. Phencyclidine, or PCP, known popularly by such names as “angel dust” and “rocket fuel,” has no medical purpose for humans but is occasionally used by veterinarians asan anesthetic and sedative for animals. It became a common drug of abuse in the late 1970s, and is considered a menace because it can easily be synthesized. Itseffects differ from those of other hallucinogens. LSD, for example, produces deta...
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Forensic Science.
barbiturates, cocaine, amphetamines, and heroin. When a body is discovered in a lake, stream, river, or ocean and the lungs are found to be filled with water, the medical examiner must determine if the drowningoccurred where the body was found or elsewhere. A standard microscope that can magnify objects to 1500 times their actual size is used to look for the presence orabsence of diatoms, single-celled algae that are found in all natural bodies of water. The absence of diatoms raises the possi...
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Immune System.
The humoral immune response involves a complex series of events after antigens enter the body. First, macrophages take up some of the antigen and attach it to classII MHC molecules, which then present the antigen to T helper cells. The T helper cells bind the presented antigen, which stimulates the T helper cells to divide andsecrete stimulatory molecules called interleukins. The interleukins in turn activate any B lymphocytes that have also bound the antigen. The activated B cells then divide...
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Radio.
signal, such as a musical note. This form of modulation, AM, is used in many radiotelephony services including standard radiobroadcasts. AM is also employed for carriercurrent telephony, in which the modulated carrier is transmitted by wire, and in the transmission of still pictures by wire or radio. See Broadcasting, Radio and Television. In FM the frequency of the carrier wave is varied within a fixed range at a rate corresponding to the frequency of a sound signal. This form of modulation, p...
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Ski alpin: Medaillengewinner der Olympischen Winterspiele.
1948 Gretchen Fraser, USA Antoinette Meyer, SUI Erika Mahringer, AUT 1952 Andrea Mead-Lawrence, USA Rosa „Ossi” Reichert, GER Mirl Buchner, GER 1956 Renée Colliard, SUI Regina Schöpf, AUT Jewgenija Sidorowa, URS 1960 Anne Heggtveit, CAN Betsy Snite, USA Barbara Henneberger, GER 1964 Christine Goitschel, FRA Marielle Goitschel, FRA Jean Marlene Saubert, USA 1968 Marielle Goitschel, FRA Nancy Greene, CAN Annie Famose, FRA 1972 Barbara Cochran, USA Danielle Debernard, FRA Florence Steurer, FRA 1976...
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Ear.
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INTRODUCTION
Ear, organ of hearing and balance. Only vertebrates, or animals
line or rotates in any direction. Each canal also contains sensory areas with sensory hair cells that project into a cone-shaped cap of gelatin. Two of the semicircularcanals are in a vertical position and are used to detect vertical movement, such as jumping or falling. The third canal is horizontal and detects horizontal movement,such as turning or spinning. The action of the canals depends on the inertia of the fluid inside. When the motion of the body changes, the fluid lags behind, causing...
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Kidney.
secretion. An additional function of the kidney is the processing of vitamin D; the kidney converts this vitamin to an active form that stimulates bone development. Several hormones are produced in the kidney. One of these, erythropoietin, influences the production of red blood cells in the bone marrow. When the kidney detectsthat the number of red blood cells in the body is declining, it secretes erythropoietin. This hormone travels in the bloodstream to the bone marrow, stimulating theproducti...
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Cat Family - biology.
cats have coats that are mainly brown, yellow, or gray, often with white underbellies. The cubs of many species of cats have spotted coats, which helps hide them ingrass and underbrush from predators. Adult cats that have mainly spotted patterns in their fur include cheetahs, leopards, clouded leopards, jaguars, ocelots, margays, Geoffroy’s cat, and servals. Singlecolor coats are found in lions, pumas, and jaguarundis. Some individuals among leopards and jaguars, and more rarely in other species...
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United Nations.
and programs to carry out its recommendations. It elects members to serve on certain agencies and programs, and it coordinates those programs through variouscommittees. B Security Council The Security Council is the most powerful body in the UN. It is responsible for maintaining international peace, and for restoring peace when conflicts arise. Its decisionsare binding on all UN members and have the force of international law. The Security Council has the power to define what is a threat to sec...
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Bacteria - biology.
A2 b Bacterial Killers Some dramatic infectious diseases result from exposure to bacteria that are not part of our normal bacterial community. Cholera, one of the world’s deadliest diseasestoday, is caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae . Cholera is spread in water and food contaminated with the bacteria, and by people who have the disease. After entering the body, the cholera bacteria grow in the intestines, often along the surface of the intestinal wall, where they secrete a toxin (poiso...
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Culture.
form of knowledge, such as scientific discoveries; objects, such as works of art; and traditions, such as the observance of holidays. C1 Ethnocentrism and Cultural Relativism Self-identity usually depends on culture to such a great extent that immersion in a very different culture—with which a person does not share common ways of life orbeliefs—can cause a feeling of confusion and disorientation. Anthropologists refer to this phenomenon as culture shock. In multicultural societies —societies s...
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Camel - biology.
of water in the stomach or hump as was once commonly believed. Unlike other mammals, however, the camel can survive as long as three weeks without drinking,depending on the water content of its food. It can survive a water loss of about 40 percent of its normal body weight. In comparison, a loss of 15 percent is usually fatalfor humans. Camels can go without water due to several unique adaptations to their environment. The camel conserves more water in its body than any other mammal. It excretes...
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Soccer.
Two assistants, known as linesmen or referees’ assistants, aid the referee. Their primary job is to alert the referee when balls go out of the playing area and to assist inmaking offsides calls (see Rules section below). The assistants carry flags, which they wave when the ball leaves the playing area or use to point to the spot where a foul was committed. V EQUIPMENT Soccer is played with a round leather ball. It is between 68 and 71 cm (27 and 28 in) in circumference and weighs between 396...
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Memory (psychology).
memory span —how many items people can correctly recall in order. Researchers would show people increasingly long sequences of digits or letters and then ask them to recall as many of the items as they could. In 1956 American psychologist George Miller reviewed many experiments on memory span and concluded that peoplecould hold an average of seven items in short-term memory. He referred to this limit as “the magical number seven, plus or minus two” because the results of thestudies were so consi...
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Carbon - chemistry.
Graphite is black and slippery and conducts electricity. In graphite, the atoms form planar, or flat, layers. Each layer is made up of rings containing six carbon atoms.The rings are linked to each other in a structure that resembles the hexagonal mesh of chicken wire. Each atom has three sigma bonds (with 120° between any two ofthe bonds) and belongs to three neighboring rings. The fourth electron of each atom becomes part of an extensive pi bond system. Graphite conducts electricity,because th...
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Mountain Climbing.
teeth on one side, and a straight, flat, metal blade called an adze on the other. Ice axes have many uses. One of the most common is to help the climber stay balanced on steep slopes. The climber swings the axe with a short, quick movement to lodge the pick in snow or ice, creating a secure anchor. If a climber should slip and beginsliding down a snowfield, a self-arrest can be performed by turning face down on the snow and burying the pick in the snow surface. The climber’s weight over the...
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Business.
The most common form of ownership is a sole proprietorship —that is, a business owned by one individual. At the beginning of the 21st century, there were more than 17 million sole proprietorships in the United States. These businesses have the advantage of being easy to set up and to dissolve because few laws exist to regulatethem. Proprietors, as owners, also maintain direct control of their businesses and own all their profits. On the other hand, owners of proprietorships are personallyrespon...
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Electron
I
INTRODUCTION
Models of the Atom
Once scientists discovered the electron, they set out to explain how electrons behave in atoms.
Electron Density and Orbital ShapesAtomic orbitals are mathematical descriptions of where the electrons in an atom (or molecule) are most likely to be found.These descriptions are obtained by solving an equation known as the Schrödinger equation, which expresses ourknowledge of the atomic world. As the angular momentum and energy of an electron increases, it tends to reside indifferently shaped orbitals. The orbitals corresponding to the three lowest energy states are s, p, and d, respectively....
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Banking.
loans, and some commercial loans in addition to checking accounts and time deposits. Credit unions, SLAs, and savings banks help encourage thriftiness by paying interest to consumers who put their money in savings deposits. Consequently, creditunions, SLAs, and savings banks are often referred to as thrift institutions. Of the various types of banks in the United States, commercial banks account for the greatest single source of the financial industry’s assets. In 2000 the 8,528commercial banks...
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Computer.
which can activate computer commands in conjunction with voice recognition software. “Tablet” computers are being developed that will allow users to interact with theirscreens using a penlike device. E The Central Processing Unit Information from an input device or from the computer’s memory is communicated via the bus to the central processing unit (CPU), which is the part of the computerthat translates commands and runs programs. The CPU is a microprocessor chip—that is, a single piece of sil...
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Coral Reef.
sensitive to particles of mud or sediment settling on them, which means that corals rarely grow close to rivers or other sources of sediment. In the sea, light is filteredout by depth, so reef-building corals can only grow in relatively shallow water. Even in the clearest oceans few reef-building corals grow below a depth of 80 to 100 m(260 to 328 ft). Although corals need nutrients, they cannot thrive in areas where there are large amounts of nutrients. Typically, microscopic organisms in the p...
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Observatory - astronomy.
Ultraviolet radiation, X rays, and gamma rays have shorter wavelengths than visible light has. These types of radiation tell astronomers about the hottest and mostviolent phenomena in the universe. Earth’s atmosphere blocks most of this radiation, so astronomers must send their observatories above the atmosphere aboardballoons, rockets, or satellites. Ultraviolet telescopes are much like visible light telescopes, but X-ray telescopes must have special nested cylindrical mirrors to prevent Xrays...
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Valley.
Except in mountainous terrain, rivers are almost always flanked by floodplains. Floodplains are flat wide deposits of alluvium, river-deposited sediment, on either side of the river channel. During floods, a river overflows its banks and spreads out the sediment near the river to form a floodplain. Floodplains of large rivers, such as thoseof the Mississippi River, can be flat areas tens of kilometers across. River channels migrate back and forth across their floodplains as alluvium is repeate...
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Valley - Geography.
Except in mountainous terrain, rivers are almost always flanked by floodplains. Floodplains are flat wide deposits of alluvium, river-deposited sediment, on either side of the river channel. During floods, a river overflows its banks and spreads out the sediment near the river to form a floodplain. Floodplains of large rivers, such as thoseof the Mississippi River, can be flat areas tens of kilometers across. River channels migrate back and forth across their floodplains as alluvium is repeate...
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Human Disease.
disease can be transmitted through food infected with mutated proteins. B Spread of Infectious Disease Some pathogens are spread from one person to another by direct contact. They leave the first person through body openings, mucous membranes, and skin wounds,and they enter the second person through similar channels. For example, the viruses that cause respiratory diseases such as influenza and the common cold are spreadin moisture droplets when an infected person coughs or sneezes. A hand that...
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Cognitive Psychology.
full richness of people’s cognitive experiences. Describing the act of remembering as a process of storage and retrieval, for example, neglects the subjective experienceof remembering. Another criticism is that information-processing theory may not reflect how the brain actually works. Newer models, such as the parallel distributedprocessing model, try to address this criticism by drawing on studies of brain structure and function. Psychologists continue to debate the adequacy of the information...
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Turtle.
Turtles use their jaws to cut and handle food. Instead of teeth, a turtle’s upper and lower jaws are covered by horny ridges, similar to a bird’s beak. Meat-eating turtlescommonly have knife-sharp ridges for slicing through their prey. Plant-eating turtles often have ridges with serrated edges that help them cut through tough plants.Turtles use their tongues in swallowing food, but unlike many other reptiles, such as chameleons, they cannot stick out their tongues to capture food. C Limb Structu...
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Turtle - biology.
Turtles use their jaws to cut and handle food. Instead of teeth, a turtle’s upper and lower jaws are covered by horny ridges, similar to a bird’s beak. Meat-eating turtlescommonly have knife-sharp ridges for slicing through their prey. Plant-eating turtles often have ridges with serrated edges that help them cut through tough plants.Turtles use their tongues in swallowing food, but unlike many other reptiles, such as chameleons, they cannot stick out their tongues to capture food. C Limb Structu...
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Computer Science.
theoretical research is called algorithmic complexity. Computer scientists in this field seek to develop techniques for determining the inherent efficiency of algorithmswith respect to one another. Another area of theoretical research called computability theory seeks to identify the inherent limits of computation. Software engineers use programming languages to communicate algorithms to a computer. Natural languages such as English are ambiguous—meaning that theirgrammatical structure and vocab...
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Telecommunications.
commonly referred to as wireless communications, use technologies such as cordless telephones, cellular radio telephones, pagers, and satellites. Wirelesscommunications offer increased mobility and flexibility. In the future some experts believe that wireless devices will also offer high-speed Internet access. C Wires and Cables Wires and cables were the original medium for telecommunications and are still the primary means for telephone connections. Wireline transmission evolved fromtelegraph...
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Religion.
By the end of the 19th century, scholars were making religion an object of systematic inquiry. Müller’s comparative approach was adopted in many European andJapanese universities, and as a result the common features of world religions (such as gods, prayer, priesthood, and creation myths) were the subjects of sustainedscholarly investigation. In addition, field anthropologists had begun to compile firsthand accounts of the religions of peoples who previously had been dismissed assavages. The stu...
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Canadian Parliament.
government’s legislative program. Members of Commons can also present a motion in response to the Budget Speech, which reviews the government’s economicrecord, taxation, and expenditure plans, and to Supply Motions, which concern budgets for individual departments. If a majority of MPs support a no-confidence motion,the government must resign. Also, if Parliament rejects a significant government proposal, the government is expected to resign and request the governor-general to call an election....
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Drug.
I
INTRODUCTION
Drug, substance that affects the function of living cells, used
normalizing chemical activity in the emotional centers of the brain. Antianxiety drugs, also referred to as tranquilizers, treat anxiety by decreasing the activity in theanxiety centers of the brain. Sedative-hypnotic drugs are used both as sedatives to reduce anxiety and as hypnotics to induce sleep. Sedative-hypnotic drugs act by reducing brain-cell activity.Stimulant drugs, on the other hand, increase neuronal (nerve cell) activity and reduce fatigue and appetite. Analgesic drugs reduce pain...
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World Wide Web.
browser does not display the URL for the user. Instead, to indicate that an item is selectable, the browser changes the color of the item on the screen and keeps theURL associated with the link hidden. When a user clicks on an item that corresponds to a selectable link, the browser consults the hidden information to find theappropriate URL, which the browser then follows to the selected page. Because a link can point to any page in the Web, the links are known as hyperlinks. See also Hypermedia...
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Nanotechnology.
ever-finer method of reducing material to the nanoscale size. Instead, nanostructures would be assembled atom by atom and molecule by molecule, from the atomiclevel up, just as occurs in nature. However, assembly at this scale has its own challenges. In school, children learn about some of these challenges when they study the random Brownian motion seen in particles suspended in liquids such as water. Theparticles themselves are not moving. Rather, the water molecules that surround the particles...
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Extrasolar Planets - astronomy.
When a planet passes in a front of the star it orbits—an event called a transit—it causes a small dip in the brightness of the star. Measuring the slight change in thebrightness can be used not only to directly detect a planet, but to determine its size and orbit. However, the planet needs to orbit in a plane that lies in a telescope’sline of sight on the star. Despite long odds, Earth-based telescopes have detected and studied a few exoplanets using this method. The first space telescope design...
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Submarine.
B Propulsion Modern submarines use either diesel-electric or nuclear power to drive the sub's propeller and to provide internal electric power. Diesel-electric power emerged as themost efficient propulsion system for submarines in the early 20th century, following unsuccessful attempts to use steam or gasoline power. While on the surface, thesubmarine uses a diesel engine to drive the propeller and generate electricity. When submerged, a battery-driven electrical motor takes over for propulsion...
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Internet.
usually pays a fixed monthly fee for a dedicated connection. In exchange, the company providing the connection agrees to relay data between the user’s computer andthe Internet. Dial-up is the least expensive access technology, but it is also the least convenient. To use dial-up access, a subscriber must have a telephone modem, a device thatconnects a computer to the telephone system and is capable of converting data into sounds and sounds back into data. The user’s ISP provides software that con...
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Leukemia.
leukemia, and normal or mildly decreased in chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Nearly all chronic leukemia patients have increased white cell counts. In chronic myelocyticleukemia, some of these leukemic white cells are capable of functioning as normal cells do by fighting infectious microbes. Hence, infection is no more common than in ahealthy individual. In chronic lymphocytic leukemia the blood contains large numbers of malignant lymphocytes that do not function normally. Normal lymphocytescoexist...
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Geology.
terminology. Today the geologic time scale is generally agreed upon and used by scientists around the world, dividing time into eons, eras, periods, and epochs. Everyfew years, the numerical time scale is refined based on new evidence, and geologists publish an update. Geologists use several methods to determine geologic time. These methods include physical stratigraphy, or the placement of events in the order of their occurrence,and biostratigraphy, which uses fossils to determine geologic time...
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First Aid.
IV SEVERE BLEEDING The presence of blood over a considerable area of a person’s body does not always indicate severe bleeding. The blood may ooze from multiple small wounds or besmeared, giving the appearance of more blood than is actually present. The rate at which blood is lost from a wound depends on the size and kind of blood vesselruptured. Bright red, spurting blood indicates injury to an artery while welling or steadily flowing, dark red blood indicates injury to a vein. Welling or spur...
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Astronomy - astronomy.
Telescopes may use either lenses or mirrors to gather visible light, permitting direct observation or photographic recording of distant objects. Those that use lenses arecalled refracting telescopes, since they use the property of refraction, or bending, of light ( see Optics: Reflection and Refraction ). The largest refracting telescope is the 40-in (1-m) telescope at the Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, Wisconsin, founded in the late 19th century. Lenses bend different colors of light by d...
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Bird.
I
INTRODUCTION
Bird, animal with feathers and wings. Birds are the only
B Physical Adaptations for Flight The internal body parts of all birds, including flightless ones, reflect the evolution of birds as flying creatures. Birds have lightweight skeletons in which many of themajor bones are hollow. A unique feature of birds is the furculum, or wishbone, which is comparable to the collarbones of humans, although in birds the left and rightportions are fused together. The furculum absorbs the shock of wing motion and acts as a spring to help birds breathe while they...
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Bird - biology.
B Physical Adaptations for Flight The internal body parts of all birds, including flightless ones, reflect the evolution of birds as flying creatures. Birds have lightweight skeletons in which many of themajor bones are hollow. A unique feature of birds is the furculum, or wishbone, which is comparable to the collarbones of humans, although in birds the left and rightportions are fused together. The furculum absorbs the shock of wing motion and acts as a spring to help birds breathe while they...