Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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Caqueta ... carbon dioxide

Caqueta: departamento, southern Colombia, bounded south by the Caqueta River and northeast by the Apaporis River. Given commissary status in 1910 and raised to intendency level in 1950 and to department status in the late 1970s, the territory, 34,350 square miles ...
Caquetio: Indians of northwestern Venezuela living along the shores of Lake Maracaibo at the time of the Spanish conquest. They moved inland to avoid enslavement by the Spaniards but were eventually destroyed as were their neighbours, the Quiriquire and the Jirajara.
Caraballo Mountains: mountains in central Luzon, Philippines. The range reaches an elevation of about 5,500 feet (1,680 metres). It joins the Cordillera Central to the north and the Sierra Madre to the east. Drained by the headwaters of the northward-flowing Cagayan River, ...
Carabiniere: one of the three national police forces of Italy. Originally an elite military organization in the Savoyard states, the corps became part of the Italian armed forces at the time of national unification (1861) and is still considered part of ...
Carabobo: state, northwestern Venezuela, bounded north by the Caribbean Sea, and by the states of Aragua (east), Guarico and Cojedes (south), and Yaracuy (west). It has an area of 1,795 sq mi (4,650 sq km) and was named in commemoration of ...
Carabobo, Battle of: (June 24, 1821), during the Latin-American wars of independence, a victory won by South American patriots over Spanish royalists on the plains near Caracas; it virtually freed Venezuela from Spanish control. Following the instructions of the recently installed liberal government ...
caracal: (Felis caracal), short-tailed cat (family Felidae) found in hills, deserts, and plains of Africa, the Middle East, and central and southwestern Asia. The caracal is a sleek, short-haired cat with a reddish brown-coat and long tufts of black hairs on ...
Caracalla: Roman emperor, ruling jointly with his father, Septimius Severus, from 198 to 211 and then alone from 211 until his assassination in 217. His principal achievements were his colossal baths in Rome and his edict of 212, giving Roman citizenship ...
Caracalla, Baths of: public baths in ancient Rome begun by the emperor Septimius Severus in AD 206 and completed by his son, the emperor Caracalla, in 216. Among Rome's most beautiful and luxurious baths, designed to accommodate about 1,600 bathers, the Baths of ...
caracara: any of about 10 species of birds of prey of the New World subfamily Polyborinae (or Daptriinae) of the family Falconidae. Caracaras feed largely on carrion, birds, reptiles, and amphibians. They are gregarious and aggressive. In spite of their smaller ...
Caracas: city, capital of Venezuela, and one of the principal cities of South America. It is by far Venezuela's largest urban agglomeration and the nation's primary centre of industry, commerce, education, and culture. Founded in 1567 as Santiago de Leon de ...
Caracciola, Rudolf: German automobile-racing driver who was one of the most successful and versatile of modern times. He participated in hill climbs and speed trials as well as races.
Caracciolo, Francesco, duca di Brienza: Neapolitan admiral who was executed on the orders of the British admiral Horatio Nelson for supporting the republican revolution at Naples in 1799. Considered a traitor by some Italians, he at first supported King Ferdinand IV of Naples but later ...
Caracol: major Mayan city, now an archaeological site in west-central Belize, 47 miles (76 km) southeast of the Guatemalan Mayan city of Tikal. The name is Spanish (meaning "snail"); the original Mayan name is unknown.
Caradoc Series: the fifth of six subdivisions (in ascending order) of the Ordovician System, comprising all those rocks deposited worldwide during the Caradocian Age (458 to 448 million years ago). The series' name is derived from the hills called Caer Caradoc, near ...
Caradon: district, administrative and historic county of Cornwall, England. It lies between Bodmin Moor and the English Channel in southeastern Cornwall; the River Tamar forms the boundary with Devon to the east. The district depends on Plymouth in Devon for many ...
Caragiale, Costache: actor-manager who helped to encourage the development of a unique Romanian drama.
Caragiale, Ion Luca: Romanian playwright and prose writer of great satirical power.
Caraja: tribe of South American Indians living along the Araguaia River, near the inland island of Bananal, in central Brazil. Their language may be distantly related to Ge, which is spoken by most of the surrounding tribes. The three subtribes of ...
caramel: candy substance obtained by boiling sugar to or beyond approximately 240° F (115° C), at which point its mass takes on a slightly yellowish colour and pleasantly burnt smell.
Caran: Hindu caste of hereditary genealogists, bards, and storytellers located in Gujarat state in western India. They claim origin from the Rajput caste of Rajasthan and may be of mixed Brahman (priestly) and Rajput extraction. Many of their customs are similar ...
Caran d'Ache: caricaturist and illustrator whose line drawing was notable for its crisp, forceful simplicity. The name Caran d'Ache transliterates the Russian word for pencil.
carangid: any fish of the family Carangidae (order Perciformes), which contains more than 200 species of marine fishes, including such well-known forms as the jacks and pompanos. Carangids are swift, predatory, usually silvery fishes found throughout the world in warm and ...
Caraquet: town and fishing port, Gloucester county, northeastern New Brunswick, Canada. It lies along Caraquet Bay (an inlet of Chaleur Bay), near the mouth of the Caraquet River, 42 miles (68 km) northeast of Bathurst.
carat: unit of weight for diamonds and certain other precious gems. Before 1913 the weight of a carat varied in different gem centres. Originally based on the weight of grains or leguminous seeds, which, of course, varied in size from place ...
Caratacus: king of the British tribe of Trinovantes, and the son of Cunobelinus (q.v.).
Caratasca Lagoon: lagoon in northeastern Honduras. The nation's largest lagoon, Caratasca extends inland from the Caribbean Sea for approximately 25 miles (40 km) and measures up to 55 miles (88 km) from northwest to southeast. It is linked to the Caribbean by ...
Caratheodory, Constantin: German mathematician of Greek origin who made important contributions to the theory of real functions, to the calculus of variations, and to the theory of point-set measure.
Carausius, Marcus Aurelius Mausaeus: officer in the Roman military service who created a short-lived independent state in Britain.
Caravaca de la Cruz: city in the provincia (province) and comunidad autonoma (autonomous community) of Murcia, southeastern Spain, about 40 miles (65 km) west-northwest of Murcia city.
Caravaggio: Italian painter whose revolutionary technique of tenebrism, or dramatic, selective illumination of form out of deep shadow, became a hallmark of Baroque painting (see ). Scorning the traditional idealized interpretation of religious subjects, he took his models from the streets ...
caravan: a group of merchants, pilgrims, or travelers journeying together, usually for mutual protection in deserts or other hostile regions. In the deserts of Asia and northern Africa, the animal most commonly used in caravans was the camel, because of its ...
caravansary: in the Middle East and parts of North Africa and Central Asia, a public building used for sheltering caravans and other travelers. The caravansary is usually constructed outside the walls of a town or village. The structure is quadrangular in ...
caravel: a light sailing ship of the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries in Europe, much-used by the Spanish and Portuguese for long voyages. Apparently developed by the Portuguese for exploring the coast of Africa, the caravel's chief excellence lay in its ...
caraway: the dried fruit, commonly called seed, of Carum carvi, a biennial herb of the parsley family (Apiaceae, or Umbelliferae), native to Europe and western Asia and cultivated since ancient times. Caraway has a distinctive aroma reminiscent of anise and a ...
Caraway, Hattie Ophelia: American politician who became the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate.
carbanion: any member of a class of organic compounds in which a negative electrical charge is located predominantly on a carbon atom. Carbanions are formally derived from neutral organic molecules by removal of positively charged atoms or groups of atoms, and ...
carbene: any member of a class of highly reactive molecules containing divalent carbon atoms-that is, carbon atoms that utilize only two of the four bonds they are capable of forming with other atoms. Occurring usually as transient intermediates during chemical reactions, ...
Carbet Mountains: volcanic massif on the Caribbean island of Martinique, in the Lesser Antilles, French West Indies. The peaks are about 3 12 mi (6 km) from the west coast, standing between Saint-Pierre and Fort-de-France. They include Lacroix (3,924 ft [1,196 m]), ...
carbide: any of a class of chemical compounds in which carbon is combined with a metallic or semimetallic element. Calcium carbide is important chiefly as a source of acetylene and other chemicals, whereas the carbides of silicon, tungsten, and several other ...
carbine: light, short-barrelled musket or rifle. The word, the source of which is obscure, seems to have originated in the late or mid-16th century. The carbine, in various versions corresponding to the different full-sized military arms, was chiefly a cavalry weapon ...
Carbo, Gaius Papirius: Roman politician who supported the agrarian reforms of Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus but later deserted the Gracchan party.
Carbo, Gnaeus Papirius: Roman general, leader of the forces of Gaius Marius in the civil war between Marius and Lucius Cornelius Sulla. In 87 he took part in Marius' blockade of Rome, which was at that time held by pro-Sullan forces. Rome capitulated, ...
carbohydrate: class of naturally occurring compounds and derivatives formed from them. In the early part of the 19th century, substances such as wood, starch, and linen were found to be composed mainly of molecules containing atoms of carbon (C), hydrogen (H), ...
carbolic acid: simplest member of the phenol family of organic compounds. See phenol.
carbon: a nonmetallic chemical element in Group IVa of the periodic table.
Carbon: county, eastern Pennsylvania, U.S., flanked to the north by the Pocono Mountains and to the south by Blue Mountain and located midway between the cities of Wilkes-Barre and Allentown. It consists of a mountainous region lying largely in the Appalachian ...
carbon black: any of a group of intensely black, finely divided forms of amorphous carbon, usually obtained as soot from partial combustion of hydrocarbons, used principally as reinforcing agents in automobile tires and other rubber products but also as extremely black pigments ...
carbon cycle: in biology, circulation of carbon in various forms through nature. Carbon is a constituent of all organic compounds, many of which are essential to life on Earth. The source of the carbon found in living matter is carbon dioxide (CO₂) ...
carbon cycle: sequence of thermonuclear reactions that provides most of the energy radiated by the hotter stars. It is only a minor source of energy for the Sun and does not operate at all in very cool stars. Four hydrogen nuclei are ...
carbon dioxide: (CO₂), a colourless gas having a faint, sharp odour and a sour taste; it is a minor component of the Earth's atmosphere (about 3 volumes in 10,000), formed in combustion of carbon-containing materials, in fermentation, and in respiration of animals ...