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Encyclopedias since 1768

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F region ... factorial

F region: highest region of the ionosphere, at altitudes greater than 160 km (100 miles); it has the greatest concentration of free electrons and is the most important of the ionospheric regions. The charged particles in the F region consist primarily of ...
F-100: jet fighter aircraft, the first developed for the U.S. Air Force to exceed the speed of sound in level flight. It was operational from 1953 to 1973. It was made by North American Aviation, Inc., and it became the principal ...
F-104: jet day fighter aircraft built by Lockheed Aircraft Corporation for the U.S. Air Force but adopted by a total of 15 NATO and other countries. It was widely adapted for use as a fighter-bomber. The F-104 had a wingspan of ...
F-117: single-seat, twin-engine jet fighter-bomber built by the Lockheed Corporation (now part of the Lockheed Martin Corporation) for the U.S. Air Force. It was the first stealth aircraft-i.e., an aircraft designed entirely around the concept of evading detection by radar and ...
F-14: two-seat, twin-engine jet fighter built for the U.S. Navy by the Grumman Corporation (now part of the Northrop Grumman Corporation). As a successor to the F-4 Phantom II, it was designed in the 1960s with the aerodynamic and electronic capacities ...
F-15: twin-engine jet fighter produced by the McDonnell Douglas Corporation of the United States. Based on a design proposed in 1969 for an air-superiority fighter, it has also been built in fighter-bomber versions. F-15s were delivered to the U.S. Air Force ...
F-16: single-seat, single-engine jet fighter built by the General Dynamics Corporation (now part of the Lockheed Martin Corporation) for the United States and more than a dozen other countries. The F-16 originated in an order placed in 1972 for a lightweight, ...
F-4: two-seat, twin-engine jet fighter built by the McDonnell Aircraft Corporation (later the McDonnell-Douglas Corporation) for the United States and many other countries. The first F-4 was delivered to the U.S. Navy in 1960 and to the Air Force in 1963. ...
F-86: U.S. single-seat, single-engine jet fighter built by North American Aviation, Inc., the first jet fighter in the West to exploit aerodynamic principles learned from German engineering at the close of World War II. The F-86 was built with the wings ...
Fa Ngum: founder and first king of the Lao kingdom of Lan Xang who created the first unified state of the Lao people.
Fa-hsiang: school of Chinese Buddhism derived from the Indian Yogacara school. See Yogacara.
Fabales: order of dicotyledonous flowering plants, a division of the subclass Rosidae. The characteristic fruit of many members is a pod (legume) consisting, in essence, of an ovary that is a tightly folded leaf, as in a pea pod. The pod ...
Faber, Frederick William: British theologian, noted hymnist, and founder of the Wilfridians, a religious society living in common without vows.
Faber, Lothar von; and Faber, Eberhard: German brothers who expanded a family pencil business into a worldwide firm preeminent in the manufacture of writing products and art supplies.
Faber, Peter: French Jesuit theologian and a cofounder of the Society of Jesus, who was tutor and friend of Ignatius Loyola at Paris. He was appointed professor of theology at Rome by Pope Paul III (1537), founded Jesuit colleges at Cologne and ...
Faberge, Peter Carl: one of the greatest goldsmiths, jewelers, and designers in Western decorative arts.
Fabert, Abraham de: marshal of France, a leading French commander during the reigns of Louis XIII and Louis XIV.
Fabian Society: socialist society founded in 1883-84 in London, having as its goal the establishment of a democratic socialist state in Great Britain. The Fabians put their faith in evolutionary socialism rather than in revolution.
Fabian, Saint: pope from 236 to 250. The successor to St. Anterus, Fabian is said to have divided Rome into seven districts assigned to the seven deacons and to have founded several churches in France. His appointment of notaries to register the ...
Fabiola, Saint: Christian noblewoman credited with founding the first public hospital in western Europe.
Fabius Ambustus, Quintus: Roman politician and commander who, according to tradition, was responsible for the sack of Rome by the Gauls in or soon after 390.
Fabius Maximus Cunctator, Quintus: Roman commander and statesman whose cautious delaying tactics (whence the surname Cunctator, meaning "delayer") during the early stages of the Second Punic War (218-201) gave Rome time to recover its strength and take the offensive against the invading Carthaginian army ...
Fabius Pictor, Quintus: one of the first Roman prose historians.
fable, parable, and allegory: any form of imaginative literature or spoken utterance constructed in such a way that readers or listeners are encouraged to look for meanings hidden beneath the literal surface of the fiction. A story is told or perhaps enacted whose details-when ...
fabliau: a short metrical tale made popular in medieval France by the jongleurs, or professional storytellers. Fabliaux were characterized by vivid detail and realistic observation and were usually comic, coarse, and often cynical, especially in their treatment of women.
Fabre d'Eglantine, Philippe: French political dramatic satirist and prominent figure in the French Revolution; as deputy in the National Convention he voted for the death of Louis XVI.
Fabre, Emile: French playwright and administrator of the Comedie-Francaise (1915-36) who developed it into a vehicle for classical and contemporary repertory.
Fabre, Jean Henri: French entomologist famous for his study of the anatomy and behaviour of insects.
Fabriano: town, Ancona province, in Marche (The Marches) region, central Italy. The town was the home of a minor school of painting founded in the late 14th century by Allegretto Nuzi and Gentile da Fabriano; frescoes by the former decorate the ...
Fabricius ab Aquapendente, Hieronymus: Italian surgeon, an outstanding Renaissance anatomist who helped found modern embryology.
Fabricius Luscinus, Gaius: Roman commander and statesman whose incorruptibility and austerity were frequently regarded as models of the early Roman virtues.
Fabricius, Johann Albert: German classical scholar and the greatest of 18th-century bibliographers.
Fabricius, Johann Christian: Danish entomologist known for his extensive taxonomic research based upon the structure of insect mouthparts rather than upon their wings. He also advanced theoretical propositions that were progressive for his time, particularly his view that new species and varieties could ...
Fabricius, Johannes: Dutch astronomer who may have been the first observer of sunspots (1610/1611) and was the first to publish information on such observations. He did so in his Narratio de maculis in sole observatis et apparente earum cum sole conversione (1611; ...
Fabritius, Barent: Dutch painter of portraits and of biblical, mythological, and historical scenes.
Fabritius, Carel: Dutch Baroque painter of portraits, genre, and narrative subjects whose concern with light and space influenced the stylistic development of the mid-17th-century school of Delft.
Fabrizi, Nicola: one of the most militant and dedicated leaders of the Risorgimento, the movement aimed at the unification of Italy.
Fabry's disease: sex-linked hereditary disease in which a deficiency in the enzyme alpha-galactosidase A results in abnormal deposits of a glycosphingolipid (ceramide trihexoside) in the blood vessels. These deposits in turn produce heart and kidney disturbances resulting in a marked reduction in ...
Fabry, Charles: French physicist who discovered in the upper atmosphere the ozone layer that acts as a screen protecting life on the surface of Earth from most of the harmful effects of ultraviolet radiation from the Sun.
fabula Atellana: (Latin: "Atellan play"), the earliest native Italian farce, presumably rustic improvisational comedy featuring masked stock characters. The farces derived their name from the town of Atella in the Campania region of southern Italy and seem to have originated among Italians ...
fabula palliata: any of the Roman comedies that were translations or adaptations of Greek New Comedy. The name derives from the pallium, the Latin name for the himation (a Greek cloak), and means roughly "play in Greek dress."
face: front part of the head that, in vertebrates, houses the sense organs of vision and smell as well as the mouth and jaws. In humans it extends from the forehead to the chin.
facet: flat, polished surface on a cut gemstone, usually with three or four sides. The widest part of a faceted stone is the girdle; the girdle lies on a plane that separates the crown, the stone's upper portion, from the pavilion, ...
facial nerve: nerve that originates in the area of the brain called the pons and that has three types of nerve fibres: (1) motor fibres to the superficial muscles of the face, neck, and scalp and to certain deep muscles, known collectively ...
facon de Venise: (French: "Venetian fashion"), style of glass made in the 16th and 17th centuries at places other than Venice itself but using the techniques that had been perfected there. It may be outwardly so similar as to be difficult to distinguish ...
facsimile: in telecommunications, the transmission and reproduction of documents by wire or radio wave. Common fax machines are designed to scan printed textual and graphic material and then transmit the information through the telephone network to similar machines, where the documents ...
Fact, Theatre of: German dramatic movement that arose during the early 1960s, associated primarily with Rolf Hochhuth, Peter Weiss, and Heinar Kipphardt. Their political plays examined recent historical events, often through official documents and court records. Their concern that the West, and especially ...
Facta, Luigi: Italy's last prime minister before the Fascist leader Benito Mussolini gained power (Oct. 31, 1922).
factor: in mathematics, a number or algebraic expression that divides another number or expression evenly-i.e., with no remainder. For example, 3 and 6 are factors of 12 because 12 ÷ 3 = 4 exactly and 12 ÷ 6 = 2 exactly. The other factors of 12 are 1, 2, ...
Factor, Max: dean of Hollywood makeup experts. He was a pioneer in developing makeup specifically for motion-picture actors and was given a special Academy Award in 1928 for his achievements.
factorial: in mathematics, the product of all positive integers less than or equal to a given positive integer and denoted by that integer and an exclamation point. Thus, factorial seven is written 7!, meaning 1 × 2 × 3 × 4 ...