Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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fluting and reeding ... foie gras

fluting and reeding: in architectural decoration, surfaces worked into a regular series of (vertical) concave grooves or convex ridges, frequently used on columns. In Classical architecture fluting and reeding are used in the columns of all the orders except the Tuscan. In the ...
flutter and wow: in sound reproduction, waver in a reproduced tone or group of tones that is caused by irregularities in turntable or tape drive speed during recording, duplication, or reproduction. Low-frequency irregularities (as one per revolution of a turntable, referred to as ...
fluvial process: the physical interaction of flowing water and the natural channels of rivers and streams. Such processes play an essential and conspicuous role in the denudation of land surfaces and the transport of rock detritus from higher to lower levels.
Fluvisol: one of the 30 soil groups in the classification system of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Fluvisols are found typically on level topography that is flooded periodically by surface waters or rising groundwater, as in river floodplains and deltas ...
flux: in metallurgy, any substance introduced in the smelting of ores to promote fluidity and to remove objectionable impurities in the form of slag. Limestone is commonly used for this purpose in smelting iron ores. Other materials used as fluxes are ...
fluxion: in mathematics, the original term for derivative (q.v.), introduced by Isaac Newton in 1665. Newton referred to a varying (flowing) quantity as a fluent and to its instantaneous rate of change as a fluxion. Newton stated that the fundamental problems ...
fly: any of several thousand species of insects belonging to the order Diptera and characterized by the use of only one pair of wings for flight and the reduction of the second pair of wings to knobs (called halteres) used for ...
Fly River: one of the largest rivers of New Guinea, flowing almost wholly through Papua New Guinea. For a short stretch of its middle course, it forms the border between Papua New Guinea on the east and the Indonesian province of Irian ...
fly-catcher plant: (Cephalotus follicularis), only species in the flowering plant family Cephalotaceae, native to damp sandy or swampy terrain in southwestern Australia. It is a perennial herb with a deep taproot and a short, woody underground stem and buff-coloured flowers. The lower ...
fly-tying: the hobby or business of imitating the live food of gamefish by attaching various materials to a hook. Most often used to imitate various life stages of insects, the craft also imitates minnows and other natural foods. It has been ...
flycatcher: any of a number of perching birds (order Passeriformes) that dart out to capture insects on the wing, particularly members of the Old World songbird family Muscicapidae (q.v.) and of the New World family Tyrannidae, which consists of the tyrant ...
Flying Burrito Brothers, the: American popular musical group of the late 1960s and '70s that was one of the chief influences on the development of country rock. The original members were Chris Hillman (b. Dec. 4, 1942, Los Angeles, Calif., U.S., ), "Sneaky" Pete ...
flying doctor service: method for supplying medical service by airplane to areas where doctors are few and communications difficult. The plan for the first service of this type was conceived in 1912 by the Rev. John Flynn, superintendent of the Australian Inland Mission ...
Flying Dutchman: in European maritime legend, spectre ship doomed to sail forever; its appearance to seamen is believed to signal imminent disaster. In the most common version, the captain, Vanderdecken, gambles his salvation on a rash pledge to round the Cape of ...
flying fish: any of about 40 species of oceanic fishes of the family Exocoetidae (order Atheriniformes), found worldwide in warm waters and noted for their ability to fly. They are all small, attaining a maximum length of about 45 cm (18 inches), ...
flying fox: any of about 65 bat species found on tropical islands from Madagascar to Australia and Indonesia and mainland Asia. They are the largest bats; some attain a wingspan of 1.5 m (5 feet), with a head and body length of ...
flying gurnard: any of a small group of marine fish comprising the family Dactylopteridae (or Cephalacanthidae) and the order Dactylopteriformes (sometimes placed in Scorpaeniformes). Flying gurnards are similar to the sea robins, or gurnards (family Triglidae, order Scorpaeniformes), and are sometimes considered ...
flying lemur: either of the two species of primitive gliding mammals found only in Southeast Asia and on some of the Philippine Islands. Flying lemurs resemble large flying squirrels, as they are arboreal climbers and gliders that have webbed feet with claws. ...
flying snake: any of three species of snakes constituting the genus Chrysopelea of the family Colubridae. These slender arboreal snakes, found in South Asia and the Indonesian archipelago, are able to glide short distances through the air by straightening the body and ...
flying squirrel: any of 43 species of gliding squirrels. Two species are North American, two live in northern Eurasia, and all others are found in the temperate and tropical forests of India and Asia. Although these rodents do not fly, glides of ...
Flying Tigers: American volunteer pilots recruited by Claire L. Chennault, a retired U.S. Army captain, to fight the Japanese in Burma (Myanmar) and China during 1941-42, at a time when Japan's control over China's ports and transportation system had almost cut off ...
Flynn, Elizabeth Gurley: American labour organizer, political radical, and communist.
Flynn, Errol: Australian actor, celebrated during his short but colourful lifetime as the screen's foremost swashbuckler.
Flynn, John: moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Australia (1939-42) and missionary to the country's wild central and northern inland, who in 1928 founded what later became the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia.
flysch: sequence of shales rhythmically interbedded with thin, hard, graywacke-like sandstones. The total thickness of such sequences is commonly many thousands of metres, but the individual beds are thin, only a few centimetres to a few metres thick. The presence of ...
flyting: (Scots: "quarreling," or "contention"), poetic competition of the Scottish makaris (poets) of the 15th and 16th centuries, in which two highly skilled rivals engaged in a contest of verbal abuse, remarkable for its fierceness and extravagance. Although contestants attacked each ...
flyway: route used regularly by migrating birds, bats, or butterflies. The large majority of such migrants move from northern breeding grounds to southern wintering grounds and back, and most of the well-used flyways follow north-south river valleys (e.g., the Mississippi River ...
flywheel: heavy wheel attached to a rotating shaft so as to smooth out delivery of power from a motor to a machine. The inertia of the flywheel opposes and moderates fluctuations in the speed of the engine and stores the excess ...
FM: variation of the frequency of a carrier wave, commonly a radio frequency, in accordance with the characteristics of a signal, such as that produced by the audio frequencies of the human voice or musical instruments. See modulation (in electronics).
Fo, Dario: Italian avant-garde playwright, manager-director, and actor-mime, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1997. A theatrical caricaturist with a flair for social agitation, he often faced government censure.
Fo-shan: city in central Kwangtung sheng (province), China. Fo-shan itself is situated in the delta 10 miles (16 km) southwest of Canton, on a spur of the Canton-San-shui railway. Historically, Fo-shan (originally called Nan-hai) was a subordinate county of nearby Canton.
foam: in physical chemistry, a colloidal system (i.e., a dispersion of particles in a continuous medium) in which the particles are gas bubbles and the medium is a liquid. The term also is applied to material in a lightweight cellular spongy ...
foam glass: lightweight, opaque glass material having a closed-cell structure. It is made in molds that are packed with crushed or granulated glass mixed with a chemical agent such as carbon or limestone. At the temperature at which the glass grains become ...
foam rubber: flexible, porous substance made from a natural or synthetic latex compounded with various ingredients and whipped into a froth. The resulting product contains roughly 85 percent air and 15 percent rubber and can be molded and vulcanized. Its uses include ...
foamed plastic: synthetic resin converted into a spongelike mass with a closed-cell or open-cell structure, either of which may be flexible or rigid, used for a variety of products including cushioning materials, air filters, furniture, toys, thermal insulation, sponges, plastic boats, panels ...
Foch, Ferdinand: marshal of France and commander of Allied forces during the closing months of World War I, generally considered the leader most responsible for the Allied victory.
Focsani: city, capital of Vrancea judet (county), east-central Romania. The city lies 100 miles (160 km) north-northeast of Bucharest. It is situated on the Milcov River, which was once the boundary between Moldavia and Walachia. In the city is a monument ...
focusing: adjustment of the eye to see things at different distances. (The term also is applied to the adjustment of man-made lenses, as in a camera or microscope.)
Fodor, Eugene: Hungarian-born American travel writer who created a series of popular tourist guidebooks that provided entertaining reading, historical background, and cultural insights into the people and places described, as well as reliable, practical information designed to assist even the most inexperienced ...
foedus: treaty or compact contracted by ancient Rome with one or more allied states (foederati). The treaty contained various conditions establishing permanent friendly relations between the contracting parties. A foedus aequum was a bilateral agreement recognizing both parties as equals obliged ...
foehn: warm and dry, gusty wind that periodically descends the leeward slopes of nearly all mountains and mountain ranges. The name was first applied to a wind of this kind that occurs in the Alps, where the phenomenon was first studied.
fog: cloud of small water droplets near ground level and sufficiently dense to reduce horizontal visibility to less than 1,000 m (3,281 feet). The word fog also may refer to clouds of smoke particles, ice particles, or mixtures of these components. ...
fog dispersal: artificial dissipation of fogs, usually by seeding or heating. It is done primarily at airports to improve visibility. Many attempts have been made to clear fogs at temperatures above freezing by seeding them with salt particles and by heating them ...
fog signal: sound or light signal emitted in fog or mist by lighthouses and buoys to indicate a shoreline, channel, or dangerous stretch of water and by vessels to indicate their position. Each signal has a distinctive code. All vessels, whether stationary ...
Fogazzaro, Antonio: Italian novelist whose works reflect the conflict between reason and faith.
Fogel, Robert William: American economist who, with Douglass C. North, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1993. The two were cited for having developed cliometrics, the application of statistical analysis to the study of economic history.
Fogerty, Elsie: British teacher of voice and dramatic diction, a major figure in theatrical training.
Fogg Art Museum: museum founded at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., in 1895 as a study collection of Eastern and Western art from prehistory to the present, as well as an important art reference library of more than 150,000 volumes. The Fogg Museum ...
Foggia: city, Puglia (Apulia) regione (region), southeastern Italy, in the centre of the Puglia Tableland, west-northwest of Barletta.
Fogo Island: island of Cape Verde, in the Atlantic Ocean, about 400 miles (640 km) off the West African coast between the islands of Sao Tiago (Santiago) and Brava. The island's active volcano, Pico (9,281 feet [2,829 metres]), is the highest point ...
foie gras: (French: "fat liver"), a delicacy of French cuisine, the liver of a goose or duck that has been fattened by a process of force feeding. What is generally regarded as the best foie gras is produced in the province of ...