Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

0-9

Kepler's laws of planetary motion ... Kertesz, Andre

Kepler's laws of planetary motion: in astronomy and classical physics, laws describing the motions of the planets in the solar system. They were derived by the German astronomer Johannes Kepler, whose analysis of the observations of the 16th-century Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe enabled him to ...
Kepler's Nova: one of the few supernovae (violent stellar explosions) known to have occurred in the Milky Way Galaxy. Jan Brunowski, Johannes Kepler's assistant, first observed the phenomenon in October 1604; Kepler studied it until early 1606, when the supernova was no ...
Kepler, Johannes: German astronomer who discovered three major laws of planetary motion, conventionally designated as follows: (1) the planets move in elliptical orbits with the Sun at one focus; (2) the time necessary to traverse any arc of a planetary orbit is ...
Keplerian telescope: instrument for viewing distant objects, the basis for the modern refractive telescope, named after the great German astronomer Johannes Kepler. Its eyepiece, or ocular, is a convex (positive, or convergent) lens placed in back of the focus, the point at ...
Keppel Bay: inlet of the Pacific Ocean, indenting eastern Queensland, Australia. It is about 30 miles (48 km) long and 12 miles (19 km) wide and is protected from the sea by Curtis Island (east). The Keppel Islands lie in the northern ...
Keppel, Augustus Keppel, Viscount, Baron Elden: English admiral and politician whose career as a seagoing commander ended in a controversy of political origin during the American Revolution.
Keppler, Joseph: Austria-born American caricaturist and founder of Puck, the first successful humorous weekly in the United States.
Ker: in ancient Greek religion, a destructive spirit. Popular belief attributed death and illness to the action of impersonal powers, often spoken of in the plural (Keres). The word was also used of an individual's doom, with a meaning resembling the ...
Kerala: state of India. It has an area of 15,005 square miles (38,863 square kilometres), only about 1 percent of the total area of the country. The state stretches for 360 miles (580 kilometres) along the Malabar Coast on the southwestern ...
Kerala Plains: narrow strip of coastland, southwestern India, fronting the Arabian Sea to the west and constituting almost all of Kerala state and most of the Malabar Coast (q.v.). With an area of approximately 11,000 square miles (28,000 square km), the plains ...
Kerang: town, northern Victoria, Australia, on the Loddon River. It was settled in 1857; its name is derived from an Aboriginal term meaning "cockatoo," "parasite," or "moon." Declared a shire in 1871, it was made (1888) the terminus of a railroad ...
keratin: fibrous structural protein of hair, nails, horn, hoofs, wool, feathers, and of the epithelial cells in the outermost layers of the skin. The polypeptide chains of keratin are arranged in parallel sheets held together by hydrogen bonding.
keratitis: inflammation of the cornea, the transparent portion of the eyeball that is in front of the iris and pupil. There are several varieties. Often there is inflammation of both the cornea and the conjunctiva, the mucous membrane that lines the ...
keratosis: any protuberance on the skin resulting from the overdevelopment of the horny outermost covering of the skin, or epidermis, the main constituent of which is the protein keratin, which is synthesized in special cells of the skin, the keratinocytes. More ...
Kerch: city and seaport, Crimea republic, southern Ukraine, on the western shore of the Strait of Kerch at the head of a small bay. Founded in the 6th century BC by Miletan Greeks, it flourished as a trading centre, and in ...
Kerensky, Aleksandr Fyodorovich: moderate socialist revolutionary who served as head of the Russian provisional government from July to October 1917 (Old Style).
Keres, Paul: Estonian chess grandmaster, three times chess champion of the U.S.S.R., three times European champion, and a member of the winning Soviet team at seven world Chess Olympiads.
Kerguelen cabbage: (species Pringlea antiscorbutica), plant resembling the common cabbage and belonging to the same family (Brassicaceae). It was named for Kerguelen Island. The leaves of the plant contain a pale-yellow, highly pungent essential oil rich in ascorbic acid (vitamin C), for ...
Kerguelen Islands: archipelago in the southern Indian Ocean. Administratively a part of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands (Terres Australes et Antarctiques Francaises), it consists of the island of Kerguelen (also known as Desolation Island) and nearly 300 islets, which together cover ...
Kerkrade: gemeente (commune), Limburg provincie, southeastern Netherlands, east of Maastricht on the German border. One of Europe's oldest coal-mining towns, Kerkrade served as an important coal-mining centre from 1113 until the early 1970s, when the mines were closed.
Kerll, Johann Caspar von: leading master of the middle-Baroque generation of south-German Catholic composers.
Kermadec Islands: volcanic island group in the South Pacific Ocean, 600 mi (1,000 km) northeast of Auckland, New Zealand; they are a dependency of New Zealand. They include Raoul (Sunday), Macauley, and Curtis islands and l'Esperance Rock and have a total land ...
Kermadec Trench: submarine trench in the floor of the South Pacific Ocean, about 750 mi (1,200 km) in length, forming the eastern boundary of the Kermadec Ridge. The two together comprise the southern half of the Tonga-Kermadec Arc, a structural feature completed ...
Kerman: city, provincial capital, and ostan (province), southeastern Iran. The city lies on a sandy plain, 5,738 ft (1,749 m) above sea level, under barren, rocky hills. Surrounded by mountains on the north and east, it has a cool climate and ...
Kerman carpet: floor covering handwoven in or about the city of Kerman in southern Iran, which has been the origin since the 16th century of highly sophisticated carpets in well-organized designs. To this city is now generally attributed a wide variety of ...
Kermanshah: city, western Iran. The city lies in the fertile valley of the Qareh Su River and is situated on the ancient caravan route between the Mediterranean Sea and Central Asia. It was founded in the 4th century AD by Bahram ...
kermes: either the scale insect (Kermes ilicis) or the bright-red dye obtained from the dried bodies of these insects. The dye was often part of the tribute paid to conquering Roman armies, and, in the Middle Ages, landlords accepted it as ...
Kern, Jerome: one of the major U.S. composers of musical comedy, whose Show Boat (with libretto by Oscar Hammerstein II) inaugurated the serious musical play in U.S. theatre.
Kern, Johann Conrad: longtime Swiss minister to France and one of the authors of the Swiss federal constitution of 1848.
kernel: in mathematics, known function that appears in the integrand of an integral equation. Thus, in the equation
Kerner, Justinus Andreas Christian: German poet and spiritualist writer. He and the poet Ludwig Uhland founded the so-called Swabian group of late Romantic poets.
kernicterus: severe brain damage caused by an abnormal concentration of the bile pigment bilirubin in brain tissues at or shortly after birth. Kernicterus may occur because of Rh blood-group incompatibility between mother and child, as in erythroblastosis fetalis, where the mother's ...
kernite: borate mineral, hydrated sodium borate (Na₂B₄O₇·4H₂O), that was formerly the chief source of borax (q.v.). It forms very large crystals, often 60 to 90 centimetres (2 to 3 feet) thick; the largest observed measured 240 by 90 cm. The crystals ...
kerogen: complex mixture of compounds with large molecules containing mainly hydrogen and carbon but also oxygen, nitrogen, and sulfur. It is the organic component of oil shales, hence their alternative names of kerogen shales or kerogenites. Kerogen is insoluble in water; ...
kerosene: flammable pale yellow or colourless oily liquid with a not-unpleasant characteristic odour. It is obtained from petroleum and used for burning in lamps and domestic heaters or furnaces, as a fuel or fuel component for jet engines, and as a ...
kerosene lamp: vessel containing kerosene with a wick for burning to provide light. Such lamps were widely used from the 1860s, when kerosene first became plentiful, until the development of electric lighting. Compared with other oil lamps, they were safe, efficient, and ...
Kerouac, Jack: U.S. poet and novelist, leader and spokesman of the Beat movement. Kerouac gave the Beat movement its name and celebrated its code of poverty and freedom in a series of novels of which the first and best known is On ...
Kerouane: town and administrative capital of Kerouane region, southeastern Guinea, West Africa, on the road from Beyla to Kankan. It is the chief trading town (rice, millet, cattle) for savanna lands inhabited mainly by the Muslim Malinke people. Local rivers have ...
Kerr electro-optic effect: in physics, the inducement of double refraction of light in a transparent substance when a strong electric field is applied in a direction transverse to the beam of light. In double refraction, the index of refraction (a measure of the ...
Kerr, Deborah: British motion-picture and theatre actress known for the poise and serenity she exhibited in portraying complex characters. Kerr is one of the great British actresses to have made a significant contribution to American films.
Kerr, Jean: American writer, remembered for her plays and for her humorous prose on domestic themes.
Kerr, Roy P: New Zealander mathematician who solved (1963) Einstein's field equations of general relativity to describe rotating black holes, thus providing a major contribution to the field of astrophysics.
Kerr, Sir John Graham: English embryologist and pioneer in naval camouflage who greatly advanced knowledge of the evolution of vertebrates and, in 1914, was among the first to advocate camouflage of ships by means of "dazzle"-countershading and strongly contrasting patches.
Kerrier: district, administrative and historic county of Cornwall, southwestern England, near the western tip of England and including the southernmost point of the island of Great Britain. Kerrier district spans the peninsular county of Cornwall and is bordered by St. George's ...
Kerry: county in the province of Munster, southwestern Ireland. Kerry is bounded by Counties Limerick and Cork to the east and by the Atlantic Ocean or its inlets to the south, west, and north. Tralee is the county seat. Composed of ...
Kerry blue terrier: versatile breed of working terrier that is used as a hunter, land and water retriever, and sheep and cattle herder. The Kerry blue originated in County Kerry, Ireland, where it has been bred since the 1820s. It is 17.5 to ...
Kerry, John: U.S. senator who was the Democratic Party's nominee for president in 2004.
Kerschensteiner, Georg: German educational theorist and reformer who was a leader in the growth of vocational education in Germany.
Kershaw: county, central South Carolina, U.S., northeast of Columbia. The Lynches River forms the northeastern border. The county is also drained by the Wateree River, which is impounded by Wateree Dam to form Wateree Lake, which in turn provides part of ...
Kertanagara: last king (1268-92) of Tumapel (or Singhasari) in Java, still venerated among the Javanese as one of their greatest rulers. He united Java, extended his influence over Sumatra, and resisted Mongol attempts to exact tribute from his kingdom.
Kertesz, Andre: Hungarian-born American photographer known for his lyrical, spontaneous pictures of everyday life. His work exerted a strong influence on 20th-century magazine photography.