Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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lagoon ... Lake Forest

lagoon: area of relatively shallow, quiet water with access to the sea but separated from it by sandbars, barrier islands, or coral reefs. The term lagoon is used to describe two classes of phenomena that share the physical characteristics described but ...
Lagoon Nebula: (catalog numbers NGC 6523 and M8), ionized-hydrogen region located in the constellation Sagittarius at 1,200 parsecs (3,900 light-years) from the solar system. The nebula is a cloud of interstellar gas and dust approximately 10 parsecs (33 light-years) in diameter. A ...
Lagos: city and chief port, Lagos state, Nigeria. Until 1975 it was the capital of Lagos state, and until December 1991 it was the federal capital of Nigeria. Ikeja replaced Lagos as the state capital, and Abuja replaced Lagos as the ...
Lagos: state, southwestern Nigeria, on the coast of the Bight of Benin. It is bounded by the state of Ogun to the north and east, by the Bight of Benin to the south, and by the Republic of Benin to the ...
Lagos, Ricardo: Chilean economist and politician who served as president of Chile (2000-06).
LaGrange: city, seat (1828) of Troup county, western Georgia, U.S. It lies just east of West Point Lake (impounded on the Chattahoochee River), about 50 miles (80 km) north of Columbus. The site was settled in 1826, and the town soon ...
Lagrange, Joseph-Louis, comte de l'Empire: Italian French mathematician who made great contributions to number theory and to analytic and celestial mechanics. His most important book, Mecanique analytique (1788; "Analytic Mechanics"), was the basis for all later work in this field.
Lagrange, Marie-Joseph: French theologian and outstanding Roman Catholic biblical scholar.
Lagrangian function: quantity that characterizes the state of a physical system. In mechanics, the Lagrangian function is just the kinetic energy (energy of motion) minus the potential energy (energy of position).
Lagrangian point: in astronomy, a point in space at which a small body, under the gravitational influence of two large ones, will remain approximately at rest relative to them. The existence of such points was deduced by the French mathematician and astronomer ...
Laguna Beach: city, Orange county, southwestern California, U.S. Lying along the Pacific Ocean, Laguna Beach is about 50 miles (80 km) south of Los Angeles. Part of the Mexican land grant (1837) called Rancho San Joaquin, it was named Lagona, a corruption ...
Laguna District: agricultural area comprising adjoining portions of western Coahuila and eastern Durango estados ("states"), northern Mexico. The district, which contains approximately 312,000 acres (126,000 hectares) of irrigable land, occupies the western portion of the Mayran Basin; it was named for the ...
Lagutin, Boris Nikolayevich: Soviet boxer who won medals in three consecutive Olympic Games, including gold medals in 1964 and 1968.
Lahaina: city, Maui county, on the northwest coast of Maui island, Hawaii, U.S. Extending for 2 miles (3 km) along the leeward (southern) shore, the city is backed by volcanic peaks culminating in Puu Kukui (5,788 feet [1,764 metres]) and sheltered ...
lahar: mudflow of volcanic material. Lahars may carry all sizes of material from ash to large boulders and produce deposits of volcanic conglomerate. Lahars may be the result of heavy rain on loose ash material such as deposits of nuees ardentes ...
Lahbabi, Mohammed Aziz: Moroccan novelist, poet, and philosopher whose works are marked by a humanist perspective that stresses the importance of dialogue and of the universal.
Lahij: town, southwestern Yemen. Situated on the Wadi Tibban in the coastal plain, some 30 miles (45 km) north of Aden, it is the centre of an agricultural area. Its sparse rainfall occurs chiefly in the winter season.
Lahmu and Lahamu: in Mesopotamian mythology, twin deities, the first gods to be born from the chaos that was created by the merging of Apsu (the watery deep beneath the earth) and Tiamat (the personification of the salt waters); this is described in ...
Lahn River: river, a right-bank tributary of the Rhine River, rising on the Jagd Berg (2,218 feet [676 m]), a summit of the Rothaar Hills in western Germany. The river, which is 152 miles (245 km) long, first flows eastward and then ...
Lahnda language: language belonging to the western group of Indo-Aryan languages and spoken mainly in the western Punjab, Pakistan. One of the most important of its numerous dialects is Multani. Lahnda has a large number of Persian and Arabic loanwords and shares ...
Lahore: second largest city of Pakistan and the capital of Punjab province. It lies 811 miles (1,305 km) northeast of Karachi in the upper Indus plain on the Ravi River, a tributary of the Indus.
Lahore Museum: in Lahore, Pak., archaeological museum opened in 1894 and containing examples of the arts and crafts of the province of Punjab, including sculpture, coins, and Kangra (Pahari) and Mughal paintings and fabrics. Greco-Buddhist sculptures excavated from sites in the Peshawar ...
Lahti: city, Hameen (Hame) laani (province), southern Finland. It lies at the southern end of Vesi Lake, northeast of Helsinki. Founded in 1878, it was incorporated in 1905. A developing industrial centre linked to the rest of Finland by major rail, ...
Lahun, al-: ancient Egyptian site situated just north of the turn of the Bahr Yusuf canal into the Fayum in al-Fayyum muhafazah (governorate); it was the location of a Middle Kingdom (1938-c. 1600? BC) pyramid and of a workmen's village of approximately ...
lai: medieval poetic and musical form, cultivated especially among the trouveres, or poet-musicians, of northern France in the 12th and 13th centuries but also among their slightly earlier, Provencal-language counterparts, the troubadours, and, called Leich, by the German minnesingers. The lai ...
Laibach, Congress of: (Jan. 26-May 12, 1821), meeting of the Holy Alliance powers (all European rulers except those of Britain, the Ottoman Empire, and the papacy) at Laibach (now Ljubljana, Slovenia) that set the conditions for Austrian intervention in and occupation of the ...
Laidoner, Johan: Estonian soldier and patriot who led the Estonian liberation army in 1918 and supported the authoritarian regime of Konstantin Pats in the 1930s.
Laie: town, Honolulu county, on Laie Bay, northeastern Oahu island, Hawaii, U.S. The land was acquired by Mormon missionaries in 1864 and settled by a colony of Hawaiian Mormons. The impressive white Laie Temple, where the highest rites of the Mormon ...
Laima: (from Lithuanian laime, "happiness," "luck"), in Baltic religion, the goddess of fate, generally associated with the linden tree. Together with Dievs, the sky, and Saule, the sun, Laima determines the length and fortune of human life. In the course of ...
Laine, Dame Cleo: British singer and actress who mastered a variety of styles but was best known as the "Queen of Jazz."
Laing, Alexander Gordon: Scottish explorer of western Africa and the first European known to have reached the ancient city of Tombouctou.
Laing, R.D.: British psychiatrist noted for his alternative approach to the treatment of schizophrenia.
Laird, Macgregor: Scottish explorer, shipbuilder, and merchant who contributed to the knowledge of the Niger River.
laissez-faire: (French: "allow to do"), policy of minimum governmental interference in the economic affairs of individuals and society. The origin of the term is uncertain, but folklore suggests that it is derived from the answer Jean-Baptiste Colbert, controller general of finance ...
Laja River: river in Guanajuato estado ("state"), north-central Mexico. After rising in the Sierra Madre Occidental near San Felipe (Doctor Hernandez Alvarez), the Laja arches eastward and then southeastward through the central plateau, past the cities of Dolores Hidalgo, San Miguel de ...
Lajes: city, east-central Santa Catarina estado ("state"), southern Brazil, lying north of the Caveiras River in the Parana Mountains, at 3,000 feet (900 m) above sea level. Formed as a municipality in 1800, it was settled chiefly by Germans and in ...
Lajes: town, northeast Terceira Island, Portuguese Azores. In 1941 the Portuguese government selected the town's site, 10 miles (16 km) northeast of the city of Angra do Heroismo, as an air base. It became a major Allied air installation during World ...
Lajpat Rai, Lala: Indian writer and politician, outspoken in his advocacy of a militant anti-British nationalism in the Congress Party and as a leader of the Hindu supremacy movement.
Lajvard ware: type of vase from Kashan, Iran, mentioned in Abu al-Qasim's treatise on ceramics (1301). Vases were executed in simple red, white, black, and gold leaf designs on a turquoise or dark blue matte glaze. The designs were almost exclusively abstract ...
Lak-Dargin languages: two related languages spoken in central Dagestan in the Caucasus-Lak and Dargin. Both are written languages. The dialects of Dargin differ considerably from one another and are considered by some scholars to be separate languages. The Lak-Dargin languages are often ...
lakabi ware: in Islamic ceramics, a style of pottery associated with Kashan, Persia (Iran), from about the middle of the 11th century until the end of the 14th century. The name (lakabi, "painted") is a misnomer, actually referring to an incised design ...
Lakanal, Joseph: educator who reformed the French educational system during the French Revolution.
lake: any relatively large body of slowly moving or standing water that occupies an inland basin of appreciable size. Definitions that precisely distinguish lakes, ponds, swamps, and even rivers and other bodies of nonoceanic water are not well established. It may ...
lake: any of a class of pigments composed of organic dyes that have been rendered insoluble by interaction with a compound of a metal. The interaction may involve the precipitation of a salt in which the proportions of dye to metal ...
Lake Charles: city, seat (1852) of Calcasieu parish, southwestern Louisiana, U.S., on the Calcasieu River about 70 miles (113 km) west of Lafayette. Adjacent to the town of Sulphur, it is a port of entry on a 34-mile (55-km) deepwater channel (completed ...
Lake City: city, seat (1832) of Columbia county, northern Florida, U.S., near Osceola National Forest, about 60 miles (100 km) west of Jacksonville. Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto passed through the area in 1539. The city occupies the site of a Seminole ...
Lake Clark National Park and Preserve: rugged wilderness area in southern Alaska, U.S., on the western shore of Cook Inlet, southwest of Anchorage. It was proclaimed a national monument in 1978, and the boundaries and name were altered in 1980 when it became a national park ...
Lake District: famous scenic region and national park in the administrative county of Cumbria, England. It occupies portions of the historic counties of Cumberland, Lancashire, and Westmorland. The national park covers an area of 866 square miles (2,243 square km). It contains ...
Lake Dwellings: German Pfahlbauten: "pile structures," remains of prehistoric settlements within what are today the margins of lakes in southern Germany, Switzerland, France, and Italy. According to the theory advanced by the Swiss archaeologist Ferdinand Keller in the mid-19th century, the dwellings ...
Lake Erie, Battle of: (Sept. 10, 1813), major U.S. naval victory in the War of 1812, ensuring U.S. control over Lake Erie and precluding any territorial cession in the Northwest to Great Britain in the peace settlement. On Sept. 10, 1813, Master Commandant Oliver ...
Lake Forest: city, Lake county, northeastern Illinois, U.S. A suburb of Chicago, located 35 miles (55 km) north of downtown, it lies on Lake Michigan. Potawatomi Indians were recent inhabitants of the area when it was first settled in 1835, on a ...