Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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Magelang ... magnetic monopole

Magelang: city, Jawa Tengah (Central Java) provinsi (province), Java, Indonesia. It lies 25 miles (40 km) north-northwest of Yogyakarta, along the Progo River, which empties into the Indian Ocean. A tourist centre for those visiting the Borobudur, Pawon, ...
Magellan, Ferdinand: Portuguese navigator and explorer who sailed under the flags of both Portugal (1505-12) and Spain (1519-21). From Spain he sailed around South America, discovering the Strait of Magellan, and across the Pacific. Though he was killed in the Philippines, his ...
Magellan, Strait of: channel linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, between the mainland tip of South America and Tierra del Fuego island. Lying entirely within Chilean territorial waters, except for its easternmost extremity touched by Argentina, it is 350 miles (560 km) long ...
Magellanic Cloud: either of two satellite galaxies of the Milky Way Galaxy, the vast star system of which the Earth is a minor component. These companion galaxies were named for the Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan, whose crew discovered them during the first ...
Magendie, Francois: French experimental physiologist who was the first to prove the functional difference of the spinal nerves. His pioneer studies of the effects of drugs on various parts of the body led to the scientific introduction into medical practice of such ...
Magenta: town, Milano provincia, Lombardia (Lombardy) regione, northern Italy, just west of Milan. Its name is derived from that of Marcus Maxentius, a Roman general and emperor (AD 306-312) who had his headquarters there at Castra Maxentia. The town was the ...
maggid: any of the many itinerant Jewish preachers who flourished especially in Poland and Russia during the 17th and 18th centuries. Because rabbis at that time preached only on the Sabbaths preceding Pesah (Passover) and Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), maggidim ...
Maggiore, Lake: second largest lake in Italy (area 82 square miles [212 square km]), bisected by the border between Lombardy (east) and Piedmont (west). Its northern end is in the Swiss Ticino canton. At an elevation of 633 feet (193 m) above ...
Magha: Sanskrit poet whose only recorded work is Shishupalavadha ("The Slaying of King Shishupala"), an influential mahakavya ("great poem"), a type of classical epic that consists of a variable number of comparatively short cantos. Magha is a master of technique in ...
maghemite: an iron oxide mineral. It has a composition close to ferric oxide (Fe₂O₃) and exhibits strong magnetism and remanence. Its structure is isometric, of defective spinel form, and somewhat iron-deficient. Maghemite is metastable with respect to hematite and forms a ...
Magherafelt: town, seat, and district (established 1973), formerly within County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. Magherafelt town was originally an English-company (Plantation of Ulster) town and is now the marketing centre and administrative seat of the district; Maghera town, 9 miles (14 km) ...
Maghiana: one of the twin towns of Jhang Maghiana (q.v.), Pakistan.
Maghnia: town, northwestern Algeria, on the northern edge of the Hauts Plateaux, 8 miles (13 km) east of the Moroccan border. The modern town grew around a French redoubt built in 1844 on the site of the Roman post of Numerus ...
Maghrib: region of North Africa bordering the Mediterranean Sea. The Africa Minor of the ancients, it at one time included Moorish Spain and now comprises essentially the Atlas Mountains and the coastal plain of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya. The weather ...
maghribi script: in calligraphy, Islamic cursive style of handwritten alphabet that developed directly from the early Kufic angular scripts used by the Muslim peoples of the Maghrib, who were Western-influenced and relatively isolated from Islam as it was absorbed into the eastern ...
Magi: in Christian tradition, the noble pilgrims "from the East" who followed a miraculous guiding star to Bethlehem, where they paid homage to the infant Jesus as king of the Jews (Matthew 2:1-12). Christian theological tradition has always stressed that Gentiles ...
magic: a concept used to describe a mode of rationality or way of thinking that looks to invisible forces to influence events, effect change in material conditions, or present the illusion of change. Within the Western tradition, this way of thinking ...
magic number: in physics, in the shell models of both atomic and nuclear structure, any of a series of numbers that connote stable structure. They designate the sum of electrons in atoms or the sum of either protons or neutrons in nuclei ...
magic realism: chiefly Latin-American narrative strategy that is characterized by the matter-of-fact inclusion of fantastic or mythical elements into seemingly realistic fiction. Although this strategy is known in the literature of many cultures in many ages, the term magic realism is a ...
magic square: square matrix often divided into cells, filled with numbers or letters in particular arrangements that were once thought to have special, magical properties. Originally used as religious symbols, they later became protective charms or tools for divination; and finally, when ...
magician: one who practices magic, sometimes considered the same as a sorcerer or witch. Conjurers are also sometimes called magicians, reflecting a historical confusion whereby legerdemain was considered to involve the supernatural. The name derives from the magus (q.v.), an ancient ...
Magindanao: second largest of the Muslim cultural-linguistic groups of the Philippines. The Magindanao, numbering about 700,000 at the turn of the 21st century, live along the shores and floodlands of the Cotabato River in the southern island of Mindanao. They are ...
Maginot Line: elaborate defensive barrier in northeast France constructed in the 1930s and named after its principal creator, Andre Maginot, who was France's minister of war in 1929-31.
Maginot, Andre: French statesman for whom a French line of elaborate fortifications against Germany was named. The Maginot Line contributed in large part to French complacency in the face of resurgent German military might after Adolf Hitler's rise to power in 1933.
magistrates' court: in England and Wales, any of the inferior courts with primarily criminal jurisdiction covering a wide range of offenses from minor traffic violations and public-health nuisances to somewhat more serious crimes, such as petty theft or assault. Magistrates' courts with ...
Maglemosian industry: a tool culture of northern Europe dating from the postglacial period, approximately 9000 to 5000 BC. The Maglemosian industry was named after the bog (magle mose, "big bog," in Danish) at Mullerup, Den., where evidence of the industry was first ...
magma: molten or partially molten rock from which igneous rocks form. It usually consists of silicate liquid, although carbonate and sulfide melts occur as well. Magma migrates either at depth or to the Earth's surface and is ejected as lava. Suspended ...
Magna Carta: the charter of English liberties granted by King John in 1215 under threat of civil war and reissued with alterations in 1216, 1217, and 1225.
Magna Graecia: group of ancient Greek cities along the coast of southern Italy; the people of this region were known to the Greeks as Italiotai and to the Romans as Graeci. The site of extensive trade and commerce, Magna Graecia was the ...
Magnani, Anna: Italian actress, best known for her forceful portrayals of earthy, working-class women.
Magnasco, Alessandro: Italian painter of the late Baroque period distinguished for his landscapes and genre paintings.
Magnentius: usurping Roman emperor from Jan. 18, 350, to Aug. 11, 353. His career forms one episode in the struggles for imperial power that occurred after the death of Constantine the Great (ruled 306-337).
Magnes, Judah Leon: rabbi, religious leader, prime founder and first president of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and a Zionist who came to favour a binational Arab-Jewish state.
magnesia: white, highly infusible oxide of magnesium (q.v.).
Magnesia ad Maeandrum: ancient inland city of Ionia, situated on a small tributary of the Maeander (Buyukmenderes) River about 12 miles southeast of Ephesus. According to Strabo, it was founded by some Thessalian Magnetes, who had collected fellow settlers from Crete en route. ...
Magnesia ad Sipylum: city in ancient Lydia, just south of the Hermus (Gediz) River. Though lying in a rich district near prehistoric regions associated with Niobe and Tantalus, and itself going back to the 5th century BC, it is of little importance except ...
magnesioferrite: the mineral magnesium iron oxide, a member of the magnetite (q.v.) series of spinels.
magnesioriebeckite: magnesium-rich variety of the silicate mineral riebeckite (q.v.).
magnesite: the mineral magnesium carbonate (MgCO₃), a member of the calcite group of carbonate minerals that is a principal source of magnesium. The mineral has formed as an alteration product from magnesium-rich rocks or through the action of magnesium-containing solutions upon ...
magnesium: chemical element, one of the alkaline-earth metals of main Group IIa of the periodic table, the lightest structural metal. Known originally through compounds such as Epsom salts (the sulfate), magnesia (the oxide), and magnesia alba (the carbonate), the silvery white ...
magnesium deficiency: condition in which magnesium is insufficient or is not utilized properly. Magnesium is a mineral that is essential to a variety of cellular metabolic reactions and sometimes has the ability to replace a portion of body calcium. It is also ...
magnesium processing: preparation of the ore for use in various products.
magnet: any material capable of attracting iron and producing a magnetic field outside itself. By the end of the 19th century all the known elements and many compounds had been tested for magnetism, and all were found to have some magnetic ...
magnetic ceramics: oxide materials that exhibit a certain type of permanent magnetization called ferrimagnetism. Commercially prepared magnetic ceramics are used in a variety of permanent magnet, transformer, telecommunications, and information recording applications. This article describes the composition and properties of the principal ...
magnetic circuit: closed path to which a magnetic field, represented as lines of magnetic flux, is confined. In contrast to an electric circuit through which electric charge flows, nothing actually flows in a magnetic circuit.
magnetic dipole: generally a tiny magnet of microscopic to subatomic dimensions, equivalent to a flow of electric charge around a loop. Electrons circulating around atomic nuclei, electrons spinning on their axes, and rotating positively charged atomic nuclei all are magnetic dipoles. The ...
magnetic field: region in the neighbourhood of a magnet, electric current, or changing electric field, in which magnetic forces are observable. Magnetic fields such as that of the Earth cause magnetic compass needles and other permanent magnets to line up in the ...
magnetic force: attraction or repulsion that arises between electrically charged particles because of their motion; the basic force responsible for the action of electric motors and the attraction of magnets for iron. Electric forces exist among stationary electric charges; both electric and ...
Magnetic Island: island in the Cumberland Islands, off the coast of northeastern Queensland, Australia, in Halifax Bay, an inlet of the Coral Sea. It is one of the most easily accessible islands of the Great Barrier Reef, being only 5 mi (8 ...
magnetic mirror: static magnetic field that, within a localized region, has a shape such that approaching charged particles are repelled back along their path of approach.
magnetic monopole: particle with a magnetic charge, a property analogous to an electric charge. As implied by its name, the magnetic monopole consists of a single pole, as opposed to the dipole, which is comprised of two magnetic poles. As yet there ...