Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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refractive index ... Reichenau, Walther von

refractive index: measure of the bending of a ray of light when passing from one medium into another. If i is the angle of incidence of a ray in vacuum (angle between the incoming ray and the perpendicular to the surface of ...
refractory: any material that has an unusually high melting point and that maintains its structural properties at very high temperatures. Composed principally of ceramics, refractories are employed in great quantities in the metallurgical, glassmaking, and ceramics industries, where they are formed ...
refractory: material not deformed or damaged by high temperatures, used to make crucibles, incinerators, insulation, and furnaces, particularly metallurgical furnaces. Refractories are produced in several forms: molded bricks of various shapes (see firebrick); bulk granular materials; plastic mixtures consisting of moistened ...
refrain: a phrase, line, or group of lines repeated at intervals throughout a poem, generally at the end of the stanza. Refrains are found in the ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead and are common in primitive tribal chants. They appear ...
refrigeration: the process of removing heat from an enclosed space or from a substance for the purpose of lowering the temperature.
refugee: any uprooted, homeless, involuntary migrant who has crossed a frontier and no longer possesses the protection of his former government. Prior to the 19th century the movement from one country to another did not require passports and visas; the right ...
refuse disposal system: technique for the collection and disposal of the solid wastes of a community. The development and operation of these systems is often called solid-waste management.
regal: a small, easily portable pipe organ usually having only a single set, or rank, of reed pipes. The beating reeds are surmounted by small resonators, producing a nasal, buzzing tone. Wind under pressure to sound the pipes is supplied by ...
regal moth: any member of the insect family Citheroniidae (order Lepidoptera), occurring only in the New World. Although sometimes classified as the subfamily Citheroniinae of the giant silkworm moth family (Saturniidae), regal moths differ. The antennae of the male regal moth are ...
Regence style: transition in the decorative arts from the massive rectilinear forms of Louis XIV furniture to those prefiguring the Rococo style of Louis XV. The style encompasses about the first 30 years of the 18th century, when Philippe II, duc d'Orleans, ...
Regency style: decorative arts produced during the regency of George, prince of Wales, and the opening years of the 19th century as well as his entire reign as King George IV of England, ending in 1830. The major source of inspiration for ...
regeneration: in biology, the process by which some organisms replace or restore lost or amputated body parts.
Regensburg: city, Bavaria Land (state), southeastern Germany. It lies on the right bank of the Danube River along its most northerly course, where it is joined by the Regen River, about 65 miles (105 km) northeast of Munich. ...
Regent diamond: a brilliant-cut stone with a slight blue tinge that once was the outstanding gem of the French crown jewels; it was discovered in India in 1701 and weighed 410 carats in rough form. It was purchased by Sir Thomas Pitt, ...
Regent's Park: park in the Greater London boroughs of Westminster and Camden. It occupies an area of 487 acres (197 hectares) north and east of the St. Marylebone district. Originally a part of Henry VIII's hunting forest, Regent's Park was developed and ...
Reger, Max: German composer and teacher noted for his organ works, which use Baroque forms; he was one of the last composers to infuse life into 19th-century musical traditions.
reggae: style of popular music that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s and quickly emerged as the country's dominant music. By the 1970s it had become an international style that was particularly popular in Britain, the United States, and Africa. ...
Reggio di Calabria: city, capital of Reggio di Calabria province and former capital (until 1971) of Calabria region, southern Italy. It is a port on the Strait of Messina, opposite the city of Messina, Sicily.
Reggio nell'Emilia: city, capital of Reggio nell'Emilia provincia, Emilia-Romagna regione, northern Italy, on the Crostolo River near the southern edge of the Po Plain, southeast of Parma.
regiment: in most armies, a body of troops headed by a colonel and organized for tactical control into companies, battalions, or squadrons. French cavalry units were called regiments as early as 1558. The word is derived from the Latin regimen, a ...
Regina: capital and largest city of Saskatchewan, Canada, on Wascana Creek, in the south-central part of the province. It originated as a hunters' camp and was known as Pile O'Bones for the heaps of bones left there after skinning and cutting ...
Reginald of Chatillon: prince of Antioch (1153-60), one of the leading military figures of the Crusades between 1147 and 1187, whose reckless policy in raiding Muslim caravans during periods of truce led to the virtual destruction of the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem and ...
Regino Von Prum: also called Reginon cleric and chronicler who composed several ecclesiastical works and a chronicle covering the period from Christ's birth to the early 10th century.
Regio, Jose: Portuguese poet, novelist, dramatist, and literary critic, generally considered one of the most accomplished literary figures in Portugal in the first half of the 20th century.
Regiomontanus: the foremost mathematician and astronomer of 15th-century Europe, a sought-after astrologer, and one of the first printers.
region: in the social sciences, a cohesive area that is homogeneous in selected defining criteria and is distinguished from neighbouring areas or regions by those criteria. It is an intellectual construct created by the selection of features relevant to a particular ...
regional development program: any government program designed to encourage the industrial and economic development of regions that are stagnant or in which a large portion of the population is experiencing prolonged unemployment. The measures taken may include loans, grants, and tax incentives to ...
regisseur: (French: "manager"), theatrical director or stage manager, especially in France, Russia, Germany, and Italy, whose duties encompass the artistic interpretation and integration of a play, the guided rehearsal of the actors, and the overall responsibility for the technical and economic ...
regium donum: (Latin: "royal gift"), annual grant made from public funds to Presbyterian ministers in Ireland and to Nonconformist ministers (those not part of the Church of England) in Great Britain. It originated in Ireland in 1690, when the English king William ...
Regla: city, northern Ciudad de la Habana provincia, west-central Cuba. Situated on the southeastern shore of La Habana Bay, Regla was a centre for smuggling activities in the 19th century. It is now an industrial suburb of Havana, with which it ...
Reglement Organique: 19th-century constitution, imposed under a Russian protectorate, that introduced elected political institutions in the principalities of Moldavia and Walachia (later the nucleus of Romania) but also created oligarchies there and vested political and economic power in the boyar class (i.e., ...
Regnard, Jean-Francois: French dramatist, one of the most successful of the successors of Moliere, whose wit and style he openly imitated.
Regnault de Saint Jean d'Angely, Michel-Louis-Etienne, Comte: administrator under the French Directory and Napoleon I's Empire. He persuaded Napoleon, at the end of the Hundred Days (1815), to abdicate for the second time.
Regnault, Henri-Victor: French chemist and physicist noted for his work on the properties of gases.
Regnier, Henri de: foremost French poet of the first decade of the 20th century.
Regnier, Mathurin: French satiric poet whose works recall those of Horace, Juvenal, Ariosto, and Ronsard in free and original imitation, written in vigorous, colloquial French. Writing about typical characters of his time with verve and realism, in alexandrine couplets, he fully displayed ...
Regosol: one of the 30 soil groups in the classification system of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Regosols are characterized by shallow, medium- to fine-textured, unconsolidated parent material that may be of alluvial origin and by the lack of a ...
regressive tax: tax levied at a rate that decreases as its base increases. Regressivity is considered undesirable in taxation because it forces poorer persons to pay a greater percentage of their income in tax than wealthier persons. Despite efforts to avoid regressivity, ...
Regulators of North Carolina: (1764-71), in American colonial history, vigilance society dedicated to fighting exorbitant legal fees and the corruption of appointed officials in the frontier counties of North Carolina. Deep-seated economic and social differences had produced a distinct east-west sectionalism in North Carolina. ...
regulatory agency: independent governmental commission established by legislative act in order to set standards in a specific field of activity, or operations, in the private sector of the economy and to then enforce those standards. Regulatory agencies function outside executive supervision. Because ...
Regulus: brightest star in the zodiacal constellation Leo and one of the brightest in the entire sky, having an apparent visual magnitude of about 1.35. The name Regulus, derived from a Latin word for king, reflects an ancient belief in the ...
Regulus, Marcus Atilius: Roman general and statesman whose career, greatly embellished by legend, was seen by the Romans as a model of heroic endurance.
Rehan, Ada: American actress of the late 19th century, one of the finest of her day, whose great popularity grew from performances of Shakespeare and adaptations of European comedies.
Rehnquist, William: 16th chief justice of the United States, appointed to the Supreme Court in 1971 and elevated to chief justice in 1986.
Rehoboth: town, central Namibia. The town is located about 52 miles (84 km) south of Windhoek, the national capital, and lies on the banks of the dry, sandy bed of the Rehoboth River at an elevation of 4,544 feet (1,385 metres). ...
Rehovot: city, central Israel, on the coastal plain south-southwest of Tel Aviv-Yafo, in the centre of the country's most productive citrus belt. The name (Hebrew: "broad places," or "room") is from the biblical allusion in Genesis 26:22. Founded in 1890 by ...
Reich: (German: "Empire"), any of the empires of the Germans or Germany: the Holy Roman Empire (q.v.); the Second Reich, led by the Prussian Hohenzollerns (1871-1918); or the Third Reich of Nazi Germany (1933-45). See Germany.
Reich, Steve: American composer who was one of the leading exponents of minimalism, a style based on repetitions and combinations of simple motifs and harmonies.
Reich, Wilhelm: Viennese psychologist who developed a system of psychoanalysis that concentrated on overall character structure, rather than on individual neurotic symptoms. His early work on psychoanalytic technique was overshadowed by his involvement in the sexual-politics movement and by "orgonomy," a pseudoscientific ...
Reichenau: island in the Untersee, the western arm of Lake Constance (Bodensee) in Baden-Wurttemberg Land (state), southwestern Germany. Belonging to the city of Konstanz, it is 3 miles (5 km) long and 1 mile (1.6 km) wide and ...
Reichenau, Walther von: German field marshal who commanded the army that captured Warsaw (1939) and the 6th Army in its encircling movement through Belgium (1940) on the Western front during World War II.