Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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Rigestan ... Ringer's solution

Rigestan: (Persian: "country of sand"), arid plateau region in southwestern Afghanistan. Rigestan is, for the greater part, a sandy desert with ridges and small, isolated hills of red sand. The sand ridges and dunes, reaching heights of between 50 and 100 ...
Rigg, Dame Diana: classically trained English stage actress who gained worldwide fame during the 1960s in the television series The Avengers.
Riggin, Aileen: American swimmer and diver, who won three Olympic medals and was the first competitor to win a medal in both a swimming and a diving event at the same Olympics.
rigging: the sails, masts, booms, yards, stays, and lines of a sailing vessel, or its cordage only.
right ascension: in astronomy, the east-west coordinate by which the position of a celestial body is ordinarily measured; more precisely, it is the angular distance of a body's hour circle east of the vernal equinox, measured along the celestial equator. It is ...
right whale: any of four species of stout-bodied whales having an enormous head measuring one-quarter to one-third their total body length. From the 17th to 19th century, these whales were hunted for their oil and their strong, elastic baleen. Because of the ...
right, petition of: legal petition asserting a right against the English crown, the most notable example being the Petition of Right of 1628, which Parliament sent to Charles I complaining of a series of breaches of law. The term also referred to the ...
right-to-work law: in the United States, any state law forbidding various union-security measures, particularly the union shop, under which workers are required to join a union within a specified time after they begin employment. The Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 outlawed not the ...
Rights, Bill of: in the United States, the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution, which were adopted as a single unit on December 15, 1791, and which constitute a collection of mutually reinforcing guarantees of individual rights and of limitations on federal ...
Rights, Bill of: one of the basic instruments of the British constitution, the result of the long 17th-century struggle between the Stuart kings and the English people and Parliament. It incorporated the provisions of the Declaration of Rights, acceptance of which had been ...
Rigord: chronicler, who is best known for a biography of King Philip II Augustus of France.
Rigveda: collection of hymns that forms part of the ancient sacred literature of India known as the Vedas. See Veda.
Riis, Jacob A: U.S. newspaper reporter, social reformer, and photographer who shocked the U.S. conscience in 1890 by factual description of slum conditions in his book How the Other Half Lives.
Rijeka: city, major port and industrial, commercial, and cultural centre of Croatia, located on the Kvarner (a gulf of the Adriatic Sea). It is the major port of Croatia. The city is situated on a narrow flatland between the Julian Alps ...
Rijksmuseum: (Dutch: "State Museum"), national art collection of The Netherlands in Amsterdam. The galleries originated with a royal museum erected in 1808 by Napoleon I's brother Louis Bonaparte, then king of Holland, and the first collection consisted of paintings that had ...
rijsttafel: (Dutch: "rice table"), an elaborate meal of Indonesian dishes developed during the Dutch colonial era. Because of its political overtones, the rijsttafel is seldom served today in Indonesia, but it is popular in The Netherlands and at both Dutch and ...
Rijswijk: gemeente (commune), Zuid-Holland provincie, western Netherlands, on the southeastern outskirts of The Hague ('s-Gravenhage). It is traversed by the Rotterdam highway and the Vliet River. The Reformed church dates from the 14th century, and there are some 17th-century houses. Although ...
Rikers Island: island in the East River near the entrance of Bowery Bay, north of La Guardia Airport, New York, N.Y., U.S. Politically part of the borough of the Bronx (north), Rikers Island is joined to the borough of Queens by a ...
rikka: (Japanese: "standing flowers"), in classical Japanese floral art, a highly conventionalized and formal style of flower arranging. It is difficult to say when rikka became a distinct, recognized form, because it evolved over several centuries. The first rules for rikka ...
Rikken Seiyukai: the dominant Japanese political party from its inception in 1900 until 1940, when all parties were absorbed into the government-controlled Taisei Yokusankai ("Imperial Rule Assistance Association").
Riksdag: (Swedish: "Day of the Realm"), the Swedish states general from 1435 to 1865, unique in Europe because it included the peasantry as the fourth state.
Rila: highest mountain range in Bulgaria and in the Balkan Peninsula, and one of the highest ranges in Europe. A northwestern section of the Rhodope Mountains, it has an area of 1,015 square miles (2,629 square km) and extends for about ...
Rila Monastery: historic monastery and cultural site in the Rhodope Mountains of southwestern Bulgaria. It is situated in a valley of the Rila massif, some 70 miles (110 km) south of Sofia. Rila is a symbol of Bulgarian national identity, and it ...
Riley, Bridget: English artist whose vibrant optical pattern paintings were central to the Op art movement of the 1960s.
Riley, Charles Valentine: British-born American entomologist who contributed much to the advancement of the systematic study of insects of economic significance in the United States and helped to establish the Division of Entomology (later called Entomology Research Division) of the U.S. Department of ...
Riley, James Whitcomb: poet remembered for nostalgic dialect verse and often called "the poet of the common people."
Riley-Day syndrome: an inherited disorder occurring almost exclusively in Ashkenazic Jews that is caused by abnormal functioning of the autonomic nervous system. Riley-Day syndrome is characterized by emotional instability, decreased tear production, low blood pressure upon standing up (postural hypotension), excessive sweating ...
Rilke, Rainer Maria: Austro-German poet who became internationally famous with such works as Duino Elegies and Sonnets to Orpheus.
rille: any of various valleys or trenches on the surface of the Moon. The term was introduced by early telescopic observers-probably the German astronomer Johann Schroter about 1800-to denote such lunar features. The word rima (from Latin, "fissure") is often used ...
rima: versified sagas, or episodes from the sagas, a form of adaptation that was popular in Iceland from the 15th century.
Rimac: quarter and district of the Lima-Callao metropolitan area, north of central Lima, Peru. Created a district in 1921, the site was settled in early colonial days. The Puente de Piedras ("Bridge of Stone") was built in 1610. Notable colonial landmarks ...
Rimbaud, Arthur: French poet and adventurer who won renown among the Symbolist movement and markedly influenced modern poetry.
rime: white, opaque, granular deposit of ice crystals formed on objects that are at a temperature below the freezing point. Rime occurs when supercooled water droplets (at a temperature lower than 0° C [32° F]) in fog come in contact with ...
rime riche: in French and English prosody, a rhyme produced by agreement in sound not only of the last accented vowel and any succeeding sounds but also of the consonant preceding this rhyming vowel. A rime riche may consist ...
rime suffisante: in French and English prosody, end rhyme produced by agreement in sound of an accented final vowel and following final consonant or consonants, if any. Examples of rimes suffisantes in English include the rhymes
Rimini: town, capital of Rimini provincia, in the Emilia-Romagna regione of northern Italy. The town is located along the Riviera del Sole of the Adriatic Sea at the mouth of the Marecchia River, just northeast of Mount Titano and the Republic ...
Rimouski: city, Bas-Saint-Laurent region, eastern Quebec province, Canada. The city lies on a hillside sloping gently toward its deepwater port (sheltered by the Ile Saint-Barnabe) on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River. The land was granted to Augustin Rouer ...
Rimsky-Korsakov, Nikolay: Russian composer, teacher, and editor who was at his best in descriptive orchestrations suggesting a mood or a place.
rimu: (Dacrydium cupressinum), coniferous timber tree of the family Podocarpaceae, native to New Zealand. The rimu tree may attain a height of 45 metres (150 feet) or more. The wood is reddish brown to yellowish brown, with a distinctive figuring, or ...
Rin-chen-bzang-po: Tibetan Buddhist monk, called the "Great Translator," known primarily for his extensive translations of Indian Buddhist texts into Tibetan, thus furthering the subsequent development of Buddhism in Tibet. First sent to India in the late 10th century under Tibetan royal ...
rinceau: in architecture, decorative border or strip, featuring stylized vines with leaves and often with fruit or flowers. It first appears as a decorative motif in classical antiquity. Roman rinceau most often consisted of an undulating double vine growing from a ...
rinderpest: an acute, highly contagious viral disease of ruminant animals, primarily cattle, that is common in Africa, the Indian subcontinent, and the Middle East. It has occurred in Brazil and Australia but was quickly eradicated in those countries. Rinderpest has not ...
Rinehart, Mary Roberts: American novelist and playwright best known for her mystery stories.
ring: circular band of gold, silver, or some other precious or decorative material that is worn on the finger. Rings are worn not only on the fingers but also on toes, the ears (see earring), and through the nose. Besides serving ...
ring: in mathematics, a set having an addition that must be commutative (a + b = b + a for any a, b) and associative [a + (b + c) = (a + b) + c for any a, b, c], and a multiplication that must be associative [a(bc) = (ab)c for any a, b, c]. There must also ...
Ring Nebula: (catalog numbers NGC 6720 and M 57), bright nebula in the constellation Lyra, several thousand light-years from the Earth. It was discovered in 1779 by the French astronomer Augustin Darquier. Like other nebulae of its type, called planetary nebulae, it ...
ring-necked duck: (species Aythya collaris), diving duck (family Anatidae), a popular game bird that is considered excellent table fare. The ring-necked duck is about 43 cm (17 inches) long. The male has a purplish black, iridescent head, a black back, and gray ...
ring-necked snake: (species Diadophis punctatus), sole species of snake in the genus Diadophis of the family Colubridae. There are about a dozen subspecies. Ring-necked snakes grow to a length of 60 cm (24 inches) and are usually found under logs or rocks ...
Ringatu: oldest and most spiritual Maori prophetic movement in New Zealand. It was founded in 1867 by the Maori guerrilla leader Te Kooti (1830-93) while he was imprisoned on the Chatham Islands. His deep Bible study produced a new, gentle Maori ...
ringed seal: (species Pusa, or Phoca, hispida), nonmigratory, earless seal (family Phocidae) of North Polar seas and a few freshwater lakes in Europe and on Baffin Island. Named for the characteristic pale rings on its grayish or yellowish coat, the ringed seal ...
Ringer's solution: one of the first laboratory solutions of salts in water shown to prolong greatly the survival time of excised tissue; it was introduced by the physiologist Sidney Ringer in 1882 for the frog heart. The solution contains sodium chloride, potassium ...