Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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Vapheio ... vase carpet

Vapheio: ancient site in Laconia, Greece, on the right bank of the Eurotas River, five miles south of Sparta; the site is known for its tholos tomb, excavated in 1888. The tomb, which probably belonged to Pharis, contained artifacts typical of ...
vaporization: conversion of a substance from the liquid or solid phase into the gaseous (vapour) phase. If conditions allow the formation of vapour bubbles within a liquid, the vaporization process is called boiling. Direct conversion from solid to vapour is called ...
vapour lock: partial or complete interruption of the fuel flow in an internal-combustion engine, caused by the formation of vapour or bubbles of gas in the fuel-feeding system. Vapour forms because of fuel boiling in the fuel lines, usually as a result ...
vapour pressure: pressure exerted by a vapour when the vapour is in equilibrium with the liquid or solid form, or both, of the same substance-i.e., when conditions are such that the substance can exist in both or in all three phases. Vapour ...
vapour trail: streamer of cloud sometimes observed behind an airplane flying in clear, cold, humid air. It forms upon condensation of the water vapour produced by the combustion of fuel in the airplane engines. When the ambient relative humidity is high, the ...
Varaha: (Sanskrit: Boar), third of the 10 incarnations (avatars) of the Hindu god Vishnu. When a demon named Hiranyaksa dragged the earth to the bottom of the sea, Vishnu took the form of a boar in order to rescue it. They ...
Varahamihira: Indian philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician, author of the Panca-siddhantika ("Five Treatises"), a compendium of Greek, Egyptian, Roman, and Indian astronomy.
Varala, Treaty of: (1790), settlement ending the Russo-Swedish War begun by Sweden (with British diplomatic support) in 1788. It maintained, in Russia's favour, the territorial dispositions of 1743. See Abo, Treaty of.
Varallo: town, Vercelli province, Piemonte (Piedmont) region, northwestern Italy. It lies along the Sesia River, 31 miles (50 km) northwest of Novara. The town is rich in art and churches, among which are San Gaudenzio (restored 1710), with a polyptych by ...
Varanasi: city, southeastern Uttar Pradesh state, northern India. It is located on the left bank of the Ganges River and is one of the seven sacred cities of the Hindus.
Varanus: sole genus of the lizard family Varanidae, and composed of the monitor lizards (see monitor lizard); one of the Varanidae is Varanus komodoensis, the Komodo dragon (q.v.).
Varda, Agnes: French still photographer and one of the few successful female motion-picture directors. Her first film, Le Pointe courte (1954), was a precursor of the French New Wave films of the 1960s.
Vardar River: major river in Macedonia and in Greece. It rises in the Sar Mountains and flows north-northeast past Gostivar and Tetovo (in the Gostivar-Tetovo depression); it then turns sharply to flow southeast past Skopje and Titov Veles into Greece, where it ...
Vardon, Harry: British professional golfer, who pioneered accurate and reliable hitting techniques that are still the basis of the modern golf swing.
Vare, Glenna Collett: sportswoman who dominated American women's golf in the 1920s.
Varenius, Bernhardus: a major figure in the revival of geographic learning in Europe, whose scholarly general geography remained the accepted standard authority for more than a century.
Varese: city, capital of Varese provincia, Lombardia (Lombardy) regione, northern Italy. It lies among the Alpine foothills descending to the Lake Varese, north of Milan. The modern Piazza Monte Grappa is a square in the centre of the city. Notable buildings ...
Varese, Edgard: French-born American composer and innovator in 20th-century techniques of sound production.
Vargas Llosa, Mario: Peruvian writer whose commitment to social change is evident in his novels, plays, and essays. In 1990 he was an unsuccessful candidate for president of Peru.
Vargas, Getulio: president of Brazil (1930-45, 1951-54), who brought social and economic changes that helped modernize the country. Although denounced by some as an unprincipled dictator, Vargas was revered by his followers as the "Father of the Poor," for his battle against ...
vargueno: wooden cabinet of mixed Spanish and Oriental origin that first appeared in Europe in the late Middle Ages and became a common article of furniture in the Spanish colonial empire from the late 16th century onward. Its major component is ...
variable star: any star whose observed light varies notably in intensity. The changes in brightness may be periodic, semiregular, or completely irregular.
variables, separation of: one of the oldest and most widely used techniques for solving some types of partial differential equations. A partial differential equation is called linear if the unknown function and its derivatives have no exponent greater than one and there are ...
Varian, Russell H.; and Varian, Sigurd F.: brothers who, with William W. Hansen, invented the klystron radio tube, a powerful microwave generator.
variance: in statistics, the square of the standard deviation of a sample or set of data, used procedurally to analyze the factors that may influence the distribution or spread of the data under consideration. See mean.
variation: in biology, any difference between cells, individual organisms, or groups of organisms of any species caused either by genetic differences (genotypic variation) or by the effect of environmental factors on the expression of the genetic potentials (phenotypic variation). Variation may ...
varicose vein: vein that is twisted-tortuous-and distended with blood. The term varix is also used for similar abnormalities in arteries and in lymphatic vessels. Varicose veins occur in a number of areas, including the legs; the esophagus, or gullet; the spermatic veins, ...
Varig: (Portuguese: "Rio Grandense Air Transport Enterprise"), Brazilian airline founded on May 7, 1927, with the assistance of a Berlin trading concern, Kondor Syndicat, which had begun flights in the state of Rio Grande do Sul the previous January. Thereafter, Varig ...
variolation: obsolete method of immunizing patients against smallpox by infecting them with substance from the pustules of patients with a mild form of the disease (variola minor). The disease then usually occurs in a less-dangerous form than when contracted naturally. The ...
variscite: phosphate mineral, hydrated aluminum phosphate (AlPO₄·2H₂O), which is valued as a semiprecious gemstone and an ornamental material. Both variscite and strengite, a similar mineral in which iron replaces aluminum in the crystal structure, occur as glassy nodules, veins, or crusts, ...
Varmland: lan (county) of west-central Sweden, extending north from Vanern (lake) and northwest to the Norwegian frontier. It takes in most of the traditional landskap (province) of Varmland. Much of its area forms a plateau, reaching a height of 2,267 feet ...
Varmus, Harold: American virologist and cowinner (with J. Michael Bishop) of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1989 for their work on the origins of cancer.
Varna: seaport and third largest city in Bulgaria. Lying on the north shore of Varna Bay on the Black Sea coast, the city is sheltered by the Dobrudzhansko plateau, which rises to more than 1,000 feet (300 m) above sea level. ...
varna: any one of the four traditional social classes of Hindu India. Although the literal meaning of the word varna (Sanskrit: "colour") has invited speculation that class distinctions were originally based on differences in degree of skin pigmentation, and though this ...
Varna, Battle of: (Nov. 10, 1444), Turkish victory over a Hungarian force, ending the European powers' efforts to save Constantinople (now Istanbul) from Turkish conquest and enabling the Ottoman Empire to confirm and expand its control over the Balkans.
Varnhagen von Ense, Karl August: German writer, diplomat, biographer, and, with his wife, Rahel, a leading figure of a Berlin salon that became a centre of intellectual debate.
Varnhagen von Ense, Rahel: nee Levin German literary hostess from early in the 19th century whose soirees were attended by many of the Romantics, notably Heinrich Heine.
varnish: liquid coating material containing a resin that dries to a hard transparent film. Most varnishes are a blend of resin, drying oil, drier, and volatile solvent. When varnish dries, its solvent portion evaporates, and the remaining constituents oxidize or polymerize ...
varnish tree: any of various trees whose milky juice is used to make a varnish or lacquer. The term is applied particularly to an Asian tree (Rhus verniciflua), related to poison ivy, that is highly irritating to the skin. On being tapped, ...
Varro, Marcus Terentius: Rome's greatest scholar and a satirist of stature, best known for his Saturae Menippeae ("Menippean Satires"). He was a man of immense learning and a prolific author. Inspired by a deep patriotism, he intended his work, by its moral and ...
Varthema, Lodovico de: intrepid Italian traveler and adventurer whose account of his Middle Eastern and Asiatic wanderings was widely circulated throughout Europe and earned him high fame in his own lifetime. He made significant discoveries (especially in Arabia) and made many valuable observations ...
Varuna: in the Vedic phase of Hindu mythology, the god-sovereign, the personification of divine authority. He is the ruler of the sky realm and the upholder of cosmic and moral law (rta), a duty shared with the group of gods known ...
Varus, Publius Quintilius: Roman general whose loss of three legions to Germanic tribes in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest caused great shock in Rome and stemmed Roman expansion beyond the Rhine River.
varved deposit: any form of repetitive sedimentary rock stratification, either bed or lamination, that was deposited within a one-year time period. This annual deposit may comprise paired contrasting laminations of alternately finer and coarser silt or clay, reflecting seasonal sedimentation (summer and ...
Vas: megye (county), western Hungary, occupying an area of 1,288 square miles (3,337 square km), most of which consists of hill pasture and deciduous forest. A maximum elevation of 2,897 feet (883 m) is reached at Mount Irottko, in the eastern ...
Vasa, House of: Swedish (and Polish) dynasty descended from an old family of Uppland, related both to the Sture family and to the Bonde family of Sweden's King Charles VIII (d. 1470). Its founder was Gustav Eriksson Vasa, who became regent of Sweden ...
Vasarely, Victor: Hungarian-born French painter of geometric abstractions who became one of the leading figures of the Op art (q.v.) movement.
Vasari, Giorgio: Italian painter, architect, and writer who is best known for his important biographies of Italian Renaissance artists.
Vasconcelos, Jose: Mexican educator, politician, essayist, and philosopher, whose five-volume autobiography, Ulises Criollo (1935; "A Creole Ulysses"), La tormenta (1936; "The Torment"), El desastre (1938; "The Disaster"), El proconsulado (1939; "The Proconsulship"), and La flama (1959; "The Flame"), is one of the ...
vascular system: in plants, assemblage of conducting tissues and associated supportive fibres. Xylem tissue transports water and dissolved minerals to the leaves, and phloem tissue conducts food from the leaves to all parts of the plant.
vase carpet: any of the most widely known group of floor coverings among the "classic" Kermans of the 16th and 17th centuries. At their best these carpets are extremely handsome, combining an elaborate overall repeat pattern of ogival lozenges with a profusion ...