Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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watt-hour meter ... Wayne

watt-hour meter: device that measures and records over time the electric power flowing through a circuit. Although there are several different types of watt-hour meters, each consists essentially of a small electric motor and a counter. A precise fraction of the current ...
Watteau, Antoine: French painter who typified the lyrically charming and graceful style of the Rococo. Much of his work reflects the influence of the commedia dell'arte and the opera ballet (e.g., "The French Comedy," 1716).
wattle and daub: in building construction, method of constructing walls in which vertical wooden stakes, or wattles, are woven with horizontal twigs and branches, and then daubed with clay or mud. This method is one of the oldest known for making a weatherproof ...
wattle-eye: any of a number of small, stubby African songbirds of the subfamily Platysteirinae, family Muscicapidae (q.v.); some authorities retain them in the flycatcher subfamily, Muscicapinae. Most species have bright, fleshy eye ornaments, or wattles: in the genus Platysteira they are ...
wattlebird: any of several New Zealand birds of the family Callaeidae (q.v.); also, a particular name for any honeyeater (q.v.) of the genus Anthochaera.
Wattrelos: town, Nord departement, Nord-Pas-de-Calais region, northern France, on the Belgian-French border. A northeastern suburb of Roubaix, it has textile, chemical, and metallurgical industries. The community was known as Waterloz in 1030, and the discovery of a golden effigy of Nero ...
Watts: southwestern district of Los Angeles, California, U.S. The district, originally called Mud Town, was renamed in 1900 for C.H. Watts, a Pasadena realtor who owned a ranch there. It was annexed to Los Angeles in 1926. The Watts district gained ...
Watts, George Frederick: English painter and sculptor of grandiose allegorical themes. Watts believed that art should preach a universal message, but his subject matter, conceived in terms of vague abstract ideals, is full of symbolism that is often obscure and today seems superficial.
Watts, Isaac: English Nonconformist minister, regarded as the father of English hymnody.
Watts-Dunton, Theodore: English critic and man of letters, who was the friend and self-appointed protector of the poet Algernon Charles Swinburne.
Wau: town, eastern Papua New Guinea, at the junction of Edie Creek and Bulolo River, in a mountainous region accessible by road from Lae and by air from Port Moresby. Gold was first discovered (1921) at Koranga Creek, followed by further ...
Wauchope: town, north coastal New South Wales, Australia, 12 mi (19 km) above the mouth of the Hastings River, just west of Port Macquarie. Named after a Captain Wauch, an early settler, the town serves a district of mixed farming including ...
Waucoban Series: lowermost Cambrian rocks (the Cambrian Period lasted from 540 to 505 million years ago); the name is derived from exposures found at Waucoba Springs, Calif. The period of time corresponding to the rocks of the Waucoban Series is known as ...
Waugh, Alec: English popular novelist and travel writer, older brother of the writer Evelyn Waugh.
Waugh, Evelyn: English writer regarded by many as the most brilliant satirical novelist of his day.
Waukegan: city, seat (1841) of Lake county, northeastern Illinois, U.S. It lies on a high bluff above Lake Michigan, about 40 miles (65 km) north of Chicago. One of the oldest communities in the state, it was originally a Potawatomi Indian ...
Waukesha: city, seat (1846) of Waukesha county, southeastern Wisconsin, U.S. It is situated on the Fox River, about 15 miles (25 km) west of Milwaukee. The site was settled by Morris D. Cutler in 1834 near a Potawatomi Indian village and ...
Wausau: city, seat (1850) of Marathon county, north-central Wisconsin, U.S. It lies on the Wisconsin River, about 90 miles (150 km) northwest of Green Bay. Settled in 1839 as a sawmill town, it was first called Big Bull Falls; by 1850 ...
Wauwatosa: city, western suburb of Milwaukee, Milwaukee county, southeastern Wisconsin, U.S. It lies on the Menomonee River, just north of West Allis. Potawatomi and Menominee Indians were among the early inhabitants of the area. Settled in 1835, the community was at ...
wave: on a body of water, a ridge or swell on the surface, normally having a forward motion distinct from the oscillatory motion of the particles that successively compose it. The undulations and oscillations may be chaotic and random, or they ...
wave front: imaginary surface representing corresponding points of a wave that vibrate in unison. When identical waves having a common origin travel through a homogeneous medium, the corresponding crests and troughs at any instant are in phase; i.e., they have completed identical ...
wave function: in quantum mechanics, variable quantity that mathematically describes the wave characteristics of a particle. The value of the wave function of a particle at a given point of space and time is related to the likelihood of the particle's being ...
wave mechanics: quantum mechanics, especially that version originally developed (1926) by the Austrian physicist Erwin Schrodinger. See Schrodinger equation.
wave motion: propagation of disturbances-that is, deviations from a state of rest or equilibrium-from place to place in a regular and organized way. Most familiar are surface waves on water, but both sound and light travel as wavelike disturbances, and the motion ...
wave number: a unit of frequency in atomic, molecular, and nuclear spectroscopy equal to the true frequency divided by the speed of light and thus equal to the number of waves in a unit distance. The frequency, symbolized by the Greek letter ...
wave velocity: distance traversed by a periodic, or cyclic, motion per unit time (in any direction). Wave velocity in common usage refers to speed, although, properly, velocity implies both speed and direction. The velocity of a wave is equal to the product ...
wave-cut platform: gently sloping rock ledge that extends from the high-tide level at the steep-cliff base to below the low-tide level. It develops as a result of wave abrasion; beaches protect the shore from abrasion and therefore prevent the formation of platforms. ...
wave-particle duality: possession by physical entities (such as light and electrons) of both wavelike and particle-like characteristics. On the basis of experimental evidence, the German physicist Albert Einstein first showed (1905) that light, which had been considered a form of electromagnetic waves, ...
waveguide: any of a class of devices that confines and directs the propagation of electromagnetic waves, such as radio waves, infrared rays, and visible light. Waveguides take many shapes and forms. Typical examples include hollow metallic tubes, coaxial cables, and optical ...
wavelength: distance between corresponding points of two consecutive waves. "Corresponding points" refers to two points or particles in the same phase-i.e., points that have completed identical fractions of their periodic motion. Usually, in transverse waves (waves with points oscillating at right ...
Wavell, Archibald Percival Wavell, 1st Earl, Viscount Wavell Of Cyrenaica And Of Winchester, Viscount Keren Of Eritrea And Of Winchester: British field marshal whose victories against the Italians in North Africa during the early part of World War II were offset by his inability to defeat the German Afrika Korps under General Erwin Rommel (1941) and his failure to stop ...
wavellite: hydrated aluminum phosphate [Al₃(PO₄)₂(OH)₃·5H₂O], a common phosphate mineral that typically occurs as translucent, greenish, globular masses in crevices in aluminous metamorphic rocks, in limonite and phosphate-rock deposits, and in hydrothermal veins. Occurrences include Zbiroh, Czech Republic; Montebras, France; Barnstaple, Devon, ...
wavemeter: device for determining the distance between successive wavefronts of equal phase along an electromagnetic wave. The determination is often made indirectly, by measuring the frequency of the wave. Although electromagnetic wavelengths depend on the propagation media, wavemeters are conventionally calibrated ...
Waveney: district, administrative and historic county of Suffolk, England. It is bounded on the east by the North Sea and on the northwest by the River Waveney. The interior is rich farmland. Along the river are the small industrial communities of ...
Waveney, River: stream in England whose whole course of 50 miles (80 km) marks the boundary between the East Anglian counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. The river flows northeastward through agricultural countryside, and no major towns are located on its banks. Its ...
Waverley: borough (district), administrative and historic county of Surrey, England. It occupies the southwestern corner of the county, along the Hampshire and Sussex borders. Its wooded hills and heathlands have been designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Much of the ...
WAVES: military unit, established on July 30, 1942, as the U.S. Navy's corps of female members. During World War II some 100,000 WAVES served in a wide variety of capacities, ranging from performing essential clerical duties to serving as instructors for ...
Wavre: capital of Walloon Brabant province, central Belgium. It lies along the Dijle (Dyle) River about 14 miles (22 km) southeast of Brussels. The town began as a trading centre at a river crossing and was chartered in 1222. Wavre was ...
Waw: town, southwestern Sudan. It lies on the western bank of the Jur River (a tributary of Al-Ghazal River), about 140 miles (220 km) northwest of Rumbek. Waw serves as a trading centre for the cotton, tobacco, peanuts (groundnuts), cereals, fruits, ...
wax: any of a class of pliable substances of animal, plant, mineral, or synthetic origin that differ from fats in being less greasy, harder, and more brittle and in containing principally compounds of high molecular weight (e.g., fatty acids, alcohols, and ...
wax gourd: trailing fleshy vine, of the gourd family (Cucurbitaceae), native to tropical Asia but grown in many warm countries for its edible fruits. A wax gourd has solitary yellow flowers 8 to 10 centimetres (3 to 4 inches) wide, hairy oval ...
wax sculpture: the preparation of finished figures in beeswax by modelling or molding or the use of such figures as a form for casting metal or creating preliminary models. At ordinary temperatures beeswax can be cut and shaped with facility; it melts ...
waxbill: any of several Old World tropical birds named for the prominent red (the colour of sealing wax) of their conical bills. The name is used generally for birds of the family Estrildidae (order Passeriformes); less broadly for those of the ...
Waxman, Meyer: Jewish literary historian, rabbi, educator, and scholar.
waxplant: any of a number of unrelated plants that are waxy in some respect. Most popular as greenhouse plants or window plants are several species of Hoya, called wax plants, or wax vines, especially H. carnosa and H. bella, of the ...
waxwing: any of three species of birds belonging to the songbird family Bombycillidae (order Passeriformes). They are elegant-looking birds named for beads of shiny red material on the tips of the secondary wing feathers. All species are gray-brown, with tapering crest. ...
wayang: (Javanese: "shadow"), classical Javanese puppet drama that uses the shadows thrown by puppets manipulated by rods against a translucent screen lit from behind. Developed before the 10th century, the form had origins in the thalubomalata, the leather puppets of southern ...
Waycross: city, seat (1872) of Ware county, southeastern Georgia, U.S., on the coastal plain, about 50 miles (80 km) west of Brunswick. Early settlers had built blockhouses in the area by the 1820s as a protection against Native Americans. Originally the ...
Wayland The Smith: in Scandinavian, German, and Anglo-Saxon legend, a smith of outstanding skill. He was, according to some legends, a lord of the elves. His story is told in the Volundarkvida, one of the poems in the 13th-century Icelandic Elder, or Poetic, ...
Wayne: township (town), Passaic county, northern New Jersey, U.S., 6 miles (10 km) west of Paterson, New Jersey. The site, first settled in 1695, was originally part of New Barbadoes township in Essex county, which was later incorporated into Bergen county. ...
Wayne: county, extreme northeastern Pennsylvania, U.S., bounded to the northeast and north by New York state (the West Branch Delaware and Delaware rivers constituting the boundary), to the southeast by Lake Wallenpaupack and Wallenpaupack Creek, and to the southwest by the ...