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  • vault (gymnastics)
    gymnastics exercise in which the athlete leaps over a form that was originally intended to mimic a horse. At one time the pommel horse (side horse) was used in the vaulting exercise, with the pommels (handles) removed. Later a cylindrical form made especially for vaulting was used. The sanctioning body for gymnastic sport, the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastiq...
  • vaulting (gymnastics)
    gymnastics exercise in which the athlete leaps over a form that was originally intended to mimic a horse. At one time the pommel horse (side horse) was used in the vaulting exercise, with the pommels (handles) removed. Later a cylindrical form made especially for vaulting was used. The sanctioning body for gymnastic sport, the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastiq...
  • Vauluisant, Hôtel de (museum, Troyes, France)
    ...receiving the surrender of Troyes. The cathedral of Saint-Remy (14th–16th century) is notable for its 197-ft- (60-m-) tall spire. Troyes’s notable secular buildings include the 16th-century Hôtel de Vauluisant, which houses a hosiery museum displaying among its collections stockings as worn by the kings of France. The building also houses a museum of the history of the prov...
  • Vaupés (department, Colombia)
    departamento, southeastern Colombia. It is bounded by Guainía departamento (north), Brazil (east), the Apoporis River (south), and Guaviare departamento (west). Vaupés was administratively created in 1963, and its area was reduced in 1977 when Guaviare was established. It occupies an area of mostly tropical, evergreen rain forests. Vaupé...
  • Vauquelin, Nicolas-Louis (French chemist)
    French chemist who discovered the elements chromium (1797) and beryllium (1798)....
  • Vauthier, Maurice (French author)
    ...Four Winds), Paul-Jacques Bonzon (The Orphans of Simitra), and Étienne Cattin (Night Express!) were distinguished. The domain of the imaginative tale was well represented by Maurice Vauthier, especially by his Ecoute, petit loup. Among those noted for their prolific output as well as the high level of their art two names emerged. One is Paul Berna, who has wor...
  • Vauvenargues, Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de (French author)
    French moralist and essayist whose belief in the individual’s capacity for goodness played a part in the shift of opinion away from the pessimistic view of human nature elaborated by such 17th-century thinkers as Blaise Pascal and the Duke de La Rochefoucauld. He shared with others of his time a renewed respect for the emotions, thus prefiguring Jean-Jacques Rousseau. He stood out in his da...
  • Vaux, Calvert (British architect)
    While traveling in Europe in 1850, Downing entered into a partnership with the English architect Calvert Vaux, and upon their return to the United States the two men designed a number of estates, both houses and grounds, in New York’s Hudson River valley and Long Island. By now recognized as the foremost American landscape designer of his day, Downing was commissioned in 1851 to lay out the...
  • Vaux, Clotilde de (friend of Comte)
    ...Maximilien Littré. Comte married Caroline Massin in 1825, but the marriage was unhappy and they separated in 1842. In 1845 Comte had a profound romantic and emotional experience with Clotilde de Vaux, who died the following year of tuberculosis. Comte idealized this sentimental episode, which exerted a considerable influence on his later thought and writings, particularly with......
  • Vaux, Mary Morris (American artist and naturalist)
    American artist and naturalist who is remembered for her paintings of the wildflowers of North America, particularly as published by the Smithsonian Institution....
  • Vaux of Harrowden, Thomas Vaux, 2nd Baron (English poet)
    one of the early English Tudor poets associated with Sir Thomas Wyatt and the Earl of Surrey....
  • Vaux, Thomas Vaux, 2nd Baron (English poet)
    one of the early English Tudor poets associated with Sir Thomas Wyatt and the Earl of Surrey....
  • Vaux-le-Vicomte (château, France)
    château near Melun, France, designed in 1656 by Louis Le Vau for Nicolas Fouquet, who was finance minister to King Louis XIV. The château, finished in 1661, is considered to be one of the masterpieces of French Baroque residential architecture. The exquisite interior decoration was supervised by the painter Charles Le ...
  • Vauxcelles, Louis (art critic)
    ...of Cubism. After these radical works were rejected by the Salon d’Automne, that fall Braque had a show at Kahnweiler’s gallery and provoked a remark about “cubes” from the Paris critic Louis Vauxcelles that soon blossomed into a stylistic label....
  • Vauxhall (neighbourhood, Lambeth, London, United Kingdom)
    neighbourhood in the borough of Lambeth in London, England. It lies on the south bank of the River Thames near Vauxhall Bridge. Public gardens were laid out there about 1661 and were a favourite resort of the metropolis from the 17th century, during the time of the diarists Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn, to the early 19th century, during the ...
  • Vauxhall (British company)
    ...States; or, most frequently, machinery manufacturers. The kinds of machinery included stationary gas engines (Daimler of Germany, Lanchester of Britain, Olds of the United States), marine engines (Vauxhall of Britain), machine tools (Leland of the United States), sheep-shearing machinery (Wolseley of Britain), washing machines (Peerless of the United States), sewing machines (White of the......
  • Vauxhall (township, New Jersey, United States)
    township (town), Essex county, northeastern New Jersey, U.S., just west of Newark and lying between the Rahway and Passaic rivers. It is primarily a residential community that includes the fashionable Short Hills district on the north and west. About 1664, colonists from New York purchased land from the Delaware Indians an...
  • Vauxhall Gardens (garden, London, United Kingdom)
    neighbourhood in the borough of Lambeth in London, England. It lies on the south bank of the River Thames near Vauxhall Bridge. Public gardens were laid out there about 1661 and were a favourite resort of the metropolis from the 17th century, during the time of the diarists Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn, to the early 19th century, during the time of the Prince Regent, later King George IV. By......
  • VAV system (air-conditioning system)
    ...mixed to reach a desired temperature. A simpler way to control temperature is to regulate the amount of cold air supplied, cutting it off once a desired temperature is reached. This method, known as variable air volume, is widely used in both high-rise and low-rise commercial or institutional buildings....
  • Vavá (Brazilian athlete)
    Brazilian footballer (b. Nov. 12, 1934, Recife, Braz.—d. Jan. 19, 2002, Rio de Janeiro, Braz.), was a powerful centre-forward, a pivotal member of Brazil’s national team, and one of only three association football (soccer) players to score in two World Cup finals. In 22 international matches for Brazil, he scored 14 goals, including 5 in the 1958 World Cup (2 in the final against Swe...
  • vavasor (feudalism)
    ...the competition for rights and domains. The reign of Conrad II (1024–39), the first emperor of the Salian dynasty, permitted and even encouraged such competition. Conrad took the side of the vavasours, who wanted their lands to be hereditary, against the bishops, and he generally supported the interests of the lay aristocracy. Although there is no indication that he intended any......
  • vavasour (feudalism)
    ...the competition for rights and domains. The reign of Conrad II (1024–39), the first emperor of the Salian dynasty, permitted and even encouraged such competition. Conrad took the side of the vavasours, who wanted their lands to be hereditary, against the bishops, and he generally supported the interests of the lay aristocracy. Although there is no indication that he intended any......
  • Vavaʿu Group (islands, Tonga)
    island cluster of Tonga, in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. The group comprises two chains, one coral and the other volcanic. To the east lie uplifted coral islands, including Vavaʿu Island, the largest (35 square miles [91 square km]) of the group, rising to an elevation of 670 feet (200 metres). The smaller western volcanic chain is generally wooded a...
  • Vavilov, Nikolay Ivanovich (Russian geneticist)
    Soviet plant geneticist whose research into the origins of cultivated plants incurred the animosity of T.D. Lysenko, official spokesman for Soviet biology in his time....
  • VAX (computer line)
    ...generating $135 million in sales. By the mid-1970s, however, the company’s leadership in the minicomputer market was being challenged by IBM and other companies. In 1978 Digital introduced the VAX (Virtual Address eXtension) computer, arguably the most successful minicomputer in history. The VAX line of systems ranged from low-cost desktop workstations to high-end computers that challeng...
  • VAX/VMS (operating system)
    ...more memory and more power generally, was produced in 10 different models over 10 years, and was a great success. It was followed by the VAX line, which supported an advanced operating system called VAX/VMS—VMS standing for virtual memory system, an innovation that effectively expanded the memory of the machine by allowing disk or other peripheral storage to serve as extra memory. By thi...
  • Växjö (Sweden)
    city and capital of the administrative län (county) of Kronoberg, southern Sweden, on Växjösjön (lake). The city was a medieval trading centre; it was burned several times by the Danes, and most of the present buildings were built after 1843. Today Växjö is a railway junction and a manufacturing centre producing matches, furniture...
  • Vaygach (ship)
    ...founded at Ust-Kut. The first scientific research was conducted by the Great Northern Expedition in 1733–42. Cartography was begun in 1910, and in 1912 the icebreakers Taymyr and Vaygach surveyed and mapped the delta. Further surveying was conducted between World Wars I and II, when a complete and detailed description was compiled. During the postwar Soviet period,......
  • Vayk (region, Armenia)
    ...and deep valleys of the northeast, covered with forests, farmlands, and alpine pastures; the Sevan Basin, the hollow containing Lake Sevan, on the shores of which are farmlands, villages, and towns; Vayk, essentially the basin of the Arpa River; and Zangezur (Siuniq) in the extreme southeast. This last region is a maze of gorges and river valleys cutting through high ranges. It is an area rich....
  • vazante (agriculture)
    The dry sertão is used largely for livestock grazing, mainly cattle, goats, sheep, and donkeys. Along the riverbanks vazante agriculture is practiced: during the rainy season, shallow waterbeds (vassantes) are enclosed by bars of river sediment and support the cultivation of cassava (manioc), corn, beans, and melons. Truck crops are grown on the riverbanks, and......
  • Vazgen I (Armenian cleric)
    (LEVON GARABET BALJIAN), Armenian cleric (b. Oct. 3 [Sept. 20, Old Style], 1908, Bucharest, Rom.--d. Aug. 18, 1994, Yerevan, Armenia), as head of the Armenian Orthodox Church for nearly 40 years, was both the spiritual leader and the symbol of national unity for Armenians throughout the world. Levon Garabet Baljian graduated from the University of Bucharest’s faculty of philosophy and liter...
  • Vazīrābād (Afghanistan)
    village in northern Afghanistan that was formerly Bactra, the capital of ancient Bactria. It lies 14 miles (22 km) west of the city of Mazār-e Sharīf and is situated along the Balkh River. A settlement existed at the site as early as 500 bc, and the town was captured by Alexander the Great about 330 bc. Thereafter it w...
  • Vazov, Ivan Minchov (Bulgarian author)
    man of letters whose poems, short stories, novels, and plays are inspired by patriotism and love of the Bulgarian countryside and reflect the main events in his country’s history....
  • Vázquez de Coronado, Francisco (Spanish explorer)
    Spanish explorer of the North American Southwest whose expeditions resulted in the discovery of many physical landmarks, including the Grand Canyon, but failed to find the treasure-laden cities he sought....
  • Vázquez de Mella, Juan (Spanish politician)
    ...the encroachment of centralized state power) and those for whom the tactical alliance implied a watering down of principle. The latter point of view found expression in the creation (1918) by Juan Vázquez de Mella of the Traditionalist Party, which subsequently became the principal exponent of Carlism. In 1937 General Francisco Franco merged it with the Falange, a party with which......
  • Vázquez, Lorenzo (Spanish architect)
    It is a younger contemporary, Lorenzo Vázquez, born in Segovia but probably (on the basis of his style) trained in Bologna, who is credited with having introduced many of the Italian Renaissance ideas and ornamental motifs into Spanish architecture of the time. Major monuments in the Isabelline style include San Juan de los Reyes, in Toledo; Infantado Palace, in Guadalajara; San......
  • Vázquez Montalbán, Manuel (Spanish author)
    Spanish author (b. July 27, 1939, Barcelona, Spain—d. Oct. 18, 2003, Bangkok, Thai.), created the complex Spanish detective Pepe Carvalho in a series of 22 novels that were translated into 24 languages. Vázquez Montalbán’s astonishingly prolific output also included poetry, essays, socialistic political commentary, and plays. He received many literary awards, among them...
  • Vázquez Rosas, Tabaré Ramón (Uruguayan politician)
    On March 1, 2005, Tabaré Vázquez was sworn in as the new president of Uruguay. The historic significance of this event could not be overestimated. Vázquez was the first leftist president in Uruguay’s history, and the coalition he led, the Broad Front–Progressive Encounter—which was composed of former guerrillas, socialists, communists, and independent left...
  • VB Script (computing)
    VB Script is a subset of Visual Basic. Originally developed for Microsoft’s Office suite of programs, it was later used for Web scripting as well. Its capabilities are similar to those of JavaScript, and it may be embedded in HTML in the same fashion....
  • VB theory (chemistry)
    Several theories currently are used to interpret bonding in coordination compounds. In the valence bond (VB) theory, proposed in large part by the American scientists Linus Pauling and John C. Slater, bonding is accounted for in terms of hybridized orbitals of the metal ion, which is assumed to possess a particular number of vacant orbitals available for coordinate bonding that equals its......
  • VC (Vietnamese military and political organization)
    the guerrilla force that, with the support of the North Vietnamese Army, fought against South Vietnam (late 1950s–1975) and the United States (early 1960s–1973). The name is said to have first been used by South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem to belittle the rebels....
  • VCE
    For aircraft designed to fly mixed missions (i.e., at subsonic, transonic, and supersonic flight speeds) with low levels of fuel consumption, it is desirable to have an engine with the characteristics of both a high-bypass engine (for subsonic flight speed) and a low-bypass engine (for supersonic flight speed). This requirement is typical for many high-speed commercial airliners, including the......
  • VCHEKA (Soviet secret police)
    early Soviet secret police agency and a forerunner of the KGB....
  • vCJD (pathology)
    ...grew over a possible relationship between the animal disease and the occurrence of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in people. Beginning in the mid-1990s a new variant form of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (nvCJD) took the lives of dozens of people in Europe. In experiments with mice, researchers found that prions from human cases of nvCJD caused a disease pattern similar to that caused by prions from......
  • VCR (electronics)
    electromechanical device that records, stores, and plays back television programs on a television set by means of a cassette of magnetic tape. A videocassette recorder is commonly used to record television programs broadcast over the air or by cable and to play back commercially recorded cassettes on a television set....
  • VCSEL (technology)
    ...action if it is inside a suitable cavity. Conventional edge-emitting semiconductor lasers have mirrors on opposite edges of the p-n junction, so light oscillates in the junction plane. Vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) have mirrors above and below the p-n junction, so light resonates perpendicular to the junction. The wavelength depends on the......
  • VD
    any disease (such as syphilis, gonorrhea, AIDS, or a genital form of herpes simplex) that is usually or often transmitted from person to person by direct sexual contact. It may also be transmitted from a mother to her child before or at birth or, less frequently, may be passed from person to person in nonsexual contact (such as in kissing, in tainted blood transfusions, or in th...
  • VDT (computer technology)
    Some systems have a video display terminal (VDT), consisting of a keyboard and a CRT viewing screen, that enables the operator to see and correct the words as they are being typed. If a system has a line printer, it can produce printouts of “hard copy.”...
  • Ve (Norse mythology)
    ...mythology, the first man and first woman, respectively, parents of the human race. They were created from tree trunks found on the seashore by three gods—Odin and his two brothers, Vili and Ve (some sources name the gods Odin, Hoenir, and Lodur). From each creator Askr and Embla received a gift: Odin gave them breath, or life, Vili gave them understanding, and Ve gave them their senses.....
  • ve-Adar (Jewish month)
    ...Kislev (November–December), Ṭevet (December–January), Shevaṭ (January–February), and Adar (February–March). The 13th month of the leap year, Adar Sheni (or ve-Adar), is intercalated before Adar and so contains the religious observances normally occurring in Adar....
  • veal (calf meat)
    meat of calves slaughtered between 3 and 14 weeks, delicate in flavour, pale grayish white in colour, firm and fine-grained, with velvety texture. It has no marbling, and the small amount of fat covering is firm and white. In modern livestock farming, calves bred to yield high-quality veal are raised indoors under controlled temperatures (60°–65° F [16°–18...
  • vealer (cattle)
    ...into several categories based on the ages of the animals at the time of slaughter. Baby veal (bob veal) is 2–3 days to 1 month of age and yields carcasses weighing 9 to 27 kilograms. Vealers are 4 to 12 weeks of age with carcasses weighing 36 to 68 kilograms. Calves are up to 20 weeks of age with carcasses ranging from 56 to 135 kilograms....
  • Veblen, Oswald (American mathematician)
    American mathematician who made important contributions to differential geometry and the early development of topology. Many of his contributions found application in atomic physics and the theory of relativity....
  • Veblen, Thorstein (American economist and sociologist)
    American economist and social scientist who sought to apply an evolutionary, dynamic approach to the study of economic institutions. With The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899) he won fame in literary circles, and, in describing the life of the wealthy, he coined phrases—conspicuous consumption and pe...
  • Veblen, Thorstein Bunde (American economist and sociologist)
    American economist and social scientist who sought to apply an evolutionary, dynamic approach to the study of economic institutions. With The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899) he won fame in literary circles, and, in describing the life of the wealthy, he coined phrases—conspicuous consumption and pe...
  • “vecchi e i giovani, I” (novel by Pirandello)
    Meanwhile, he had been writing other novels, notably I vecchi e i giovani (1913; The Old and The Young) and Uno, nessuno e centomila (1925–26; One, None, and a Hundred Thousand). Both are more typical than Il fu Mattia Pascal. The first, a historical novel reflecting the Sicily of the end of the 19th century and the general bitterness at the loss of the......
  • Vecchi, Orazio (Italian composer)
    Italian composer best known for his madrigal-comedy L’Amfiparnaso and other entertainment music....
  • vecchio della montagna, Il (work by Deledda)
    ...where she lived quietly, frequently visiting her native Sardinia. With little formal schooling, at age 17 Deledda wrote her first stories, based on sentimental treatment of folklore themes. With Il vecchio della montagna (1900; “The Old Man of the Mountain”) she began to write about the tragic effects of temptation and sin among primitive human beings....
  • Vecchio, Palazzo (palace, Florence, Italy)
    most important historic government building in Florence, having been the seat of the Signoria of the Florentine Republic in the 14th century and then the government centre of the Medici grand dukes of Tuscany. From 1865 to 1871 it housed the Chamber of Deputies of the Kingdom of Italy, and since 1872 it has been the town hall....
  • Vecchio, Palma (Italian painter [1480?–1528])
    Venetian painter of the High Renaissance, noted for the craftsmanship of his religious and mythological works. He may have studied under Giovanni Bellini, the originator of the Venetian High Renaissance style....
  • Vecchio, Ponte (bridge, Florence, Italy)
    (Italian: “Old Bridge”), first segmental arch bridge built in the West, which crosses over the Arno River at Florence and is an outstanding engineering achievement of the European Middle Ages. Its builder, Taddeo Gaddi, completed the bridge in 1345. Requiring fewer piers in the stream than the Roman semicircular-arch design, the segmental arch offered less obstruct...
  • Vecelli, Tiziano (Italian painter)
    the greatest Italian Renaissance painter of the Venetian school. He was recognized early in his own lifetime as a supremely great painter, and his reputation has in the intervening centuries never suffered a decline. In 1590 the art theorist Giovanni Lomazzo declared him “the sun amidst small stars not only among the Italians but all the painters of the world.”...
  • Vecellio, Tiziano (Italian painter)
    the greatest Italian Renaissance painter of the Venetian school. He was recognized early in his own lifetime as a supremely great painter, and his reputation has in the intervening centuries never suffered a decline. In 1590 the art theorist Giovanni Lomazzo declared him “the sun amidst small stars not only among the Italians but all the painters of the world.”...
  • veche (medieval Russian assembly)
    popular assembly that was a characteristic institution in Russia from the 10th to the 15th century. The veche probably originated as a deliberative body among early Slavic tribes. As the tribes settled in permanent trading centres, which later became cities, the veche remained as an element of democratic rule, sharing power with a prince and an aristocratic council. Although its pow...
  • Vecheka (Soviet secret police)
    early Soviet secret police agency and a forerunner of the KGB....
  • “Vechera na khutore bliz Dikanki” (work by Gogol)
    ...with realistic incidents of the present. Such was the origin of his eight narratives, published in two volumes in 1831–32 under the title Vechera na khutore bliz Dikanki (Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka). Written in a lively and at times colloquial prose, these works contributed something fresh and new to Russian literature. In addition to the author’s whimsical......
  • Vechten, Carl Van (American writer)
    U.S. novelist and music and drama critic, an influential figure in New York literary circles in the 1920s; he was an early enthusiast for the culture of U.S. blacks....
  • vectigal (tax)
    tax levied by a local political unit, normally the commune or municipal authority, on certain categories of goods as they enter the area. The tax was first instituted in Italy in Roman times, when it bore the title of vectigal, or portorium. Octrois were still in existence in France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Austria after World War II, but there has been a marked tendency toward ...
  • vector (genetics)
    ...out by inserting a DNA fragment into a small DNA molecule and then allowing this molecule to replicate inside a simple living cell such as a bacterium. The small replicating molecule is called a DNA vector (carrier). The most commonly used vectors are plasmids (circular DNA molecules that originated from bacteria), viruses, and yeast cells. Plasmids are not a part of the main cellular genome,.....
  • vector (of disease)
    Most major epidemics of typhoid fever have been caused by the pollution of public water supplies. Food and milk may be contaminated, however, by a carrier of the disease who is employed in handling and processing them; by flies; or by the use of polluted water for cleaning purposes. Shellfish, particularly oysters, grown in polluted water and fresh vegetables grown on soil fertilized or......
  • vector (mathematics)
    in mathematics, a quantity that has both magnitude and direction but not position. Examples of such quantities are velocity and acceleration. In their modern form, vectors appeared late in the 19th century when Josiah Willard Gibbs and Oliver Heaviside (of the United States and Britain, respectively) independently develope...
  • vector (physics)
    in physics, a quantity that has both magnitude and direction. It is typically represented by an arrow whose direction is the same as that of the quantity and whose length is proportional to the quantity’s magnitude. Although a vector has magnitude and direction, it does not have position. That is, as long as its length is not changed, a vector is not altered if it is displaced parallel to i...
  • vector analysis (mathematics)
    a branch of mathematics that deals with quantities that have both magnitude and direction. Some physical and geometric quantities, called scalars, can be fully defined by specifying their magnitude in suitable units of measure. Thus, mass can be expressed in grams, temperature in degrees on some scale, and time in seconds. Scalars can be represented graphically by points on some numerical scale su...
  • Vector Averaging Current Meter (measurement device)
    One of the most important advances in modern instrument design has been the introduction of low-power, solid-state microelectronics. The accuracy of the Vector Averaging Current Meter (VACM), for example, has been improved appreciably by the use of integrated circuits, as has its data-handling capability. Because of the latter, the VACM can sample the direction and speed of currents roughly......
  • vector bundle (mathematics)
    ...that at each point a vector space is available as mathematical storage space for all its possible values. Because a vector space is attached at each point, the theory is called the theory of vector bundles. Other kinds of space may be attached, thus entering the more general theory of fibre bundles. The subtle and vital point is that it is possible to create quite different bundles which......
  • vector current (physics)
    ...worldwide acclaim not only to Wu but also to Lee and Yang, who won the 1957 Nobel Prize for Physics for their work. In 1958 Richard P. Feynman and Murray Gell-Mann proposed the conservation of vector current in nuclear beta decay. This theory was experimentally confirmed in 1963 by Wu in collaboration with two other Columbia University research physicists. She later investigated the......
  • vector field (mathematics)
    Mathematically interpreted, a vector a represents a quantity with both magnitude and direction, which preserves its length or value and its direction when displaced. The vector field—i.e., the association of a vector with every point in space (e.g., electric field strength, or electric current density)—and the line integral (or summation) of a vector field ......
  • vector gauge boson (subatomic particle)
    subatomic particle with integral spin (i.e., angular momentum in quantum-mechanical units of 0, 1, etc.) that is governed by the Bose-Einstein statistics. Bosons include mesons (e.g., pions and kaons), nuclei of even mass number (e.g., helium-4), and the particles required to embody the fields of quantum field theory (e.g., photons...
  • vector graphics (computer science)
    In the 1960s early computer graphics systems used vector graphics to construct images out of straight line segments, which were combined for display on specialized computer video monitors. Vector graphics is economical in its use of memory, as an entire line segment is specified simply by the coordinates of its endpoints. However, it is inappropriate for highly realistic images, since most......
  • vector minus axial vector theory (physics)
    ...into one theory in 1958 by the American physicists Murray Gell-Mann and Richard Feynman. They established the mathematical structure of the weak interaction in what is known as V−A, or vector minus axial vector, theory. This theory proved highly successful experimentally, at least at the relatively low energies accessible to particle physicists in the 1960s. It was clear that the......
  • vector operations (mathematics)
    ...
  • vector product (mathematics)
    The cross product (also known as the vector product) combines two vectors to form another vector, perpendicular to the plane of the original vectors. The operation is written A × B. If θ is the (smaller) angle between A and B, then|A × B|= AB sin......
  • vector space (mathematics)
    a set of multidimensional quantities, known as vectors, together with a set of one-dimensional quantities, known as scalars, such that vectors can be added together and vectors can be multiplied by scalars while preserving the ordinary arithmetic properties (associativity, commutativity, distributivity, and so forth). Vector spaces are fundamental to linear algebra...
  • vectored jet (aeronautics)
    The most successful of all the alternatives to the helicopter is one of the most technically complex, the vectored jet, best exemplified by the Harrier, developed initially by Hawker Aircraft and brought to maturity by British Aerospace and McDonnell Douglas. In the vectored jet, nozzles are designed to rotate so that the thrust can be applied vertically for takeoff and then moved to a......
  • vectorial process (biosphere)
    ...of distributional change occurs among migratory animals, which may be plentiful in the summer months and virtually absent in the winter. The forces governing the dispersal of organisms are either vectorial (directed motion), that is, caused by wind, water, or some other environmental motion, or stochastic (random), as in the case of the change in seasons, which gives no indication of where......
  • Vectors of Mind, The (work by Thurstone)
    His principal work, The Vectors of Mind (1935), presented Thurstone’s method of factor analysis to explain correlations between results in psychological tests. Thurstone rejected the idea that any one factor had more general application than others and evaluated all factors influencing performance on a given test at one time, devising new statistical techniques to.....
  • Ved-ava (Scandinavian deity)
    among the Mordvins, the water mother, a spirit believed to rule the waters and their bounty; she is known as Vete-ema among the Estonians and Veen emo among the Finns. The water spirit belongs to a class of nature spirits common to the Finno-Ugric peoples dependent on fishing for much of their livelihood. Fishermen sacrificed to the water spirit as a personification of their concerns, gave her th...
  • Veda (Hinduism)
    a collection of poems or hymns composed in archaic Sanskrit and known to the Indo-European-speaking peoples who entered India during the 2nd millennium bce. No definite date can be ascribed to the composition of the Vedas, but the period of about 1500–1200 bce is acceptable to most scholars. The hymns formed a liturgical body that in part grew up around the ...
  • Vedado (district, Havana, Cuba)
    To the north and west a newer section, centred on the uptown area known as Vedado, has become the rival of Old Havana for commercial activity and nightlife. This part of the city, built largely in the 20th century, contains attractive homes, tall apartments, and offices along wide, tree-lined boulevards and avenues. It is also the location of many hotels that before 1959 were frequented by U.S.......
  • Vedagarbha (India)
    historic town, Bihār state, northeastern India, just south of the Ganges River. The Battle of Baksar (Buxar; 1764) resulted in the final acquisition of lower Bengal by the British. A place of great sanctity, it is believed to have been originally called Vedagarbha (Womb of the Veda). Numerous writers of the Vedic hymns are said to have lived in the town, which is also connected with the ear...
  • vedalia beetle (insect)
    ...by two parasitic species of chalcid wasps imported from Australia, Coccophagus gurneyi and Tetracnemus pretiosus; the effective predation of an Australian ladybird beetle, or vedalia beetle (Rodolia cardinalis), on the cottony cushion scale in California; the limiting of the proliferation of the European rabbit in Australia by introduction of myxoma virus (which......
  • vedalla (Buddhism)
    9. Vedalla (perhaps meaning “subtle analysis”), teachings in catechetical form, according to the Pāli system. The Sanskrit tradition places here, as vaipulya, a number of important Mahāyāna works, including the Lotus Sūtra, Aṣṭasāhasrikā-prajñāpāramitā, and......
  • vedanā (Buddhist doctrine)
    (Sanskrit and Pāli), in the Buddhist chain of dependent origination, the sensation that leads to thirst. See pratītya-samutpāda....
  • Vedāṅgas (Hindu texts)
    Toward the end of the Vedic period, and more or less simultaneously with the production of the principal Upanishads, concise, technical, and usually aphoristic texts were composed about various subjects relating to the proper and timely performance of the Vedic sacrificial rituals. These were eventually labeled Vedangas (“Studies Accessory to the Veda”)....
  • Vedānta (Hindu religious text)
    (“session”), any of the speculative texts that contain elaborations in prose and verse of the Vedas, the most ancient Hindu sacred literature....
  • Vedānta (Hindu philosophy)
    one of the six orthodox systems (darshans) of Indian philosophy and the one that forms the basis of most modern schools of Hinduism. The term Vedānta means in Sanskrit the “conclusion” (anta) of the Vedas, the earliest sacred literature of India; it applies to the Upanishads, which were elaborations of the Vedas, and to the school that arose out of th...
  • Vedānta College (college, India)
    In 1822 Roy founded the Anglo-Hindu School and four years later the Vedānta College, in order to teach his Hindu monotheistic doctrines. When the Bengal government proposed a more traditional Sanskrit college, in 1823, Roy protested that classical Indian literature would not prepare the youth of Bengal for the demands of modern life. He proposed, instead, a modern, Western curriculum of......
  • Vedanta Society of the City of New York (Indian missionary organization)
    ...19th century, the first religious group to be imported from India took root in the United States, when Vivekananda attended the 1893 World’s Parliament of Religions in Chicago and then founded the Vedanta Society in New York City. Based on the monistic teachings of one of Hinduism’s philosophical schools and on its interpretation of the teachings and mystical experiences of Viveka...
  • Vedānta-Mīmāṃsā (Hindu philosophy)
    one of the six orthodox systems (darshans) of Indian philosophy and the one that forms the basis of most modern schools of Hinduism. The term Vedānta means in Sanskrit the “conclusion” (anta) of the Vedas, the earliest sacred literature of India; it applies to the Upanishads, which were elaborations of the Vedas, and to the school that arose out of th...
  • Vedānta-pārijāta-saurabha (work by Nimbārka)
    ...souls with Brahman. His religious sect is known as the Sanaka-sampradāya of Vaiṣṇavism. Nimbārka’s commentary of the Vedānta-sūtras is known as Vedānta-pārijāta-saurabha and is commented on by Śİīnivāsa in his Vedānta-kaustubha. Of the three realities admitted—God...
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