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secant

(Encyclopedia) secant, in mathematics. 1 In geometry, a secant is a straight line cutting a curve or surface. If it intersects the curve in two different points, as in the secant of a circle, the…

Avebury

(Encyclopedia) AveburyAveburyāˈbərē [key], village, Wiltshire, S central England. The village, with a medieval church and Elizabethan manor house, lies within Avebury Circle, a Neolithic circular…

equatorial coordinate system

(Encyclopedia) CE5 Equatorial coordinate system equatorial coordinate system, the most commonly used astronomical coordinate system for indicating the positions of stars or other celestial…

Rambouillet, Catherine de Vivonne, marquise de

(Encyclopedia) Rambouillet, Catherine de Vivonne, marquise deRambouillet, Catherine de Vivonne, marquise dekätrēnˈ də vēvônˈ märkēzˈ də räNb&oomacr;yāˈ [key], 1588–1665, famous Frenchwoman, whose…

Maecenas

(Encyclopedia) Maecenas (Caius Maecenas)Maecenasmĭsēˈnəs, mē– [key], d. 8 b.c., Roman statesman and patron of letters. He was born (between 74 b.c. and 64 b.c.) into a wealthy family and was a…

Broch, Hermann

(Encyclopedia) Broch, HermannBroch, Hermannhĕrˈmän brôkh [key], 1886–1951, Austrian novelist. Broch is one of the masters of European modernism. Influenced by Immanuel Kant and Ludwig Wittgenstein,…

Tordesillas, Treaty of

(Encyclopedia) Tordesillas, Treaty ofTordesillas, Treaty oftōrˌᵺāsēˈlyäs [key], 1494, agreement signed at Tordesillas, Spain, by which Spain and Portugal divided the non-Christian world into two…

calculus of variations

(Encyclopedia) calculus of variations, branch of mathematics concerned with finding maximum or minimum conditions for a relationship between two or more variables that depends not only on the…

geometric problems of antiquity

(Encyclopedia) geometric problems of antiquity, three famous problems involving elementary geometric constructions with straight edge and compass, conjectured by the ancient Greeks to be impossible…