• Flynn, Errol (Australian actor)

    Errol Flynn was an Australian actor who was celebrated as the screen’s foremost swashbuckler. Flynn was the son of a prominent Australian marine biologist and zoologist. As such, he was sent to the best schools available—and was expelled from virtually all of them. Flynn’s restless, rebellious

  • Flynn, Errol Leslie Thomson (Australian actor)

    Errol Flynn was an Australian actor who was celebrated as the screen’s foremost swashbuckler. Flynn was the son of a prominent Australian marine biologist and zoologist. As such, he was sent to the best schools available—and was expelled from virtually all of them. Flynn’s restless, rebellious

  • Flynn, Gillian (American author)

    Gillian Flynn is an American writer known for her darkly entertaining tales of murder and deceit in the Midwest. Flynn, the younger of two children, was raised in Kansas City, where both of her parents taught. She attended the University of Kansas, graduating (1994) with a bachelor’s degree in

  • Flynn, Gillian Schieber (American author)

    Gillian Flynn is an American writer known for her darkly entertaining tales of murder and deceit in the Midwest. Flynn, the younger of two children, was raised in Kansas City, where both of her parents taught. She attended the University of Kansas, graduating (1994) with a bachelor’s degree in

  • Flynn, John (Australian missionary)

    John Flynn was a moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Australia (1939–42) and missionary to the country’s wild central and northern inland, who in 1928 founded what later became the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia. After serving as a staff member of the Presbyterian Home Mission in

  • Flynn, Michael (United States Army lieutenant general)

    William Barr: Attorney general for the Trump administration: …former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn and Trump adviser Roger Stone. Flynn, who had twice pleaded guilty to lying to FBI investigators, saw the charges against him dismissed, only to have that dismissal reversed by a U.S. appellate court. In the Stone case, the Justice Department’s own sentencing recommendation…

  • Flynn, Michael Thomas (United States Army lieutenant general)

    William Barr: Attorney general for the Trump administration: …former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn and Trump adviser Roger Stone. Flynn, who had twice pleaded guilty to lying to FBI investigators, saw the charges against him dismissed, only to have that dismissal reversed by a U.S. appellate court. In the Stone case, the Justice Department’s own sentencing recommendation…

  • Flynn, Neil (American actor)

    Scrubs: …adversary, a hospital janitor (Neil Flynn). Most episodes ended with a music-driven visual sequence in which J.D. reflects on the show’s theme and its effects on his colleagues. Although Scrubs was a comedy, the hospital was not without its moments of seriousness or even tragedy, which also served to…

  • Flynt, Henry (American theorist and composer)

    conceptual art: …the American theorist and composer Henry Flynt and described in his essay “Concept Art” (1963). The term had international currency by 1967 when LeWitt published his influential “Sentences on Conceptual Art.” By the mid-1970s conceptual art had become a widely accepted approach in Western visual art. Despite the resurgence of…

  • Flyover Lives (memoir by Johnson)

    Diane Johnson: The memoir Flyover Lives was published in 2014.

  • flysch (rock)

    flysch, sequence of shales rhythmically interbedded with thin, hard, graywacke-like sandstones. The total thickness of such sequences is commonly many thousands of metres, but the individual beds are thin, only a few centimetres to a few metres thick. The presence of rare fossils indicates marine

  • flyting (Scottish verbal contest)

    flyting, (Scots: “quarreling,” or “contention”), poetic competition of the Scottish makaris (poets) of the 15th and 16th centuries, in which two highly skilled rivals engaged in a contest of verbal abuse, remarkable for its fierceness and extravagance. Although contestants attacked each other

  • Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedie (work by Dunbar and Kennedy)

    William Dunbar: …quite different vein, the alliterative Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedie is a virtuoso demonstration of personal abuse directed against his professional rival Walter Kennedy, who is, incidentally, mentioned with affection in The Lament for the Makaris, Dunbar’s reminiscence of dead poets. Dunbar’s most celebrated and shocking satire is the alliterative…

  • flyway (bird migration)

    flyway, route used regularly by migrating birds, bats, or butterflies. The large majority of such migrants move from northern breeding grounds to southern wintering grounds and back, and most of the well-used flyways follow north-south river valleys (e.g., the Mississippi River valley), coastlines

  • flywheel (machine component)

    flywheel, heavy wheel attached to a rotating shaft so as to smooth out delivery of power from a motor to a machine. The inertia of the flywheel opposes and moderates fluctuations in the speed of the engine and stores the excess energy for intermittent use. To oppose speed fluctuations effectively,

  • fm (unit of measurement)

    atom: Atomic model: …measuring nuclear sizes is the femtometre (fm), which equals 10−15 metre. The diameter of a nucleus depends on the number of particles it contains and ranges from about 4 fm for a light nucleus such as carbon to 15 fm for a heavy nucleus such as lead. In spite of…

  • FM (electronics)

    frequency modulation, (FM), variation of the frequency of a carrier wave in accordance with the characteristics of a signal. See

  • Fm (chemical element)

    fermium (Fm), synthetic chemical element of the actinoid series of the periodic table, atomic number 100. Fermium (as the isotope fermium-255) is produced by the intense neutron irradiation of uranium-238 and was first positively identified by American chemist Albert Ghiorso and coworkers at

  • FM cyclotron (physics)

    synchrocyclotron, improved form of cyclotron, a device that accelerates subatomic particles to high energies (see

  • FM synthesis (electronics)

    electronic instrument: The computer as a musical tool: …widely used synthesis algorithm is Frequency Modulation (FM) Synthesis. Described by John Chowning of Stanford University (Palo Alto, Calif., U.S.) in 1973, FM produces a wide variety of complex timbres by rapidly varying the frequency of one waveform in proportion to the amplitude of another waveform.

  • FMAP (modeling project)

    Census of Marine Life: Origins and oversight: …OBIS, was synthesized by the Future of Marine Animal Populations (FMAP) modeling project in an effort to forecast likely scenarios for delicate marine ecosystems.

  • FMD (animal disease)

    foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), a highly contagious viral disease affecting practically all cloven-footed domesticated mammals, including cattle, sheep, goats, and pigs. Wild herbivores such as bison, deer, antelopes, reindeer, and giraffes are also susceptible. The horse is resistant to the

  • FMLN (political party, El Salvador)

    Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), insurgent group that became a legal political party of El Salvador at the end of the country’s civil war in 1992. By the end of that decade, the FMLN had become one of the country’s prominent political parties. On October 10, 1980, the FMLN was

  • FMR1 (gene)

    epigenomics: Epigenomics in medicine: …of cytosines upstream of the FMR1 gene. In this instance, excess methylation of cytosines in the promoter region of the FMR1 gene leads to a silencing of gene expression, and it is this loss of FMR1 gene expression that results in fragile X syndrome.

  • fMRI (medicine)

    functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), neuroimaging technique used in biomedical research and in diagnosis that detects changes in blood flow in the brain. This technique compares brain activity under resting and activated conditions. It combines the high-spatial-resolution noninvasive

  • FMRP (protein)

    fragile-X syndrome: …of a protein known as FMRP (fragile-X mental retardation protein). FMRP plays an important role in the brain, facilitating the development and maturation of synapses (connections) between neurons. Synapses conduct electrical impulses and translate electrical signals to biochemical actions that are fundamental to cognition. It is believed that FMRP exerts…

  • FMS (technology)

    automation: Flexible manufacturing systems: A flexible manufacturing system (FMS) is a form of flexible automation in which several machine tools are linked together by a material-handling system, and all aspects of the system are controlled by a central computer. An FMS is distinguished from an automated…

  • FMT (medical procedure)

    autism: Diagnosis and treatment: …interest in this regard is microbiota transfer therapy. In clinical studies, the transfer of fecal bacteria from healthy individuals into the gastrointestinal tracts of persons with autism was associated with improvements in gastrointestinal health and behavioral symptoms in autism patients.

  • FMTC (pathology)

    multiple endocrine neoplasia: MEN2: …75 percent of affected families), familial medullary thyroid carcinoma (FMTC-only; accounting for 5 to 20 percent of affected families), and MEN2B (accounting for less than 5 percent of affected families).

  • FN (political party, France)

    National Rally, far right French political party founded in 1972 by François Duprat and François Brigneau. It is most commonly associated with Jean-Marie Le Pen, who was its leader from 1972 to 2011, and his daughter Marine Le Pen, who succeeded her father in 2011 and led the party until 2022.

  • FN MAG (weapon)

    MAG machine gun, general-purpose machine gun used primarily as a tank- or vehicle-mounted weapon, although it is also made with a butt and bipod for infantry use. Manufactured by Belgium’s Fabrique Nationale d’Armes de Guerre (FN), the MAG was adopted for use by the North Atlantic Treaty

  • FNDR (Madagascan political organization)

    Madagascar: The Second Republic: …the core of the broader National Front for the Defense of the Revolution (Front National pour la Défense de la Révolution; FNDR). Only parties admitted to this umbrella organization were allowed to participate in political activities.

  • FNL (rebel group, Burundi)

    Pierre Nkurunziza: Presidency: …also made overtures to the National Liberation Forces (Forces National de la Libération; FLN), the last Hutu rebel group remaining outside the peace process. His first attempt to renew the peace talks was rejected by the FLN in September 2005, but he brokered a tentative cease-fire with the group during…

  • FNLA (political party, Angola)

    Uíge: …between Portuguese forces and the National Front for the Liberation of Angola (Frente Nacional de Libertação de Angola; FNLA), one of three Angolan preindependence guerrilla movements. The fighting, which occurred primarily from 1961 to 1974, resulted in heightened instability in the city and surrounding area, as did the subsequent Angolan…

  • FNM (political party, The Bahamas)

    The Bahamas: Political process: …1950s and ’60s, and the Free National Movement (FNM; 1972), which grew out of the PLP.

  • FNMA (American corporation)

    Fannie Mae (FNMA), federally chartered private corporation created as a federal agency by the U.S. Congress in 1938 to ensure adequate liquidity in the mortgage market regardless of economic conditions. It is one of several government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) established since the early 20th

  • FNRS-2 (bathyscaphe)

    bathyscaphe: The first bathyscaphe, the FNRS 2, built in Belgium between 1946 and 1948, was damaged during 1948 trials in the Cape Verde Islands. Substantially rebuilt and greatly improved, the vessel was renamed FNRS 3 and carried out a series of descents under excellent conditions, including one of 4,000 metres…

  • FNRS-3 (bathyscaphe)

    bathyscaphe: …improved, the vessel was renamed FNRS 3 and carried out a series of descents under excellent conditions, including one of 4,000 metres (13,000 feet) into the Atlantic off Dakar, Senegal, on February 15, 1954. A second improved bathyscaphe, the Trieste, was launched on August 1, 1953, and dived to 3,150…

  • FNT (military organization, Chad)

    Chad: Civil war: …of Al-Kufrah, while the smaller Chad National Front (FNT) operated in the east-central region. Both groups aimed at the overthrow of the existing government, the reduction of French influence in Chad, and closer association with the Arab states of North Africa. Heavy fighting occurred in 1969 and 1970, and French…

  • FNWS (Nigerian organization)

    Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti: …school, she helped organize the Abeokuta Ladies Club (ALC), initially a civic and charitable group of mostly Western-educated Christian women. The organization gradually became more political and feminist in its orientation, and in 1944 it formally admitted market women (women vendors in Abeokuta’s open-air markets), who were generally impoverished, illiterate,…

  • FO (labor organization, France)

    Léon Jouhaux: …and established in 1948 the Force Ouvrière (“Workers’ Force”), which stood between the communists and Roman Catholic labour organizations. In 1949 he helped to found the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, and in 1951 he received the Nobel Peace Prize.

  • Fo, Dario (Italian author and actor)

    Dario Fo was an Italian avant-garde playwright, manager-director, and actor-mime who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1997 though he often faced government censure as a theatrical caricaturist with a flair for social agitation. Fo’s first theatrical experience was collaborating on

  • Fo-shan (China)

    Foshan, city, central Guangdong sheng (province), China. It is situated in the Pearl (Zhu) River Delta 10 miles (16 km) southwest of Guangzhou (Canton), on a spur of the Guangzhou-Sanshui railway. From the time of the Qin dynasty (221–207 bce) to that of the Southern Dynasties (Nanchao) period

  • Fo-shan Chih-liu (river, China)

    Xi River system: Land: …while a lesser branch, the Foshan, flows eastward into the delta itself. The Dong flows from the east and enters the delta’s main channel, the Pearl River, just below Guangzhou (Canton). The Pearl River itself begins just below Guangzhou; Hong Kong is to the east and Macau to the west…

  • foal (horse)

    livestock farming: Feeding: Weanling foals require three pounds of feed per hundred pounds of live weight per day; as they approach maturity, this requirement drops to one pound of feed per hundred pounds of live weight daily. Horses normally reach mature weight at less than four years of age…

  • Foale, Michael (British-born American astronaut)

    Tim Peake: …official British spacewalker; the British-born Michael Foale had walked in space in 1995 but as a NASA astronaut. Peake returned to Earth on June 18, 2016, shortly after becoming the first British subject to be honoured by the queen—as Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George—while in…

  • foam (chemical compound)

    foam, in physical chemistry, a colloidal system (i.e., a dispersion of particles in a continuous medium) in which the particles are gas bubbles and the medium is a liquid. The term also is applied to material in a lightweight cellular spongy or rigid form. Liquid foams are sometimes made relatively

  • foam fractionation (chemistry)

    separation and purification: Foam fractionation and flotation: There are a few methods that employ foams to achieve separations. In these, the principle of separation is adsorption on gas bubbles or at the gas-liquid interface. Two of these methods are foam fractionation, for the separation of molecular species, and…

  • foam glass (chemical compound)

    foam glass, lightweight, opaque glass material having a closed-cell structure. It is made in molds that are packed with crushed or granulated glass mixed with a chemical agent such as carbon or limestone. At the temperature at which the glass grains become soft enough to cohere, the agent gives off

  • foam rubber (chemical compound)

    foam rubber, flexible, porous substance made from a natural or synthetic latex compounded with various ingredients and whipped into a froth. The resulting product contains roughly 85 percent air and 15 percent rubber and can be molded and vulcanized. Its uses include padding for furniture,

  • foam stabilizer (chemical compound)

    foam: Liquid foams are sometimes made relatively long-lasting—e.g., for fire fighting—by adding some substance, called a stabilizer, that prevents or retards the coalescence of the gas bubbles. Of the great variety of substances that act as foam stabilizers, the best known are soaps, detergents, and proteins. Proteins,…

  • foamed plastic

    foamed plastic, synthetic resin converted into a spongelike mass with a closed-cell or open-cell structure, either of which may be flexible or rigid, used for a variety of products including cushioning materials, air filters, furniture, toys, thermal insulation, sponges, plastic boats, panels for

  • foamed thermoplastic (thermoplastic)

    plastic: Foamed thermoplastics: Polystyrene pellets can be impregnated with isopentane at room temperature and modest pressure. When the pellets are heated, they can be made to fuse together at the same time that the isopentane evaporates, foaming the polystyrene and cooling the assembly at the same…

  • foamed thermoset (plastic)

    plastic: Foamed thermosets: The rapid reaction of isocyanates with hydroxyl-bearing prepolymers to make polyurethanes is mentioned above in Reaction injection molding. These materials also can be foamed by incorporating a volatile liquid, which evaporates under the heat of reaction and foams the reactive mixture to a…

  • foaming agent

    food additive: Processing agents: The formation and stabilization of foam in a food product occurs by a similar mechanism, except that the oil phase is replaced by a gas phase. The compounds also act to inhibit the formation of ice or sugar crystals in foods and can be used to encapsulate flavor compounds.

  • FOB (finance)

    international payment and exchange: The current account: … valued on an FOB (free on board) basis and imports valued on a CIF basis (including cost, insurance, and freight to the point of destination). This swells the import figures relative to the export figures by the amount of the insurance and freight included. The reason for this practice…

  • FOB (play by Hwang)

    David Henry Hwang: …1979), where his first play, FOB (an acronym for “fresh off the boat”), was first produced in 1979 (published 1983). The work, which examines the immigrant experience from an Asian American perspective, won an Obie Award in 1980–81 for best new American play. Between graduating from college and winning the…

  • FOBS (missile)

    rocket and missile system: Multiple warheads: …reentry vehicles (MRVs), and the Fractional Orbital Bombardment System (FOBS). The Soviets introduced both of these capabilities with the SS-9 Scarp, the first “heavy” missile, beginning in 1967. FOBS was based on a low-trajectory launch that would be fired in the opposite direction from the target and would achieve only…

  • Foca (Turkey)

    Phocaea, ancient Ionian city on the northern promontory of the Gulf of Smyrna, Anatolia (now the Gulf of İzmir, Turkey). It was the mother city of several Greek colonies. The Phocaeans arrived in Anatolia perhaps as late as the 10th century bce and, lacking arable land, established colonies in the

  • focaccia (food)

    focaccia, traditional Italian bread with many variations. A precursor of pizza, focaccia is one of Italy’s most ancient breads. It is thought to have originated with the Etruscans. The earliest focaccia were unleavened flatbreads made from flour, water, and salt. This simple composition meant they

  • focal area (dialects)

    dialect: Focal, relic, and transitional areas: Dialectologists often distinguish between focal areas, which provide sources of numerous important innovations and usually coincide with centres of lively economic or cultural activity, and relic areas, places toward which such innovations are spreading but have not usually arrived. (Relic…

  • focal attention (psychology)

    attention: Memory and habituation: …attention can be characterized as focal and automatic. Someone who is focally attentive is highly aware, consciously in control, and selective in handling sensory phenomena. A person in such a state also uses the brain for short-term storage. (Indeed, some focal attention is almost certainly necessary for storing information in…

  • focal distance (optics)

    photoreception: Diversity of eyes: …lens surface, which shortens its focal length (the distance from the retina to the centre of the lens). One of the most interesting examples of amphibious optics occurs in the “four-eyed fish” of the genus Anableps, which cruises the surface meniscus with the upper part of the eye looking into…

  • focal dystonia (pathology)

    dystonia: …the extent of muscle involvement: focal, affecting only one muscle group, such as the vocal cords (e.g., spastic dysphonia); segmental, involving two adjacent muscle groups, such as the neck muscles (e.g., spastic torticollis); or general, affecting the entire body.

  • focal length (optics)

    photoreception: Diversity of eyes: …lens surface, which shortens its focal length (the distance from the retina to the centre of the lens). One of the most interesting examples of amphibious optics occurs in the “four-eyed fish” of the genus Anableps, which cruises the surface meniscus with the upper part of the eye looking into…

  • focal point (optics)

    lens: Optical principles for lenses: This point is called the focal point, or principal focus, of the lens (often depicted in ray diagrams as F). Refraction of the rays of light reflected from or emitted by an object causes the rays to form a visual image of the object. This image may be either real—photographable…

  • focal ratio (optics)

    relative aperture, the measure of the light-gathering power of an optical system. It is expressed in different ways according to the instrument involved. The relative aperture for a microscope is called the numerical aperture (NA) and is equal to the sine of half the angle subtended by the aperture

  • focal seizure (pathology)

    epilepsy: Partial-onset seizures: A partial seizure originates in a specific area of the brain. Partial seizures consist of abnormal sensations or movements, and a lapse of consciousness may occur. Epileptic individuals with partial seizures may experience unusual sensations called auras that precede the onset of a…

  • focal-plane shutter (photography)

    shutter: The focal-plane shutter, located directly in front of the image plane, consists of a pair of overlapping blinds that form an adjustable slit or window; driven mechanically by spring or electronically, the slit moves across the film in one direction, exposing the entire frame in its…

  • Focas, Antonio de Curtis Gagliardi Griffo (Italian actor)

    Totò was an Italian comic, most popular for his film characterization of an unsmiling but sympathetic bourgeois figure, likened by international film critics to the American film comic Buster Keaton. Totò was born to a family of impoverished Italian nobility. He served in the military during World

  • Foch, Ferdinand (marshal of France)

    Ferdinand Foch was a marshal of France and commander of Allied forces during the closing months of World War I, generally considered the leader most responsible for the Allied victory. Foch was the son of a civil servant. His family had originally lived in Valentine, a village in the Comminges area

  • Foch, Nina (American actress and teacher)

    Lewis Allen: …lawyer defending a woman (Nina Foch) accused of murder. In 1958 Allen helmed Another Time, Another Place, in which Lana Turner was cast as a woman suffering a nervous breakdown when her lover (Sean Connery) is killed during World War II. Allen’s last movies were Whirlpool (1959), a British…

  • foci (conic section)

    ellipse: …from a fixed point (the focus) and a fixed straight line (the directrix) is a constant less than one. Any such path has this same property with respect to a second fixed point and a second fixed line, and ellipses often are regarded as having two foci and two directrixes.…

  • Fock, Nina Consuelo Maud (American actress and teacher)

    Lewis Allen: …lawyer defending a woman (Nina Foch) accused of murder. In 1958 Allen helmed Another Time, Another Place, in which Lana Turner was cast as a woman suffering a nervous breakdown when her lover (Sean Connery) is killed during World War II. Allen’s last movies were Whirlpool (1959), a British…

  • Fock, Vladimir Aleksandrovich (Russian mathematical physicist)

    Vladimir Aleksandrovich Fock was a Russian mathematical physicist who made seminal contributions to quantum mechanics and the general theory of relativity. Fock became progressively deaf at a young age because of injuries sustained during military service in World War I. In 1922 he graduated from

  • Focke-Wulf 190 (German aircraft)

    Fw 190, German fighter aircraft that was second in importance only to the Bf 109 during World War II. A low-wing monoplane powered by a BMW air-cooled radial engine, it was ordered by the Luftwaffe in 1937 as a hedge against shortages of the liquid-cooled Daimler-Benz DB601 engine, which powered

  • Focke-Wulf 190A-2 (German aircraft)

    Fw 190: The Fw 190A-2, the first mass-produced version, had a top speed of about 410 miles (660 km) per hour and a ceiling of 35,000 feet (10,600 metres). The fighter’s heavy cannon armament made it a potent bomber destroyer, and it played a major role in turning…

  • Focke-Wulf 190D (German aircraft)

    Fw 190: The result was the Fw 190D, which entered service in the winter of 1943–44 with a top speed of about 440 miles (710 km) per hour and an armament of two cowling-mounted machine guns and a pair of 20-mm cannons in the wing roots. In principle, the Fw 190D…

  • Focke-Wulf 190F (German aircraft)

    Fw 190: In the meantime, the Fw 190F and G had become the Luftwaffe’s standard fighter-bomber for ground attack. Though used in small numbers by Allied standards, the planes were effective in this role. Both ground-attack variants had additional armour protection, and the G version also could carry a single 4,000-pound…

  • foco theory (political doctrine)

    Che Guevara: The Cuban Revolution: …included Guevara’s delineation of his foco theory (foquismo), a doctrine of revolution in Latin America drawn from the experience of the Cuban Revolution and predicated on three main tenets: 1) guerrilla forces are capable of defeating the army; 2) all the conditions for making a revolution do not have to…

  • Focşani (Romania)

    Focşani, city, capital of Vrancea judeƫ (county), east-central Romania. The city lies 100 miles (160 km) north-northeast of Bucharest. It is situated on the Milcov River, which was once the boundary between Moldavia and Walachia. In the city is a monument marking the old frontier. Focşani is the

  • focus (seismology)

    earthquake: Principal types of seismic waves: …the Earth, is called the focus, or hypocentre. The point at the surface immediately above the focus is known as the epicentre.

  • Focus (album by Getz)

    Stan Getz: …arranger Eddie Sauter to record Focus, an album that many regard as Getz’s masterpiece. He worked with guitarist Charlie Byrd on the album that ushered in the bossa nova era, Jazz Samba (1962), which included their hit recording of “Desafinado.” Getz became further associated with bossa nova through his subsequent…

  • Focus (film by Ficarra and Requa [2015])

    Margot Robbie: …Smith in the caper movie Focus. However, that year she gained the most notice for her uncredited appearance inAdam McKay’s The Big Short, in which she explained subprime loans while taking a bubble bath. In 2016 Robbie played a British TV reporter in Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, set during the Afghanistan…

  • focus (conic section)

    ellipse: …from a fixed point (the focus) and a fixed straight line (the directrix) is a constant less than one. Any such path has this same property with respect to a second fixed point and a second fixed line, and ellipses often are regarded as having two foci and two directrixes.…

  • focus (optics)

    lens: Optical principles for lenses: This point is called the focal point, or principal focus, of the lens (often depicted in ray diagrams as F). Refraction of the rays of light reflected from or emitted by an object causes the rays to form a visual image of the object. This image may be either real—photographable…

  • focus group (research)

    focus group, gathering of a small number of individuals who share common interests in specific issues or events and who are asked to take part in an interactive discussion. Focus groups typically are used to understand how people with common interests feel and think about an issue, a product, a

  • Focus on the Family (American organization)

    Focus on the Family, American Christian ministry devoted to promoting conservative political and religious principles through a variety of media outlets. Headquarters are in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The ministry seeks to “spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ through a practical outreach to homes”

  • focus, depth of (optics)

    optics: Longitudinal magnification: …large, which explains why the depth of field (δp) of a microscope is extremely small. On the other hand, if m is small, less than one as in a camera, then m is very small, and all objects within a considerable range of distances (δp) appear substantially in focus.

  • focusing (optics)

    focusing, ability of the lens to alter its shape to allow objects to be seen clearly. In humans, the forward surface of the lens is made more convex for seeing objects up close. At the same time, the pupil becomes smaller, and the two eyes turn inward (i.e., cross or converge) to the point that

  • focusing (particle physics)

    particle accelerator: Classical cyclotrons: Some means of focusing is required; otherwise, a particle that starts out in a direction making a small angle with the orbital plane will spiral into the dees and be lost. While the energy of the particle is still low, this focusing is supplied by the accelerating electric…

  • focusing collector (technology)

    solar energy: Electricity generation: Concentrated solar power plants employ concentrating, or focusing, collectors to concentrate sunlight received from a wide area onto a small blackened receiver, thereby considerably increasing the light’s intensity in order to produce high temperatures. The arrays of carefully aligned mirrors or lenses can focus enough sunlight to heat a target…

  • focusing screen (optics)

    technology of photography: Methods of focusing and framing: The ground-glass (now mostly grained plastic) screen is the most direct way of viewing the image for framing and for sharpness control. The screen localizes the image plane for observation. The image is also visible without a screen, but then the eye…

  • focusing spectroscope (instrument)

    mass spectrometry: Focusing spectroscopes: The spectroscopes discussed so far are analogous to the pinhole camera in optics, because no focusing of the ion beams is involved. The introduction of focusing types of mass spectroscopes came in the years 1918–19 and was due to the British chemist and…

  • focussing (optics)

    focusing, ability of the lens to alter its shape to allow objects to be seen clearly. In humans, the forward surface of the lens is made more convex for seeing objects up close. At the same time, the pupil becomes smaller, and the two eyes turn inward (i.e., cross or converge) to the point that

  • Fodor, Eugene (American writer)

    Eugene Fodor was a Hungarian-born American travel writer who created a series of popular tourist guidebooks that provided entertaining reading, historical background, and cultural insights into the people and places described, as well as reliable, practical information designed to assist even the

  • Fodor, Jerry A. (American philosopher)

    philosophy of mind: The computational-representational theory of thought (CRTT): …Putnam, Gilbert Harman, and especially Jerry Fodor. Fodor was the most explicit and influential advocate of the computational-representational theory of thought, or CRTT—the idea that thinking consists of the manipulation of electronic tokens of sentences in a “language of thought.” Whatever the ultimate merits or difficulties of this view, Fodor…

  • Fodrejse fra Holmens Kanal til Østpynten af Amager i aarene 1828 og 1829 (work by Andersen)

    Hans Christian Andersen: …his first important literary work, Fodrejse fra Holmens Kanal til Østpynten af Amager i aarene 1828 og 1829 (1829; “A Walk from Holmen’s Canal to the East Point of the Island of Amager in the Years 1828 and 1829”), a fantastic tale in the style of the German Romantic writer…

  • fodrum (tax)

    Frederick I: Attempt to regain imperial rights: A tax called the fodrum was levied on all the inhabitants of imperial Italy; in return the Italian nobles and communes were excused from service in Frederick’s armies and were guaranteed his protection. A portion of the Italian money went to the German princes; this enabled Frederick to win…

  • Foe (novel by Coetzee)

    J.M. Coetzee: …colonizer and the colonized in Foe (1986), his reworking of Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe. Coetzee’s female narrator comes to new conclusions about power and otherness and ultimately concludes that language can enslave as effectively as can chains. In Age of Iron (1990) Coetzee dealt directly with circumstances in contemporary South…