• Meaning of Evolution, The (work by Simpson)

    George Gaylord Simpson: …appeared in book form as The Meaning of Evolution in 1949, he discussed the philosophical implications of the acceptance of evolutionary theory, which attracted worldwide attention. In the postwar period there was a renewed study of evolutionary theory by geneticists, systematists, and paleontologists. Simpson took a major part in such…

  • Meaning of Geneva, The (photomontage by Heartfield)

    John Heartfield: …pit of his stomach; and The Meaning of Geneva, depicting a dove speared by a bayonet in front of the League of Nations headquarters, which is flying a Swiss flag whose cross has morphed into a swastika. The former image was so powerful that it was produced as a political…

  • Meaning of Human Existence, The (work by Wilson)

    E.O. Wilson: …deterministic beliefs about behaviour in The Meaning of Human Existence (2014). Situating the human species on an evolutionary continuum, he contended that humanity had spent most of its history in ignorance of the biological factors that drove the formation of society and culture. Though science had latterly established the origins…

  • Meaning of Life (album by Clarkson)

    Kelly Clarkson: …into soul and R&B with Meaning of Life (2017), her eighth studio album and first released by Atlantic Records. When Christmas Comes Around… appeared in 2021 and was accompanied by a TV special.

  • Meaning of Love, The (work by Solovyov)

    Vladimir Sergeyevich Solovyov: …a theory expressed in his The Meaning of Love (1894).

  • Meaning of Meaning, The (work by Ogden and Richards)

    literature: Ambiguity: Richards’ The Meaning of Meaning (1923), a work of enormous importance in its time. Only a generation later, however, their ideas were somewhat at a discount. However, ambiguity remained a principal shaping tool for the writer and a primary focus in literary criticism.

  • Meaning of Religion (work by Kristensen)

    classification of religions: Phenomenological: …table of contents of his Meaning of Religion in which he divides his presentation of material into discussions of (1) cosmology, which includes worship of nature in the form of sky and earth deities, animal worship, totemism, and animism, (2) anthropology, made up of a variety of considerations on human…

  • Meaning of Treason, The (work by West)

    Rebecca West: Published as The Meaning of Treason (1949; rev. ed., 1965), it examined not only the traitor’s role in modern society but also the roles of the intellectual and the scientist. Later she published a similar collection, The New Meaning of Treason (1964). Her brilliant reports on the…

  • Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property, Convention on the (United Nations)

    illicit antiquities: International responses: …Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property. By the early 21st century it had been ratified by nearly 80 countries. The second convention was the 1995 UNIDROIT (International Institute for the Unification of…

  • means test (social welfare)

    means test, requirement that applicants for public assistance submit to investigation of their needs and resources. The means test originated as a method of limiting the payment of public assistance to those truly in need in order to reduce the cost of such programs to taxpayers. Because of its

  • Means, Gardiner (American economist)

    corporate governance: Shareholder governance: …the 1930s Adolf Berle and Gardiner Means, the authors of the influential book The Modern Corporation and Private Property, argued that the nature of the rights that shareholders enjoyed changed importantly during the early stages of the 20th century. In particular, during the 19th century those who supplied financial capital…

  • Means, Gaston (American confidence man)

    Gaston Means was an American confidence man notable for attaining close proximity to the highest echelons of government and leveraging the information afforded him by his position. Means was born into a family of seven children; his father was a lawyer and mayor of Concord who later became a state

  • Means, Gaston Bullock (American confidence man)

    Gaston Means was an American confidence man notable for attaining close proximity to the highest echelons of government and leveraging the information afforded him by his position. Means was born into a family of seven children; his father was a lawyer and mayor of Concord who later became a state

  • Means, Russell (Oglala Sioux activist)

    Russell Means was a Native American rights activist of Oglala Lakota Sioux descent. Means drew national attention to the mistreatment of Native peoples. His bold and theatrical protests made him one of the most famous American Indians of the 20th century. Means was the eldest of four brothers. When

  • means-ends analysis (problem solving)

    means-ends analysis, heuristic, or trial-and-error, problem-solving strategy in which an end goal is identified and then fulfilled via the generation of subgoals and action plans that help overcome obstacles encountered along the way. Solving a problem with means-ends analysis typically begins by

  • meantone temperament (music)

    meantone temperament, system of tuning keyboard instruments, most prevalent from the early 16th century through the 18th century. Meantone temperament was oriented around major thirds (a musical interval, such as C–E, covering four semitones). Keyboards were tuned so that the major third would be

  • Meany, George (American labor leader)

    George Meany was a U.S. labour leader, president of the American Federation of Labor–Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) from the time the two unions merged in 1955 until 1979, when he retired. A plumber’s son and a plumber himself by trade, Meany joined the United Association of

  • Meara, Anne (American actress and comedian)

    Ben Stiller: …son of Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara, who for many years were a celebrated comedy team. While growing up, he occasionally appeared on television with his parents and made his own amateur Super-8 films, which often parodied blockbusters of the time. In 1983 Stiller enrolled at the University of California,…

  • Meare (England, United Kingdom)

    Glastonbury: …famous groups of mounds at Meare, 3.75 miles (6 km) northwest of Glastonbury, were excavated early in the 20th century. At the time of habitation the dwellings stood on low-lying ground of peat bogs and watercourses. The types of pottery found indicate occupation from about 60 bce until about the…

  • Meares, Anna (Australian cyclist)

    Anna Meares is a former Australian cyclist who competed in sprint track races in the early 21st century. She won medals at four consecutive Olympic Games (2004, 2008, 2012, and 2016), becoming the first Australian athlete to accomplish that feat. By the end of her career in 2016 Meares had earned 6

  • Meares, Anna Maree Devenish (Australian cyclist)

    Anna Meares is a former Australian cyclist who competed in sprint track races in the early 21st century. She won medals at four consecutive Olympic Games (2004, 2008, 2012, and 2016), becoming the first Australian athlete to accomplish that feat. By the end of her career in 2016 Meares had earned 6

  • Meares, John (British captain)

    Nootka Sound controversy: …trading vessels owned by Captain John Meares and his associates. In April 1790, Meares appealed to the British government for redress, and a major dispute quickly developed with Spain. The Spaniards claimed possession of the whole northwestern coast of America on the basis of a papal grant of 1493, confirmed…

  • Mearns’ grasshopper mouse (rodent)

    grasshopper mouse: Mearns’ grasshopper mouse (O. arenicola) ranges from the southwestern United States to central Mexico. The last two species prefer warm, very arid, scrubby desert habitats. All are stout bodied, weighing up to 49 grams (1.7 ounces) and having a body length up to 13 cm…

  • Mearns, the (former county, Scotland, United Kingdom)

    Kincardineshire, historic county in northeastern Scotland, along the North Sea coast south of Aberdeen. It is part of the Aberdeenshire council area. Kincardine is the southernmost of the historic counties of northeastern Scotland. In ancient times it marked the northern limit of the brief Roman

  • Mears, Helen Farnsworth (American sculptor)

    Helen Farnsworth Mears was an American sculptor best remembered for her large-scale public commissions in bronze and bas-relief. Mears attended Oshkosh State Normal School (now a branch of the University of Wisconsin). In 1892 she was commissioned to sculpt a design of a woman and winged eagle,

  • Mearsheimer, John J. (American scholar)

    John J. Mearsheimer is a prominent American scholar of international relations best known for his theory of offensive realism. After graduating from the United States Military Academy (West Point) in 1970, Mearsheimer served for five years as an officer in the air force, rising to the rank of

  • Mearsheimer, John Joseph (American scholar)

    John J. Mearsheimer is a prominent American scholar of international relations best known for his theory of offensive realism. After graduating from the United States Military Academy (West Point) in 1970, Mearsheimer served for five years as an officer in the air force, rising to the rank of

  • measles (disease)

    measles, contagious viral disease marked by fever, cough, conjunctivitis, and a characteristic rash. Measles is most common in children but may appear in older persons who escaped it earlier in life. Infants are immune up to four or five months of age if the mother has had the disease. Immunity to

  • measles flounder (fish family)

    pleuronectiform: Annotated classification: Family Paralichthodidae (measles flounders) One species, Paralichthodes algoensis, from Southern Africa. Family Rhombosoleidae (rhombosoleids) 9 genera, 19 species. Family Poecilopsettidae (bigeye flounders) 3 genera, 20 species Family

  • measles-mumps-rubella vaccine (medicine)

    MMR vaccine, suspension containing live, weakened versions of the viruses that cause three diseases: mumps, measles, and rubella. The MMR vaccine was first developed in 1971 by American microbiologist Maurice Hilleman. Hilleman produced the vaccine by combining three preexisting agents. Indeed, the

  • measure (mathematics)

    measure, in mathematics, generalization of the concepts of length and area to arbitrary sets of points not composed of intervals or rectangles. Abstractly, a measure is any rule for associating with a set a number that retains the ordinary measurement properties of always being nonnegative and such

  • measure (music)

    rhythm: Time: …beats fall into natural time measures. Although in European music the concept of time measures reaches back to a remote age, only since the 15th century have they been indicated by means of bar lines. Thus, the terms measure and bar are often used interchangeably.

  • Measure for Measure (work by Shakespeare)

    Measure for Measure, a “dark” comedy in five acts by William Shakespeare, written about 1603–04 and published in the First Folio of 1623 from a transcript of an authorial draft. The play examines the complex interplay of mercy and justice. Shakespeare adapted the story from Epitia, a tragedy by

  • measure of association (statistics)

    measure of association, in statistics, any of various factors or coefficients used to quantify a relationship between two or more variables. Measures of association are used in various fields of research but are especially common in the areas of epidemiology and psychology, where they frequently

  • Measure of Man, The (work by Dreyfuss)

    Henry Dreyfuss: ” His book The Measure of Man (1960, rev. ed. 1967) contains extensive data on the human body and its movements. His approach to industrial design is described in his book Designing for People (1955, 2nd ed. 1967). He was an important early theorist in the field of…

  • measure theory (mathematics)

    analysis: Measure theory: A rigorous basis for the new discipline of analysis was achieved in the 19th century, in particular by the German mathematician Karl Weierstrass. Modern analysis, however, differs from that of Weierstrass’s time in many ways, and the most obvious is the level of…

  • measured music (music)

    mensural notation, European system of musical notation used from c. 1260 to 1600. It evolved as a method to notate complex rhythms beyond the possibilities of previous notation (neumes) and reached its classical development after 1450. A major step forward was made by Philippe de Vitry in his

  • measurement

    measurement, the process of associating numbers with physical quantities and phenomena. Measurement is fundamental to the sciences; to engineering, construction, and other technical fields; and to almost all everyday activities. For that reason the elements, conditions, limitations, and theoretical

  • Measurement of Intelligence, The (book by Terman)

    Lewis Terman: …1916, the year he published The Measurement of Intelligence, a guide for his Stanford revision and enlargement of the earlier Binet-Simon intelligence scale developed in France. Scoring on the test was signified by the intelligence quotient, or IQ, which takes account of both chronological age and mental age so that…

  • Measurement of the Circle (work by Archimedes)

    Archimedes: His works: Measurement of the Circle is a fragment of a longer work in which π (pi), the ratio of the circumference to the diameter of a circle, is shown to lie between the limits of 3 10 71 and 3 1 7 . Archimedes’ approach to…

  • measurement scale (statistical analysis)

    measurement scale, in statistical analysis, the type of information provided by numbers. Each of the four scales (i.e., nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio) provides a different type of information. Measurement refers to the assignment of numbers in a meaningful way, and understanding measurement

  • measurement system

    measurement system, any of the systems used in the process of associating numbers with physical quantities and phenomena. Although the concept of weights and measures today includes such factors as temperature, luminosity, pressure, and electric current, it once consisted of only four basic

  • measurement theory

    Percy Williams Bridgman: …and mental, involved in their measurement. Since all measurements are relative to the frame of reference of the observer, concepts are also relative; length, for example, is a different concept when measured terrestrially than when measured astronomically. Bridgman asserted that it is meaningless to interpret physical concepts except insofar as…

  • measuring instrument

    measurement, the process of associating numbers with physical quantities and phenomena. Measurement is fundamental to the sciences; to engineering, construction, and other technical fields; and to almost all everyday activities. For that reason the elements, conditions, limitations, and theoretical

  • Measuring options risk: Delta, gamma, theta, and vega (and rho)

    When you’re first starting your options journey, you’re taught to look at the so-called risk profile at expiration. Whether you’re buying or selling a put or call option (or option spread), the risk graphs tell you your breakeven price—and whether there are limits to your profit and/or loss, and

  • Measuring the Earth, Classical and Arabic

    In addition to the attempts of Eratosthenes of Cyrene (c. 276–c. 194 bc) to measure the Earth, two other early attempts had a lasting historical impact, since they provided values that Christopher Columbus (1451–1506) exploited in selling his project to reach Asia by traveling west from Europe. One

  • Measuring the Earth, Modernized

    The fitting of lenses to surveying instruments in the 1660s greatly improved the accuracy of the Greek method of measuring the Earth, and this soon became the preferred technique. In its modern form, the method requires the following elements: two stations on the same meridian of longitude, which

  • measuring worm (larva)

    measuring worm, (family Geometridae), the larva of any of a large group of moths in the order Lepidoptera. Because the larva lacks the middle pair of legs, it moves in a characteristic “inching,” or “looping,” gait by extending the front part of the body and bringing the rear up to meet it. The

  • measuring worm moth (insect)

    geometrid moth, (family Geometridae), any member of a group of moths (order Lepidoptera) that includes the species commonly known as pug, wave, emerald, and carpet moths. The larvae of geometrid moths are called by a variety of common names, including inchworm, cankerworm, looper, and measuring

  • meat (food)

    meat, the flesh or other edible parts of animals (usually domesticated cattle, swine, and sheep) used for food, including not only the muscles and fat but also the tendons and ligaments. Meat is valued as a complete protein food containing all the amino acids necessary for the human body. The fat

  • Meat (work by Piñera)

    Virgilio Piñera: …main character in “Carne” (“Meat”) who progressively eats himself to avoid starvation.

  • meat grain (meat)

    meat processing: Tenderness: …number of factors including the grain of the meat, the amount of connective tissue, and the amount of fat.

  • Meat Inspection Act of 1906 (United States [1906])

    Meat Inspection Act of 1906, U.S. legislation, signed by Pres. Theodore Roosevelt on June 30, 1906, that prohibited the sale of adulterated or misbranded livestock and derived products as food and ensured that livestock were slaughtered and processed under sanitary conditions. The law reformed the

  • Meat Is Murder (album by the Smiths)

    the Smiths: …in 1984), the Smiths released Meat Is Murder (1985), an uneven album ranging from the ponderous title track’s vegan rage to the poignant “Well I Wonder.” The group’s marked shift from the personal to the political, combined with Morrissey’s carefully fashioned outsider image, made the Smiths into champions for those…

  • Meat Joy (work by Schneemann)

    Carolee Schneemann: …what became her best-known work, Meat Joy, in Paris at the Festival of Free Expression. When Meat Joy begins, the audience sees four men and four women—interacting in what seems to be a normal social gathering—being served food by a waitress. A sort of food fight is initiated by the…

  • meat packing

    meat processing, preparation of meat for human consumption. Meat is the common term used to describe the edible portion of animal tissues and any processed or manufactured products prepared from these tissues. Meats are often classified by the type of animal from which they are taken. Red meat

  • meat processing

    meat processing, preparation of meat for human consumption. Meat is the common term used to describe the edible portion of animal tissues and any processed or manufactured products prepared from these tissues. Meats are often classified by the type of animal from which they are taken. Red meat

  • Meat Puppets (American rock band)

    Black Flag: …hardcore acts the Minutemen, the Meat Puppets, and Hüsker Dü. After settling on Rollins as its vocalist, Black Flag released Damaged (1981), its first full-length album. Later recordings flirted with heavy metal, and the band also provided musical accompaniment to Rollins’s poetry before breaking up in 1986.

  • meat-bone separator (food processing)

    poultry processing: Deboning and grinding: …through a machine called a mechanical deboner or a meat-bone separator. In general, the crushed meat and bones are continuously pressed against a screen and the edible, soft materials pushed through the screen. The resulting minced product is similar in texture to ground beef and has been used for many…

  • Meatballs (film by Reitman [1979])

    Bill Murray: …string of commercial hits, including Meatballs (1979), Caddyshack (1980), and Stripes (1981). In 1984 Murray starred with Aykroyd and Harold Ramis in Ghostbusters, which became one of the highest-grossing films of the decade.

  • Meath (county, Ireland)

    Meath, county in the province of Leinster, northeastern Ireland. It is bounded by Counties Monaghan (north), Louth (northeast), Fingal (southeast), Kildare (south), Offaly (southwest), Westmeath (west), and Cavan (northwest); the Irish Sea lies on the east coast. Navan, in central Meath, is the

  • Meath, Hugh de Lacy, 1st Lord of (Anglo-Norman justiciar)

    Hugh de Lacy, 1st lord of Meath was one of the Anglo-Norman justiciars of Ireland who went to Ireland with England’s King Henry II in 1171. He became the first lord of Meath. Hugh de Lacy was granted (c. March 1172) the lordship of Meath for the service of 50 knights and was left as constable of

  • Meath, Kingdom of (ancient kingdom, Ireland)

    Ulster: …from the midland kingdom of Meath (Midhe, or Mide) led to Ulster’s disintegration in the 4th and 5th centuries. The province subsequently split into three kingdoms: Oriel, or Airgialla (in central Ulster), Aileach (in western Ulster), and the smaller kingdom of Ulaid (in eastern Ulster).

  • meatpacking

    meat processing, preparation of meat for human consumption. Meat is the common term used to describe the edible portion of animal tissues and any processed or manufactured products prepared from these tissues. Meats are often classified by the type of animal from which they are taken. Red meat

  • meatus, external acoustic (anatomy)

    external auditory canal, passageway that leads from the outside of the head to the tympanic membrane, or eardrum membrane, of each ear. The structure of the external auditory canal is the same in all mammals. In appearance it is a slightly curved tube that extends inward from the floor of the

  • meatus, external auditory (anatomy)

    external auditory canal, passageway that leads from the outside of the head to the tympanic membrane, or eardrum membrane, of each ear. The structure of the external auditory canal is the same in all mammals. In appearance it is a slightly curved tube that extends inward from the floor of the

  • Meatyard, Ralph Eugene (American photographer and optician)

    Ralph Eugene Meatyard was an American photographer and optician known for his photographs in which family members and friends appear wearing grotesque masks. Meatyard served in the U.S. Navy during World War II and then, on the navy’s V-12 program, attended Williams College but did not earn a

  • Meaux (France)

    Meaux, town, Seine-et-Marne département, Île-de-France région, northern France, east-northeast of Paris. Situated in a loop of the Marne River in an intensively cultivated region, it has been an agricultural market centre since medieval times. The most outstanding building, Saint-Étienne Cathedral

  • Meaux group (French evangelists)

    Guillaume Briçonnet: …was the leader of the Meaux group of evangelicals, which included Jacques Lefèvre d’Étaples, Gérard Roussel, Guillaume Farel, Jodocus Clichtove, François Vatable, and Martial Mazurier. The group combined humanism with a return to the study of the Bible and, especially, of St. Paul’s letters as the primary source of Christian…

  • Meaux, Treaty of (France [1229])

    Raymond VII: …Raymond eventually was compelled (Treaty of Meaux, 1229) to cede territory to France and to permit the crusade against the Cathari to continue in Languedoc. His daughter Joan was to marry Alphonse, brother of Louis IX of France; the failure of this marriage to produce an heir led to…

  • Meazza, Giuseppe (Italian football player)

    Inter Milan: The following year the great Giuseppe Meazza played his first game for Inter. His final game would come in 1947, by which time the gifted attacker had scored 287 goals for Inter in 408 matches. In 1980, a year after Meazza died, the stadium was officially renamed in his honour,…

  • mebendazole (drug)

    fasciolopsiasis: …that are effective include levamisole, mebendazole,  and thiabendazole. In India and Thailand and in China and other parts of East Asia, infection in humans is usually contracted following ingestion of uncooked aquatic plants containing cysts of the worm larvae. A simple but effective preventive measure is the immersion of aquatic…

  • Mebyon Kernow (Cornish organization)

    England: The South West: …nationalist movement, Mebyon Kernow (Sons of Cornwall), seeking to revive the old language. Although it has no political significance, the movement reflects the disenchantment of a declining area, with the exhaustion of mineral deposits toward the end of the 19th century. Cornwall and the neighbouring county of Devon share…

  • mecA (gene)

    MRSA: Mechanisms of resistance: …of a gene known as mecA from a distantly related bacterial species. This gene encodes a unique penicillin-binding protein (PBP) that binds methicillin and thereby promotes bacterial survival by preventing the antibiotic from inhibiting cell wall synthesis. Numerous variants of MRSA have evolved, including two strains of epidemic MRSA (EMRSA),…

  • Mécanique analytique (work by LaGrange)

    Joseph-Louis Lagrange, comte de l’Empire: …Louvre he published his classic Mécanique analytique, a lucid synthesis of the hundred years of research in mechanics since Newton, based on his own calculus of variations, in which certain properties of a mechanistic system are inferred by considering the changes in a sum (or integral) that are due to…

  • Mécanique Aviation Traction (French company)

    Airbus: Aerospatiale Matra: Matra (Mécanique Aviation Traction), Aerospatiale Matra’s other line of heritage, was founded in 1945. In 1951 a Matra-built aircraft was the first in Europe to break the sound barrier, and in the 1960s the company emerged as a prime European contractor for satellites. In 1990…

  • Mecca (Saudi Arabia)

    Mecca, city, western Saudi Arabia, located in the Ṣirāt Mountains, inland from the Red Sea coast. It is the holiest of Muslim cities. Muhammad, the founder of Islam, was born in Mecca, and it is toward this religious center that Muslims turn five times daily in prayer (see qiblah). All devout and

  • Mecca Highway (highway, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia)

    Riyadh: Transportation: >Mecca (Makkah; running east-west) highways, which constitute the two main axes of the city. With its grid system of wide thoroughfares and expressways, modern Riyadh was designed as an automobile-oriented city. Taxis are a significant form of transportation in Riyadh; local buses are also available,…

  • Mecca Mosque (mosque, Hyderābād, India)

    Hyderabad: History: The Mecca Mosque, which was built later, can accommodate 10,000 people. The mosque was the site of a bombing attack in 2007 that killed several Muslims and injured many others. The incident aggravated Muslim-Hindu tensions in the city, which has experienced periodic outbreaks of violence over…

  • Mecca, balm of (herb)

    balm: Balm of Gilead, or balm of Mecca, is the myrrhlike resin from Commiphora gileadensis of the Arabian Peninsula. The balsam fir (Abies balsamea) is sometimes called balm fir, or balm of Gilead fir, and the balm of Gilead poplar (Populus X jackii) is related to…

  • Mecelle (Ottoman legal code)

    Ahmed Cevdet Paşa: …Ottoman law, known as the Mecelle. More conservative than many of his contemporaries, however, who advocated a legal code based on the French Civil Code, Cevdet favoured a system based mainly on Islāmic law.

  • Mechain, Pierre (French scientist)

    Pierre Mechain was a French astronomer and hydrographer who, with Jean Delambre, measured the meridian arc from Dunkirk, Fr., to Barcelona. The measurement was made between 1792 and 1798 to establish a basis for the unit of length in the metric system called for by the French national legislature.

  • Méchain, Pierre-François-André (French scientist)

    Pierre Mechain was a French astronomer and hydrographer who, with Jean Delambre, measured the meridian arc from Dunkirk, Fr., to Barcelona. The measurement was made between 1792 and 1798 to establish a basis for the unit of length in the metric system called for by the French national legislature.

  • mechane (stage device)

    theatre: Visual and spatial aspects: …the use of the so-called flying machine, the mēchanē (Latin machina), in the 5th century is given in the comedies of Aristophanes; a character in his play Peace ascends to heaven on a dung beetle and appeals to the scene shifter not to let him fall. The mēchanē consisted of…

  • mechanic’s lien (property law)

    lien: …the United States is the mechanic’s lien, most commonly of statutory creation, that confers upon builders, contractors, and others furnishing labour and materials for land improvement an interest in the land so improved as security for payment for their services.

  • Mechanic, The (film by West [2011])

    Jason Statham: Acting career: …hit man Arthur Bishop in The Mechanic (2011) and Mechanic: Resurrection (2016).

  • Mechanica (book by Hero of Alexandria)

    Heron of Alexandria: Heron’s Mechanica, in three books, survives only in an Arabic translation, somewhat altered. This work is cited by Pappus of Alexandria (fl. ad 300), as is also the Baroulcus (“Methods of Lifting Heavy Weights”). Mechanica, which is closely based on the work of Archimedes, presents a…

  • Mechanica, sive Tractatus de Motu (work by Wallis)

    John Wallis: His Mechanica, sive Tractatus de Motu (“Mechanics, or Tract on Motion”) in 1669–71 (three parts) refuted many of the errors regarding motion that had persisted since the time of Archimedes; he gave a more rigorous meaning to such terms as force and momentum, and he assumed…

  • Mechanical Account of Poisons (work by Mead)

    Richard Mead: …smallpox, measles, and scurvy; his Mechanical Account of Poisons (1702) includes original observations on the action of snake venom. Mead was also known as a prodigious collector and scholar; his library—one of the best in England at the time—numbered nearly 10,000 volumes.

  • mechanical advantage (physics)

    mechanical advantage, force-amplifying effectiveness of a simple machine, such as a lever, an inclined plane, a wedge, a wheel and axle, a pulley system, or a jackscrew. The theoretical mechanical advantage of a system is the ratio of the force that performs the useful work to the force applied,

  • mechanical and organic solidarity (social theory)

    mechanical and organic solidarity, in the theory of the French social scientist Émile Durkheim (1858–1917), the social cohesiveness of small, undifferentiated societies (mechanical) and of societies differentiated by a relatively complex division of labour (organic). Mechanical solidarity is the

  • Mechanical Animals (album by Marilyn Manson)

    Marilyn Manson: Marilyn Manson, the band: …features “The Beautiful People”; and Mechanical Animals (1998), which contains the highly controversial song “The Dope Show.” The group’s later albums, which include Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death) (2000), The Golden Age of Grotesque (2003), and We Are Chaos (2020), were relatively less successful.

  • mechanical balance (measurement instrument)

    balance: The mechanical balance consists, essentially, of a rigid beam that oscillates on a horizontal central knife-edge as a fulcrum and has the two end knife-edges parallel and equidistant from the centre. The loads to be weighed are supported on pans hung from bearings. For the best…

  • Mechanical Ballet, The (film by Léger)

    Fernand Léger: …he conceived, directed, and produced The Mechanical Ballet, a purely non-narrative film with photography by Man Ray and Dudley Murphy and music by the American composer George Antheil. He also designed sets for ballets and motion pictures, and he created mosaics and stained-glass windows. Léger was interested in the relationship…

  • mechanical booster pump

    vacuum technology: Mechanical booster: Capacities are available from 100 to 70,000 cu ft per minute, operating usually in the pressure range of 10 to 10-3 torr. The peak speed of the pump is developed in the pressure range of 1 to 10-2 torr, the speed at the…

  • mechanical circulatory support device (medical device)

    ventricular assist device (VAD), machine designed to facilitate the pumping of blood from the ventricles (lower chambers) of the heart to the rest of the body. A ventricular assist device (VAD) can support either the right or the left ventricle, although it is most commonly implanted in the left

  • mechanical clock

    clock: Mechanical clocks: The pendulum is a reliable time measurer because, for small arcs, the time required for a complete swing (period) depends only on the length of the pendulum and is almost independent of the extent of the arc. The length of a…

  • mechanical computing procedure (logic)

    metalogic: Syntax and semantics: … (sentences or meaningful expressions), applicable mechanically, in the sense that a machine could check whether a candidate satisfies the requirements. This specification usually contains three parts: (1) a list of primitive symbols (basic units) given mechanically, (2) certain combinations of these symbols, singled out mechanically as forming the simple (atomic)…

  • mechanical deboner (food processing)

    poultry processing: Deboning and grinding: …through a machine called a mechanical deboner or a meat-bone separator. In general, the crushed meat and bones are continuously pressed against a screen and the edible, soft materials pushed through the screen. The resulting minced product is similar in texture to ground beef and has been used for many…

  • mechanical doping

    doping: Forms of doping: Mechanical doping involves the use of hidden mechanical devices, such as small concealed motors, to provide an advantage to the athlete. It is used primarily in sports that involve equipment, such as cycling. In the case of cycling, tiny electric motors can be hidden inside…