|
Macadamising was a system of road-making invented by John Macadam in 1819 involving the use of stones broken to six ounces weight and the use of clean flints and granite chippings.
 Research Macadamising
MacDraw II, the enhanced version of MacDraw by Claris, includes all the functionality of MacDraw and is well-suited for graphic designs, diagrams, floor plans, engineering applications, and low-end CAD applications. The product includes a slide manager that lets you create a rolling slide show on images on-screen and a slides title-sorter to rename and reorder slides. You can also create notes to attach to a document and can optionally be displayed on-screen or printed.
MacDraw II is very fast and offers scrolling and keyboard shortcuts. Advanced features for precise and intricate design tasks include a layering capability that lets you create documents with unlimited overlapping, hidden transparent layers, and the ability to rearrange them in any order. A zoom capability lets you work on documents up to 32 times their original size. The ruler settings can be customised and set to draw with an accuracy of 2,000 dpi. Objects and text can be rotated a full 360 degrees in increments as small as 1/100 of a degree. Pen widths can be fully customized from zero to one and a half inches with an accuracy of four decimal places. You can have up to 255 pen widths per drawing.
MacDraw II has strong text and precision capabilities. You can customise your font sizes and line spaces from 1 to 127 points and paragraphs and notes can have multiple type fonts, sizes, and styles. Unlike MacDraw,
MacDraw II lets you edit text by single letters. A 100,000-word interactive spell checker is included. MacDraw II includes a library feature that lets you name created objects, store them in the library, and recall them from anywhere within the application. Corporate logos, component parts, and symbols need only be created once.
Research MacDraw II
A Mach number (Mach) is the ratio of the speed of a body to the speed of sound in the surrounding medium. A speed of Mach 1 corresponding to a Mach number of one; the speed of sound.
Research Mach Number
In computing, a machine-oriented high-level language (MOHLL) is a computer programming language that supports high-level control structures, such as if-then and do-while, together with data types and structures that map onto the underlying machine architecture, thereby allowing the programmer variables of type bit, byte, word and so on.
Research Machine-Oriented High-Level Language
The Apple Macintosh was a personal computer produced in 1984 based on the Motorola 68000 32-bit processor running at 7.83 Mhz as an alternative to the IBM personal computer. The Apple Macintosh was revolutionary in introducing the 'Lisa' concept of a computer simulating an office environment on the screen with a 'mouse' used to run a cursor around to sort through pages and files. The Apple
Macintosh had a 9-inch 512 x 342 pixel resolution monochrome monitor and a 3.5 inch 400 kb capacity floppy disk drive and an internal 800 kb disk drive and 512 kb of RAM.
Research Macintosh
MacLinkPlus/PC by Dataviz is an advanced file-transfer and translation software program that provides built-in communications. The program is designed to allow seamless file exchange between Macintoshes and IBM PCs or Macintoshes and Macintoshes. It can be used with modems or cable and includes software for both the Macintosh and the PC. The package includes a serial cable to connect a PC (25-pin) to Mac SE, Mac Plus or Mac II (8-pin DIN). If you are using a Mac 128 or 512, which uses 9-pin serial ports, Dataviz includes a card that can be sent in, with the original cable, to exchange for the correct cable. The package's file translation capabilities provide a clean conversion of file format and contents, including control codes, spreadsheet formulas, and databases. Translations are supported between application formats such as MacWrite, Microsoft Excel, Lotus, Microsoft Word, MultiMate, WordStar, WordPerfect, OfficeWriter, dBase, and DIF. If you have PCs and Macintoshes sharing files over an AppleTalk network, MacLinkPlus/PC
offers a local mode to provide file transfer and translation over network cabling. The product supports batch file transfers. One window displays hard disks, folders, and files on the Macintosh, while another window displays similar information on the PC.
MacLinkPlus/PC includes a special communications mode to allow your Macintosh to dial or hard-wire to systems that support ASCII TTY or XMODEM communications. You can use this mode interactively with local mode, translating files in local mode before sending them or after receiving them from a remote system.
Research MacLinkPlus/PC
A macro is a sequence of computer instructions generated by a special piece of software called a
macro generator. Instead of writing the same sequence of instructions every time it is needed, the programmer defines a macro by giving the sequence a symbolic name, which is used in the program. The macro generator (which may be part of a larger piece of software, such as an assembler) automatically substitutes the sequence for all occurrences of the name.
Research Macro
MacroMind Director gives users with artistic talent the power of a production department at their desk. The product lets you combine and manipulate text, graphics, animation, and video. These elements can be synchronised with music and sound effects for on-screen presentations, video productions, product prototypes, and the simulation of complex processes and concepts. The product provides several features that allow you to make impressive productions quickly. However, creating your own animations and special effects takes some time.
MacroMind Director is made up of two major parts, Overview and Studio. Like the director of a movie, Overview controls the sequence and timing of a presentation-up to 30 frames per second. You create a document that references a group of other documents that will be part of the presentation. Overview makes sure that all the documents are available and make it to the screen on time, stay on- screen for as long as needed, get off the screen, and remain ready, if necessary, for a later appearance. Studio offers the tools needed to create multimedia presentations. Included is a comprehensive painting program, image import functions, and animation commands that control image positioning, sequence, the relationship of images to each other on the screen, and sound effects. The Auto Animate feature provides quick access to several animated text effects where text can be entered and choices can be made about the type of effect, tempo, and colour. The Transitions feature provides a number of precreated methods to move from one image to another
including dissolves, reveals, wipes, and pushes. Both of these features quickly add professional-looking effects to presentations. MacroMind Player is a run-time version of Director which allows a presentation to be distributed to other users, even if they do not have Director on their Macintosh.
Research MacroMind Director
The Magdeburg hemispheres were two bronze hemispheres made by Otto von Guericke in 1754, one of which had stopcock. After the rims of these had been placed together with a greased leather ring in between to form an airtight joint the air was pumped out and the stopcock closed. Before this was done the hemispheres could be pulled apart quite easily, since the pressure outside was balanced by an equal pressure inside. On removal of the air from inside, only the external atmospheric pressure acted and pressed the hemispheres tightly together. This experiment was first performed before the Imperial Court assembled at Ratisbon, on which occasion two teams of eight horses each were harnessed to the hemispheres and driven in opposite directions. They proved unable to separate the hemispheres until air had been readmitted through the stopcock.
Research Magdeburg Hemispheres
Magenta (fuchsine, rosein, harmaline or aniline red) is the hydrochloride of rosaniline, an aniline dye.
Research Magenta
Magnadur is a ceramic material used for making permanent magnets. It consists basically of sintered oxide of iron and oxide of barium, and is therefore non-metallic, although possessing ferro- magnetic properties. Because of its ceramic structure it is a good electrical insulator.
Research Magnadur
Magnesium is a metal element with the symbol Mg that burns with a very bright white light.
Research Magnesium
Magnesium oxide is formed when magnesium is burnt in the air. It is a white powder that is used to treat acidity in the stomach.
Research Magnesium oxide
Magnesium peroxide is a white, tasteless, water-insoluble powder used as an antiseptic and as an oxidizing and bleaching agent.
Research Magnesium Peroxide
Magnesium Silicate is a fine, white, odourless, tasteless powder with variable hydration. It is insoluble in both water and alcohol and is used as a rubber filler, a bleaching agent, and odour absorber and in the manufacture of paints and resins.
Research Magnesium Silicate
A magnet is a piece of one of the so-called ferromagnetic materials which has been magnetized, that is to say it has acquired, either permanently or temporarily, the power of attracting or repelling other pieces of similar material and of exerting a mechanical force on a neighbouring conductor carrying an electric current.
Research Magnet
A magnetic disk is a flat circular disk coated with a magnetic material, used to store information in a computer system. The information is stored as a pattern of magnetised spots on the surface of the disk. The spots are arranged around the centre of the disk in concentric circles (tracks), which are divided into sectors. The disk is rotated in a disk drive, under a read/write head, which can both read the pattern of magnetised spots on the disk and write a pattern onto the disk. Several kinds of disk are in use. Some (fixed disks) are permanently fixed inside the disk drive, such as the Winchester disk used in small computers. Others, such as the floppy disk, can be removed from the disk drive. Large computers also use cartridge disks (in which the disks are held in a plastic cover) and disk packs (a stack of disks in a plastic hood).
Research Magnetic Disk
Magnetic ferrite or 'ferrite' is a substance consisting of mixed oxides of iron and one or more other metals, the heat treatment of the mixed oxides producing complex crystals with magnetic properties. Generally, magnetic ferrites are hard and brittle and exhibit a high resistance to demagnetisation by external fields, leading to their use in radio and television.
Research Magnetic Ferrite
Magnetic ink character recognition (MICR) is a type of magnetic ink used on cheques and other documents to enable them to be automatically sorted and the characters to be read and fed into a computer.
Research Magnetic Ink Character Recognition
Magnetic recording originated in 1899 with the invention by Valdemar Poulsen of the Telegraphone. During the period between the two World Wars, development work was carried out which resulted in improved systems, notable among which were the Blattnerphone and the Marconi-Stille. These systems employed a steel tape as the recording medium, a material which was bulky and difficult to handle. Mechanical and magnetic requirements were often mutually exclusive. The jointing of sections was also difficult. In 1928, Dr. Pfleumer took out a patent in Germany for a new and much improved medium. This consisted of a paper or plastic base tape, having most of the required mechanical properties, on which was deposited a very thin coating of powdered magnetic material. A later patent (in 1935) introduced oxide of iron as the magnetic medium. This oxide, though not ideal in its magnetic properties, was a considerable improvement on the steel tapes previously available. During the Second World War, considerable development work was carried out in
Germany, resulting in a system of recording sound magnetically which ranked with the best on disc or film. Concurrently, in the USA, the problem of the bulk of the steel tapes had been overcome by utilizing a, thin steel wire, normally 0.004 inches in diameter. As with the Magnetophon tape, the reduction of material available for recording upon was offset by improvements in other factors. Up to 1946 the greater part of the development work had been carried out empirically. Since that date, however, considerable research has been undertaken into the causes underlying the observed results. Due to this research, a number of improvements has been made possible, and within the standards of current practice, magnetic tape recording shows superiority over both disc and film recording. In fact, it is now the normal practice for commercial disc and film recordings to be made through an intermediate magnetic recording process, without any noticeable loss of quality in the finished product. Even a trained ear has difficulty in distinguishing a good magnetic
tape recording from the original sound reproduced over the same amplifier/loudspeaker system. Quite small and compact recorders, suitable for domestic use, while they cannot compete with the larger professional machines, are capable of a, remarkably high quality of reproduction. Wire recording has not proved itself capable of such a high standard of quality as tape, but has met a need for a very small, light and compact recording machine, suitable for the intelligible recording of speech for long runs of an hour or more. Domestic models were also available, but didn't catch on, the domestic market preferring magnetic tape. So far as is known, magnetic recordings are permanent if properly stored. However, they have the outstanding advantage, particularly in the domestic and computer fields, that the recording can be erased at will and the material re-used as often as desired. Tape may be cut and joined with precision, on a syllable of speech or a note in music. Since the late 1990s digital recording with computers has started to replace tape splicing for
editing
magnetic recordings, but although recordings are carried out digitally using computers, the computers' disk drives still use magnetic material for the recording.
Research Magnetic Recording
Magnetic tape is plastic tape having a magnetic surface on which data can be stored. The data is stored as a series of magnetised spots, which run lengthways along the tape. The data is read by moving the tape past a read/write head. Magnetic tape is used as backing storage on large computers.
Research Magnetic Tape
Magnetostriction is small changes in the length of a piece of magnetic material which accompany the process of magnetization.
Research Magnetostriction
The magnetron effect is the deflexion of electrons emitted from a straight filamentary or thin tubular thermionic cathode and accelerated towards a co-axial cylindrical anode, the deflexion resulting from the application of an axial magnetic field.
Research Magnetron Effect
Magnum is a stable explosive ignited by an electric charge, and used in demolition work.
Research Magnum
Main sequence stars (like our Sun) are those that fuse hydrogen into helium, though the exact reactions vary depending on the mass of the star.
Research Main Sequence Star
A main store (internal storage) is the main part of a computer memory. Forming part of the central processing unit, it is a high-speed or immediate-access store, which holds programs while they are being executed and the intermediate results of calculations in progress. The
main store is supplemented by backing store.
Research Main Store
A mainframe is the largest type of computer, requiring an air-conditioned room and special staff, including operators, programmers, and system analysts, to run it. They are used by large organisations, such as banks, because they can handle vast amounts of information with ease and calculate at high speed. They can also handle many users simultaneously
Research Mainframe
Maleic acid is a colourless, crystalline, water-soluble solid. It has an astringent taste and faint acidulous odour. It is used in the manufacture of synthetic resins, the dyeing and finishing of textiles, and as a preservative for fats and oils.
Research Maleic Acid
Maleic anhydride is a colourless, crystalline, unsaturated compound that is soluble in acetone and hydrolyses in water. It is used in the production of polyester resins, pesticides, fumaric acid and tartaric acid.
Research Maleic Anhydride
Maleic hydrazide is a crystalline compound used as a plant growth inhibitor and weed-killer.
Research Maleic Hydrazide
Malic acid (hydroxysuccinic acid) is a dibasic hydroxyacid occurring in unripe fruits, particularly the berries of the mountain ash. Malic acid on reduction yields succinic acid, and when heated loses water, and yields the isomeric fumaric and maleic acids.
Research Malic acid
A mallet is a large and heavy hammer, usually made of wood.
Research Mallet
Malonic acid is a white, crystalline, water-soluble dibasic acid easily decomposed by heat and used chiefly as an intermediate in the synthesis of barbiturates.
Research Malonic Acid
Maltol (Larixinic acid) is a crystalline compound obtained from larch bark, pine needles, chicory or roasted malt and used for enhancing flavours and aromas in foods, wines and perfumes.
Research Maltol
Maltose is a sugar formed naturally from starch during the germination of grain. It is two glucose molecules combined.
Research Maltose
A Maltron keyboard is a keyboard, usually a computer keyboard, that comprises independent left- and right-hand modules which are shaped to conform to the natural position of the hands. Maltron keyboards are designed to prevent or minimise repetitive strain injury (RSI).
Research Maltron Keyboard
Manganese is a metal element with the symbol Mn. The black oxide of manganese has long been used to decolour glass.
Research Manganese
Manilla hemp (abaca) is a fibrous material obtained from the plant Musa textilis, a plant allied to the banana, found growing in the Philippines and other East Indian islands. It is used to make matting, canvas, ropes, and cables.
Research Manila Hemp
Mannite or mannitol is the simplest of the hexahydric alcohols, and occurs in many plants, particularly Fraxinus ornus, from the dried exudation of which (manna) it is extracted by solution in alcohol and crystallisation. It may be prepared by reduction of dextrose or levulose with nascent hydrogen, and occurs in dextro-rotatory, levo-rotatory and inactive forms. Mannite forms colourless crystals that have a sweet taste and are soluble in water and alcohol. It can be oxidised to levulose, and on heating forms anhydrides.
Research Mannite
A Mansbridge capacitor is an electronic capacitor having metal foil plates and paper dielectric and so designed that, should the insulation break down to puncture of the dielectric, the discharge between the plates at the seat of the breakdown oxidises the metal and thus restores the insulation resistance.
Research Mansbridge Capacitor
Mariner was the NASA project for the design and manufacture of unmanned space probes for missions to Mars and Venus. The first Mariner probe was launched in 1962, but the launch vehicle veered off course and had to be destroyed. The second launch, that of Mariner 2 was successful and Mariner 2 passed by Venus in December 1962.
Mariner 3, planned to report on Mars, failed in its launch in 1964, but Mariner 4 was successfully launched later in 1964 and passed Mars transmitting information about the atmosphere and magnetic field of the planet as well as photographs of the planet's surface.
Mariner 5 was launched in June 1967 to fly past the planet Venus and transmit back data on the planet.
Research Mariner
The married joint is an electrical joint used for joining multi-strand cables. The wires are unstranded, then interlaced with the wires of the other cable, and then married (twisted) together before finally being soldered.
Research Married Joint
In physics, mass is the quantity of matter which a body contains.
Research Mass
Master Disk by Rosenthal Engineering prepares PC floppy diskettes used as masters for software duplication and distribution. Software duplicated from these originals are more reliable and resistant to virus contamination. It examines the diskette and drive for flaws and errors, and verifies the quality and integrity as being suitable for use as the original master, fills unused sectors and boot tracks with special security code. The documentation includes extensive anti-virus test data.
Research Master Disk
On an NTFS computer file system the master file table or MFT is an area of reserved disk space that records important information about files for the operating system. This area of disk expands as required when more files are added toa disk, and this can result in fragmentation of the MFT which can not be defragmented by disk utilities. A system which uses numerous disk files may benefit from having an MFT set to an intial larger size than the system default, and this can be achieved under the Windows XP operating system by issuing the command: 'fsutil behavior set mftzone 2' or replacing 2 with 3 or 4 for an even larger initial MFT. Before setting the MFT to a larger size, the disk needs to be cleared of files and defragmented, and then the files replaced.
Research Master File Table
Mastic is a resin obtained from a shrub, Pistacia lentiscus, that grows in southern Europe. It is found in pale yellow, brittle tears that have a slight aromatic odour. It softens and melts when heated and used to be used in the preparation of varnish.
Research Mastic
The first lucifer matches, originated by Chancel in 1805, consisted of sticks tipped with a mixture of potassium chlorate and sugar, bound together by gum, and were fired by touching the tip upon concentrated sulphuric acid, which was carried separately in a bottle and soaked up in asbestos. These matches began to displace the tinder-box from about 1820, and they were the chief matches in vogue until the middle of the 19th century when their place was taken by friction matches.
Research Matches
MathCAD by MathSoft Inc. is a unique non-structured computer program that allows you to work with numbers logically in an open, flexible environment. The extraordinary calculating ability of
MathCAD gives technical professionals the opportunity to explore mathematical options unavailable through standard spreadsheet-like programs. You enter equations and text anywhere and the program formats the equations, checks for errors, and solves the equation. Results may be displayed numerically or they may be plotted. Plots correspond to mathematics and change in real-time as equations are modified. MathCAD performs numerical operations on real and complex numbers. Precision is automatically monitored to 15 digits. Trigonometric, hyperbolic, logarithmic, and Bessel functions are built-in. Operators include absolute value, factorial, square root, summations, and subscripted variables. The product performs dimensional analysis automatically. You can solve systems of equations and perform matrix arithmetic. MathCAD's text-editing capability makes it easy to transform mathematical notes into specifications and document designs quickly and accurately.
Research MathCAD
In chemistry, matter is anything which occupies space and has mass.
Research Matter
Mauve or Perkin's Violet, was the first aniline dye of commercial value that was prepared. It was obtained by the oxidation of crude aniline by bichrome and sulphuric acid.
Research Mauve
Maxi Form by Herne Data Systems Ltd is a floppy disk formatting program for the PC that gives more space on a disk: 360k disks are expanded to 420k, 720 becomes 800k, 1.2 mb becomes 1.4 mb and 1.44 mb is boosted to 1.6 mb. The disks are user transparent to DOS version 3.20 or later and can be used interchangeably with normal DOS disks.
Research Maxi Form
The maxwell is the c.g.s. unit of magnetic flux. It is now replaced by the SI unit, the weber (one
maxwell equals 10-8 weber). The maxwell is a very small unit, representing a single line of magnetic flux. It is equal to the flux through one square centimetre normal to a magnetic field with an intensity of one gauss.
Research Maxwell
The Monochrome Display Adapter or MDA was one of the first graphics adapters available for Personal Computers and was released by IBM in 1981 at the same time that they released their first Personal Computer. The MDA graphics card supported a single text mode display of 80 columns and 25 rows. The MDA was based upon the Motorola MC6485 video controller.
Research MDA
In mechanics, energy is divided into two kinds called potential energy and kinetic energy respectively. Kinetic energy is the energy which a body has by reason of its motion. Potential energy is the energy something has by reason of its position or state. Obvious examples of kinetic energy are moving bullets or hammer heads. These are able to do work by overcoming forces when they strike something. A heavy flywheel stores energy in the form of motion, and so keeps an engine running smoothly in between the working strokes of its pistons. Heat is a form of mechanical energy, since the heat in a substance consists in the vibration or motion of the atoms of which it is composed. In this sense the difference between a cold poker and a red-hot one is that the atoms of the latter are in a state of more violent agitation. Generally speaking, the term potential energy refers to the energy given to a body by raising it above the level of the earth's surface. When something is lifted vertically through height work is done against its weight, and this work becomes stored up in the body as potential energy.
The word 'potential' is also used to describe the energy stored in a wound clock-spring. A practical example of potential energy is the energy stored in the weights of a grandfather clock. As the weights slowly descend, their potential energy is converted into kinetic energy in the moving parts of the clock. One may ask what has become of the original potential energy of the weights when the clock has completely run down. The answer is that it has all become converted into heat energy, largely as a result of work done against friction between the wheel spindles and their bearings. The clock therefore becomes slightly warmer, and ultimately this heat finds its way into the atmosphere. A swinging pendulum bob is an example of a body whose energy can be either kinetic or potential or a mixture of both. It is all potential at the extreme end of the swing and all kinetic when passing through the rest position. At intermediate points it is partly kinetic and partly potential. Similar considerations apply to the vibrating atoms in a substance, the mechanical energy of which determines the heat.
Research Mechanical energy
In vegetable physiology, medullary rays are the radiating cellular bands which, lying between the bundles of the vascular cylinder, connect the cellular tissue of the pith with that of the cortex.
Research Medullary Rays
A megohmmeter is a device for measuring very high electrical resistance values (typically over 10 megohms) for example in testing the leakage of an insulator.
Research Megohmmeter
Melamine formaldehyde, also known as MF, is a thermoset polycondensate polymer which has been mass-produced since 1938, and is perhaps best known under one of it's trade names, 'Bakelite'. It has a high surface hardness and scratch resistance. High resistance to creep, heat, moisture and boiling water and was formerly much used in electronic circuits and early consumer plastic products.
Research Melamine Formaldehyde
In engineering, the term member is applied to any essential part of a framed structure, such as a post, tie rod, strut, bridge truss etc.
Research Member
Mendelevium is an artificial metal radioactive element with the symbol Md.
Research Mendelevium
Menhaden oil is an oil derived from a fish of the shad family and sometimes used in the manufacture of paint.
Research Menhaden Oil
Menispermine is an alkaloid discovered by Pelletier and Couerbe in the seeds of Menispermum cocculus. It crystallizes in prisms and in insoluble in water but soluble in alcohol and ether from which it deposits in the crystalline state.
Research Menispermine
Menthol is an alcohol derivative of menthone and occurs in peppermint. It is also known as menthylic alcohol and camphor of peppermint.
Research Menthol
Mercerization is a process of treating cotton, discovered by John Mercer, and patented in 1850. The cotton is treated at ordinary temperature with a strong solution of caustic soda, with the result of shortening and thickening the walls of the fibre. If the fibre is then washed, the cotton appears silky and crinkled; the lustre being much increased by stretching the fibre during the process back to its original length before mercerisation. Mercerised cotton takes a dye well and was formerly much employed in the manufacture of cotton fabrics with a silky lustre.
Research Mercerization
Mercuric cyanide is a very poisonous compound prepared by dissolving yellow mercuric oxide in aqueous hydrocyanic acid.
Research Mercuric cyanide
Mercury is a dense, mobile, silvery liquid metal element, symbol Hg.
Research Mercury
Mercury fulminate is an explosive used in detonators and percussion caps.
Research Mercury Fulminate
Mesh are an English PC manufacturer based in London with a reputation for producing high specification computers at a low price for the retail market, though they also operate a corporate wing for business customers. As of 1998 they are the sponsors of Charlton Athletic Football Club.
Research Mesh
The Mesh Elite 300H was an Intel Pentium II based PC. The CPU was clocked at 300 Mhz and the PC was supplied with 128 mb of RAM, an 8 GB hard disk. CD-ROM, 17 inch monitor, 8 mb Hercules terminator 3d graphics card, Creative Labs PCI sound card, 50 watt speakers and a 56 kbps modem.
Research Mesh Elite 300H
Mesons are charged particles observed in cosmic rays, and having rest masses greater than that of an electron but less than that of a proton.
Research Mesons
MessageASAP is a computer program for the PC designed to simplify messaging needs with by providing a customizable fax and voicemail system. Fax features include ability to create customizable cover sheets using templates, send faxes from any Windows application as easily as printing them, fax on demand, broadcast faxing, remote retrieval, scheduling, sent logs and much more. Voicemail features include personalized greeting, password protection, remote retrieval, unlimited inboxes, and more.
MessageASAP lets you import your address book so you can use your current data whether sending faxes from your desktop or email via the Internet. You can check your messages (voice, fax, and email) by phone, the Internet or at your desktop.
Research MessageASAP
Metal is a class of elements.
Research Metal
A meteorograph is an apparatus for registering the various changes in the atmosphere in the form of a diagram. It was invented by father Secchi of Rome who received a prize for it at the Paris International Exhibition in July 1867.
Research Meteorograph
Methane (marsh gas) is the simplest paraffin hydrocarbon. It is an odourless gas that is explosive when mixed with oxygen. It is produced in nature by the decay of vegetable matter out of contact of the air, and thus rises in bubbles from marshy water.
Research Methane
Methanoic acid is a fuming liquid that occurs in stinging nettles.
Research Methanoic acid
Methanol is the simplest alcohol having the formulae ch3oh.
Research Methanol
Methyl salicylate (wintergreen oil) is the essential oil of Gaultheria procumbens. It is an oily liquid with a pleasant smell used as a flavouring and for the preparation of natural salicylic acid.
Research Methyl Salicylate
Methylated spirits is alcohol prepared for industrial use. In the painting trade Methylated spirits are used as a solvent for shellac in knotting, spirit varnishes and French polish. Mineralised Methylated spirits consists of 90% ethyl alcohol with 10% wood naptha added and a small quantity of mineral naptha added to make it taste unpleasant. Methylated spirits are a clear, colourless substance and so methyl violet is often added giving the characteristic purple colour.
Research Methylated Spirits
Methylethyl acetic acid is an isomeric variety of valeric acid found in plants.
Research Methylethyl acetic acid
Metrology is the scientific study of weights and measures. The subject has long been closely associated with trade and commerce, which is based on the exchange of measured quantities of goods or services for money or measured quantities of other goods or services.
Research Metrology
Mezzotint is a method of engraving on copper or steel.
Research Mezzotint
Mho is the unit of conductance, the reciprocal of the ohm.
Research Mho
Micrografx Designer is a high-end illustration package that works under Microsoft Windows. It is designed primarily for graphic artists and technical illustrators who require tools beyond those found in the basic drawing packages. Micrografx Designer offers all the basic drawing tools typically found in drawing programs and includes features such as Bezier curves, curve smoothing, parabolas, polylines, and layering normally found in CAD programs.
A freehand tool can be used to dynamically smooth and reduce the number of points in Bezier curves. The product sizes, scales, and rotates graphics and text in 1/10 degree increments, draws standard shapes and fills them with colour or patterns, and prints in colour or shades of grey. Micrografx Designer includes an auto trace feature to trace almost any scanned image including images saved in .PCX and TIFF format. This lets you create an object-oriented version that can be resized without loss of image quality or proportionality, and printed at high resolution. You also have the choice of tracing the entire image or only a portion. A zoom feature lets you do detailed work with three levels of magnification. Curves may be edited, smoothed, and unsmoothed.
Research Micrografx Designer
A micrometer is an instrument for measuring minute lengths or angles with great accuracy; different types of micrometer are used in astronomical and engineering work.
The type of micrometer used in astronomy consists of two fine wires, one fixed and the other movable, placed in the focal plane of a telescope; the movable wire is fixed on a sliding plate and can be positioned parallel to the other until the object appears between the wires. The movement is then indicated by a scale on the adjusting screw.
The micrometer calliper, of great value in engineering, has its adjustment effected by an extremely accurate fine-pitch screw (called a vernier).
Research Micrometer
A microphone is the first component in a sound recording system. It converts sound waves into electrical energy. A simple microphone is the telephone receiver mouthpiece.
Research Microphone
Microsoft Chart is a very visual, high-end business-charting package that provides eight chart types in a total of 45 standard formats. Each format is pictured in a series of illustrated menus called the gallery so you see exactly how a chart type will look before you choose the format. The gallery shows examples of area, bar, column, high-low, line, mixed, pie, and scatter charts. Each chart type has five to eight standard formats from which to choose. Your data is immediately displayed in the format you have selected. You can even create a custom chart. If you find your data is not well- represented with the chosen chart type, it is easy to switch between formats until you find the one that best conveys the information you want to present. Because it is so easy to switch from one graph type to another, Microsoft Chart is excellent for finding the best fit between data and its graphic representation. Once you have found the appropriate format, you can tailor your chart to meet your precise needs.
Microsoft Chart lets you improve the clarity of a chart by changing its four components: axis, data, labels, or legend. Text can be tailored to your chart by varying the font, size, location, or amount of text. You can even draw an arrow from a note to the element of the chart to be noted. You also have full flexibility to change the chart as a whole. For example, you can change size, colours, pattern, position, or border. As you modify, move, size, position, colour, and shade elements, you can watch the changes on the screen. To make working even simpler, the program offers automatic scaling, spacing, and centering for all elements of the chart.
Microsoft Chart offers a hotlink between your chart and a spreadsheet file, so you can set the charts to automatically update when data in the originating program changes.
Microsoft Chart also has an editor for inputting and correcting data from the keyboard.
Research Microsoft Chart
Microsoft Project is a project management computer program for the Windows operating system.
Microsoft Project provides knowledge workers with the flexibility to collaboratively plan and track projects and deliver the results their business demands. It is the single planning tool needed in an organization. Microsoft Project features a delegation feature that enables tasks to be delegated from leads to team members or from peer to peer. Users can create custom report formats and request and receive team member status updates that Microsoft Project Central automatically rolls into a group report.
Research Microsoft Project
Microsoft Reader is a computer program for the Windows operating system that offers the pleasure of reading enhanced by the benefits of technology. It's designed to make the on-screen reading experience as close as possible to reading a printed book, while adding active reading capabilities, instant access to content and storage of a personal library. Microsoft Reader isn't meant to replace paper books. It's simply the next logical step for people who love to read, and for people who spend increasing amounts of time using desktop PCs, laptops, and smaller, handheld devices.
Research Microsoft Reader
A microtome is an instrument used for cutting very thin sections of organic tissue for microscopic examination.
Research Microtome
Microsoft's Midtown Madness is a frantic computer racing game for the IBM PC released in August 1999 set in downtown Chicago, from Wrigley Field in the north to the highway exchange south of McCormick Place. You get your choice of vehicles, including a Ford Mustang GT, a Cadillac Eldorado, and a city bus. Try not to hit the pedestrians or newspaper stands, and look out for the ever present police. What sets Midtown Madness apart from Microsoft's other big racing title, Monster Truck Madness 2, is that cars actually sustain damage during the course of this game: you can't crash into your opponents without putting sizable dents in your own car.
Research Midtown Madness
Milk is a secretion from modified skin glands of female mammals.
Cow's milk is the most popular form of milk consumed as a food by humans. All milks will vary in composition depending upon the diet and nature, but cow's milk is remarkably stable in constitutents so long as the diet is relatively stable. However, cow's milk does vary noticeably between milk taken in the morning and milk taken in the evening. This difference in milk has long been exploited by cheese makers to produce cheeses with distinct characteristics and taste. Morning milk being more water than evening milk which has a noticeably greater proportion of fat and solids. The last milk taken from the udder is likewise the richest in terms of fat content.
Unpasteurised cow's milk is generally reckoned as neing comprised of 86.3 per cent water; 4.1 percent casein; 3.7 percent milk-fat; 5.1 percent lactose; and 0.8 percent mineral matter.
Research Milk
Mill scale is a thin skin or layer of iron oxides which covers the surface of hot-rolled steel when it leaves the rolling mills. Mill scale is produced by the rapid oxidation of the white-hot metal upon contact with the air.
Research Mill Scale
Millennium Master from MFX Research is a software package for the PC which can change short date formats in all applications and data files by catching them at the machine code level. The package claims to work with all custom and bespoke applications, changing the dates to a year 2000 compliant format.
Research Millennium Master
Milori blue is the highest quality of Prussian Blue.
Research Milori Blue
Following explosions in mines caused by miner's candles, a society was formed in 1813 to study methods of preventing these explosions and approached Sir Humphry Davy for advice. Davy investigated the problem and designed the safety lamp. In its original form the safety lamp was an oil burner completely surrounded by a cylinder of wire gauze. Becaue the gauze threw undesirable shadows, the design was modified and athick cylindrical glass window was added, still retaining the gauze above but encased in a brass shroud. Should the atmosphere surrounding the lamp contain methane, its presence will be indicated by the flame becoming surrounded by a luish haze. The flame cannot extend beyond the gauze and cause an explosion, since the wires of the gauze rapidly conduct the heat away, and the temperature of the gauze never rises to the ignition point of the gas-air mixture in the mine.
Research Miner's Safety Lamp
A mineral is an element or compound occurring naturally due to inorganic processes.
Research Mineral
Mineral green is an artists name for pigments made from Malachite.
Research Mineral Green
Mineral oramge is an alternative name for the pigment read lead.
Research Mineral Orange
Mineral white (terra alba) is a pigment formed of sulphate of lime derived from gypsum.
Research Mineral White
Minidisc is a form of technology that first appeared around 1992 and is like a cross between a CD and a cassette. It enables recordings to be made digitally, like a CD, but edited, named and moved around. Like a cassette system, minidisc allows recordings to be made from any source. The recording is stored in a compressed, digital format, using the ATRAC compression method, which was developed in response to the music indutsry's concerns over piracy and as such was designed not to be computer compatible, unlike CDs which are fully computer readable and writable.
Research Minidisc
A mirage is a phenomena where the total light from the sky is reflected by a layer of very hot air in contact with the ground. A mirage appears as a sheet of water in the distance, disappearing as the observer gets nearer.
Research Mirage
In chemistry, miscible refers to being capable of being mixed.
Research Miscible
Mitre-wheels are a pair of bevel wheels or cogs working into each other, usually at right angles.
Research Mitre-Wheels
In chemistry, a mixture is an aggregate of two or more substances which are not chemically combined and which exist in no fixed proportion to one another.
Research Mixture
MMX is a set of multimedia instructions built into Intel's microprocessors.
MMX-enabled microprocessors can handle many common multimedia operations, such as digital signal processing (DSP) that are normally handled by a separate sound or video card.
Research MMX
Modem is a contraction of the term Modulator/Demodulator. It is a device that modulates and demodulates signals on and off a 'carrier' frequency. It is not limited to computer data use, thus the telco-specific term 'data set' for data modems.
Research Modem
Modulation is alterations in the characteristics of analog carrier waves, impressed on the amplitude, phase and/or the frequency of the wave.
Research Modulation
In chemistry, a molal solution is a solution containing one mole of a solute in 1,000 grams of solute.
Research Molal solution
In chemistry, a molar solution is a solution which contains 1 gram-molecular weight of solute in one litre of solution.
Research Molar solution
In chemistry, a mole is the molecular weight of a substance expressed in grams.
Research Mole
In chemistry, molecular weight is the sum of the atomic weights of all the atoms in a molecule.
Research Molecular weight
A molecule is the smallest particle of any substance that can exist and still exhibit the properties of the substance.
Research Molecule
Molniya 1 was a Soviet communications satellite launched in April 1965 and placed in a highly elliptical orbit designed to provide the longest possible communications sessions between Moscow and Vladivostok. Molniya 1 was the first Soviet communications satellite.
Research Molniya
Molybdenum is a metal element with the symbol Mo. It was first prepared molybdic acid in 1782 by Hjelm, and was described by Berzelius in 1825.
Research Molybdenum
Monastral blue is a proprietary phthalocyanide pigment. Monastral blue is insoluble in oils and organic solvents, is a very powerful stainer - twice as effective as Prussian blue - immune to acid and alkaline attack, able to withstand high heat and in the stronger shades is light fast.
Research Monastral Blue
Monellin is a naturally occurring protein which is 3000 times as sweet as sugar and 15 times sweeter than aspartame, but contains only four calories per gram. Monellin occurs naturally in the berries of the West African plant, Dioscoreophyllum cumminisii, and has also been produced in a strain of genetically engineer yeast in Japan.
Research Monellin
A monkey-wrench is a wrench that can be adjusted to accommodate numerous sizes of bolt by means of having a movable jaw.
Research Monkey-Wrench
Monosaccharide is a simple carbohydrate.
Research Monosaccharide
Montan wax (bitumen wax) is a hard, wax-like substance obtained from lignite and peat.
Research Montan Wax
A mordant is an adhesive compound capable of uniting with dye-stuffs to form insoluble pigments, and thus, if the reaction is made to take place in the fibres of a fabric, fix the colour in it. Mordants are mostly used in cotton and wool dyeing, and also in gilding to attach gold leaf and in paints intended for non-ferrous metal surfaces so as to etch the surface and provide better adhesion for the pigment.
Research Mordant
More by Symantec is a powerful outlining tool which integrates multiple presentation capabilities. The program provides a variety of tools to plan, organise, and produce presentations efficiently.
More features advanced outline for organizing ideas and information, a built-in word processor, drawing capabilities, and an on-screen slide show function. More provides the ability to use two monitors: one for the audience to display the presentation, and one for the presenter to display speaker's notes, a mini view of the presentation, and the time elapsed.
More contains an outline processor that lets you gather, sort, organise, and reorganise information in virtually limitless ways. Word processing capabilities include wrapping headlines, headers and footers, page breaks, rules, automatic on-screen labelling, and a 100,000-word spell checker. More lets you create presentation-quality tree charts or bullet charts from outlines. It maintains lists of things to do, client information, or your personal calendar. More's powerful outline-editing feature lets you organise ideas and rearrange outlines to suit your needs. You can expand and contract sections, zoom in on a line, and add descriptive text. You can use templates to save frequently used formats such as addresses or expenses. Several templates are included or you can create your own.
Similar to other desktop presentation programs, More lets you create colour or black-and-white slide shows, overhead transparencies, or hard copy complete with speaker's notes and audience handouts. Templates increase the production speed of a presentation and slides can be re-ordered from the outline or thumbnail sketch view. More can also be used to create organisation charts. The spell checker and thesaurus included with More can be used with other applications such as word processors that do not contain a spell checker or thesaurus.
Research More
Moroxite is the crystallised form of apatite, occurring in crystals of a brownish or greenish-blue colour.
Research Moroxite
Morse Code is a telegraphic code, devised by S. F. B. Morse, wherein letters, figures etc. are represented by differing arrangements of long and short pulses (dots and dashes).
Research Morse Code
The Motorola Razr V3i is a quad-band flip mobile telephone featuring a 1.2 megapixel digital camera with video capture and playback facilities, a removable memory card for storing data and USB and Bluetooth connectivity. The Motorola Razr V3i can be connected to a personal computer via a USB cable, and can also send and receive emails and incorporates a built-in web browser for accessing the world-wide-web. The Motorola Razr V3i is one of the slimmest commercial mobile telephones ever produced.
Research Motorola Razr V3i
Movie organizer is a very useful computer program for the Windows operating system used to organize your home video collection of films. You can enter anything you might think of and make your film collection easy to search. The program features an advanced and easy-to-use search function, nice reports and lots of smart functions.
Research Movie Organizer
MS-DOS (Microsoft Disk Operating System) is a clone of CP/M for the 8088 put together in six weeks by hacker Tim Paterson, who is said to have regretted it ever since. It has numerous features, including vaguely UNIX-like but rather broken support for subdirectories, I/O redirection, and pipelines, were hacked into version 2. 0 and subsequent versions; as a result, there are two or more incompatible versions of many system calls, and
MS-DOS programmers can never agree on basic things like what character to use as an option switch or whether to be case-sensitive. The resulting mess is now the highest-unit-volume OS in history. Often known simply as DOS, which annoys people familiar with other similarly abbreviated operating systems (the name goes back to the mid-1960s, when it was attached to IBM's first disk operating system for the 360). The name further annoys those who know what the term operating system does (or ought to) connote; DOS is more properly a set of relatively simple interrupt services.
Research MS-DOS
MTBF (Mean Time Between Failure) is a statistical method developed and administered by the U.S. military for purposes of estimating maintenance levels required by various devices and systems. Since accurate statistics require a basis of 'failures per million hours of operation,' an MTBF estimate on a single device is not very accurate; it would take 114 years to see if the device really had that many failures! Similarly, since the
MTBF is an estimate of averages, half of the devices can be expected to fail before then, and half after. MTBF cannot be used as a guarantee. Telecommunications systems operate on the principle of ' Availability,' for which there is a body of CCITT Recommendations.
Research MTBF
MTSO (Mobile Telephone Switching Office) is the switching office that connects all of the individual cell towers to the Central Office (CO). The MTSO is responsible for monitoring the relative signal strength of cellular phones as reported by each of the cell towers, and switching the conversation to the cell tower which will give the caller the best possible reception.
Research MTSO
Mu-metal is a nickel-iron alloy characterised by its high permeability at low field strengths and its small hysterisis losses.
Research Mu-metal
A muffle is an arched fire-brick furnace used in assaying operations.
Research Muffle
Multileaving is an IBM Bisync-era method of interspersing message blocks for various applications on a single line.
Research Multileaving
Munjeet is a dye obtained from the roots of the Rubia cordifolia plant which is grown in India.
Research Munjeet
The Munsell colour system is a system of colour definition based upon hue, value and chroma. Hue distinguishing red from blue, green from yellow and so on. Value being related to the lightness or darkness of the colour and chroma being the strength of the colour.
Research Munsell Colour System
Muriatic Acid was a former name for Hydrochloric acid.
Research Muriatic Acid
Musk is a substance used in perfume and obtained from the Musk-deer. Musk is also used in medicine as an antispasmodic.
Research Musk
Mutual inductance is the ratio of the induced electromotive force to the rate of change of current producing it between two magnetically linked circuits. It is usually measured in henries.
Research Mutual Inductance
MyAlbum is a free simple cataloger for easily building digital photo albums on a PC running the Windows operating system. MyAlbum supports the JPEG, BMP, PNG, GIF, animated GIF, TIFF, TGA and PCX file formats and allows comments and keywords to be added to each picture. Facilities are provided for creating slideshows and screensavers. The program also provides a batch resize and stamp facility for adding logos etc to collections of pictures.
Research MyAlbum
Myrrh is a gum resin produced by a tree found in Arabia. It is used as incense and in embalming.
Research Myrrh
|
Abbreviations
SciTech
