17-letter words containing a, l, e, n, c
- foucault pendulum — a pendulum that demonstrates the rotation of the earth by exhibiting an apparent change in its plane of oscillation.
- fractal dimension — (mathematics) A common type of fractal dimension is the Hausdorff-Besicovich Dimension, but there are several different ways of computing fractal dimension. Fractal dimension can be calculated by taking the limit of the quotient of the log change in object size and the log change in measurement scale, as the measurement scale approaches zero. The differences come in what is exactly meant by "object size" and what is meant by "measurement scale" and how to get an average number out of many different parts of a geometrical object. Fractal dimensions quantify the static *geometry* of an object. For example, consider a straight line. Now blow up the line by a factor of two. The line is now twice as long as before. Log 2 / Log 2 = 1, corresponding to dimension 1. Consider a square. Now blow up the square by a factor of two. The square is now 4 times as large as before (i.e. 4 original squares can be placed on the original square). Log 4 / log 2 = 2, corresponding to dimension 2 for the square. Consider a snowflake curve formed by repeatedly replacing ___ with _/\_, where each of the 4 new lines is 1/3 the length of the old line. Blowing up the snowflake curve by a factor of 3 results in a snowflake curve 4 times as large (one of the old snowflake curves can be placed on each of the 4 segments _/\_). Log 4 / log 3 = 1.261... Since the dimension 1.261 is larger than the dimension 1 of the lines making up the curve, the snowflake curve is a fractal. [sci.fractals FAQ].
- fraternal society — a club or other association, usually of men, having a limited membership and devoted to professional, religious, charitable, or social activities.
- french provincial — noting, pertaining to, or resembling a style of furnishings and decoration originating in the provinces of France in the 18th century, derived from but less ornate than styles then current in Paris and featuring simply carved wood furniture, often with decorative curved moldings.
- french somaliland — a former name of Djibouti (def 1).
- fulgencio batista — Fulgencio [fool-hen-syaw] /fulˈhɛn syɔ/ (Show IPA), (Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar) 1901–73, Cuban military leader: dictator of Cuba 1934–40; president 1940–44, 1952–59.
- full load current — A full load current is the largest current that a motor or other device is designed to carry under particular conditions.
- functional change — a change in the grammatical function of a word, as in the use of the noun input as a verb or the noun fun as an adjective.
- functional isomer — any of several structural isomers that have the same molecular formula but with the atoms connected in different ways and therefore falling into different functional groups.
- garlic mayonnaise — mayonnaise flavoured with garlic
- gause's principle — the principle that similar species cannot coexist for long in the same ecological niche
- genealogical tree — family tree.
- general discharge — a discharge from military service of a person who has served honorably but who has not met all the conditions of an honorable discharge.
- general insurance — insurance (such as house insurance and car insurance) that does not insure someone's life
- general secretary — the chief administrator of an organization
- general semantics — a philosophical approach to language, developed by Alfred Korzybski, exploring the relationship between the form of language and its use and attempting to improve the capacity to express ideas.
- genetic algorithm — (GA) An evolutionary algorithm which generates each individual from some encoded form known as a "chromosome" or "genome". Chromosomes are combined or mutated to breed new individuals. "Crossover", the kind of recombination of chromosomes found in sexual reproduction in nature, is often also used in GAs. Here, an offspring's chromosome is created by joining segments choosen alternately from each of two parents' chromosomes which are of fixed length. GAs are useful for multidimensional optimisation problems in which the chromosome can encode the values for the different variables being optimised.
- gigaelectron volt — one billion electron-volts. Abbreviation: GeV, Gev.
- glove compartment — a compartment in the dashboard of an automobile for storing small items.
- graafian follicle — one of the small vesicles containing a developing ovum in the ovary of a mammal.
- grand climacteric — Physiology. a period of decrease of reproductive capacity in men and women, culminating, in women, in the menopause.
- grandfather clock — a pendulum floor clock having a case as tall as or taller than a person; tall-case clock; long-case clock.
- grandmother clock — a pendulum clock similar to a grandfather's clock but shorter.
- greater celandine — celandine (def 1).
- greenland current — the ocean current flowing clockwise around S Greenland.
- greenwich village — a section of New York City, in lower Manhattan: inhabited and frequented by artists, writers, and students.
- guglielmo marconi — Guglielmo [goo-lyel-maw] /guˈlyɛl mɔ/ (Show IPA), Marchese, 1874–1937, Italian electrical engineer and inventor, especially in the field of wireless telegraphy: Nobel Prize in physics 1909.
- haematocrystallin — Alternative form of hematocrystallin.
- hairline fracture — a very fine crack in a bone
- half-round chisel — a cold chisel with a semicircular cutting edge used for making narrow channels
- hall of residence — Halls of residence are buildings with rooms or flats, usually built by universities or colleges, in which students live during the term.
- hamiltonian cycle — Hamiltonian problem
- hammer and sickle — the emblem of the Soviet Union, adopted in 1923 and consisting of an insignia of a hammer with its handle across the blade of a sickle and a star above.
- harmonic interval — an intervening period of time: an interval of 50 years.
- heimlich maneuver — an emergency rescue procedure for application to someone choking on a foreign object, in which the rescuer places a fist between the victim's lower ribs or upper abdomen from behind and exerts sudden pressure in the form of thrusts of sufficient force to help eject the object from the windpipe.
- helicopter parent — a style of child rearing in which an overprotective mother or father discourages a child's independence by being too involved in the child's life: In typical helicopter parenting, a mother or father swoops in at any sign of challenge or discomfort.
- henry cabot lodge — Henry Cabot, 1850–1924, U.S. public servant and author: senator 1893–1924.
- high-carbon steel — steel containing between 0.5 and 1.5 per cent carbon
- histamine blocker — any of various substances that act at a specific receptor site to block certain actions of histamine.
- hollandaise sauce — a sauce of egg yolks, butter, lemon juice, and seasonings.
- homeland security — national defence
- hubble's constant — the ratio of the recessional velocity of galaxies to their distance from the sun, with current measurements of its value ranging from 50 to 100 km/sec per megaparsec.
- hyaline cartilage — the typical, translucent form of cartilage, containing little fibrous tissue.
- hyperbolic secant — a hyperbolic function that is the reciprocal of cosh; sech
- hyperchlorination — Chemistry. to combine or treat with chlorine. to introduce chlorine atoms into an organic compound by an addition or substitution reaction.
- hyperintellectual — appealing to or engaging the intellect: intellectual pursuits.
- i will/can manage — You say 'I can manage' or 'I'll manage' as a way of refusing someone's offer of help and insisting on doing something by yourself.
- ignoratio elenchi — the fallacy of offering proof irrelevant to the proposition in question.
- impracticableness — The state of being impracticable; impracticability.
- incandescent lamp — a lamp that emits light due to the glowing of a heated material, especially the common device in which a tungsten filament enclosed within an evacuated glass bulb is rendered luminous by the passage of an electric current through it.