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  • Fermat’s hyperbola (mathematics)
    ...xy = a2, to the form an - 1y = xn. The curves determined by this equation are known as the parabolas or hyperbolas of Fermat according as n is positive or negative. He similarly generalized the Archimedean spiral r = aθ. These curves in turn directed him in the middle 1630s......
  • Fermat’s last theorem (mathematics)
    the statement that there are no natural numbers (1, 2, 3, …) x, y, and z such that xn + yn = zn, in which n is a natural number greater than 2. For example, if n = 3, Fermat’s theorem states that no natural numbers x, y, and z ...
  • Fermat’s lesser theorem (mathematics)
    ...themselves). One of the most elegant of these had been the theorem that every prime of the form 4n + 1 is uniquely expressible as the sum of two squares. A more important result, now known as Fermat’s lesser theorem, asserts that if p is a prime number and if a is any positive integer, then ap - a is divisible by p. Fermat seldo...
  • Fermat’s little theorem (mathematics)
    ...themselves). One of the most elegant of these had been the theorem that every prime of the form 4n + 1 is uniquely expressible as the sum of two squares. A more important result, now known as Fermat’s lesser theorem, asserts that if p is a prime number and if a is any positive integer, then ap - a is divisible by p. Fermat seldo...
  • Fermat’s parabola (mathematics)
    ...hyperbola xy = a2, to the form an - 1y = xn. The curves determined by this equation are known as the parabolas or hyperbolas of Fermat according as n is positive or negative. He similarly generalized the Archimedean spiral r = aθ. These curves in turn directed him in the......
  • Fermat’s principle (optics)
    in optics, statement that light traveling between two points seeks a path such that the number of waves (the optical length between the points) is equal, in the first approximation, to that in neighbouring paths. Another way of stating this principle is that the path taken by a ray of light in traveling between two points requires either a minimum or a maximum time. Thus, two b...
  • Fermat’s spiral (mathematics)
    ...The curves determined by this equation are known as the parabolas or hyperbolas of Fermat according as n is positive or negative. He similarly generalized the Archimedean spiral r = aθ. These curves in turn directed him in the middle 1630s to an algorithm, or rule of mathematical procedure, that was equivalent to differentiation. This procedure......
  • fermentation (chemical reaction)
    originally, the foaming that occurs during the manufacture of wine and beer, a process at least 10,000 years old. That the frothing results from the evolution of carbon dioxide gas was not recognized until the 17th century. Louis Pasteur in the 19th century used the term fermentation in a narrow sense to describe the changes brought about by yeasts and other microorganisms growing in the absence o...
  • Fermi decay (atomic physics)
    ...work showed that neutron beta decay partly proceeds with the 12 ℏ spins of beta and neutrino adding to one unit of ℏ. The former process is known as Fermi decay (F) and the latter Gamow–Teller (GT) decay, after George Gamow and Edward Teller, the physicists who first proposed it. The interaction constants are determined to be in the ratio....
  • Fermi energy (physics)
    ...physicist who first proposed it. It is important in determining the electrical and thermal properties of solids. The value of the Fermi level at absolute zero (−273.15 °C) is called the Fermi energy and is a constant for each solid. The Fermi level changes as the solid is warmed and as electrons are added to or withdrawn from the solid. Each of the many distinct energies with whic...
  • Fermi, Enrico (Italian-American physicist)
    Italian-born American scientist who was one of the chief architects of the nuclear age. He developed the mathematical statistics required to clarify a large class of subatomic phenomena, explored nuclear transformations caused by neutrons, and directed the first controlled chain reaction involving nuclear fission. He was awarded the 1938 ...
  • Fermi level (physics)
    a measure of the energy of the least tightly held electrons within a solid, named for Enrico Fermi, the physicist who first proposed it. It is important in determining the electrical and thermal properties of solids. The value of the Fermi level at absolute zero (−273.15 °C) is called the Fermi energy and is a constant for each solid. The Fermi level changes as the...
  • Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (laboratory, Batavia, Illinois, United States)
    U.S. national particle-accelerator laboratory and centre for particle-physics research, located in Batavia, Illinois, about 43 km (27 miles) west of Chicago. The facility is operated for the U.S. Department of Energy by the Universities Research Association, a consortium of 85 research universities in the United States and 4 universities rep...
  • Fermi paradox (physics)
    ...pi mesons and muons, after returning to Chicago. He was also known as a superb teacher, and many of his lectures are still in print. During his later years he raised a question now known as the Fermi paradox: “Where is everybody?” He was asking why no extraterrestrial civilizations seemed to be around to be detected, despite the great size and age of the universe. He......
  • Fermi plateau (physics)
    a measure of the energy of the least tightly held electrons within a solid, named for Enrico Fermi, the physicist who first proposed it. It is important in determining the electrical and thermal properties of solids. The value of the Fermi level at absolute zero (−273.15 °C) is called the Fermi energy and is a constant for each solid. The Fermi level changes as the...
  • Fermi sphere (physics)
    ...reflects the arrangement of atoms within a solid and is thus a guide to the properties of the material. In some metals, such as sodium and lithium, the Fermi surface is more or less spherical (a Fermi sphere), which indicates that the electrons behave similarly for any direction of motion. Other materials have Fermi surfaces that resemble American footballs or take on more-intricate shapes,......
  • Fermi surface (physics)
    in solid-state physics, abstract interface that defines the allowable energies of electrons in a solid. Named for Enrico Fermi, who along with P.A.M. Dirac developed the statistical theory of electrons, the Fermi surface is important for characterizing and predicting the thermal, electrical, magnetic, and optical properties of crystalline me...
  • Fermi-Dirac statistics (physics)
    in quantum mechanics, one of two possible ways in which a system of indistinguishable particles can be distributed among a set of energy states: each of the available discrete states can be occupied by only one particle. This exclusiveness accounts for the electron structure of atoms, in which electrons remain in separate states rather than collapsing into a common state, and for some aspects of ...
  • fermier-général (French finance)
    In the second half of the 18th century, a new wall was begun. The wall was built with 57 tollhouses to enable the farmers-general, a company of tax “farmers,” or collectors, to collect customs duties on goods entering Paris. The tollhouses are still standing at Place Denfert-Rochereau....
  • fermiers-generaux (French finance)
    In the second half of the 18th century, a new wall was begun. The wall was built with 57 tollhouses to enable the farmers-general, a company of tax “farmers,” or collectors, to collect customs duties on goods entering Paris. The tollhouses are still standing at Place Denfert-Rochereau....
  • Fermilab (laboratory, Batavia, Illinois, United States)
    U.S. national particle-accelerator laboratory and centre for particle-physics research, located in Batavia, Illinois, about 43 km (27 miles) west of Chicago. The facility is operated for the U.S. Department of Energy by the Universities Research Association, a consortium of 85 research universities in the United States and 4 universities rep...
  • fermion (subatomic particle)
    any member of a group of subatomic particles having odd half-integral angular momentum (spin 12, 32), named for the Fermi-Dirac statistics that describe its behaviour. Fermions include particles in the class of leptons (e.g., electrons, muons), baryons (e.g., neutrons, protons, lambda particles), and nuclei of odd...
  • fermium (chemical element)
    (Fm), synthetic chemical element of the actinoid series of the periodic table, atomic number 100. Fermium (as the isotope fermium-255) is produced by the intense neutron irradiation of uranium-238 and was first positively identified by Albert Ghiorso and coworkers at Berkeley, Calif., in debris taken from the first thermonuclear or hydrogen-bomb test explosion (November 1952), in the South Pacific...
  • fermium-256 (chemical isotope)
    ...these nuclides, those with lower mass numbers generally have longer half-lives. Uranium-238 has a half-life of about 1016 years when it decays by spontaneous fission, whereas fermium-256 decays with a half-life of about three hours....
  • Fermo (Italy)
    town and archiepiscopal see, Marche regione, Italy. It is situated on a hill overlooking the Tenna River, near the Adriatic Sea. An ancient stronghold (Firmum Picenum) of the Picenes (early inhabitants of the coast), it was taken by the Romans in 264 bc and became a colony with full rights in 42 bc. Conquered successively by the Goths, Byzantin...
  • fern (plant)
    any of several nonflowering vascular plants that possess true roots, stems, and complex leaves and that reproduce by spores. They belong to the lower vascular plant division Pteridophyta, having leaves usually with branching vein systems; the young leaves usually unroll from a tight fiddlehead, or crozier. The number of fern species is about 9,000, but estimat...
  • Fern, Fanny (American author and newspaper writer)
    American novelist and newspaper writer, one of the first woman columnists, known for her satiric commentary on contemporary society....
  • Fern Hill (work by Thomas)
    ...taught English at the Swansea grammar school, which in due course the boy attended. Because Dylan’s mother was a farmer’s daughter, he had a country home he could go to when on holiday. His poem “Fern Hill” (1946) describes its joys....
  • fern moss (plant)
    (genus Thuidium), any of several species of plants (subclass Bryidae) that form mats in grassy areas and on soil, rocks, logs, and tree bases throughout the Northern Hemisphere. Fewer than 10 of the 73 species are native to North America. A fern moss has fernlike branches and curved, cylindrical spore cases that mature in late summer or autumn....
  • Fern University (university, Hagen, Germany)
    ...include the manufacture of specialized steel, machinery, chemicals, industrial fittings, vehicle axles, and pollution-abatement equipment. Hagen is the site of several technical colleges, including Fern University (founded 1974), Germany’s first distance-learning university. Largely destroyed during World War II, the city was rebuilt in modern style with many parks, a theatre, and museum...
  • Fernaig manuscript (collection of Scottish poetry)
    ...to the MacDonalds of Clanranald. They were probably written for the most part in the 17th century but contained poems by earlier representatives of the family. The other important document was the Fernaig manuscript, compiled between 1688 and 1693, containing about 4,200 lines of verse, mostly political and religious....
  • Fernald, Merritt Lyndon (American botanist)
    American botanist noted for his comprehensive study of the flora of the northeastern United States....
  • Fernán González (count of Castile)
    ...Castile expanded during the 9th century but remained a fragmented collection of petty counties, whose rulers were nominated by the kings of Asturias and Leon, until the counties were united by Fernán González (d. 970), the first count of all Castile. With him the political history of Castile begins. He made the new county hereditary in his family and thus secured it a measure......
  • Fernand (work by Gounod)
    ...composer Anton Reicha. On Reicha’s death Gounod entered the Paris Conservatoire, where he studied under Fromental Halévy and Jean-François Lesueur. Three years later his cantata Fernand won him the Prix de Rome for music, an award that entailed a three-year stay in Rome at the Villa Medici....
  • Fernandel (French actor)
    French comedian whose visual trademarks were comic facial contortions and a wide, toothy grin....
  • Fernandeño (North American people)
    ...as the islands of Santa Catalina and San Clemente; they were named after the Franciscan mission San Gabriel Arcángel (and thus have sometimes been called San Gabrielinos). The second group, Fernandino (Fernandeño, or San Fernandinos), named after the mission San Fernando Rey de España, occupied areas in and around the San Fernando Valley and seacoast. A third, apparently......
  • Fernandes, Álvaro (Portuguese explorer)
    Portuguese sea captain, one of Prince Henry the Navigator’s explorers of West Africa....
  • Fernandes, António (Portuguese explorer and historian)
    Portuguese explorer in central Africa....
  • Fernandes de Oliveira, Mário António (Angolan author)
    scholar, short-story writer, and poet whose works focus alternately on Angolan and Portuguese cultures. A poet of personal love and social protest in his early years, António in his later poems frequently presents verbal portraits of moods, places, and experiences....
  • Fernandes, João (Portuguese explorer)
    Portuguese traveler to West Africa whose seven-month stay among the nomads of Río de Oro (later in the Spanish Sahara) supplied Prince Henry the Navigator with intelligence for advancing the Portuguese slave trade....
  • Fernández Alonso, Severo (president of Bolivia)
    ...silver magnates themselves (Gregorio Pacheco, 1884–88; Aniceto Arce, 1888–92) or closely associated with such magnates as partners or representatives (Mariano Baptista, 1892–96; Severo Fernández Alonso, 1896–99), the Liberals and subsequent 20th-century presidents were largely outside the mining elite. No tin magnate actively participated in leadership positio...
  • Fernandez, Armand Pierre (French-American artist)
    French-born artist (b. Nov. 17, 1928, Nice, France—d. Oct. 22, 2005, New York, N.Y), was a founding member of the Nouveau Réalisme movement in 1960s Paris and a master of found-object sculptures, into which he incorporated everyday machine-made objects—ranging from buttons and spoons to automobiles and boxes filled with trash. Arman, who signed his work with his first name (th...
  • Fernández, Cristina (president of Argentina)
    Argentinian lawyer and politician who in 2007 became the first female elected president of Argentina. She succeeded her husband, Néstor Kirchner, who had served as president from 2003 to 2007....
  • Fernández de Avellaneda, Alonso (Spanish author)
    probably the pseudonym of the otherwise unknown author of Segundo tomo del ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha (1614; “Second Book of the Ingenious Knight Don Quixote of La Mancha”), a fraudulent sequel to the first volume of Miguel de Cervantes’ Don Quixote (1605). In the 59th chapter of the second volume of Don Quixote (1615), C...
  • Fernandez de Coca, Imogene (American actress)
    American actress and comedian (b. Nov. 18, 1908, Philadelphia, Pa.—d. June 2, 2001, Westport, Conn.), employed her expressive, elastic face—enhanced by saucer eyes and a huge smile—as well as her energetic physicality and improvisational abilities to great effect, most notably in skits with comedian Sid Caesar on live television during American TV’s Golden Age. For the ...
  • Fernández de Córdoba, Gonzalo (Spanish military commander)
    Spanish military leader renowned for his exploits in southern Italy....
  • Fernández de Kirchner, Cristina (president of Argentina)
    Argentinian lawyer and politician who in 2007 became the first female elected president of Argentina. She succeeded her husband, Néstor Kirchner, who had served as president from 2003 to 2007....
  • Fernández de Lizardi, José Joaquín (Mexican editor and author)
    Mexican editor, pamphleteer, and novelist, a leading literary figure in Mexico’s national liberation movement....
  • Fernández de Moratín, Leandro (Spanish author)
    dramatist and poet, the most influential Neoclassic literary figure of the Spanish Enlightenment....
  • Fernández de Navarrete, Juan (Spanish painter)
    painter of the Spanish Mannerist school. He studied in Italy, mostly in Venice, where he was influenced by Sebastiano del Piombo, Tintoretto, and Titian. In 1568 he was appointed painter to the king, who chose him (1576) to play a major role in the decoration of El Escorial monastery, near Madrid; of the 32 altarpieces commissioned for the monastery, only eight were completed at the time of his de...
  • Fernández de Quirós, Pedro (Portuguese explorer)
    ...group in northern Vanuatu, southwestern Pacific Ocean. The group includes the islands of Vanua Lava, Santa Maria (Gaua), Mota, and Mota Lava, as well as numerous islets. The Portuguese navigator Pedro Fernández de Quirós was the first European visitor, in 1606; the islands were mapped in 1793 by Capt. William Bligh of the British navy and were named by him for his patron, the......
  • Fernández de Santa Cruz, Manuel (bishop of Puebla)
    ...he had publicly maligned her. The nun’s privileged situation began definitively to collapse after the departure for Spain of her protectors, the marquis and marquise de la Laguna. In November 1690, Manuel Fernández de Santa Cruz, bishop of Puebla, published without Sor Juana’s permission her critique of a 40-year-old sermon by the Portuguese Jesuit preacher António V...
  • Fernández, Dolores (American labour leader and activist)
    American labour leader and activist whose work on behalf of migrant farmworkers led to the establishment of the United Farm Workers of America....
  • Fernández, Gregorio (Spanish sculptor)
    Spanish sculptor whose works are among the finest examples of polychromed wood sculpture created during the Baroque period. His images are characterized by their emotional intensity, spiritual expressiveness, and sense of dramatic gravity, as well as by their illusionistic realism....
  • Fernández Guardia, Ricardo (Costa Rican author)
    ...since 1971, with the ensemble playing large halls and also taking music to the countryside. Costa Ricans have been marginally active in the field of literature. Roberto Brenes Mesén and Ricardo Fernández Guardia were widely known in the early 20th century as independent thinkers in the fields of education and history, respectively. Fabián Dobles and Carlos Luis Fallas......
  • Fernández, Juan (American politician)
    When Huerta was a child she moved to Stockton, California, with her mother and siblings after her parents’ divorce. She remained in touch with her father, Juan Fernández, and took pride in his personal and professional development from coal miner to migrant labourer to union activist to an elected representative in the New Mexico state legislature to college graduate. Unlike most......
  • Fernández, Juan (Spanish navigator)
    navigator in the service of Spain who in 1563 sailed from Callao, Peru, to Valparaíso, Chile, in 30 days, a remarkable feat that gained him the title of brujo, or wizard. Probably between 1563 and 1574 he discovered the Juan Fernández Islands west of Valparaíso. Obtaining a grant from the Spanish government, he stocked...
  • Fernández, Lola (Costa Rican artist)
    ...between these intuitive abstractions and the more carefully plotted geometric shapes of such “formalist” artists as Torres-García. Beginning about 1960 the Costa Rican artist Lola Fernández and some of her so-called Group of Eight colleagues used colour, texture, and painterly gesture to convey emotion with multiple associations—some microscopic, some cosmic.....
  • Fernández, Lucas (Spanish dramatist and musician)
    Spanish dramatist and musician, whose plays are notable for their effective dialogue, simple humour, and skillful use of interpolated songs and music....
  • Fernández, Manuel Félix (president of Mexico)
    Mexican soldier and political leader who was the first president of the Mexican Republic....
  • Fernández Retamar, Roberto (Cuban author and critic)
    Cuban poet, essayist, and literary critic and cultural spokesman for the regime of Fidel Castro....
  • Fernández Reyna, Leonel (president of Dominican Republic)
    politician who served as president of the Dominican Republic (1996–2000; 2004– )....
  • Fernández Reyna, Leonel Antonio (president of Dominican Republic)
    politician who served as president of the Dominican Republic (1996–2000; 2004– )....
  • Fernández, Vicente García Huidobro (Chilean writer)
    Chilean poet, self-proclaimed father of the short-lived avant-garde movement known as Creacionismo (“Creationism”). Huidobro was a prominent figure in the post-World War I literary vanguard in Paris and Madrid as well as at home in Chile, and he did much to introduce his countrymen to contemporary European, especially French, innovations in poeti...
  • Fernández-Muro, José Antonio (Argentine artist)
    ...relief, by Gunther Gerzso of Mexico, whose geometric constructs took on a biomorphic presence in the late 1950s and ’60s. In roughly the same period the work of the Argentine couple Sarah Grilo and José Antonio Fernández-Muro dealt with clashing geometry, often focusing on circles and X’s. These works have some connection to the dispassionate target paintings of Jasp...
  • Fernandina Beach (Florida, United States)
    city, seat (1824) of Nassau county, extreme northeastern Florida, U.S. It is situated on Amelia Island (one of the Sea Islands), just south of the Georgia border and near the mouth of the St. Marys River, about 25 miles (40 km) northeast of Jacksonville....
  • Fernandina de Jagua (Cuba)
    city and port, central Cuba. One of the country’s chief ports, it stands on a broad, level peninsula opposite the narrow entrance to the sheltered Bahía (bay) de Cienfuegos. A major part of Cuba’s shrimp-trawling industry operates out of Cienfuegos, and the port also handles the bulk of the country’s sugar exports. Cienfuegos is built on a rectangular...
  • Fernandina Island (island, Ecuador)
    one of the Galápagos Islands of Ecuador, in the eastern Pacific Ocean, about 600 mi (965 km) west of Ecuador. Third largest of the islands, with an area of 245 sq mi (635 sq km), it is separated from Isabela Island by the Bolívar Strait. Its relief is dominated by a single volcanic crater (3,720 feet [1,134 m]), still intensely active. It is without human population....
  • Fernandino (African people)
    ...most of them Fang, have flocked to the island since the mid-1960s, seeking to join the civil or military forces or to receive political patronage. In addition to these two groups, there are Fernandinos, descendants of former slaves liberated by the British during the 19th century who mingled with other emancipated Africans from Sierra Leone and Cuba as well as with immigrants from other......
  • Fernandino (North American people)
    ...as the islands of Santa Catalina and San Clemente; they were named after the Franciscan mission San Gabriel Arcángel (and thus have sometimes been called San Gabrielinos). The second group, Fernandino (Fernandeño, or San Fernandinos), named after the mission San Fernando Rey de España, occupied areas in and around the San Fernando Valley and seacoast. A third, apparently......
  • Fernando (Portuguese friar)
    Franciscan friar, doctor of the church, and patron of the poor. Baptized Ferdinand, he joined the Augustinian canons (1210) and probably became a priest. In 1220 he joined the Franciscan order, hoping to preach to the Saracens and be martyred. Instead, he taught theology at Bologna, Italy, and at Montpellier, Toulouse, and Puy-en-Velay in southern France, winning great admiration as a preacher. He...
  • Fernando de Antequera (king of Aragon)
    king of Aragon from 1412 to 1416, second son of John I of Castile and Eleanor, daughter of Peter IV of Aragon....
  • Fernando de Noronha Island (island and territory, Brazil)
    island, South Atlantic Ocean, 225 miles (360 km) northeast of Cape São Roque; with its adjacent islets it constitutes part of Pernambuco estado (state), Brazil. The main island, rising to 1,089 feet (332 metres), has an area of 10 square miles (26 square km) and is of volcanic origin. Given in 1504 to its Portuguese discoverer, F...
  • Fernando el Católico (king of Spain)
    king of Aragon and king of Castile (as Ferdinand V) from 1479, joint sovereign with Queen Isabella I. (As Spanish ruler of southern Italy, he was also known as Ferdinand III of Naples and Ferdinand II of Sicily.) He united the Spanish kingdoms into the nation of Spain and began Spain’s entry into the modern period of imperial expansion....
  • Fernando el Deseado (king of Spain)
    king of Spain in 1808 and from 1814 to 1833. Between 1808 and 1813, during the Napoleonic Wars, Ferdinand was imprisoned in France by Napoleon....
  • Fernando el Magno (king of Castile and Leon)
    the first ruler of Castile to take the title of king. He also was crowned emperor of Leon....
  • Fernando II (Portuguese duke)
    ...father had been openhanded and negligent. At his reign’s first Cortes, John exacted a detailed oath of homage that displeased his greatest vassals. A suspicion of conspiracy enabled him to arrest Fernando II, duke of Bragança, and many of his followers; the duke was sentenced to death and executed at Évora in 1484. As well as attacking the power of the nobility, John lessen...
  • Fernando o Formosa (king of Portugal)
    ninth king of Portugal (1367–83), whose reign was marked by three wars with Castile and by the growth of the Portuguese economy....
  • Fernando o Inconstante (king of Portugal)
    ninth king of Portugal (1367–83), whose reign was marked by three wars with Castile and by the growth of the Portuguese economy....
  • Fernando Ortiz Foundation (Cuban foundation)
    In 1995 the Foundation Fernando Ortiz was created in Havana for the preservation of his legacy and the continuation of the studies that he started, especially those of Afro-Cuban culture....
  • Fernando Po (island and province, Equatorial Guinea)
    island in the Bight of Biafra (Gulf of Guinea), lying about 60 miles (100 km) off the coast of southern Nigeria and 100 miles (160 km) northwest of continental Equatorial Guinea, western Africa. The island was named after the first president of the country in 1973, but Bioko became the local official name after he was deposed in 1979. Volcanic in origin, it is parallelogram-shaped with a north...
  • Fernando Póo (island and province, Equatorial Guinea)
    island in the Bight of Biafra (Gulf of Guinea), lying about 60 miles (100 km) off the coast of southern Nigeria and 100 miles (160 km) northwest of continental Equatorial Guinea, western Africa. The island was named after the first president of the country in 1973, but Bioko became the local official name after he was deposed in 1979. Volcanic in origin, it is parallelogram-shaped with a north...
  • Fernando, San (king of Castile and Leon)
    king of Castile from 1217 to 1252 and of Leon from 1230 to 1252 and conqueror of the Muslim cities of Córdoba (1236), Jaén (1246), and Sevilla (1248). During his campaigns, Murcia submitted to his son Alfonso (later Alfonso X), and the Muslim kingdom of Granada became his vassal....
  • Ferne, Sir John (English writer)
    ...Albans (1486) by Juliana Berners, and yet, by comparison with the vast mass of nonsense contained in the folios of the 16th century, such conceits were not entirely unreasonable. The works of Sir John Ferne, Blazon of Gentrie (1586), Gerard Legh, The Accedens of Armorie (1562), and John Guillim, A Display of Heraldrie (1610), not only......
  • Ferocactus (plant genus)
    name for a group of more or less barrel-shaped cacti, family Cactaceae, native to North and South America. It is most often used for two large-stemmed North American genera, Ferocactus and Echinocactus. Small barrel cacti include the genera Sclerocactus, Neolloydia, and Thelocactus, and other barrel cacti are Astrophytum and some species of......
  • Ferozepore (India)
    city, southwestern Punjab state, northwestern India, 5 miles (8 km) from the Pakistani border. Fīrozpur was founded by Fīrūz Shāh Tughluq in the 14th century; it fell under British rule in 1835. It became a British outpost and was involved in the First Sikh War (1845–46). The city, lying at a major junction of Indian and Pakistani rail lines, is a trade centre an...
  • Ferozepur (India)
    city, southeastern Haryāna state, northwestern India. The city is said to have been founded by Fīrūz Shāh III as a military outpost and was constituted a municipality in 1867. Connected by road with Alwar, in Rājasthān state, and with Gurgaon city, it is an agricultural market centre. Industries include a distillery and iron and metalware factories. Pop. (...
  • Ferrabosco, Alfonso, I (Italian composer)
    Italian composer known for his madrigals, motets, and lute music. The son of a singer and composer, Domenico Maria Ferrabosco, he settled in England in 1562. He traveled abroad on several occasions, using his entrée to foreign courts to act as a spy for the English government, and he was granted a life pension by Elizabeth I. In 1578 he returned to Italy and entered the service of the Duke ...
  • Ferrabosco, Alfonso, II (English composer)
    English composer, viol player, and lutenist, known especially for his music for viol. The illegitimate son of the composer Alfonso Ferrabosco I, he was educated in music at the expense of Queen Elizabeth I and remained in royal service until his death. He collaborated with Ben Jonson and the architect Inigo Jones in the extravagant masques produced at the court of James I. His f...
  • Ferrabosco, Pietro (Italian architect)
    ...Ionic half columns with deeply recessed arched openings. Several castles or large houses like that at Opočno (1560–67) or of Bučovice (1566–87), designed by the Italian Pietro Ferrabosco, had spacious courtyards with arcades on Classical columns....
  • Ferragamo, Fiamma di San Giuliano (Italian designer)
    Italian designer who helped turn her family’s shoe business into one of the most famous in the world of high fashion; her Vara model, a low-heeled pump that sported grosgrain ribbon and a gold buckle embossed with the family signature, was created in the 1960s and became a classic (b. 1941, Florence, Italy--d. Sept. 28, 1998, Florence)....
  • Ferralsol (FAO soil group)
    one of the 30 soil groups in the classification system of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Ferralsols are red and yellow weathered soils whose colours result from an accumulation of metal oxides, particularly iron and aluminum (from which the name of the soil group is derived). They are formed on geologically old parent materials...
  • Ferrand (count of Flanders)
    ...that gave a decisive victory to the French king Philip II Augustus over an international coalition of the Holy Roman emperor Otto IV, King John of England, and the French vassals—Ferdinand (Ferrand) of Portugal, count of Flanders, and Renaud (Raynald) of Dammartin, count of Boulogne. The victory enhanced the power and the prestige of the French monarchy in France and in the rest of......
  • Ferrante I (king of Naples)
    king of Naples from 1458....
  • Ferranti Mark I (computer)
    ...value. Four months after the Baby first worked, the British government contracted the electronics firm of Ferranti to build a production computer based on the prospective Mark I. This became the Ferranti Mark I—the first commercial computer—of which nine were sold. (See photograph.)...
  • Ferranti, Sebastian Ziani de (British engineer)
    British electrical engineer who promoted the installation of large electrical generating stations and alternating-current distribution networks in England....
  • Ferranti-Thomson dynamo (electrical instrument)
    ...William Siemens in experiments with electric furnaces and dynamos. By the age of 18 he patented an alternator that was later found to have been anticipated by Sir William Thomson (later Lord Kelvin). The device was noted for its compactness and for its capacity to produce five times more power than any other machine of its size....
  • Ferrar, Nicholas (British minister)
    Anglican clergyman, founder and director of a celebrated Christian community devoted to spiritual discipline and social service. Ferrar was also a friend of the English devotional poet George Herbert and brought Herbert’s poetry to public attention....
  • Ferrar, W. H. (Irish scholar)
    ...Family 1:1, 118, 131, and 209 (from the 12th to 14th centuries) that have a text type similar to that of Θ, a 3rd–4th-century Caesarean type. At the end of the 19th century, W.H. Ferrar, a classical scholar at Dublin University (hence, the Ferrar group), found that manuscripts 13, 69, 124, and 346—and some minuscules discovered later (from the 11th to 15th......
  • Ferrara (Italy)
    city, northeastern Emilia-Romagna regione (region), northern Italy, on the Po di Volano, a branch channel of the Po River, northeast of Bologna. Although it is believed to be the site of the ancient Forum Alieni, from which its name is derived, there is no record of Ferrara earlier than ad 753, when it was captured from the exarchate of Ravenna...
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