kindergarten School or class intended for children age four to six as a prominent part of preschool education. The kindergarten originated in the early 19th century as an outgrowth of the ideas and practices of Rob¬
ert Owen in Britain, Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi in Switzerland and his pupil Friedrich Froebel (who coined the term) in Germany, and Maria Montessori in Italy. Kindergartens generally stress the social and emotional growth of the child, encouraging self-understanding through play activities and creative expression.
Kindi, al- in full Yakub ibn Ishaq al-Sabah al-Kindi (died c. 870) First prominent Islamic philosopher. He worked in Iraq under the caliphs al-MAMUN and al-Mutasim. One of the first Arab students of the Greek philosophers, he translated important Greek works into Arabic and tried to combine the views of Plato and Aristotle into a new system. His short treatises considered the philosophical questions set forth by Neo¬ platonism. He also wrote over 270 scientific treatises on such subjects as astrology, Indian arithmetic, sword manufacturing, and cooking.
kinematics \ l ki-n3-'ma-tiks\ Branch of physics concerned with the geo¬ metrically possible motion of a body or system of bodies, without con¬ sideration of the forces involved. It describes the spatial position of bodies or systems, their velocities, and their acceleration. See also dynamics.
kinesiology \ki-,ne-ze-'a-l3-je\ Study of the mechanics and anatomy of human movement and their roles in promoting health and reducing dis¬ ease. Kinesiology has direct applications to fitness and health, including developing exercise programs for people with and without disabilities, preserving the independence of older people, preventing disease due to trauma and neglect, and rehabilitating people after disease or injury. Kine¬ siologists also develop more accessible furniture and environments for people with limited movement and find ways to enhance individual and team efficiency. Kinesiology research encompasses the biochemistry of muscle contraction and tissue fluids, bone mineralization, responses to exercise, how physical skills are developed, work efficiency, and the anthropology of play.
kinetic energy \ko-'net-ik\ Form of energy that an object has by rea¬ son of its motion. The kind of motion may be translation (motion along a path from one place to another), rotation about an axis, vibration, or any combination of motions. The total kinetic energy of a body or system is equal to the sum of the kinetic energies resulting from each type of motion. The kinetic energy of an object depends on its mass and velocity. For instance, the amount of kinetic energy KE of an object in translational motion is equal to one-half the product of its mass m and the square of its velocity v, or KE = Vimv 2 , provided the speed is low relative to the speed of light. At higher speeds, relativity changes the relationship.
kinetic sculpture Sculpture in which movement (as of a motor-driven part or a changing electronic image) is a basic element. Actual movement became an important aspect of sculpture in the 20th century. Pioneers such as Naum Gabo, Marcel Duchamp, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, and Alexander Calder produced movement by such means as water, mechanical devices, and air currents (as in Calder’s mobiles). Neo-Dadaist works such as Jean Tinguely’s self-destructing Homage to New York (1960) embody the con¬ cept of a sculpture that functions as both an object and an event—a “hap¬ pening.”
kinetic theory of gases Theory based on a simple description of a gas, from which many properties of gases can be derived. Established pri¬ marily by James Clerk Maxwell and Ludwig Boltzmann, the theory is one of the most important concepts in modern science. The simplest kinetic model is based on the assumptions that (1) a gas is composed of a large number of identical molecules moving in random directions, separated by distances that are large compared to their size; (2) the molecules undergo perfectly elastic (no energy loss) collisions with each other and with the walls of the container; and (3) the transfer of kinetic energy between mol¬ ecules is heat. This model describes a perfect gas but is a reasonable approximation to a real gas. Using the kinetic theory, scientists can relate the independent motion of molecules of gases to their pressure, volume, temperature, viscosity, and heat conductivity.
king Male sovereign over a nation or territory, of higher rank than any other ruler except an emperor. A king’s female counterpart is a queen. Some kings have been elected, as in medieval Germany, but most inherit the position. The community may concentrate all spiritual and political power in the sovereign, or power may be shared constitutionally with other government institutions. Some kings are heads of state but not heads of government. In the past, some were regarded as semidivine represen¬ tatives of God on Earth; others were viewed as gods in their own right or supernatural beings who became gods after death (see divine kingship).
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King ► king crab I 1037
Since the 17th century the power held by monarchs, particularly those in western Europe, has been widely regarded as deriving from the people. See also constitutional monarchy; khan; monarchy; pharaoh; tsar.
King, B.B. orig. Riley B. King (b. Sept. 16, 1925, Itta Bena, near Indianola, Miss., U.S.) U.S. blues guitarist. Reared in the Mississippi Delta, he was influenced early by gospel music. He worked for a time as a disc jockey in Memphis, where he acquired the nickname B.B. (for Blues Boy). His first hit, “Three O’Clock Blues” (1951), was fol¬ lowed by a long succession of oth¬ ers, including “Every Day I Have the Blues” and “The Thrill Is Gone.” To his own impassioned vocal calls.
King played single-string guitar responses with a distinctive vibrato, in a style influenced by Delta blues guitarists and jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt. By the late 1960s rock gui¬ tarists were acknowledging his influ¬ ence and introducing King and his guitar, Lucille, to the white public.
He remains the most successful bluesman of all time.
King, Billie Jean orig. Billie Jean Moffitt (b. Nov. 22, 1943, Long Beach, Calif., U.S.) U.S. tennis player. She won her first Wimbledon doubles championship in 1961 as part of the youngest team to do so.
She went on to capture a record 20 Wimbledon titles (singles, women’s doubles, and mixed doubles) from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s; in 2003 her record was tied by Martina Navratilova. She also won several U.S. singles titles (1967, 1971-72,
1974) and the Australian (1968) and French (1972) titles. She was ranked first in the U.S. seven times and first in the world five times. In 1973 she defeated the 55-year-old former men’s champion Bobby Riggs in a widely publicized “Battle of the Sexes.” She was cofounder and first president (1974) of the Women’s Tennis Association, and in 1974, with her hus¬ band, Larry King, she also founded World TeamTennis, of which she served as director. She wrote two autobiographies (with cowriters) and a history of women’s tennis, and she cofounded the magazine Womensport.
King, Larry orig. Lawrence Harvey Zeiger (b. Nov. 19, 1933, Brooklyn, N.Y., U.S.) U.S. talk-show host. He worked in Miami, Fla., as a radio disc jockey, talk-show host, and freelance broadcaster and writer (1957-78). He hosted the popular national radio talk show The Larry King Show (1978-94) and, since 1985, the television talk show Larry King Live on CNN. Known for his easygoing interviewing style with celebrities, news makers, and world leaders, he conducted more than 30,000 inter¬ views on his two shows.
King, Martin Luther, Jr. (b. Jan. 15, 1929, Atlanta, Ga., U.S.—d. April 4, 1968, Memphis, Tenn.) U.S. civil-rights leader. The son and grandson of Baptist preachers. King became an adherent of nonviolence while in college. Ordained a Baptist minister himself in 1954, he became pastor of a church in Montgomery,