strike In geology, the direction of the line formed by the intersection of a fault, bed, or other planar feature and a horizontal plane. Strike indi¬ cates the orientation of planar structural features such as faults, beds, joints, and folds.
Strindberg Ystrin- I ber y ,\ English Vstrind-.bsrgV (Johan) August (b. Jan. 22,1849, Stockholm, Swed.—d.
May 14, 1912, Stockholm) Swedish playwright and novelist. While working as a journalist, he wrote the historical drama Master 0/o/(1872); though rejected by the national the¬ atre and not produced until 1890, it is now considered the first modem Swedish drama. He won fame with his novel The Red Room (1879), which satirized the Stockholm art world. His unhappy life included three marriages and episodes of mental instability. In his most cre¬ ative period he moved restlessly around Europe for six years, writing his three major plays: The Father (1887), Miss Julie (1888), and The Creditors (1890). These iconoclastic works portrayed the battle of the sexes using a combination of dra¬ matic naturalism and psychology.
During this period he also wrote three novels. After a mental breakdown he experienced a religious conversion that inspired symbolic dramas such as The Dance of Death (1901), A Dream Play (1902), and five “chamber plays,” including The Ghost Sonata (1907).
string quartet Ensemble consisting of two violins, viola, and cello, or a work written for such an ensemble. Since c. 1775 such works have been perhaps the predominant genre of chamber music. It was principally devel¬ oped (if not quite invented) by Joseph Haydn, who wrote some 70 quar¬ tets between 1757 and 1803. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Schubert, Bela Bartok, and Dmitry Shostakovich are the preeminent subsequent quartet composers. Works called string quartets have traditionally observed the four-movement design of the sonata and symphony. Like most chamber music genres, quartet music was tradition¬ ally intended primarily for the private enjoyment of amateur musicians rather than for public performance.
string theory Any of a number of theories in particle physics that treat elementary particles (see subatomic particle) as infinitesimal one¬ dimensional “stringlike” objects rather than dimensionless points in space- time. Different vibrations of the strings correspond to different particles. Introduced in the early 1970s in attempts to describe the strong force, string theories became popular in the 1980s when it was shown that they might provide a fully self-consistent quantum field theory that could describe gravitation as well as the weak, strong, and electromagnetic forces. The development of a unified quantum field theory is a major goal in theoretical particle physics, but inclusion of gravity usually leads to dif¬ ficult problems with infinite quantities in the calculations. The most self- consistent string theories propose 11 dimensions; 4 correspond to the 3 ordinary spatial dimensions and time, while the rest are curled up and not perceptible.
stringed instrument Any musical instrument that produces sound by the vibrations of strings. The strings may be of gut, metal, fibre, or plas¬ tic, and may be plucked, bowed, or struck. The orchestral stringed instru¬ ments include the violin, viola, cello, double bass, and harp. Keyboard stringed instruments include the clavichord, harpsichord, piano, and vir¬ ginal. See also Aeolian harp; balalaika; dulcimer; guitar; kithara; koto; lute; lyre; mandolin; pipa; sitar; c 0d; ukulele; viol; zither.
strip mining Technique for the surface mining of coal by removing the soil and rock overburden above a seam and extracting the exposed min¬ eral. The method is used to best advantage where the coal seam is thin and not deeply buried. (Thicker and deeper seams would be extracted by open-pit or underground mining.) Strip mining is most economical where flat terrain and horizontal seams permit a large area to be stripped. Where deposits occur in rolling or mountainous terrain, a contour method is used that creates a shelf with a slope on one side and an almost vertical wall
Strindberg, lithograph by Edvard Munch, 1896
COURTESY OF THE MUNCH-MUSEET, OSLO; PHOTOGRAPH, O. VAERING
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
strobilus > structural system I 1833
on the other. A variety of equipment is used, including dozers, scrapers, hydraulic shovels, draglines, and bucket-wheel excavators. Concern over the environmental effects of strip mining have resulted in numerous requirements for the reclamation of excavated land.
strobilus See cone
stroboscope Instrument that repeatedly illuminates a rotating or vibrat¬ ing object in order to study the motion of the object or to determine its rotation speed or vibration frequency. The effect is achieved by produc¬ ing light in very short bursts timed to occur when the moving part is in the same phase of its motion. By use of the stroboscope, a machine part, for example, may be made to appear to slow down or stop.
Stroessner \'stres-nor\, Alfredo (b. Nov. 3, 1912, Encamacion, Para.) Military leader and president of Paraguay (1954-89). The son of a Ger¬ man immigrant, Stroessner joined the army in 1932 and rose to become commander in chief in 1951. He deposed Pres. Federico Chavez (b. 1881?—d. 1978) and was the sole candidate in the 1954 presidential elec¬ tions. He stabilized the currency, moderated inflation, and provided some new schools and public health facilities, but he spent half the national income on the military establishment in order to preserve his authority and harshly suppressed his political opponents. After his election to an eighth successive term, he was deposed in a coup d’etat and went into exile.
Strogonov Vstro-go-noA school School of icon painting named for its original patrons, the Stroganov fam¬ ily, that flourished in Russia in the late 16th and 17th century. The art¬ ists perfected their work in the ser¬ vice of the tsar in Moscow. The paintings, designed for private use, were produced in a muted colour range dominated by golden browns with gold and silver linear high¬ lights. Small and exquisitely detailed and embellished with frames and halos of beaten gold and silver, they represent the last vital stage of Rus¬ sian medieval painting before the westernization of Russian art at the end of the 17th century.
Stroheim \'shtro- l him,\ English \'stro-,hIm\, Erich von orig. Erich Oswald Stroheim (b. Sept. 22,
1885, Vienna, Austria—d. May 12,
1957, near Paris, France) Austrian- U.S. film director and actor. He was the son of a Jewish hatmaker, and he immigrated to the U.S. after his mili¬ tary service. He arrived in Holly¬ wood in 1914, where he worked for D.W. Griffith and performed his trademark role as a Prussian officer.
His directorial debut. Blind Hus¬ bands (1919), was followed by The Devil’s Passkey (1920) and Foolish Wives (1922). Greed (1924), his masterpiece, was a landmark in film realism; however, it was cut from 9 hours to 140 minutes—without his approval—before its release. It was followed by The Merry Widow (1925), The Wedding March (1928), and Queen Kelly (1928). His extravagance and demand for artistic control scuttled his directing career, and he returned to acting, notably in Grand Illusion (1937) and Sunset Boulevard (1950).
stroke or cerebrovascular accident (CVA) Sudden impairment of brain function due to hypoxia, which may cause death of brain tissue. Hypertension, atherosclerosis, smoking, high cholesterol, diabetes, old age, atrial fibrillation, and genetic defects are risk factors. Strokes due to throm¬ bosis (the most common cause), embolism, or arterial spasm, which cause