Foxx, Jimmie orig. James Emory Foxx (b. Oct. 22, 1907, Sudlersville, Md., U.S.—d. July 21,
1967, Miami, Fla.) U.S. baseball player. Foxx batted right-handed and played mostly at first base, princi¬ pally with the Philadelphia Athletics (1925—35) and the Boston Red Sox (1936-42). In two of his 20 seasons he hit over 50 home runs. His career home runs totaled 534 when he retired in 1945, making him the sec¬ ond man in major-league history (after Babe Ruth) to hit 500 home runs.
Foyt, A(nthony) J(oseph), Jr.
(b. Jan. 16, 1935, Houston, Texas,
U.S.) U.S. automobile racing driver.
He became the first four-time winner of the Indianapolis 500 (1961, 1964,
1967, 1977) and is the only driver to have won the Indy 500, the Daytona 500, and the Le Mans Grand Prix. He was national champion stock-car driver in 1968, 1978, and 1979, and he also amassed numerous wins in sports- and midget-car racing.
Fracastoro Vfra-ka-'sto-roV, Girolamo Latin Hieronymus Fra- castorius (b. c. 1478, Verona, Republic of Venice—d. Aug. 8, 1553, Caffi, near Verona) Italian physician, poet, astronomer, and geologist. He is best known for Syphilis, or the French Disease (1530), an account in rhyme of the disease he named. His intense study of epidemic diseases led to his On Contagion and Contagious Diseases (1546). The first sci¬ entific statement of the true nature of contagion, infection, disease germs, and modes of disease transmission, it stated that each disease is caused by a different type of rapidly multiplying minute body, transmitted by direct contact, by carriers such as soiled clothing or through the air. Widely praised in his time, Fracastoro’s theory, soon obscured by the mystical doctrines of Paracelsus, fell into general disrepute until Louis Pas¬ teur and Robert Koch proved it 300 years later.
fractal geometry In mathematics, the study of complex shapes with the property of self-similarity, known as fractals. Rather like holograms that store the entire image in each part of the image, any part of a fractal can be repeatedly magnified, with each magnification resembling all or part of the original fractal. This phenomenon can be seen in objects like snowflakes and tree bark. The term fractal was coined by Benoit B. Man¬ delbrot in 1975. This new system of geometry has had a significant impact on such diverse fields as physical chemistry, physiology, and fluid mechanics; fractals can describe irregularly shaped objects or spatially nonuniform phenomena that cannot be described by Euclidean geometry. Fractal simulations have been used to plot the distributions of galactic clusters and to generate lifelike images of complicated, irregular natural objects, including rugged terrains and foliage used in films. See also chaos THEORY.
fraction In arithmetic, a number expressed as a quotient, in which a numerator is divided by a denominator. In a simple fraction, both are inte¬ gers. A complex fraction has a fraction in the numerator or denominator. In a proper fraction, the numerator is less than the denominator. If the numerator is greater, it is called an improper fraction and can also be written as a mixed number—a whole-number quotient with a proper- fraction remainder. Any fraction can be written in decimal form by car¬ rying out the division of the numerator by the denominator. The result may end at some point, or one or more digits may repeat without end.
fracture In mineralogy, the appearance of a surface broken in directions other than along cleavage planes. There are several kinds of fractures: conchoidal (curved concavities resembling shells, as in glass); even (rough, approximately plane surfaces); uneven (rough and completely irregular surfaces, the commonest type); hackly (sharp edges and jagged points and depressions); and splintery (partially separated splinters or fibres).
fracture In engineering, rupture of a material too weak to sustain the forces on it. A fracture of the workpiece during forming can result from flaws in the metal; these often consist of nonmetallic inclusions such as oxides or sulfides trapped in the metal during refining. Laps are another type of flaw, in which part of a metal piece is inadvertently folded over on itself but the two sides of the fold are not completely welded together. Structural and machine parts subject to vibrations and other cyclic load¬ ing must be designed to avoid fatigue fracture. See also ductility, metal¬ lurgy, strength of materials, testing machine.
fracture Break in a bone, caused by stress. It causes pain, tenderness, and inability to use the part with the fracture. The site appears deformed, swollen, and discoloured, and the bone moves in abnormal ways. It must be protected from weight bearing and movement between the broken ends while it heals, producing puttylike new tissue that hardens to join the bro¬ ken pieces together. Complications include failure to heal, healing in the wrong position, and loss of function despite good healing. Fractures in joints present a particularly serious problem, often requiring surgery. See also OSTEOPOROSIS.
fracture zone, submarine See submarine fracture zone
Fraenkel-Conrat N.freq-kol-'kon-raA, Heinz L(udwig) (b. July 29, 1910, Breslau, Ger.—d. April 10, 1999, Oakland, Calif., U.S.) German- born U.S. biochemist. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Edin¬ burgh and moved to the U.S. in 1936, eventually joining the faculty at UC-Berkeley. Studying the tobacco mosaic virus, he broke it down into its noninfectious protein and nearly noninfectious nucleic acid compo¬ nents and, by recombining them, successfully reconstituted the fully infec¬ tive virus, which led to the discovery that the nucleic acid portion is responsible for its infectivity and, in the absence of the viral protein, is broken down by RNA-splitting enzymes (nucleases).
Fragonard \fra-go-'nar\, Jean-Honore (b. April 5, 1732, Grasse, Fr.—d. Aug. 22, 1806, Paris) French painter. He studied with Francois Boucher in Paris c. 1749. He subse¬ quently won a Prix de Rome, and while in Italy (1756-61) he traveled extensively and executed many sketches of the countryside, espe¬ cially the gardens at the Villa d’Este at Tivoli, and developed a great admiration for the work of Giovanni Battista Tiepolo. In 1765 his large his¬ torical painting Coresus Sacrifices Himself to Save Callirhoe was pur¬ chased for Louis XV and won Frago¬ nard election to the French Royal Academy. He soon abandoned this style to concentrate on landscapes in the manner of Jacob van Ruisdael, portraits, and the decorative, erotic outdoor party scenes for which he became famous (e.g.. The Swing, c.
1766). The gentle hedonism of such party scenes epitomized the Rococo style. Although the greater part of his
Foxx, 1940
UPI-EB INC.
"The Swing," detail, oil on canvas by Jean-Honore Fragonard, c. 1766; in the Wallace Collection, London
COURTESY OF THE TRUSTEES OF THE WALLACE COLLECTION, LONDON
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
Frame ► France I 701
active life was passed during the Neoclassical period, he continued to paint in a Rococo idiom until shortly before the French Revolution, when he lost his patrons and livelihood.
Frame (Clutha), Janet (Paterson) (b. Aug. 28, 1924, Dunedin, N.Z.—d. Jan. 29, 2004, Dunedin) New Zealand novelist, short-story writer, and poet. After an impoverished childhood, she trained as a teacher. Her first book was the story collection The Lagoon (1951). Several times committed to mental institutions, she narrowly escaped undergoing a fron¬ tal lobotomy. Her novel Owls Do Cry (1957) incorporated poetry and prose in its investigation of the border between sanity and madness. Her many other novels, several of which draw on Maori legends, include Scented Gardens for the Blind (1963) and The Carpathians (1988). One of her three volumes of memoirs, An Angel at My Table (1984), was filmed by Jane Campion.
frame of reference See reference frame