Sparta Sparta is a city in southern Greece. In antiquity it was a militarist state, whose territory included Laconia and Messenia, and was the most powerful state in Peloponnesus. During Classical times Sparta had reached the status of a world power, calling itself "the natural protector of Greece".
	Spathiphyllum Spathiphyllum is a genus of about 40 species of monocotyledonous flowering plants in the family Araceae, native to tropical regions of the Americas and southeastern Asia. Certain species of Spathiphyllum are commonly known as spath or peace lilies. They are evergreen herbaceous perennial plants with large leaves 12-65 cm long and 3-25 cm broad.
	Spats Spats are a type of shoe accessory worn in the late 19th Century and early 20th Century. They were stiff fabric covers attached to the top of the shoe and extending up the lower part of the leg. Spats, especially white ones on highly-polished black shoes, form part of the stereotype dress of a wealthy young man of the era, along with a top hat and a cane.
	Spatula A spatula is a hand-held tool that is used for lifting, flipping, or spreading substances. The word "spatula", known in English since 1525, is a diminutive of the Latin term spatha, which means a broad sword or a flat piece of wood and is also the origin of the words spade and spathe.
	Speaking tube A speaking tube or voicepipe is a device based around two cones connected by an air pipe through which speech can be transmitted over an extended distance. While its most common use was in intra-ship communications, the principle was also used in fine homes and offices of the 19th century, as well as fine automobiles, military aircraft, and even locomotives.
	Spear A spear is an ancient weapon used for hunting and war, consisting of a shaft, usually of wood, with a sharpened head. The head may be simply the sharpened end of the shaft itself, as is the case with bamboo spears, or it may be of another material fastened to the shaft. The most common design is of a metal spearhead, shaped somewhat like a dagger.
	Spearmint Spearmint is a species of mint native to central and southern Europe, where it grows in wet soils. It is not a type of fern. Spearmint is a herbaceous perennial plant growing to 30-100 cm tall, with leaves growing 5-9 cm long and 1.5-3 cm broad, with a serrated margin. The flowers are produced in slender spikes, each flower pink or white, 2.5-3 mm long and broad.
	Special Air Service The Special Air Service is the principal special forces organisation of the British Army. Formed in 1941 to conduct raids behind German lines in North Africa, with the Long Range Desert Group, it today serves as a model for similar units fielded by other countries. The SAS is a small and secretive organisation, but attracts a disproportionate amount of media coverage.
	Special effect Special effects are used in the film, television, and entertainment industry to realize scenes that cannot be achieved by normal means, such as space travel. They are also used when creating the effect by normal means is prohibitively expensive; for example, it would be extremely expensive to construct a 16th century castle or to sink a 20th century ocean liner, but these can be simulated with special effects.
	Special forces Special forces or special operations forces are military units which are formed and trained to conduct military operations involving unconventional warfare, counter-terrorism, reconnaissance, direct action and foreign internal defense. Special Forces typically comprise relatively small groups of highly-trained personnel who are armed and supplied with specialised equipment, and operate on principles of self-sufficiency, stealth, speed and close teamwork.
	Special Olympics Special Olympics is an international organization created to help people with intellectual disabilities develop self-confidence and social skills through sports training and competition. Among their other activities, Special Olympics conducts the Special Olympics World Games every four years.
	Special relativity The special theory of relativity was proposed in 1905 by Albert Einstein in his article "Annus Mirabilis Papers#Special relativity". Some three centuries earlier, Galilean invariance had stated that all inertial motion was relative, and that there was no absolute and well-defined state of rest; a person on the deck of a ship may be at rest in his opinion, but someone observing from the shore would say that he was moving.
	Speciation Speciation is the theory of the evolutionary process by which new biological species are believed by some to arise. There are four modes of natural speciation, based on the extent to which speciating populations are geographically isolated from one another: allopatric speciation, peripatric speciation, parapatric speciation, and sympatric speciation.
	SPECS SPECS is a speed camera system manufactured by the United Kingdom company Speed Check Services Limited. The cameras operate as two or more sets along a route. The average speed over the distance travelled between two cameras is calculated using automatic number plate recognition technology.
	Spectacled Caiman The Spectacled Caiman is a crocodilian reptile found in much of Central America and South America. It lives in a range of lowland wetland and riverine habitat types and can tolerate salt water as well as fresh; due in part to this adaptabilty it is the most common of all crocodilian species.
	Spectinomycin Spectinomycin hydrochloride is an aminocyclitol antibiotic produced by the bacteria Streptomyces spectabilis. It binds to the 30S ribosome subunit in invading bacteria and interrupts protein synthesis. It is given by Injection to treat gonorrhea.
	SPECTRE SPECTRE is a fictional Terrorism organisation featured in the United Kingdom James Bond novels by Ian Fleming, and the films based on those novels. Led by Ernst Stavro Blofeld, the organisation first appeared in the novel Thunderball, and subsequently in a number of James Bond films including the very first, Dr. No.
	Spectrogram The spectrogram is the result of calculating the frequency spectrum of windowed frames of a compound signal. It is a three-dimensional plot of the energy of the frequency content of a signal as it changes over time. Spectrograms are used to identify phonetics sounds, to analyse the cries of animals, and in the fields of music, sonar/radar, speech processing, etc.
	Spectrometer A spectrometer is an optical instrument used to measure properties of light over a specific portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. The variable measured is most often the light's intensity but could also, for instance, be the polarization state. The independent variable is usually the wavelength of the light, normally expressed as some fraction of a meter, but sometimes expressed as some unit directly proportional to the photon energy, such as wavenumber or electron volts, which has a reciprocal rela
	Spectroscopy Spectroscopy is the study of matter by investigating light, sound, or particles that is emitted, absorbed or scattered by the matter under investigation. Spectroscopy may also be defined as the study of the interaction between light and matter. Historically, spectroscopy referred to a branch of science in which visible light was used for theoretical studies on the structure of matter and for qualitative and quantitative analyses.
	Spectrum A spectrum is a condition or value that is not limited to a specific set of values but can vary infinely within a continuum. The word has evolved from the old English word spectre meaning a ghost or apparition, but the modern meaning now comes from its use within science.
	Spectrum analysis Spectrum Analysis also known as Emission Spectrochemical Analysis is the original scientific method of charting and analyzing the chemical properties of matter and gases by looking at the bands in their optical spectrum. The empirical laws of spectrum analysis are commonly known as Kirchoff's Three Laws of Spectroscopy as follows:
	Speech Speech can be described as an act of producing human voice through the use of the vocal cords and vocal apparatus or other means, such as sign language, to create natural language acts in the form of language that communicate information from an initiator to a recipient.
	Speechless Speechless is an album released on June 15 1999, by Steven Curtis Chapman. It has been certified RIAA certification as of November 27, 2000, by the RIAA. Chapman received the 2000 Grammy Award for Best Pop/Contemporary Gospel Album and GMA Music Awards for Pop/Contemporary Album of the Year and Pop/Contemporary Recorded Song of the Year.
	Speed bump A speed bump is a traffic calming tool designed to slow traffic or reduce through traffic. A speed bump is a bump in a roadway that may be circular, parabola, or sinusoidal, and it may have gaps near the curb to allow drainage. The speed at which a vehicle can safety pass a bump decreases with the bump's slope.
	Speed Demon Speed Demon is a fictional character in the Marvel Comics Marvel universe.
	Speed limit A road speed limit is the maximum speed allowed by law for road vehicles. The highest speed limit is 160 km/h, experimentally posted on selected test stretches in Austria and the United Arab Emirates. Very few public roads have no speed limit. The first speed limit was the 10 mph limit introduced by the Locomotive Act of 1861 in the United Kingdom.
	Speed of light The speed of light in a vacuum is an important physical constant denoted by the letter c for constant or the Latin word celeritas meaning "swiftness". In metric units, c is exactly Orders of magnitude metres per second . Note that this speed is a definition, not a measurement, since the fundamental SI unit of length, the metre, has been defined since October 21 1983 in terms of the speed of light: one metre is the distance light travels in a vacuum in 1/299,
	Speed Trap Speed Trap is a live jazz album by Peter King, recorded at Ronnie Scott#Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club in September 1994, and released in 1996.
	Speeder A speeder is a maintenance of way motorized vehicle formerly used on North American railroads to let track inspectors and work crews move quickly to and from work sites. Speeders were replaced with trucks using descending flanged wheels, called HiRail trucks, in the 1990s.
	Speedometer A speedometer measures the instantaneous speed of a vehicle. Traditional automotive speedometers are driven by a flexible, sleeved cable that is rotated by a set of small gears in the tail shaft of a Transmission. The speedometer itself is two rotating, barrel-shaped magnets.
	Speedy Speedy is the name of two DC Comics superheroes, both of whom have served as teenaged sidekicks for the Green Arrow. The original Speedy currently operates under the name Arsenal.
	Speleology Speleology is the scientific study of caves and other karst features, their make-up, structure, physical properties, history, life forms, and the processes by which they form and change over time.
	Spellbinders Spellbinders is a comic book published by Marvel Comics, as part of Marvel Next. It was a six-issue limited series written by Mike Carey with art by Mike Perkins. It is part of the Marvel Universe, but the story takes no advantage of the fact. Spellbinders is set around John Hawthorne High School, a fictional high school in Salem, Massachusetts, where magic is accepted as a fact.
	Spelt Spelt was an important wheat species in Europe from the Bronze Age to Roman times. It now survives as a relict crop in Central Europe, but has found a new market as a health food. Spelt is sometimes considered a subspecies of the closely related species common wheat, in which case its botanical name is considered to be Triticum aestivum subsp.
	Spencer Tracy Spencer Tracy was a two-time Academy Awards-winning United States film actor who appeared in 74 films from 1930 in film to 1967 in film. He is often described as one of the finest actors in motion picture history. In 1999, the American Film Institute named Tracy among the AFI's 100 Years... 100 Stars, ranking at No.
	Spergula Spergula is a genus of about five plants belonging to the family Caryophyllaceae. Their usual English name is spurry. Commonly found in grassland, the genus originated in the Northern Hemisphere, but is now found worldwide.
	Spergularia Spergularia is a genus of the Caryophyllaceae family, and consists of sea-spurreys.
	Sperm Whale The Sperm Whale is the largest of all toothed whales and is the largest toothed animal alive, measuring up to 18 m long. The whale was named after the milky-white substance spermaceti found in its head and originally mistaken for sperm. The Sperm Whale's enormous head and distinctive shape, as well as its central role in Herman Melville's Moby-Dick, have led many to describe it as the archetype whale.
	Spermatogenesis Spermatogenesis is the process by which stem cells develop into mature spermatozoon cells. It is perhaps one of the most important and delicate processes that occur in the body, and is essential for sexual reproduction. This process occurs in four stages: *Multiplication *Growth *Maturation or Meiosis
	Spermatophyte The spermatophytes comprise those plants that produce seeds. They are a subset of the embryophytes or land plants: living spermatophytes include cycads, Ginkgo, conifers, gnetae, and angiosperms Seed-bearing plants were traditionally divided into angiosperms, or flowering plants, and gymnosperms, which includes the gnetae, cycads, ginkgo, and conifers.
	Spermatozoon A spermatozoon or spermatozoan , from the ancient Greek spe?a and ??? and more commonly known as a sperm cell, is the ploidy cell that is the male gamete. It Fertilization an ovum to form a zygote. A zygote can grow into a new organism, such as a human being.
	Spermophilus The genus Spermophilus is the largest genus of ground squirrels and the one that contains the species that are most common and familiar in North America. Members of the genus are found from western Europe to Siberia and Alaska to northern Mexico. Members of the genus are sometimes called sousliks or susliks.
	Sphaerocarpaceae Sphaerocarpaceae is a Family of liverworts known as bottle liverworts. Approximately twenty plants are in this family, most of them in the genus Sphaerocarpos, but one additional species in the genus Geothallus.
	Sphaerocarpales Sphaerocarpales is an Order of plants known as liverworts. Approximately twenty plants are in this order which is sub-divided into three Family : Sphaerocarpaceae, Monocarpaceae and Riellaceae.
	Sphaerocarpos Sphaerocarpos is a genus of plants known as bottle liverworts. Approximately twenty species are in this genus.
	Sphagnum Sphagnum is a genus of between 150-350 species of mosses commonly called peat moss, due to its prevalence in peat Peat bogs. Members of this genus can hold large quantities of water inside their cells; some species can hold up to 20 times their dry weight in water, which is why peat moss is commonly sold as a soil amendment.
	Sphalerite Sphalerite is a mineral that is the chief ore of zinc. It consists largely of zinc sulfide in crystalline form but almost always contains variable iron. When iron content is high it is an opaque black variety, marmatiteS). It is usually found in association with galena, pyrite, and other sulfides along with calcite, dolomite, and fluorite.
	Sphecidae Sphecidae is a cosmopolitan family of wasps that include digger wasps, mud daubers and other familiar types that all fall under the category of thread-waisted wasps. Both of the traditional definitions of the Sphecidae have recently been shown to be paraphyletic, and the most recent classification is closer to the conservative scheme; the families Heterogynaidae and Ampulicidae are the sister taxa to what are now two families, the Sphecidae and Crabronidae.
	Sphenoid bone The sphenoid bone is a bone situated at the base of the skull in front of the temporals and basilar part of the occipital. It somewhat resembles a butterfly with its wings extended, and is divided into a median portion or body, two great wings of the sphenoid and two small wings of the sphenoid extending outward from the sides of the body, and two pterygoid processes of the sphenoid which project from it below.
	Sphere A sphere is a perfectly symmetrical geometrical object. In mathematics, the term refers to the surface or boundary of a ball , but in non-mathematical usage, the term is used to refer either to a three-dimensional ball or to its surface. This article deals with the mathematical concept of a sphere.
	Spherical aberration *Parabolic reflector *Ritchey-Chrtien telescope *Schmidt corrector plate *Soft focus Category:Optics ca:Aberraci esfrica cs:Sfrick aberace da:Sfrisk aberration es:Aberracin esfrica fr:Aberration sphrique it:Aberrazione sferica hu:Szfrikus aberrci
	Spherical trigonometry Spherical trigonometry is a part of spherical geometry that deals with polygons on the sphere and explains how to find relations between the involved angles. This is of great importance for calculations in astronomy and earth-surface and orbital and space navigation. On the surface of a sphere, the closest analogue to straight line are great circles, i.e.
	Sphericity Sphericity is a measure of how spherical an object is. Defined by Wadell in 1932, the sphericity, , of a particle is the ratio of the surface area of a sphere to the surface area of the particle: where is volume of the particle and is the surface area of the particle
	Spheroid In mathematics, a spheroid is a quadric surface in three dimensions obtained by rotating an ellipse about one of its principal axes. If the ellipse is rotated about its major axis, the surface is called a prolate spheroid. If the minor axis is chosen, the surface is called an oblate spheroid.
	Sphingidae The Sphingidae are a family of moths. They are commonly known as hawk moths, sphinx moths and hornworms. There are about 1,200 described species in the family. It is best represented in the tropics but there are species in every region. They are moderate to large in size. Among the Lepidoptera, they are distinguished for their rapid, sustained flying ability.
	Sphinx Sphinx is an iconic image of a recumbent lion with the head of a Domestic sheep, of a falcon or of a person, invented by the Ancient Egypt of the Old Kingdom, but a Culture import in Greek mythology.
	Sphygmomanometer A sphygmomanometer or blood pressure meter is a device used to measure blood pressure, comprising an inflatable cuff to restrict blood flow, and a mercury or mechanical manometer to measure the pressure. It is always used in conjunction with a means to determine at what pressure blood flow, is just starting, and at what pressure it is unimpeded.
	Spica Spica is the brightest star in the constellation Virgo, and list of brightest stars in the nighttime sky. In Chinese astronomy, the star is known as Jiao Xiu 1 in Horn , one of the Chinese constellations. In Hindu Hindu calendar, Spica corresponds to the Nakshatra Chitra.
	Spice A spice is a dried seed, fruit, root, bark or vegetative substance used in nutritionally insignificant quantities as a food additive for the purpose of flavoring. Many of the same substances have other uses in which they are referred to by different terms, e. g. in food preservation, medicine, religious rituals, cosmetics, perfumery or as vegetables.
	SPICE SPICE is a general purpose analog circuit simulator. It is a powerful program that is used in integrated circuit and board level design to check the integrity of circuit designs and to predict Electrical network behavior.
	Spice Islands Spice Islands most commonly refers to the Maluku Islands , which lie on the equator, between Sulawesi and the New Guinea in what is now Indonesia. The term has also been used in reference to other islands known for their spice production, notably the Tanzanian group off East Africa consisting of Zanzibar, Mafia Island and Pemba, Tanzania.
	Spicule Spicules are skeleton structures that occur in most sponges. They provide structural support, as well as deterrence against predators. Large spicules, visible to the naked eye are referred to as megascleres, while smaller, microscopic ones are termed microscleres. Spicules have four major symmetry types: Monaxon , triaxon, tetraxon, and polyaxon.
	Spider Spiders are predatory invertebrate animals with two Tagma , eight legs, no chewing mouth parts and no wings. They are classified in the order Araneae, one of several orders within the larger class of arachnida, a group which also contains scorpions, whip scorpions, mites, ticks, and Opiliones .
	Spider monkey Spider monkeys are New World monkeys of the Scientific classification Atelidae, subfamily Atelinae. Found in tropical forests from southern Mexico to Brazil, spider monkeys belong to the genus Ateles; the closely related woolly spider monkeys, are in the genus Brachyteles.
	Spider web A spider web, spiderweb, spider's web or cobweb is a device built by a spider out of proteinaceous spider silk extruded from its spinnerets. Not all spiders build webs to catch Predation, and some do not build webs at all.
	Spike Spike may refer to: * Nail, especially one more than 4 inches long * Rail spikes used to secure railroad rails to the wooden ties * Spiked shoes worn by athletes, which provide more traction * An adolescent buck * The Spike is a widely used nickname for the Spire of Dublin, a massive needle-like structure erected in Dublin in 2003
	Spike Lee Shelton Jackson Lee , better known as Spike Lee, is a United States film director, Film producer, screenwriter, and actor noted for his films dealing with Society and Politics issues. He also teaches film at New York University.
	Spikemoss Spikemoss refers to any plant of the genus Selaginella in the family Selaginellaceae. Many workers still place the Selaginellales in the class Lycopsida . This group of plants are included in what, for convenience, is called "fern ally". The spikemosses are creeping or ascendant plants with simple, scale-like leaves on branching stems from which roots also arise.
	Spikenard Spikenard is a flowering plant of the Valerian family that grows in the Himalayas of China, India and Nepal. The plant grows to about 1 m in height and has pink, bell-shaped flowers. Spikenard rhizomes can be crushed and distilled into an intensely aromatic, amber-colored essential oil.