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 Talk Talk - Communication terms
Category: General technical and industrial
Date & country: 28/05/2010, UK
Words: 18630


Homelands Policy
South Africa's apartheid policy which set aside Black National States for black Africans

Hooke's law
Law stating that the deformation of a body is proportional to the magnitude of the deforming force, provided that the body's elastic limit (see elasticity) is not exceeded. If the elastic limit is not reached, the body will return to its original size once the force is removed. The law was discovered by English physicist Robert Hooke in 1676. A...

holistic medicine
Umbrella term for an approach that virtually all alternative therapies profess, which considers the overall health and lifestyle profile of a patient, and treats specific ailments not primarily as conditions to be alleviated but rather as symptoms of more fundamental disease

homeopathy
System of alternative medicine based on the belief that symptoms of disease are part of the body's self-healing processes, and on the practice of administering extremely diluted doses of natural substances found to produce in a healthy person the symptoms manifest in the illness being treated. Developed by the German physician Samuel Hahnem...

homeland
Before 1980, name for the Black National States in the Republic of South Africa

House of Representatives
Lower chamber of the US Congress, with 435 members elected at regular two-year intervals, every even year, in November. States are represented in proportion to their population. The Speaker of the House is the majority party's leader. All spending bills must, in accordance with Section 7 of Article 1 of the constitution, originate in the Ho...

Honda
Japanese vehicle manufacturer, founded in 1948. By the late 1980s the company was producing more than 1.5 million cars and 3 million motorcycles annually. Founded by a mechanic, Soichiro Honda (1906–1991), the company originally produced only motorcycles, of which it is now the world's biggest manufacturer; Honda cars were introduced i...

honeypot site
Area that is of special interest or appeal to tourists. At peak times, honeypot sites may become crowded and congested, and noise and litter may eventually spoil such areas. Examples include viewpoints, museums, and even car parks. Some developing world countries, such as Kenya, have encouraged the d...

homophone
Word that sounds the same as another but has a different spelling and meaning. Examples are air and heir, right and write, and son and sun. Homophones are a source of spelling errors. The student needs to distinguish particularly betwee...

homonym
Word that sounds the same and possibly the same spelling as another but has different meanings. For example: lead (noun) is a metal, and lead (verb) is the action of directing

Hooker, John Lee
US blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. One of the foremost blues musicians, his first record, `Boogie Chillen` (1948), was a blues hit and his percussive guitar style made him popular with a rock audience from the 1950s. His albums include Urban Blues (1968) and Boom Boom (1992) (also the title o...

Houston, Whitney
US soul ballad singer. She has had a string of consecutive number-one hits in the USA and the UK. They include `Saving All My Love for You` (1985), `I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)` (1987), `Where Do Broken Hearts Go` (1988), `I Will Always Love You` (1992), and `When You Believe` (19...

host
Large computer that supports a number of smaller computers or terminals that are connected to it via a network. Hosts may be mainframe computers that service large number of terminals or green screens, or, for example, Internet hosts that serve Web pages and files to personal computers attached via the Internet

Horn, Gyula
Hungarian economist and politician, president of the Hungarian Socialist Party (HSP) from 1990 and prime minister 1994–98. Under his leadership the ex-communist HSP enjoyed a resurgence, capturing an absolute majority in the July 1994 assembly elections. Despite opposition to the ongoing economic restructuring programme, Horn, as a trained...

homelessness
Being without access to adequate housing. The homeless include individuals and families living outdoors without shelter, persons temporarily housed in hostels, night shelters, and institutions such as psychiatric hospitals, and those temporarily accommodated by relatives or friends. Causes and effects Homelessness can be caused by war, fire, flood,...

Home, Alec Douglas-
British Conservative politician. See Douglas-Home

home page
In computing, opening page on a particular site on the World Wide Web. The term is also used for the page that loads automatically when a user opens a Web browser, and for a user's own personal Web pages. Many Internet Service Providers provide free space to allow all their users to create and maintain their own home pages

hoverfly
Brightly coloured winged insect. Hoverflies usually have spots, stripes, or bands of yellow or brown against a dark-coloured background, sometimes with dense hair covering the body surface. Many resemble bees, bumble bees, and wasps (displaying Batesian mimicry) and most adults feed on nectar and pollen. (Family Syrphidae (numbering over 2,500 ...

hoof
Horny covering that protects the sensitive parts of the foot of an animal. The possession of hooves is characteristic of the orders Artiodactyla (even-toed ungulates such as deer and cattle), and Perissodactyla (horses, tapirs, and rhinoceroses). The flexibility of the hoof is promoted by a fluid secreted by the keratogenous (horn-producing...

horn
(zoology) Broad term for hardened processes on the heads of some members of order Artiodactyla: deer, antelopes, cattle, goats, and sheep; and the rhinoceroses in order Perissodactyla. They are used usually for sparring rather than serious fighting, often between members of the same sp...

homograph
Word that is spelled like another word but has a different meaning or origin. For example: rush, meaning to move quickly, from Old French ruser, to put to flight, and rush, meaning a slender marsh plant, from Old English risce. Homographs do not need to have the same pr...

homesteader
US settler who took up land on the Great Plains following the US government's Homestead Act (1862) during the era of westward expansion. Homesteaders were offered 65 ha/160 acres for a small registration fee, with full ownership after five years' occupation, enabling even poor Americans to gain land. Survival was hard in the semi-ar...

home front, World War I
(UK) Organization of the UK civilian population by the British government to meet the war effort in World War I. Laws were passed extending government control over new areas. The Defence of the Realm Act (1914) introduced censorship over the news in order to maintain morale and facilitate prop...

home front, World War II
Click images to enlargeMobilization of all sectors of the UK economy and population by the British government to support the war effort in World War II. There was no escape on the home front from involvement in or experience of the war. Civilians suffered more than in World War I, particularly those living in cities bombe...

Holi
In Hindu tradition, a spring festival and one of the most joyful for Hindus. Held February/March, it lasts for up to five days from the full moon. Holi celebrates the death of the evil princess Holika, who planned to kill her nephew in a bonfire but was consumed by the flames herself. It also celebrates the pranks that Krishna played on the mil...

Holy Saturday
In the Christian church, the Saturday of Holy Week and the day before Easter Sunday. Many churches keep an Easter prayer vigil (watch) that lasts all day. Members of the congregation take it in turns to pray. On the evening of Holy Saturday, a service may be held, and just before midnight the paschal (Easter) candle is lit. The new light is carried...

holy of holies
Innermost and most sacred apartment of the Temple of Jerusalem, where the Ark of the Covenant was kept until the Temple was destroyed in AD 70. In other religious buildings, the holy of holies, or sanctum sanctorum, is the inmost shrine

holding tool
Tool for holding firmly any material that has to be cut. Bench hooks are used with the hand when cutting lengths of timber; a bench vice can also be used. A metalwork vice is used with plastics and metal. When drilling, a machine vice or a hand vice is usually used for small pieces. For larger pieces of material, a g-cramp can be used

Hotmail
Free provider of World Wide Web-based e-mail. It was acquired by Microsoft in 1997 and forms part of the Microsoft Network (MSN). By using a Web browser as a universal e-mail program, Hotmail eliminated the differences that existed between different e-mail programs. Hotmail accounts can be accessed from any computer connected to the...

hook and eye
Type of fastening for fabric which is made of two sections: one side has a hook and the other side a loop or `eye`. It is usually made of metal. When correctly positioned and sewn on either side of an opening, the hook fits through the eye and stays closed until unhooked

Hobby-Eberly Telescope
Astronomical reflecting telescope that began research in 1999 at the McDonald Observatory in the Davis Mountains of Texas. It has one of the largest mirrors of any telescope in the world. The Hobby-Eberly telescope can be rotated through 360° around a vertical axis, meaning that it can view a total of 70% of the sky visible from the ob...

HP
(hire purchase) Abbreviation for hire purchase

hp
(horsepower) Abbreviation for horsepower

HRH
Abbreviation for His/Her Royal Highness

Hsuan Tung
Name adopted by Henry P'u-i on becoming emperor of China in 1908

HTML
Standard for structuring and describing a document on the World Wide Web. The HTML standard provides labels for constituent parts of a document (for example headings and paragraphs) and permits the inclusion of images, sounds, and `hyperlinks` to other documents. A browser program is then used to convert this information into a graphical ...

Huxley, Aldous
(Leonard) English writer of novels, essays, and verse. From the disillusionment and satirical eloquence of Crome Yellow (1921), Antic Hay (1923), and Point Counter Point (1928), Huxley developed towards the Utopianism (perfect political ...

Hussite
Follower of John Huss. Opposed to both German and papal influence in Bohemia, the Hussites waged successful war against the Holy Roman Empire from 1419, but Roman Catholicism was finally re-established in 1620

Hussein ibn Talal
King of Jordan 1952–99. By 1967 he had lost all his kingdom west of the River Jordan in the Arab-Israeli Wars, and in 1970 suppressed the Palestine Liberation Organization acting as a guerrilla force against his rule on the remaining East Bank territories. Subsequently, he became a moderating force in Middle Eastern politics, and in 1994 s...

Huss, John
Bohemian Christian church reformer, rector of Prague University from 1402, who was excommunicated for attacks on ecclesiastical abuses. He was summoned before the Council of Constance in 1414, defended the English reformer John Wyclif, rejected the pope's authority, and was burned at the stake. His followers were called Hussites

Hupei
Alternative transcription of Hebei, a province of China

Hunter, John
(surgeon) Scottish surgeon, pathologist, and comparative anatomist who insisted on rigorous scientific method. He was the first to understand the nature of digestion

Hunt,
(William) English painter, one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848. His paintings, characterized both by a meticulous attention to detail and a clear moral and religious symbolism, include The Awakening Conscience (1853; Tate Gallery, London) an...

Hunt,
(James Henry) English essayist and poet. He influenced and encouraged the Romantics. His verse, though easy and agreeable, is little appreciated today, and he is best remembered as an essayist. He recycled parts of his Lord Byron and some of his Friends (1828), in which he c...

Hun
Member of any of a number of nomad Mongol peoples who were first recorded historically in the 2nd century BC, raiding across the Great Wall into China. They entered Europe about AD 372, settled in the area that is now Hungary, and imposed their supremacy on the Ostrogoths and other Germanic peoples. Under the leadership of Attila they attacked the ...

Hunan
Province of south central China, bounded to the north by Hubei, to the east by Jiangxi, to the south by Guangdong and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, and to the west by Guizhou and Sichuan; area 210,500 sq km/81,300 sq mi; population (2000 est) 64,400,000. The capital is Changsha; other main cities and towns are Hengyang, Shaoyang...

humidity
Quantity of water vapour in a given volume of the atmosphere (absolute humidity), or the ratio of the amount of water vapour in the atmosphere to the saturation value at the same temperature (relative humidity). At dew point the relative humidity is 100% and the air is said to be saturated. Condensation (the conversion of vapour to liquid) may ...

Hume, David
Scottish philosopher whose Treatise of Human Nature (1739–40) is a central text of British empiricism (the theory that experience is the only source of knowledge). Examining meticulously our modes of thinking, he concluded that they are more habitual than rational. Consequently, he not only rejected the possibility of knowle...

Humboldt,
(Karl) German philologist whose stress on the identity of thought and language influenced Noam Chomsky. He was the brother of Friedrich Humboldt

Humbert
Anglicized form of Umberto, two kings of Italy

Humberside
Former county of northeast England, created in 1974 out of north Lincolnshire and parts of the East and West Ridings of Yorkshire. It was abolished in 1996 when the unitary authorities of East Riding of Yorkshire, Kingston upon Hull, North East Lincolnshire, and North Lincolnshire were created

Hull, Cordell
US Democratic politician. As F D Roosevelt's secretary of state 1933–44, he was a vigorous champion of free trade, and opposed German and Japanese aggression. He was identified with the Good Neighbor policy of nonintervention in Latin America. An advocate of collective security after World War II, he was called by Roosevelt `the fathe...

Hull
Shortened name of Kingston upon Hull, a city and unitary authority on the north bank of the Humber estuary, northeast England

Huguenot
French Protestant in the 16th century; the term referred mainly to Calvinists. Persecuted under Francis I and Henry II, the Huguenots survived both an attempt to exterminate them (the Massacre of St Bartholomew on 24 August 1572) and the religious wars of the next 30 years. In 1598 Henry IV (himself formerly a Huguenot) granted them toleration ...

Hughes, Thomas
English writer. He is best known as the author of Tom Brown's School Days (1857), a story of Rugby School under Thomas Arnold, with an underlying religious sense, which was the forerunner of the modern school story. It had a sequel, Tom Brown at Oxford (1861)

Hughes, Howard
(Robard) US industrialist, aviator, and film producer. Inheriting wealth from his father, the industrialist Howard Robert Hughes, who had patented a revolutionary oil-drilling bit, he took control of the family firm, the Hughes To...

Hughes, Ted
(Edward James) English poet. His work is characterized by its harsh portrayal of the crueller aspects of nature, by its reflection of the agonies of personal experience, and by the employment of myths of creation and being, as in Crow (1970) and Gaudete (1...

Huesca
(city) Capital of Huesca province in Aragón, northeast Spain, situated on the River Isuela; population (2001) 46,200. Industries include engineering and food processing. Among its buildings are a 13th-century cathedral and the former palace of the kings of Aragón. Huesca was ...

Huelva
(city) Port and capital of Huelva province in Andalusia, southwest Spain, situated on the Atlantic coast, on a small peninsula formed by the junction of the Tinto and the Odiel rivers; population (2001) 142,300. Industries include shipbuilding and oil refining; there is a large petroch...

Hudson's Bay Company
Chartered company founded by Prince Rupert in 1670 to trade in furs with North American Indians. In 1783 the rival North West Company was formed, but in 1821 it merged with the Hudson's Bay Company. In 1912 the company planned a chain of department stores in western Canada, and became Canada's leading retail organization, which it remains t...

Hudson Bay
Inland sea of northeastern Canada, linked with the Atlantic Ocean by Hudson Strait and with the Arctic Ocean by Foxe Channel and the Gulf of Boothia; area 1,233,000 sq km/766,150 sq mi. It is bordered by (clockwise) the provinces of Québec, Ontario, Manitoba, and Nunavut. The Hudson Bay area is sparsely settled, chiefly by trappers, Am...

Hudson, Henry
English explorer. Under the auspices of the Muscovy Company (1607–08), he made two unsuccessful attempts to find the Northeast Passage to China. In September 1609, commissioned by the Dutch East India Company, he reached New York Bay and sailed 240 km/150 mi up the river that now bears his name, establishing Dutch claims to the area. In 16...

Huddersfield
Industrial town in West Yorkshire, on the River Colne, between Leeds and Manchester; population (2001) 146,200. A thriving centre of woollen manufacture by the end of the 18th century, it now produces textiles and related products, and has electrical and mechanical engineering, food processing (biscuits), publishing, and building industries. Th...

Hubei
Province of central China, bounded to the north by Henan, to the east by Anhui, to the south by Jiangxi and Hunan, and to the west by Sichuan and Shaanxi provinces; area 187,500 sq km/72,375 sq mi; population (2000 est) 60,280,000. The capital is Wuhan; other major cities and towns are Huangshi, Shashi, Yichang, and Xiangfan. The ma...

Hubble, Edwin
(Powell) US astronomer. He discovered the existence of galaxies outside our own, and classified them according to their shape. His theory that the universe is expanding is now generally accepted. His data on the speed at which galaxies were receding (based on their red shifts) were used to det...

Huang He
River in China; length 5,464 km/3,395 mi. Rising in Qinghai province in the west of the country, it winds eastwards to the Bohai Gulf on the Yellow Sea. The names `Yellow River` and `Yellow Sea` derive from the great quantities of fine yellow particles of the soil known as loess (originally wind-blown from central As...

husky
Any of several breeds of sledge dog used in Arctic regions, growing up to about 60 cm/23 in high, and weighing up to about 27 kg/60 lbs, with pricked ears, thick fur, and a bushy tail. The Siberian husky is the best known

hummingbird
Any of various small, brilliantly coloured birds found in the Americas. The name comes from the sound produced by the rapid vibration of their wings when hovering near flowers to feed. Hummingbirds have long, needlelike bills and tongues to obtain nectar from flowers and capture insects. They are the only birds able to fly backwards. The Cuban bee ...

human body
Click images to enlargePhysical structure of the human being. It develops from the single cell of the fertilized ovum, is born at 40 weeks, and usually reaches sexual maturity between 11 and 18 years of age. The bony framework (skeleton) consists of more than 200 bones, over half of which are in the hands and feet. Bones ...

Huxley, T(homas) H(enry)
English scientist and humanist. Following the publication of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species (1859), he became known as `Darwin's bulldog`, and for many years was a prominent champion of evolution. In 1869 he coined the word `agnostic` to expre...

human species, origins of
Evolution of humans from ancestral primates. The African apes (gorilla and chimpanzee) are shown by anatomical and molecular comparisons to be the closest living relatives of humans. The oldest known hominids (of the human group) had been the australopithecines, found in Africa, dating from 3.5–...

hurricane
Click images to enlargeA severe depression (region of very low atmospheric pressure) in tropical regions, called typhoon in the North Pacific. It is a revolving storm originating at latitudes between 5° and 20° north or south of the Equator, when the surface temperature of the ocean is above 27°C/80...

humus
Component of soil consisting of decomposed or partly decomposed organic matter, dark in colour and usually richer towards the surface. It has a higher carbon content than the original material and a lower nitrogen content, and is an important source of minerals in soil fertility

Hungarian language
Member of the Finno-Ugric language group, spoken principally in Hungary but also in parts of the Slovak Republic, Romania, Serbia, and Montenegro. Hungarian is known as Magyar among its speakers. It is written in a form of the Roman alphabet in which s corresponds to English sh, and sz to...

Hutton, James
Scottish geologist, known as the `founder of geology`, who formulated the concept of uniformitarianism. In 1785 he developed a theory of the igneous origin of many rocks. His Theory of the Earth (1788) proposed that the Earth was incalculably old. Uniformitarianism suggests that past events could be explained in terms o...

Hundred Years' War
Series of conflicts between England and France in 1337–1453. Its causes were the French claim (as their fief) to Gascony in southwest France, held by the English kings, and medieval trade rivalries in Flanders. Medieval England and France had a long history of war before 1337, and the Hundred Ye...

huckleberry
Berry-bearing bush closely related to the blueberry in the USA and bilberry in Britain. Huckleberry bushes have edible dark-blue berries. (Genus Gaylussacia, family Ericaceae.)

Huygens, Christiaan
Dutch mathematical physicist and astronomer. He proposed the wave theory of light, developed the pendulum clock in 1657, discovered polarization, and observed Saturn's rings. He made important advances in pure mathematics, applied mathematics, and mechanics, which he virtually founded. His work in astronomy was an impressive defence of the Cope...

Hurd, Douglas
(Richard) British Conservative politician, home secretary 1985–89 and foreign secretary 1989–95. A moderate `Heathite` Conservative, he was passed over for the cabinet during Margaret Thatcher's first term as prime minister, but was appointed Northern Ireland secretary ...

Hua Guofeng
Chinese politician, leader of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) 1976–81, premier 1976–80. He dominated Chinese politics 1976–77, seeking economic modernization without major structural reform. From 1978 he was gradually eclipsed by Deng Xiaoping. Hua was ousted from the Politburo in September 1982. He remained a member of the CCP Cen...

Hu Yaobang
Chinese politician, Communist Party (CCP) chair 1981–87. A protégé of the communist leader Deng Xiaoping, Hu presided over a radical overhaul of the party structure and personnel 1982–86. His death ignited the pro-democracy movement, which was eventually crushed in Tiananmen Square in June 1989. Hu, born into a peasant famil...

Husák, Gustáv
Czechoslovak politician, leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (CCP) 1969–87 and president 1975–89. After the 1968 Prague Spring of liberalization, his task was to restore control, purge the CCP, and oversee the implementation of a new, federalist constitution. He was deposed in the popular uprising of November–December 198...

Huston, John
(Marcellus) US film director, screenwriter, and actor. An impulsive and individualistic film-maker, he often dealt with the themes of greed, treachery in human relationships, and the loner. His works as a director include The Maltese Falcon (1941), The Treasure ...

hundred days
In European history, the period 20 March–28 June 1815, marking the French emperor Napoleon's escape from imprisonment on Elba to his departure from Paris after losing the battle of Waterloo on 18 June. The phrase also describes other periods of new administration. In 1898 Emperor Te Tsung of China attempted 100 days of reform (11 June–...

Hungary
Click images to enlargeCountry in central Europe, bounded north by the Slovak Republic, northeast by Ukraine, east by Romania, south by Serbia and Croatia, and west by Austria and Slovenia. Government Under the terms of the `transitional constitution` adopted in October 1989, Hungary is a unitary state with a on...

humours, theory of
Theory prevalent in the West in classical and medieval times that the human body was composed of four kinds of fluid: phlegm, blood, choler or yellow bile, and melancholy or black bile. Physical and mental characteristics were explained by different proportions of humours in individuals. An excess of phlegm produced a `phlegmatic`, or...

hurling
Stick-and-ball game played between two teams of 15 players each, popular in Ireland. Its object is to hit the ball, by means of a curved stick, into the opposing team's goal. If the ball passes under the goal's crossbar three points are scored; if it passes above the crossbar one point is scored. First played over 3,000 years ag...

human rights
Civil and political rights of the individual in relation to the state; see also civil rights. Under the terms of the United Nations Charter human rights violations by countries have become its proper concern, although the implementation of this obligation is hampered by Article 2 (7) of the chart...

Hungarian
The majority population of Hungary or a people of Hungarian descent; also, their culture and language. Hungarian minorities are found in the Slovak Republic, Serbia, Montenegro, and Romania, where the Székely of Transylvania regard themselves as ethnically distinct but speak Hungarian, as do the Csángó of Moldova

hubris
In Greek thought, an act of transgression or overweening pride. In ancient Greek tragedy, hubris was believed to offend the gods, and to lead to retribution

Huppert, Isabelle
(Anne) French actor. She enjoys a deserved reputation for her versatility, seen in such films as La Dentellière/The Lacemaker (1977), Violette Nozière (1978), Heaven's Gate (1980), Coup de Torchon (19...

Hudson, Rock
US film actor. He was a star from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s, and entered the film industry with no previous acting experience. He specialized in melodrama, often working with director Douglas Sirk, and in romantic comedy, co-starring on three occasions with Doris Day. He enjoyed a successful TV career in the 1970s, starring in the ...

Hun Sen
Cambodian political leader, co-prime minister 1993–97, and prime minister from 1997. Under his leadership, Cambodia's economy liberalized, but there have been problems of corruption in government. In 1993, multi-party democracy was restored and his Cambodian People's Party (CCP) shared power with the FUNCINPEC party, led by Pri...

Hussein, Saddam
Iraqi leader, in power from 1968, president 1979–2003. He presided over the Iran–Iraq war 1980–88. In 1990 he annexed Kuwait but was driven out by a US-dominated coalition army in the 1991 Gulf War. This defeat led to unrest in Iraq, and both the Kurds in the north, who were seeking independence, and Shiites in the south, rebelle...

hundredweight
Imperial unit of mass, equal to 112 lb (50.8 kg). It is sometimes called the long hundredweight, to distinguish it from the short hundredweight or cental, equal to 100 lb (45.4 kg)

Hudson River School
Group of US landscape painters working between 1825 and 1870; it was the first US school of landscape painting. Depicting the dramatic, uncultivated regions of the Hudson River Valley and the Catskill Mountains in New York State, their work is characterized by attention to detail and a deep regard for the natural world. Their style, inspired by...

Hudson
River in northeastern USA; length 485 km/300 mi. It rises in the Adirondack Mountains and flows south, emptying into a bay of the Atlantic Ocean at New York City. The Hudson forms the boundary between New Jersey and New York, and the states are linked by bridges and tunnels. The New York Barge Canal system links the Hudson to Lake Champlain...

Huron, Lake
Second largest of the Great Lakes of North America, on the US–Canadian border; area 60,000 sq km/23,160 sq mi. Lake Huron is 331 km/205 mi long, lies at 177 m/581 ft above sea level, and reaches a depth of 230 m/755 ft. It is bounded on the north and east by Ontario, and on the west and southwest by Michigan. There are seve...

human reproduction
Production of offspring by humans. Human reproduction is an example of sexual reproduction, where the male produces sperm and the female eggs. These gametes contain only half the normal number of chromosomes, 23 instead of 46, so that on fertilization the resulting cell has the correct genetic complement. Fertilization is internal, which increases ...

Hubble's law
Law that relates a galaxy's distance from us to its speed of recession as the universe expands, formulated in 1929 by US astronomer Edwin Hubble. He found that galaxies are moving apart at speeds that increase in direct proportion to their distance apart. The rate of expansion is known as the Hubble constant. Its currently accepted value is abo...