Q

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Q&A

Q&A is an easy to-use straight-forward file manager. It includes a good word

processor rivalling stand-alone packages and is more powerful than the pfs

products, it is especially appropriate for the user who is familiar with that

series but wants a more sophisticated product.

Q-band

The Q-band is the frequency band from 36,000 to 46,000 mhz employed in radar.

Qabbala

The Qabbala (Cabala, Caballa, Kabbala) is an ancient esoteric tradition of the

Jews. It was supposedly given to Moses on mount Sinai in a revelation.

Qabbalistic

see "Qabbala"

Quaalude

see "Methaqualone"

Quadrature

In astronomy, quadrature is the position of the moon or a planet when its

longitude differs from that of the sun by 90 degrees.

Quadriga

A quadriga was an ancient two-wheeled cart or chariot drawn by four horses

abreast. They were used in the Greek Olympian games and in the games of the

Roman circus.

Quadrille

The quadrille is a square dance for 4 couples. It was first danced in England

in 1815 and superseded in 1850 by the lancers.

Quadrinal

see "Phenobarbital"

Quaestor

A Quaestor was ancient Roman magistrate who was concerned with receiving taxes

and tribunes, paying the troops and generally looking-after the money.

Quandang

Quandang is the edible fruit of a species of the sandalwood tree.

Quark XPress

Quark XPress is a sophisticated, high-end desktop publishing program for the

Mac for users who need to produce professional-quality typeset work (it is

extensively used by professional printers). The product offers many of the

features found in most popular desktop publishing programs such as user-defined

style sheets, master page support, and text wrap-around graphics. Leading and

kerning are precise enough to meet the needs of typesetters and publishers.

Quark XPress includes integrated word processing capabilities and features such

as an 80,000-word dictionary, spell checker, and search-and-replace.

Hyphenation can be automatic or manual and you can define exceptions. Quark

XPress is able to handle long, text-intensive documents because of its ability

to automatically insert pages, number individual sections, automatically insert

pages, and globally format text. The product can print back to front, negative

or mirror images, thumbnails, or collate output.

Quart

The quart is a unit of capacity measurement equivalent to 2 pints or 1.136

litres.

Quarter

The quarter is a unit of measurement of the avoirdupois scale equivalent to 28

pounds or 12.7 kilograms. The quarter is a unit of capacity measurement

equivalent to 8 bushels or 2.909 hectolitres.

Quaver

In music, a quaver is a note and measure of time equal to half a crotchet or

the eighth of a semibreve.

Quay

A quay is a landing-place substantially built along a line of coast or river

bank, or round a harbour, and having posts and rings to which vessels may be

moored, frequently also cranes and storehouses for the convenience of merchant

ships.

Queen's College

Queen's College, Cambridge, is a college of Cambridge university founded in

1448 by Margaret of Anjou, queen of Henry VI and again in 1465 by Elizabeth,

queen of Edward IV.

Queen's prize

The queen's prize is an English shooting competition.

Queen's Tobacco-pipe

The Queen's Tobacco-pipe was a popular name for the furnace situated in the

north-east corner of the tobacco warehouses of the London Docks. It was so

called because it was used for burning all sorts of contraband but especially

tobacco and cigars.

Quern

A quern is a hand-mill for grinding corn. The simplest kind consists of a large

stone with a cavity in the upper surface to contain the corn which is then

pounded, rather than ground, by a smaller stone. The more usual form consists

of two circular flat stones, the upper one pierced in the centre, and revolving

on a wooden pin inserted in the lower. A handle is attached to the outer edge

and used to turn the stone while corn is dropped into the central opening.

Quetzal

Quetzal is a call logging system that has been specifically designed to meet

the needs of busy British Information Centres. A unique work-group package, in

that it combines call and inventory management in a simple, closely integrated

way. As a work group product, Quetzal helps each member of the Information

Centre by providing Instant access to all the information required to trace

support calls, inventory details, and financial information. By supporting the

information centre as a complete work group, Quetzal offers significant gains

in the areas of co-ordinating group activity improving group communications and

strengthening group identity. The heart of Quetzal is the hot-line support

system, which is integrated closely with the inventory management features.

This integration means that support staff have immediate access to the hardware

and software installed at the user's PC.

Quill

Quills are the large wing-feathers of birds. They were long used for making

pens, the quills of swans being the best but the quills of geese most commonly

used while Crow-quills were used to make fine writing instruments.

Quintal

Quintal was a weight of 100 lbs or similar used in several countries. The old

French quintal was 100 livres and later 100 kilograms.

Quipo

A quipo was a cord about 60 cm in length, tightly spun from variously coloured

threads, and to which a number of smaller threads were attached in the form of

a fringe. They were used among the ancient Peruvians and Mexicans for recording

events. The fringe-like threads were of different colours signifying different

objects or events.

Quire

A quire is a measurement of writing paper equal to 24 sheets. 20 quires make 1

ream.

QWERTY

QWERTY refers to a standard English-language typewriter keyboard layout

(sometimes called the Sholes keyboard after its inventor), as opposed to Dvorak

or foreign-language layouts or APL keyboard. It is sometimes said that it was

designed to slow down the typist, but this is wrong; it was designed to allow

faster typing - under a constraint now long obsolete. In early typewriters,

fast typing using nearby type-bars jammed the mechanism. So Sholes fiddled the

layout to separate the letters of many common digraphs (he did a far from

perfect job, though; `th', `tr', `ed', and `er', for example, each use two

nearby keys). Also, putting the letters of `typewriter' on one line allowed it

to be typed with particular speed and accuracy for demonstrations. The jamming

problem was essentially solved soon afterward by a suitable use of springs, but

the keyboard layout lives on.