| A | B |
|---|
| Calorie | the amount of energy needed to increase the temperature of one gram of water by one degree Celsius |
| Calories | a unit used to measure and compare the amount of heart energy in a substance |
| Capillary | a narrow blood vessel that connects arteries with veins |
| Carbohydrate | a type of carbon-based molecule in living things carbohydrates include sugars and starches used for energy or as structural materials carbohydrate molecules contain carbon hydrogen and oxygen atoms |
| Carbon cycle | the continuous movement of carbon through Earth its atmosphere and the living things on Earth |
| Cardiac muscle | the muscle that makes up the heart |
| Carnivore | a meat eating animal |
| Carrying capacity | the maximum size that a population can reach in an ecosystem |
| Catalyst | a substance that increases the rate of a chemical reaction but is not consumed in the reaction |
| Cell | the basic unit of structure and function of all living things |
| Cell membrane | the outer covering which regulates the flow of materials into and out of the cell |
| Cellular respiration | a process in which cells use oxygen to release energy stored in sugars |
| Chemical bonds | the link the joins one atom to another in a molecule |
| Chemical changes | a change that results in the formation of one or more new substance |
| Chemical energy | the energy stored in certain substances because of their chemical makeup |
| Chemical formula | an expression that shows the number and types of atoms joined in a compound |
| Chemical properties | a characteristic of a substance that describes how it can form a new substance |
| Chemical reaction | the process by which chemical changes occur in a chemical reaction atoms are rearranged and chemical bonds are broken and formed |
| Chemical weathering | the breakdown or decomposition of rock that takes place when minerals change through chemical processes |
| Central nervous system | the brain and spinal cord communicates with the rest of the nervous system through electrical signals sent to and from neurons |
| Centripetal force | any force that keeps an object moving in a circle |
| Childhood | the stage of life after infancy and before the beginning of sexual maturity |
| Chloroplast | the organelle in plant cells that contains chlorophyll and in which photosynthesis takes place |
| Circulatory system | the group of organs |
| Circuit | a closed path through which charge can flow |
| Classification | the systematic grouping of different types of organisms by their shared characteristics |
| Cleavage | the property of a mineral that describes its tendency to break along flat surfaces |
| Climate | the average condition of the atmosphere in an area over many years |
| Climate zone | one of the major divisions in a system for classifying the climates of different regions based on characteristics they have in common |
| Climax community | the final community that emerges and is not replaced after ecological succession |
| Cnidarian | an invertebrate animal such as a jellyfish that has a body with radial symmetry tentacles with stinging cells and a central internal cavity |
| Coefficient | the number before a chemical formula that indicates how many molecules are involved in a chemical reaction |
| Cold front | the boundary formed when a cool air mass pushes into and under a warm air mass |
| Collision | a situation in which two objects in close contact exchange energy and momentum |
| Comet | a body that produces a coma of gas and dust a small icy body that orbits the sun |
| Commensalism | an interaction between two species in which one species benefits without harming the other a type of symbiosis |
| Community | all the different population of species that live within a habitat |
| Compact bone | the tough hard outer layer of a bone |
| Competition | the interaction between organisms that require the same food and resources |
| Competitor | a species characterized by a relatively longer life span with relatively few offspring when compared with an opportunist species |
| Compound | a substance that is formed when two or more different elements combine chemically |
| Compound machine | a machine that is made up of two or more simple machines |
| Compound microscope | a microscope that used two lenses |
| Computer | an electronic device that processes digital information |
| Concave | curved inward toward the center like the inside of a spoon |
| Concentration | the amount of solute dissolved in a solvent at a given temperature |
| Condensation | the process by which a gas becomes a liquid |
| Conduction | the transfer of heat by direct molecular contact |
| Conductor | (1) a material that transfers energy easily (2) a material that transfers electric charge easily |
| Coniferous | a term used to describe cone-bearing trees and shrubs that usually keep their leaves or needles during all the seasons of the year |
| Conservation | the saving of natural resource through wise use |
| Constellation | a group of stars that form a pattern in the sky |
| Consumer | a living thing that gets its energy by eating other living things in a food chain; consumers are also called heterotrophs |
| Continental climate | a climate that occurs in the interior of a continent with large temperature differences between seasons |
| Continental continental collision | a boundary along which two plates carrying continental crust push together |
| Continental drift | the hypothesis that Earth’s continents move on Earth’s surface |
| Continental shelf | the flat or gently sloping land that lies submerged around the edges of a continent and that extends from the shoreline out to the continental slope |
| Contour interval | on a topographic map the difference in elevation from one contour line to the next |
| Contour line | a line on a topographic map that joins points of equal elevation |
| Convection | the transfer of energy from place to place by the motion of heated gas or liquid in Earth’s mantle convection is thought to transfer energy by the motion of solid rock which when under great heat and pressure can move like a liquid |
| Convection current | a circulation pattern in which material is heated and rises in one area then cools and sinks in another area flowing in a continuous loop |
| Convergent boundary | a boundary along which two tectonic plates push together characterized either by subduction or a continental collision |
| Convex | curved outward |
| Cooperation | a term used to describe an interaction between two or more living things in which they are said to work together |
| Coral reef | a built-up limestone deposit formed by small ant-size organisms called coral |
| Core | Earths center which is made up of an outer zone and an inner zone |
| Coriolis Effect | the influence of Earth’s rotation on objects that move over Earth |
| Cornea | a transparent membrane that covers the eye |
| Corona | the outer layer of the sun’s atmosphere |
| Corrosion | the chemical wearing away of metal |
| Covalent bond | a pair of electrons shared by two atoms |
| Crest | the highest point or peak of a wave |
| Crust | the outer most solid rock layer of earth contains all the surface features |
| Crystal | a solid substance in which the atoms are arranged in an orderly repeating |
| Cycle | a series of events or actions that repeat themselves regularly a physical and/or chemical process in which one material continually changes locations and/or forms |
| Cytokinesis | the division of a parent cell’s cytoplasm following mitosis |
| Cytoplasm | the fluid that fills a cell in which most life processes occur |
