column, vertical architectural support, circular or polygonal in plan. A column is generally at least four or five times as high as its diameter or width; stubbier freestanding masses of masonry are usually called piers or pillars, particularly those with a rectangular plan. In fully developed Egyptian architecture the columns were of gigantic size, spaced very closely together, and were reserved for inner courtyards and halls. In the Aegean area, in pre-Hellenic times, the column type known to have been used is one with a cushionlike cap and with its shaft tapering downward. Subsequent types were the archaic forms of Doric, developed by the Dorians after their coming (before 1000 B.C.) into the region. By the 7th cent. B.C. this Greek Doric had been established in its design. The columns of classical architecture represent the attempt to design proportionings and details that would create maximum structural harmony. It is in the Greek temples of the Periclean Age (5th cent. B.C.), notably in the Parthenon, that the ideal was obtained. In Greek, Roman, and Renaissance architecture the various column types, taken together with the entablatures that they support, form the classical orders of architecture orders of architecture. In classical tyles of architecture the various columnar types fall, in general, into the five so-called classical orders, which are named Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, Tuscan, and Composite.
..... Click the link for more information. . The classical column has the three fundamental elements of base, shaft, and capital. The shaft has a gradual upward tapering (entasis), and the capital that crowns it provides a decorative and structural transition between the circular column and the rectangular entablature. The Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian column types advanced toward perfect proportions and details and formed the basis for the columnar architecture of the Romans. Although Greek columns always had vertical channels or flutes cut in their shafts, those of the Romans were often without them. In Greek buildings the columns were usually structurally indispensable, but the Romans and later the Renaissance and modern architects used them often also as a decorative feature, mostly following fixed rules of proportions. The columns of Romanesque, Byzantine, and Gothic buildings were usually structural elements and were without canons of proportioning. The capitals of the Romanesque and Gothic were often variously decorated with plant and animal forms. The columns of Chinese and Japanese architecture are circular or polygonal wood posts, with bases but without capitals, having instead an ornamented projecting bracket. In Indian architecture columns exhibit great variety of detail: shafts, bases, and capitals are often intricately ornamented. In modern construction most columns are of either steel or reinforced concrete. See Doric order Doric order, earliest of the orders of architecture developed by the Greeks and the one that they employed for most buildings. It is generally believed that the column and its capital derive from an earlier architecture in wood.
..... Click the link for more information. ; Ionic order Ionic order (īŏn`ĭk), one of the early orders of architecture .
..... Click the link for more information. ; Corinthian order Corinthian order, most ornate of the classic orders of architecture. It was also the latest, not arriving at full development until the middle of the 4th cent. B.C. The oldest known example, however, is found in the temple of Apollo at Bassae (c.420 B.C.).
..... Click the link for more information. ; capital capital, in architecture, the crowning member of a column, pilaster, or pier. It acts as the bearing member beneath the lintel or arch supported by the shaft and has a spreading contour appropriate to its function.
..... Click the link for more information. .

column

Doric columns on the Greek temple at Segesta, Sicily, c. 424–416 BC

(credit: SCALA/Art Resource, NY)

In architecture, a vertical element, usually a slender shaft, that provides structural support by carrying axial loads in compression; columns are also subject to buckling. Columns may be exposed or hidden in walls; constructed of precast concrete, masonry, stone, or wood or of steel wide-flange, pipe, or tubular sections; they may be plain, fluted, or sculpted, with or without a capital and base. Columns may also be nonstructural, used for decorative or monumental purposes. See also intercolumniation, order.

column

A vertical set of data or components. Contrast with row.

column

1. an upright post or pillar usually having a cylindrical shaft, a base, and a capital

2. a vertical array of numbers or mathematical terms

3. Botany a long structure in a flower, such as that of an orchid, consisting of the united stamens and style

4. Anatomy Zoology any elongated structure, such as a tract of grey matter in the spinal cord or the stalk of a crinoid

Column

A structural member that carries its load in compression along its length. Most frequently, as in a building, the column is in a vertical position transmitting gravity loads from its top down to its base. Columns are present in other structures as well, such as in bridges, towers, cranes, airplanes, machinery, and furniture. Other terms used by both engineers and lay persons to identify a column are pillar, post, and strut. Columns of timber, stone, and masonry have been constructed since the dawn of civilization; modern materials also include steel, aluminum, concrete, plastic, and composite material. See Composite material, Loads, transverse, Structural materials, Structural steel

Modern steel columns are made by rolling, extruding, or forming hot steel into predetermined cross-sectional shapes in the manufacturing facility. Reinforced concrete columns are fabricated either in their final locations (cast-in-place concrete) or in a precast plant (precast concrete) with steel reinforcing rods embedded in the concrete. Masonry columns are usually built in their final locations; they are made of brick or concrete masonry blocks; sometimes steel reinforcing rods are embedded within the masonry. See Brick, Concrete, Masonry, Precast concrete, Reinforced concrete

According to their behavior under load, columns are classified as short, slender, or intermediate. A short column is one whose length is relatively short in comparison to its cross-sectional dimensions and, when loaded to its extreme, fails by reaching the compressive strength of its material. This is called failure in axial compression. A slender column is one whose length is large in comparison to its cross-sectional dimensions and, when loaded to its extreme, fails by buckling (abruptly bending) out of its straight-line shape and suddenly collapsing before reaching the compressive strength of its material. This is called a condition of instability. An intermediate column falls between the classifications of short and slender. When loaded to its extreme, the intermediate column falls by a combination of compression and instability.

1.	(database)	column - A named slice through a database table that includes the same field of each row. For example, a telephone directory table might have a row for each person with a name column and a telephone number column.
2.	(storage)	column - A line of memory cells in a dynamic random-access memory, that is selected by a particular column address.

column (redirected from Renal columns)

column

column

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(redirected from Renal columns)