RESOLUTION

The official expression of the opinion or will of a legislative body.

The practice of submitting and voting on resolutions is a typical part of business in Congress, state legislatures, and other public assemblies. These bodies use resolutions for two purposes. First, resolutions express their consensus on matters of public policy: lawmakers routinely deliver criticism or support on a broad range of social issues, legal rights, court opinions, and even decisions by the executive branch. Second, they pass resolutions for internal, administrative purposes. Resolutions are not laws; they differ fundamentally in their purpose. However, under certain circumstances resolutions can have the effect of law.

In all legislative bodies, the process leading to a resolution begins with a lawmaker making a formal proposal called a motion. The rules of the legislative body determine how much support must be given to the motion before it can be put to a general vote. The rules also specify what number of votes the resolution must attract to be passed. If successful it becomes the official position of the legislative body.

As a spontaneous expression of opinion, a resolution is intended to be timely and to have a temporary effect. Typically resolutions are used when passage of a law is unnecessary or unfeasible. In many cases relevant laws already exist. The resolution merely asserts an opinion that lawmakers want to emphasize. Thus, for example, state and federal laws already criminalize illicit drugs, but lawmakers have frequently passed resolutions decrying illegal drug use. Political frustration sometimes leads lawmakers to declare their opposition to laws that they cannot change. Additionally, resolutions are common in times of emergency. War commonly brings resolutions in support of the nation's armed forces and the president (who, at other times, can be the subject of critical resolutions).

When resolutions are mere expressions of opinion, they differ fundamentally from laws. In essence, laws are intended to permanently direct and control matters applying to persons or issues in general; moreover, they are enforceable. By contrast, resolutions expressing the views of lawmakers are limited to a specific issue or event. They are neither intended to be permanent nor to be enforceable. Nor do they carry the weight of court opinions. In a certain respect, they resemble the opinions expressed by a newspaper on its editorial page, but they are nonetheless indicative of the ideas and values of elected representatives and, as such, commonly mirror the outlook of voters.

In addition to delivering statements for public consumption, resolutions also play an important role in the administration of legislatures. Lawmakers pass resolutions to control internal rules on matters such as voting and conduct. Typically legislatures also use them to conduct housekeeping: resolutions can thank a member for service to the legislature or criticize him or her for disservice. The latter form of resolution is known as censure, a rarely used formal process by which the legislature as a whole votes on whether to denounce a member for misdeeds.

Either house of a legislature can issue its own resolutions. When both houses adopt the same motion, it is called a joint resolution. Besides carrying the greater force of unanimity, the joint resolution also has a specific legal value in state and federal government. When such a resolution has been approved by the president or a chief executive—or passed with the president's approval—it has the effect of law. In some states a joint resolution is treated as a bill. It can become a law if it is properly passed and signed by the chief executive officer. In Congress a related form of action is the concurrent resolution: it is passed in the form of a resolution of one house with the other house in agreement. Unlike a joint resolution, a concurrent resolution does not require the approval of the president.

cross-references

Congress of the United States; Legislation.

res·o·lu·tion / ˌrezəˈloōshən/ • n. 1. a firm decision to do or not to do something: she kept her resolution not to see Anne any more a New Year's resolution. ∎  a formal expression of opinion or intention agreed on by a legislative body, committee, or other formal meeting, typically after taking a vote: the conference passed two resolutions. ∎  the quality of being determined or resolute: he handled the last French actions of the war with resolution.2. the action of solving a problem, dispute, or contentious matter: the peaceful resolution of all disputes | a successful resolution to the problem. ∎  Mus. the passing of a discord into a concord during the course of changing harmony. ∎  Med. the disappearance of inflammation, or of any other symptom or condition.3. chiefly Chem. the process of reducing or separating something into its components. ∎  Physics the replacing of a single force or other vector quantity by two or more jointly equivalent to it. ∎  the conversion of something abstract into another form. ∎  Prosody the substitution of two short syllables for one long one.4. the smallest interval measurable by a scientific (esp. optical) instrument; the resolving power. ∎  the degree of detail visible in a photographic or television image.

RESOLUTION

The term resolution is used to describe the quality or sharpness of images that are displayed on computer monitors or printed onto pages. Generally speaking, low-resolution images are of a lesser quality than high-resolution images. Resolution is expressed differently, depending on whether an image appears on-screen or in print.

The resolution of computer monitors is expressed in elements called pixels. Displayed as a set of red, green, and blue dots, pixels are the smallest pieces on a screen that can be manipulated. For example, the brightness or color of a pixel can be adjusted. Pixels normally are expressed in the form of two numbers (such as 640 x 480). When multiplied, these numbers reveal the total number of pixels a screen can display (such as 300,000). The value 640 corresponds to the number of pixels a screen can display across an individual horizontal line, of which there are a total of 480.

The earliest computer monitors were not capable of displaying the color images that are so important to Web pages and e-commerce. Instead, they were monochromatic and displayed text characters in green or orange. During the 1980s and early 1990s IBM developed display technologies like the Color Graphics Adapter (CGA), Enhanced Graphics Adapter (EGA), Video Graphics Array (VGA), and Extended Graphics Array (XGA) that allowed monitors to display greater numbers of colors and pixels. In the early 2000s, the Ultra Extended Graphics Array (UXGA) standard was supported by most computer monitors. In tandem with enough video memory and the right graphics card, UXGA made it possible to achieve resolutions of 1600 x 1200 pixels and display 16.6 million colors. Around the same time, flat-panel displays and rear-projection monitors were evolving, holding the potential to improve the quality of images users saw on-screen.

When the term resolution is used to describe the quality of a printed image, it is expressed in dots-per-inch (DPI), or the number of dots a printer can fit into one linear inch. A printer capable of printing 600 DPI can produce 360,000 dots in every square inch. The resolution of an image on-screen may not correspond with its resolution in printed form, since each depends on the equipment on which it is viewed or printed. However, the resolution of a printed or viewed image generally will improve if its size is reduced, or become poorer if its size is enlarged. This corresponds with the concentration of pixels or dots.

FURTHER READING:

Chinnock, Chris. "New Screen Designs are Leading to More Attractive Images." Electronic Design, October 2, 2000.

"Pixels and Resolution." The PC Guide, April 17, 2001. Available from www.pcguide.com.

"Resolution." Ecommerce Webopedia, . May 25, 2001. Available from e-comm.webopedia.com.

"Resolution." Tech Encyclopedia, . May 25, 2001. Available from www.techweb.com.

Tyson, Jeff. "How Computer Monitors Work." How Stuff Works, May 30, 2001. Available from www.howstuffworks.com.

resolution
1. The amount of graphical information that can be shown on a visual display. The resolution of a display device is usually denoted by the number of lines that can be distinguished visually per inch.

Resolution is often confused with addressability. The addressability of a computer-graphics system is defined by the number of displayable lines, or alternatively by the number of points or pixels (picture elements) that can be displayed in the vertical and horizontal directions. Computer graphics systems are now capable of addressing over 16 000 pixels horizontally and vertically but the resolution is likely to be nearer 400 lines per inch.

2. See A/D converter, D/A converter.

3. A rule of inference in mathematical logic, used to deduce a new logical formula from two old ones. It has been used extensively in the automatic derivation of mathematical theorems since it is an efficient alternative to traditional rules of inference. See also unification.

resolution (rez-ŏ-loo-shŏn) n.
1. the stage during which inflammation gradually disappears.

2. the degree to which individual details can be distinguished by the eye, as through a microscope.