DICT.TW Dictionary Taiwan

 Pen·du·lum n.; pl. Pendulums   A body so suspended from a fixed point as to swing freely to and fro by the alternate action of gravity and momentum.  It is used to regulate the movements of clockwork and other machinery.
 Note: ☞ The time of oscillation of a pendulum is independent of the arc of vibration, provided this arc be small.
 Ballistic pendulum. See under Ballistic.
 Compensation pendulum, a clock pendulum in which the effect of changes of temperature of the length of the rod is so counteracted, usually by the opposite expansion of differene metals, that the distance of the center of oscillation from the center of suspension remains invariable; as, the mercurial compensation pendulum, in which the expansion of the rod is compensated by the opposite expansion of mercury in a jar constituting the bob; the gridiron pendulum, in which compensation is effected by the opposite expansion of sets of rods of different metals.
 Compound pendulum, an ordinary pendulum; -- so called, as being made up of different parts, and contrasted with simple pendulum.
 Conical pendulum or Revolving pendulum, a weight connected by a rod with a fixed point; and revolving in a horizontal circle about the vertical from that point.
 Pendulum bob, the weight at the lower end of a pendulum.
 Pendulum level, a plumb level. See under Level.
 Pendulum wheel, the balance of a watch.
 Simple pendulum or Theoretical pendulum, an imaginary pendulum having no dimensions except length, and no weight except at the center of oscillation; in other words, a material point suspended by an ideal line.
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 Con·ic Con·ic·al, a.
 1. Having the form of, or resembling, a geometrical cone; round and tapering to a point, or gradually lessening in circumference; as, a conic or conical figure; a conical vessel.
 2. Of or pertaining to a cone; as, conic sections.
 Conic section Geom., a curved line formed by the intersection of the surface of a right cone and a plane. The conic sections are the parabola, ellipse, and hyperbola. The right lines and the circle which result from certain positions of the plane are sometimes, though not generally included.
 Conic sections, that branch of geometry which treats of the parabola, ellipse, and hyperbola.
 Conical pendulum. See Pendulum.
 Conical projection, a method of delineating the surface of a sphere upon a plane surface as if projected upon the surface of a cone; -- much used by makers of maps in Europe.
 Conical surface Geom., a surface described by a right line moving along any curve and always passing through a fixed point that is not in the plane of that curve.
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