from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Solar \So"lar\, a. [L. solaris, fr. sol the sun; akin to As.
s[=o]l, Icel. s[=o]l, Goth. sauil, Lith. saule, W. haul,.
sul, Skr. svar, perhaps to E. sun:F. solaire. Cf. {Parasol}.
{Sun}.]
1. Of or pertaining to the sun; proceeding from the sun; as,
the solar system; solar light; solar rays; solar
influence. See {Solar system}, below.
[1913 Webster]
2. (Astrol.) Born under the predominant influence of the sun.
[Obs.]
[1913 Webster]
And proud beside, as solar people are. --Dryden.
[1913 Webster]
3. Measured by the progress or revolution of the sun in the
ecliptic; as, the solar year.
[1913 Webster]
4. Produced by the action of the sun, or peculiarly affected
by its influence.
[1913 Webster]
They denominate some herbs solar, and some lunar.
--Bacon.
[1913 Webster]
{Solar cycle}. See under {Cycle}.
{Solar day}. See {Day}, 2.
{Solar engine}, an engine in which the energy of solar heat
is used to produce motion, as in evaporating water for a
steam engine, or expanding air for an air engine.
{Solar flowers} (Bot.), flowers which open and shut daily at
certain hours.
{Solar lamp}, an argand lamp.
{Solar microscope}, a microscope consisting essentially,
first, of a mirror for reflecting a beam of sunlight
through the tube, which sometimes is fixed in a window
shutter; secondly, of a condenser, or large lens, for
converging the beam upon the object; and, thirdly, of a
small lens, or magnifier, for throwing an enlarged image
of the object at its focus upon a screen in a dark room or
in a darkened box.
[1913 Webster]
[1913 Webster]
{Solar month}. See under {Month}.
{Solar oil}, a paraffin oil used an illuminant and lubricant.
{Solar phosphori} (Physics), certain substances, as the
diamond, siulphide of barium (Bolognese or Bologna
phosphorus), calcium sulphide, etc., which become
phosphorescent, and shine in the dark, after exposure to
sunlight or other intense light.
{Solar plexus} (Anat.), a nervous plexus situated in the
dorsal and anterior part of the abdomen, consisting of
several sympathetic ganglia with connecting and radiating
nerve fibers; -- so called in allusion to the radiating
nerve fibers.
{Solar spots}. See {Sun spots}, under {Sun}.
{Solar system} (Astron.), the sun, with the group of
celestial bodies which, held by its attraction, revolve
round it. The system comprises the major planets, with
their satellites; the minor planets, or asteroids, and the
comets; also, the meteorids, the matter that furnishes the
zodiacal light, and the rings of Saturn. The satellites
that revolve about the major planets are twenty-two in
number, of which the Earth has one (see {Moon}.), Mars
two, Jupiter five, Saturn nine, Uranus four, and Neptune
one. The asteroids, between Mars and Jupiter, thus far
discovered (1900), number about five hundred, the first
four of which were found near the beginning of the
century, and are called Ceres, Pallas, Juno, and Vesta.
[1913 Webster]
Note: The principal elements of the major planets, and of the
comets seen at more than one perihelion passage, are
exhibited in the following tables:
[1913 Webster] I. -- Major Planets. Symbol.Name.Mean
distance -- that of the Earth being unity.Period in
days.Eccentricity.Inclination of orbit.Diameter in
miles ?????????????????????
[1913 Webster] II. -- Periodic Comets. Name.Greatest
distance from sun.Least distance from sun.Inclination
of orbit.Perihelion passage. [deg] [min] 54
Encke's3.314.100.34212 541885.2 ?????????????????????
[1913 Webster]
{Solar telegraph}, telegraph for signaling by flashes of
reflected sunlight.
{Solar time}. See {Apparent time}, under {Time}.
[1913 Webster]
from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Cycle \Cy"cle\ (s?"k'l), n. [F. ycle, LL. cyclus, fr. Gr.
ky`klos ring or circle, cycle; akin to Skr. cakra wheel,
circle. See {Wheel}.]
1. An imaginary circle or orbit in the heavens; one of the
celestial spheres. --Milton.
[1913 Webster]
2. An interval of time in which a certain succession of
events or phenomena is completed, and then returns again
and again, uniformly and continually in the same order; a
periodical space of time marked by the recurrence of
something peculiar; as, the cycle of the seasons, or of
the year.
[1913 Webster]
Wages . . . bear a full proportion . . . to the
medium of provision during the last bad cycle of
twenty years. --Burke.
[1913 Webster]
3. An age; a long period of time.
[1913 Webster]
Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle of Cathay.
--Tennyson.
[1913 Webster]
4. An orderly list for a given time; a calendar. [Obs.]
[1913 Webster]
We . . . present our gardeners with a complete cycle
of what is requisite to be done throughout every
month of the year. --Evelyn.
[1913 Webster]
5. The circle of subjects connected with the exploits of the
hero or heroes of some particular period which have served
as a popular theme for poetry, as the legend of Arthur and
the knights of the Round Table, and that of Charlemagne
and his paladins.
[1913 Webster]
6. (Bot.) One entire round in a circle or a spire; as, a
cycle or set of leaves. --Gray.
[1913 Webster]
7. A bicycle or tricycle, or other light velocipede.
[1913 Webster]
8. A motorcycle.
[PJC]
9. (Thermodynamics) A series of operations in which heat is
imparted to (or taken away from) a working substance which
by its expansion gives up a part of its internal energy in
the form of mechanical work (or being compressed increases
its internal energy) and is again brought back to its
original state.
[Webster 1913 Suppl.]
10. (Technology) A complete positive and negative, or forward
and reverse, action of any periodic process, such as a
vibration, an electric field oscillation, or a current
alternation; one period. Hence: (Elec.) A complete
positive and negative wave of an alternating current. The
number of cycles (per second) is a measure of the
frequency of an alternating current.
[Webster 1913 Suppl. + PJC]
{Calippic cycle}, a period of 76 years, or four Metonic
cycles; -- so called from Calippus, who proposed it as an
improvement on the Metonic cycle.
{Cycle of eclipses}, a period of about 6,586 days, the time
of revolution of the moon's node; -- called {Saros} by the
Chaldeans.
{Cycle of indiction}, a period of 15 years, employed in Roman
and ecclesiastical chronology, not founded on any
astronomical period, but having reference to certain
judicial acts which took place at stated epochs under the
Greek emperors.
{Cycle of the moon}, or {Metonic cycle}, a period of 19
years, after the lapse of which the new and full moon
returns to the same day of the year; -- so called from
Meton, who first proposed it.
{Cycle of the sun}, {Solar cycle}, a period of 28 years, at
the end of which time the days of the month return to the
same days of the week. The dominical or Sunday letter
follows the same order; hence the solar cycle is also
called the {cycle of the Sunday letter}. In the Gregorian
calendar the solar cycle is in general interrupted at the
end of the century.
[1913 Webster]