artificial lines

Artificial \Ar`ti*fi"cial\, a. [L. artificialis, fr. artificium:
   cf. F. artificiel. See {Artifice}.]
   1. Made or contrived by art; produced or modified by human
      skill and labor, in opposition to natural; as, artificial
      heat or light, gems, salts, minerals, fountains, flowers.
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            Artificial strife
            Lives in these touches, livelier than life. --Shak.
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   2. Feigned; fictitious; assumed; affected; not genuine.
      "Artificial tears." --Shak.
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   3. Artful; cunning; crafty. [Obs.] --Shak.
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   4. Cultivated; not indigenous; not of spontaneous growth; as,
      artificial grasses. --Gibbon.
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   {Artificial arguments} (Rhet.), arguments invented by the
      speaker, in distinction from laws, authorities, and the
      like, which are called inartificial arguments or proofs.
      --Johnson.

   {Artificial classification} (Science), an arrangement based
      on superficial characters, and not expressing the true
      natural relations species; as, "the artificial system" in
      botany, which is the same as the Linn[ae]an system.

   {Artificial horizon}. See under {Horizon}.

   {Artificial light}, any light other than that which proceeds
      from the heavenly bodies.

   {Artificial lines}, lines on a sector or scale, so contrived
      as to represent the logarithmic sines and tangents, which,
      by the help of the line of numbers, solve, with tolerable
      exactness, questions in trigonometry, navigation, etc.

   {Artificial numbers}, logarithms.

   {Artificial person} (Law). See under {Person}.

   {Artificial sines}, {tangents}, etc., the same as logarithms
      of the natural sines, tangents, etc. --Hutton.
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