Word: motionless
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1960
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...become a classic of natural history. Author Greenewalt, president of mighty E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., has written a monograph, understandable to laymen, on his hobby-hummingbirds. Greenewalt offers some intriguing hummingbird lore, including the fact that they are the only birds that can hover with body motionless, and the only ones that have a " 'reverse gear' which enables them to fly backwards as prettily and efficiently as they can forwards." What will most excite bird watchers as well as plain readers is the crisp, full-color photographs, the largest collection ever published, which catch...
When the time came for the real test last week, Polaris and her crew were ready. The SINS had the ship exactly on station. The control surfaces that could whip George Washington through the water like a startled eel now held it steady and motionless. On signal, the muzzle door atop a missile tube swung open. A small, explosive charge ruptured the plastic membrane that protected the bird from sea water, and a great blast of compressed air sent it rocketing toward the surface and its remarkable flight...
...tube holding a Polaris missile was tilted another seven degrees to guarantee that the missile would fire away from the ship. Suddenly, amid a great puff of white steam formed by compressed air, the sleek, 28-ft. missile whooshed 70 ft. into the dark sky, seemed to hang motionless for an instant, then ignited in a blinding white flash and roared 800 miles down the Caribbean range...
Ether Wind. The ether had another useful property: it was presumed to be motionless, and therefore it provided the basic frame of reference from which all motions were measured. A star, for instance, could be said to be moving so many miles per hour through the ether. When the earth swung around its orbit, it moved through the ether too, creating an "ether wind" blowing past...