"Center of gravity" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... make it probable that these languages were originally confined to a comparatively small area in northern Germany and Scandinavia. This area is clearly marginal to the total area of distribution of the Indo-European-speaking peoples. Their center of gravity, say 1000 B.C., seems to have lain in ...
— Language - An Introduction to the Study of Speech • Edward Sapir
... jerked up. To the trained eye of Cluff, swift to interpret physical indications, it seemed that Perkins's weight had almost imperceptibly shifted its center of gravity. ...
— The Unspeakable Perk • Samuel Hopkins Adams
... century following this horological exuberance in Damascus, the center of gravity of Islamic astronomy shifted from the East to the Hispano-Moorish West. At the same time there comes more evidence that the line of mathematical protoclocks had not been left unattended. This is suggested by a description ...
— On the Origin of Clockwork, Perpetual Motion Devices, and the Compass • Derek J. de Solla Price
... seen, the main problem presented was to turn the car around at each end of the cut in a very limited space. To accomplish this, the car is mounted on a fixed axle at each end and on a truck under its center of gravity; this is somewhat forward of the geometrical center of the car. The frame of the truck is circular, thirteen feet in diameter, made of I beams curved to shape. The circle carries a track, on which a ring of coned rollers revolves, which ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 484, April 11, 1885 • Various
... reaches into the branches of a tree for the plenteous fruit. This youth is a composite portrait of Botticelli and his benefactor, Lorenzo. The women were painted from life, and represent various favorites and beauties of the court. The drawing is faulty, the center of gravity being lost in several of the figures, and the anatomy is of a quality that must have given a severe shock to the artist's friend, Leonardo. Yet the grace, the movement and the joyous quality of Spring ...
— Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great, Volume 6 - Subtitle: Little Journeys to the Homes of Eminent Artists • Elbert Hubbard
... the bending moment against a wall or bracing, there is the weight of the mass multiplied by the distance of its center of gravity vertically above ...
— Pressure, Resistance, and Stability of Earth • J. C. Meem
... to Lisbon and Cadiz, Bordeaux and Cherbourg, Antwerp and Amsterdam, London and Liverpool. One may say, therefore, that the year 1492 A.D. inaugurated the Atlantic period of European history. The time may come, perhaps even now it is dawning, when the center of gravity of the commercial world will shift still farther westward ...
— EARLY EUROPEAN HISTORY • HUTTON WEBSTER
... basket; or by having either horizontal partitions, or vertical, radial ones, special cases of which will be noticed. Oscillations may also be met in the same manner as in sugar machines, by allowing the revolving parts to revolve about an axis through their common center of gravity. ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 613, October 1, 1887 • Various
... Miss Conway upon the tablets of his consideration. He threw away the remaining inch-and-a-quarter of his cigar, that would have been good for eight minutes yet, and quickly shifted his center of gravity to his ...
— The Trimmed Lamp and Others • O Henry
... centrality, centricalness[obs3], center; middle &c. 68; focus &c. 74. core, kernel; nucleus, nucleolus; heart, pole axis, bull's eye; nave, navel; umbilicus, backbone, marrow, pith; vertebra, vertebral column; hotbed; concentration &c. (convergence) 290; centralization; symmetry. center of gravity, center of pressure, center of percussion, center of oscillation, center of buoyancy &c.; metacenter[obs3]. V. be central &c. adj.; converge &c. 290. render central, centralize, concentrate; bring to a focus. Adj. central, centrical[obs3]; middle &c. 68; ...
— Roget's Thesaurus
... dynamite charge, to lessen the shock of the discharge and prevent explosion, until the impact of the projectile forces the firing pin in upon the dynamite and explodes it. Many charges have been successfully fired at Fort Hamilton, N.Y. As the center of gravity is forward of the center of figure in the projectile, a side wind acting upon the lighter rear part would tend to turn the head into the wind and thus keep it in the line of its trajectory. A range of 11/4 miles has been attained with the two ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 446, July 19, 1884 • Various
... the recovery scarcely encounters resistance in the softly gliding ascent. Thus, in Fig. 5, (I can only explain this to readers a little versed in the elements of mechanics,) if B is the locus of the center of gravity of the bird, moving in slow flight in the direction of the arrow, w is the locus of the leading feather of its wing, and a and b, roughly, the successive positions of the wing ...
— Love's Meinie - Three Lectures on Greek and English Birds • John Ruskin
... horse; that is, if the fore feet alone are affected, they are carried forward until they rest on the heels; and if the hind feet are affected, all the feet are carried forward, resting on their heels, the hind ones as near the center of gravity as possible. In some cases the stupor of the animal is so great that the pain is not felt, and little or no change of the position of the animal is noticeable. The foot is found hot to the touch, and after a given time the depressed convex sole ...
— Special Report on Diseases of the Horse • United States Department of Agriculture
... all positions of the left hand at the balance (center of gravity, bayonet unfixed) the thumb clasps the piece; the sling is included in the grasp ...
— Manual for Noncommissioned Officers and Privates of Infantry • War Department
... distances and positions. Within twenty years, he startled intellectual man with the statement that many of the fixed stars actually move—one great sun revolving around another, and both rotating about their common center of gravity. If we look at a double star with a small telescope, it looks just like any other; using a little larger glass, it changes appearance and looks elongated; with a still better telescope, they become distinctly separated ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 288 - July 9, 1881 • Various
... seen the city so excited, not even during the great lock-out. Class faced class with clenched fists, the workmen even more eager than the upper class: they had become out-and-out politicians. He could see that the Movement had shifted its center of gravity over this. What was necessary was to gain seats; to-day they expected to get the upper hand in the city and a firm footing out in the country. Several of the old leaders were already in parliament and brought forward their practical experience in the debate; their ...
— Pelle the Conqueror, Complete • Martin Andersen Nexo
... the earth, which counteracts the gravitation of bodies near its surface. For the earth and moon may be considered as two cannon balls of different sizes held together by a chain, and revolving once a month round a common center of gravity between them, near the earth's surface; at the same time that they perform their annual orbits round the sun. Whence the centrifugal force of that side of the earth, which is farthest from this center of motion, round which the earth and moon monthly revolve, is considerably ...
— Zoonomia, Vol. II - Or, the Laws of Organic Life • Erasmus Darwin
... caught his breath. It seemed that he hadn't breathed in minutes. The big crate wasn't balanced. It was spinning. It wasn't vibrating. It spun around its own center of gravity, unerringly revealed by its ...
— Space Platform • Murray Leinster
... uplifted edges of the curved planes, and buoy it up so that it will rise in the air and take you with it. This rise will not be great, just enough to keep you well clear of the ground. Now project your legs a little to the front so as to shift the center of gravity a trifle and bring the edges of the glider on an exact level with the atmosphere. This, with the momentum acquired in the start, will keep the machine moving forward for ...
— Flying Machines - Construction and Operation • W.J. Jackman and Thos. H. Russell
... stock in 1871. a small number of well-considered types, suited to the different class of work required, are now in use. Mr. Stroudley considers—contrary to the opinion once almost universally held—that engines with a high center of gravity are the safest to traverse curves at high speed, as the centrifugal force throws the greatest weight on the outer wheels, and prevents their mounting; also that the greatest weight should be on the leading wheels, and that there is no objection to these wheels being ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 458, October 11, 1884 • Various
... resting on the ground. It will be seen that when the horse is drawing the vehicle, the friction of this large wheel against the ground being greater than that of the concentric one within it, the latter will revolve until the center of gravity of the whole is situated anew in a line vertical to the point at which it bears on the ground. The result of such an arrangement is that the driver rolls on the large wheel just as he would do on the surface of an endless rail. As may be conceived, the tractive ...
— Scientific American Supplement, Vol. XV., No. 388, June 9, 1883 • Various
... who was supposed to have brain-tumor. This young woman seemed to have lost almost entirely the power to keep her equilibrium in walking. Her center of gravity was never over her feet, but away out in space, so that she was continually banging from one side of the room to the other, only saving herself from injury by catching at the wall or the furniture with her hands. Several physicians who had been interested in the case had found the ...
— Outwitting Our Nerves - A Primer of Psychotherapy • Josephine A. Jackson and Helen M. Salisbury
... under the first plank, and then scrambled over the second. At the shallow end were a number of large round wash-tubs; each candidate had to seize upon one of these and seat herself in it, a most difficult feat of fine balancing, for unless she hit upon the exact center of gravity, the tub promptly overturned, and flung her into the water. It was a most mirth-provoking competition, candidates and spectators bursting into shouts of laughter as one after another the girls gingerly climbed into their tubs, and toppled over into the bath. Those who managed at ...
— The Luckiest Girl in the School • Angela Brazil
... disadvantage, have been off the main lines will now be on the main lines. I feel that these gentlemen honoring us with their presence to-day will presently find that some part, at any rate, of the center of gravity of the world has shifted. Do you realize that New York, for example, will be nearer the western coast of South America than she is now to the eastern coast of South America? Do you realize that a line drawn northward parallel with the greater part of the western coast ...
— President Wilson's Addresses • Woodrow Wilson
... points in a direction almost normal to the surface of your planet. These devices tap and use the enormous force of gravity itself and when they are locked to your planet, they are anchored to the center of gravity of the planet. Unless it were normal to the planet's surface, its reactive force is so great that it would disrupt the balance which holds the planet in place were the beam sent off on a ...
— Giants on the Earth • Sterner St. Paul Meek
... feed arrangements. This enables one man to drive and stoke the engine, and to attend to the suction and delivery hoses, and it does not interfere at all with the stability of engine in traveling or at work, as the center of gravity is well below the top of the side frames. Another feature is the absence of a main steam pipe, a bracket being arranged on the cylinders containing the steam passages, to bolt directly onto the top of the ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 1157, March 5, 1898 • Various
... under the action of the earth's attraction, has assumed the form of an egg, which we look at from the smaller end. Hence it follows, by Hausen's calculations, that its center of gravity is situated in the other hemisphere. Hence it results that the great mass of air and water must have been drawn away to the other face of our satellite during the ...
— Jules Verne's Classic Books • Jules Verne
... keen on their jumping. You know, jumping feet-first from a height, it is very difficult to hold the body perpendicularly while in the air. The center of gravity of the male body is high, and the tendency is to overtopple. But the little beggars employed a method which she declared was new to her and which she desired to learn. Leaping from the davits of the ...
— The Night-Born • Jack London |
