Word: deflective
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...eclipsing, Einstein predicted, the nearer star would create a lens-like effect that would actually intensify the image of the eclipsed star, increasing its brightness perhaps more than 1,000 times. The phenomenon would be caused by the closer star's strong gravitational field, which would deflect and focus light from the distant star...
...ascertaining which big buildings present the greatest risks along a proposed presidential motorcade route. It has equipped the presidential limousine with an optional bubble top that can deflect anything except a shot coming in at a 90° angle (the bubble top that Kennedy rejected was not bulletproof...
...Pietà's flawless marble is shielded from spectators by an almost invisible Lucite sheet that can deflect a .45-cal. bullet. Visitors are drawn past the Pietà on three tiers of conveyor belts. They have from 60 to 90 seconds to feast on its beauty, unless they take to a fourth, motionless tier 24 feet from the sculpture. Even then, they may not have time to marvel how the Renaissance sculptor made the crucified Christ so anatomically human and so tranquil in following his agonizing death...
Tazieff lectures on his esoteric specialty at the University of Brussels, but drops his regular work whenever he gets a chance to confront an active volcano. Protected by fiber-glass armor that can deflect a molten bomb weighing 100 Ibs., he carefully stalks into the craters, sometimes close to the roaring throats, and plants seismographs to measure the heartbeat of lava rising deep under the mountain. He samples gases with little glass tubes poked into hot ash, studies the unstable build-up of fresh cinders. So far, Tazieff has escaped without serious injury...
...find out about the physical world," he contended, "and to increase our power over nature. How these tools are used is clearly not the responsibility of the scientist. For instance, a nuclear explosion can be used for aggression; it can also be used to deter aggression, build harbors, deflect rivers, or as a scientific tool to find out more about nature. By itself a nuclear explosion is neither good nor bad. The way it is used makes it either good...