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d from a fixed point as to swing freely to and fro by the alternate action of gravity and momentum. It is used to regulate the movements of clockwork and other machinery.

The mildest form of epilepsy, with momentary faintness or unconsciousness, but without convulsions; -- opposed to grand mal.

The momentary current between two alternating-current generators when juxtaposed in parallel and not agreeing exactly in phase or period.

onsisting of a large wheel with spokes, which when turning very rapidly is illuminated by momentary flashes of light passing through slits in a rotating disk. By properly timing the succession of flashes the wheel is made to appear to be motionless, or to rotate more or less slowly in either direction.…

in surveying and map making. From the differences between two pictures taken at the same moment, measurements in all dimensions of the region may be obtained.

conceived as being without extension, yet having physical properties, as weight, inertia, momentum, etc.; a material point. -- Physical signs (Med.), the objective signs of the bodily state afforded by a physical examination.

ong from the pitch of heaven, down Into this deep. Milton. Enterprises of great pitch and moment. Shak. To lowest pitch of abject fortune. Milton. He lived when learning was at its highest pitch. Addison. The exact pitch, or limits, where temperance ends. Sharp.

e; vigor; strength; importance; as, the speech lacked pith. Enterprises of great pith and moment. Shak. Pith paper. Same as Rice paper, under Rice.

ue; as, the Rye-house Plot. I have overheard a plot of death. Shak. O, think what anxious moments pass between The birth of plots and their last fatal periods! Addison.

An indivisible portion of time; a moment; an instant; hence, the verge. When time's first point begun Made he all souls. Sir J. Davies.

Important; momentous; forcible. "Your more ponderous and settled project." Shak.

. Popp'd in between the election and my hopes. Shak. A trick of popping up and down every moment. Swift.

Present time; the time being; time in progress now, or at the moment contemplated; as, at this present. Past and present, wound in one. Tennyson.

To publish a book or an article. From the moment he prints, he must except to hear no more truth. Pope.

ituting a proportion; having the same, or a constant, ratio; as, proportional quantities; momentum is proportional to quantity of matter. Proportional logarithms, logistic logarithms. See under Logistic. -- Proportional scale, a scale on which are marked parts proportional to the logarithms of the natural numbers; a l…

ict. ) -- Quantity of matter, in a body, its mass, as determined by its weight, or by its momentum under a given velocity. -- Quantity of motion (Mech.), in a body, the relative amount of its motion, as measured by its momentum, varying as the product of mass and velocity. -- Known quantities (Math.), quantities whos…

ter revolution, reform, or great progress in any direction. The new king had, at the very moment at which his fame and fortune reached the highest point, predicted the coming reaction. Macaulay. Reaction time (Physiol.), in nerve physiology, the interval between the application of a stimulus to an end organ of sense an…

. We can not realize it in thought, that the object . . . had really no being at any past moment. Sir W. Hamilton.

d upon. -- Rope pump, a pump in which a rapidly running endless rope raises water by the momentum communicated to the water by its adhesion to the rope. -- Rope transmission (Mach.), a method of transmitting power, as between distant places, by means of endless ropes running over grooved pulleys. -- Rope's end, a pi…

Any return or succesion in a series. Moment of rotation. See Moment of inertia, under Moment. -- Rotation in office, the practice of changing public officers at frequent intervals by discharges and substitutions. -- Rotation of crops, the practices of cultivating an orderly succession of different crops on the same l…