Hydrofoil

A hydrofoil is a lifting surface, or foil, which operates in water. They are similar in appearance and purpose to aerofoils used by aeroplanes. Boats using hydrofoil technology are also simply termed hydrofoils. As speed is gained, hydrofoils lift the boat's hull out of the water, decreasing drag and thus allowing greater speeds.

Description

The hydrofoil usually consists of a wing-like structure mounted on struts below the hull, or across the keels of a catamaran in a variety of boats (see illustration). As a hydrofoil-equipped watercraft increases in speed, the hydrofoil elements below the hull(s) develop enough lift to raise the hull out of the water in order to greatly reduce hull drag. This gives a further corresponding increase in speed and efficiency of operation in terms of fuel consumption.

A wider adoption of the technical innovations of hydrofoils is prevented by the increased complexity of building and maintaining them. Hydrofoils are generally prohibitively more expensive than conventional watercraft. However, the design is simple enough that there are many human-powered hydrofoil designs. Amateur experimentation and development of the concept is popular.

Foil (song)

"Foil" is a song by American musician "Weird Al" Yankovic from his fourteenth studio album, Mandatory Fun (2014). The song is a parody of the 2013 single "Royals" by Lorde. The song begins as an ode to the multiple uses of aluminum foil for food storage, but takes a darker turn in its second verse, parodying conspiracy theories, the New World Order, and the Illuminati.

The song's music video stars Yankovic as the host of a cooking program, and features cameo appearances from Patton Oswalt, Tom Lennon, and Robert Ben Garant.

Background and composition

The song opens with Yankovic lamenting that he cannot finish food at restaurants, opting for a doggy bag from the waiter to take it home. The song's first verse and chorus find the narrator expanding upon the usage of aluminum foil for food storage purposes: "That kind of wrap is just the best / to keep your sandwich nice and fresh." Yankovic deems it better than what he feels as inferior food storage options, among them "baggies, glass jars, [and] Tupperware containers."

Foil (metal)

A foil is a very thin sheet of metal, usually made by hammering or rolling. Foils are most easily made with malleable metals, such as aluminium, copper, tin, and gold. Foils usually bend under their own weight and can be torn easily. The more malleable a metal, the thinner foil can be made with it. For example, aluminium foil is usually about 1/1000 inch (0.03 mm), whereas gold (more malleable than aluminium) can be made into foil only a few atoms thick. Such extremely thin foil is called leaf. Leaf tears very easily and must be picked up with special brushes.

Foil is commonly used in household applications. It is also useful in survival situations, because the reflective surface reduces the degree of hypothermia caused by thermal radiation.

See also

References

FOIL method

In elementary algebra, FOIL is a mnemonic for the standard method of multiplying two binomials—hence the method may be referred to as the FOIL method. The word FOIL is an acronym for the four terms of the product:

The general form is:

Note that a is both a "first" term and an "outer" term; b is both a "last" and "inner" term, and so forth. The order of the four terms in the sum is not important, and need not match the order of the letters in the word FOIL.

History

The FOIL method is a special case of a more general method for multiplying algebraic expressions using the distributive law. The word FOIL was originally intended solely as a mnemonic for high-school students learning algebra. The term appears in William Betz's 1929 text, Algebra for Today, where he states:

Jet

Jet, Jets, or The Jets may refer to:

Aerospace

Fiction

Characters

Jet (song)

"Jet" is a song by Paul McCartney and Wings from their album Band on the Run. Supposedly written about a puppy that McCartney owned, the song was the first British and American single to be released from the album. The song peaked at number 7 in both the British and American charts on 30 March 1974, also charting in multiple countries in Europe. It has been released on numerous compilation albums, and has since become one of the band's most well-known tracks.

Along with "Helen Wheels" and "Junior's Farm", "Jet" is another McCartney song where his primary inspiration for composing the song arose in daily life.

Background

Reviewers have reported that the subject of the song is McCartney's Labrador Retriever dog named "Jet". McCartney has also substantiated this claim.

However, in a 2010 interview on the UK television channel ITV1 for the program Wings: Band on the Run (to promote the November 2010 CD/DVD re-release of the album) McCartney explained that Jet was the name of a pony he had owned, although many of the lyrics bore little relation to the subject; indeed, the true meaning of the lyrics has defied all attempts at decryption.

Ground Control (film)

Ground Control (Jet) is a 1998 disaster thriller film directed by Richard Howard and starring Kiefer Sutherland, Bruce McGill, Kristy Swanson, and Robert Sean Leonard. The film also features a cameo by former baseball player Steve Sax in the role of an airline co-pilot.

Plot

Chicago air traffic controller Jack Harris (Kiefer Sutherland) was cleared of liability for an ill-fated flight under his authority which resulted in the loss of all 174 souls aboard. He subsequently left the job and went on to design air control software, until five years later when T.C. Bryant (Bruce McGill), his ex-colleague who had since transferred to Phoenix, pleads for help on New Year's Eve, due to a critical staff shortage and with torrential weather predicted.

Jack's return to the control room is met with both warmth and disdain, particularly when he experiences flashbacks of the crash. The atmosphere rapidly becomes much more serious as the storm approaches and, with the control tower suffering power cuts, the team is forced into manually directing busy air traffic through severe turbulence.