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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
deflection
noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ VERB
take
▪ Luton took an early lead with a goal from David Preece, which took a deflection as it sailed into the net.
▪ Again, the ball took a deflection as it flew in past Paul Reece.
▪ It took a wicked deflection but goalkeeper Thomson brought off a superb save.
▪ Nicky Summerbee claimed goal number 3, although it took a couple of deflections on the way win.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Detectors at different angles of deflection then receive particles of different mass.
▪ Gentle probing brought deflection, anything stronger and the barriers came down.
▪ I gave him a full deflection burst for good measure and then my ammunition ran out.
▪ It uses a line electron source and so needs only one deflection component.
▪ The purpose of this is to provide a more effective deflection.
▪ These do not function as deflection devices but as startle displays.
▪ When comparison was made with night photographs of the same star field the predicted general relativistic deflection was confirmed.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Deflection

Deflection \De*flec"tion\, n. [L. deflexio, fr. deflectere: cf. F. d['e]flexion.]

  1. The act of turning aside, or state of being turned aside; a turning from a right line or proper course; a bending, esp. downward; deviation.

    The other leads to the same point, through certain deflections.
    --Lowth.

  2. (Gunnery) The deviation of a shot or ball from its true course.

  3. (Opt.) A deviation of the rays of light toward the surface of an opaque body; inflection; diffraction.

  4. (Engin.) The bending which a beam or girder undergoes from its own weight or by reason of a load.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
deflection

also (and with more etymological propriety) deflexion, c.1600, from Latin deflexionem, noun of action from past participle stem of deflectere (see deflect). Both forms were present 17c., but the spelling with -c- has come to predominate.

Wiktionary
deflection

alt. 1 The act of deflecting or something deflected. 2 The deviation of a needle or other indicator from its previous position. n. 1 The act of deflecting or something deflected. 2 The deviation of a needle or other indicator from its previous position.

WordNet
deflection
  1. n. a twist or aberration; especially a perverse or abnormal way of judging or acting [syn: warp]

  2. the amount by which a propagating wave is bent [syn: deflexion, refraction]

  3. the movement of the pointer or pen of a measuring instrument from its zero position [syn: deflexion]

  4. the property of being bent or deflected [syn: deflexion, bending]

  5. a turning aside (of your course or attention or concern); "a diversion from the main highway"; "a digression into irrelevant details"; "a deflection from his goal" [syn: diversion, deviation, digression, deflexion, divagation]

Wikipedia
Deflection

Deflection or deflexion may refer to:

  • Deflection (ballistics), a technique of shooting ahead of a moving target so that the target and projectile will collide
  • Deflection (chess), a tactic that forces an opposing chess piece to leave a square
  • Deflection (engineering), the displacement of a structural element under load
  • Deflexion (linguistics), a linguistic process related to inflectional languages
  • Deflection (physics), the event where an object collides and bounces against a plane surface
  • Electrostatic deflection, a technique for modifying the path of charged particles by the use of an electric field
  • Khet (game), formerly known as Deflexion, an Egyptian-themed chess-like abstract strategy board game using lasers
Deflection (engineering)

In engineering, deflection is the degree to which a structural element is displaced under a load. It may refer to an angle or a distance.

The deflection distance of a member under a load is directly related to the slope of the deflected shape of the member under that load and can be calculated by integrating the function that mathematically describes the slope of the member under that load. Deflection can be calculated by standard formula (will only give the deflection of common beam configurations and load cases at discrete locations), or by methods such as virtual work, direct integration, Castigliano's method, Macaulay's method or the direct stiffness method, amongst others. The deflection of beam elements is usually calculated on the basis of the Euler–Bernoulli beam equation while that of a plate or shell element is calculated using plate or shell theory.

An example of the use of deflection in this context is in building construction. Architects and engineers select materials for various applications. The beams used for frame work are selected on the basis of deflection, amongst other factors.

Deflection (physics)

Deflection, in physics, refers to the change in an objects' acceleration as a consequence of contact ( collision) with a surface or the influence of a field. Examples of the former include a ball bouncing off the ground or a bat; examples of the latter include a beam of electrons used to produce a picture, or the relativistic bending of light due to gravity.

An object's deflective efficiency can never equal or surpass 100%. For example, a mirror will never reflect exactly the same amount of light cast upon it. Also, on hitting the ground, a ball previously in free-fall (meaning no force other than gravity acted upon it) will never bounce back up to the place where it first started to descend. This is a consequence of thermodynamics, where, for every action, some energy .

Deflection (ballistics)

Deflection is a technique used for effectively propelling a projectile at a moving target, also known as "leading the target", i.e. shooting ahead of a moving target so that the target and projectile will collide. This technique is only necessary when the target will have moved a sufficient distance to fully displace its position during the time the projectile would take to reach the target's range. This can become the case over long distances (e.g. a distant target for a skilled sniper), due to fast moving targets (e.g. an opposing aircraft in an aerial dogfight), or while using relatively slow projectiles (e.g. a crossbow bolt or a basketball thrown to a running teammate). During World War II, U.S. Navy pilots were taught explicitly about the concept in order to capitalize on the advantages of the F4F Wildcat.

Modern day fighter aircraft have automated deflection sights, where a computer calculates lead and projects the solution onto a heads up display (HUD). The visual assistance with targeting the gun is offset by the enormous speed and agility of modern aircraft, compared to the days when targeting was less advanced.

In artillery, deflection is also used against fixed targets to compensate for windage and range. Due to the Earth's rotation, surface points have different velocities and curved motion, leading to apparent Coriolis drift of a long-range target.

Leading targets is the practice of aiming one's weapon ahead of the target so that the projectile will hit its mark. Over reasonably short ranges, leading is typically unnecessary when using firearms, but it is still relevant for sniping where the bullet may take a second or more to reach its target, as well as for weapons such as bows that use lower- velocity projectiles. It is generally unnecessary for guided projectiles, although the autonomous guiding mechanism may be designed to calculate a flight path to lead its targets on its own to ensure an interception.

Deflection (chess)

Deflection in chess is a tactic that forces an opposing piece to leave the square, rank or file it occupies, thus exposing the king or a valuable piece. It is typically used in the context of a combination or attack, where the deflected piece is critical to the defence. Deflection may be used as a gambit to cause an opponent's piece to move to a less suitable square. Deflections are often used as part of a combination which may involve other types of chess tactics as well.

If the deflected piece happens to be an overworked piece then the opponent's defense instantly crumbles, making victory imminent to the one who employed the deflection.

Usage examples of "deflection".

Between deflection by air-currents and the dodging of the enemy vessels our effective range is shortened to a few kilometers, and their beams are deadly at that distance.

Elevation and Deflection Drills, it is best that you become familiarized with the dimensions of the following targets and the ranges at which each is used.

After one day slight deflection, but the cauterised mark was so faint that the same side was again touched with caustic.

It was twice refixed, with nearly similar results, that is, it caused slight deflection, which soon disappeared.

In the plane of the bean itself the deflection amounted to 8o or 9o from the vertical and from the card, in opposition to Sachs' curvature.

In four days from the first touch deflection amounted to 78o, which in an additional day increased to 90o.

On the fifth day deflection amounted to 45o from the perpendicular, and this on the seventh day increased to about 90o.

Moreover, some of the four failures can hardly be considered as really failures: thus, in one of them, in which the radicle remained quite straight, the square of thin paper was found, when both were removed from the apex, to have been so thickly coated with shellac that it was almost as stiff as the card: in the second case, the radicle was bent upwards into a semicircle, but the deflection was not directly from the side bearing the card, and this was explained by the two squares having become cemented laterally together, forming a sort of stiff gable, from which the radicle was deflected: in the third case, the square of card had been fixed by mistake in front, and though there was deflection from it, this might have been due to Sachs' curvature: [page 149] in the fourth case alone no reason could be assigned why the radicle had not been at all deflected.

Perched on the roof tack the AK 47 slung over one shoulder, Craig took a sight with the hand-bearing compass from Timon's map-case, made a rough calculation of the magnetic deflection, and called down to Timon.

And it is hard to control the blade, given the smoothness of the metal, the speed of the exchanges, the deflections of the parrying.

As he swam he tried to judge the feel of the current on his body, its turnings, its deflections, as it was shaped by the contour of the banks, the irregularities of the riverbed.

If you push a philosophical or metaphysical inquiry through a series of valid syllogisms—never committing any generally recognised fallacy—you nevertheless leave a certain rubbing and marginal loss of objective truth and you get deflections that are difficult to trace, at each phase in the process.

Though a lawyer by profession, Hadley had a keen interest in the weather (he was, after all, English) and also suggested a link between his cells, the Earth’s spin, and the apparent deflections of air that give us our trade winds.

Certainly the arrival of ETs deflected our history—and those exploding stars in the sky tell of more deflections yet to come.

It was a time in my life in which various people, including a Jesuit and my long-lost sister, seemed to have little difficulty keeping me away from awkward truths with simple deflections and guile.