Saros

2 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Saros \Sa"ros\, n. [NL., fr. Gr. ?] (Astron)
     A Chaldean astronomical period or cycle, the length of which
     has been variously estimated from 3,600 years to 3,600 days,
     or a little short of 10 years. --Brande & C.
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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Cycle \Cy"cle\ (s?"k'l), n. [F. ycle, LL. cyclus, fr. Gr.
     ky`klos ring or circle, cycle; akin to Skr. cakra wheel,
     circle. See {Wheel}.]
     1. An imaginary circle or orbit in the heavens; one of the
        celestial spheres. --Milton.
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     2. An interval of time in which a certain succession of
        events or phenomena is completed, and then returns again
        and again, uniformly and continually in the same order; a
        periodical space of time marked by the recurrence of
        something peculiar; as, the cycle of the seasons, or of
        the year.
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              Wages . . . bear a full proportion . . . to the
              medium of provision during the last bad cycle of
              twenty years.                         --Burke.
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     3. An age; a long period of time.
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              Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle of Cathay.
                                                    --Tennyson.
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     4. An orderly list for a given time; a calendar. [Obs.]
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              We . . . present our gardeners with a complete cycle
              of what is requisite to be done throughout every
              month of the year.                    --Evelyn.
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     5. The circle of subjects connected with the exploits of the
        hero or heroes of some particular period which have served
        as a popular theme for poetry, as the legend of Arthur and
        the knights of the Round Table, and that of Charlemagne
        and his paladins.
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     6. (Bot.) One entire round in a circle or a spire; as, a
        cycle or set of leaves. --Gray.
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     7. A bicycle or tricycle, or other light velocipede.
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     8. A motorcycle.
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     9. (Thermodynamics) A series of operations in which heat is
        imparted to (or taken away from) a working substance which
        by its expansion gives up a part of its internal energy in
        the form of mechanical work (or being compressed increases
        its internal energy) and is again brought back to its
        original state.
        [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
  
     10. (Technology) A complete positive and negative, or forward
         and reverse, action of any periodic process, such as a
         vibration, an electric field oscillation, or a current
         alternation; one period. Hence: (Elec.) A complete
         positive and negative wave of an alternating current. The
         number of cycles (per second) is a measure of the
         frequency of an alternating current.
         [Webster 1913 Suppl. + PJC]
  
     {Calippic cycle}, a period of 76 years, or four Metonic
        cycles; -- so called from Calippus, who proposed it as an
        improvement on the Metonic cycle.
  
     {Cycle of eclipses}, a period of about 6,586 days, the time
        of revolution of the moon's node; -- called {Saros} by the
        Chaldeans.
  
     {Cycle of indiction}, a period of 15 years, employed in Roman
        and ecclesiastical chronology, not founded on any
        astronomical period, but having reference to certain
        judicial acts which took place at stated epochs under the
        Greek emperors.
  
     {Cycle of the moon}, or {Metonic cycle}, a period of 19
        years, after the lapse of which the new and full moon
        returns to the same day of the year; -- so called from
        Meton, who first proposed it.
  
     {Cycle of the sun}, {Solar cycle}, a period of 28 years, at
        the end of which time the days of the month return to the
        same days of the week. The dominical or Sunday letter
        follows the same order; hence the solar cycle is also
        called the {cycle of the Sunday letter}. In the Gregorian
        calendar the solar cycle is in general interrupted at the
        end of the century.
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