Tangents

1 definition found

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

  Artificial \Ar`ti*fi"cial\, a. [L. artificialis, fr. artificium:
     cf. F. artificiel. See {Artifice}.]
     1. Made or contrived by art; produced or modified by human
        skill and labor, in opposition to natural; as, artificial
        heat or light, gems, salts, minerals, fountains, flowers.
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              Artificial strife
              Lives in these touches, livelier than life. --Shak.
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     2. Feigned; fictitious; assumed; affected; not genuine.
        "Artificial tears." --Shak.
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     3. Artful; cunning; crafty. [Obs.] --Shak.
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     4. Cultivated; not indigenous; not of spontaneous growth; as,
        artificial grasses. --Gibbon.
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     {Artificial arguments} (Rhet.), arguments invented by the
        speaker, in distinction from laws, authorities, and the
        like, which are called inartificial arguments or proofs.
        --Johnson.
  
     {Artificial classification} (Science), an arrangement based
        on superficial characters, and not expressing the true
        natural relations species; as, "the artificial system" in
        botany, which is the same as the Linn[ae]an system.
  
     {Artificial horizon}. See under {Horizon}.
  
     {Artificial light}, any light other than that which proceeds
        from the heavenly bodies.
  
     {Artificial lines}, lines on a sector or scale, so contrived
        as to represent the logarithmic sines and tangents, which,
        by the help of the line of numbers, solve, with tolerable
        exactness, questions in trigonometry, navigation, etc.
  
     {Artificial numbers}, logarithms.
  
     {Artificial person} (Law). See under {Person}.
  
     {Artificial sines}, {tangents}, etc., the same as logarithms
        of the natural sines, tangents, etc. --Hutton.
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