HELIX • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Helix

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/hˈilɪks/ Listen

noun

Helix n. (pl. L. helices, E. helixes)

(Geom.) A nonplane curve whose tangents are all equally inclined to a given plane. The common helix is the curve formed by the thread of the ordinary screw. It is distinguished from the spiral, all the convolutions of which are in the plane.

(Arch.) A caulicule or little volute under the abacus of the Corinthian capital.

(Anat.) The incurved margin or rim of the external ear.

(Zool.) A genus of land snails, including a large number of species. Note: The genus originally included nearly all shells, but is now greatly restricted. See Snail, Pulmonifera.

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Etymology of 'Helix'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Helix" Quotes from Famous Books

... issue as most of the foregoing ones, though in some the results are not so bad as might be expected. A German female, thirty-six, while in the sixth month of pregnancy, fell and struck her abdomen on a tub. She was delivered of a normal living child, with the exception that the helix of the left ear was pushed anteriorly, and had, in its middle, a deep incision, which also traversed the antihelix and the tragus, and continued over the cheek toward the nose, where it terminated. The external auditory meatus ...

— Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine • George M. Gould

... experiments 'on the induction of electric currents' by composing a helix of two insulated wires which were wound side by side round the same wooden cylinder. One of these wires he connected with a voltaic battery of ten cells, and the other with a sensitive galvanometer. When connection with the battery was made, and while the current flowed, no effect whatever was ...

— Faraday As A Discoverer • John Tyndall

... possess an extraordinary influence. And it would suffice that a block of iron should be subjected to their action for it to be changed into a magnet of power proportioned to the intensity of the current, to the number of turns of the electric helix, and to the square root of the diameter of the block of magnetized iron. Thus, then, the bulk of the sphinx which upreared its mystic form upon this outer edge of the southern lands might be calculated ...

— An Antarctic Mystery • Jules Verne

... the induction of electric currents" by composing a helix of two insulated wires, which were wound side by side round the same wooden cylinder. One of these wires he connected with a voltaic battery of ten cells, and the other with a sensitive galvanometer. When ...

— Little Masterpieces of Science: - Invention and Discovery • Various

... before a table in the workshop in his father's back yard. In front of him were the shining instruments of his wireless outfit—his coupler, his condenser, his helix, his spark-gap, and the other parts, practically all of which he had made with his own hands. Ordinarily he would have looked at them fondly, but now he gave them hardly a thought. He was waiting for his chum, Lew Heinsling, and his mind was busy with the problem of his own future. ...

— The Young Wireless Operator--As a Fire Patrol - The Story of a Young Wireless Amateur Who Made Good as a Fire Patrol • Lewis E. Theiss

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