elll (el)

[ ell elina, elna, MHG. eline, elne, ellen, G. elle = Icel. alin = Sw. aln = Dan. alen = Goth. aleina (for * alina?), an ell, whence It. auna, F. aune, an ell; orig. the forearm (as in AS. eln- bog a, E. elbow ), = L. ulna, the forearm, the elbow, an ell, = Gr. ὠλένη, the forearm: see elbow, ulna.] A long measure, chiefly used for cloth. The English ell, not yet obsolete, is a yard and a quarter, or 45 inches. This unit seems to have been imported from France under the Tudors; and a statute of 1409 recognizes no difference between the ell (aune) and the yard (verge). The Scotch ell was 37 Scotch inches, or 37.0958 English inches. The so-called Flemish ell differed in different places, but averaged 27.4 English inches. Other well-ascertained ells were the following: ell of Austria, 30.676 English inches; of Bavaria, 32.702 inches; of Bremen, 22.773 inches; of Ca el, 22.424 inches; of France, 47.245 inches; of Poland, 22.650 inches; of Pru ia, 26.259 inches; of Saxony, 22.257 inches; of Sweden, 23.378 inches. The ell of Holland is now the meter. See cubit, pik, endazeh, kut, braccio, khaleb. He was, I must tell you, but seven foot high, And, may be, an ell in the waste. Robin Hood and Little John (Child's Ballads, V. 221), O, here's a wit of cheverel that stretches from an inch narrow to an ell broad! Shak ., R. and J., ii. 4. She [the world] boasts a kernel, and bestows a shell; Performs an inch of her fair prom is'd ell. Quarles, Emblems, i. 7. 1880 λείπειν, leave. Cf. ellipsis.] In geom., a plane curve such that the sums of the distances of each point in its periphery from two fixed points, the foci, are equal. It is a conic section (see conic ) formed by the intersection of a cone by a plane which cuts obliquely the axis and the opposite sides of the cone. The ellipse is a conic which does not extend to infinity, and whose intersections with the line at infinity are imaginary. Every ellipse has a center, which is a point such that it IMG:content-0331.png:[blocks in formation] bisects every chord pa ing through it. Such chords are called diameters of the ellipse. A pair of conjugate diameters bisect, each of them, all chords parallel to the other. The longest diameter is called the transverse axis, also the lat us trans ver sum; it pa es through the foci. The MF FM Mand shortest diameter is called being any points in the curve. the conjugate axis. The ex Ellipse. Fand F are the Ellopia are the same as those of a given body. - Momental el lipsoid, or inverse ellipsoid of inertia, a surface of which every radius vector is inversely proportional to the radius of gyration of the body about that radius vector as an axis. This is sometimes called Poinsot's ellipsoid, though invented by Cauchy. - Reciprocal ellipsoid of expansion, the surface of which each radius vector is inversely proportional to the square root of the linear expansion in the same direction. - Strain-ellipsoid, or ellipsoid of expansion, the ellipsoid into which any strain transforms any infinitesimal sphere in a body. ellipsoid. FM + tremities of the transverse axis are called the vertices. (See conic, eccentricity, angle.) An ellipse may also be regard ed as a flattened circle that is, as a circle all the chords of which parallel to a given chord have been shortened in a fixed ratio by cutting off equal lengths from the two extremities. The two lines from the foci to any point of an ellipse make equal angles with the tangent at that point. To construct an ellipse, a ume any line whatever, AB, to be what is called the lat us rectum. At its extremity erect the perpendicular AD of any length, called the lat us transver sum (transverse axis). Connect BD, and complete the rectangle DABK. From C any point L, on the line AD, erect the perpendicular LZ, cutting BK in Z and BD in H. Draw a line HG, com ell2, el2 (el), n. [ el , el , the name of the letter L, -1 ; a L. formation, the Gr. name be- ing λάμβδα.] 1. The name of the letter L , 1 . It is rarely so written, the symbol being used instead.-2. An addition to or wing of a house which gives it the shape of the capital letter L. -3. A pipe-connection changing the direction A at right angles. ellachick (el'a-chik), n. [Nesqually Ind. el - la- chick.] A tortoise of the family Clemmyidæ, Chelopus marm or at us . It is usually about 7 or 8 inches long, and is the most important economic tortoise of the Pacific coast of the United States; it lives in rivers and ponds, and lays its eggs in June. It is always on sale in the San Francisco market, and is highly esteemed for food, although inferior to the sea-turtle. ellagic (e-laj'ik), a. [ IMG:content-0332.png:[blocks in formation]