Ditch (fortification)
A ditch in military engineering is an obstacle, designed to slow down or break up an attacking force, while a trench is intended to provide cover to the defenders. In military fortifications the side of a ditch (or gorge) farthest from the enemy and closest to the next line of defence is known as the scarp while the side of a ditch closest to the enemy is known as the counterscarp.
Uses
In early fortifications, ditches were often used in combination with ramparts to slow down the enemy whilst defensive fire could be brought to bear from the relative protection afforded by the rampart and possibly the palisade. In medieval fortification, a ditch was often constructed in front of a defensive wall to hinder mining and escalade activities from an attacker. When filled with water, such a defensive ditch is called a moat. However, moats may also be dry.
Later star forts designed by military engineers like Vauban, comprised elaborate networks of ditches and parapets, carefully calculated so that the soil for the raised earthworks was provided, as nearly as possible, entirely by the excavations whilst also maximising defensive firepower.
Boom
Boom may refer to:
Objects
Other common meanings
Arts and entertainment
Music
Performers
Boom! (TV series)
Boom! is an American reality television series that aired on Spike TV in 2005 and was hosted by Kourtney Klein. It featured a group of demolition experts using explosives to destroy objects such as trailers, houses, boats and cars. Often, the suggestions on what should be blown up were sent in by home viewers via a "BOOM! Mailbag". Each episode covered obtaining the materials (such as the item to be destroyed), cleaning, gutting, and rigging the thing with explosives, and then making the final countdown and pushing the detonator, and watching the devastation.
References
External links
Boom! (novel)
Boom! is a children's science fiction novel by Mark Haddon published in 2009. It is the revised version of Mark Haddon's Gridzbi Spudvetch!, which was published in 1992.
Boom! tells the story of two best friends, Charlie and Jimbo (a nickname for James). When Jimbo's sister, Becky, says that the teachers are going to send him to a school for mentally ill children, Jimbo and Charlie sneaked into the staff room, where they hid a walkie-talkie to eavesdrop on the teachers' conversation, in order to confirm what Becky said was true. None of the information they hear means anything (turns out Becky was just trying to scare Jimbo), except for the surprising fact that their teachers both Mr. Kidd and Mrs. Pearce is speaking another language. After a while of dangerous investigating (for instance, sneaking into Mrs. Pearce's attic) they were approached by a man in a suit at a restaurant who told them to leave their teachers alone and then promptly burned a hole through the table they were sitting at with his finger. They disobeyed his order, however, and Charlie was kidnapped and taken to the Sagittarius Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy, where he had to fake happiness or else face certain death. But, Jimbo did not seem to know this. After a while of Jimbo investigating Charlie's "Spudvetch!" notebook (their secret notebook for gathering information) he discovered that his best bet to find him would be on the Isle Of Skye, in Scotland. He and his sister, who he had managed to convince to come with him, eventually arrived there, although with much difficulty, and inside an abandoned shack, a mysterious portal opened. Jimbo got sucked into Sagittarius Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy, but his sister stayed on Earth, unaware. He found Charlie and, with much difficulty, escaped.
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