A foil is one of the three weapons used in fencing, all of which are metal. It is flexible, rectangular and weighs under a pound. As with the épée points are only scored by contact with the tip, which is capped with a spring-loaded button to detect points in electrically scored tournaments. A foil fencer's uniform features the lamé, a vest, electrically wired to record hits in such cases. It is the most commonly used weapon in competition.
Women were allowed to compete only with the foil until recently.
The components common to both varieties are the pommel, grip, guard, thumb pad, and blade.
There is the nonelectric foil is known as "steam" or "dry", and an electric. Both varieties are capped with a plastic or rubber piece, with a button at the tip in electric blades. A judge is required to determine the victor in a tournaments with nonelectric foils.
The Fédération Internationale d'Escrime and most national organisations require electric scoring apparatus, although some organizations still fence competitively with nonelectric swords. Nonelectric ones are primarily used for practice.
Foil may refer to:
In fiction, a foil is a character who contrasts with another character (usually the protagonist) in order to highlight particular qualities of the other character. In some cases, a subplot can be used as a foil to the main plot. This is especially true in the case of metafiction and the "story within a story" motif. The word foil comes from the old practice of backing gems with foil in order to make them shine more brightly.
A foil usually either differs dramatically or is extremely similar but with a key difference setting them apart. The concept of a foil is also more widely applied to any comparison that is made to contrast a difference between two things.Thomas F. Gieryn places these uses of literary foils into three categories which Tamara Antoine and Pauline Metze explain as: those that emphasize the heightened contrast (this is different because ...), those that operate by exclusion (this is not X because...), and those that assign blame ("due to the slow decision-making procedures of government...").
A foil is a solid object with a shape such that when placed in a moving fluid at a suitable angle of attack the lift (force generated perpendicular to the fluid flow) is substantially larger than the drag (force generated parallel the fluid flow). If the fluid is a gas, the foil is called an airfoil or aerofoil, and if the fluid is water the foil is called a hydrofoil.
A foil generates lift primarily as a result of its shape and angle of attack. When oriented at a suitable angle, the foil deflects the oncoming fluid, resulting in a force on the foil in the direction opposite to the deflection. This force can be resolved into two components: lift and drag. This "turning" of the fluid in the vicinity of the foil creates curved streamlines which results in lower pressure on one side and higher pressure on the other. This pressure difference is accompanied by a velocity difference, via Bernoulli's principle, so the resulting flowfield about the foil has a higher average velocity on the upper surface than on the lower surface.
A sword is a bladed weapon intended for both cutting and thrusting. The precise definition of the term varies with the historical epoch or the geographical region under consideration. A sword in the most narrow sense consists of a straight blade with two edges and a hilt, but depending on context, the term is also often used to refer to bladed weapons with a single edge (also referred to as a backsword).
Historically, the sword developed in the Bronze Age, evolving from the dagger; the earliest specimens date to ca. 1600 BC. The later Iron Age sword remained fairly short and without a crossguard. The spatha, as it developed in the Late Roman army, became the predecessor of the European sword of the Middle Ages, at first adopted as the Migration period sword, and only in the High Middle Ages, developed into the classical arming sword with crossguard. The word sword continues the Old English, sweord.
The use of a sword is known as swordsmanship or (in an early modern or modern context) as fencing. In the Early Modern period, western sword design diverged into roughly two forms, the thrusting swords and the sabers:
Sword is a Canadian heavy metal band that was active in the 1980s and just announced a reunion for 2011.
In the early 80's, south of Montreal in Saint Bruno, Quebec, Rick (vocals) and Dan Hughes (drums) formed a heavy metal band called Sword. They were joined by guitarist Mike Plant and bassist Mike Larocque in the first lineup of the band. They signed their first commercial contract in 1984 with Aquarius Records.
Sword released two albums for Aquarius in the late 80s; the debut album Metalized in 1986 and its follow-up Sweet Dreams in 1988. They toured in the support slot for Motörhead and Alice Cooper, and the group was hand-picked to open for Metallica on the 1986 Master of Puppets tour.
After disbanding, Rick Hughes formed Saints & Sinners and released a self-titled album with them.
In 2006, Aquarius Records released The Best of Sword a compilation album, which was in stores on Tuesday, October 31.
Throughout their career, Sword sold in excess of 180,000 albums.
On February 17, 2011 it was announced that Sword had reunited and were rehearsing for live shows to come.
A sword is a cutting and/or thrusting weapon.
Sword, Swords, or The Sword may also refer to: