Impact

Impact may refer to:

In science:

In development:

In computing:

In film, television and radio:

In literature:

Impact (comics)

Impact, in comics, can refer to:

See also

Impact (novel)

Impact is a science fiction thriller novel by American writer Douglas Preston, published on January 5, 2010 by Forge Books. The novel is the third book in the Wyman Ford series. The book was reviewed on All Things Considered in February 2010.

Plot summary

Ex-CIA agent Wyman Ford returns to Cambodia to investigate the source of radioactive gemstones and uncovers an unusual impact crater. A young woman on the other side of the world photographs a meteoroid's passage in the atmosphere with her telescope and deduces that it must have struck on one of the islands just offshore from Round Pond, Maine. A NASA scientist analyzing data from the Mars Mapping Orbiter (MMO) spots unusual spikes in gamma ray activity. These threads intersect with discovery of an alien device that has apparently been on Deimos, one of the two moons of Mars, for at least 100 million years. Something has caused it to activate and fire a strangelet at Earth, setting off the events in the novel.

Timeline

The events in this novel follow those of The Codex, Tyrannosaur Canyon, and Blasphemy. As such, Wyman Ford is the protagonist once again (having appeared in Tyrannosaur Canyon and Blasphemy), and the character of Stanton Lockwood III (who debuted in Blasphemy) also returns.

Parallel

Parallel may refer to:

Computing

Mathematics and science

Navigation

Music and entertainment

Other uses

Series and parallel circuits

Components of an electrical circuit or electronic circuit can be connected in many different ways. The two simplest of these are called series and parallel and occur frequently. Components connected in series are connected along a single path, so the same current flows through all of the components. Components connected in parallel are connected so the same voltage is applied to each component.

A circuit composed solely of components connected in series is known as a series circuit; likewise, one connected completely in parallel is known as a parallel circuit.

In a series circuit, the current through each of the components is the same, and the voltage across the circuit is the sum of the voltages across each component. In a parallel circuit, the voltage across each of the components is the same, and the total current is the sum of the currents through each component.

Consider a very simple circuit consisting of four light bulbs and one 6 V battery. If a wire joins the battery to one bulb, to the next bulb, to the next bulb, to the next bulb, then back to the battery, in one continuous loop, the bulbs are said to be in series. If each bulb is wired to the battery in a separate loop, the bulbs are said to be in parallel. If the four light bulbs are connected in series, there is same current through all of them, and the voltage drop is 1.5 V across each bulb, which may not be sufficient to make them glow. If the light bulbs are connected in parallel, the currents through the light bulbs combine to form the current in the battery, while the voltage drop is across each bulb and they all glow.

Circle of latitude

A circle of latitude on the Earth is an imaginary east-west circle connecting all locations (ignoring elevation) with a given latitude. A location's position along a circle of latitude is given by its longitude.

Circles of latitude are often called parallels because they are parallel to each other – that is, any two circles are always the same distance apart. Unlike circles of longitude, which all are great circles with the centre of Earth in the middle, the circles of latitude get smaller as the distance from the Equator increases. Their length can be calculated by a common sine or cosine function. The 60th circle of latitude is half as long as the equator (disregarding Earth’s minor ovality, which is less than 0.3%). A circle of latitude is perpendicular to all meridians.

The latitude of the circle is approximately the angle between the equator and the circle, with the angle's vertex at the Earth's centre. The equator is at 0°, and the North and South Pole are at 90° north and 90° south respectively. The Equator is the longest circle of latitude and is the only circle of latitude which also is a great circle.