different between spin vs helicity

English

Etymology

From Middle English spinnen, from Old English spinnan, from Proto-Germanic *spinnan?. Compare Low German spinnen, Dutch spinnen, German spinnen, Danish spinde, Swedish spinna.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sp?n/
• Rhymes: -?n

Verb

spin (third-person singular simple present spins, present participle spinning, simple past and past participle spun or span)

1. (ergative) To rotate, revolve, gyrate (usually quickly); to partially or completely rotate to face another direction.

   I spun myself around a few times.

   Spin the ball on the floor.

   She spun around and gave him a big smile.
2. (transitive) To make yarn by twisting and winding fibers together.

   They spin the cotton into thread.
3. To present, describe, or interpret, or to introduce a bias or slant, so as to give something a favorable or advantageous appearance.
4. (cricket, of a bowler) To make the ball move sideways when it bounces on the pitch.
5. (cricket, of a ball) To move sideways when bouncing.
6. (cooking) To form into thin strips or ribbons, as with sugar
7. To form (a web, a cocoon, silk, etc.) from threads produced by the extrusion of a viscid, transparent liquid, which hardens on coming into contact with the air; said of the spider, the silkworm, etc.
8. To shape, as malleable sheet metal, into a hollow form, by bending or buckling it by pressing against it with a smooth hand tool or roller while the metal revolves, as in a lathe.
9. To move swiftly.

   to spin along the road in a carriage, on a bicycle, etc.

10. To stream or issue in a thread or a small current or jet.

    Blood spins from a vein.
11. (computing, programming, intransitive) To wait in a loop until some condition becomes true.
12. (transitive, informal) To play (vinyl records, etc.) as a disc jockey.
    • 2002, CMJ New Music Report (volume 70, number 12)

      However, for the past six years he has been spinning his novel blend of progressive house and trance music and is finally on the brink of becoming the next luminary DJ.

13. (intransitive) To use an exercise bicycle, especially as part of a gym class.
14. An abnormal condition in journal bearings where the bearing seizes to the shaft that is rotating and rotates inside the journal, destroying both the shaft and the journal.
15. (Britain, law enforcement, slang, transitive) To search rapidly.
    • 2013, Nick Oldham, Psycho Alley

      But then again, unless someone struck lucky in those first few hours, there weren't even enough detectives to spin a drum [house].

Synonyms

• (give something a favorable appearance): whitewash, sugarcoat, put lipstick on, gild, blandish, dress up

Hypernyms

• revolve
• rotate
• turn

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• turn around

Noun

spin (countable and uncountable, plural spins)

1. Rapid circular motion.

   The car went into a spin.

   The skaters demonstrated their spins.

   He put some spin on the cue ball.

2. (physics) A quantum angular momentum associated with subatomic particles, which also creates a magnetic moment.
3. (countable, uncountable) A favourable comment or interpretation intended to bias opinion on an otherwise unpleasant situation.

   Try to put a positive spin on the disappointing sales figures.

   The politician was mocked in the press for his reliance on spin rather than facts.

   Synonym: propaganda

4. (sports) Rotation of the ball as it flies through the air; sideways movement of the ball as it bounces.
5. (aviation) A condition of flight where a stalled aircraft is simultaneously pitching, yawing and rolling in a spinning motion.
6. A brief trip by vehicle, especially one made for pleasure.
7. A bundle of spun material; a mass of strands and filaments.
   • 1913, DH Lawrence, Sons and Lovers, chapter 1

     She left him alone, and went to get Annie a spin of toffee.

8. A single play of a record by a radio station.
   • 1996, Billboard (volume 108, number 12, page 37)

     Although the Loveless title showed the smallest increase in airplay in the top 10, its number of detections outpaced the nearest bulleted title by more than 350 spins.

9. (Britain, prison slang) A search of a prisoner's cell for forbidden articles.
   • 2002, Jeffrey Archer, A Prison Diary

     Mr Weedon explains that this is a cell search - known by prisoners as a spin - and for obvious reasons it has to be carried out without any warning.

10. (dated) Unmarried woman, spinster.
    • 1893, Bithia Mary Croker, "To Let" in "To Let" etc., Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, 1906, p. 1, [2]

      Some years ago, when I was a slim young spin, I came out to India to live with my brother Tom […]

11. (uncountable) The use of an exercise bicycle, especially as part of a gym class.
12. (nautical) Short for spinnaker.

Derived terms

Translations

Anagrams

• Insp, NIPs, NPIs, Nips, PINs, PSNI, nips, pins, snip

Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sp?n/
• Hyphenation: spin
• Rhymes: -?n

Etymology 1

From Middle Dutch spinne.

Noun

spin f (plural spinnen, diminutive spinnetje n)

1. spider, member of the order Araneae

Derived terms

• kruisspin
• spinnekop
• spinnendoder
• spinnenweb
• vogelspin
• wolfsspin

Etymology 2

Borrowed from English spin.

Noun

spin m (plural spins)

1. (physics) particle spin

Derived terms

• kernspin

Etymology 3

Borrowed from English spin.

Noun

spin m (uncountable)

1. political spin, media spin

Derived terms

• spindoctor

Etymology 4

See the etymology of the main entry.

Verb

spin

1. first-person singular present indicative of spinnen
2. imperative of spinnen

Faroese

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /spi?n/

Noun

spin n (genitive singular spins, uncountable)

1. sperm

Declension

Synonyms

• spina

Anagrams

• nisp
• pins

Finnish

Etymology

Borrowed from English spin.

Alternative forms

• spinni

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?spin/, [?s?pin]
• Rhymes: -in
• Syllabification: spin

Noun

spin

1. (physics) spin

Declension

French

Etymology

Borrowed from English spin.

Noun

spin m (plural spins)

1. (physics) spin

Derived terms

• spineur

Friulian

Etymology

From Latin sp?nus.

Noun

spin m (plural spins)

1. thorn bush

Related terms

• spine

Garo

Etymology

Cognate with Kokborok siping (“sesame”).

Noun

spin

1. sesame

Hungarian

Etymology

From English spin.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -in

Noun

spin (plural spinek)

1. (physics) spin (quantum angular momentum)

Declension

References

Middle English

Noun

spin

1. Alternative form of spyne

Polish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sp?in/

Etymology 1

From English spin.

Noun

spin m inan

1. (physics) spin (quantum angular momentum)

Declension

Derived terms

• (adjective) spinowy

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the main entry.

Noun

spin f

1. genitive plural of spina

Further reading

• spin in Wielki s?ownik j?zyka polskiego, Instytut J?zyka Polskiego PAN
• spin in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Portuguese

Etymology

Borrowed from English spin.

Noun

spin m (plural spins)

1. (physics) spin (quantum angular momentum of subatomic particles)

Romanian

Etymology

From Latin sp?nus, from sp?na, from Proto-Italic *spein?, from Proto-Indo-European *spey- (“sharp point”). Compare Aromanian schin

Noun

spin m (plural spini)

1. thorn

Declension

Synonyms

• ghimpe, aculeu

Related terms

• spinos

Scots

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sp?n/

Noun

spin (plural spins)

1. (South Scots) Alternative form of spuin

Spanish

Alternative forms

• espín

Etymology

Borrowed from English spin.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /es?pin/, [es?p?n]

Noun

spin m (plural spines)

1. spin (clarification of this definition is needed)

West Frisian

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

spin c (plural spinnen, diminutive spintsje)

1. spider

Further reading

• “spin”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011

English

Noun

helicity (countable and uncountable, plural helicities)

1. The quality of being helical.
2. (physics, fluid mechanics, electrodynamics) Any of certain measures of the extent to which vortex lines (in fluid flow) or field lines (in a magnetic or electromagnetic field) kink and twist and/or link and coil around one another.
   • 1991, E. Levich, L. Shtilman, Helicity Fluctuations and Coherence in Developed Turbulence, D. Schertzer, S. Lovejoy (editors), Non-Linear Variability in Geophysics: Scaling and Fractals, Kluwer Academic Publishers, page 18,

     The conjecture made in Tsinober and Levich (1983) was that coherent structures should possess a significant coherent helicity.

   • 1995, G. E. Marsh, 2: Helicity and Electrodynamic Field Topology, Terence William Barrett, Dale M. Grimes (editors), Advanced Electromagnetism: Foundations, Theory and Applications, World Scientific, page 62,

     The helicity associated with the writhing number is obtained by observing that a torus with twist number ±1 may be distorted into a figure-8 configuration which appears untwisted. […] Note that at each step the total helicity, consisting of the sum of twist, kink, and link helicities, is conserved.

   • 2001, Mitchell A. Berger, Measures of Topological Structure in Magnetic Fields, Renzo L. Ricca (editor), An Introduction to the Geometry and Topology of Fluid Flows, Springer, page 249,

     Thus the total helicity H equals the sum of the entries in a matrix H_ij. If N is large then there will be many more mutual helicity terms. In this case ignoring the self helicities (if they are difficult to observe) may only give a small error.

   • 2016, Eric G. Blackman, Magnetic Helicity and Large Scale Magnetic Fields: A Primer, Andre Balogh, Andrei Bykov, Jonathan Eastwood, Jelle Kaastra (editors), Multi-scale Structure Formation and Dynamics in Cosmic Plasmas, Springer, page 72,

     Now conservation of helicity is maintained: the writhe of the loops in the second panel is compensated for by the opposite sign of the twist helicity along the loops.

3. (physics, quantum mechanics) The quantized spin component of a moving particle along the direction of its motion.
   • 1989, John Taylor, 17: Gauge theories in particle physics, Paul Davies, The New Physics, Cambridge University Press, 1992, 1st Paperback Edition, page 467,

     To understand this name, note that the helicity is, roughly speaking, the spin in the direction of motion.

   • 1999, Gustavo Castelo Branco, Luís Lavoura, João Paulo Silva, CP Violation, Oxford University Press, page 12,

     The experiment was particularly ingenious because, as the neutrino hardly interacts with matter, some way of indirectly measuring its helicity had to be devised.

   • 2010, Franz Mandl, Graham Shaw, Quantum Field Theory, Wiley, page 151,

     Interpreted in terms of helicity, this means that if the incident electron has positive helicity, then the outgoing electron has positive helicity for forward scattering, and negative helicity for backward scattering.

Derived terms

• hydrodynamical helicity
• magnetic helicity

Translations

See also

• chirality
• linking number
• vorticity