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User_gary Posted 16 years ago
Vocabulary
Touch of class, zero-gravity cup, wick liquids
Future space travelers may be drinking their own urine, thanks to the International Space Station's new water recycler, but they can now do so with a touch of class.
Endeavour astronaut Don Pettit, a self-described tinkerer who served as the space station's flight engineer in 2003, invented a zero-gravity cup that wicks liquids along the sides of a piece of folded plastic, eliminating the need for a straw.
Because liquids typically form spherical blobs in weightlessness, astronauts drink from sealed pouches using straws. Pettit, a huge coffee fan, didn't like sipping his java, and created the cup from a sheet of transparent plastic used in overhead projectors by folding it into the shape of an airplane wing and taping it in place.
"The way this works is the cross-section of this cup looks like an airplane wing. The narrow angle here will wick the coffee up," Pettit explained in a video radioed to NASA's Mission Control Centre in Houston and broadcast on NASA TV.
Could you please explain to me the emboldened parts?
Source : http://www.smh.com.au/news/technology/zerogravity-cup-means-no-more-straws/2008/11/28/1227491791137.html
Endeavour astronaut Don Pettit, a self-described tinkerer who served as the space station's flight engineer in 2003, invented a zero-gravity cup that wicks liquids along the sides of a piece of folded plastic, eliminating the need for a straw.
Because liquids typically form spherical blobs in weightlessness, astronauts drink from sealed pouches using straws. Pettit, a huge coffee fan, didn't like sipping his java, and created the cup from a sheet of transparent plastic used in overhead projectors by folding it into the shape of an airplane wing and taping it in place.
"The way this works is the cross-section of this cup looks like an airplane wing. The narrow angle here will wick the coffee up," Pettit explained in a video radioed to NASA's Mission Control Centre in Houston and broadcast on NASA TV.
Could you please explain to me the emboldened parts?
Source : http://www.smh.com.au/news/technology/zerogravity-cup-means-no-more-straws/2008/11/28/1227491791137.html
Top answer
"touch of class" = certain amount of style/elegance/sophistication. "zero-gravity cup" = cup that works in conditions of no gravity (as experienced by astronauts in orbit). "wicks" = draws up by capillary action.
- "touch of class" = certain amount of style/elegance/sophistication.
- "zero-gravity cup" = cup that works in conditions of no gravity (as experienced by astronauts in orbit).
- "wicks" = draws up by capillary action.
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1 Answers
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"touch of class" = certain amount of style/elegance/sophistication.
"zero-gravity cup" = cup that works in conditions of no gravity (as experienced by astronauts in orbit).
"wicks" = draws up by capillary action.
"zero-gravity cup" = cup that works in conditions of no gravity (as experienced by astronauts in orbit).
"wicks" = draws up by capillary action.
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