A sled is a sliding vehicle A vehicle is a device that is designed or used to transport people or cargo. Most often vehicles are manufactured (e.g. bicycles, cars, motorcycles, trains, ships, boats, and aircraft) designed to transport Transport or transportation is the movement of people and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, rail, road, water, cable, pipeline, and space. The field can be divided into infrastructure, vehicles, and operations passengers and/or cargo by using a running mechanism and smooth undersides instead of wheels A wheel is a circular device that is capable of rotating on an axle through its centre, facilitating movement or transportation while supporting a load , or performing labour in machines. Common examples are found in transport applications. A wheel, together with an axle overcomes friction by facilitating motion by rolling. In order for wheels to. Most sleds are used on surfaces with low friction Friction is the force resisting the relative lateral motion of solid surfaces, fluid layers, or material elements in contact. Its colloquial opposite is slipperiness. Friction is usually subdivided into several varieties: (such as snow Snow is a type of precipitation within the Earth's atmosphere in the form of crystalline water ice, consisting of a multitude of snowflakes that fall from clouds. Since snow is composed of small ice particles, it is a granular material. It has an open and therefore soft structure, unless packed by external pressure. Snowflakes come in a variety of or ice Ice, technically, is one of the 15 known crystalline phases of water. In non-scientific contexts, the term usually means ice Ih, which is known to be the most abundant of these solid phases. It can appear transparent or opaque bluish-white colour, depending on the presence of impurities or air inclusions. The addition of other materials such as), but, in some cases, mud, grass, or even smooth stones make a good surface for sleds.
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Etymology
The word sled comes from Middle English Middle English is the name given by historical linguists to the diverse forms of the English language in use between the late 11th century and about 1470, when the Chancery Standard, a form of London-based English, began to become widespread, a process aided by the introduction of the printing press into England by William Caxton in the late 1470s sledde, which itself has the origins in Old Dutch Old Dutch is a linguistic term denoting the forms of West Franconian spoken and written during the early Middle Ages (c. 600 - 1150) in the Netherlands and the northern part of present-day Belgium. Old Dutch is considered the first stage in the development of a separate Dutch language and is succeeded by Middle Dutch in the later Middle Ages word slee, meaning "sliding" or "slider". The same word shares common ancestry with both sleigh and sledge.[1]
A sleigh (pronounced "slay") is a word sharing basically the same meaning. Its use in American English American English is a set of dialects of the English language used mostly in the United States. Approximately two thirds of native speakers of English live in the United States refers primarily to a particular type of sled drawn by horses The horse is a hooved (ungulate) mammal, a subspecies of the family Equidae. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature into the large, single-toed animal of today. Humans began to domesticate horses around 4000 BCE, and their domestication is believed to have been widespread by 3000 BCE. Although or reindeers The reindeer , also known as the caribou in North America, is a deer from the Arctic and Subarctic, including both resident and migratory populations. While overall widespread and numerous, some of its subspecies are rare and one (or two, depending on taxonomy) have already gone extinct. In some contexts, it was once used to describe a large vehicle accommodated for maximum passenger use. In Canadian Canadian English is the variety of English spoken in Canada. English is the first language, or "mother tongue", of approximately 18 million Canadians (57%), and more than 28 million (86%) are fluent in the language. 76% of Canadians outside Quebec speak English natively, but within Quebec the figure drops to just 8% and British English British English, or UK English , is the broad term used to distinguish the forms of the English language used in the United Kingdom from forms used elsewhere. The Oxford English Dictionary applies the term to English "as spoken or written in the British Isles; esp[ecially] the forms of English usual in Great Britain...", reserving ", sleigh is regularly used to refer to any type of sled, notwithstanding its capacity. In Australian English Australian English is the form of the English language spoken in Australia, both words are given equal preference.[2]
A sledge is a smaller sled, used mostly for freight, one that can generally transport no more than one or two persons with only a limited amount of cargo. Sledges can be pulled by dogs The dog is a domesticated form of the gray wolf, a member of the Canidae family of the order Carnivora. The term is used for both feral and pet varieties. The domestic dog has been one of the most widely kept working and companion animals in human history or other smaller animals. The children's mini-sled, pulled by humans Humans are a species of animal known taxonomically as Homo sapiens , and are the only extant member of the Homo genus of bipedal primates in Hominidae, the great ape family. However, in some cases "human" is used to refer to any member of the genus Homo, can also be referred to as a sledge.[2]
Types of Sleds
Sleds for Recreational Sledding
There are several types of widely used recreational sleds designed for sliding down snowy hills (sledding Sledding , sled-riding (US), sledging or tobogganing is a common activity in wintry areas, similar to sliding, but in a prone or seated position requiring a device or vehicle generically known in the US as a sled or in other countries as a sledge or toboggan. More formally it is one of three olympic sports— the luge, skeleton, or bobsledding,)[3]. They include:
- the toboggan A toboggan is a simple sled which is a traditional form of transport used by the Innu and Cree of northern Canada. In modern times, it is used on snow to carry one or more people down a hill or other slope for recreation. Designs vary from simple, traditional models to modern engineered composites. A toboggan differs from most sleds or sleighs in, an elongated sled with no runners, generally made out of wood or plastic,
- the saucer, a round sled curved like a contact lens A contact lens is a corrective, cosmetic, or therapeutic lens usually placed on the cornea of the eye. Leonardo da Vinci is credited with describing and sketching the first ideas for contact lenses in 1508[citation needed], but it was more than 300 years later before contact lenses were actually fabricated and worn on the eye. Modern soft contact, also with no runners and generally made out of plastic or metal,
- the steel runner sled or flexible flyer, a steerable wooden sled with thin metal runners,
- the kicksled The kicksled or spark is a small sled consisting of a chair mounted on a pair of flexible metal runners which extend backward to about twice the chair's length. There is a handlebar attached to the top of the chair back. "Kicksled" is a direct translation of the Finnish word "potkukelkka". Some other possible translations are & or spark, a human-powered sled
- the inflatable sled or tube, a plastic membrane filled with air to make a very lightweight sled,
- and the foam slider, a flat piece of durable foam with handles and a smooth underside.
Sleds for Competitive Sledding
A few types of sleds are used only for a specific sport. These include:
- the bobsled Bobsleigh, bobsled or bobsledge is a winter sport invented by Englishmen in the late 1860s in which teams make timed runs down narrow, twisting, banked, iced tracks in a gravity-powered sled. The various types of sleds came several years before the first tracks were built in St Moritz, where the original bobsleds were adapted upsized Luge/Skeleton (British bobsleigh), an aerodynamic composite bodied vehicle on lightweight runners,
- and the luge Luge is a small one- or two-person sled on which one sleds supine (face up) and feet-first. Steering is done by flexing the sled's runners with the calf of each leg or exerting opposite shoulder pressure to the seat. Lugers can reach speeds of 140 km per hour, and the Guinness world record is held by Tony Benshoof of the United States at a speed and the skeleton Skeleton originated as a spin-off from the popular British sport of Cresta Sledding in St. Moritz, Switzerland. While Skeleton "sliders" use similar equipment to Cresta "riders", the two sports are different and should not be confused, tiny one or two-person sleds with runners.
Various types of sleds are pulled by animals such as reindeer The reindeer , also known as the caribou in North America, is a deer from the Arctic and Subarctic, including both resident and migratory populations. While overall widespread and numerous, some of its subspecies are rare and one (or two, depending on taxonomy) have already gone extinct, horses The horse is a hooved (ungulate) mammal, a subspecies of the family Equidae. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature into the large, single-toed animal of today. Humans began to domesticate horses around 4000 BCE, and their domestication is believed to have been widespread by 3000 BCE. Although, mules A mule is the offspring of a male donkey and a female horse. Horses and donkeys are different species, with different numbers of chromosomes. Of the two F1 hybrids between these two species, a mule is easier to obtain than a hinny . All male mules and most female mules are infertile, oxen An ox , or bullock (Australia, New Zealand, India) is a bovine animal trained as a draft animal. Oxen are commonly adult, castrated male cattle, but cows (adult females) or bulls (entire males) may also be used in some areas. Oxen are used for plowing, transport (pulling carts or wagons or sometimes for riding), threshing grain by trampling, and or dogs The dog is a domesticated form of the gray wolf, a member of the Canidae family of the order Carnivora. The term is used for both feral and pet varieties. The domestic dog has been one of the most widely kept working and companion animals in human history.
Other Sleds
A horse-drawn "stone boat", a sled used in horse pulling competition, Spring Fair, Woolbrook, NSW- The airboard Kevin Inkster invented the world's first commercial hoverboard scooter[citation needed], called the Airboard after being inspired by the Back to the Future movies is an inflatable single-person sled, similar to a hovercraft A hovercraft is a craft capable of travelling over surfaces while supported by a cushion of slow moving, high-pressure air which is ejected against the surface below and contained within a "skirt." Although supported by air, a hovercraft is not considered an aircraft.
- A troika is a vehicle drawn by three horses, usually a sled, but it may also be a wheeled carriage.
- In some regions, "sled" is colloquial slang for a snowmobile A snowmobile, also known in some places as a snowmachine, sled, or skimobile , is a land vehicle for winter travel on snow. Designed to be operated on snow and ice, they require no road or trail. Design variations enable some machines to operate in deep snow or forests; most are used on open terrain, including lakes or driven on paths or trails.
- In arctic regions the Inuit qamutiq is uniquely adapted for travel on the sea ice.
- An ahkio or pulka is a traditional of sled of the Lapland region, originally pulled by reindeer The reindeer , also known as the caribou in North America, is a deer from the Arctic and Subarctic, including both resident and migratory populations. While overall widespread and numerous, some of its subspecies are rare and one (or two, depending on taxonomy) have already gone extinct. Now more common as a human or snowmobile-towed sled, it's often used for cold weather expeditions, by mountain rescue Mountain rescue refers to search and rescue activities that occur in a mountainous environment, although the term is sometimes also used to apply to search and rescue in other wilderness environments. The difficult and remote nature of the terrain in which mountain rescue often occurs has resulted in the development of a number of specific pieces teams and military cold weather units Arctic warfare or winter warfare is a term used to describe armed conflict that takes place in an exceptionally cold weather, usually in snowy and icy terrain, sometimes on ice-covered bodies of water. One must note the distinction between alpine and Arctic warfare - Arctic war does not always take place in mountainous terrain, and mountain to haul equipment, supplies and passengers.
Historical Uses
The people of Ancient Egypt Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of eastern North Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. The civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh, and it developed over the next three millennia. Its history are thought to have used sledges extensively in the construction their public works, in particular for the transportation of heavy obelisks An obelisk is a tall, narrow, four-sided, tapering monument which ends in a pyramid-like shape at the top. Ancient obelisks were often monolithic whereas most modern obelisks are made of several stones and can have interior spaces.
Man-hauled sledges were the traditional means of transport on British exploring expeditions to the Arctic The Arctic is the region around the Earth's North Pole, opposite the Antarctic region around the South Pole. The Arctic includes the Arctic Ocean (which overlies the North Pole) and parts of Canada, Greenland (a territory of Denmark), Russia, the United States (Alaska), Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Finland and Antarctic The Antarctic is the region around the Earth's South Pole, opposite the Arctic region around the North Pole. The Antarctic comprises the continent of Antarctica and the ice shelves, waters and island territories in the Southern Ocean situated south of the Antarctic Convergence. The region covers some 20% of the Southern Hemisphere, of which 5.5% (1 regions in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Dog sleds A dog sled is a sled pulled by one or more sled dogs used to travel over ice and through snow. Numerous types of sleds are used, depending on their function were used by most others, such as Roald Amundsen Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen was a Norwegian explorer of polar regions. He led the first Antarctic expedition to reach the South Pole between 1910 and 1912. He was also the first person to reach both the North and South Poles. He is known as the first to traverse the Northwest Passage. He disappeared in June 1928 while taking part in a. Today some people use kites A kite is a flying tethered aircraft that depends upon the tension of a tethering system. The necessary lift that makes the kite wing fly is generated when air flows over and under the kite's wing, producing low pressure above the wing and high pressure below it. This deflection also generates horizontal drag along the direction of the wind. The to tow exploration sleds in such climes.
An enormous cargo sled being maneuvered by a 10K-AT "Adverse Terrain" forklift A forklift is a powered industrial truck used to lift and transport materials. The modern forklift was developed in the 1920s by various companies including the transmission manufacturing company Clark and the hoist company Yale & Towne Manufacturing. The forklift has since become an indispensable piece of equipment in manufacturing and at McMurdo Station McMurdo Station is an American Antarctic research center located on the southern tip of Ross Island on the shore of McMurdo Sound in New Zealand territory, 2,200 miles due south of the New Zealand mainland. It is operated by the United States through the United States Antarctic Program, a branch of the National Science Foundation. The station is in Antarctica Antarctica (pronounced /ænˈtɑrktɪkə/ ) is Earth's southernmost continent, underlying the South Pole. It is situated in the Antarctic region of the southern hemisphere, almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle, and is surrounded by the Southern Ocean. At 14.0 million km2 (5.4 million sq mi), it is the fifth-largest continent in area after.See also
| Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Sledding |
- Bobsled Bobsleigh, bobsled or bobsledge is a winter sport invented by Englishmen in the late 1860s in which teams make timed runs down narrow, twisting, banked, iced tracks in a gravity-powered sled. The various types of sleds came several years before the first tracks were built in St Moritz, where the original bobsleds were adapted upsized Luge/Skeleton
- Luge Luge is a small one- or two-person sled on which one sleds supine (face up) and feet-first. Steering is done by flexing the sled's runners with the calf of each leg or exerting opposite shoulder pressure to the seat. Lugers can reach speeds of 140 km per hour, and the Guinness world record is held by Tony Benshoof of the United States at a speed
- Skeleton Skeleton originated as a spin-off from the popular British sport of Cresta Sledding in St. Moritz, Switzerland. While Skeleton "sliders" use similar equipment to Cresta "riders", the two sports are different and should not be confused
- Ski A ski is a long, flat device worn on the feet designed to help the wearer slide smoothly over snow. Originally intended as an aid to travel in snowy regions, they are now mainly used for recreational and sporting purposes. Also, a ski may denote a similar device used for other purposes than skiing, for example, for steering snowmobiles
- Snowboard Snowboards are boards, which resemble a wide ski, with the ability to glide on snow. Snowboards are differetiated from monoskis by the stance of the user. In monoskiing, the user stands with feet inline with direction of travel (parallel to long axis of board), whereas in snowboarding, users stand with feet transverse (more or less) to the
- Snowmobile A snowmobile, also known in some places as a snowmachine, sled, or skimobile , is a land vehicle for winter travel on snow. Designed to be operated on snow and ice, they require no road or trail. Design variations enable some machines to operate in deep snow or forests; most are used on open terrain, including lakes or driven on paths or trails
- Pulka
References
- ^
- ^ a b The Macquarie Dictionary, 2nd ed.,. North Ryde: Macquarie Library. 1991.
- ^ Parigon Sleds
External links
Categories: Dutch loanwords | Sledding | Sports equipment | Animal-powered vehicles | Human-powered vehicles
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