zero point
See also: zero-point
English
Etymology 1
From early[1] restandardization, possibly under influence of established US military terms such as zero hour, of the prior term point zero, which was coined during the Trinity Project,[2] as point + zero, with zero being the code name for the Trinity test location.[3] The original sense was that of ground zero and referred to only latitude and longitude, without regard to altitude,[4] until the latter term's coinage in 1946.
Noun
zero point (countable and uncountable, plural zero points)
- (military) The location of the center of a burst of a nuclear weapon at the instant of detonation. The zero point may be in the air, or on or beneath the surface of land or water, depending upon the type of burst, and it is thus to be distinguished from ground zero.
- (military, obsolete) Ground zero.
Etymology 2
Unknown.[5]
Noun
- (Singapore) A children's game involving jumping over a chain of linked elastic bands.
- Synonym: yeh yeh
See also
References
- ^ Chapter 8, "Operation Crossroads", in Manhattan District History, Book VIII, Los Alamos Project (Y), Volume 3, "Auxilary Activities", September 1948, 8.32.
- ^ David Hawkins (29 April 1947) Chapter III, "The Period April 1943–August 1944, General Review", in Manhattan District History, Book VIII, Los Alamos Project (Y), Volume 2, "Technical", XVIII-3.
- ^ William L[eonard] Laurence (1946) Dawn over Zero: The Story of the Atomic Bomb, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A[braham] Knopf, →OCLC, page 4.
- ^ E. H. Praeger (June 1946) “Behavior of Concrete Structures Under Atomic Bombing”, in Journal of the American Concrete Institute (ACI Proceedings Vol. 42)[1], volume 17, number 6, archived from the original on 7 June 2020, page 710: “The point on the ground directly below the burst has been designated as the 'zero point'.”
- ^ Jack Tsen-Ta Lee (20 August 2005) A Dictionary of Singlish and Singapore English[2].