A car that moves at high speed can be referred to as a racing car.
A car is a body that reaches enormous speed . The etymological journey of the concept began in the Greek word bolís , which passed into Latin as bolis and then came to French as bolide .
For example: “The car hit the wall of the house and destroyed it,” “The Italian driver won the traditional race with a car of German origin,” “The local residents were surprised to see a large car in the sky.”
What is a racing car
According to the Royal Spanish Academy ( RAE ), a racing car can be a car capable of traveling at high speed . The term, in this case, is usually used with respect to competition vehicles .
“The German racer expressed his displeasure with the car he has to drive, since he believes it is not competitive”, “All the cars that participate in this category have engines of national origin”y “The young Mexican invested a million dollars to prepare his car” son expresiones que muestran este uso.
In astronomy, a bolide is a meteor.
The concept in astronomy
In the field of astronomy , on the other hand, a body formed with cosmic matter that, due to its size, can be seen with the naked eye and that crosses the atmosphere at high speed , is called a bolide. Fireballs are generally observed as balloons or balls that eventually burst and fragment.
Bolides are bright meteors that, as they advance across the sky , leave a luminous trail. When they explode, they generate a loud roar and end up reaching the surface divided into multiple pieces, although many of them can disintegrate in the air.
Differences between bolides, meteors, meteoroids and meteorites
It is important to point out the differences that exist between bolide, meteor , meteoroid and meteorite ; Although in everyday speech these terms are used indiscriminately, reality shows us that these concepts have definitions that clearly separate them. A meteor is a particle that enters the atmosphere and disintegrates before colliding with the ground; Along its path you can see a luminous trail that we usually associate with the concept of a shooting star .
A bolide , for its part, is a meteor, as mentioned above, but it has the particularity of having a magnitude less than -4, the same as Venus ; Their size is larger and they produce very characteristic sounds and noises. Then we have meteoroids , small particles (their diameter can measure between 100 micrometers and 50 meters), generally remains of asteroids or comets, which remain in orbit around the Sun.
Meteorites , finally, are those meteoroids that do not completely disintegrate in the atmosphere once they impact our planet.
Errors with the term
In Argentina there is the expression "walking like a ball without a handle" , which can be interpreted as a directionless movement , without a clear objective, typical of the person who is lost in life because of going through a difficult situation, among other possibilities. . Very often we find an incorrect version of this expression, which presents the term bolide instead of ball; Since the first refers to a boleadora , a typical Aboriginal weapon that is thrown against prey, there is no relationship between the two.
Another common mistake is to write bolide with V , something that cannot be justified in any way given that the word volido is not part of our language. Curiously, there is "volido" , without an accent in the O , which the RAE dictionary refers to flight .
It should be noted that the word bolide does form part of some expression. For example, it is possible to say "go like a car" to describe the action of someone moving at high speed , in a hurry. It is likely that the confusion between racing car and ball has arisen due to the presence of this expression.