Foil

Foil may refer to:

Foil (literature)

In fiction, a foil is a character who contrasts with another character (usually the protagonist) in order to highlight particular qualities of the other character. In some cases, a subplot can be used as a foil to the main plot. This is especially true in the case of metafiction and the "story within a story" motif. The word foil comes from the old practice of backing gems with foil in order to make them shine more brightly.

A foil usually either differs dramatically or is extremely similar but with a key difference setting them apart. The concept of a foil is also more widely applied to any comparison that is made to contrast a difference between two things.Thomas F. Gieryn places these uses of literary foils into three categories which Tamara Antoine and Pauline Metze explain as: those that emphasize the heightened contrast (this is different because ...), those that operate by exclusion (this is not X because...), and those that assign blame ("due to the slow decision-making procedures of government...").

Foil (fluid mechanics)

A foil is a solid object with a shape such that when placed in a moving fluid at a suitable angle of attack the lift (force generated perpendicular to the fluid flow) is substantially larger than the drag (force generated parallel the fluid flow). If the fluid is a gas, the foil is called an airfoil or aerofoil, and if the fluid is water the foil is called a hydrofoil.

Physics of foils

A foil generates lift primarily as a result of its shape and angle of attack. When oriented at a suitable angle, the foil deflects the oncoming fluid, resulting in a force on the foil in the direction opposite to the deflection. This force can be resolved into two components: lift and drag. This "turning" of the fluid in the vicinity of the foil creates curved streamlines which results in lower pressure on one side and higher pressure on the other. This pressure difference is accompanied by a velocity difference, via Bernoulli's principle, so the resulting flowfield about the foil has a higher average velocity on the upper surface than on the lower surface.

Envelope

An envelope is a common packaging item, usually made of thin flat material. It is designed to contain a flat object, such as a letter or card.

Traditional envelopes are made from sheets of paper cut to one of three shapes: a rhombus, a short-arm cross, or a kite. These shapes allow for the creation of the envelope structure by folding the sheet sides around a central rectangular area. In this manner, a rectangle-faced enclosure is formed with an arrangement of four flaps on the reverse side.

Overview

When the folding sequence is such that the last flap to be closed is on a short side it is referred to in commercial envelope manufacture as a pocket - a format frequently employed in the packaging of small quantities of seeds. Although in principle the flaps can be held in place by securing the topmost flap at a single point (for example with a wax seal), generally they are pasted or gummed together at the overlaps. They are most commonly used for enclosing and sending mail (letters) through a prepaid-postage postal system.

Envelopes (band)

Envelopes is an indie-pop band with members hailing from Sweden and France.

History

Envelopes' debut album Demon (Swedish for The Demo or Demos) was released in the UK in August 2005 and in America in April 2006. The album was recorded at Henrik Orrling's family farm in Sweden, where the video for their single Sister in Love was also filmed. Demon also includes home recordings dating from 2001 to 2004.

Envelopes toured the UK in February 2004. They played at SXSW in 2006, and toured the USA with Ratatat in September 2006.

August 2007 saw the band make a full album mixtape available as an mp3 on their website. Entitled 'Soup of Germs', the album features 11 Envelopes tracks spliced together with samples of their influences and favourite artists, such as The B-52's, Talking Heads and Pink Floyd. This mixtape album was also distributed for free at various gigs in CD format, along with the 'Soup of Germs' packaging.

Their second album, "Here Comes The Wind", was released in February 2008, on Brille Records.