Artificial numbers
(gcide) | Artificial \Ar`ti*fi"cial\, a. [L. artificialis, fr. artificium:
cf. F. artificiel. See Artifice.]
1. Made or contrived by art; produced or modified by human
skill and labor, in opposition to natural; as, artificial
heat or light, gems, salts, minerals, fountains, flowers.
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Artificial strife
Lives in these touches, livelier than life. --Shak.
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2. Feigned; fictitious; assumed; affected; not genuine.
"Artificial tears." --Shak.
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3. Artful; cunning; crafty. [Obs.] --Shak.
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4. Cultivated; not indigenous; not of spontaneous growth; as,
artificial grasses. --Gibbon.
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Artificial arguments (Rhet.), arguments invented by the
speaker, in distinction from laws, authorities, and the
like, which are called inartificial arguments or proofs.
--Johnson.
Artificial classification (Science), an arrangement based
on superficial characters, and not expressing the true
natural relations species; as, "the artificial system" in
botany, which is the same as the Linn[ae]an system.
Artificial horizon. See under Horizon.
Artificial light, any light other than that which proceeds
from the heavenly bodies.
Artificial lines, lines on a sector or scale, so contrived
as to represent the logarithmic sines and tangents, which,
by the help of the line of numbers, solve, with tolerable
exactness, questions in trigonometry, navigation, etc.
Artificial numbers, logarithms.
Artificial person (Law). See under Person.
Artificial sines, tangents, etc., the same as logarithms
of the natural sines, tangents, etc. --Hutton.
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