A narrow depression, perforation or aperture. Examples include the coin slot in a vending machine, the mail slot in an office door or the slot at the bottom of a computer monitor. The term is also used in a number of other contexts:
(American football, field hockey and ice hockey) An unmarked area in front of the goal extending toward the blue line. Traditionally, the slot was occupied by the wide receiver on the non-offending team. Increasingly, the position has been assigned to the last offensive lineman on either side of center.
The slot is also a position in a sequence or schedule: I booked my haircut for the 2pm slot. It can also be a place in an organization or hierarchy: I have been offered the third-ranked slot at my company.
In computing, a slot is a specific location where information can be stored, processed and retrieved. In programming languages, slots are implemented as a special kind of variable. Each slot is associated with a set of functions that implement its behaviour. These functions can be invoked from the programmer’s code using the corresponding function call. The variable’s value will then be replaced with the returned value of the function.
A slot is often a machined feature in a part or product, but it can also be created by cutting or milling. The latter technique is commonly used to create complex shapes in wood or plastic. It is also often found in metal products such as aircraft engines and car bodies, where it is used to attach parts to the main structure.
The word is also used in a technical sense, particularly in engineering and construction. For example, mitre slots are often machined into the main cast iron table of a saw to ensure that it is perfectly parallel to the blade and to allow for a range of other manufactured or shop made jigs to be secured to the mitre table. These jigs can be used to increase accuracy and safety of work, for example to make sure that tenons are cut squarely.
In a universal testing machine, a T-slot table is an extension of the base that can be used to secure components and structures for tests such as tensile, compression and flexural. Commercially available T-slot nuts are inserted into the inverted T-slot of the table and bolted or threaded into place to provide a method of securing these components to the test system without the need for clamps. This can be especially helpful in situations where a lot of testing is performed on the same samples and it would be time consuming to move them around for each test.
