Construct · 3 fields · 7 citations

Where does spot collide?

One name. Different field. Different construct. One map.

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spot3 CONSTRUCTSSunspotFABRICIUS · SOLAR SPOTBlind spotMARIOTTE · RETINAL GAPSpot priceKEYNES · CASH DELIVERY

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1611Sunspot1668Blind spot1930Spot price
2026

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Astronomy

A dark spot on the Sun's surface

A sunspot is a dark, cooler patch on the visible surface of the Sun, produced where a strong magnetic field slows the flow of heat rising from below. Johannes Fabricius's 1611 De maculis in sole observatis gave the first published account of these spots seen through a telescope and used their day-by-day drift to argue that the Sun rotates, and Galileo's 1613 Istoria e dimostrazioni intorno alle macchie solari described and drew them in detail; Hathaway's 2015 The solar cycle reviewed how their number rises and falls over about eleven years. The referent is a magnetic feature on a star, counted and tracked across the solar disc, and it is not a gap in a person's vision or a price quoted in a market.[1][2][3]

Unit
A single dark region on the solar photosphere, counted by number and measured by area
Recovery means
Not applicable
Measured by
Counted as a sunspot number and traced across the disc from telescope and satellite images to record area, position, and magnetic field

Physiology and medicine

the small retinal area where the optic nerve leaves the eye, holding no light-sensing cells, so images there go unseen.

The blind spot is the small area of the retina where the optic nerve leaves the eye: it holds no light-sensing cells, so any image falling on it is not seen, although the brain fills the gap so the hole goes unnoticed in ordinary vision. Edme Mariotte's 1668 Nouvelle découverte touchant la veue first described this gap and demonstrated it with a simple viewing test, and Ramachandran and Gregory's 1991 study of perceptual filling-in showed how the surrounding pattern is completed across such gaps. The referent is a fixed non-seeing region in one eye's field of view, located on the retina, and it has nothing to do with a spot on the Sun or a price in a market.[4][5]

Unit
One eye's non-seeing region, measured by its angular size and its position in the visual field
Recovery means
Not applicable
Measured by
Mapped by perimetry, or shown by moving a target until it disappears while the gaze is held fixed

Finance and economics

the price for buying or selling something for immediate delivery and payment, unlike a forward or futures price.

A spot price is the price for buying or selling something for immediate delivery and payment, as opposed to a forward or futures price agreed now for delivery later. Keynes's 1930 A Treatise on Money set out the difference between the spot price and the forward price and named the gap between them, and Kaldor's 1939 Speculation and economic stability tied that gap to the cost of holding a good over time. The referent is a number attached to a trade settled at once, quoted in currency per unit, and it is unrelated to a mark on the Sun or a gap in the retina; the word in markets is older than this academic treatment of it.[6][7]

Unit
A price in currency per unit of a good, for settlement now
Recovery means
Not applicable
Measured by
Observed as the quoted cash-market price and compared against forward and futures quotes for the same good

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Nearby collisions

aberration4 fields · 4 citationsjingle · one word, four constructsalbedo3 fields · 3 citationsjingle · one word, three constructsAiry4 fields · 4 citationsjingle · one name, four constructs

References

  1. Fabricius, J. (1611). De maculis in sole observatis, et apparente earum cum sole conversione, narratio. Wittenberg: Laurentius Seuberlich.
  2. Galilei, G. (1613). Istoria e dimostrazioni intorno alle macchie solari e loro accidenti. Rome: Accademia dei Lincei.
  3. Hathaway, D. H. (2015). The solar cycle. Living Reviews in Solar Physics, 12(1), 4. https://doi.org/10.1007/lrsp-2015-4
  4. Mariotte, E. (1668). Nouvelle découverte touchant la veue. Paris: Frédéric Léonard.
  5. Ramachandran, V. S., & Gregory, R. L. (1991). Perceptual filling in of artificially induced scotomas in human vision. Nature, 350(6320), 699–702. https://doi.org/10.1038/350699a0
  6. Keynes, J. M. (1930). A treatise on money (Vol. 2). London: Macmillan.
  7. Kaldor, N. (1939). Speculation and economic stability. The Review of Economic Studies, 7(1), 1–27. https://doi.org/10.2307/2967593

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