In the context of airport coordination, a slot is an authorization to take off or land at a specific time during a given period of air traffic control clearance. Slots are often used to manage traffic at extremely busy airports, preventing the repeated delays that can occur when too many planes try to land or take off at the same time.
The word slot can also refer to a position in a group, series, or sequence. A slot can also be a particular job or role, such as that of chief copy editor: “He had the slot as head of the Gazette’s copy department for 20 years.” A slot can also refer to a time period: “The new law takes effect in five months; we have two slots left before it goes into effect.”
A t-slot is a type of fastener with a channel formed by an undercut in the upper surface of the screw threaded part. The shape of the channel, which resembles in end view an inverted capital T, allows the bolt or screw to be locked into place and prevent it from slipping out of the fastener. T-slot tables are often used to hold components that can’t be held with standard grips on a universal testing machine. Commercially available T-slot nuts are slid into the inverted T-slot of the table, and then bolted to the test machine with studs or threaded rods. This enables users to precisely position and hold the specimens in the same location for every test.
In computer science, a slot is the portion of memory allocated to a functional unit (FU) in a multiprocessor system. A slot may be shared by multiple FUs or may be dedicated to a single processor core. In very long instruction word (VLIW) computers, the relationship between an operation and its pipeline to execute it is modeled by a slot.
In football, a slot receiver is a wide receiver that lines up close to the middle of the field. They are typically shorter and quicker than traditional wide receivers, so they are more likely to be targeted on passing plays. They are also more vulnerable to big hits, as they are closer to the line of scrimmage.
When you’re playing a slot, you should always read the pay table and help screens. These will reveal how much you’ll be paid for certain combinations appearing on a payline or consecutive reels on all-ways pays machines. They will also tell you if there are any special features that can be triggered during a game, and how to access them. The pay table will also show you how many coins and denominations can be played, as well as any caps that a casino might have placed on a jackpot amount. This information can help you determine if the slot is worth your money. You can usually find the pay table by clicking an icon near the bottom of the screen.