A narrow notch, groove, or opening: a keyway in a lock; a slot for a coin in a vending machine. Also used as a name for a position in a group, series, sequence, or hierarchy: a slot in the choir, a slot on the team, a slot in the library.
A slot is a container for dynamic items in a page that either waits passively to receive content (a passive slot) or actively requests content from a repository (an active slot). Slots and scenarios work together to provide a flexible way of defining the structure of dynamic pages on your website.
You can find out about the odds of winning a particular slot game by reading its pay table. The pay table will show an image of each symbol, alongside how much you can win if you land three, four or five of them on a payline. It may also include information about special symbols, such as Wilds and Scatters.
If you want to try your luck at a new slot machine, the best way to familiarise yourself with its rules is by studying its paytable. A paytable will tell you which symbols are worth the most, and how to make combinations. The paytable will also describe any bonus features of the slot.
The use of slots to control the flow of traffic is a global practice that has been shown to reduce travel time and congestion, as well as cut air pollution and fuel usage. However, it will not solve all the problems of road and rail transport and congestion is still a major problem in many areas of the world.
In the future, more regions will use central flow management to manage traffic flows and slots will be used in conjunction with other measures such as speed restrictions to prevent drivers from entering or exiting at a bad location. This will allow for more efficient use of existing capacity, making the use of slots a sound investment.
From Middle Dutch or Middle Low German slot, from Proto-Germanic *slutila (source also of Old Frisian sletel, Old High German sluzzil, and German Schloss “bolt, bar, lock, castle”). This is closely related to the root of Latin lucem, a hole or gap for something to fit into, hence the sense in which the word has come to mean “opening.” In aviation, a slot is a position on the fuselage or tail surface of an aircraft that can be used to accommodate an air flow control device such as a flap, spoiler, or ailerons. The term is used to avoid confusion with the wing slot, a structural feature in the wing of an airplane that provides for a flow of air from the wing to the fuselage. In the avionics industry, the term slot also refers to a position in a computer system or a memory chip that can be used for storage. This article is an excerpt from the book ‘The Future of Transportation’ by Ian McQueen, published by Wiley.
