A narrow, elongated depression or a small hole, groove, slit, or other narrow opening, used for receiving or admitting something, especially money or a card. Also: a position or period of time allocated to an activity:It was my four-o’clock slot for the meeting.
The position on a football team’s offense where the slot receiver lines up. Typically shorter and smaller than outside wide receivers, the slot receiver must have top-notch route running skills and be excellent at reading defenses. He is a crucial part of the offense because he can line up in many different positions. On passing plays, the quarterback can fake a handoff to the Slot receiver or pitch him to him in motion. If the play is a running play, the Slot receiver will be an important blocker.
In computer science, a fixed-size memory location that can be accessed at the same time as other memory locations. Each slot is assigned a unique address in the memory hierarchy and can be accessed by any application program written for the hardware platform on which it runs. A slot in memory may be a fixed size, but it can also be variable and grow or shrink depending on the requirements of the application.
Historically, all slot machines used revolving mechanical reels to display symbols and determine wins. The number of possible combinations was limited by the physical design of the reels, which allowed only 103 = 1,000 possible symbol combinations on each reel. As technology advanced, electronic reels were introduced, allowing for a much greater number of possible symbols per reel. However, the software that controlled these electronic reels allowed for “weighting” of certain symbols, reducing the odds of them appearing on a payline and thus limiting jackpot sizes.
On a casino’s gaming floor, a slot is the area of the machine that has the most potential for winning. A player inserts cash or, in the case of ticket-in, ticket-out machines, a barcoded paper ticket with a specific barcode into a slot and activates it by pressing a button or lever. The reels then spin and stop to rearrange the symbols, and if the player matches a winning combination the player receives credits according to the machine’s pay table. Depending on the game, the pay table might include information such as the type of symbols, the paylines, the amount a player can win, bonus features, and any caps on jackpot amounts.
In aviation, a slot is the permitted period of time in which an airplane can safely clear an obstacle or land at a runway. Air traffic control assigns slots based on various factors, including congestion, lack of staff, and weather conditions. During the planning phase of an airport development, it is important to identify the required number of slots for air traffic. This will allow the airport to meet future demand and to accommodate a variety of aircraft types. An airport with more than one runway will often need to provide additional slots to accommodate the larger aircraft.