shuttlecock

A shuttlecock is a high-drag projectile used in the game of badminton. It has an open conical shape: the cone is shaped from sixteen overlapping goose feathers surrounded into a rounded cork base. The cork is covered with thin leather.

The shuttlecock's form makes it tremendously aerodynamically steady. Regardless of initial orientation, it will turn to fly cork first, and remain in the cork-first orientation.

The name shuttlecock is commonly shortened to shuttle; a shuttlecock may also be known as a bird or birdie. The abbreviation cock is rarely used except in a funny sense, due to its vulgar connotations. The "shuttle" part of the name was most likely derived from its back-and-forth movement during the game, similar to the shuttle of a loom; the "cock" part of the name was almost certainly derived from the likeness of the feathers to a bird's crest.

Railways

Rail transport is the transport of passengers and supplies by means of wheeled vehicles particularly designed to run down railways.

A railway/railroad track consists of two parallel iron rails, usually anchored vertical to beams, termed sleepers or ties, concrete, or steel to keep a steady space apart, or gauge. The rails and perpendicular beams are generally then placed on a base made of concrete or condensed earth and gravel in a bed of ballast to stop the track from buckling as the ground settles over time below and under the weight of the vehicles passing above. The vehicles traveling on the rails are arranged in a train; a string of individual powered or unpowered vehicles connected together, displaying markers.