piston A piston is a component of reciprocating engines, reciprocating pumps, gas compressors, hydraulic cylinders and pneumatic cylinders, among other similar mechanisms. It is the moving component that is contained by a cylinder and is made gas-tig ...

is an engineering component of engines and pumps. Piston(s) may also refer to:

Science and technology

Piston (optics) In optics, piston is the mean value of a wavefront or phase profile across the pupil of an optical system. The piston coefficient is typically expressed in wavelengths of light at a particular wavelength. Its main use is in curve-fitting wavefro ...

Piston (subcellular structure) A piston (also known as a dart, prod, or tentacle) is a complex contractile organelle found in some dinoflagellates, namely the ''Erythropsidinium'' and ''Greuetodinium'' genera of the family Warnowiaceae. This group is also well known for possessi ...

Piston valve A "piston valve" is a device used to control the motion of a fluid along a tube or pipe by means of the linear motion of a piston within a chamber or cylinder. Examples of piston valves are: * The valves used in many brass instruments * The va ...

Fire piston A fire piston, sometimes called a fire syringe or a slam rod fire starter, is a device of ancient Southeast Asian origin which is used to kindle fire. It uses the principle of the heating of a gas (in this case air) by rapid and Adiabatic process, ...

, an ancient device for kindling fire *

Gas-operated reloading Gas-operation is a system of operation used to provide energy to operate locked breech, autoloading firearms. In gas-operation, a portion of high-pressure gas from the cartridge being fired is used to power a mechanism to dispose of the spent ...

, sometimes referred to as a gas piston. * Piston, the working name for the

Steam Machine A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder. This pushing force can be tr ...

gaming platform

People and groups

Pist.On Pist.On (also spelled Pist*On, Pist-On, Pist•On, PistOn, and Piston) is an American heavy metal band from Staten Island, New York. The band released two albums in the 1990s. They split up in 2001 but announced a reunion in 2015. History ...

, an American heavy metal band *

Detroit Pistons The Detroit Pistons are an American professional basketball team based in Detroit. The Pistons compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division and play their home games at Li ...

, an American basketball team * Steinbach Pistons, a Canadian ice hockey team *

Walter Piston Walter Hamor Piston, Jr. (January 20, 1894 – November 12, 1976), was an American composer of classical music, music theorist, and professor of music at Harvard University. Life Piston was born in Rockland, Maine at 15 Ocean Street to Walter Ha ...

, an American composer *

Web Piston Web most often refers to: * Spider web, a silken structure created by the animal * World Wide Web or the Web, an Internet-based hypertext system Web, WEB, or the Web may also refer to: Computing * WEB, a literate programming system created by ...

, a software and web hosting company

Other

Piston (music) The piston ( Breton: pistoñ, English phonetic "pist-on") is a type of oboe invented by Breton musician, teacher, and luthier Youenn Le Bihan in 1983. The pistoñ is a contemporary development of the hautbois, classical and/or baroque oboe, influ ...

, a type of oboe * Piston controls the

combination action Registration is the technique of choosing and combining the stops of a pipe organ in order to produce a particular sound. ''Registration'' can also refer to a particular combination of stops, which may be recalled through combination action. The ...

on a

pipe organ The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air (called ''wind'') through the organ pipes selected from a keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ''ranks ...

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