a. [f. prec. + -IC.] Of or pertaining to the throwing of missiles; projectile.
1775. in Ash.
1854. Blackw. Mag., LXXV. 530. The term … mangonel was generally applicable to balistic engines.
1879. Cassell’s Techn. Educ., I. 194. Increasing the ballistic power of our weapons.
b. Ballistic pendulum: an instrument for determining the relative velocity of projectiles.
1778. Hutton, in Phil. Trans., LXVIII. 54. This large ballistic pendulum, after being struck by the ball.
1879. Thomson & Tait, Nat. Phil., I. I. § 298. Robins’ Ballistic Pendulum, a massive cylindrical block of wood cased in a cylindrical sheath of iron closed at one end and moveable about a horizontal axis.
