Definition of a meteorite.

The Greek word bolis came from the Latin, as bolis, which soon came to the French, as bolide . In our language, it has become a race car, a concept that hints at a body that achieves tremendous speed .
For example: “A fireball crashed into the wall of a house and destroyed it”, “An Italian driver won a traditional race with a car of German origin” , “Local residents were surprised to see a large fireball in the sky”.
According to the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE), a race car can be a car capable of moving at high speed . In this case, the term is usually used in relation to vehicles participating in competitions : “A German driver expressed his dissatisfaction with the car he should drive, as he believes that it is uncompetitive”, “All cars participating in this category have engines of national origin”, ” A young Mexican has invested a million dollars in the preparation of his car “.
In the field of astronomy , on the other hand, a carbide is called a body formed from cosmic matter, which, due to its size, can be seen with the naked eye and passes through the atmosphere at high speed . As a rule, fireballs are observed in the form of balloons or balls, which eventually explode and fragment.
Fireballs are flashing meteors that leave a glowing trail as they move across the sky. When they explode, they create a strong rumble and eventually hit the surface, which is divided into several parts, although many of them can disintegrate in the air.
It is important to point out the differences that exist between meteor, meteor, meteoroid, and meteor ; although these terms are used indiscriminately in everyday speech, reality shows us that these concepts have definitions that clearly separate them. A meteor is a particle that enters the atmosphere and disintegrates before hitting the earth; along its route, you can see the glowing trail that we usually associate with the concept of a shooting star .
The bolide, on the other hand, is a meteor, as well mentioned above, but it has a feature having a magnitude of less than -4, the same as Venus; its size is larger and produces very distinctive sounds and noises. Then we have meteorites, small particles (their diameter can be from 100 micrometers to 50 meters), usually the remnants of asteroids or comets that remain in orbit around the Sun.
Finally, meteorites are those meteoroids that do not completely disintegrate in the atmosphere after they hit our planet.
In Argentina, there is an expression “walking like a ball without a handle”, which can be interpreted as a movement without direction, without a clear goal, characteristic of a person who is lost in life because he is going through a difficult situation, among other possibilities. Very often we find an incorrect version of this expression, which represents the term bolide instead of ball ; given that the former refers to the boleador, a typical aboriginal weapon that is launched against prey, there is no connection between the two.
Another common mistake is to write a race car with a V , which can’t be justified in any way, given that the word vólido is not part of our language. Curiously, yes, there is a VOLIDO, without the tilde in O, which in the dictionary of the Spanish Royal Academy refers to flight .
Fortunately for the word car, it is part of some other expression. For example, you can say “go like a car” to describe the actions of someone who is moving at high speed , in a hurry. It is likely that the confusion between the car and the ball arose from the presence of this expression.