Foil Explained

Foil may refer to:

Materials

Foil (metal), a quite thin sheet of metal, usually manufactured with a rolling mill machine
Metal leaf, a very thin sheet of decorative metal
Aluminium foil, a type of wrapping for food
Tin foil, metal foil made of tin, the direct predecessor to aluminium foil
Transparency (projection), a thin sheet of transparent flexible material, placed on an overhead projector for display to an audience

Foil (fluid mechanics)
- Airfoil, a foil operating in air
- Hydrofoil, a foil operating in water
- Parafoil, a non-rigid airfoil, inflated during use
Foil bearing, a type of fluid bearing

Foil (architecture), decorative device derived from cusps of circles
Foil stamping, a printmaking technique
Foil (fencing), one of the three weapons used in modern fencing
Foil (fiction), a subsidiary character who emphasizes the traits of a main character
- Comedic or comic foil, the straight man in a comedy double act
"Foil" (song), "Weird Al" Yankovic's parody of Lorde's song "Royals"

Hydrofoil, a type of high-powered motorboat that uses underwater foils to lift its hull above the water when moving at high speeds
Bruce foil, a foil used on an outrigger to prevent a boat from heeling
Centreboard, a movable keel that functions as a foil
Foilboard, a surfboard using a hydrofoil

People in a police lineup
First-order inductive learner – a rule-based learning algorithm
The FOIL method, a mnemonic in algebra, to expand the product of two first-degree polynomials ("linear factors")
FOIL (programming language), either of two now-defunct computer programming languages
Forum of Indian Leftists, a political group of Indian intellectuals
Freedom of information legislation or Freedom of Information Law (FOIL)
Ultrasonic foil (papermaking), a type of high-frequency vibrating foil involved in papermaking
Split tally, in ancient financial accounting, the part of a split tally stick given to the recipient in a transaction