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Abscissa   Listen
noun
Abscissa  n.  (pl. E. abscissas, L. abscissae)  (Geom.) One of the elements of reference by which a point, as of a curve, is referred to a system of fixed rectilineal coördinate axes. Note: When referred to two intersecting axes, one of them called the axis of abscissas, or of X, and the other the axis of ordinates, or of Y, the abscissa of the point is the distance cut off from the axis of X by a line drawn through it and parallel to the axis of Y. When a point in space is referred to three axes having a common intersection, the abscissa may be the distance measured parallel to either of them, from the point to the plane of the other two axes. Abscissas and ordinates taken together are called coördinates. OX or PY is the abscissa of the point P of the curve, OY or PX its ordinate, the intersecting lines OX and OY being the axes of abscissas and ordinates respectively, and the point O their origin.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Abscissa" Quotes from Famous Books



... diminished with the increase of temperature. From the [eta] values obtained the Z values were calculated, using water at 15 deg. C. as a standard. From the Z values thus obtained taken as the ordinate, and the temperature of each experiment as the abscissa, curves were plotted out embodying the results, examples of which are given below. The curves yielded by three gums 2, 7, and 8 changed between 90 deg. C and 100 deg. C., while gum sample 4 has ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 821, Sep. 26, 1891 • Various



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