Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Plural form of abscissa.

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word abscissae.

Examples

  • But if one grants, as Leibniz does, that that there is an infinitesimal straight stretch of the curve (a side, that is, of an infinilateral polygon coinciding with the curve) between abscissae 0 and e, say, which does not reduce to a single point then e cannot be equated to 0 and yet the above argument shows that e2 = 0.

    Continuity and Infinitesimals Bell, John L. 2009

  • Now Leibniz could retort that that this argument depends crucially on the assumption that the portion of the curve between abscissae 0 and dx is indeed straight.

    Continuity and Infinitesimals Bell, John L. 2009

  • It is a paper you cannot make head nor tail of, and at the end come five or six long folded diagrams that open out and show peculiar zigzag tracings, flashes of lightning overdone, or sinuous inexplicable things called “smoothed curves” set up on ordinates and rooting in abscissae — and things like that.

    The Food of the Gods and how it came to Earth Herbert George 2004

  • If from the diagram, Fig. 1, we plot a curve the abscissae of which represent exciting current, and the ordinates magnetic moment of the soft iron core, we find that a considerable portion of the curve is almost a straight and only slightly inclined line.

    Scientific American Supplement, No. 433, April 19, 1884 Various

  • Deviations being proportionate to abscissae, and measured solar energies to ordinates, we have here (1) the distribution of energy in the prismatic, and (2) its distribution in the normal spectrum.

    Scientific American Supplement, No. 363, December 16, 1882 Various

  • The abscissae represent intervals of time, the ordinates the measured lengths of the growing filament.

    Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 2 "Baconthorpe" to "Bankruptcy" Various

  • The abscissae, or horizontal distances, are temperatures in degrees Fahrenheit from 30 degrees below zero, at the left, to 220 degrees above, at the right.

    Seasoning of Wood

  • Fig. 4 shows two curves; the one drawn in a full line is obtained by plotting the deflection in degrees of the needle of a potential indicator as abscissae, and the corresponding electromotive forces measured simultaneously on a standard instrument as ordinates; the dotted line shows what this curve would be with an ordinary tangent galvanometer.

    Scientific American Supplement, No. 433, April 19, 1884 Various

  • The speeds are plotted as abscissae, and the electrical work absorbed in watts divided by 746 as ordinates; then with a series-wound motor we obtain the curve, EE.

    Scientific American Supplement, No. 430, March 29, 1884 Various

  • To find these speeds we load the brake to different weights, and plot the resulting speeds and horse powers as abscissae and ordinates producing the curve, BB.

    Scientific American Supplement, No. 430, March 29, 1884 Various

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.