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Sextant vs Sectant - What's the difference?

sextant | sectant |

As nouns the difference between sextant and sectant

is that sextant is a navigational device for deriving angular distances between objects so as to determine latitude and longitude while sectant is one of the portions of space bounded by the three coordinate planes.

As a proper noun Sextant

is the constellation Sextans.

sextant

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • (nautical) A navigational device for deriving angular distances between objects so as to determine latitude and longitude.
  • * 1918 , (Edgar Rice Burroughs), Chapter IV
    • For several days things went along in about the same course. I took our position every morning with my crude sextant ; but the results were always most unsatisfactory. They always showed a considerable westing when I knew that we had been sailing due north. I blamed my crude instrument, and kept on.
  • (geometry) One sixth of a circle or disc; a sector with an angle of 60°.

    • See also

    * octant * quadrant * ----

    sectant

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • One of the portions of space bounded by the three coordinate planes.
  • (crystallography) One of the parts of a crystal into which it is divided by the axial planes.
    • (Webster 1913)