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Sextant vs Sextans - What's the difference?

sextant | sextans |

As nouns the difference between sextant and sextans

is that sextant is (nautical) a navigational device for deriving angular distances between objects so as to determine latitude and longitude while sextans is (historical|roman antiquity) a roman coin worth one sixth of an as.

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 * ----

    sextans

    English

    (Sextans)

    Proper noun

    (en proper noun)
  • (constellation) A dim spring constellation of the northern sky, said to resemble a sextant. It lies south of the constellation of Leo.

    • Derived terms

    * Sextantis