Spherical vs Spheroid - What's the difference?
spherical | spheroid |
(label) Shaped like a sphere.
*{{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=September-October, author=(Henry Petroski)
, magazine=(American Scientist), title= (label) (no comparative or superlative ) Of, or pertaining to, spheres.
(label) Of a coordinate system, specifying the location of a point in a plane by using a radius and two angles.
(label) Of or relating to the heavenly orbs, or to the sphere or spheres in which, according to ancient astronomy and astrology, they were set.
*1606 : (William Shakespeare), (King Lear) , Act 1, Scene 2
A solid of revolution generated by rotating an ellipse about its major (prolate), or minor (oblate) axis.
As adjectives the difference between spherical and spheroid
is that spherical is shaped like a sphere while spheroid is of a shape similar to a squashed sphere.As a noun spheroid is
a solid of revolution generated by rotating an ellipse about its major (prolate), or minor (oblate) axis.spherical
English
Alternative forms
* (archaic)Adjective
(en adjective)The Evolution of Eyeglasses, passage=The ability of a segment of a glass sphere to magnify whatever is placed before it was known around the year 1000, when the spherical segment was called a reading stone, essentially what today we might term a frameless magnifying glass or plain glass paperweight.}}
- Knaves, thieves, and treachers by spherical predominance.
Synonyms
* (shaped like a sphere) globular, orbicular, roundDerived terms
* spherical aberration * spherical angle * spherical cap * spherical distance * spherical geometry * sphericality * spherical lune * spherical sector * spherical segment * spherical triangle * spherical trigonometry * spherical wedge * sphericityExternal links
* * *spheroid
English
(wikipedia spheroid)Alternative forms
* (archaic)Noun
(en noun)- UFOs are reported as being either oblate (saucer-shaped) or prolate (cigar-shaped) spheroids .