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Spiral vs Spherical - What's the difference?

spiral | spherical |

As a noun spiral

is spiral.

As an adjective spherical is

(label) shaped like a sphere.

spiral

English

(wikipedia spiral)

Noun

(en noun)
  • (geometry) A curve that is the locus of a point that rotates about a fixed point while continuously increasing its distance from that point.
  • (informal) A helix.
  • A self-sustaining process with a lot of momentum involved, so it is difficult to accelerate or stop it at once.
  • Derived terms

    * death spiral * downward spiral * graveyard spiral * spiral staircase * upward spiral

    Adjective

    (-)
  • Helical, like a spiral
  • Verb

  • To move along the path of a spiral or helix.
  • The falling leaves spiralled down from the tree.
  • (figuratively) To increase continually.
  • Her debts were spiralling out of control.

    Anagrams

    * ----

    spherical

    English

    Alternative forms

    * (archaic)

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • (label) Shaped like a sphere.
  • *{{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=September-October, author=(Henry Petroski)
  • , magazine=(American Scientist), title= 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.}}
  • (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
  • Knaves, thieves, and treachers by spherical predominance.

    Synonyms

    * (shaped like a sphere) globular, orbicular, round

    Derived terms

    * spherical aberration * spherical angle * spherical cap * spherical distance * spherical geometry * sphericality * spherical lune * spherical sector * spherical segment * spherical triangle * spherical trigonometry * spherical wedge * sphericity