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Swirl vs Rotation - What's the difference?

swirl | rotation |

As nouns the difference between swirl and rotation

is that swirl is a whirling eddy while rotation is the act of turning around a centre or an axis.

As a verb swirl

is to twist or whirl, as an eddy.

swirl

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A whirling eddy.
  • A twist or coil of something.
  • Derived terms

    * (l)

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (ambitransitive) To twist or whirl, as an eddy.
  • I swirled my brush around in the paint.
  • * Charles Kingsley
  • The river swirled along.
  • * {{quote-news
  • , year=2012 , date=May 13 , author=Alistair Magowan , title=Sunderland 0-1 Man Utd , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=The contest was a lot more even in the second half, as the wind swirled around the Stadium of Light, but it took Craig Gardner's superb block to prevent Young getting on the scoresheet.}}
  • To be arranged in a twist, spiral or whorl.
  • (figuratively) to circulate
  • * 2013 May 23, , " British Leader’s Liberal Turn Sets Off a Rebellion in His Party," New York Times (retrieved 29 May 2013):
  • Mr. Cameron had a respite Thursday from the negative chatter swirling around him when he appeared outside 10 Downing Street to denounce the murder a day before of a British soldier on a London street.

    rotation

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (chiefly, uncountable) The act of turning around a centre or an axis.
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2013-03
  • , author=Frank Fish, George Lauder , title=Not Just Going with the Flow , volume=101, issue=2, page=114 , magazine= citation , passage=An extreme version of vorticity is a vortex . The vortex is a spinning, cyclonic mass of fluid, which can be observed in the rotation of water going down a drain, as well as in smoke rings, tornados and hurricanes.}}
    The earth's rotation about its axis is responsible for its being slightly oblate rather than a sphere.
  • A single complete cycle around a centre or an axis.
  • Earth's moon completes a rotation every twenty-seven days or so.
  • A regular variation in a sequence.
  • crop rotation
    The medical resident finished a two-week rotation in pediatrics and began one in orthopaedics.
  • (mathematics) An operation that a continuous isometry deformation that fixes at least one point can result in.
  • The function mapping (''x'',''y'') to (''&
  • x2212;y'',''x'') is a rotation .
  • (baseball) The set of (soplink) of a team.
  • (aviation) The step during takeoff when the pilot commands the vehicle to lift the nose wheel off the ground during the takeoff roll.