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Zenith vs Vertex - What's the difference?

zenith | vertex |

As nouns the difference between zenith and vertex

is that zenith is the point in the sky vertically above a given position or observer; the point in the celestial sphere opposite the nadir while vertex is the highest point of something.

zenith

English

(wikipedia zenith)

Noun

(en noun)
  • (astronomy) The point in the sky vertically above a given position or observer; the point in the celestial sphere opposite the nadir.
  • * 1638 Herbert, Sir Thomas Some years travels into divers parts of Asia and Afrique
  • The 12 day wee had the wind high and large ?o that in two dayes ?aile we made the Sunne our Zenith or verticall point...
  • * 1671–1693 : Rev. Thomas Jolly, private notebook ; printed in:
  • * 1895 , Henry Fishwick (editor), The Note Book of the Rev. Thomas Jolly: A.D. 1671–1693. Extracts from the Church Books of Altham and Wymondhouses, 1649–1725. And an Account of the Jolly Family of Standish, Gorton, and Altham , page 44
  • In this 10th m. appeared that prodigious Comett the tayl whereof was like the blade of a double edged sword, and reached almost from the horizon to the zenith .
  • (astronomy) The highest point in the sky reached by a celestial body.
  • * 1719-
  • ...in the middle of the day, when the sun was in the zenith , the violence of the heat was too great to stir out...
  • * 1920 , , The Understanding Heart , Chapter II:
  • As far to the west as Monica could see, her world was a sea of fog, , the fog gradually took on a bluish tinge.
  • Highest point or state; peak.
  • * Shakespeare
  • I find my zenith doth depend upon / A most auspicious star.
  • * Macaulay
  • It was during those civil troubles this aspiring family reached the zenith .
  • * {{quote-book
  • , page=173 , year=1900 , author=William Beckford , title=The History of the Caliph Vathek citation , passage="There for a while I enjoyed myself in the zenith of glory and pleasure."}}

    Derived terms

    * zenithal * zenithally

    Synonyms

    * (highest point or state) acme, apogee, culmination, pinnacle * See also

    Antonyms

    * nadir * perigee

    vertex

    English

    (wikipedia vertex)

    Noun

    (en-noun)
  • The highest point of something.
  • (anatomy) The highest surface on the skull.
  • (geometry) The common point of the two rays of the angle, or its equivalent structure in polyhedra (meeting of edges) and higher order polytopes.
  • (mathematics) A point on the curve with a local minimum or maximum of curvature.
  • (graph theory) One of the elements of a graph joined or not by edges to other vertices.
  • (computer graphics) A point in space, usually given in terms of its Cartesian coordinates.
  • (optics) The point where the surface of a lens crosses the optical axis.
  • (nuclear, or, particle physics) An interaction point.
  • (astrology) The point where the prime vertical meets the ecliptic in the western hemisphere of a natal chart.
  • Synonyms

    * (highest point) acme, apex, peak, top * (part of a graph) node

    Derived terms

    * vertexal, vertexial

    See also

    * Mathworld article on vertices of polyhedra * Mathworld article on verticies of polygons ----