sphere : Idioms & Phrases


Armillary sphere

  • noun a celestial globe consisting of metal hoops; used by early astronomers to determine the positions of stars
    armilla.
WordNet
  • an ancient astronomical machine composed of an assemblage of rings, all circles of the same sphere, designed to represent the positions of the important circles of the celestial sphere.
Webster 1913

Armillary sphere, Crystalline sphere, Oblique sphere

  • . See under Armillary, Crystalline,.
Webster 1913

Axis of the equator, ecliptic, horizon (or other circle considered with reference to the sphere on which it lies)

  • the diameter of the sphere which is perpendicular to the plane of the circle. Hutton.
Webster 1913

celestial sphere

  • noun the apparent surface of the imaginary sphere on which celestial bodies appear to be projected
    firmament; vault of heaven; welkin; empyrean; sphere; heavens.
WordNet

Circle of the sphere

  • a circle upon the surface of the sphere, called a great circle when its plane passes through the center of the sphere; in all other cases, a small circle.
Webster 1913

Crystalline heavens, ∨ Crystalline spheres

  • in the Ptolemaic system of astronomy, two transparent spheres imagined to exist between the region of the fixed stars and the primum mobile (or outer circle of the heavens, which by its motion was supposed to carry round all those within it), in order to explain certain movements of the heavently bodies.
Webster 1913

Doctrine of the sphere

  • applications of the principles of spherical trigonometry to the properties and relations of the circles of the sphere, and the problems connected with them, in astronomy and geography, as to the latitudes and longitudes, distance and bearing, of places on the earth, and the right ascension and declination, altitude and azimuth, rising and setting, etc., of the heavenly bodies; spherical geometry.
Webster 1913

Great circle of a sphere

  • a circle the plane of which passes through the center of the sphere.
Webster 1913

Harmony of the spheres

  • . See Music of the spheres, under Music.
Webster 1913

Music of the spheres

  • noun an inaudible music that Pythagoras thought was produced by the celestial
WordNet
  • the harmony supposed to be produced by the accordant movement of the celestial spheres.
Webster 1913

Oblique sphere

  • (Astron. & Geog.), the celestial or terrestrial sphere when its axis is oblique to the horizon of the place; or as it appears to an observer at any point on the earth except the poles and the equator.
Webster 1913

Osculatory sphere

  • (to a line of double curvature), a sphere passing through four consecutive points of the curve.
Webster 1913

Parallel circles of a sphere

  • those circles of the sphere whose planes are parallel to each other.
Webster 1913

Parallel sphere

  • (Astron. & Geog.), that position of the sphere in which the circles of daily motion are parallel to the horizon, as to an observer at either pole.
Webster 1913

political sphere

  • noun a sphere of intense political activity
    political arena.
WordNet

Right sphere

  • (Astron. & Geol.), a sphere in such a position that the equator cuts the horizon at right angles; in spherical projections, that position of the sphere in which the primitive plane coincides with the plane of the equator.
Webster 1913

Sector of a sphere, ∨ Spherical sector

  • the solid generated by the revolution of the sector of a circle about one of its radii, or, more rarely, about any straight line drawn in the plane of the sector through its vertex.
Webster 1913

Segment of a sphere

  • the part of a sphere cut off by a plane, or included between two parallel planes.
Webster 1913

Segmentation sphere

  • (Biol.), the blastosphere, or morula. See Morula.
Webster 1913

sphere of influence

  • noun the geographical area in which one nation is very influential
    sphere.
WordNet

thelonious sphere monk

  • noun United States jazz pianist who was one of the founders of the bebop style (1917-1982)
    Monk; Thelonious Monk.
WordNet