ellipsoid

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a surface whose plane sections are all ellipses or circles

   The Earth is an ellipsoid.

2. 2
   noun

   A surface, all of whose cross sections are elliptic or circular (including the sphere), that generalises the ellipse and in Cartesian coordinates (x, y, z) is a quadric with equation x²/a² + y²/b² + z²/c² = 1.

   Polarizability can be imagined as a three-dimensional ellipsoid centred on the centre of the molecule, as shown in Figure 10.4.

3. 3
   noun

   Such a surface used as a model of the shape of the earth.

   Here the geoid is thirty meters below the ellipsoid.

4. 4
   adj

   having the nature or shape of an ellipsoid

From ellipse + -oid.

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