transverse axis

noun

, Geometry.

1. the axis of a hyperbola that passes through the two foci.
2. the segment of such an axis included between the vertices of the hyperbola.

Word History and Origins

Origin of transverse axis¹

First recorded in 1695–1705

Example Sentences

The two axes of the ellipse are the major axis and the minor axis, and the two axes of the hyperbola are the transverse axis and the conjugate axis.

From Project Gutenberg

It is of large dimensions, in an attitude of repose, and coiled upon itself in spiral circles so as to leave a hollow space or transverse axis in the middle.

From Project Gutenberg

But there is the disadvantage that the flexure of the transverse axis causes a variable collimation error depending on the zenith distance of the star to which it is directed; and moreover it has been found that in some cases the personal error of an observer is not the same in the two positions of the telescope.

From Project Gutenberg

I aim to make this lever not only tilt the flyer to which it is attached on a transverse axis, but also on a longitudinal axis.

From Project Gutenberg

An elliptical basin, seven miles in its transverse axis, half filled with smooth water of the deepest caerulean blue, and half with a solid sheet of glittering snow-white salt, the offspring of evaporation—girded on three sides by huge hot-looking mountains, which dip their bases into the very bowl, and on the fourth by crude half-formed rocks of lava, broken and divided by the most unintelligible chasms,—it presented the appearance of a spoiled, or at least of a very unfinished piece of work.

From Project Gutenberg