vertices

1 definition found

vertices - Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :

  Vertex \Ver"tex\, n.; pl. E. Vertexes, L. Vertices. [L.
     vertex, -icis, a whirl, top of the head, top, summit, from
     vertere to turn. See Verse, and cf. Vortex.]
     A turning point; the principal or highest point; top; summit;
     crown; apex. Specifically: 
     [1913 Webster]
     (a) (Anat.) The top, or crown, of the head.
         [1913 Webster]
     (b) (Astron.) The zenith, or the point of the heavens
         directly overhead.
         [1913 Webster]
     (c) (Math.) The point in any figure opposite to, and farthest
         from, the base; the terminating point of some particular
         line or lines in a figure or a curve; the top, or the
         point opposite the base.
         [1913 Webster]
  
     Note: The principal vertex of a conic section is, in the
           parabola, the vertex of the axis of the curve: in the
           ellipse, either extremity of either axis, but usually
           the left-hand vertex of the transverse axis; in the
           hyperbola, either vertex, but usually the right-hand
           vertex of the transverse axis.
           [1913 Webster]
  
     Vertex of a curve (Math.), the point in which the axis of
        the curve intersects it.
  
     Vertex of an angle (Math.), the point in which the sides of
        the angle meet.
  
     Vertex of a solid, or Vertex of a surface of revolution
        (Math.), the point in which the axis pierces the surface.
        [1913 Webster]