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abscissas

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abscissas


  1  definition  found 
 
  From  Webster's  Revised  Unabridged  Dictionary  (1913)  [web1913]: 
 
  Abscissa  \Ab*scis"sa\,  n.;  E.  pl  {Abscissas},  L.  pl 
  {Absciss[ae]}.  [L.,  fem.  of  abscissus  p.  p.  of  absindere  to 
  cut  of  See  {Abscind}.]  (Geom.) 
  One  of  the  elements  of  reference  by  which  a  point,  as  of  a 
  curve,  is  referred  to  a  system  of  fixed  rectilineal 
  co["o]rdinate  axes. 
 
  Note:  When  referred  to  two  intersecting  axes,  one  of  them 
  called  the  axis  of  abscissas,  or  of  X,  and  the  other 
  the  axis  of  ordinates,  or  of  Y,  the  abscissa  of  the 
  point  is  the  distance  cut  off  from  the  axis  of  X  by  a 
  line  drawn  through  it  and  parallel  to  the  axis  of  Y. 
  When  a  point  in  space  is  referred  to  three  axes  having 
  a  common  intersection,  the  abscissa  may  be  the  distance 
  measured  parallel  to  either  of  them  from  the  point  to 
  the  plane  of  the  other  two  axes.  Abscissas  and 
  ordinates  taken  together  are  called  co["o]rdinates.  -- 
  OX  or  PY  is  the  abscissa  of  the  point  P  of  the  curve, 
  OY  or  PX  its  ordinate,  the  intersecting  lines  OX  and  OY 
  being  the  axes  of  abscissas  and  ordinates  respectively, 
  and  the  point  O  their  origin. 




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