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precessionmore about precession

precession


  2  definitions  found 
 
  From  Webster's  Revised  Unabridged  Dictionary  (1913)  [web1913]: 
 
  Precession  \Pre*ces"sion\,  n.  [L.  praecedere  praecessum  to  go 
  before:  cf  F.  pr['e]cession.  See  {Precede}.] 
  The  act  of  going  before  or  forward. 
 
  {Lunisolar  precession}.  (Astron.)  See  under  {Lunisolar}. 
 
  {Planetary  precession},  that  part  of  the  precession  of  the 
  equinoxes  which  depends  on  the  action  of  the  planets 
  alone. 
 
  {Precession  of  the  equinoxes}  (Astron.),  the  slow  backward 
  motion  of  the  equinoctial  points  along  the  ecliptic,  at 
  the  rate  of  50.2[sec]  annually,  caused  by  the  action  of 
  the  sun,  moon,  and  planets,  upon  the  protuberant  matter 
  about  the  earth's  equator,  in  connection  with  its  diurnal 
  rotation;  --  so  called  because  either  equinox,  owing  to 
  its  westerly  motion,  comes  to  the  meridian  sooner  each  day 
  than  the  point  it  would  have  occupied  without  the  motion 
  of  precession,  and  thus  precedes  that  point  continually 
  with  reference  to  the  time  of  transit  and  motion. 
 
  From  WordNet  r  1.6  [wn]: 
 
  precession 
  n  1:  the  motion  of  a  spinning  body  (as  a  top)  in  which  it  wobbles 
  so  that  the  axis  of  rotation  sweeps  out  a  cone 
  2:  the  act  of  preceding  [syn:  {precedence}] 




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