radius vector

American  

noun

• radii vectores,
  plural
• radius vectors
  plural

1. Mathematics. the length of the line segment joining a fixed point or origin to a given point.

2. Astronomy.

   1. the straight line joining two bodies in relative orbital motion, as the line from the sun to a planet at any point in its orbit.

   2. the distance between two such bodies at any point in the orbit.

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radius vector British  

noun

1. maths a line joining a point in space to the origin of polar or spherical coordinates

2. astronomy an imaginary line joining a satellite to the planet or star around which it is orbiting

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radius vector Scientific  

1. A line segment that joins the origin and a variable point in a system of polar or spherical coordinates.

2. The imaginary straight line that connects the center of the Sun or another body with the center of a planet, comet, or other body that orbits it.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• radii vectores
  plural
• radius vectors
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of radius vector

First recorded in 1745–55

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

radius vector

Note that the torque vector is orthogonal to both the force vector and the radius vector.

From Textbooks ● Mar. 30, 2016

One of them says: 'The area swept out in a given time by the radius vector of the path of a planet is proportional to the time taken.'

From The Life of the fly; with which are interspersed some chapters of autobiography by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos

It is always subject to the law of inverse squares, and what is more, its repelling power coincides exactly with the path which the centripetal force takes, that is, the radius vector.

From Aether and Gravitation by William George Hooper

The anomaly is then the angle BFP which the radius vector makes with the major axis.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 2, Slice 2 "Anjar" to "Apollo" by Various

I therefore considered that the trial, whether the error of radius vector would be explained by the same theory which explained the error of longitude, would be truly an experimentum crucis.

From Astronomical Discovery by Herbert Hall Turner

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