SEXAGESIMAL a. 2 definitions
Pertaining to, or founded on, the number sixty. Sexagesimal fractions or numbers (Arith. & Alg.), those fractions whose denominators are some power of sixty; as, astronomical fractions, because formerly there were no others used in astronomical calculations. -- Sexagesimal, or Sexagenary, arithmetic, the method of com…
SIGNIFICANT a.
t event. Significant figures (Arith.), the figures which remain to any number, or decimal fraction, after the ciphers at the right or left are canceled. Thus, the significant figures of 25,000, or of .0025, are 25.
SPECTRUM n. 2 definitions
The several colored and other rays of which light is composed, separated by the refraction of a prism or other means, and observed or studied either as spread out on a screen, by direct vision, by photography, or otherwise. See Illust. of Light, and Spectroscope.
UNDULATORY a.
as in the air waves constituting sound, but transversely, and the various phenomena of refraction, polarization, interference, etc., are attributable to the different affections of these undulations in different circumstances of propagation. It is computed that the frequency of the undulations corresponding to the sev…
UNIT n.
Duodecimal unit, a unit in the scale of numbers increasing or decreasing by twelves. -- Fractional unit, the unit of a fraction; the reciprocal of the denominator; thus, unit of the fraction -- Integral unit, the unit of integral numbers, or 1. -- Physical unit, a value or magnitude conventionally adopted as a unit…