CARTESIAN a.
aving an elastic top, to illustrate the effect of the compression or expansion of air in changing the specific gravity of bodies. -- Cartesion oval (Geom.), a curve such that, for any point of the curve mr + m'r' = c, where r and r' are the distances of the point from the two foci and m, m' and c are constant; -- used…
CASE n.
One of the forms, or the inflections or changes of form, of a noun, pronoun, or adjective, which indicate its relation to other words, and in the aggregate constitute its declension; the relation which a noun or pronoun sustains to some other word. Case is properly a falling off from the nominative or first state of wo…
CAUSE n.
me is from zeal to the cause. Burke. Efficient cause, the agent or force that produces a change or redult. -- Final cause, the end, design, or object, for which anything is done. -- Formal cause, the elements of a conception which make the conception or the thing conceived to be what it is; or the idea viewed as a fo…
CENTRIPETAL a.
Progressing by changes from the exterior of a thing toward its center; as, the centripetal calcification of a bone. R. Owen. Centripetal force (Mech.), a force whose direction is towards a center, as in case of a planet revolving round the sun, the center of the system, See Centrifugal force, under Centrifugal. -- Cen…