EQUATOR • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Equator

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/ɪkwˈeɪtər/ Listen

noun

Equator n.

(Geog.) The imaginary great circle on the earth's surface, everywhere equally distant from the two poles, and dividing the earth's surface into two hemispheres.

(Astron.) The great circle of the celestial sphere, coincident with the plane of the earth's equator; so called because when the sun is in it, the days and nights are of equal length; hence called also the equinoctial, and on maps, globes, etc., the equinoctial line.

Equator of the sun or Equator of a planet (Astron.), the great circle whose plane passes through through the center of the body, and is perpendicular to its axis of revolution.

Magnetic equator. See Aclinic.

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Etymology of 'Equator'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Equator" Quotes from Famous Books

... of these consists in a daily change of its direction. It moves one way from morning until noon, and then, late in the afternoon and during the night, turns back again to its original pointing. The laws of this change have been carefully studied from observations, which show that it is least at the equator and larger as we go north into middle latitudes; but no explanation of it resting on an indisputable basis ...

— Side-lights on Astronomy and Kindred Fields of Popular Science • Simon Newcomb

... remarkable cruises made during the war of 1812-15 was by Commander Porter in the frigate Essex. She sailed from the Delaware in October, 1812; went toward the equator to join the Constitution and Hornet, under Bainbridge; missed them; swept around Cape Horn into the Pacific Ocean, and went into the harbor of Valparaiso, on the western coast of South America. Then she cruised northward ...

— Harper's Young People, August 24, 1880 - An Illustrated Weekly • Various

... latitude 40, north, the Azores; in 33, the Madeiras; between 29 and 27, the Canaries; and between 18 and 16, the Islands of Cape Verd, successively offer themselves to the voyager, affording abundantly every species of accommodation his circumstances can require. On the Southern side of the Equator, a good harbour and abundance of turtles give some consequence even to the little barren island of Ascension; and St. Helena, by the industry of the English settlers, has become the seat of plenty and of elegance. ...

— The Voyage Of Governor Phillip To Botany Bay • Arthur Phillip

... been tuning up, eased into a quiet song as he spoke. We listened as the question hung in the air, and I decided that the funny feeling under my belt was homesickness, all the stranger because I owned three homes not too far from the Martian equator. ...

— Fee of the Frontier • Horace Brown Fyfe

... slipped along through the calm seas, and it was actually an effort to kill time on the part of the passengers. As they progressed further south the weather became more and more warm, until, as they approached the equator, every one put on the ...

— Tom Swift in Captivity • Victor Appleton

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