parallax
/ˈparəlaks
/noun [mass noun]
1The effect whereby the position or direction of an object appears to differ when viewed from different positions, e.g. through the viewfinder and the lens of a camera: [as modifier]: what you see in the viewfinder won’t be quite what you get in the photograph because of parallax error...
- An improved configuration uses a splitter mirror to eliminate the effects of parallax but not the differences in lenses.
- Each element was then centered in the lens to decrease distortion from lens curvature or parallax.
- Other achievements of Aepinus include improvements to the microscope, and his demonstration of the effects of parallax in the transit of a planet across the Sun's disk.
1.1 [count noun] The angular amount of parallax in a particular case, especially that of a star viewed from different points in the earth’s orbit: he succeeded in measuring the parallax of the star 61 Cygni...
- He also gives the tables of the longitudinal and latitudinal parallaxes for certain geographical latitudes, tables of eclipses, and tables of the visibility of the moon.
- Read Eco's novel, which is full of Paris meridians, lunar parallaxes, the moons of Jupiter, and the Powder of Sympathy.
- The work on double stars had been undertaken as a continuation of his father's work which attempted to measure the parallax of a star.
Derivatives
parallactic
/ adjective ...- He wrote Scipta giving details of his instruments and these, including dials, quadrants, safea, astrolabes, armillary astrolabe, torquetum, parallactic ruler, and Jacob's staff are described in.
- However, we have strong evidence that this is not a biological reality, but instead can be attributed to a known parallactic measurement bias when using some binocular microscopes.
Origin
Late 16th century (also in the general sense 'fact of seeing wrongly'): from French parallaxe, from Greek parallaxis 'a change', from parallassein 'to alternate', based on allassein 'to exchange' (from allos 'other').