spheroid
/ˈsfɪərɔɪd
/noun
1A sphere-like but not perfectly spherical body.A remarkable feature of oligoamine-condensed DNA is the ability to assume condition-defined morphologies such as spheroids, toroids, and rods....
- Elliptical galaxies are three-dimensional objects that range from spheres to elongated spheroids like footballs.
- A chemical engineer phoned to tell me that he had spotted a spheroid or fat football with rounded ends flying over on the evening of August 28, 2002.
1.1A solid generated by a half-revolution of an ellipse about its major axis (prolate spheroid) or minor axis (oblate spheroid).To a good approximation, the geoid is an oblate spheroid whose major axis is about 0.3 per cent longer than the minor one....
- However, we are aware of no studies that have considered the motion of an ellipsoid or oblate spheroid near a plane wall under linear shear flow.
- The change in colour from cream-coloured to amber, and the change in shape from a prolate spheroid to an indented, prismatic solid, is typical for corn pollen during drying.
Derivatives
spheroidal
- Similar results are obtained for more general spheroidal shapes such as ellipsoid.
- The adult ovary may present marked deviations from its typical form, sometimes being unusually long, spheroidal, flattened, triangular, crescentric, or otherwise irregular.
- All sound elements were cleaned and finished with modern paints; broken elements were replaced in cast spheroidal graphite iron to exactly the same sections as the originals.
spheroidicity
- This makes it possible to easily adjust the grain size and to produce ground materials having a spheroidicity which is best suited for use as a bulking agent for paper.
- For vertebrate lenses, measures of anterior and posterior spheroidicity are required because these lenses are asymmetrical, oblate spheroids.