sector

1. Geometry either portion of a circle included between two radii and an arc. Area: ½r²θ, where r is the radius and θ is the central angle subtended by the arc (in radians)

2. a measuring instrument consisting of two graduated arms hinged at one end

3. Computing the smallest addressable portion of the track on a magnetic tape, disk, or drum store

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

sector

[′sek·tər]

(computer science)

A portion of a track on a magnetic disk or a band on a magnetic drum.

A unit of data stored in such a portion.

(civil engineering)

A clearly defined area or airspace designated for a particular purpose.

(electromagnetism)

Coverage of a radar as measured in azimuth.

(mathematics)

A portion of a circle bounded by two radii and an arc joining their end points.

(meteorology)

Something resembling the sector of a circle, as a warm sector between the warm and cold fronts of a cyclone.

sector

The smallest unit of data that is written to and read from a storage drive. The initial hard disk sector sizes were 128 and 256 bytes long but were later increased to 512. Eventually, sectors were enlarged to the "Advanced Format" size of 4,096 bytes. See cluster, sector interleave and magnetic disk.

Copyright © 1981-2025 by The Computer Language Company Inc. All Rights reserved. THIS DEFINITION IS FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY. All other reproduction is strictly prohibited without permission from the publisher.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Sector

(1) A sector in the plane is a region bounded by two rays issuing from an interior point of a figure and by an arc of its boundary cut off by these rays. In particular, a sector of a circle is bounded by two radii and an arc cut off by the radii. The area of a sector of a circle is equal to lr/2 or πr²α /360, where l is the length of the arc, α is the central angle (in degrees) subtended by the arc, and r is the radius of the circle.

(2) A sector in space is the part of a solid bounded by a conical surface whose vertex is in the solid and by the part of the solid’s surface cut off by the conical surface. A spherical sector is an example of a sector in space.

Mentioned in

References in periodicals archive

CIOs and line of business leaders need to come together at the intersection of development and operations to work successfully together and lead digital transformation within their organisations.

The business of business: just who is supposed to lead digital transformation?

(4.) If a line of business is ineligible in a determination year, it remains ineligible until a subsequent determination year (so, if a line of business is ineligible in 2012, it must wait until 2017 to redetermine eligibility).

Time to make a sec. 846(e) election to use company historical payment patterns

This approach allows real-time metric analysis of the system's ROI specific to a major business unit or line of business. Such analysis allows the strategic team to place value on the project and appropriate funds for additional conversions.

The value of speed-to-value: how well health plans in flux can optimize operational efficiency often hinges on the IS and change strategies they employ

Often, says CPA and tax attorney Mike Farra at Miami-based CPA firm Morrison, Brown, Argiz & Co., it will be the launch of a new venture that has different risk characteristics than the company's existing line of business or the opening of operations in a new state or foreign country.

Is a subsidiary in your future? Companies can benefit from important tax advantages and liability protections

We interviewed personnel of the participants to determine how to segregate the revenues and expenses by line of business. The site visits culminated in a reconciliation of the financial information, an in-depth review of the data-gathering process and discussion about the participant results.

Managing profits in commercial/multifamily mortgage banking

Presentation on the old basis is not mandatory, however, if the information omitted is no longer available to the company or, in the case of a peer index, an excluded entity no longer is in the same industry or line of business.

Charting performance: the SEC's new disclosure rules

The IRS released final regulations concerning separate lines of businesses, making it easier to qualify for separate line of business treatment.

Employee benefit plans update

IRC Section 846(a) required that discounted unpaid losses be computed separately for each accident year of each "line of business," which was defined as a category for reporting loss payment patterns on the National Association of Insurance Commissioners' blank for property/casualty companies.

Arbitration provision considered by New York court

Also, the company said that its line of business leaders will continue to exercise wider charge for the success of their respective lines of business and report directly to Rand and through him to chairman and chief executive officer Stan Starnes.

ProAssurance names Edward L. Rand as president