quadrant
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quadrant,
in technology, angle-measuring device based on a scale of 90°. It is sometimes confused with the sextantsextant,instrument for measuring the altitude of the sun or another celestial body; such measurements can then be used to determine the observer's geographical position or for other navigational, surveying, or astronomical applications.
..... Click the link for more information. , a similar instrument based on a scale of 60°. The quadrant is rarely used today.
quadrant.
1 In analytic geometry, one of the four regions of the plane determined by two lines, the x-axis and the y-axis. Commonly these lines are drawn perpendicular to each other, and the quadrants, or regions, they determine are numbered counterclockwise, beginning with the upper right quadrant. 2 In geometry, a region of a plane determined by two perpendicular radii of a circle and the circle itself. Thus two perpendicular diameters of a circle divide it into four regions, or quadrants.quadrant
(kwod -rănt) An instrument dating back to antiquity and used for measuring altitudes and angular separations of stars. It remained the most important astronomical instrument until the telescope was invented. It consisted of a 90° graduated arc (a quarter circle) with a swiveling arm to which a sighting mechanism was attached. In the mural quadrant the graduated arc, often very large, was attached to a wall and was orientated along the observer's meridian. The mural quadrant was therefore the forerunner of the transit circle.Quadrant
Quadrant
(religion, spiritualism, and occult)The quadrants of a horoscope refer to four sets of three houses: Houses one, two, and three (first quadrant), houses four, five, and six (second quadrant), houses seven, eight, and nine (third quadrant), and houses ten, eleven, and twelve (fourth quadrant).
A quadrant is also an instrument used to calculate the position of celestial bodies. In Europe, quadrants superseded the use of astrolabes during the Renaissance.
Quadrant
in astronomy, an astronomical angle-measuring instrument that was used to measure the altitudes of celestial bodies above the horizon and the angular separations between bodies. A quadrant consisted of a quarter-circle, whose arc was divided into degrees and fractions of a degree, usually mounted in a vertical plane. A straightedge with diopters or a viewing tube usually rotated around the axis passing through the center of the circle and situated perpendicularly to its plane. Large mural quadrants were used in the past at astronomical observatories; these were fixed to stone walls of the building. Quadrants cease to be used at the end of the 17th century.
quadrant
[′kwä·drənt]quadrant
quadrant



ii. The housing in an aircraft cockpit on which the engine control lever (throttle) is mounted. The top of the quadrant is shaped like a quartercircle and, hence, the name.
iii. An instrument similar to a sextant but constructed with its arc graduated in degrees for a fourth of a circle. Often called a sextant.
iv. The fourth part of something, as a quadrant in a radio-range. See quadrant (v).
v. One of the four areas between consecutive equisignal zones of a four-course radio-range station.