Spherical
adjective
Shaped like a sphere (a perfect round object).
The planet Earth is not perfectly spherical, it's actually an oblate spheroid.
Often appears as...
- spherical object
- spherical shape
adjective
Connected with or relating to a sphere (mathematics).
Spherical geometry is a type of geometry that studies spheres and their properties.
Often appears as...
- spherical coordinates
- spherical surface
Usage tips
Technical
adjective
Belonging or relating to the celestial sphere (Astronomy).
Stars appear to be located on the inner surface of a spherical shell.
Often appears as...
- spherical astronomy
- spherical aberration
Usage tips
Technical
adjective
Shaped like a sphere (a perfect round object).
The planet Earth is not perfectly spherical, it's actually an oblate spheroid.
Often appears as...
- spherical object
- spherical shape
adjective
Connected with or relating to a sphere (mathematics).
Spherical geometry is a type of geometry that studies spheres and their properties.
Often appears as...
- spherical coordinates
- spherical surface
Usage tips
Technical
adjective
Belonging or relating to the celestial sphere (Astronomy).
Stars appear to be located on the inner surface of a spherical shell.
Often appears as...
- spherical astronomy
- spherical aberration
Usage tips
Technical
Definition 1 of 3
Pro Tip 1/3Not Perfectly Round
Though 'spherical' suggests a perfect sphere, objects described as such may not be flawless.
Despite being called a spherical bubble, slight irregularities can still be seen.
Pro Tip 2/3Volume Implication
Describing something as spherical often implies it has volume, not just a circular outline.
A basketball is a spherical object, not a flat circle.
Pro Tip 3/3General Likeness
Spherical can mean generally round without being a mathematically precise sphere.
We often call a round cake a spherical dessert.
Pro Tip 1/3Not Perfectly Round
Though 'spherical' suggests a perfect sphere, objects described as such may not be flawless.
Despite being called a spherical bubble, slight irregularities can still be seen.
Pro Tip 2/3Volume Implication
Describing something as spherical often implies it has volume, not just a circular outline.
A basketball is a spherical object, not a flat circle.
Pro Tip 3/3General Likeness
Spherical can mean generally round without being a mathematically precise sphere.
We often call a round cake a spherical dessert.
Pro Tip 1/3Not Perfectly Round
Though 'spherical' suggests a perfect sphere, objects described as such may not be flawless.
Despite being called a spherical bubble, slight irregularities can still be seen.
Pro Tip 2/3Volume Implication
Describing something as spherical often implies it has volume, not just a circular outline.
A basketball is a spherical object, not a flat circle.
Pro Tip 3/3General Likeness
Spherical can mean generally round without being a mathematically precise sphere.
We often call a round cake a spherical dessert.
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Video examples
How simple ideas lead to...
discovered that the world is spherical is total bull. It's not true at all. In fact, everyone who was educated understood that the world was spherical since Aristotle's time. Aristotle had proved it with a simple observation. He noticed that every time you saw the Earth's shadow on the Moon, it was circular,
Video examples
Graham Hawkes: Fly the...
The rational for the world’s first flight school goes something when the coastguards come up to me and say -- they used to leave us alone when we were diving these goofy little spherical things, but when we started flying around in underwater jet fighters they got a little nervous --
Video examples
Margaret Wertheim: The...
So what is this impossible hyperbolic structure? Before hyperbolic geometry, mathematicians knew about two kinds of Euclidean space, and spherical space. And they have different properties. Mathematicians like to characterize things by being formalist.
Video examples
Solar System 101 PIPE...
a vast, spherical collection of icy debris. It is considered the edge of the solar system since that is where the gravitational and physical influences of the sun end. Our solar system's particular configuration of planets and other celestial objects,
Video examples
Wombats Poo Cubes! PIPE...
go through a circular anus very true okay this is my favorite one the third one okay so the wombats poo a normal spherical shaped faecal deposit but then they turn around and they use their paws to shape it. Nonsense you said they produced 80 a day.
Video examples
Tomás Saraceno: Would...
we presented these spherical sculptures that could transport us all over the world. But how can we fly using the wind to arrive at our destination? Together with MIT, we developed a program that predicts how we can navigate the wind highways.
Video examples
Exploring other...
and wondering what all the fuss is about. In fact, there could be whole other four-dimensional worlds beyond our detection, hidden from us forever by the nature of our perception. Doesn't that blow your little spherical mind?
Video examples
Humanity's Search for...
our human fallibility had slipped into the precision of the instrument, and it turned out that its primary mirror was ground into the wrong spherical shape, warping these long-awaited images of the unfathomed universe.
Video examples
Sophisticated Mountain...
hairs have been dated back over a hundred thousand years adopting a spherical ball of fluff pose helps the hair stay warm by minimizing the surface area of their body exposed to the bitter cold wedging themselves in
Video examples
Photosynth 2: Exploring...
is the result so it's a full full spherical capture now in the meantime we've been working of course on on the next generations of that technology and on what what happens
Video examples
How simple ideas lead to...
discovered that the world is spherical is total bull. It's not true at all. In fact, everyone who was educated understood that the world was spherical since Aristotle's time. Aristotle had proved it with a simple observation. He noticed that every time you saw the Earth's shadow on the Moon, it was circular,
Video examples
Graham Hawkes: Fly the...
The rational for the world’s first flight school goes something when the coastguards come up to me and say -- they used to leave us alone when we were diving these goofy little spherical things, but when we started flying around in underwater jet fighters they got a little nervous --
Video examples
Margaret Wertheim: The...
So what is this impossible hyperbolic structure? Before hyperbolic geometry, mathematicians knew about two kinds of Euclidean space, and spherical space. And they have different properties. Mathematicians like to characterize things by being formalist.
Video examples
Solar System 101 PIPE...
a vast, spherical collection of icy debris. It is considered the edge of the solar system since that is where the gravitational and physical influences of the sun end. Our solar system's particular configuration of planets and other celestial objects,
Video examples
Wombats Poo Cubes! PIPE...
go through a circular anus very true okay this is my favorite one the third one okay so the wombats poo a normal spherical shaped faecal deposit but then they turn around and they use their paws to shape it. Nonsense you said they produced 80 a day.
Video examples
Tomás Saraceno: Would...
we presented these spherical sculptures that could transport us all over the world. But how can we fly using the wind to arrive at our destination? Together with MIT, we developed a program that predicts how we can navigate the wind highways.
Video examples
Exploring other...
and wondering what all the fuss is about. In fact, there could be whole other four-dimensional worlds beyond our detection, hidden from us forever by the nature of our perception. Doesn't that blow your little spherical mind?
Video examples
Humanity's Search for...
our human fallibility had slipped into the precision of the instrument, and it turned out that its primary mirror was ground into the wrong spherical shape, warping these long-awaited images of the unfathomed universe.
Video examples
Sophisticated Mountain...
hairs have been dated back over a hundred thousand years adopting a spherical ball of fluff pose helps the hair stay warm by minimizing the surface area of their body exposed to the bitter cold wedging themselves in
Video examples
Photosynth 2: Exploring...
is the result so it's a full full spherical capture now in the meantime we've been working of course on on the next generations of that technology and on what what happens
Example 1 of 10
Quote examples
Charles Louis Alphonse Laveran
French Scientist
In 1880 at the Military Hospital at Constantine, I discovered, on the edges of the pigmented spherical bodies in the blood of a patient suffering from malaria, filiform elements resembling flagellae which were moving very rapidly, displacing the neighbouring red cells.
Quote examples
William Shockley
American Physicist
I was not allowed to take spherical trigonometry because I'd sprained my ankle. Because I'd sprained my ankle, I had an incomplete in gym, phys ed. And the rule was that if you had an incomplete in anything, you were not allowed to take an overload.
Quote examples
Gabriel Luna
American Actor
While American football is very structured and linear and static - where everyone lines up, and there's a burst, and it happens - soccer is like the cosmos. It's like constellations. It's bodies moving in space. It's a very spherical game.
Quote examples
Floyd Skloot
American Poet
My cerebral cortex, the gray matter that MIT neuroscientist Steven Pinker likens to 'a large sheet of two-dimensional tissue that has been wadded up to fit inside the spherical skull,' is riddled instead of whole.
Quote examples
Terence Tao
Australian Mathematician
Math education has changed over the years. In the 19th century, they taught spherical trigonometry because one of the biggest applications of mathematics was navigating the ocean. This is no longer so relevant.
Quote examples
Andy Serkis
English Actor
If you're in a motion-capture studio, you have spherical, reflective markers, which are picked up by cameras that emit infrared - it reflects it, and then the cameras pick up the data.
Quote examples
Nick Woodman
American Businessman
GoPro's capture devices and Kolor's software will combine to deliver exciting and highly accessible solutions for capturing, creating, and sharing spherical content.
Quote examples
Ricky Gervais
English Writer
Karl Pilkington has the roundest head, I think, in the world. It's not technically a deformity, but I've never seen anything quite that spherical.
Quote examples
Tom Noddy
American Entertainer
Bubbles are round for the same reason that planets are spherical. The universe itself is like bubbles.
Quote examples
Nicolaus Copernicus
Polish Scientist
First of all, we must note that the universe is spherical.
Quote examples
Charles Louis Alphonse Laveran
French Scientist
In 1880 at the Military Hospital at Constantine, I discovered, on the edges of the pigmented spherical bodies in the blood of a patient suffering from malaria, filiform elements resembling flagellae which were moving very rapidly, displacing the neighbouring red cells.
Quote examples
William Shockley
American Physicist
I was not allowed to take spherical trigonometry because I'd sprained my ankle. Because I'd sprained my ankle, I had an incomplete in gym, phys ed. And the rule was that if you had an incomplete in anything, you were not allowed to take an overload.
Quote examples
Gabriel Luna
American Actor
While American football is very structured and linear and static - where everyone lines up, and there's a burst, and it happens - soccer is like the cosmos. It's like constellations. It's bodies moving in space. It's a very spherical game.
Quote examples
Floyd Skloot
American Poet
My cerebral cortex, the gray matter that MIT neuroscientist Steven Pinker likens to 'a large sheet of two-dimensional tissue that has been wadded up to fit inside the spherical skull,' is riddled instead of whole.
Quote examples
Terence Tao
Australian Mathematician
Math education has changed over the years. In the 19th century, they taught spherical trigonometry because one of the biggest applications of mathematics was navigating the ocean. This is no longer so relevant.
Quote examples
Andy Serkis
English Actor
If you're in a motion-capture studio, you have spherical, reflective markers, which are picked up by cameras that emit infrared - it reflects it, and then the cameras pick up the data.
Quote examples
Nick Woodman
American Businessman
GoPro's capture devices and Kolor's software will combine to deliver exciting and highly accessible solutions for capturing, creating, and sharing spherical content.
Quote examples
Ricky Gervais
English Writer
Karl Pilkington has the roundest head, I think, in the world. It's not technically a deformity, but I've never seen anything quite that spherical.
Quote examples
Tom Noddy
American Entertainer
Bubbles are round for the same reason that planets are spherical. The universe itself is like bubbles.
Quote examples
Nicolaus Copernicus
Polish Scientist
First of all, we must note that the universe is spherical.
Example 1 of 10
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