iFairground - Science > Glossary of Terms

{ What Do Those Big Words Mean?}

acceleration of gravity- The rate of acceleration of free falling objects on earth, roughly 9.81 meters (32 feet) per second.

centripetal- pulled towards the center, usually by centripetal force.

centripetal acceleration- the pull on an object that brings it towards the center, usually as the object spins around the center.

clothoid loop- a tear-shaped loop, where the radius at the bottom is much larger than the radius at the top of the loop. For more information on clothoid loops, see: http://www.glenbrook.k12.il.us/gbssci/phys/Class/circles/u6l2b.html

sextant- an instrument used to find the angular distances between objects.

trig functions- known as sine (sin), cosine (cos), and tangent (tan); these three functions help find unkown angle measures in triangles by using known measures of the triangle.

velocity- A vector amount in which the quantity is a body's speed and in which the direction is the body's direction of motion.

References:
Dictionary.com. 2000 <http://www.dictionary.com/> (July 2000)
Peretti, Jonah. Consultation on definitions. Email July 2000.