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Webster 1913 Edition


Radius vector


Ra′di-us vec′tor

(vĕk′tŏr)
.
1.
(Math.)
A straight line (or the length of such line) connecting any point, as of a curve, with a fixed point, or pole, round which the straight line turns, and to which it serves to refer the successive points of a curve, in a system of polar coordinates. See
Coordinate
,
Noun.
2.
(Astron.)
An ideal straight line joining the center of an attracting body with that of a body describing an orbit around it, as a line joining the sun and a planet or comet, or a planet and its satellite.