Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Same as vernier.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A vernier.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A device for adjusting the accuracy of mathematical instruments, later superseded by the vernier

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Latinised form of the name of Pedro Nuñes (1502-78), a Portuguese mathematician and geographer.

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Examples

  • Rigid props are differentiated from yielding props according to the operating principle: rigid props, for example threaded and nonius-props, can only react to increased compressive loads when a wooden bar permits deformation, otherwise they collapse when the maximum load is exceeded.

    5.1 Rigid support in drifts and stopes 1993

  • Fig.: Nonius-prop, in which the nonius serves to increase the setting load of the otherwise rigid prop. Source:

    5.1 Rigid support in drifts and stopes 1993

  • The nonius, never in common use, consisted essentially of forty-six concentric circles divided into quadrants by two diameters at right angles to each other, each quadrantal arc being divided into equal parts, the number of parts diminishing from ninety for the outermost arc to forty-five for the innermost.

    The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 11: New Mexico-Philip 1840-1916 1913

  • The name vernier, now commonly applied to a small movable scale attached to a sextant, barometer, or other graduated instrument, was given by Lalande who showed that the previous name nonius, after Peter Nunez, belonged more properly to a different contrivance.

    The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 15: Tournely-Zwirner 1840-1916 1913

  • "Its proper term is a nonius, because Nonius was its inventor and Vernier took the idea from him."

    The Reminiscences of an Astronomer Simon Newcomb 1872

  • ON THE THEORY OF WINDS. equal parts; and therefore, if this line be used as a line of chords, the nonius will divide the degree into 12 parts or 5 minutes.

    Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 1771

  • The following method «which is only an application of the nonius division, is susceptible of even greater accuracy and minuteness than the diagonal method, and yet free from all its inconveniencies. —

    Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 1771

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