Nearby Words

nodal point

nodal point

noun Optics.
either of two points on the axis of a lens or other optical system, determined by extending an incident oblique ray and the corresponding refracted ray to the axis for the pair of rays that are parallel outside the optical system.
Also called node.


Origin:
1835–45
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Nodal point is always a great word to know.
So is quincunx. Does it mean:
a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question.
an arrangement of five objects, as trees, in a square or rectangle, one at each corner and one in the middle.
American Heritage
Medical Dictionary

nodal point n.
One of the two points in a compound optical system, located so that a light ray directed through the first point will leave the system through the second point, parallel to its original direction. Also called axial point.

The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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