Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Quaternion
1.
The number four.
[Poetic]
2.
A set of four parts, things, or person; four things taken collectively; a group of four words, phrases, circumstances, facts, or the like.
Delivered him to four
quaternions
of soldiers. Acts xii. 4.
Ye elements, the eldest birth
Of Nature’s womb, that in
Of Nature’s womb, that in
quaternion
run. Milton.
The triads and
quaternions
with which he loaded his sentences. Sir W. Scott.
3.
A word of four syllables; a quadrisyllable.
4.
(Math.)
The quotient of two vectors, or of two directed right lines in space, considered as depending on four geometrical elements, and as expressible by an algebraic symbol of quadrinomial form.
☞ The science or calculus of quaternions is a new mathematical method, in which the conception of a quaternion is unfolded and symbolically expressed, and is applied to various classes of algebraical, geometrical, and physical questions, so as to discover theorems, and to arrive at the solution of problems.
Sir W. R. Hamilton.
Qua-ter′ni-on
,Verb.
T.
To divide into quaternions, files, or companies.
Milton.
Webster 1828 Edition
Quaternion
QUATERN'ION
,Noun.
1.
The number four.2.
A file of four soldiers. Acts 12.QUATERN'ION
,Verb.
T.
Definition 2024
quaternion
quaternion
English
Noun
quaternion (plural quaternions)
- A group or set of four people or things.
- 1526, William Tyndale, trans. Bible, Acts XII:
- Then wer the dayes of unlevended breed, and when he had caught hym, he put him in preson, and delyvered hym to iiij. quaternions off soudiers to be kept, entendynge after ester to brynge hym forth to the people.
- 1885, Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson (original translators and editors), Arthur Cleveland Coxe (editor of American edition, unauthorized; author of annotations, notes, and introductions), Philip Schaff (also credited as editor), Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II:
- This quaternion of revilers has traduced Origen, but not on the same grounds, one having found one cause of accusation against him, and another another; and thus each has demonstrated that what he has taken no objection to, he has fully accepted.
- 2004, Jason Glenn, Politics and History in the Tenth Century: The Work and World of Richer of Reims, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-83487-2, page 140:
- We saw above that the fourth quire consists of ten folios, two of which (folios 29 and 31) Richer added to a quaternion (folios 23 to 28, 30, 32). Most of the folios Richer added to his manuscript supplement, elaborate, or amend text that he had already composed in the codex.
- 1526, William Tyndale, trans. Bible, Acts XII:
- A word of four syllables.
- Sir Walter Scott
- The triads and quaternions with which he loaded his sentences.
- Sir Walter Scott
- (mathematics) A four-dimensional hypercomplex number that consists of a real dimension and 3 imaginary ones (i, j, k) that are each a square root of -1. They are commonly used in vector mathematics and in calculating the rotation of three-dimensional objects.
- 2004, David H. Eberly, 3D Game Engine Architecture: Engineering Real-Time Applications with Wild Magic:
- The right-hand side of the quaternion equation requires scalar multiplication and quaternion addition.
- 2004, David H. Eberly, 3D Game Engine Architecture: Engineering Real-Time Applications with Wild Magic:
Hypernyms
Derived terms
See also
- (mathematics): octonion
Translations
Mathematical sense
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References
- ↑ “quaternion” in Dictionary.com Unabridged, v1.1, Lexico Publishing Group, 2006.
- ↑ American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, fourth edition
- ↑ Concise Oxford English Dictionary, eleventh edition