Literary notes about Perpendicular (AI summary)
The term “perpendicular” has been used in literature to evoke a strong sense of verticality and exactness, whether describing architectural elements, natural features, or even abstract mathematical concepts. In narrative prose, writers like Walter Scott and Jules Verne use it to paint vivid images of rigid, upright structures—from the orderly ranges of windows in Ivanhoe [1] to the daunting, sheer walls encountered in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea [2, 3, 4, 5, 6]. At the same time, the word is employed in technical and heraldic contexts, as seen in references to precise geometric relationships and military formations [7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26]. Moreover, its metaphorical use appears in character descriptions and moral judgments, hinting at uprightness or steadfastness [27, 28, 29, 30, 31]. Overall, “perpendicular” serves as a multifaceted term in literature, illustrating both the tangible precision of constructed spaces and the symbolic quality of exactness and rectitude across various genres.
- These four perpendicular ranges of windows admitted air, and, the fire being kindled, heat, or smoke at least, to each of the galleries.
— from Ivanhoe: A Romance by Walter Scott - At this moment the Nautilus arrived at the side of this high, perpendicular wall.
— from Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea by Jules Verne - Its sides, which were almost as perpendicular as those of a well, presented numerous projections which doubtless would assist our descent.
— from A Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne - Since the toppling of this iceberg, the Nautilus had risen about 150 feet, but it still stayed at the same angle to the perpendicular.
— from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas: An Underwater Tour of the World by Jules Verne - The coast still seemed veiled, the great white coast, perpendicular as a wall.
— from Complete Original Short Stories of Guy De Maupassant by Guy de Maupassant - This valley is closed at the east by a perpendicular wall more than 2,000 yards high.
— from Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea by Jules Verne - In the heraldic sense of "a broad perpendicular stripe in an escutcheon." See Wb. 155.
— from The Lady of the Lake by Walter Scott - The tangent 100 plane at the central point is perpendicular to the tangent plane at infinity upon the same generatrix.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - Al′titude, in mathematics, the perpendicular height of the vertex or apex of a plane figure or solid above the base.
— from The New Gresham Encyclopedia. A to Amide by Various - From a given point to let fall a perpendicular on a plane; to find the foot and the length of that perpendicular (rectangular co-ordinates).
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - Axis of the parabola.—Ratio of the squares of the ordinates perpendicular to the axis.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - First rule pencil lines B B and C C, half an inch from the edges, and also the short perpendicular lines half an inch apart.
— from Amusements in Mathematics by Henry Ernest Dudeney - Centre and axes.—Ratio of the squares of the ordinates perpendicular to the transverse axes.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - Think of rays passing through this lens as cases of bending toward the perpendicular, and you
— from How We Think by John Dewey - Planes perpendicular to each other.—The intersection of two planes perpendicular to a third plane, is perpendicular to this third plane.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - Through a given point to pass a plane perpendicular to a given right line (rectangular co-ordinates).
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - M. Poncelet’s formula for calculating the thickness of revetment walls with perpendicular face.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - The line of striction of the surface is its curve of contact with a circumscribed cylinder perpendicular to the directer-plane.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - Every plane perpendicular to the extremity of a radius is tangent to the sphere.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - To construct the intersection of a right cone by a plane perpendicular to one of the planes of projection.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - Conditions required to render a right line and a plane respectively perpendicular.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - Planes perpendicular to each other.—The intersection of two planes perpendicular to a third plane, is perpendicular to this third plane.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - On each face two vertical profiles will be executed, perpendicular to the horizontal projections of its interior crest.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - This distance we mark off from C at K, then draw CK, Pg 173 and from G drop the line GL, perpendicular to KC.
— from Amusements in Mathematics by Henry Ernest Dudeney - The tangent at any point of a circumference is perpendicular to the radius passing through that point.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - The easiest way is to arrange the eighteen matches as in Diagrams 1 and 2, making the length of the perpendicular AB equal to a match and a half.
— from Amusements in Mathematics by Henry Ernest Dudeney - The man was of fine figure, swarthy, and stern in aspect; and he showed in profile a facial angle so slightly inclined as to be almost perpendicular.
— from The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy - For my part, I think it's better to see when your perpendicular's true than to see a ghost.”
— from Adam Bede by George Eliot - They are common defects of my own, and one mustn’t criticise other people on grounds where he can’t stand perpendicular himself.
— from A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain - "It's extremely perpendicular on your part.
— from The Lady with the Dog and Other Stories by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov - If he wears it perpendicular, he is honest, pedantic, and boresome.
— from Criminal Psychology: A Manual for Judges, Practitioners, and Students by Hans Gross
