Wiktionary
n. Any of the four principal compass directions - north, south, east and west
Wikipedia
Cardinal point can refer to:
- Cardinal direction, the directions of the compass
- Cardinal point (optics), a set of special points in an optical system, which help in the analysis of its properties
- Cardinal Points, a student-run newspaper at Plattsburgh State University
In Gaussian optics, the cardinal points consist of three pairs of points located on the optical axis of a rotationally symmetric, focal, optical system. These are the focal points, the principal points, and the nodal points. For ideal systems, the basic imaging properties such as image size, location, and orientation are completely determined by the locations of the cardinal points; in fact only four points are necessary: the focal points and either the principal or nodal points. The only ideal system that has been achieved in practice is the plane mirror, however the cardinal points are widely used to approximate the behavior of real optical systems. Cardinal points provide a way to analytically simplify a system with many components, allowing the imaging characteristics of the system to be approximately determined with simple calculations.
Usage examples of "cardinal point".
Damali walked to the next cardinal point and saw an elaborately sculpted moose adjacent to a fierce bear guarding a woman with a net.
It should be explained further that the cardinal point of the faith of the Plymouth Brethren is an absolutely literal acceptance of the text of the authorized version of the Bible.
That requires more chaos energies precisely from the cardinal point tower stations most burdened.
I think this must be brought forward as the Cardinal Point of Our Holy Law.
The cardinal point of the hearing was the assumption that the diamond terraces on the coast were also to be found on the sea-bed.
Or, on the other horn, the fact (insisted upon most strongly by the Buddha himself, the central and cardinal point of his doctrine, the shrine of that Metaphysic which isolates it absolutely from all other religious metaphysic, which allies it with Agnostic Metaphysic) that the Buddha who had spoken this command was not the same as the Buddha before he had spoken it, lies the proof that the Buddha, by speaking this command, violated it.
They flashed through their preprogrammed maneuvers in an intricate supralight mazurka, exchanging positions so quickly and adroitly that, in effect, one of them was constantly in each cardinal point of a circle twenty light-minutes across.
At each cardinal point he placed, again in his imagination, a five-pointed star of blue fire.