The Collaborative International Dictionary
Vertical \Ver"ti*cal\, a. [Cf. F. vertical. See Vertex.]
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Of or pertaining to the vertex; situated at the vertex, or highest point; directly overhead, or in the zenith; perpendicularly above one.
Charity . . . is the vertical top of all religion.
--Jer. Taylor. -
Perpendicular to the plane of the horizon; upright; plumb; as, a vertical line. Vertical angle (Astron. & Geod.), an angle measured on a vertical circle, called an angle of elevation, or altitude, when reckoned from the horizon upward, and of depression when downward below the horizon. Vertical anthers (Bot.), such anthers as stand erect at the top of the filaments. Vertical circle (Astron.), an azimuth circle. See under Azimuth. Vertical drill, an drill. See under Upright. Vertical fire (Mil.), the fire, as of mortars, at high angles of elevation. Vertical leaves (Bot.), leaves which present their edges to the earth and the sky, and their faces to the horizon, as in the Australian species of Eucalyptus. Vertical limb, a graduated arc attached to an instrument, as a theodolite, for measuring vertical angles. Vertical line.
(Dialing) A line perpendicular to the horizon.
(Conic Sections) A right line drawn on the vertical plane, and passing through the vertex of the cone.
(Surv.) The direction of a plumb line; a line normal to the surface of still water.
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(Geom., Drawing, etc.) A line parallel to the sides of a page or sheet, in distinction from a horizontal line parallel to the top or bottom. Vertical plane.
(Conic Sections) A plane passing through the vertex of a cone, and through its axis.
(Projections) Any plane which passes through a vertical line.
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(Persp.) The plane passing through the point of sight, and perpendicular to the ground plane, and also to the picture.
Vertical sash, a sash sliding up and down. Cf. French sash, under 3d Sash.
Vertical steam engine, a steam engine having the crank shaft vertically above or below a vertical cylinder.
Wikipedia
Vertical plane is used in radio to plot an antenna's relative field strength perpendicular to the ground (which directly affects a station's coverage area) on a polar graph.
Normally the maximum of 1.000 or 0 dB is at the side (unless there is beam tilt), which is labeled 0°, to 90° at the top and −90° at the bottom. Other field strengths are expressed as a decimal less than 1.000, a percentage less than 100%, or decibels less than 0 dB.
Most broadcast antennas use either line-of-sight or ground wave propagation (a slight refraction towards the ground) to reach their nearby listeners, and thus want a low angle in the vertical plane. Short wave transmitters want a somewhat higher elevation angle in the vertical plane to encourage skywave propagation, which would refract or reflect radio waves off the ionosphere and back to the ground at a great distance from the transmitter.
Omnidirectional antennas typically try to limit the range of their vertical plane radiation pattern to concentrate energy over a smaller range and increase gain.
Usage examples of "vertical plane".
The optical landing system was stabilized in pitch and roll, that is, in the horizontal plane, but it could not compensate for instability in the vertical plane, the up-and-down motion of the ship known as heave.
A quadral line running between the sinister and dexter stars of the Hyperal Cross pierced the vertical plane at right angles to both arms of the Vertical Cross .
The edifice looked like some gigantic gameboard, a collection of tightly packed cubical cells built of rusty iron spars with row upon row of repeated patterns forming an immense vertical plane.
She stopped again, turning her head from side to side, her right hand extended and going back and forth across a vertical plane as if she were feeling an invisible wall.
The Tomcat, with its higher thrust-to-weight ratio and higher wing loading, could easily outstrip and turn inside the Falcon on the vertical plane.
As they turned the mirror from the flat plane of the ceiling back to the vertical plane of the wall, the circles became elongated and began to cross each other until eventually they again formed the precise shape of a dagger.
Where one tunnel had intersected another in the vertical plane, they would switch nonchalantly through a right angle as the gravity field tilted and a wall became a floor.
Two are located in a vertical plane (if viewed in a standing man) but at right angles to each other, one directed forward and outward, the other backward and outward.
I had been staring absently at a sort of vertical plane projecting from the water alongside the raft and perhaps half a dozen feet off the edge, and more or less half-wondering what usefulness it had, when the object suddenly took on its true character, and my heart gave an unusually heavy thump.
It had been on the vertical plane for me, the holo aligning with what it took to be my proper orientation, so that he had seemed to hover right above me.
The same sort of device could be set up in a vertical plane above the equator, a bit like a giant ferris wheel with only three spokes.
They were told later by the allies observing from the Wall that at this instant, as the spears of the Spartans' front ranks lowered in unison from the vertical plane of advance into the leveled position of attack and the serried phalanx lengthened stride to assault the foe at the double.
Above, a broad vertical plane of stones stretched toward the sky-a flatness broken only by a few balconies and projecting windows.
I remember thinking my last thought at about the time the room became a vertical plane: ' I must have clunked my head on the floor, yet I don't feel any pain.