Six Degrees of Freedom
The motion of a ship at sea has the six degrees of freedom of a rigid body, and is described as:
Translation:
- Moving up and down (heaving);
- Moving left and right (swaying);
- Moving forward and backward (surging);
Rotation
- Tilting forward and backward (pitching);
- Turning left and right (yawing);
- Tilting side to side (rolling).
The trajectory of an airplane in flight has three degrees of freedom and its attitude along the trajectory has three degrees of freedom, for a total of six degrees of freedom.
Read more about this topic: Degrees Of Freedom (mechanics)
Famous quotes containing the words degrees and/or freedom:
“How have I been able to live so long outside Nature without identifying myself with it? Everything lives, moves, everything corresponds; the magnetic rays, emanating either from myself or from others, cross the limitless chain of created things unimpeded; it is a transparent network that covers the world, and its slender threads communicate themselves by degrees to the planets and stars. Captive now upon earth, I commune with the chorus of the stars who share in my joys and sorrows.”
—Gérard De Nerval (1808–1855)
“Is a Bill of Rights a security for [religious liberty]? If there were but one sect in America, a Bill of Rights would be a small protection for liberty.... Freedom derives from a multiplicity of sects, which pervade America, and which is the best and only security for religious liberty in any society. For where there is such a variety of sects, there cannot be a majority of any one sect to oppress and persecute the rest.”
—James Madison (1751–1836)