MAGNETIC EQUATOR • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Magnetic equator

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/mægnˈɛtɪk ɪkwˈeɪtər/ Listen

noun

Equator n.

(Geog.) The imaginary great circle on the earth's surface, everywhere equally distant from the two poles, and dividing the earth's surface into two hemispheres.

(Astron.) The great circle of the celestial sphere, coincident with the plane of the earth's equator; so called because when the sun is in it, the days and nights are of equal length; hence called also the equinoctial, and on maps, globes, etc., the equinoctial line.

Equator of the sun or Equator of a planet (Astron.), the great circle whose plane passes through through the center of the body, and is perpendicular to its axis of revolution.

Magnetic equator. See Aclinic.

magnetic equator n. An imaginary line paralleling the equator where a magnetic needle has no dip, the dipping needle being horizontal; called also aclinic line.

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Etymology of 'Magnetic equator'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Magnetic equator" Quotes from Famous Books

... change in some degree the position of the magnetic meridian. The radial stream comes from the sun in parallel lines, and strikes the globe and its superficial ethereal envelope just as we have shown its action on the atmosphere; but in this last case the magnetic equator is not a great circle, neither can we suppose its effects to be an accumulation of a fluid which is imponderable at points 90d from the plane passing through the centre of the earth and sun, and coincident with the plane of the central ...

— Outlines of a Mechanical Theory of Storms - Containing the True Law of Lunar Influence • T. Bassnett