what does "eccentricity" mean to an astronomer?

Answer 1

eccentricity is nothing but the extent to which the universe streches in proportionate to its contents.astronomers use this to estimate longetivity of our universe.
for eg ; they say the current world would last for 45 lakh more years

Answer 2

It is the degree of (non)circularity of an ellipse, hence astronomers use it to refer to the shape of an orbit.

Think of an ellipse in which the length of the long axis is A and the short axis is B. Then the eccentricity E is defined to be

E = sqrt (1 - B^2/A^2)

As you can see, if B = A then the stuff in parenthesis is 0 and so E = 0. And of course, if B=A you are describing a circle. So a circular orbit has eccentricity = 0, and the ellipse gets longer and pointer as the number approaches 1.

Answer 3

What Does Eccentricities Mean

Answer 4

It means educated, as has been said. It is pronounced with two syllables, with a stress on the first. If someone has learned a great deal, that person can be called "learned", or "learn'd" in the older version of the same word. In any case, quite the opposite of what you had in mind. ;) I can see why you would think that given Whitman's poem, however. The astronomer in the poem is learned, which is to say that he has learned a great deal, but Whitman is comparing thought to feeling, and analysis to experience. For all the wonder of the astronomer's mathematics, it is not the same as simply gazing up at the stars themselves.

Answer 5

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what does "eccentricity" mean to an astronomer?

Answer 6

Eccentricity refers to an orbit usually. The more eccentric and orbit is the more oval or egg shaped it is. An orbit with no eccentricity is a perfect circle.