Plane

Definition of Plane

(Bot.) Any tree of the genus Platanus.

Without elevations or depressions; even; level; flat; lying in, or constituting, a plane; as, a plane surface.

Plane angle
the angle included between two straight lines in a plane.

Plane chart
See under Chart and Curve.

Plane figure
a figure all points of which lie in the same plane. If bounded by straight lines it is a rectilinear plane figure, if by curved lines it is a curvilinear plane figure.

Plane geometry
that part of geometry which treats of the relations and properties of plane figures.

Plane problem
a problem which can be solved geometrically by the aid of the right line and circle only.

Plane sailing
(Naut.) the method of computing a ship's place and course on the supposition that the earth's surface is a plane.

Plane scale
(Naut.) a scale for the use of navigators, on which are graduated chords, sines, tangents, secants, rhumbs, geographical miles, etc.

Plane surveying
surveying in which the curvature of the earth is disregarded; ordinary field and topographical surveying of tracts of moderate extent.

Plane table
an instrument used for plotting the lines of a survey on paper in the field.

Plane trigonometry
the branch of trigonometry in which its principles are applied to plane triangles.

(Geom.) A surface, real or imaginary, in which, if any two points are taken, the straight line which joins them lies wholly in that surface; or a surface, any section of which by a like surface is a straight line; a surface without curvature.

(Astron.) An ideal surface, conceived as coinciding with, or containing, some designated astronomical line, circle, or other curve; as, the plane of an orbit; the plane of the ecliptic, or of the equator.

(Mech.) A block or plate having a perfectly flat surface, used as a standard of flatness; a surface plate.

(Joinery) A tool for smoothing boards or other surfaces of wood, for forming moldings, etc. It consists of a smooth-soled stock, usually of wood, from the under side or face of which projects slightly the steel cutting edge of a chisel, called the iron, which inclines backward, with an apperture in front for the escape of shavings; as, the jack plane; the smoothing plane; the molding plane, etc.

Objective plane
(Surv.) the horizontal plane upon which the object which is to be delineated, or whose place is to be determined, is supposed to stand.

Perspective plane
See Perspective.

Plane at infinity
(Geom.) a plane in which points infinitely distant are conceived as situated.

Plane iron
the cutting chisel of a joiner's plane.

Plane of polarization
(Opt.) See Polarization.

Plane of projection
a -	The plane on which the projection is made, corresponding to the perspective plane in perspective; - called also principal plane.
b -	(Descriptive Geom.) One of the planes to which points are referred for the purpose of determining their relative position in space.

Plane of refraction
(Opt.) the plane in which lie both the incident ray and the refracted or reflected ray.

v. t.

To make smooth; to level; to pare off the inequalities of the surface of, as of a board or other piece of wood, by the use of a plane; as, to plane a plank.

[imp. & p. p. Planed ; p. pr. & vb. n. Planing.]

To efface or remove.

He planed away the names . . . written on his tables.

- Chaucer.

Figuratively, to make plain or smooth.

What student came but that you planed her path.

- Tennyson.

v. i.

Of a boat, to lift more or less out of the water while in motion, after the manner of a hydroplane; to hydroplane.

Related Words

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Plane angle
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Plane trigonometry
Plane-parallel

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