Prolate_spheroid

A prolate spheroid is a spheroid in which the polar diameter is longer than the equatorial diameter.

A prolate spheroid

Prolate spheroids in sport

The prolate spheroid is the shape of the ball in several sports, such as Rugby Football and Australian Rules Football. American Football and Canadian Football use a pointed prolate spheroid (also resembling a rotated vesica piscis).See 2006 NCAA Football Rules and Interpretations, Sec. 1, Art. 1

Prolate spheroids in astronomy

The prolate spheroid, like the oblate spheroid, is the shape of some of the moons in the solar system. Examples are Mimas, Enceladus, and Tethys (moons of Saturn) and Miranda (moon of Uranus).

It is also used to describe the shape of some nebulae such as the Crab Nebula.Trimble, Virginia Louise (October 1973), "The Distance to the Crab Nebula and NP 0532", Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific 85 (507): 579, <http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1973PASP...85..579T>

See also

• Oblate
• Spheroid
• Reference ellipsoid
• List of solar system objects by mass
• Triaxial

References

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