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A prolate spheroid is a spheroid in which the polar diameter is longer than the equatorial diameter.
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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).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). Also, the dwarf planet Haumea is a prolate spheroid.
It is also used to describe the shape of some nebulae such as the Crab Nebula.2
Volume
The volume of a prolate spheroid is (4/3) * π * length * radius².
See also
References
- ^ See 2008 NCAA Football Rules and Interpretations, Sec. 1, Art. 1
- ^ 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
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- This page was last modified on 21 November 2008, at 11:02.
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