Construct · 4 fields · 7 citations
One name. Different field. Different construct. One map.
● jingle · one word, four constructs Nearest construct by meaningconnectivitycompare the meaningsEvery construct on the map is compared with every other by the meaning of its definitions, and the closest one is surfaced here. The nearest construct to eccentricity is connectivity.
Hold this as a prompt, not a verdict. Two constructs sitting close in meaning is a reason to read them side by side and decide for yourself whether they are one idea under two names. It is not proof that they are. Compare the meanings in the Collider.
Spokes are fields; dashed arcs are shared lineage. Tap a field for its definition, unit, and measures.
Drag to watch the word get claimed. Each field appears at the publication date of the earliest source cited for it. Tap a year to see which.
The conic curves whose eccentricity measures departure from a circle were first set out by Apollonius of Perga in his Conics (c. 200 BCE), and the ratio now called eccentricity, written e, fixes a conic's shape: e = 0 is a circle, 0 < e < 1 an ellipse, e = 1 a parabola, and e > 1 a hyperbola. Kepler's Astronomia nova (1609) carried the same number to the heavens, showing that a planet's orbit is an ellipse with a measurable eccentricity. Here eccentricity is a single dimensionless number describing the shape of a curve or orbit, not a distance in a graph, an offset in a spinning machine, or a trait of a person.[1][2]
In a connected graph, the eccentricity of a vertex is the greatest distance from it to any other vertex, where distance is the number of edges on a shortest path between them. The idea traces to Camille Jordan's Sur les assemblages de lignes (1869), which studied the center of a tree by asking how far each point sits from the point farthest from it, and the term was fixed in Harary's Graph theory (1969); the smallest eccentricity in a graph is its radius and the largest is its diameter. This eccentricity is a whole number counting steps through a network, unrelated to the shape of a curve, the imbalance of a rotor, or unconventional behavior.[3][4]
In rotating machinery, eccentricity is the distance between the center of mass of a spinning disc or shaft and its axis of rotation, so that turning throws the mass off-line and drives vibration. Jeffcott's 1919 paper The lateral vibration of loaded shafts in the neighbourhood of a whirling speed introduced this offset as the cause of whirl once a shaft turns near a critical speed, and the Jeffcott rotor remains the textbook model of the effect. This eccentricity is a physical length between a mass and its spin axis, measured in millimeters, and it is not the shape ratio of a conic, a count of steps in a graph, or a description of a person.[5]
In personality research, eccentricity refers to Unconventional or nonconforming behavior, appearance, and interests that depart from prevailing social norms. It is studied within the tradition of schizotypy, a set of personality dimensions found across the general population that Meehl's Schizotaxia, schizotypy, schizophrenia (1962) first named, and it appears as the odd or eccentric facet captured by scales such as Raine's Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (1991); it sits on a continuum across ordinary people and is not by itself a disorder. This meaning names a way of behaving relative to social convention, not a shape ratio, a graph distance, or a mechanical offset.[6][7]
Next
See how eccentricity sits against neighbouring constructs in the Collider, or export every reference on this page in one click.
Open in ColliderExport BibTeXReport this collisionCited on this page?
If your work is cited behind one of these entries, you know better than we do whether we captured the meaning right. Confirm it, suggest an edit, or dispute it, and your name goes on the entry as an author who has checked it, linked to your ORCID.
Claim your construct