Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Straight Line |
Straight LineNoun1. A line traced by a point traveling in a constant direction; a line of zero curvature; "the shortest distance between two points is a straight line". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
The word line apparently derives from the Latin linum, meaning flax plant from which linen is produced; at one time, a stretched linen thread was the most reliable way to determine a straight line. Also see liner and lining.
The word line can refer to a queue area.
Electrical engineering
In electrical engineering, a line is, more generally, any circuit (or loop) of an electrical system. This electric circuit loop (or electrical network), consists of electrical elements (or components) connected directly by conductor terminals to other devices in series.
In telecommunications, a telephone line is a single-user circuit on a telephone communications system.
Mathematics
A line, or straight line, is, roughly speaking, an (infinitely) thin, (infinitely) long, straight geometrical object. Given two points, one can always find exactly one line that passes through the two points; the line provides the shortest connection between the points. Two different lines can intersect in at most one point; two different planes can intersect in at most one line. This intuitive concept of a line can be formalized in various ways.
If geometry is developed axiomatically (as in Euclid's Elements and later in David Hilbert's Foundations of Geometry), then lines are not defined at all, but characterized axiomatically by their properties. "Everything that satisfies the axioms for a line is a line." While Euclid did define a line as "length without breadth", he did not use this rather obscure definition in his later development.
In Euclidean space Rn (and analogously in all other vector spaces), we define a line L as a subset of the form
where a and b are given vectorss in Rn with b non-zero. The vector b describes the direction of the line, and a is a point on the line. Different choices of a and b can yield the same line.
One can show that in R2, every line L is described by a linear equation of the form
with fixed real coefficients a, b and c such that a and b are not both zero. An important property of these lines is their slope.
More abstractly, one usually thinks of the real line as the prototype of a line, and assumes that the points on a line stand in a one-to-one correspondence with the real numbers. However, one could also use the hyperreal numbers for this purpose, or even the long line of topology.
The "straightness" of a line, interpreted as the property that it minimizes distances between its points, can be generalized and leads to the concept of geodesics on differentiable manifolds.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Line."
| Antonym: curve (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Direction | Phrase: the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. |
Adverb: towards; on the road, on the high road to; en avant; versus, to; hither, thither, whither; directly; straight as an arrow, forwards as an arrow; point blank; in a bee line to, in a direct line to, as the crow flies, in a straight line to, in a bee line for, in a direct line for, in a straight line for, in a bee line with, in a direct line with, in a straight line with; in a line with; full tilt at, as the crow flies. | |
Straightness | Straightness, rectilinearity, directness; inflexibility; (stiffness); straight line, right line, direct line; short cut. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | A straight line may be the shortest distance between two points, but it is by no means the most interesting (Doctor Who; writing credit: Basil Caplan; Martin Defalco) The shortest distance between two points will always be a straight line. (The One; writing credit: Glen Morgan; James Wong) | |
Lyrics | Stay in a straight line (Run; performing artist: George Strait) | |
Clever | Shortest distance between two jokes: A straight line. (references; author: unknown) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books | |||
Theater & Movies | |||
Music |
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Consumer Goods | |||
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | In Minnesota, Anyone Who Can't Walk A Straight Line Will Get A Month To Practice. : The New D.W.I. Law. Credit: National Library of Medicine. |  | Hammond, Ind., 1942(?), six men inspecting and painting 155 mm. shells at the Pullman Standard Car Plant where freight cars were formerly made--Discs being screwed on shell nose (right foreground) act as wheels to keep them rolling in straight line on pro. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Author | Quotation |
Emo Philips | I was driving down the highway, and I'm swerving all over, coz I'm trying to change the radio, and just as I get the old one taken out I hear this traffic cop behind me, "Whee-oo, whee-oo, whee-oo!" Well, I shouldn't make fun of his speech impediment. He asks me to walk in a straight line, so I do, then he asks me, "You call that a straight line?" Well, I should have said, I *should* have said, "Yes." But I was nervous and the only thing I could think of was "Well, Officer Pythagoras, the closest you'll ever come to a straight line is if they do an electroencephalagram of your own brainwave." |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Author | Date | Quotation |
Treaty of Versailles | 1919 | The boundaries of East Prussia, with the reservations made in Section IX (East Prussia) of Part III, will be determined as follows: from a point on the coast of the Baltic Sea about 1 1/2 kilometres north of Probbernau church in a direction of about 159° East from true North: a line to be fixed on the ground for about 2 kilometres; thence in a straight line to the light at the bend of the Elbing Channel in approximately latitude 54° 19 1/2' North, longitude 19° 26' East of Greenwich; thence to the easternmost mouth of the Nogat River at a bearing of approximately 209° East from true North; thence up the course of the Nogat River to the point where the latter leaves the Vistula (Weichsel);thence up the principal channel of navigation of the Vistula, then the southern boundary of the Kreis of Marienwerder, then that of the Kreis of Rosenberg eastwards to the point where it meets the old boundary of East Prussia, thence the old boundary between East and West Prussia, then the boundary between the Kreise of Osterode and Neidenburg, then the course of the river Skottau downstream, then the course of the Neide upstream to a point situated about 5 kilometres west of Bialutten being the nearest point to the old frontier of Russia; thence in an easterly direction to a point immediately south of the intersection of the road Neidenburg-Mlava with the old frontier of Russia: a line to be fixed on the ground passing north of Bialutten; thence the old frontier of Russia to a point east of Schmalleningken, then the principal channel of navigation of the Niemen (Memel) downstream, then the Skierwieth arm of the delta to the Kurisches Haff; thence a straight line to the point where the eastern shore of the Kurische Nehrung meets the administrative boundary about 4 kilometres south-west of Nidden; thence this administrative boundary to the western shore of the Kurische Nehrung. (reference) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Title | Author | Quote |
Grapes of Wrath | Steinbeck, John | The tractor cut a straight line on, and the air and the ground vibrated with its thunder |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | Typical tests include maintaining balance with the eyes closed, walking heel-to-toe in a straight line, or touching the nose with the eyes closed. (references) | |
A recent analysis has shown that the body mass index of minimum mortality, derived from the data in the 1979 Build Study, increases with age in a straight line relationship, the lines for male and female being virtually identical. (references) | ||
These are called the otolithic organs and are responsible for detecting linear acceleration, or movement in a straight line. The hair cells of the otolithic organs are blanketed with a jelly-like layer studded with tiny calcium stones called otoconia. (references) | ||
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
Expressions using "straight line": A straight line ♦ in a straight line ♦ projection of a straight line of a plane ♦ run in a straight line ♦ straight line depreciation ♦ straight line knurls ♦ straight line pattern ♦ the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. Additional references. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
straight line | 129 |
straight line depreciation | 22 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "straight line"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Bulgarian | права (liberties, rights). (various references) | |
Chinese | 直線 . (various references) | |
Czech | přímka (bisector, line). (various references) | |
Danish | lige roulettering (straight line knurls, straight line pattern, straight-line knurling), aktiv der afskrives lineært (asset depreciated on a straight line basis). (various references) | |
Dutch | rechte. (various references) | |
Finnish | suora (direct, forthright, frank, right, straight, straight lank, straightforward). (various references) | |
French | ligne droite, droite (still, straight). (various references) | |
German | gerade (direct, directly, erect, erectly, especially, even, exactly, honest, jab, just, just as, just now, now, okay, right, straigh ahead, straight, straight away, straightly, stretch, unbowed, undeviating, upright, upstanding). (various references) | |
Greek | ευθεία (straight). (various references) | |
Hungarian | egyenes vonal (bee-line, right line). (various references) | |
Indonesian | mencos (fail, miss a target, not be in a straight line), mencang-mencong (contorted, not in a straight line). (various references) | |
Italian | retta. (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 直線 , 直線 , '線 , 一直線 , 一文字 (beeline). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | ぼうせ" (defensive fight, side line, underline), いっちょくせ", いちも"じ (beeline), ちょくせ" (compilation for the emperor, emperor's literary production, imperial decree, imperial nomination). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | aightstray inelay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | estriagem direita (straight line knurls, straight line pattern, straight-line knurling). (various references) | |
Russian | прямая (straights). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | duž (along, by, down, down at). (various references) | |
Spanish | moleteado recto (straight line knurls, straight line pattern, straight-line knurling), activo amortizado de manera lineal (asset depreciated on a straight line basis). (various references) | |
Swedish | rak lettring (straight line knurls, straight line pattern, straight-line knurling). (various references) | |
Turkish | doğru (above board, according to cocker, according to hoyle, accurate, aright, authentic, cheese, correct, direct, due, exact, exactly, fair, fair enough, faithful, for, guileless, honest, honest injun, just, on time, ortho-, orthodox, precisely, prompt, proper, punctual, quite so, right, righteous, sincere, spot-on, Square, straight, straight as a die, the right, the thing, the truth, thro, through, thru, true, truthful, up to, upstanding). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Misspellings | |
"Straight Line" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: straightline. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-e-g-h-i-i-l-n-r-s-t-t" | |
-2 letters: earthlings, hesitating, retailings, shattering, slathering, slithering, straighten, stringhalt. | |
-3 letters: ashlering, athelings, earthling, gainliest, ghastlier, glairiest, gnarliest, gnathites, grainiest, hairlines, haltering, hirelings, hirseling, ingathers, instigate, integrals, iterating, lathering, litharges, litigants, litigates, littering, narghiles, nargilehs, rattlings, realising, relishing, relisting, resailing, resitting, reslating, restating, retailing, retasting, retitling, ringtails, saintlier, seriating, shearling, shirttail, sightlier, starlight, startling. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-e-g-h-i-i-l-n-r-s-t-t" | |
+3 letters: orthogonalities. | |
+4 letters: hyperstimulating. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Crosswords 3. Usage: Modern 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Images: Photo Album 6. Quotations: Familiar 7. Quotations: Historic 8. Quotations: Fiction | 9. Quotations: Non-fiction 10. Expressions 11. Expressions: Internet 12. Translations: Modern | 13. Derivations 14. Anagrams 15. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
