Each had a fabric, oblate spheroid gas bag, or aerostat, to provide aerostatic lift sufficient to support the aircraft and fifty percent of the payload.
32.
Saturn's rotation causes it to have the shape of an oblate spheroid; that is, it is flattened at the poles and bulges at its equator.
33.
The non-homogeneity might move it a few miles one way or another ( the oblate spheroid shape of the Earth too ), but who cares?
34.
Replacing the circle with an ellipse rotated about its major axis, the shape becomes a prolate spheroid; rotated about the minor axis, an oblate spheroid.
35.
However, in reality ( as one is taught in school geography lessons ) it is a slightly pear shaped oblate spheroid giving ellipsoid that is triaxial.
36.
In reality, the Earth and other large celestial bodies are generally better modeled as oblate spheroids, whereas small objects such as asteroids often have irregular shapes.
37.
Oblate spheroidal coordinates are often useful in solving partial differential equations when the boundary conditions are defined on an oblate spheroid or a hyperboloid of revolution.
38.
Modern geodetic reference systems, such as the World Geodetic System and the International Terrestrial Reference Frame, use a single oblate spheroid, fixed to the Earth's gravitational centre.
39.
In contrast to being distorted into oblate spheroids via rapid rotation, celestial objects distort slightly into prolate spheroids via Jinx in Larry Niven's " Known Space ".
40.
Smarties are oblate spheroids with a minor axis of about 5 mm ( 0.2 in ) and a major axis of about 12 mm ( 0.5 in ).
