An octant is one of eight divisions.
Contents |
Traditionally wind direction is given as one of the 8 octants (N, NE, E, SE, S, SW, W, NW) because that is more accurate than merely giving one of the 4 quadrants, and the wind vane typically does not have enough accuracy to bother with more precise indication.
An octant is one of the eight divisions of a Euclidean three-dimensional coordinate system defined by the signs of the coordinates. It is similar to the two-dimensional quadrant and the one-dimensional ray. [1]
Usually, the octant with all three positive coordinates is referred to as the first octant. There is no generally used naming convention for the other seven octants.
The multi-dimensional generalization of the octant is the orthant, also called hyperoctant. An n-dimensional space is divided into 2n hyperoctants.