Quincunx (disambiguation)

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A quincunx originally meant a 5/12 fraction of something, but most modern uses involve patterns of five points. It may refer to:

Geometric patterns of points

• Quincunx, five points, four in a square with one more in the middle of the square.
• An orchard planted in a quincunx pattern
• Quincunx matrix, a 2×2 Hadamard matrix that generates points in a diagonal lattice pattern
• Bean machine, also called a quincunx, a machine designed by Sir Francis Galton to demonstrate normal distributions, consisting of an array of pins in a diagonal lattice pattern
• Quincuncial map, a method of mapping the globe onto a square so that the poles map to the five points of a quincunx
• Place des Quinconces, a city square in Bordeaux, France, named for the quincunx pattern in which its trees were planted
• Rhombic lattice, the points of intersection of two families of equally spaced parallel lines, called a quincunx In 19th-century mathematics

Literature

• The Garden of Cyrus or The Quincunciall Lozenge, a 1658 philosophical treatise by Sir Thomas Browne concerning interconnections in art and science involving the number five and the quincunx pattern
• Mistress Masham's Repose, a 1946 novel by T. H. White in which a lake in the grounds of Maria's estate is called the Quincunx
• The Quincunx of Time, a 1973 science fiction novel by James Blish; the title refers to an orchard in the Academy of Plato, planted in a quincunx pattern
• The Avignon Quintet, a set of five novels that its author, Lawrence Durrell, described as forming a quincunx; the fifth, Quinx (1985), has a plot that includes the discovery of a stone quincunx pattern
• The Quincunx, a 1989 novel by Charles Palliser that traces five related families over five generations

Biology

• Quincuncial aestivation, an arrangement of five parts of a flower bud prior to opening found in some plants
• Quincuncina, a genus of freshwater mussels named for the pattern of nodules on its shells

Other uses

• Quincunx (Roman coin), a bronze coin with the value of 5/12 of an as
• Quincunx (astrology), an angle of 150°, 5/12 of a complete circle