EQUANT

, or ÆQUANT, in Astronomy, a circle formerly conceived by astronomers, in the plane of the deferent, or eccentric; for regulating and adjusting certain motions of the planets, and reducing them more easily to a calculus.

EQUATED Anomaly. See Anomaly.

Equated Bodies. On Gunter's Sector there are sometimes placed two lines, answering to one another, and called the Lines of Equated Bodies. They are situated between the lines of superficies and solids, and are marked with the letters D, I, C, S, O, T, to signify dodecahedron, icosahedron, cube, sphere, octahedron, and tetrahedron.

The uses of these lines are, 1st, When the diameter of the sphere is given, to find the sides of the five regular bodies, each equal to that sphere; 2d, From the side of any one of those bodies being given, to find the diameter of the sphere, and the sides of the other bodies, which shall be each equal to the first given body. So, when the sphere is given, take its diameter, and apply it over on the sector in the points S, S; but when one of the other five bodies is given, apply its side over in its proper points; then the parallels taken from between the points of the other bodies, or sphere, shall be the sides or diameter, equal severally to the sphere or body first given.