PATE

, in Fortification, a kind of platform, like what is called a Horse-shoe; not always regular, but commonly oval, encompassed only with a parapet, and having nothing to flank it. It is usually erected in marshy grounds, to cover a gate of a town, or the like.

PATH of the Vertex, a term frequently used by Mr. Flamsteed, in his Doctrine of the Sphere, denoting a circle, described by any point of the earth's surface, as the earth turns round its axis.

This point is considered as vertical to the earth's centre; and is the same with what is called the vertex or zenith in the Ptolomaic projection.

The semidiameter of this Path of the vertex, is always equal to the complement of the latitude of the point or place that describes it; that is, to the place's distance from the pole of the world.