Word.ws English Dictionary

Norton's dome

Norton's dome proper noun: a thought experiment that exhibits a nondeterministic system within the bounds of Newtonian mechanics. It involves an idealized particle initially sitting motionless at the apex of an idealized radially symmetrical frictionless dome of a certain form. The particle may, after an arbitrary period of time, slide down the dome in an arbitrary direction, contrary to intuition.

Proper noun

Norton's dome

  1. A thought experiment that exhibits a nondeterministic system within the bounds of Newtonian mechanics. It involves an idealized particle initially sitting motionless at the apex of an idealized radially symmetrical frictionless dome of a certain form. The particle may, after an arbitrary period of time, slide down the dome in an arbitrary direction, contrary to intuition.

Origin of Norton's dome

Devised by John D. Norton in 2003.

Questions about Norton's dome

What does Norton's dome mean?
Norton's dome means a thought experiment that exhibits a nondeterministic system within the bounds of Newtonian mechanics. It involves an idealized particle initially sitting motionless at the apex of an idealized radially symmetrical frictionless dome of a certain form. The particle may, after an arbitrary period of time, slide down the dome in an arbitrary direction, contrary to intuition.
What part of speech is Norton's dome?
Norton's dome is a proper noun.

Words near Norton's dome in the dictionary

  1. Norton in Hales
  2. Norton Malreward
  3. Norton Shores
  4. Norton Sound
  5. Norton St Philip
  6. Norton's dome
  7. Norton's theorem
  8. Norton, Cuckney, Holbeck and Welbeck
  9. Norton-juxta-Kempsey
  10. Norton-on-Derwent
  11. Norton-on-Tees

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Norton's dome (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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