ascensional

adj

1. (not-comparable)Relating to upward movement; pertaining to the act of rising or ascending.

   “The ascensional power of this balloon was very great, and being set loose in Paris, it rose with great rapidity, and at the end of four minutes had reached a height of nearly a thousand yards, when it was lost sight of by entering a cloud.”

   “They were all anxious to give the credit of any new thing to the right person, and he though that Mr. Pink deserved whatever credit might be due to ascensional casting. But the difficulties were very great. Unless the cast was very hot indeed, the steel would refuse to ascend, and a great many wasters were caused thereby.”

   “In the latter case, however, it may be considered that the mountain-range produces an effect in bringing the air-masses to the point of saturation, and thus preparing them for the action of the convectional ascensional movement.”

   “A given quantity of air can be circulated round a mine for the least expenditure of power with ascensional ventilation.”

2. (not-comparable)Pertaining to an increase in status or power.

   “Two aspects will be examined here: i – Period of change from colono (or employee) status, that is, the length of time this initial status is retained; ii – Period of ascensional change from colono (or employee) status, that is the length of time required to become independent, or, in other words, to rise to the status of self-employed farmer (renter or owner-farmer) or self-employed non-farmer (worker on own account or employer).”

   “Yet in the young man's imagination "His Highness the vulture" has clearly regained imperial and ascensional status, radically undoing its original association with death and destruction.”

   “Bachelard has given a clear analysis of the "Atlas complex", a polemical complex and schema of verticalising effort or elevation, accompanied by a feeling of monarchical contemplation which diminishes the world so as better to glorify the gigantic, and the ambition inherent in ascensional reveries.”

3. (not-comparable)Pertaining to an increase in clarity and understanding.

   “The Neoplatonic scholars had concluded that man's path goes through several stages of knowledge in an ascensional direction.”

   “In an ascensional reading, the movement from sensations and perceptions to common beliefs about the physical world, to physics, to mathematics, then to logic and, finally, to theology is a movement from confusion to greater precision and clarity.”

   “Most important, however is the ascensional direction given to this entire systematization of knowledge, which always puts the inferior disciplines at the service of the higher goals of knowledge, thus confirming the view, typical of Hugh, of the secular sciences as preparation for the understanding of divine truth.”

4. (not-comparable)Pertaining to progress or improvement.

   “To begin with, both models see social change as evolutionary and as an 'ascensional spiral towards progress.'”

   “Schelling set himself the fundamental task of establishing a channel of ascensional intelligibility from the origins of creation to man, and even beyond man, in which the doctrines of survival and palingenesis, so dear to the Gnostics, found all their significance. Thus, the evolution of nature was marked by ever-increasing value, and creation would never by completed.”

   “Nietzche believed that a healthy society is one in which there prevails an aspirational force that pulls us towards something higher and better. […] When this ascensional force loses its force, it is no longer venerated, causing it to lose its momentum further, to stagnate and then becomes descensional.”

5. (not-comparable)Pertaining to the achievement of a higher spiritual state.

   “As for magic beliefs, whether the progress of knowledge restrains the possibility of their growth, whether they belong to outdated periods of the ascensional march of humanity toward more enlightenment, they are obliged to wrap themselves in mystery in order to draw souls through fear and spread only among few followers.”

   “We may place in the second rank those who have reached the middle of the ascensional ladder, those who have achieved the degree of purification in which aspiration after perfection has become the ruling desire.”

   “Spiritual achievement was conceived in ascensional terms, rather than, for example, in term ^([sic]) of enlightenment or incarnation.””

6. (not-comparable)Pertaining to right ascension and/or oblique ascension.

   “The ascensional difference is the difference in degrees between the right ascension and either the oblique ascension, or oblique descension; and with respect to the sun, the ascensional difference is the time that he rises before six o'clock in summer, or sets before six in winter.”

   “Calculating by spherical trigonometry, and assuming the same obliquity, I obtain 3 dundas and 40 pulas for the ascensional arc, giving a difference in time of 3 pulas, or about one of our minutes; an error so small, that even were the Indian astronomer aware of its existence he would disregard it, satisfied that the practical purposes which his labours subserve, are, notwithstanding, carried out with sufficient accuracy.”

   “The former is the ascensional equivalent of the first sign; subtracting it from the latter gives that of the second sign, which is 1795', and subtracting 3465' from a quadrant, 5400', gives the equivalent of the third sign which is 1935'—all as stated in the text.”

   “The ascensional difference, γ, of a point R is the difference between its right ascension and its oblique ascension (EG = VG – VE, in Figure 4), and can be computed by means of the modern formula sin γ = tan δ· tan φ, where δ is the declination of point R.”