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- 1. In botany, the reproductive structure of
- the conifers, and cycads, also known as a
- strobilus. It consists of a central axis
- surrounded by numerous, overlapping,
- scale-like sporophylls, modified leaves which
- bear the reproductive organs. Usually there
- are separate male and female cones, the
- former bearing pollen sacs containing pollen
- grains, and the larger female cones bearing
- the ovules which contain the ova or egg
- cells. The pollen is carried from male to
- female cones by wind (anemophily). The seeds
- develop within the female cone, and are
- released as the scales open in dry
- atmospheric conditions, which favour seed
- dispersal. In some groups (for example, the
- pines) the cones take two or even three years
- to reach this stage. The cones of junipers
- have fleshy cone scales that fuse to form a
- berry-like structure. One group of
- angiosperms, the alders, also bear cone-like
- structures; these are the woody remains of
- the short female catkins, and they contain
- the alder fruits.
-
- 2. In geometry, a solid or surface generated
- by rotating an isosceles triangle or
- framework about its line of symmetry. It can
- also be formed by the set of all straight
- lines passing through a fixed point and the
- points of a circle or ellipse whose plane
- does not contain the point. A circular cone
- of perpendicular height h and base of radius
- r has a volume V = 1/3`pi'r^2h. The distance
- from the edge of the base of a cone to the
- vertex is called the slant height. In a right
- circular cone of slant height l, the curved
- surface area is `pi'rl, and the area of the
- base is `pi'r^2. Therefore the total surface
- area A = `pi'rl + `pi'r^2 = `pi'r(l + r).
-