In Mechanical Engineering and Machinery , it is a MetalPoint ed Pin or short Shaft , such as the end of an Axle or Spindle . The term occurs frequently in combination with others, for example "pivot-gearing" for a system of Gearing in machinery which admits of the shifting of the axis of a driving Wheel , so that the Power may be communicated in various Direction s.
In Linguistics , the Syntactic Pivot is the Argument of the Verb around which the Sentence "revolves" — typically the one that the verb agrees with, the one that can be sometimes be omitted and assumed to remain the same as in previous sentences, etc. (in Nominative-accusative Language s, this is the argument we call " Subject ").
In Mathematics , specifically Linear Algebra , a pivot is the first non-zero value of each row of a Matrix after the matrix has been converted to Row Echelon Form . The number of pivots in a matrix is equal to the Rank of the matrix.