CAPILLARITY • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Capillarity

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

Listen

noun

Capillarity n.

The quality or condition of being capillary.

(Physics) The peculiar action by which the surface of a liquid, where it is in contact with a solid (as in a capillary tube), is elevated or depressed; capillary attraction. Note: Capillarity depends upon the relative attraction of the modecules of the liquid for each other and for those of the solid, and is especially observable in capillary tubes, where it determines the ascent or descent of the liquid above or below the level of the liquid which the tube is dipped; hence the name.

See images of 'Capillarity'

Etymology of 'Capillarity'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

Add this dictionary
to your browser search bar

"Capillarity" Quotes from Famous Books

... community has a chance of rising and wishes to do so. Indeed, there is a universal, ferocious rush, each seeking to push the others aside so that he may the more speedily climb a rung of the social ladder. This general ascent, this phenomenon akin to capillarity, is possible only in a country where political equality and economic inequality prevail; for each has the same right to fortune and has but to conquer it. There is, however, a struggle of the vilest egotism, if one wishes ...

— Fruitfulness - Fecondite • Emile Zola

... should be supplied with every barometer, as also a turnscrew. The vernier plate and scale should be screwed, not soldered on the metal sheath, as if an escape occurs in the barometer-case the solder is acted upon at once. A table of corrections for capacity and capillarity should accompany every instrument, and simple directions, etc., in cases of trifling derangement, ...

— Himalayan Journals (Complete) • J. D. Hooker

... "that soluble salts are brought to the surface in the rise of moisture by capillarity in times of partial drouth; and in the arid regions where the small amount of water that falls in rain or snow leaves the soil only by evaporation, because there is never enough to produce underdrainage, the salts tend ...

— The Story of the Soil • Cyril G. Hopkins

... somewhat small and makes the probable errors rather large; I would advise the use of a gauge-sphere of about twice as great capacity. The tube, CB, Figure 4, has the same bore as the measuring tube in order to avoid corrections for capillarity. The tube of the gauge, CD, is not connected with an India-rubber tube, as is usual, but dips into mercury contained in a cylinder 340 mm. high, 58 mm. in diameter, which can be raised and lowered at pleasure. This is best accomplished by the use of a set of boxes of various thicknesses, ...

— Scientific American Supplement, No. 303 - October 22, 1881 • Various