Crossword clues for scintillation
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Scintillation \Scin`til*la"tion\, n. [L. scintillatio: cf. F. scintillation.]
The act of scintillating.
-
A spark or flash emitted in scintillating.
These scintillations are . . . the inflammable effluences discharged from the bodies collided.
--Sir T. Browne.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1620s, from Latin scintilationem (nominative scintillatio), noun of action from past participle stem of scintillare (see scintillate).
Wiktionary
n. 1 A flash of light; a spark 2 (context astronomy English) The twinkling of a star caused by turbulence in the Earth's atmosphere 3 (context physics English) The flash of light produced by a phosphor when it absorbs ionizing radiation
WordNet
n. (physics) a flash of light that is produced in a phosphor when it absorbs a photon or ionizing particle
a rapid change in brightness; a brief spark or flash [syn: twinkle, sparkling]
a brilliant display of wit
the quality of glittering or sparkling brightly [syn: glitter, glister, glisten, sparkle]
the twinkling of the stars caused when changes in the density of the earth's atmosphere produce uneven refraction of starlight
Wikipedia
Scintillation can refer to:
- Scintillation (astronomy), atmospheric effects which influence astronomical observations
- Interplanetary scintillation, fluctuations of radio waves caused by the solar wind
- Scintillation (physics), a flash of light produced in certain materials when they absorb ionizing radiation
- Scintillation (radar), an apparent rapid target displacement occurring on radar displays
- Scintillation (medicine), a rapidly oscillating pattern of visual distortions, often associated with migraine aura
- Scintillation counter, a device that measures ionizing radiation
- Scintillating grid illusion, an image in which compounded color contrasts cause an optical illusion of visual artifacts
Scintillation is a flash of light produced in a transparent material by the passage of a particle (an electron, an alpha particle, an ion, or a high-energy photon). See scintillator and scintillation counter for practical applications.
Scintillation is a fluctuation in the amplitude of a target on a radar display. It is closely related to target glint, or wander, an apparent displacement of the target from its mean position. This effect can be caused by a shift of the effective reflection point on the target, but has other causes as well. The fluctuations can be slow (scan-to-scan) or rapid (pulse-to-pulse).
It appears especially at seaside level.
Scintillation and glint are actually two manifestations of the same phenomenon and are most properly linked to one another in target modeling.
Usage examples of "scintillation".
Above the engine roar comes a loud crack, followed by a scintillation spreading underfoot, as the Packard hits a dark patch on the frozen lake.
Everywhere those mad dancers, brown like the bronze statuette, were flinging themselves into abandoned gyrations, with the furious scintillation of golden bangles clanging a tempo to the drums.
High above the tattered clouds, the aurora borealis forms a veil across the sky, a garish mother-of-pearl haze riddled with thousands of long, lurid scintillations, like giant shooting stars.
In the twenty-five minutes between then and now, sleep, the great healer, had incapacitated me, leaving me dizzy and weak, with scintillations in the periphery of my visual field.
The Kit-Cat Caravan began to mount up: and so the last they saw of the Clubb were scintillations of cut-crystal stirrup-cups and of the silver trays on which they were brought around, faint as gleaming of fish-scales on the black waters that lapped at Billingsgate Stairs.
Equipment ranging from simple column chromatography setups to sophisticated liquid scintillation counters sat atop the counter, alongside agar-filled petri dishes and folded nitrocellulose filters.
Now as he stared at the marvelous scintillation of the Eagers, he heard in his mind the tinkle and crash of broken crystal, the satisfying impact one felt when hitting something that would not bend or give way and could not hit back.
There were no late-twentieth-century gadgets such the Single Photon Absorptiometer or scintillation detectors to estimate height based on the length of the humerus, radius, ulna, femur, tibia, and fibula - the long bones of the arms and legs.
Now, after a Kwikspell course, I am the center of attention at parties and friends beg for the recipe of my Scintillation Solution!
They were alive with scintillations from the radiation blitz, entombing the giant ship in a nebula of shooting stars.
The bored secretary broke off updating her desk diary to pick it up and thrust it under the makeshift scintillation counter that Nigel Frogland had set up in the office the previous afternoon: when it began to buzz her jaw dropped and she nearly spilt her coffee.
The air hazed over with bright scintillations, thickening protectively around her.
Then the distortion smeared it with refracted scintillations from the gleaming starscraper, and it shot away at a bruising acceleration.
What he really needed was a high-grade scintillation counter, but that was nothing anyone could carry in a pocket.
The device contained no fissionables it wouldn't have been detected by any kind of a scintillation counter, only the kind of X ray or muon scanner that no one would put a valuable bird through.