The Collaborative International Dictionary
Conductivity \Con`duc*tiv"i*ty\ (k[o^]n`d[u^]k*t[i^]v"[i^]*t[y^]), n. The quality or power of conducting, or of receiving and transmitting, as heat, electricity, etc.; as, the conductivity of a nerve.
Thermal conductivity (Physics), the quantity of heat that passes in unit time through unit area of a plate whose thickness is unity, when its opposite faces differ in temperature by one degree.
Thermal \Ther"mal\, a. [L. thermae hot springs, fr. Gr. ?, pl. of ? heat, fr. ? hot, warm, ? to warm, make hot; perhaps akin to L. formus warm, and E. forceps.]
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Of or pertaining to heat; warm; hot; as, the thermal unit; thermal waters.
The thermal condition of the earth.
--J. D. Forbes. caused by or affected by heat; as, thermal springs.
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designed to retain heat; as, thermal underwear.
Thermal conductivity, Thermal spectrum. See under Conductivity, and Spectrum.
Thermal unit (Physics), a unit chosen for the comparison or calculation of quantities of heat. The unit most commonly employed is the amount of heat necessary to raise the temperature of one gram or one pound of water from zero to one degree Centigrade. See Calorie, and under Unit.
Wiktionary
n. (context physics English) A measure of the ability of a material to conduct heat, often denoted ''k'', ''λ'', or ''κ''.
Wikipedia
In physics, thermal conductivity (often denoted k, λ, or κ) is the property of a material to conduct heat. It is evaluated primarily in terms of Fourier's Law for heat conduction.
Heat transfer occurs at a lower rate across materials of low thermal conductivity than across materials of high thermal conductivity. Correspondingly, materials of high thermal conductivity are widely used in heat sink applications and materials of low thermal conductivity are used as thermal insulation. The thermal conductivity of a material may depend on temperature. The reciprocal of thermal conductivity is called thermal resistivity.
Thermal conductivity is actually a tensor, which means it is possible to have different values in different directions. See #Thermal anisotropy below.
Usage examples of "thermal conductivity".
All the walls have been coated with passivine, perfectly reflecting and with a very low coefficient of thermal conductivity.
Its surface changed color as its thermal conductivity altered, shedding excess heat from his skin, keeping his body at the temperature he was most comfortable with.
Sight, for instance, tells us very little about solidity, weight, composition, electrical character, thermal conductivity, etc.
If the ability of the super-metal to resist phaser action is due (even in part) to an extremely high thermal conductivity, then the ulterior of this planetoid will in forty hours attain the temperature of a supernova&mdash.
So this may be some very unusual synthetic with a similar thermal conductivity.
If the ability of the super-metal to resist phaser action is due (even in part) to an extremely high thermal conductivity, then the ulterior of this planetoid will in forty hours attain the temperature of a supernova-for only a minute fraction of a second, but that will be sufficient.