Crossword clues for capillarity
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Capillarity \Cap`il*lar"i*ty\, n. [Cf. F. capillarit['e].]
The quality or condition of being capillary.
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(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 attaction 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.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1806, from French capillarité, from Latin capillaris (see capillary).
Wiktionary
n. The interaction between the surfaces of a solid and liquid in contact that distorts the normal geometry of the liquid surface; especially the rise or fall of a liquid in a fine tube.
WordNet
n. a phenomenon associated with surface tension and resulting in the elevation or depression of liquids in capillaries [syn: capillary action]
Usage examples of "capillarity".
Claire remembered watching beads of condensed humidity creeping by capillarity across surfaces in the Habitat, until she'd smeared them to oblivion with her dry-rag, just as she and Tony crept now.
It is necessary rather to know the composition of the substances in question--the geological strata, the atmospheric actions, the quality of the soil, the minerals, the waters, the density of the different bodies, their capillarity, and what not.
This general ascent, this phenomenon akin to capillarity, is possible only in a country where political equality and economic inequality prevail.
But after noon, sporadic showers fell, soaking their breeches where their knees peered from their rain capes, the moisture proceeding coldly upward by capillarity to their hips, chilling their spirits as well as their bodies.
It is necessary rather to know the composition of the substances in question—the geological strata, the atmospheric actions, the quality of the soil, the minerals, the waters, the density of the different bodies, their capillarity, and what not.