Crossword clues for centrifuge
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
centrifuge \centrifuge\ v. t. 1 to drive out; to subject to the action of a centrifuge.
Syn: centrifugate.
centrifuge \centrifuge\ n. an apparatus having containers for liquids arrayed around a central pivot and rotated at a high speed, thus generating centrifugal force on the liquid, and separating substances (such as particles of solid or globules of an immiscible liquid) mixed together in suspension within the liquid. Suspensions which would settle only very slowly or not at all under gravity can be made to separate quickly in such a device.
Note: The containers for holding the liquid in a centrifuge are held in a metal frame called the head or trunnion. The solid material collected at teh bottom of the liquid container is called the pellet. A centrifuge designed to run at very high speeds and thus generate very high centrifugal force is called an ultracentrifuge.
Syn: extractor, separator.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1887, "a centrifuge machine," originally a machine for separating cream from milk, from French centrifuge, from noun use of adjective meaning "centrifugal" (1801), from Modern Latin centrifugus (see centrifugal).
Wiktionary
n. 1 A device in which a mixture of denser and lighter materials (normally dispersed in a liquid) is separated by being spun about a central axis at high speed. 2 (context figuratively English) An apparatus in which humans are spun to simulate acceleration in an aircraft or spacecraft. vb. To rotate something in a centrifuge in order to separate its constituents
WordNet
n. an apparatus that uses centrifugal force to separate particles from a suspension [syn: extractor, separator]
v. rotate at very high speed in order to separate the liquids from the solids [syn: centrifugate]
Wikipedia
A centrifuge is a piece of equipment that puts an object in rotation around a fixed axis (spins it in a circle), applying a potentially strong force perpendicular to the axis of spin (outward). The centrifuge works using the sedimentation principle, where the centripetal acceleration causes denser substances and particles to move outward in the radial direction. At the same time, objects that are less dense are displaced and move to the center. In a laboratory centrifuge that uses sample tubes, the radial acceleration causes denser particles to settle to the bottom of the tube, while low-density substances rise to the top.
There are 3 types of centrifuge designed for different applications. Industrial scale centrifuges are commonly used in manufacturing and waste processing to sediment suspended solids, or to separate immiscible liquids. An example is the cream separator found in dairies. Very high speed centrifuges and ultracentrifuges able to provide very high accelerations can separate fine particles down to the nano-scale, and molecules of different masses.
Large centrifuges are used to simulate high gravity or acceleration environments (for example, high-G training for test pilots). Medium-sized centrifuges are used in washing machines and at some swimming pools to wring water out of fabrics.
Gas centrifuges are used for isotope separation, such as to enrich nuclear fuel for fissile isotopes.
Usage examples of "centrifuge".
I have spun it in centrifuges into bicolored columns of packed cells and straw-colored serum.
Steward thought, marching in lockstep along the third level of the Vesta mainline centrifuge, Steward at the ardis, cleaving apart the Brighter Suns citizens.
Steward moved into traffic and flew along the ceiling loops until he came to an intersecting tunnel on which Brighter Suns inhabitants were hitching rides on a moving belt that took them to one of the giant habitation centrifuges.
Uranium-235, U-238, uranium hexafluoride, centrifuges, gaseous diffusion, thermal diffusion .
Next, I put some of the saliva through the centrifuge, just to be sure the parasites and the viruses did indeed separate out at different densities.
The tube is the size of the Svedberg centrifuge and chromatography equipment combined.
The hall was filled with rusting antique apparatus: a centrifuge, an operating table, a wrecked fluoroscope, autoclaves, cases of corroded surgical instruments.
There was a waiting list for the centrifuge, so Sadler dumped his clothes in a locker and went for a swim until the descending whine of the motor told him that the big machine was ready for a new cargo of passengers.
The centrifuge held six people, and had some ingenious safety device which prevented its starting unless the load was properly balanced.
He was heartily glad when the centrifuge slowed down and he was able to crawl back into the gentle gravity of the friendly Moon.
Even over the whirring hum of the centrifuge Ilona Malater could hear the argument among the geologists growing into vehemence.
Smiling inwardly, Ilona returned her attention to the whirling centrifuge and the work she was trying to finish.
Ilona thought as she watched the arms of the bench-top centrifuge spin blurringly.
But just then the centrifuge finished its run and began to slow down, its thin shrill whine sighing to a fainter note, its arms slowly drooping as if exhausted from the work it had been doing.
Joanna watched as Ilona detached a vial from the centrifuge and held it up to the overhead lights.