What is "fiber"

Fiber \Fi"ber\, Fibre \Fi"bre\,, n. [F. fibre, L. fibra.]

1. One of the delicate, threadlike portions of which the tissues of plants and animals are in part constituted; as, the fiber of flax or of muscle.

2. Any fine, slender thread, or threadlike substance; as, a fiber of spun glass; especially, one of the slender rootlets of a plant. [WordNet sense 1]

3. the inherent complex of attributes that determine a person's moral and ethical actions and reactions; sinew; strength; toughness; as, a man of real fiber. [WordNet sense 2]

   Syn: character, fibre.

   Yet had no fibers in him, nor no force.
   --Chapman.

4. A general name for the raw material, such as cotton, flax, hemp, etc., used in textile manufactures.

5. (Nutrition) that portion of food composed of carbohydrates which are completely or partly indigestible, such as cellulose or pectin; it may be in an insoluble or a soluble form. It provides bulk to the solid waste and stimulates peristalsis in the intestine. It is found especially in grains, fruits, and vegetables. There is some medical evidence which indicates that diets high in fiber reduce the risk of colon cancer and reduce cholesterol levels in the blood. It is also called dietary fiber, roughage, or bulk.

6. a leatherlike material made by compressing layers of paper or cloth. [WordNet sense 3]

   Syn: fibre, vulcanized fiber.

   Fiber gun, a kind of steam gun for converting, wood, straw, etc., into fiber. The material is shut up in the gun with steam, air, or gas at a very high pressure which is afterward relieved suddenly by letting a lid at the muzzle fly open, when the rapid expansion separates the fibers.

   Fiber plants (Bot.), plants capable of yielding fiber useful in the arts, as hemp, flax, ramie, agave, etc.

late 14c., fibre "a lobe of the liver," also "entrails," from Medieval Latin fibre, from Latin fibra "a fiber, filament; entrails," which is of uncertain origin, perhaps related to Latin filum "a thread, string" (see file (n.1)) or from root of findere "to split" (see fissure).\n

\nMeaning "thread-like structure in animal bodies" is from c.1600 (in plants, 1660s); hence figurative use in reference to force or toughness (1630s). As "textile material," 1827. Fiberboard is from 1897; Fiberglas is attested from 1937, U.S. registered trademark name; in generic use, with lower-case f- and double -s, by 1941. Fiber optics is from 1956.

n. 1 (context countable English) A single elongated piece of a given material, roughly round in cross-section, often twisted with other fibers to form thread. 2 (context uncountable English) A material in the form of fibers. 3 (context textiles English) A material whose length is at least 1000 times its width. 4 dietary fiber. 5 (context figuratively English) Moral strength and resolve. 6 (context mathematics English) The preimage of a given point in the range of a map. 7 (context computing English) A kind of lightweight thread of execution.

1. n. a slender and greatly elongated solid substance [syn: fibre]

2. the inherent complex of attributes that determine a persons moral and ethical actions and reactions; "education has for its object the formation of character"- Herbert Spencer [syn: character, fibre]

3. a leatherlike material made by compressing layers of paper or cloth [syn: fibre, vulcanized fiber]

Fiber or fibre (from the Latin fibra) is a natural or synthetic substance that is significantly longer than it is wide. Fibers are often used in the manufacture of other materials. The strongest engineering materials often incorporate fibers, for example carbon fiber and ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene.

Synthetic fibers can often be produced very cheaply and in large amounts compared to natural fibers, but for clothing natural fibers can give some benefits, such as comfort, over their synthetic counterparts.

A fiber is a long strand of material.

Fiber or Fibre may also refer to:

• Fiber (computer science)
• Fiber (mathematics)
• Dietary fiber
• Optical fiber
• Myofiber, or muscle fiber, strands of muscle tissue
• Nerve fiber, strands of nervous tissue

In computer science, a fiber is a particularly lightweight thread of execution.

Like threads, fibers share address space. However, fibers use co-operative multitasking while threads use pre-emptive multitasking. Threads often depend on the kernel's thread scheduler to preempt a busy thread and resume another thread; fibers yield themselves to run another fiber while executing.

In mathematics, the term fiber (or fibre in British English) can have two meanings, depending on the context:

1. In naive set theory, the fiber of the element y in the set Y under a map f : X → Y is the inverse image of the singleton {y} under f.
2. In algebraic geometry, the notion of a fiber of a morphism of schemes must be defined more carefully because, in general, not every point is closed.