The Collaborative International Dictionary
Mechanical \Me*chan"ic*al\, a. [From Mechanic, a.]
Pertaining to, governed by, or in accordance with, mechanics, or the laws of motion; pertaining to the quantitative relations of force and matter on a macroscopic scale, as distinguished from mental, vital, chemical, electrical, electronic, atomic etc.; as, mechanical principles; a mechanical theory; especially, using only the interactions of solid parts against each other; as mechanical brakes, in contrast to hydraulic brakes.
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Of or pertaining to a machine or to machinery or tools; made or formed by a machine or with tools; as, mechanical precision; mechanical products.
We have also divers mechanical arts.
--Bacon. Done as if by a machine; uninfluenced by will or emotion; proceeding automatically, or by habit, without special intention or reflection; as, mechanical singing; mechanical verses; mechanical service.
Made and operated by interaction of forces without a directing intelligence; as, a mechanical universe.
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Obtained by trial, by measurements, etc.; approximate; empirical. See the 2d Note under Geometric.
Mechanical effect, effective power; useful work exerted, as by a machine, in a definite time.
Mechanical engineering. See the Note under Engineering.
Mechanical maneuvers (Mil.), the application of mechanical appliances to the mounting, dismounting, and moving of artillery.
--Farrow.Mechanical philosophy, the principles of mechanics applied to the investigation of physical phenomena.
Mechanical powers, certain simple instruments, such as the lever and its modifications (the wheel and axle and the pulley), the inclined plane with its modifications (the screw and the wedge), which convert a small force acting through a great space into a great force acting through a small space, or vice versa, and are used separately or in combination.
Mechanical solution (Math.), a solution of a problem by any art or contrivance not strictly geometrical, as by means of the ruler and compasses, or other instruments.
Usage examples of "mechanical effect".
A red dragonfly hovers above a backwater of the stream, its wings moving so fast that the eye sees not wings in movement but a probability distribution of where the wings might be, like electron orbitals: a quantum-mechanical effect that maybe explains why the insect can apparently teleport from one place to another, disappearing from one point and reappearing a couple of meters away, without seeming to pass through the space in between.
However, all black holes evaporate via Hawking radiation, a quantum mechanical effect, and the lower the mass of the hole the faster it evaporates.
Itd take a fair-sized meteor to damage a tanks frontal armor with mechanical effect.
It'd take a fair-sized meteor to damage a tank's frontal armor with mechanical effect.
Kit, thoroughly familiar with the bio-mechanical effect of a woman's corset stays, flushed.
He strengthened the climax of the third act, and introduced a mechanical effect that was very ingenious.