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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
micrometer
noun
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ And you had to sign a chit to use things like the height gauge, the big micrometers, calipers.
▪ She appeared to be searching for dust, fussing over square micrometers where maybe some of it had landed.
▪ Single-mode fibres also operate at 1.3 micrometres, but they have cores only a few micrometers across.
▪ The heights of accumulation at known time intervals are measured by optical micrometer and the particle sizes calculated from these figures.
▪ They have a diameter of about three micrometers.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Micrometer

Micrometer \Mi*crom"e*ter\, n. [Micro- + -meter: cf. F. microm[`e]tre.] An instrument, used with a telescope or microscope, for measuring minute distances, or the apparent diameters of objects which subtend minute angles. The measurement given directly is that of the image of the object formed at the focus of the object glass.

Circular micrometer, or Ring micrometer, a metallic ring fixed in the focus of the object glass of a telescope, and used to determine differences of right ascension and declination between stars by observations of the times at which the stars cross the inner or outer periphery of the ring.

Double image micrometer, a micrometer in which two images of an object are formed in the field, usually by the two halves of a bisected lens which are movable along their line of section by a screw, and distances are determined by the number of screw revolutions necessary to bring the points to be measured into optical coincidence. When the two images are formed by a bisected object glass, it is called a divided-object-glass micrometer, and when the instrument is large and equatorially mounted, it is known as a heliometer.

Double refraction micrometer, a species of double image micrometer, in which the two images are formed by the double refraction of rock crystal.

Filar micrometer, or Bifilar micrometer. See under Bifilar.

Micrometer caliper or Micrometer gauge (Mech.), a caliper or gauge with a micrometer screw, for measuring dimensions with great accuracy.

Micrometer head, the head of a micrometer screw.

Micrometer microscope, a compound microscope combined with a filar micrometer, used chiefly for reading and subdividing the divisions of large astronomical and geodetical instruments.

Micrometer screw, a screw with a graduated head used in some forms of micrometers; turning the head one full revolution advances the position of the tip of the screw only by a little.

Position micrometer. See under Position.

Scale micrometer, or Linear micrometer, a minute and very delicately graduated scale of equal parts used in the field of a telescope or microscope, for measuring distances by direct comparison.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
micrometer

1660s, from micro- + -meter. Originally a telescope attachment; from 1884 as a craftsman's fine measuring tool. Related: Micrometry; micrometric.

Wiktionary
micrometer

Etymology 1 alt. An SI#Abbreviation/MKS unit of measure, the length of one one-millionth of a meter. Symbols: µm, um, rm n. An SI#Abbreviation/MKS unit of measure, the length of one one-millionth of a meter. Symbols: µm, um, rm Etymology 2

n. A device used to measure distance very precisely but within a limited range, especially depth, thickness, and diameter.

WordNet
micrometer
  1. n. caliper for measuring small distances [syn: micrometer gauge, micrometer caliper]

  2. a metric unit of length equal to one millionth of a meter [syn: micron]

Wikipedia
Micrometer

A micrometer , sometimes known as a micrometer screw gauge, is a device incorporating a calibrated screw widely used for precise measurement of components in mechanical engineering and machining as well as most mechanical trades, along with other metrological instruments such as dial, vernier, and digital calipers. Micrometers are usually, but not always, in the form of calipers (opposing ends joined by a frame), which is why micrometer caliper is another common name. The spindle is a very accurately machined screw and the object to be measured is placed between the spindle and the anvil. The spindle is moved by turning the ratchet knob or thimble until the object to be measured is lightly touched by both the spindle and the anvil.

Micrometers are also used in telescopes or microscopes to measure the apparent diameter of celestial bodies or microscopic objects. The micrometer used with a telescope was invented about 1638 by William Gascoigne, an English astronomer.

Colloquially the word micrometer is often shortened to mike or mic .

Usage examples of "micrometer".

Breckenridge sat motionless, his eyes flashing from, micrometer screen to signal panel, his sensitive fingers moving the potentiometers through minute arcs because of what he saw upon the screen and in response to the flashing, multicolored lights and tinkling signals of his board.

P6 came in almost upon the exact center of the micrometer screen, and Breckenridge smiled in relief as he began really to enjoy the trip.

Then, by delicately manipulating the variable condensers and inductances of, his sensitive shunting relay circuits, he slowly shifted that frightful rod of energy from frequency to frequency, staring into the brilliant blank-ness of his micrometer screen as he did so.

At the end of three days of the mad flight the pursuing spaceship was in plain sight, covering hundreds of divisions of the micrometer screens.

The relative absence of micrometer impact craters suggested that the artifact had not been captured all that long ago, perhaps as recently as a hundred thousand E-years.

This was done with a mechanical screw-type micrometer after the shell membranes were removed.

Luna is a silvery iridescent sphere, planed smooth down to micrometer heights, luminous with diffraction patterns.

It is evident, therefore, the micrometer must always be used in the same way.

Another worker was burnishing a heavily plated disk on a confiscated buffing machine, frequently checking results with a micrometer gauge.

I like things I can measure on a micrometer and calculate on a slide rule.

If the artifact changes course even a micrometer, I want to know about it.

Mordecai had been no more talkative than he had been earlier in the day, and if he was friendlier it would have taken a micrometer to measure it.

The ringing sets up something similar to a mental moire fringe interference pattern from which an experienced man can read the time differential with almost micrometer accuracy.

He thought of it as an aggregate entity, made of billions of cooperating organisms, each measured on the micrometer scale.

Jeri, the man with the micrometer fingers, has the situation under control.