WordNet
n. a change from one state (solid or liquid or gas) to another without a change in chemical composition [syn: phase transition, state change, physical change]
Wikipedia
Phase change may refer to:
- Phase transition, the transformation from one thermodynamic state to another.
- Phase-change memory, a type of random-access memory.
- Phase change (waves), concerning the physics of waves.
Usage examples of "phase change".
According to our calculations, the catalytic reaction and phase change should have begun instantaneously.
At the heart of any phase change there was a zone of cascading recombinant chaos.
But the magical figure of ten billion is only a rough approximation of the number of sapient individuals required to initiate the true phase change.
Perhaps the violent action had triggered a local phase change, causing all the nasty obstacles to vanish.
Memory is the key that makes possible the phase change I spoke of earlier in the chapter.
It was as near as Flandry could come to saying in Kursovikian that phase change was impossible.
Dark dim day on the water, sloshing through the phase change where water and mist turned into each other, sandwiched between them.
Thus, solids eventually melt, liquids boil, a star condenses, or a new species emerges: suddenly a phase change occurs in which the former behavior breaks down, new laws supplant the old, and all the previous limits and projections cease to mean anything.
Pushing an object beyond the speed of light is like a phase change into a dimension where time is plastic and related only to space.