The Collaborative International Dictionary
Torricellian \Tor`ri*cel"li*an\, a. Of or pertaining to Torricelli, an Italian philosopher and mathematician, who, in 1643, discovered that the rise of a liquid in a tube, as in the barometer, is due to atmospheric pressure. See Barometer.
Torricellian tube, a glass tube thirty or more inches in length, open at the lower end and hermetically sealed at the upper, such as is used in the barometer.
Torricellian vacuum (Physics), a vacuum produced by filling
with a fluid, as mercury, a tube hermetically closed at
one end, and, after immersing the other end in a vessel of
the same fluid, allowing the inclosed fluid to descend
till it is counterbalanced by the pressure of the
atmosphere, as in the barometer.
--Hutton.
Usage examples of "torricellian".
In this apparatus a Torricellian vacuum is used as a means of displacing the air surrounding the grains of powder, and through very simple manipulation the true density of black powder is determined with a high degree of accuracy.
This girl, a tube of selflessness running through her as unfillable as those empty Torricellian columns pleading for the United Way.