POLARITY • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Polarity

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/poʊlˈɛrəti/ Listen

noun

Polarity n.

(Physics) That quality or condition of a body in virtue of which it exhibits opposite, or contrasted, properties or powers, in opposite, or contrasted, parts or directions; or a condition giving rise to a contrast of properties corresponding to a contrast of positions, as, for example, attraction and repulsion in the opposite parts of a magnet, the dissimilar phenomena corresponding to the different sides of a polarized ray of light, etc.

(Geom.) A property of the conic sections by virtue of which a given point determines a corresponding right line and a given right line determines a corresponding point. See Polar, n.

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Etymology of 'Polarity'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Polarity" Quotes from Famous Books

... the powers of nature into our service, and of making them perform the principal part of what, we must otherwise have wholly performed ourselves. In navigation is it possible to doubt that the powers of nature—the buoyancy of the water, the impulse of the wind, and the polarity of the magnet—contribute fully as much as the labours of the sailor to waft our ships from one hemisphere to another? In bleaching and fermentation the whole processes are carried on by natural agents. And it is to the effects of heat in softening and melting metals, in preparing our food, ...

— The trade, domestic and foreign • Henry Charles Carey

... (Sec.123) of the wire to a middle binding-post, and carry the outside ends to the two outside binding-posts. In this way you can use either magnet alone, if desired (See experiments in text-book), or change the polarity at will by changing the connections. (See ...

— How Two Boys Made Their Own Electrical Apparatus • Thomas M. (Thomas Matthew) St. John

... not a helpless atom in this vast creation, with a fixed position, and naught to do but obey his own polarity. ...

— Architects of Fate - or, Steps to Success and Power • Orison Swett Marden

... and of making them perform the principal part of what, we must otherwise have wholly performed ourselves. In navigation is it possible to doubt that the powers of nature—the buoyancy of the water, the impulse of the wind, and the polarity of the magnet—contribute fully as much as the labours of the sailor to waft our ships from one hemisphere to another? In bleaching and fermentation the whole processes are carried on by natural agents. And it is to the effects ...

— The trade, domestic and foreign • Henry Charles Carey

... shivered in the shock of this sudden electric polarity. The man seemed alone against a sullen, unexplained hostility. The desperation she had thought to read but a moment before had vanished utterly, leaving in its place a scornful indifference and perhaps more than a trace of recklessness. He was ripe for an outbreak. She did not ...

— Conjuror's House - A Romance of the Free Forest • Stewart Edward White

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