TORSION • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Torsion

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noun

Torsion n.

1.

The act of turning or twisting, or the state of being twisted; the twisting or wrenching of a body by the exertion of a lateral force tending to turn one end or part of it about a longitudinal axis, while the other is held fast or turned in the opposite direction.

2.

(Mech.) That force with which a thread, wire, or rod of any material, returns, or tends to return, to a state of rest after it has been twisted; torsibility.

Angle of torsion (of a curve) (Geom.), the indefinitely small angle between two consecutive osculating planes of a curve of double curvature.

Moment of torsion (Mech.) the moment of a pair of equal and opposite couples which tend to twist a body.

Torsion balance (Physics.), an instrument for estimating very minute forces, as electric or magnetic attractions and repulsions, by the torsion of a very slender wire or fiber having at its lower extremity a horizontal bar or needle, upon which the forces act.

Torsion scale, a scale for weighing in which the fulcra of the levers or beams are strained wires or strips acting by torsion.

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Etymology of 'Torsion'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Torsion" Quotes from Famous Books

... adjustment was deferred to the end of the year. The immediate results of observation, however, began to excite suspicion; and after a time it was found that, in spite of the length of the suspending wire (about 8 feet) the torsion-coefficient was not much less than 1/6. The wires were promptly dismounted, and silk skeins substituted for them. With these, the torsion-coefficient is about 1/210.'—The Dip-Instrument, which had given great trouble ...

— Autobiography of Sir George Biddell Airy • George Biddell Airy

... confirmed as regards both transparent and opaque bodies. The experiment of J. H. Poynting may also be mentioned, in which the tangential component of the thrust of obliquely incident radiation is separately put in evidence, by the torsion produced in an arrangement which is not sensitive to the normal component or to the radiometer-pressure of the residual gas. ...

— Project Gutenberg Encyclopedia

... projectile stiff in the air, and to prevent it from ending over in its flight. To communicate this very high rotary movement to the bullet in the instant of time during which it is passing through the barrel, the rifling of the gun has to exert an enormous torsion on the bullet. Lead, no matter how hardened, is not sufficiently strong, as it will not only strip and pass straight through the gun without taking any rotary movement whatever, but under such very ...

— Scientific American Supplement, No. 821, Sep. 26, 1891 • Various

... pounds being twisted ninety-five full turns lengthened itself one sixteen-hundredth of its length. Being further twisted by twenty-five turns it shortened itself one fourth of its previous elongation. During the twisting some sections took far more torsion than others. A steel wire supporting thirty-nine pounds was twisted one hundred and twenty times and then allowed to untwist at will. It let out only thirty-eight turns and retained eighty-two in the new permanent relation of particles. ...

— Among the Forces • Henry White Warren

... mathematical training. But the Dean always felt that his own case was especially to be lamented. For you see, if a man is trying to make a model aeroplane—for a poor family in the lower part of the town—and he is brought to a stop by the need of reckoning the coefficient of torsion of cast-iron rods, it shows plainly enough that the colleges are not ...

— Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town • Stephen Leacock

... disturbances due to extraneous electric influences and the trembling of the ground. These can be eliminated completely by encircling the instrument in a metal case connected to earth, and mounting it on solid pillars in a still place. Heat also has a disturbing effect, and makes itself felt in the torsion of the fiber and the cage surrounding the lever. These effects are warded off by inclosing the instrument in a non-conducting jacket ...

— Scientific American Supplement No. 275 • Various

Words linked to "Torsion" : torque, force, magnetic moment, distorted shape, tortuousness, torsion balance, crookedness

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