Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- British physicist. He won a 1904 Nobel Prize for investigating the density of gases and for discovering argon with Sir William Ramsay.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- proper noun A
surname . - proper noun Lord Rayleigh, English physicist
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun English physicist who studied the density of gases and discovered argon; made important contributions to acoustic theory (1842-1919)
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word Rayleigh.
Examples
-
This process, known as Rayleigh type distillation, is the origin of the link between precipitation isotope composition and temperature.
-
This limit, called the Rayleigh criterion, is proportional to the wavelength of the light being focused divided by the lens aperture.
-
In the technical argot of seismology, such up and down vibrations are called Rayleigh waves, which ripple along the Earth's surface like waves on a pond, but my friend didn't need an expert to tell what had happened.
-
Rayleigh scattering the elastic scattering of light by particles much smaller than the wavelength of the light in the atmosphere makes the sky blue; that bright blue light from the sky is actually sunlight reaching you by a round about route.
-
Liquid water is denser than air, and when fluids of different densities are subjected to acceleration, Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities result in turbulent mixing of the fluids.
Archive 2009-05-01 Gordon McCabe 2009
-
I can't really get excited about inertial fusion reports since I learned that they have to overcome a fundamental instability, the e Rayleigh–Taylor instability of interstellar clouds and weather inversions.
Nuclear Fusion Power Closer to Reality Say Two Separate Teams | Universe Today 2010
-
A real shock wave would surely suffer from Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities.
Nuclear Fusion Power Closer to Reality Say Two Separate Teams | Universe Today 2010
-
Left to right shows how the flow responds to increasing Rayleigh numbers, which is associated with flow driven by buoyancy.
Does Zonal Swishing Play a Part in Earth's Magnetic Field Reversals? | Universe Today 2010
-
Rayleigh scattering is scattering to all directions and is caused by all molecules and particles in the atmosphere.
Aerosols 2010
-
Mie scattering is much more intense than Rayleigh scattering.
Aerosols 2010
Comments
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.