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Torsion   Listen
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.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Torsion" Quotes from Famous Books



... either in connection with astronomical and geodetic operations, with the view of finding the deflection of the plummet from a vertical line in the vicinity of a mountain, or by a comparison of the length of the pendulum in a plain and on the summit of an elevation, or, finally, by the employment of a torsion balance, which may be considered as a horizontally vibrating pendulum for the measurement of the relative density ...
— COSMOS: A Sketch of the Physical Description of the Universe, Vol. 1 • Alexander von Humboldt

... equinus, varus, and valgus, that is to say, katastrephopody, endostrephopody, and exostrephopody (or better, the various turnings of the foot downwards, inwards, and outwards, with the hypostrephopody and anastrephopody), otherwise torsion downwards and upwards, Monsier Homais, with all sorts of arguments, was exhorting the lad at the inn to ...
— Madame Bovary • Gustave Flaubert

... To illustrate the movement of torsion in the spine, or its rotation round its own axis. Sit upright, with the back and shoulders well applied against the back of a chair. Note that the head and neck can be turned as far as 60 degrees or 70 degrees. Now bend ...
— A Practical Physiology • Albert F. Blaisdell

... criterion on rear-axle and pinion shafts, steering knuckles and arms and parts of this general type is resistance to fatigue and torsion. The material recommended for parts of this character is either S. A. E. No. 6135 or No. 3135 steel, which have the chemical composition given ...
— The Working of Steel - Annealing, Heat Treating and Hardening of Carbon and Alloy Steel • Fred H. Colvin

... immovably, with his fore-feet upon the paved crest of the central road. He of the whole party might be supposed untouched by the passion of death. The little cany carriage—partly, perhaps, from the violent torsion of the wheels in its recent movement, partly from the thundering blow we had given to it—as if it sympathised with human horror, was all alive with tremblings and shiverings. The young man trembled not, nor shivered. He sat like a rock. But his was the steadiness of ...
— The English Mail-Coach and Joan of Arc • Thomas de Quincey

... swinging toward Rome, in Italy; in twelve hours, toward Siam, in Asia; in nineteen hours, toward the Sandwich Islands; and in twenty-four, toward Washington again, not because it has changed the plane of its vibration, but because the earth has whirled beneath it, and the torsion of the wire has not been sufficient to compel the plane of the original direction to change with the turning of the earth. The law of inertia keeps it moving in the same direction. The same experimental proof of revolution is shown in a proportional degree at any point between ...
— Recreations in Astronomy - With Directions for Practical Experiments and Telescopic Work • Henry Warren

... Paris, we are indebted for the introduction of the artery-forceps for the arresting of hemorrhage. I shall do but justice to him by describing his mode of proceeding. He seizes the divided vessel with a pair of torsion-forceps in such a manner as to hold and close the mouth of the vessel in its teeth. The slide of the forceps then shuts its blade, and the artery is held fast. The artery is then drawn from out of the tissues surrounding it, to the extent ...
— The Dog - A nineteenth-century dog-lovers' manual, - a combination of the essential and the esoteric. • William Youatt

... varieties of torsion of the penis. The glans itself may be inclined laterally, the curvature may be total, or there may be a veritable rotation, bringing the inferior face above and the superior face below. Gay describes a child with epispadias whose penis had undergone such torsion on its axis that its inferior surface ...
— Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine • George M. Gould

... (b) A suspension or torsion balance is one which includes a filament or pair of filaments to whose lower end or ends are attached a horizontal indicator often called a needle, or a magnetic ...
— The Standard Electrical Dictionary - A Popular Dictionary of Words and Terms Used in the Practice - of Electrical Engineering • T. O'Conor Slone



Words linked to "Torsion" :   contortion, tortuosity, crookedness, moment of a magnet, force, magnetic moment



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