Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
In physics, a characteristic length is an important dimension that defines the scale of a physical system. Often, such a length is used as an input to a formula in order to predict some characteristics of the system, and it is usually required by the construction of a dimensionless quantity, in the general framework of dimensional analysis and in particular applications such as fluid mechanics.
The atomic length scale is ℓ a ~ 10 −10 m and is given by the size of hydrogen atom (i.e., the Bohr radius, approximately 53 pm).; The length scale for the strong interactions (or the one derived from QCD through dimensional transmutation) is around ℓ s ~ 10 −15 m, and the "radii" of strongly interacting particles (such as the proton) are roughly comparable.
A powerful tool in physics is the concept of dimensional analysis and scaling laws. By examining the physical effects present in a system, we may estimate their size and hence which, for example, might be neglected. In some cases, the system may not have a fixed natural length or time scale, while the solution depends on space or time.
[n 1] These definitions generally include the fluid properties of density and viscosity, plus a velocity and a characteristic length or characteristic dimension (L in the above equation). This dimension is a matter of convention—for example radius and diameter are equally valid to describe spheres or circles, but one is chosen by convention.
L = characteristic length of robot, U = characteristic speed. The analysis of a microrobot using the Strouhal number allows one to assess the impact that the motion of the fluid it is in has on its motion in relation to the inertial forces acting on the robot–regardless of the dominant forces being elastic or not.
In theories of particle physics based on string theory, the characteristic length scale of strings is assumed to be on the order of the Planck length, or 10 −35 meters, the scale at which the effects of quantum gravity are believed to become significant. [15]
Dimensionless numbers (or characteristic numbers) have an important role in analyzing the behavior of fluids and their flow as well as in other transport phenomena. [1] They include the Reynolds and the Mach numbers, which describe as ratios the relative magnitude of fluid and physical system characteristics, such as density, viscosity, speed of sound, and flow speed.
The persistence length equals the average projection of the end-to-end vector on the tangent to the chain contour at a chain end in the limit of infinite chain length. [ 4 ] The persistence length can be also expressed using the bending stiffness B s {\displaystyle B_{s}} , the Young's modulus E and knowing the section of the polymer chain.