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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.
In physics, length scale is a particular length or distance determined with the precision of at most a few orders of magnitude. The concept of length scale is particularly important because physical phenomena of different length scales cannot affect each other [citation needed] [clarification needed] and are said to decouple. The decoupling of ...
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.
In atomic physics, sub-atomic physics, and cosmology, the preferred unit of length is often related to a chosen fundamental physical constant, or combination thereof. This is often a characteristic radius or wavelength of a particle. Some common natural units of length are included in this table:
Mass per unit length kg⋅m −1: L −1 M: Luminous flux (or luminous power) F: Perceived power of a light source lumen (lm = cd⋅sr) J: Mach number (or mach) M: Ratio of flow velocity to the local speed of sound unitless: 1: Magnetic flux: Φ: Measure of magnetism, taking account of the strength and the extent of a magnetic field: weber (Wb ...
[1]: 336 A value between one and 10 is characteristic of slug flow or laminar flow. [2] A larger Nusselt number corresponds to more active convection, with turbulent flow typically in the 100–1000 range. [2] A similar non-dimensional property is the Biot number, which concerns thermal conductivity for a solid body rather than a fluid.
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]
The Knudsen number is a dimensionless number defined as =, where = mean free path [L 1], = representative physical length scale [L 1].. The representative length scale considered, , may correspond to various physical traits of a system, but most commonly relates to a gap length over which thermal transport or mass transport occurs through a gas phase.