Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
RC time constant. The RC time constant, denoted τ (lowercase tau ), the time constant (in seconds) of a resistor–capacitor circuit (RC circuit), is equal to the product of the circuit resistance (in ohms) and the circuit capacitance (in farads ): It is the time required to charge the capacitor, through the resistor, from an initial charge ...
Time constant. In physics and engineering, the time constant, usually denoted by the Greek letter τ (tau), is the parameter characterizing the response to a step input of a first-order, linear time-invariant (LTI) system. [1] [note 1] The time constant is the main characteristic unit of a first-order LTI system. It gives speed of the response.
Clock time and calendar time have duodecimal or sexagesimal orders of magnitude rather than decimal, e.g., a year is 12 months, and a minute is 60 seconds. The smallest meaningful increment of time is the Planck time ―the time light takes to traverse the Planck distance , many decimal orders of magnitude smaller than a second.
Capacitor-spring analogy. There are several formal analogies that can be made between electricity, which is invisible to the eye, and more familiar physical behaviors, such as the flowing of water or the motion of mechanical devices. In the case of capacitance, one analogy to a capacitor in mechanical rectilineal terms is a spring where the ...
Relaxation (physics) In the physical sciences, relaxation usually means the return of a perturbed system into equilibrium . Each relaxation process can be categorized by a relaxation time τ. The simplest theoretical description of relaxation as function of time t is an exponential law exp (−t/τ) ( exponential decay ).
The TU (for time unit) is a unit of time defined as 1024 μs for use in engineering. The Svedberg is a time unit used for sedimentation rates (usually of proteins). It is defined as 10 −13 seconds (100 fs). The galactic year, based on the rotation of the galaxy and usually measured in million years.
A surface charge is an electric charge present on a two-dimensional surface. These electric charges are constrained on this 2-D surface, and surface charge density, measured in coulombs per square meter (C•m −2 ), is used to describe the charge distribution on the surface. The electric potential is continuous across a surface charge and the ...
t. e. The speed of light in vacuum, commonly denoted c, is a universal physical constant that is exactly equal to 299,792,458 metres per second (approximately 300,000 kilometres per second; 186,000 miles per second; 671 million miles per hour). [Note 3] According to the special theory of relativity, c is the upper limit for the speed at which ...