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.
Examples:
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
Characteristic admittance — is the mathematical inverse of the characteristic impedance. The general expression for the characteristic admittance of a transmission line is: where R is the resistance per unit length, L is the inductance per unit length, G is the conductance… … Wikipedia
Characteristic impedance — This article is about impedance in electronics. For impedance of electromagnetic waves, see Wave impedance. For characteristic acoustic impedance, see Acoustic impedance. Schematic representation of a circuit where a source is coupled to a load… … Wikipedia
Characteristic energy length scale — The characteristic energy length scale χ describes the size of the region from which energy flows to a rapidly moving crack. If material properties change within the characteristic energy length scale, local wave speeds can dominate crack… … Wikipedia
Characteristic energy — In astrodynamics a characteristic energy ( ), a form of specific energy, is a measure of the energy required for an interplanetary mission that requires attaining an excess orbital velocity over an escape velocity required for additional orbital… … Wikipedia
characteristic impedance — noun : the impedance of a uniform alternating current transmission line of indefinite length (as a long telephone cable) measured at the input end where the voltage is applied … Useful english dictionary
Debye length — In plasma physics, the Debye length (also called Debye radius), named after the Dutch physicist and physical chemist Peter Debye, is the scale over which mobile charge carriers (e.g. electrons) screen out electric fields in plasmas and other… … Wikipedia
Capillary length — In fluid mechanics, capillary length is a characteristic length scale for fluid subject to a body force from gravity and a surface force due to surface tension.The capillary length is defined asG.K. Batchelor, An Introduction To Fluid Dynamics ,… … Wikipedia
Mixing length model — The mixing length is a distance that a fluid parcel will keep its original characteristics before dispersing them into the surrounding fluid. Here, the bar on the left side of the figure is the mixing length … Wikipedia
Fitting length — In mathematics, especially in the area of algebra known as group theory, the Fitting length (or nilpotent length) measures how far a solvable group is from being nilpotent. The concept is named after Hans Fitting, due to his investigations of… … Wikipedia
Radiation length — In physics, the radiation length is a characteristic of a material, related to the energy loss of high energy, electromagnetic interacting particles with it.DefinitionHigh energy electrons predominantly lose energy in matterby bremsstrahlung, and … Wikipedia
