dispersion

/dis'pə:ʃn/

Thân thiện

The scientist observes the dispersion of light through a glass prism.

Definition

Noun: 1. The act or process of spreading things or people over a wide area, or of becoming spread in this way. This refers to the action of causing something to separate and go in different directions. 2. The state of being dispersed; the spatial or geographic property of being scattered over a range, area, or volume. This describes the resulting pattern or arrangement of things that are spread apart. 3. (Physics) The separation of light or other radiation into components with different wavelengths, such as a spectrum of colors. This is a specific scientific usage.

Usage and Examples

• General Act of Spreading/Scattering:
  • The dispersion of the protesters was carried out by the police.
  • The rapid dispersion of the crowd prevented a stampede.
• State of Being Scattered:
  • The dispersion of the population across the island makes service delivery difficult.
  • We studied the dispersion of plant species in the rainforest.
• Scientific/Technical Context:
  • A prism causes the dispersion of white light into a rainbow of colors.
  • Statistical analysis measured the dispersion of data points around the mean.

Advanced Usage and Nuances

• "Dispersion forces": (Chemistry) Weak intermolecular forces arising from temporary dipoles in atoms or molecules.
  • London dispersion forces contribute to the boiling points of noble gases.
• "Index of dispersion": (Statistics) A measure used to assess whether observed data is clustered or dispersed compared to a statistical model.
• Used in fields like ecology (), optics (), statistics (), and sociology ().

Variants and Related Words

• Disperse (verb): To spread or distribute over a wide area; to scatter.
  • The wind helped to disperse the seeds.
• Dispersal (noun): Often synonymous with "dispersion," especially referring to the act or process.
  • The dispersal of pollen is essential for plant reproduction.
• Dispersive (adjective): Tending to disperse; causing dispersion.
  • The material has strong dispersive properties.

Synonyms

• Scattering: The act of moving or causing to move in different directions.
• Diffusion: The spreading of something more widely, especially particles, information, or culture.
• Dissemination: The act of spreading information or ideas widely.
• Distribution: The way in which something is shared or spread over an area.

Antonyms

• Concentration: The action of gathering or focusing in one place.
• Aggregation: The formation of a number of things into a cluster.
• Accumulation: The gathering or amassing of things over time.

Related Phrases and Compounds

• Dispersion relation: (Physics) The relationship between the wavelength (or wavenumber) and frequency of a wave in a medium.
• Measure of dispersion: (Statistics) A descriptive statistic (like range, variance, standard deviation) that quantifies how spread out a set of data is.

Học thuật

Noun

1. the act of dispersing or diffusing something
   • the dispersion of the troops
   • the diffusion of knowledge
2. the spatial or geographic property of being scattered about over a range, area, or volume
   • worldwide in distribution
   • the distribution of nerve fibers
   • in complementary distribution
3. spreading widely or driving off

Từ đồng nghĩa

• dispersal
• dissemination
• diffusion
• distribution
• scattering