Ventricular elastance 2026-10-31
Time-dependent elastance models the pressure generated by a cardiac ventricle at its current stressed volume. The reference is its zero-pressure volume. The inverse of elastance is compliance at fixed time. Rising elastance increases pressure without volume change during isovolumetric contraction; an approximately constant systolic value gives compliance during a simplified ejection stage.
Vibrating-sample magnetometer 2026-10-18
A vibrating-sample magnetometer measures a specimen's magnetic dipole moment through the induced electromotive force as it moves relative to stationary pickup coils. Dividing that magnetic dipole moment by the specimen's independently determined volume gives its average magnetization.
In Simon Foner's 1959 apparatus, the specimen was weighed and glued to a mount. A loudspeaker drive moved it perpendicular to an applied uniform magnetic field between magnet poles; stationary coils detected the induced electromotive force. A reference magnet on the same vibrating assembly generated a second coil electromotive force. Adjusting the reference voltage divider to an electrical null compared the specimen signal with this reference. The measurement calibration substituted a magnetically saturated pure nickel sphere of known magnetic dipole moment; a specimen-removed reading corrected the mount's contribution. The calibrated signal inferred the specimen's magnetic dipole moment, not its local magnetization map. Measurement uncertainty in the standard, positioning, finite specimen size, coil noise, and mechanical coupling limited the inference.[ref]
The readout follows Faraday's law of induction. In a small-displacement model with constant projected magnetic dipole moment , let the pickup-coil magnetic flux linkage be and the specimen motion be . Here incorporates coil geometry and turn count, is the displacement amplitude, and is angular frequency. To first order in displacement, with the derivative at the mean position,This is an original idealized readout relation: a larger induced electromotive force can mean larger magnetic dipole moment, greater motion, or a changed coil position. A synchronously moving reference allows common motion factors to cancel in the ratio of induced electromotive forces. The measurement calibration and specimen-removed control are therefore integral to the measurement. A single amplitude reading cannot by itself distinguish microscopic alignment from a change in individual magnetic dipole moments.
Virial expansion Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-13
The virial expansion describes the first departures from the ideal gas law as a power series in number density. For a homogeneous, single-species gas in three dimensions at thermal equilibrium, write , with the volume, and define the dimensionless compressibility factor byHere is absolute pressure, is absolute thermodynamic temperature, and is the Boltzmann constant. The second virial coefficient determines the initial slope away from ; higher coefficients describe further corrections. The symbol here is an equation of state ratio, not a canonical partition function. [ref]
Controlled gas expansion and extraction of a dilute-gas slope: schematic apparatus and explicitly chosen toy curves
. Details. The left panel sketches the measurement principle; the right panel uses deliberately chosen polynomials, with and , where is a reference length. These curves are not measured data. Their initial slopes have opposite signs, but both bend because of the quadratic term. Using a finite secant from to gives , rather than : reducing the fitting range reduces this particular truncation bias. This algebra explains why measuring one nonideal pressure is insufficient to extract a reliable second virial coefficient.
Waxman and Hastings's 1971 Burnett experiment used sample and expansion chambers in a thermostatic bath, with a valve between them and a pressure transducer linked to a piston gauge. They measured successive isothermal expansions: evacuate the expansion chamber, open the valve, record the equilibrated pressure, isolate and evacuate that chamber again, then repeat. This avoids separately measuring the absolute gas amount and chamber volumes. For carbon dioxide at , their measurements below bar gave a molar second virial coefficient of approximately . [ref]
https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/jres/75C/jresv75Cn3-4p165_A1b.pdf. Waxman and Hastings, Journal of Research of the NBS 75C (1971), pages 165–176, abstract and apparatus
An idealized reduction makes the signal explicit. Let be the calibrated chamber volume ratio, the pre-expansion pressure, and the post-expansion pressure. Particle conservation during one valve opening gives . At the same temperature, division of the two equations of state yieldsThus the intercept determines , while the dilute-limit slope determines the second virial coefficient. In the actual experiment, helium runs calibrated the cell constant and chamber deformation corrections were included. Agreement of the carbon dioxide low-pressure intercept with the helium calibration, and the absence of an anomalous low-pressure upturn, checked for gas adsorption on chamber walls. [ref]
https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/jres/75C/jresv75Cn3-4p165_A1b.pdf. Waxman and Hastings (1971), data reduction and adsorption checks, especially equation 13 and page 176
For a limited dilute-gas fit, hold temperature fixed, allow thermal equilibrium after every expansion, calibrate absolute pressure and the chamber ratio, and check leaks and sample composition. Repeat the analysis with a smaller upper pressure cutoff and an added curvature term; compare the resulting second virial coefficients with their uncertainties. Too wide a range mixes in higher coefficients; too narrow a range makes the nonideal signal hard to distinguish from instrument error. The displayed chamber equation neglects deformation, dead spaces and adsorption, so it is a teaching reduction rather than the complete experimental analysis.
Units matter. With number density in , has units and has units . For molar density in , the same equation of state isHere is the Avogadro constant and is the molar gas constant; the molar coefficients have units and . A coefficient tabulated per mole must therefore multiply molar density, not number density.
For the classical formulas below, use a nondegenerate gas with thermal de Broglie wavelength satisfying , negligible quantum corrections to relative motion, and a stable, sufficiently short-ranged pair potential. Diluteness must also control the omitted interaction terms: alone is not enough when positive and negative contributions cancel. A finite truncation is a local low-number density approximation, not an equation of state for a dense liquid or across a phase transition. [ref]
https://davidtong.org/teaching/statistical-physics/statmechhtml/S2#S2.S2.SS4. Tong, section 2.2.4: classical-density condition
[ref]https://davidtong.org/teaching/statistical-physics/statmechhtml/S2#S2.S5.SS1. Tong, section 2.5.1: dilute interacting gas
Viscous gravity current on a cone Created 2026-10-05 Updated 2026-10-14
Let be slant distance from an upward apex, and let the surface slope down at angle to the horizontal. Axisymmetric lubrication theory givesFor conserved volume and , the leading similarity solution has in , withThe outer front is a discontinuity in this reduced conservation law; the hydrostatic-gradient term and the full local flow resolve the front and apex regions where the outer approximation fails.
Viscous stress tensor Created 2026-09-28 Updated 2026-10-14
The viscous stress tensor is the part of the Cauchy stress tensor associated with deformation rates. For an isotropic Newtonian fluid in incompressible flow,Here is pressure, is the identity matrix, is dynamic viscosity, and is the strain-rate tensor. The convention is ; denotes transpose and denotes trace. Across a plane with unit normal vector , the viscous traction is . The tensor makes this rule work for any plane orientation. [ref]
https://www.damtp.cam.ac.uk/user/tong/fluids/fluids.pdf. David Tong, Fluid Mechanics, section 3.1.1, equations (3.5)–(3.6)
In the worked Couette flow, , soIn particular, while the shear rate is ; the factor in recovers . On the upper face of a fluid slice, gives viscous traction ; on the lower face it is . Constant stress can therefore transmit a force between the plates even though its divergence, and the net viscous force on each slice, vanish.
Compare planar extension with solid-body rotation :Extension changes lengths and produces viscous normal stresses . Rotation preserves distances and gives zero viscous stress, despite its nonzero velocity gradient and vorticity . For and , extension gives and ; rotation gives zero. A rotating fluid may still have a pressure gradient supplying its centripetal acceleration.
For an isotropic Newtonian fluid in three-dimensional compressible flow, separate shape change from volume change:The first term is deviatoric stress, with zero trace; is volume viscosity, also called bulk viscosity. For uniform expansion , and , so the shear contribution vanishes and the viscous stress is . Thus dynamic viscosity and volume viscosity describe distinct responses, and incompressible flow removes only the volume-change term. [ref]
https://notes.shreyasmandre.com/fluid-dynamics-notes/Ch2.html. Shreyas Mandre, Fluid Dynamics Lecture Notes, section 2.11.3, equation (2.49)
Void fraction 2026-10-13
The void fraction is the fraction of a mixture's local volume occupied by gas. For a horizontally uniform bubbly liquid it is the transported concentration in a one-dimensional gas-volume continuity equation. It is distinct from gas mass fraction because gas and liquid have different mass densities.
For drops with intensity , impact time and nonnegative volume , let their radius at time be . The dry probability at isThe exponent is the intensity of drops whose patch covers the point by that time. An infinite exponent means zero dry probability. No spatial-homogeneity assumption is needed.
Volume and centroid of a parabolic cup Created 2026-10-18 Updated 2026-10-25
The solid , , with , has horizontal slice area . Thus its volume is . For a positive constant mass density, rotational symmetry puts its centre of mass on the vertical axis, andThe curved surface area, excluding the horizontal opening, is . Parametrizing the elliptic paraboloid by gives the area element of a surface , with , proving this last formula. It is also a translated and reflected specialization of paraboloid sector surface measures.
Volume average 2026-10-14
A volume average is the normalized integral average of a field over a three-dimensional region of finite positive volume. For a fixed region, differentiating in time commutes with this average under the usual regularity conditions. The divergence theorem converts the average of a divergence into its net boundary flux divided by volume.
Volume-coupling relation for M-theory on K3 2026-10-14
A wrapped M5-brane fixes the heterotic string tension proportional to . Reduction of the gravitational coupling gives . Therefore , yielding the displayed dimensionless coupling relation. This derivation separates the K3 volume modulus from its shape Narain moduli space.
Volume enclosed by a sphere 2026-10-20
Volume fluctuations of a small fluid parcel 2026-10-20
For a material parcel of fixed amount inside a much larger thermal and mechanical environment, availability is . Since , its curvature is . The Gaussian fluctuation approximation gives . This describes parcel-volume fluctuations, not the geometric volume of a fixed observation box or a globally rigid vessel. A fixed spatial box instead has number fluctuations related to the same compressibility.
Volume fraction 2026-10-14
The volume fraction of a constituent is its occupied volume divided by total sample volume. Fractions sum to one for a partition into phases. In a statistically homogeneous medium the phase fraction also equals the probability that a typical point lies in that phase, under the appropriate spatial or ensemble averaging assumptions.
Volume magnetic susceptibility 2026-10-14
Volume magnetic susceptibility is the dimensionless ratio of longitudinal magnetization to internal magnetic field intensity in a linear regime through the origin. Positive response gives paramagnetism. Always distinguish magnetization from total magnetic moment : dividing by volume changes the normalization. Mass-normalized and mole-normalized values likewise require the mass density or the volume per amount of substance before comparison with .
In the existing Pauli paramagnetism formula, denotes total magnetic moment, and is the total spin-summed density of states. Relabel that response asHere is the Bohr magneton. If its is a prescribed vacuum/applied magnetic flux density , the dimensionless apparent slope is . It agrees approximately with intrinsic only when the demagnetizing field correction and magnetic feedback are negligible. The existing Curie's law formula also uses a total-magnetic moment, -derivative convention; its counts moments rather than giving a number density.
Volume magnetostriction 2026-10-18
Volume magnetostriction is the relative volume change associated with a magnetic-state change. To first order it is the trace of the magnetostrictive strain. Zero trace is an additional restriction, not a consequence of isotropy alone.
Volume of a Euclidean unit sphere Created 2026-09-28 Updated 2026-10-07
The -dimensional volume of the Euclidean unit sphere equals times the -dimensional volume of its unit ball. If is the radial vector field and , then , and the Generalized Stokes theorem proves the formula.
Volume (thermodynamics) Created 2026-10-05 Updated 2026-10-14
Thermodynamic volume is the volume occupied by a thermodynamic system, treated as an extensive variable.
Volumetric analysis 2026-10-31
Quantitative analytical chemistry using the measured volume of a standard solution and a known reaction proportion.
Volumetric flow rate Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-03
Volumetric heat generation rate 2026-10-20

