Showing results for artificial disintegration. Search instead for beneficial alterations.

artificial disintegration

British

noun

physics radioactive transformation of a substance by bombardment with high-energy particles, such as alpha particles or neutrons

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Charcoal, the third allotropic modification of carbon, is by far the most common, and is formed by the natural or artificial disintegration of organic matters by heat; we thus have formed wood charcoal, animal charcoal, lamp-black, and coke, all produced by artificial means, and we may also class with these coal, which is a natural product, and which contains from 85 to 95 per cent. of pure carbon.

From Project Gutenberg

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023