mean free path

American  

noun

Physics, Chemistry.

1. the average distance that a particle travels between successive collisions with other particles.

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mean free path British  

noun

1. the average distance travelled by a particle, atom, etc, between collisions

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mean free path Cultural  

1. The average distance that an object (usually an atom or molecule) can move before colliding with something.

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

mean free path

"Measuring the effective mean free path of the electrons is very challenging in the low kinetic energy region, as was done in this study, added Yin. "

From Science Daily ● Sep. 29, 2023

The mean free path is the average distance a molecule travels between collisions.

From Textbooks ● Feb. 14, 2019

The atoms have various vibrations, the extent of which is called the mean free path of vibration; greatest in hydrogen and least in the densest element.

From Second Sight A study of Natural and Induced Clairvoyance by Sepharial

Experiments show that in such tubes a few molecules may traverse more than a hundred times the mean free path, with a correspondingly increased velocity, until they are arrested by collisions.

From Scientific American Supplement, No. 795, March 28, 1891 by Various

It is obvious that the length of the mean free path of the molecules of a gas may be increased indefinitely by decreasing the number of the molecules themselves in a circumscribed space.

From A History of Science — Volume 3 by Henry Smith Williams

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