specific impulse

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noun Rocketry.

a measure, usually in seconds, of the efficiency with which a rocket engine utilizes its propellants, equal to the number of pounds of thrust produced per pound of propellant burned per second.

the specific impulse that a given combination of propellants would produce in an ideal rocket engine providing complete combustion, no friction losses, and no lateral expansion of the exhaust.

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Also called specific thrust .

Origin of specific impulse

First recorded in 1945–50

Words nearby specific impulse

specific heat, specific heat capacity, specific humidity, specific immune globulin, specific immunity, specific impulse, specificity, specific name, specific opsonin, specific parasite, specific performance

How to use specific impulse in a sentence

One specific kind of emergency is at the heart of this, such as when an airplane suffers a loss of stability at night.
Flight 8501 Poses Question: Are Modern Jets Too Automated to Fly?|Clive Irving|January 4, 2015|DAILY BEAST
So too with a vaccine that provokes a specific immune response aimed at a specific RNA sequence.
When You Get the Flu This Winter, You Can Blame Anti-Vaxxers|Kent Sepkowitz|January 1, 2015|DAILY BEAST
The impulse to interpret seems to me what makes personal essay writing compelling.
Daphne Merkin on Lena Dunham, Book Criticism, and Self-Examination|Mindy Farabee|December 26, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Mistletoes infections can kill individual trees and stands of trees, and most mistletoe species attack specific tree species.
Mistletoe is the Vampire of Plants|Helen Thompson|December 21, 2014|DAILY BEAST

“Protocols have specific meanings behind them, rather than do what I say because I say so,” she added.
Dungeons and Genital Clamps: Inside a Legendary BDSM Chateau|Ian Frisch|December 20, 2014|DAILY BEAST
To reproduce the impulse born of the thought—this is the aim of a psychological method.
Expressive Voice Culture|Jessie Eldridge Southwick
Genoa has but recently and partially felt the new impulse, yet even here the march of improvement is visible.
Glances at Europe|Horace Greeley
It is the dramatic impulse of childhood endeavouring to bring life into the dulness of the serious hours.
Children's Ways|James Sully
Those in whom the impulse is strong and dominant are perhaps those who in later years make the good society actors.
Children's Ways|James Sully
The specific gravity is most conveniently estimated by means of the urinometer—Squibb's is preferable (Fig. 14).
A Manual of Clinical Diagnosis|James Campbell Todd

British Dictionary definitions for specific impulse

specific impulse

noun

the ratio of the thrust produced by a rocket engine to the rate of fuel consumption: it has units of time and is the length of time that unit weight of propellant would last if used to produce one unit of thrust continuously

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