vacuum tube
Also called, especially British, vacuum valve . an electron tube from which almost all air or gas has been evacuated: formerly used extensively in radio and electronics.
a sealed glass tube with electrodes and a partial vacuum or a highly rarefied gas, used to observe the effects of a discharge of electricity passed through it.
Origin of vacuum tube
1Words Nearby vacuum tube
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use vacuum tube in a sentence
The heart of your microwave is called a magnetron—a bulky component made of a vacuum tube and two magnets.
How to chop tearless onions, and 9 other genius microwave hacks | Sandra Gutierrez G. | September 13, 2021 | Popular-ScienceWe covered the revolution in computing that has transformed science and society from the era of vacuum tubes.
It was only a matter, he said, of transferring a man's habit patterns from brain cells to vacuum-tube cells.
The Tunnel Under The World | Frederik PohlThe luminous phenomena are very similar to those seen when a current of electricity is passed through a vacuum tube.
The Home of the Blizzard | Douglas MawsonAn interesting vacuum tube is made which has no electrodes, but contains a quantity of mercury.
A Handbook of Laboratory Glass-Blowing | Bernard D. Bolas
These are met with in barometers, spray arresters, and filter pumps, in condensers and some forms of vacuum tube.
A Handbook of Laboratory Glass-Blowing | Bernard D. BolasA form of vacuum tube which has proved very successful in the author's hands is sketched in Fig. 38.
On Laboratory Arts | Richard Threlfall
British Dictionary definitions for vacuum tube
another name for valve (def. 3)
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
Scientific definitions for vacuum tube
An electron tube from which all air has been removed. The vacuum ensures transparency inside the tube for electric fields and moving electrons. Most electron tubes are vacuum tubes; cathode-ray tubes, which include television picture tubes and other video display tubes, are the most widely used vacuum tubes. In other electronic applications, vacuum tubes have largely been replaced by transistors.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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