Feb 9, 2012 08:26
12 yrs ago
French term

vite (noun)

French to English Science Physics
patent relating to electro-wetting and nucleation of bubbles. I'm confused by this word "vite" in the following:

"Le mouillage d’un liquide varie selon une loi décrite par l’équation de Lippman-Young’s :

[equation:] cos θ = cos θy + ( εε0 / 2γd ) V2

dans laquelle θ est l’angle de contact au potentiel V, θY l’angle de contact au potentiel 0 V, Y l’énergie de surface du liquide, ε0 la permittivité du vite, ε la constante diélectrique de la couche isolante et d l’épaisseur de cette couche isolante"

I've tried looking up the "Lippman-Young" (or "Young-Lippman") equation... but I still can't work out whether "vite" is a typo. There is no reference before or after in the text to "vite" or to permittivity. Nor does the context throw any light on the matter.

Proposed translations

+1
2 hrs
Selected

(permittivity of) free space

While there is nothing wrong with "permittivity of a vacuum" the expression usually used is "free space". Multiplication by the (dimensionless) relative permittivity (incorrectly known as dielectric constant) gives the overall permittivity of the material.

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Note added at 2 hrs (2012-02-09 11:08:09 GMT)
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Many hits for "permittivity of free space". See e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permittivity, amongst others
Note from asker:
thanks... "permittivity of free space" (entre guillemets) gets many more hits than "permittivity of vacuum"
Peer comment(s):

agree M.A.B. : vacuum permittivity http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacuum_permittivity | Sure! I guess these various terms are more or less equivalent. Anyway, we're talking about epsilon_0.
8 hrs
Thank you. This is one of those rare occasions when I do know what I'm talking about, having worked in the field for decades.
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "thanks"
+1
14 mins

VIDE (typo)

Permittivité du vide - Wikipédiafr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permittivité_du_videEn cache - Pages similaires
+1 publié par vous pour ce contenu Annuler
La permittivité du vide, permittivité diélectrique du vide ou encore constante électrique est une constante physique. Elle est notée ε0
Note from asker:
thanks... of course! (not that I had ever heard of permittivity of free space or whatever)
Peer comment(s):

agree kashew
46 mins
Something went wrong...
+4
15 mins

vacuum

must be a typo for "vide", see URL below
Peer comment(s):

agree Zareh Darakjian Ph.D.
13 mins
agree kashew
44 mins
agree Alistair Ian Spearing Ortiz
1 hr
agree M.A.B. : vacuum permittivity http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacuum_permittivity
10 hrs
Something went wrong...
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