Vortex
noun, plural vortexes, vortices
[vawr-tuh-seez] /ˈvɔr təˌsiz/ (Show IPA)
1.
a whirling mass of water, especially one in which a force of suction operates, as a whirlpool.
2.
a whirling mass of air, especially one in the form of a visible column or spiral, as a tornado.
3.
a whirling mass of fire, flame, etc.
4.
a state of affairs likened to a whirlpool for violent activity, irresistible force, etc.
5.
something regarded as drawing into its powerful current everything that surrounds it:
the vortex of war.
6.
(in Cartesian philosophy) a rapid rotatory movement of cosmic matter about a center, regarded as accounting for the origin or phenomena of bodies or systems of bodies in space.
noun (pl) -texes, -tices (-tɪˌsiːz)
1.
a whirling mass or rotary motion in a liquid, gas, flame, etc, such as the spiralling movement of water around a whirlpool
2.
any activity, situation, or way of life regarded as irresistibly engulfing
vortex vor·tex (vôr’těks’)
n. pl. vor·tex·es or vor·ti·ces (-tĭ-sēz’)
A spiral motion of fluid within a limited area, especially a whirling mass of water or air that sucks everything near it toward its center.
vortex
(vôr’těks’)
Plural vortexes or vortices (vôr’tĭ-sēz’)
A circular, spiral, or helical motion in a fluid (such as a gas) or the fluid in such a motion. A vortex often forms around areas of low pressure and attracts the fluid (and the objects moving within it) toward its center. Tornados are examples of vortexes; vortexes that form around flying objects are a source of turbulence and drag. See also eddy.
Read Also:
- Vortex drag
noun 1. See trailing vortex drag
- Vortex ring
noun 1. a stable perturbation in a fluid that takes the form of a torus in which the flow rotates in the section of the torus so that the pressure difference between the inside and outside of the torus balances body forces. The best-known vortex ring is a smoke ring
- Vortex shedding
noun 1. the process by which vortices formed continuously by the aerodynamic conditions associated with a solid body in a gas or air stream are carried downstream by the flow in the form of a vortex street See also vortex street
- Vortex street
noun 1. a regular stream of vortices or parallel streams of vortices carried downstream by the flow of a fluid over a body. These are sometimes made visible by vapour condensation as in the vortex trails from the wing tips of an aeroplane See also Kármán vortex street, vortex shedding
- Vortex vein
vortex vein n. Any of the veins in the tunica vasculosa that are formed of branches from the posterior surface of the eye and the ciliary body and empty into the superior or the inferior ophthalmic vein. Also called vorticose vein.