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undulatory

undulatory


  1  definition  found 
 
  From  Webster's  Revised  Unabridged  Dictionary  (1913)  [web1913]: 
 
  Undulatory  \Un"du*la*to*ry\  (?;  277),  a.  [Cf.  F.  ondulatoire.] 
  Moving  in  the  manner  of  undulations,  or  waves;  resembling  the 
  motion  of  waves,  which  successively  rise  or  swell  rise  or 
  swell  and  fall;  pertaining  to  a  propagated  alternating 
  motion,  similar  to  that  of  waves. 
 
  {Undulatory  theory},  or  {Wave  theory}  (of  light)  (Opt.),  that 
  theory  which  regards  its  various  phenomena  as  due  to 
  undulations  in  an  ethereal  medium,  propagated  from  the 
  radiant  with  immense,  but  measurable,  velocities,  and 
  producing  different  impressions  on  the  retina  according  to 
  their  amplitude  and  frequency,  the  sensation  of  brightness 
  depending  on  the  former,  that  of  color  on  the  latter.  The 
  undulations  are  supposed  to  take  place  not  in  the 
  direction  of  propagation,  as  in  the  air  waves  constituting 
  sound,  but  transversely,  and  the  various  phenomena  of 
  refraction,  polarization,  interference,  etc.,  are 
  attributable  to  the  different  affections  of  these 
  undulations  in  different  circumstances  of  propagation.  It 
  is  computed  that  the  frequency  of  the  undulations 
  corresponding  to  the  several  colors  of  the  spectrum  ranges 
  from  458  millions  of  millions  per  second  for  the  extreme 
  red  ray,  to  727  millions  of  millions  for  the  extreme 
  violet,  and  their  lengths  for  the  same  colors,  from  the 
  thirty-eight  thousandth  to  the  sixty  thousandth  part  of  an 
  inch.  The  theory  of  ethereal  undulations  is  applicable  not 
  only  to  the  phenomena  of  light,  but  also  to  those  of  heat.