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mean free path

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mean free path

 
Use mean free path in a Sentence
–noun Physics, Chemistry. (in a collection of moving particles)
the average distance that a particle travels between successive collisions with other particles.
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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Cultural Dictionary

mean free path

The average distance that an object (usually an atom or molecule) can move before colliding with something.

The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Encyclopedia

mean free path

average distance an object will move between collisions. The actual distance a particle, such as a molecule in a gas, will move before a collision, called free path, cannot generally be given because its calculation would require knowledge of the path of every particle in the region. The probability (dP) that a molecule will move a distance between two points (x and x + dx) without collision is proportional to an exponential factor; that is, dP = e-x/mudx, in which e is the base of natural logarithms. The constant mu is the mean free path and is the average (mean) distance traveled by a molecule between collisions. The mean free path of an oxygen gas molecule under a pressure of 1 atmosphere at 0 C is about 6 10-6 cm (2 106 inch)

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Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
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