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Glite Dictionary
🌀 A twisted shape 🌪️ Twisting flow 🔬 Spin direction
helicity

helicity

9.9
A measure of how much a flow like wind or water twists around itself
  • noun
  • /hɪˈlɛsɪti/
  • Specialized
translation icon : helicidad
  • The scientist explained that helicity plays a crucial role in understanding the behavior of turbulent flows.

Examples

  • Sewing together two maximal helicity-violating diagrams with a propagator yields a non-MHV tree diagram with three negative helicities.

    Academic text (2004)

  • On the other hand, large changes in kinetic helicity are intimately related to qualitative changes in the topology of vortex flows.

    Academic text (1996)

  • This work is based on the topological interpretation of a new fluid invariant, known as helicity.

    Academic text (1996)

  • Under Euler's equations, the helicity of a vortex tube of vorticity w and velocity u is defined by

    Academic text (1996)

  • In fluid dynamics, helicity quantifies how much the flow twists and coils within a given volume.

  • Researchers found that the helicity of the water current affected the distribution of particles in the river.

How Twisted

helicity
  • Specialized
9.9
to twist
231 1.7
spiraling
4.8
coiling
4.4
curve
209 2.3
straightness
1 1.0

Surface Forms

helicity singular
helicities plural

Morphology

helicity = helical (transparent) = helic + ity

Formed by adding '-ity' to 'helical' to denote the property of being helical; the relation is morphologically straightforward though used in a technical measurement context.

Etymology

Helicity comes from the Greek root helix, meaning 'spiral' or 'twist', and a helpful picture is a tornado or a whirlpool. So, in fluids and fields, helicity is a measure of how much the flow or the field lines twist and coil around each other.