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Glite Dictionary
radiation pressure

radiation pressure

1 7.1
A very small push that light gives to a surface when it hits it
  • noun
  • /ˌreɪdiˈeɪʃən ˈprɛʃər/
  • Specialized
: presión de radiación
  • The solar wind and radiation pressure blow the smallest dust particles into a familiar comet dust tail.
  • solar radiation pressure
  • radiation pressure from the Sun

It does not have one of these gask discs around it that would lead to this radiation pressure that could cause an outflow.

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Examples

  • The idea of solar sail spacecraft also relies on radiation pressure from the sun to propel them through space.

  • Within some emission nebulae, radiation pressure from young stars sculpts the surrounding gas into intricate shapes.

  • OK, so there is a radiation pressure that is proportional to temperature.

    MIT OpenCourseWare

  • Eventually the radiation pressure became negligible.

  • Already by 1923, he and his student Alice Golsen had made the first accurate measurements of radiation pressure.

    Academic text (2003)

  • Eddington decided that it isn't just gas pressure that keeps a star from collapsing under gravity; radiation pressure is also important.

    Academic text (1993)

  • The group's experiment couples the radiation pressure force that is generated by light circulating inside a glass microsphere—about the size of a human hair—to the mechanical breathing motion of the microsphere.

    Blog text (31)

  • The radiation pressure created by the sun affects the orbits of small particles in space.

Synonyms

corpuscular-radiation pressure
vsradiation pressure
  • Archaic
9.9

A very small push on a surface caused by particles in a beam of light

is the same small effect but produced by electromagnetic waves rather than particles

How Strong

acoustic radiation pressure
  • Specialized
8.3
radiation pressure
  • Specialized
1 7.1

Surface Forms

radiation pressure singular
radiation pressures plural

Morphology

radiation + pressure

The meaning 'pressure exerted by radiation' is directly and transparently built from 'radiation' (energy emitted as rays/waves) combined with 'pressure' (force on a surface). This noun-noun composition follows a common, cross-linguistic compounding pattern (X + pressure = pressure caused by X), so a B1 learner who knows both constituents can readily infer the MWE's meaning.

Etymology

Radiation pressure comes from a simple image: radiation means light or similar energy and pressure means a push. Imagine sunlight like a very gentle wind that can 'push' tiny dust or small mirrors in space, so radiation pressure is the tiny push that light gives to a surface.