| tearing | 1. <medicine> The watery eye; a disease in which the tears accumulate in the eye, and trickle over the cheek. 2. The emphatic repetition of a word or phrase, at the end of several sentences or stanzas. Origin: L, fr. Gr, fr. To bring to or upon; + to bring. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
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| tearing mode | <radiobiology> A resistive magnetohydrodynamic instability which is spatially localised near a rational surface and which grows at a rate slower than the magnetohydrodynamic Alfven rate, but faster than the resistive skin diffusion rate. The instability tears magnetic field lines and reconnects them into a new state of lower magnetic energy. Synonym: tearing instability (09 Oct 1997) |