| Weber-Fechner law | The intensity of a sensation varies by a series of equal increments (arithmetically) as the strength of the stimulus is increased geometrically; if a series of stimuli is applied and so adjusted in strength that each stimulus causes a just perceptible change in intensity of the sensation, then the strength of each stimulus differs from the preceding one by a constant fraction; thus, if a just perceptible change in a visual sensation is produced by the addition of 1 candle to an original illumination of 100 candles, 10 candles will be required to produce any change in sensation when the original illumination was one of 1000 candles. Synonym: Fechner-Weber law, Weber's law. (05 Mar 2000) |
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| Weber's law | The intensity of a sensation varies by a series of equal increments (arithmetically) as the strength of the stimulus is increased geometrically; if a series of stimuli is applied and so adjusted in strength that each stimulus causes a just perceptible change in intensity of the sensation, then the strength of each stimulus differs from the preceding one by a constant fraction; thus, if a just perceptible change in a visual sensation is produced by the addition of 1 candle to an original illumination of 100 candles, 10 candles will be required to produce any change in sensation when the original illumination was one of 1000 candles. Synonym: Fechner-Weber law, Weber's law. (05 Mar 2000) |
| Weigert's law | The loss or destruction of a part or element in the organic world is likely to result in compensatory replacement and overproduction of tissue during the process of regeneration or repair (or both), as in the formation of callus when a fractured bone heals. Synonym: overproduction theory. (05 Mar 2000) |
| Wilder's law of initial value | The direction of response of a body function to any agent depends to a large degree on the initial level of that function. Synonym: law of initial value. (05 Mar 2000) |
| Williston's law | As the vertebrate scale is ascended, the number of bones in the skull is reduced. (05 Mar 2000) |
| Plateau-Talbot law | When successive light stimuli follow each other sufficiently rapidly to become fused, their apparent brightness is diminished. (05 Mar 2000) |
| Wolff's law | Every change in the form and the function of a bone, or in its function alone, is followed by certain definite changes in its internal architecture and secondary alterations in its external conformation. (05 Mar 2000) |
| Muller's law | Each type of sensory nerve ending, however stimulated (electrically, mechanically, etc.), gives rise to its own specific sensation; moreover, each type of sensation depends not upon any special character of the different nerves but upon the part of the brain in which their fibres terminate. Synonym: law of specific nerve energies. (05 Mar 2000) |
| Coppet's law | Solutions having the same freezing point have equal concentrations of dissolved substances. (05 Mar 2000) |
| Poiseuille's law | In laminar flow, the volume of a homogeneous fluid passing per unit time through a capillary tube is directly proportional to the pressure difference between its ends and to the fourth power of its internal radius, and inversely proportional to its length and to the viscosity of the fluid. (05 Mar 2000) |
| coulomb's law | <radiobiology> Force law governing the electrical interaction between charged particles. Force is proportional to (charge of first particle) (charge of second particle) / (square of separation between particles). Constant of proportionality depends on system of units used. (In SI units, it is 1/(4piepsilon_0), where epsilon_0 is the permittivity of free space, approx. 8.854 x 10^-12) (09 Oct 1997) |
| Courvoisier's law | Enlargement of the gallbladder with jaundice is likely to result from carcinoma of the head of the pancreas and not from a stone in the common duct, because in the latter the gallbladder is usually scarred from infection and does not distend. Synonym: Courvoisier's sign. (05 Mar 2000) |
| criminal law | A branch of law that defines criminal offenses, regulates the apprehension, charging and trial of suspected persons, and fixes the penalties and modes of treatment applicable to convicted offenders. (12 Dec 1998) |
| Haeckel's law | The theory formulated by E.H. Haeckel that individuals in their embryonic development pass through stages similar in general structural plan to the stages their species passed through in its evolution; more technically phrased, the theory that ontogeny is an abbreviated recapitulation of phylogeny. Synonym: biogenetic law, law of biogenesis, Haeckel's law, law of recapitulation. (05 Mar 2000) |
| Halsted's law | Transplanted tissue will grow only if there is a lack of that tissue in the host. (05 Mar 2000) |