convection Physics.
(kənˈvɛkʃən)
[ad. L. convectiōn-em, n. of action from convehĕre: see prec.]
The action of carrying; conveyance; spec. the transportation of heat or electricity by the movement of a heated or electrified substance, as in the ascension of heated air or water.
| 1623 Cockeram, Conuexion, a bearing. 1834 W. Prout Bridgew. Treat. 256 The process by which heat is communicated through water, we have termed convection. 1863 Tyndall Heat 177. 1869 E. A. Parkes Pract. Hygiene (ed. 3) 371 Heat is communicated by radiation, conduction, and convection. 1881 Maxwell Electr. & Magn. I. 56 The passage of electricity from one place to another by the motion of charged particles is called Electrical Convection or Convective Discharge. |
b. attrib., as in convection current.
| 1868 B. Stewart in Macm. Mag. July 254 There are..convection currents in constant operation all over the disc. |
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Add: [1.] [b.] convection cell, a relatively stable and self-contained region of convection (usu. one of a number) in which the upward motion of warmer fluid at the centre is balanced by the downward motion of cooler fluid at the periphery.
| 1934 D. Brunt Physical & Dynamical Meteorol. xii. 213 There is a type of eddy which can be produced and made visible in the laboratory, that has become known largely through the work of H. Bénard, for which the name of ‘*convection cell’ is suggested as appropriate. 1983 Geophysical Res. Lett. X. 421/1 An uncompensated depression is consistent with the downgoing arm of a convection cell. |