kiˈnetics
[In form a pl. of kinetic: see -ic 2.]
1. The branch of dynamics which investigates the relations between the motions of bodies and the forces acting upon them; opposed to Statics, which treats of bodies in equilibrium.
| 1864 in Webster. 1866 Lond. Rev. 2 June 615/2 Between whiles he has his kinetics to get up for the next morning. 1882 Minchin Unipl. Kinemat. 59 The particular case in which the resultant acceleration of a moving point is always directed towards a fixed..centre is deserving of special notice on account of the part which it plays in kinetics. |
2. a. A field of study concerned with the mechanisms and rates of chemical reactions or other kinds of process; see also gas kinetics.
| 1884 M. M. P. Muir Treat. Princ. Chem. p. ix, The second part of the book is devoted to the subjects of dissociation, chemical change and equilibrium, chemical affinity, and the relations between chemical action and the distribution of the energy of the changing system. These, and cognate questions, I have ventured to summarise in the expression Chemical Kinetics. 1898 C. L. Speyers Text-bk. Physical Chem. vi. 125 Chemical kinetics.—Sometimes called chemical dynamics. It treats of the velocity of chemical reactions. 1910 Encycl. Brit. VI. 28/2 The law of chemical mass-action not only defines the conditions for chemical equilibrium, but contains at the same time the principles of chemical kinetics. 1953 Frost & Pearson Kinetics & Mechanism i. 1 Kinetics deals with the rate of chemical reaction, with all factors which influence the rate of reaction, and with the explanation of the rate in terms of the reaction mechanism. 1956 G. R. Keepin Physics Nucl. Kinetics i. 2 The fields of fission physics and reactor kinetics have developed in the main as quite distinct and separate disciplines. 1972 Capellos & Bielski Kinetic Syst. i. 1 The raw data of chemical kinetics are the measurements of the rates of reactions. |
b. Those aspects of a particular process that relate to the rate at which it occurs; the details of the way a process occurs, esp. as regards its rate. Const. as sing. or pl.
| 1907 Chem. Abstr. I. 2763 (heading) The kinetics of nitration. 1924 Jrnl. Gen. Physiol. VII. 280 Studies on the kinetics of growth. 1926 C. N. Hinshelwood Kinetics Chem. Change Gaseous Syst. vii. 193 The kinetics of a reaction taking place on such a surface would be almost the same as on a surface of uniform structure. 1931 J. Gray Text-bk. Exper. Cytol. xiii. 337 (heading) The kinetics of osmotic equilibria. 1939 Chem. Abstr. XXXIII. 4851 The kinetics of evaporation of droplets, and surfaces of pure liquids and of solns. of surface-inactive and surface-active substances..are treated mathematically. 1946 Proc. R. Soc. A. CLXXXVII. 129 The kinetics of these reactions are not well understood. 1961 Federation Proc. XX. 437/2 The kinetics of infection by the virus of foot-and-mouth disease was determined as a function of virus cell concentration. 1968 Brit. Med. Bull. XXIV. 245/2 The techniques of investigating cell kinetics include gross measurement of increase in size, of a tumour cell colony for instance. 1968 R. O. C. Norman Princ. Org. Synthesis iii. 75 We have assumed the mechanism of the reaction in order to show how it leads to the observed kinetics. Ibid. 76 Although the complete kinetics are complex, they are given approximately by -d[CH3CHO]/dt = k[CH3CHO][OH-]. |