aeolotropic
adjEtymology From aeolo- + -tropic.
1
Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Physics Pertaining to aeolotropy; of a body or substance, having physical properties (e.g., electric conductivity, refractive index) that depend on the direction in which they are measured.
- An individual body […] may be isotropic in one quality or class of qualities, but æolotropic in others.1867, W. Thomson, P. G. Tait, Treatise on Natural Philosophy vol. 1, page 518:
- On extending his [Mitscherlich's] inquiry to other aelotropic crystals he observed a similar variation, and was thus led, in 1825, to the discovery that aelotropic crystals, when heated, expand unequally in the direction of dissimilar axes.1911, Encyclopædia Britannica 11th edn. vol. 18, page 627:
- Synonyms
- anisotropic
- Related terms
- aeolotropy