Physical coefficient
A physical coefficient is an important number that characterizes some physical property of a technical or scientific object.
Examples of Physical Coefficients
- Coefficient of Thermal Expansion (thermodynamics) (dimensionless) - Relates the change in temperature to the change in a material's dimensions.
- Partition Coefficient (KD) (chemistry) - The ratio of concentrations of a compound in two phases of a mixture of two immiscible solvents at equilibrium.
- Hall coefficient (electrical physics) - Relates a magnetic field applied to an element to the voltage created, the amount of current and the element thickness. It is a characteristic of the material from which the conductor is made.
- Lift Coefficient (CL or CZ) (Aerodynamics) (dimensionless) - Relates the lift generated by an airfoil with the dynamic pressure of the fluid flow around the airfoil, and the planform area of the airfoil.
- Ballistic coefficient (BC) (Aerodynamics) (units of kg/m²) - A measure of a body's ability to overcome air resistance in flight. BC is a function of mass, diameter, and drag coefficient.
- Transmission Coefficient (quantum mechanics) (dimensionless) - Represents the probability flux of a transmitted wave relative to that of an incident wave. It is often used to describe the probability of a particle tunnelling through a barrier.
- Damping Factor a.k.a. viscous damping coefficient (Physical Engineering) (units of Newton-seconds per meter) - relates a damping force with the velocity of the object whose motion is being dampened.
- Coefficient of friction (dimensionless) which could be static or dynamic - it relates friction, a force resisting motion between things touching each other, to a normal force, a force pushing the things together.
- Diffusion coefficient - relates concentration differences in a medium with how much or how fast diffusion occurs in Fick's Law.