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Resembling a
hair in the manner of
growth; very slender, hair-like;
long and slender like a hair. |
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(From Latin "capillus" hair) |
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Capillary
(Or Capillary tube) [
Physics ] |
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A very thin long and
slender tube with a small internal diameter that holds liquid by
capillary action. |
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Capillary action
or Capillarity
[
Physics -
Botany ] |
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The natural
phenomenon by which
water is raised of from a wet
area and transported to a dry area
through pores,
fibres or very small opening
(capillary tubes), of a material
with or against the law of gravity. |
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Capillary action or
capillarity is the ability of a living
tissue,
material, or object containing
minute openings or passages, (as capillary tube,
fibres and
pores), to rise the surface
of water (or of other liquid)
upwards above the hydrostatic level against the force of gravity.
It occurs - despite the force of gravity - through the combined
effects of pressure, adhesion, cohesion, viscosity
and surface tension, when the adhesive intermolecular forces between
the liquid and a solid are stronger than the cohesive intermolecular
forces within the liquid. The effect causes the spontaneous movement
of liquid through the tiny spaces in material, such the upward
movement of water in the
soil. The same effect is what
causes porous materials to
soak up liquids
This is similar to how plants
seemingly defy gravity when they transport liquid from the
roots upward through the plant. |
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Capillarity (of soils)
[
Pedology ] |
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The capillarity is the process by which water travels or rises in the
interstices of a porous medium
(e.g. in tiny spaces between soil
particles, rocks, sediments and
potting mixes) caused by the cohesion between water molecules and an
adhesion between water and other materials that "pulls" the water
upward.
In popular home gardening are commonly used self-watering devices, which
employ capillary action to drawn up water form a reservoir into the soil
of a pot. |
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