CROSS SECTION

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does cross section mean? 

• CROSS SECTION (noun)
  The noun CROSS SECTION has 3 senses:

1. a section created by a plane cutting a solid perpendicular to its longest axis

2. a sample meant to be representative of a whole population

3. (physics) the probability that a particular interaction (as capture or ionization) will take place between particles; measured in barns

  Familiarity information: CROSS SECTION used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CROSS SECTION (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A section created by a plane cutting a solid perpendicular to its longest axis

Classified under:

Nouns denoting spatial position

Hypernyms ("cross section" is a kind of...):

plane section; section ((geometry) the area created by a plane cutting through a solid)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "cross section"):

profile (a vertical section of the Earth's crust showing the different horizons or layers)

Derivation:

cross-sectional (representing a plane made by cutting across something at right angles to its length)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A sample meant to be representative of a whole population

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Hypernyms ("cross section" is a kind of...):

sample (a small part of something intended as representative of the whole)

Domain category:

statistics (a branch of applied mathematics concerned with the collection and interpretation of quantitative data and the use of probability theory to estimate population parameters)

Derivation:

cross-sectional (of or relating to a cross section)

Sense 3

Meaning:

(physics) the probability that a particular interaction (as capture or ionization) will take place between particles; measured in barns

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Hypernyms ("cross section" is a kind of...):

chance; probability (a measure of how likely it is that some event will occur; a number expressing the ratio of favorable cases to the whole number of cases possible)

Domain category:

atomic physics; nuclear physics; nucleonics (the branch of physics that studies the internal structure of atomic nuclei)

 Context examples 

This probability — that neutrinos of a given energy will interact with matter — is what physicists refer to as a "cross section."

(Antarctic detector offers first look at how Earth stops high-energy neutrinos in their tracks, National Science Foundation)

A SI derived unit of an electric current density which is equal to an electric current of one ampere circulating in a homogeneous conductor with a cross section area of one square meter.

(Ampere per Square Meter, NCI Thesaurus)

The deposits are exposed in cross section as relatively pure water ice, capped by a layer one to two yards (or meters) thick of ice-cemented rock and dust.

(Steep Slopes on Mars Reveal Structure of Buried Ice, NASA)

A properly equipped MRI machine captures a cross sectional image of the sound waves, produced by ultrasound techniques, which are then processed by computer to produce an image showing the hardness or elasticity of tissues within the cross section.

(Magnetic Resonance Elastography, NCI Thesaurus)

It is the magnetic auxiliary field strength created tangentially at a distance of one meter from a straight conductor of infinite length and with negligible cross section by a circulating current of one ampere, or linear electric current density when one ampere electric current is conducted in one meter wide conducting sheet.

(Ampere per Meter, NCI Thesaurus)