Undulatory

1 definition found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Undulatory \Un"du*la*to*ry\ (?; 277), a. [Cf. F. ondulatoire.]
     Moving in the manner of undulations, or waves; resembling the
     motion of waves, which successively rise or swell rise or
     swell and fall; pertaining to a propagated alternating
     motion, similar to that of waves.
     [1913 Webster]


  
     {Undulatory theory}, or {Wave theory} (of light) (Opt.), that
        theory which regards the various phenomena of light as due
        to undulations in an ethereal medium, propagated from the
        radiant with immense, but measurable, velocities, and
        producing different impressions on the retina according to
        their amplitude and frequency, the sensation of brightness
        depending on the former, that of color on the latter. The
        undulations are supposed to take place, not in the
        direction of propagation, as in the air waves constituting
        sound, but transversely, and the various phenomena of
        refraction, polarization, interference, etc., are
        attributable to the different affections of these
        undulations in different circumstances of propagation. It
        is computed that the frequency of the undulations
        corresponding to the several colors of the spectrum ranges
        from 458 millions of millions per second for the extreme
        red ray, to 727 millions of millions for the extreme
        violet, and their lengths for the same colors, from the
        thirty-eight thousandth to the sixty thousandth part of an
        inch. The theory of ethereal undulations is applicable not
        only to the phenomena of light, but also to those of heat.
        [1913 Webster]