Word Finder - fluctuations

definition

A motion like that of waves; a moving in this and that direction.

example

the fluctuations of the sea

definition

A wavering; unsteadiness.

example

fluctuations of opinion

definition

In medicine, a wave-like motion or undulation of a fluid in a natural or abnormal cavity (e.g. pus in an abscess), which is felt during palpation or percussion.

The pastoral and agricultural industries have been hampered by fluctuations in the value of the currency, farm products being sold at a gold value for the equivalent in paper, while labourers are paid in currency.

The constant fluctuations in the value of the currency, then much depreciated, intensified the distress and complicated the situation.

This, however, was not the case, for a fairly uniform decrease in the barley area was accompanied by somewhat irregular fluctuations in the acreage of oats.

The exports dwindled from 3600 bales in 1865 to 946 in 1905; great fluctuations occur, the export in 1904, for example, being only 338 bales.

The level of the lake is subject to seasonal fluctuations, reaching a maximum in midsummer and a minimum in February, as well as to alternating cycles of years of high and low water.

It has constant steady fluctuations, rising and falling some 8 ft.

We cannot assume that the fluctuations in wages were due to the action or inaction of magistrates without the most careful examination of the other influences affecting the trades.

Although we cannot yet define the conditions under which exopterygotous wings are suppressed or unusually developed, yet we know that such fluctuations occur.

The chief exports are raw cotton, rice, wheat, oil-seeds, hides and lac. The exports of wheat are liable to extreme fluctuations, especially during famine periods.

The quadrupling of the intensity in passing outwards from the edge of the shadow is, however, accompanied by fluctuations giving rise to bright and dark bands.

The amplitude is thus subject to fluctuations, which increase as the shadow is approached.

At the point 0 the intensity is one-quarter of that of the entire wave, and after this point is passed, that is, when we have entered the geometrical shadow, the intensity falls off gradually to zero, without fluctuations.

In particular the fluctuations of the pulse in fevers and inflammations were better understood, and accurately registered; and we can scarcely realize now that before Harvey the time of the pulse seems not to have been counted by the watch.

Thus the defects, whether of this secretion or of that, and again of motor activity, the state of the valvular junctions, the volume of the cavities, and their position in the abdomen, may be ascertained, and dealt with as far as may be; so that, although the fluctuations of chemical digestion are still very obscure, the application of remedies after a mere traditional routine is no longer excusable.

Although there were fluctuations in the numbers at different periods there is evidence to show that on the average the amount of forty to fifty thousand fixed by Dr Creighton for the years between 1189 and 1509 is fairly correct.

As a result of its relatively great depth there are seldom any great fluctuations of level in this lake due to wind disturbance, but the lake follows the general rule of the Great Lakes (q.v.) of seasonal and annual variation.

In any case, the alterations in level appear to be merely periodic, and due to fluctuations in rainfall, and do not point, as some have supposed, to a secular drying up of the lake.

Variables of the Algol class are rendered difficult to discover by the incidental character of their fluctuations.

War had brought progress in the north to a standstill; in the south wool-growing and gold-mining showed their customary fluctuations.

Cockerell, including the plants of its shores, the insects which lived upon them, the fluctuations of its level, and many other characteristics of this extinct water body, now in the heart of the arid region of the Rocky Mountains.

The total output of the country rose from a value of $215,000 ifl 1882 to one of $54,640,374 ifl 1908, with several fluctuations up and down in that interval.

In 1906, after considerable fluctuations during the interval, the total number that entered was 4623 vessels of 2,372,551 tons; of these, 935 of 1,002,119 tons were foreign; British ships representing about half this tonnage.

While the tables indicate the fluctuations of supply they show generally that Asiatic countries, in addition to supplying the necessities for their home trade, export to Europe and America about threefifths of the whole of the silk consumed in Western manufactures.

A cable sent to India in the evening may bring a reply next morning, and in these days of rapid cotton fluctuations mail advices are confined mainly to general discussion, hypothetical inquiry, advice, admonition and complaint.

It is, of course, the verbal bargain that binds, and large transactions are commonly completed without witnesses, though before the contract or memorandum of sale passes the fluctuations of the market may have made the bargain, to one side or the other, a very bad one.

In addition to these periodical fluctuations, there are also seasonal oscillations, the level being lowest in January and highest in the summer.

The dotted line represents the average monthly consumption in each year; the fluctuations in price of good sound China congou are traced by the black line; and the years in which reduced customs duty came into operation are indicated along the base.

In both, the price fluctuations and fiscal changes are shown that their effect upon consumption may be judged.

At the same time the price, making allowance for -the fluctuations owing to bad harvests, steadily decreased, notwithstanding the duty on corn.

Schuster, who has considered the matter very fully, has found evidence of the existence of other periods-notably 8.4 and 4.8 years-in addition to the recognized period of 11.125 years, and he regards the difference between the maxima in successive II-year periods as due at least partly to an overlapping of maxima from the several periodic terms. This cannot, however, account for all the fluctuations observed in sun-spot frequencies, unless other considerably longer periods exist.

These contradictory tendencies remained with him through life, revealed in the fluctuations of his policy and influencing through him the fate of the world.

While market fluctuations might be tided over, the future of Nyasaland remained very much dependent upon the completion of through railway communication from the ocean to Lake Nyasa.

No trustworthy statistics exist showing either present numbers or fluctuations in the population of Aghanistan.

Its revenues (about which no trustworthy information is available) are subject to great fluctuations, and probably never exceed the value of one million sterling per annum.

Before 1873 the fluctuations in the value of silver as The compared with gold had been comparatively small, currency.

On the other hand, the variations in the light of the sun must be very small compared with the enormous fluctuations in the light of variable stars.

The 14th century was marked by violent fluctuations in the demand and supply of labour, and particularly the tremendous loss in population occasioned in the middle of this century by the Black Death called forth a most serious crisis.

Then, from the principles of 60 it is evident that at each instant ai/ai = ai/aa, and consequently that ai; so that the fluctuations of angular velocity ratio caused by the first coupling are exactly neutralized by the second, and the first and last shafts have equal angular velocities at each instant.

By this means the flax is kept at a uniform temperature with great certainty, since even should the heat of the air vary considerably through neglect, the water in the vat only by slow degrees follows such fluctuations.

It has not been established that the fluctuations in the local cod fisheries bear any fixed relation to the extent of the hatching operations, while the earlier reports of the Commissioners of Fisheries contain evidence that similar fluctuations occurred before the hatching of "fish commission cod" had begun.

None of these systems, which are chiefly due to the medical bacteriologists, has maintained its position, owing to the difficulty of applying the characters and to the fact that such properties are physiological and liable to great fluctuations in culture, because a given organism may vary greatly in such respects according to its degree of vitality at the time, its age, the mode of nutrition observed; or, at any rate, the strictest rules should be followed in accepting the evidence adduced to render the union of any forms probable.

At the same time he succeeded by drastic measures in putting a stop to the great fluctuations in the value of the paper currency and in resuming specie payments.

The wide fluctuations in Rumanian commerce are largely due to the dependence of the country on the grain harvest.

But, apart from the diurnal fluctuations of consumption which may be equalized by local " service reservoirs," uniform distribution of supply throughout twelve months is rarely what we require; and to represent the demand in most towns correctly, we should increase the angle of this line to the horizontal during the summer and diminish it during the winter months, as indicated by the dotted lines b b.

In consequence of the shallowness of the lake its waters are easily disturbed, making navigation very rough and dangerous, and causing large fluctuations of surface.

This agreement put an end to the fluctuations of the paper currency previously used.

A numerous floating population of labourers, attracted at certain periods by pressing work in the port, and afterwards left unemployed owing to the enormous fluctuations in the corn trade, is one of the features of Odessa.

The range of value of the various qualities of coral, according to colour and size, is exceedingly wide, and notwithstanding the steady Oriental demand its price is considerably affected by the fluctuations of fashion.

But, though the abnormal prosperity was thus suddenly brought to an end, the genuine trade ' of the port has steadily advanced, subject of course to occasional fluctuations.

C. Ranyard a theory of coronal types, changing concurrently with the fluctuations of spot-activity.