noun
definition
Speed, swiftness; the condition of being rapid
definition
A measure of velocity relative to the speed of light
definition
A measure of the velocity of a particle in a beam relative to the beam's axis
Examples of rapidity in a Sentence
Vibrations increase in rapidity as a note rises and decrease as it falls.
It grew with great rapidity.
She wrote with the rapidity of Walter Scott and the regularity of Anthony Trollope.
The rapidity of the Russian pursuit was just as destructive to our army as the flight of the French was to theirs.
The chief cause of the wastage of Napoleon's army was the rapidity of its movement, and a convincing proof of this is the corresponding decrease of the Russian army.
In this way a train is distributed with great rapidity, especially if the points giving access to the different sidings are worked by power so that they can be quickly manipulated.
She can add and subtract with great rapidity up to the sum of one hundred; and she knows the multiplication tables as far as the FIVES.
Since admission the progress of the state has continued with increasing rapidity.
As an advocate his sharpness and rapidity of insight gave him a formidable advantage in the detection of the weaknesses of a witness and the vulnerable points of his opponent's case, while he grouped his own arguments with an admirable eye to effect, especially excelling in eloquent closing appeals to a jury.
The fruit industry generally has developed with extreme rapidity.
The spring is exceptionally beautiful in central Russia; late as it usually is, it sets in with vigour, and vegetation develops with a rapidity which gives to this season in Russia a special charm, unknown in warmer climates.
The superiority, so far as the convenience of passengers is concerned, of an elevated over an underground railway, when both are worked by steam locomotives, and the great economy and rapidity of construction, led to the quick development and extension of this general design.
This retractor-muscle, indeed, serves to pull back with great rapidity the extruded proboscis, and is aided in its action by the musculature of the head.
Marching with unprecedented rapidity, he entered Mengo on the r8th of December.
Abd-el-Kader reappeared in Algeria, which he overran with a rapidity which baffled all pursuit.
Jeffrey's own contributions, according to a list which has the sanction of his authority, numbered two hundred, all except six being written before his resignation of the editorship. Jeffrey wrote with great rapidity, at odd moments of leisure and with little special preparation.
The motions of most lizards are executed with great but not enduring rapidity.
Hyatt (1883) observed of the ammonites that each group originated suddenly and spread out with great rapidity.
He carried out the first part of this programme with marvellous rapidity.
On the introduction of steam-power and machinery the worsted trade advanced with great rapidity.
Treatment is only rarely of use, owing to the rapidity of the toxic action.
We then find that the density would increase as we go outwards, at first slowly, but finally with extreme rapidity, the last tenth of the radius comprising half the mass.
He enriched the last volume of the Mélanges or Miscellanies of Berlin with five memoirs, and these were followed, with an astonishing rapidity, by a great number of important researches, which are scattered throughout the annual memoirs of the Prussian Academy.
Menshikov relied apparently on being able to detach his reserves to cope with them, but the assailants moved with a rapidity which he had not counted upon, and the Russians only came into action piecemeal in this quarter.
The acid is extremely hygroscopic, absorbing moisture from the atmosphere with great rapidity; hence it finds considerable application as a desiccating agent.
But besides this, since the exhaustion and enormous diminution of the army caused by the rapidity of the advance had become evident, another reason for slackening the pace and delaying presented itself to Kutuzov.
Martha became settled into Bird Song's routine with amazing rapidity.
Notwithstanding the shortness of their limbs they run with rapidity.
As a soldier Bern was remarkable for his excellent handling of artillery and the rapidity of his marches.
The lightness of the moving part enables great rapidity of action to be obtained, which for fast speed working is very essential.
It has been shown that it conducts water with considerable rapidity.
The weak parts of this story are the sudden and unexplained departure of the Simons; the subsequent useless cruelty of treating the child like a wild beast and keeping him in a dark room practically out of sight (unless any doubt of his identity was possible), while his sister was in comparative comfort; the cause of death, declared to be of long standing, but in fact developed with such rapidity; the insufficient excuse provided for the child's muteness under Gomin's regime (he had answered Barras) and the irregularities in the formalities in attending the death and the funeral, when a simple identification of the body by Marie Therese would have prevented any question of resuscitated dauphins.
Thus gang robbery is apt to break out, gains head with rapidity, and is suppressed with difficulty.
Under the unnatural stimulus of these extra ordinary events, every branch of industry extended with unexampled rapidity.
Then, it is true, two lateral points of ossification appear at the margin, but subsequently the remaining three are developed, and when once formed they grow with much greater rapidity than in the fowl, so that by the time the young duck is quite independent of its parents, and can shift for itself, the whole sternum is completely bony.
The secrecy of its deliberations and the rapidity with which it could act made it a useful adjunct to the constitution, and it gradually absorbed many of the more important functions of the state.
They are in almost continuous motion, their power of endurance being equal to the rapidity of their motions.
Rapidity of growth and longevity vary greatly according to circumstances and to the species.
Ordinarily shallow, the rivers after heavy rain fill with great rapidity, sweeping away everything in their path.
The food must be digested, absorbed and excreted with great rapidity.
He was a member of the Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention of 1789-1790, and of the Pennsylvania Assembly in 1790, 1791, and 1792, and rose with surprising rapidity, despite his foreign birth and his inability to speak English with correctness or fluency.
The French army now moved forward with great rapidity in their usual formation of columns.
Among the few lines still remaining from his lost comedies, we seem to recognize the idiomatic force and rapidity of movement characteristic of the style of Plautus.
The building of railways during the decade 1850-1860 greatly increased this importance, and the city grew with great rapidity.
It consists largely of a dark brown or black sandy loam, finely comminuted, the richness of which in organic matter and mineral salts induces rapidity of growth, and the strength and durability of which render it capable of a long succession of crops.
By the waves of contraction executed by the proboscis accompanied by inflation of the collar, progression is effected, sometimes with marvellous rapidity.
These crystallites (q.v.) show that the glassy rock has a tendency to crystallize which is inhibited only by the very viscous state of the glass and the rapidity with which it was cooled.
Spring sets in with remarkable rapidity and charm at the end of April; but in the second half of May come the " icy saints' days," so blighting that it is impossible to cultivate the apple or pear.
The great bulk of the popula tion are Russians, whose number increased with great rapidity during the 19th century; although not exceeding 150,000 in 1709 and 500,000 a century later, they numbered nearly 6,500,000 in 1904.
The production of butter for export began only in 1894, but grew with great rapidity.