Wa

Wall Cloud

An abrupt lowering of a cloud from its parent cloud base, a cumulonimbus or supercell, with no visible precipitation underneath.

Wall Plug

A piece of plastic, wood or fibre that is inserted into a drilled hole in masonry to allow a woodscrew to be fitted.

Wallis, Barnes

British engineer and inventor famous for the R100, Wellington bomber and the bouncing bombs.

Walnut

Cross grained wood used for ornamental work.

Warmth

A term that is used to describe a listening term in terms of frequency, generally considered the range from approximately 150Hz-400Hz.

Warning Limits

Limits placed on a control chart for variables or attributes at 1 and 2 sigma to help determine how far points lie from the centerline.

Warp

The yarns running lengthwise and parallel to the selvage in a woven fabric.

Washer

Used to distribute load under a nut or bolt locking surface.

Washing Soda

Alternative name for Sodium Carbonate.

Waste Gate

A valve used to limit the boost developed in a turbocharger.

Water

A colourless, tasteless liquid with some very peculiar properties that stem from the bent H-O-H structure of its molecules.

Water of Crystallization

Water present in the crystal of a hydrate.

Waterfall Plot

A series of spectral maps taken at regular intervals of time or at regularly spaced shaft speeds, similar to the flow of a waterfall.

Waterline

The line of the water′s edge when the ship is afloat.

Waterwheel

A wheel with paddles designed to extract power from flowing water.

Watt

The watt is the SI unit of power and is equal to 1 joule per second.

Watt, James

He made fundamental improvements in the steam engine, resulting in the modern, high-pressure steam engine, patented in 1769.

Wave

The movement of energy from one place to another without any accompanying matter.

Wave Equation

The wave equation describes the propagation of waves.

Wave Particle Duality

The observation that electrons; photons; and other very small entities behave like particles in some experiments and like waves in others.

Waveband

A series of wavelengths forming a group.

Waveform

The shape of a time domain signal as seen on an oscilloscope screen.

Wavefront

A set of points at which the phase of vibration of the physical quantity associated with a wave is the same.

Wavefunction

A mathematical function that gives the amplitude of a wave as a function of position.

Wavelength

The shortest repetition length for a periodic wave.

Wavelet

The wavelet allows a rapidly changing time history (e.g. door slam noise) to be investigated in the frequency domain.

Wavenumber

Wavenumber describes the spatial variation of waves, phase change per unit distance.

Wax

Esters of monohydric alcohols.