chirality
Noun
Meaning
chirality (countable and uncountable, plural chiralities)
The phenomenon, in chemistry, physics and mathematics, in which objects are mirror images of each other, but are otherwise identical; handedness
Synonyms
Antonyms
Phrases with the word
Examples
A human viewed in a mirror would have his heart on the right side, clear evidence of chirality, whereas the mirror reflection of a doll might well be indistinguishable from the doll itself.
Amino acids whose chirality is opposite to the norm are found on Earth, and these substances are generally thought to result from decay of organisms of normal chirality.
Effect of chirality As already described, chiral liquid-crystal molecules usually give rise to chiral mesophases.
It has been suggested that astronomical sources caused the chirality of biological molecules on Earth. citation Applications and examples Polarized sunglasses Effect of a polarizer on reflection from mud flats.
Edward Witten and others observed this chirality property cannot be readily derived by compactifying from eleven dimensions.
In that case the direction of the fields' rotation, and thus the specified polarization, may be either clockwise or counter clockwise; this is referred to as the wave's chirality or handedness.