Category:Resistance

Re*sist"ance (-ans), n. Etym: [f. résistance, ll. resistentia, fr. Resistens, - entis, p. pr. See resist.]

1. The act of resisting; opposition, passive or active. When king demetrius saw that. . . no resistance was made against Him, he sent away all his forces. 1. Macc. xi. 38.

2. (physics)

Defn: the quality of not yielding to force or external pressure; that Power of a body which acts in opposition to the impulse or pressure Of another, or which prevents the effect of another power; as, the Resistance of the air to a body passing through it; the resistance of A target to projectiles.

3. A means or method of resisting; that which resists. Unfold to us some warlike resistance. Shak.

4. (elec.)

Defn: a certain hindrance or opposition to the passage of an Electrical current or discharge offered by conducting bodies. It Bears an inverse relation to the conductivity, -- good conductors Having a small resistance, while poor conductors or insulators have a Very high resistance. The unit of resistance is the ohm. Resistance Box (elec.), a rheostat consisting of a box or case containing a Number of resistance coils of standard values so arranged that they Can be combined in various ways to afford more or less resistance. -- resistance coil (elec.), a coil of wire introduced into an Electric circuit to increase the resistance. -- solid of least resistance (mech.), a solid of such a form as to Experience, in moving in a fluid, less resistance than any other Solid having the same base, height, and volume.