interference

• WordNet 3.6
  • n interference (American football) blocking a player's path with your body "he ran interference for the quarterback"
  • n interference the act of hindering or obstructing or impeding
  • n interference any obstruction that impedes or is burdensome
  • n interference a policy of intervening in the affairs of other countries
  • n interference electrical or acoustic activity that can disturb communication
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• Interesting fact: The destruction of the Berlin Wall began when private citizens began to demolish entire sections of the Wall without interference from government officials on November 9, 1989
• • Interference (Patent Law) The act or state of interfering, or of claiming a right to the same invention.
  • Interference The act or state of interfering; as, the stoppage of a machine by the interference of some of its parts; a meddlesome interference in the business of others.
  • Interference (Physics) The mutual influence, under certain conditions, as from streams of light, or pulsations of sound, or, generally, two waves or vibrations of any kind, producing certain characteristic phenomena, as colored fringes, dark bands, or darkness, in the case of light, silence or increased intensity in sounds; neutralization or superposition of waves generally.
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• Interesting fact: The difference between AM and FM radio is that FM is line-of-sight, while AM bounces off the atmosphere (more accurately, the ionosphere.) AM stations have to reduce the power of their transmissions at night because the ionosphere lifts with the colder temperatures and lees solar interference.
• • n interference The act of interfering; interposition; especially, intermeddling.
  • n interference A clashing or collision; the act of coming into violent contact.
  • n interference In farriery, a striking of one foot against the one next to it, as one hind foot against the other.
  • n interference In Amer. patent law, the conflict between two patents or applications for patent which claim in whole or in part the same invention. Hence, to go into interference (of an application for a patent) is to be reserved for the purpose of litigating the question in the patent office before the application shall be granted.
  • n interference In physics, the mutual action of waves of any kind (whether those in water, or sound-, heat-, or light-waves) upon one another, by which, under certain conditions, the vibrations and their effects are increased, diminished, or neutralized. The term was first employed by Dr. Young to express certain phenomena which result from the mutual action of the rays of light ou one another. In general, if two systems of waves come together, they interfere—that is, they unite to reinforce or destroy one another, the actual disturbance of the medium at any instant being the resultant of the two disturbances considered separately. For example, if the two systems are of equal intensity and in the same phase, the result will be a doubled disturbance; if, however, they are half a wave-length apart, the result will be rest. Thus, two sounds of the same pitch and intensity produce a note of double the intensity when they meet in the same phase, the point of condensation of one corresponding to that of the other; when, on the other hand, the point of maximum condensation of the first corresponds to that of rarefaction of the other, they destroy each other. Again, if two notes differing but slightly in pitch (say one vibration per second) are sounded together, there will be one instant in each second when the two wave-systems will nearly coincide in phase, and one when they will be half a wave-length apart; the result is that they alternately strengthen and weaken each other at these moments, and the ear perceives the pulsations in the note called beats (see beat, 7). The same principles hold true in the case of light, as was first shown by Young. The interference of light-waves is illustrated by the phenomena of diffraction (see diffraction): thus, a diffraction grating gives with monochromatic light a series of light and dark bands (interference fringes), corresponding respectively to the points of maximum and minimum motion resulting from the mutual action of the two wave-systems; for the former they are iu the same phase, for the latter they differ in phase by half a wave-length. If white light is employed, a series of spectra (interference spectra) of different orders is obtained. Newton's rings, obtained, for example, when ordinary light is reflected from a convex lens of long focus pressed upon a plate of glass, are circular interference spectra. The colors of thin films, as of oil on water or of a soap-bubble, are due to interference, as is also the iridescence of some antique glass or of mother-of-pearl. Still again, the beautiful figures produced when a section of a uniaxial crystal cut normal to the axis, or of a biaxial crystal cut normal to the bisectrix, is viewed in converging polarized light are similar phenomena, and are hence called interference figures. Recently (1888–9) Hertz has shown that electric waves, produced, for example, by induction discharges between two metal surfaces and propagated through space, also exhibit under proper conditions interference phenomena. These waves may have a length of several feet. See wave.
  • n interference In base-ball and foot-ball, the act of interfering. See interfere, v. i., 5 and 6.
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• Eric Berne

  

  “Each person designs his own life, freedom gives him the power to carry out his own designs, and power gives the freedom to interfere with the designs of others.”
• Brooks Atkinson

  

  “I have no objections to churches so long as they do not interfere with God's work.”
• Mark Twain

  

  “I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.”
• Paul Twitchell

  

  “The higher one climbs on the spiritual ladder, the more they will grant others their own freedom, and give less interference to another's state of consciousness.”
• Howard Dietz

  

  “Composers shouldn't think too much -- it interferes with their plagiarism.”
• John Wooden

  

  “Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.”

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