| 释义 |
statics|ˈstætɪks|
[Alteration of static n., after names of sciences in -ics.]
1. a. Originally, the science relating to weight and its mechanical effects, and to the conditions of equilibrium as resulting from the distribution of weight. In modern use, the branch of physical science concerned with the action of forces in producing equilibrium or relative rest, in contradistinction to Dynamics in its older sense as the science of the action of forces in producing motion. In recent terminology, Statics and Kinetics (= the older Dynamics) are the two branches of Dynamics.
1656Blount Glossogr., Staticks (Gr.) the science of weights and measures; a species of Mechanicks. 1664Butler Hud. ii. iii. 206 He had been long t'wards Mathematicks, Opticks, Philosophy, and Staticks. 1681S. Colvil Whigs Supplic. (1751) 83 Like some attempting tricks in Statics, Not vers'd in Euclid's mathematics. 1691Norris Pract. Disc. 24 There is more Force and Vertue in one Single Now, than in many Hereafters. 'Tis not in the Moral as in Physical Statics;..here the nearer the Weight, the stronger is its Power. 1692Bentley Confut. Atheism ii. 11 Now this is a Catholick Rule of Statics; That if any Body be bulk for bulk heavier than a Fluid, it will sink to the bottom of that Fluid. 1700Moxon Math. Dict., Staticks, the Science of Weights and Measures, a Species of the Mechanicks, shewing the Properties and Motion of Ponderosity, or Heaviness and Lightness of Bodies, &c. 1837Whewell Hist. Induct. Sci. (1857) I. 73 The mechanical doctrine of Equilibrium, is Statics. 1867Thomson & Tait Treat. Nat. Philos. I. §454. 342 We naturally divide Statics into two parts—the equilibrium of a particle, and that of a rigid or elastic body or system of particles. 1882G. M. Minchin Unipl. Kinemat. 201 There are methods in Statics for calculating the resultant attraction of matter, or its components, without finding the potential.
b. with qualifying word.
chemical statics, the statics of chemical bodies or systems of bodies. graphic(al statics, the investigation of statical problems by means of drawings made to scale. † vegetable statics, the study of the laws of the circulation of the fluids in plants.
1727S. Hales (title) Statical Essays: containing Vegetable Staticks; Or, An Account of some Statical Experiments on the Sap in Vegetables. 1780M. Cutler in Life, Jrnls. & Corr. (1888) I. 80 The Doctor's discoveries in his vegetable statics..must be very useful in the culture and improvement of vegetables and fruit trees. 1876Maxwell Sci. Papers (1890) II. 492 On Bow's method of drawing diagrams in graphical statics. 1910Encycl. Brit. VIII. 147/2 The most useful of these applications, collectively termed Graphic Statics, relates to the equilibrium of plane framed structures.
c. transf.; esp. in social statics (see quots. 1843, 1851).
1843Mill Logic vi. x. §5 [With Comte] Social Dynamics is the theory of Society considered in a state of progressive movement; while Social Statics is the theory of the consensus already spoken of as existing among the different parts of the social organism. 1845Graves Roman Law in Encycl. Metrop. II. 768/1 Gaius..treats rather of the dynamics than of the statics of law—rather of those events or forces by which classes of rights begin, are modified or terminate, than of those rights and duties which accompany a given stationary legal relation. 1851Spencer Soc. Stat. xxx. §1 Social philosophy may be aptly divided..into statics and dynamics; the first treating of the equilibrium of a perfect society, the second of the forces by which society is advanced towards perfection.
d. Econ. That part of economic theory which examines the forces and conditions obtaining at a state of equilibrium in an economic system, without consideration of changes through time; esp. as comparative statics (see quot. 1974).
1871W. S. Jevons Theory Pol. Econ. p. viii, The nature of Wealth and Value is explained by the consideration of indefinitely small amounts of pleasure and pain, just as the theory of Statics is made to rest upon the equality of indefinitely small amounts of energy. 1891J. N. Keynes Scope & Method in Pol. Econ. iv. 141 In so-called economic statics we are frequently engaged in examining the effects of particular changes. 1920A. Marshall Princ. Econ. (ed. 8) v. v. 366 The problem of normal value belongs to economic Dynamics: partly because Statics is really but a branch of Dynamics. 1947P. A. Samuelson Foundations Econ. Analysis ii. 8 This method of comparative statics is but one special application of the more general practice of scientific deduction in which the behavior of a system (possibly through time) is defined in terms of a given set of functional equations and initial conditions. 1954W. Jaffé tr. Walras's Elem. Pure Economics viii. 117 Had I supposed utility to be a variable functionally related to time, then time would have had to figure explicitly in the problem. And we should then have passed from economic statics to economic dynamics. 1963R. E. Kuenne Theory of Gen. Econ. Equilibrium i. 15 Comparative statics is a method of employing static models analytically by imposing changes upon the data of the model. 1974A. S. Campagna Macroeconomics iii. 50 With a model in equilibrium any change in the variables will cause the model to react until a new equilibrium is reached. The comparison of these two equilibrium states is called comparative statics.
†2. = static n. 4 a. Obs.
1918in Webster Add. 1921Sci. Abstr. B. XXIV. 156 On the North Atlantic coast the statics come in large proportion from the S.W. 1926Glasgow Herald 15 May 4 A wall of ‘statics’ may be responsible for the fact that no wireless messages have been received from the airship for some time. |