Scientific Terms Which Mean Different in Daily Life Conversation

 

Friends, there are many words (or, terms) which mean differently in scientific world (or, scientific text) and in our daily life conversation. In this post, I try to write some common words which are used very often. In this post, I shall give two meanings of the particular words and explain the scientific terms wherever is required.
So, let's start....

(1) Couple:

In Science:

The term or word "Couple" is used mainly in Chapter of Mechanics in Physics.
"Couple" represents a pair of parallel, equal and opposite forces which are not in one line.

In General:

In general, everybody knows what the word "couple" mean.
Generally, couple means two people who are married. 

(2) Culture:

 In Science:

 The word "Culture" is mainly used in Biology, Microbiology, and Medical Science.

Culture means the growth of micro-organism, tissue cells etc. in a specially prepared medium in laboratory. 

In General:

We all know the meaning of the work "Culture" in general.
Some frequently used phrase related to this are:
American culture, European culture, Indian culture, Cultural Program etc.

(3) Set:

In Science:

  The word "Set" is mainly used in Mathematics. there is a chapter named Set Theory. In mathematics, Set is a collection of well-defined objects or elements.
e.g. A set of Natural number can be represent as
{1,2,3,4......} 

In General:

In general "Set" is used as verb. It means to put something in place.
e.g. "Set this part in the machine."

 (4) Cross:

In Science:

The word "Cross" is frequently used in Genetics (Genetics is a branch of Biology concerned with the study of heredity, genes etc.)
In Genetics, Cross refers to the purposeful mating of two organisms, individuals for a offspring.  

In General:

We all know the meaning of cross and also frequently use it.
Example: "Look twice before crossing the road."
The sign "X" is called mark.

(5) Mega:

In Science:

The word "Mega" is used as prefix at the time of writing units.
e.g. Mega Watt, Mega Joule etc.    

Mega represents
10⁶ times=1000000 times.
i.e.
Mega Watt=10⁶Watt
Mega Joule=10⁶Joule 

In General:

In general "Mega" means very large, huge etc.
e.g. Mega deal, Mega event.

(6) Micro:

In Science: 

The word "Micro" is used as prefix at the time of writing units of a quantity.
e.g. Micro Farad.
Micro represents
10^-6=(1/1000000) part
i.e. Micro Farad= 10^-6Farad.

 In General:

We all know the meaning of word Micro and also use every day. Micro means extremely small.
e.g. Micro Processor, Micro computer etc. 

(7) Cell: 

 In Science: 

The word "Cell" is used in Biology and Physics. The interesting thing is that the word have different meaning in Biology and Physics.

In Biology:
In Biology,  Cell refers to the smallest structural and functional unit of an organism. 

In Physics:
In Physics, Cell refers to a system which provides voltage difference and current and made up of an Anode and a Cathode and electrolytes.

Note:
1)A battery is a system made up of two or more cells.
2) Cell and Shell are the homophones.
In atom, Shell is the circular path/ orbit around the nucleus along which electrons are revolving. 

(8) Colon: 

In Science: 

The term "Colon" is used in Biology mainly in Anatomy.
Colon is a part of large intestine. The part of the large intestine from cecum to the rectum is called Colon.

Colon can be divided in three parts as, Ascending colon, Transverse colon, Descending colon.

In General: 

In general, "Colon" represents a punctuation mark. The symbol of punctuation mark colon  is represent as ":".

Related terms are colon, semi colon.

(9) Tan:

In Science: 

 The work "Tan" is mainly used in Trigonometry (in Mathematics).
Tan is the ratio of Perpendicular to base of a right angle triangle or
Tan=(Sin/Cos).

In General:

In general "Tan" represents a type of colour. 

'Tan' color

The process of converting animal skin into leather is also known as tanning. 

(10) Power: 

In Science: 

The term "Power" is used frequently in Physics, Mathematics.
In Physics, the term Power is used mainly in Mechanic and in the chapter of Electricity.
Power means the rate of doing work or rate of energy consumption.

The unit of power is
Joule/Second or Watt.
Horse Power (HP) is also a unit of power.
1hp=745.7 watt. 

In General :

The meaning of "Power" is general sense need not be told. We all know the meaning of power and also frequently use that word. I am writing some common phrase, sentence frequently used.
e.g.
Political power,
Financial power,
Car is powered by fossil fuel.
He is using his power.

(11) Cycle: 

In Science: 

The word "Cycle" is used in various field in Science i.e. Physics, Biology etc.
Cycle means a series of event is happening repeatedly.
Related terms are:
Cycle per second, Half cycle, Life cycle, Water cycle etc. 

In General: 

If someone say only "Cycle", everybody understand that as bicycle.

Cycle

 

(12) Mole:

 In Science: 

The word "Mole" mainly used in Chemistry.
SI unit of amount of substance is mole.
1 mole of substance means
6.02214076 x 10²³ units of substance
≈6.02 x 10²³ units of substance
i.e. 1 mole H (hydrogen) atoms mean
6.02 x 10²³ atoms. 

The number 6.02 x10²³ is known as Avogadro's number. 

In General: 

In general, the word "mole" means a small dark spot or lump in a person's skin.

 

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Thank You.