Permeance is a technical term used in physics and engineering, which refers to the ability of a material to allow a fluid to permeate through it. Its spelling follows the rule of English phonetics, with the phoneme /pərmiəns/ represented by the letters P-E-R-M-E-A-N-C-E. The first syllable starts with the unstressed schwa sound (/ə/), while the second syllable contains the "r" and "m" consonants, and the "i" vowel pronounced as /i/. The final syllable is pronounced with the "e" vowel sound followed by the nasal /n/ sound and finally the voiceless /s/ sound.
Permeance is a noun that refers to the degree or extent to which something is permeable or capable of allowing substances or energy to enter or pass through it. It measures the quality of being permeable and is commonly used in scientific and technical contexts.
In physics, permeance is often used to describe the ability of a material or a medium to allow the flow of electromagnetic flux lines. It is a property that determines the ease with which magnetic lines of flux can pass through a given material or medium. Permeance is typically denoted by the symbol μ, and it is measured in units of henries per meter (H/m). Materials with high permeance are considered to have good magnetic conductivity, while those with low permeance are more resistant to magnetic flux.
In other fields, such as geology and environmental science, permeance is used to characterize the ability of substances, such as soil or membranes, to allow the flow of fluids or gases through them. High permeance in soil, for example, indicates that water or other liquids can easily pass through, while low permeance means the material is less permeable to fluids.
Overall, permeance plays a vital role in various branches of science and engineering, providing a quantitative measure of a material or medium's ability to allow the transmission of substances or energy through it.
The word "permeance" is derived from the verb "permeate" + the suffix "-ance".
The verb "permeate" comes from the Latin word "permeare", which means "to pass through" or "to penetrate". It is formed from the combination of the prefix "per", meaning "through", and "meare", which means "to go" or "to travel".
The suffix "-ance" is a common suffix in English that is used to form nouns from verbs, indicating a state, condition, or quality.
Therefore, "permeance" essentially means the state or quality of being able to pass through or penetrate something, reflecting the original meaning of "permeate" from Latin. In various contexts, "permeance" is used to describe the extent to which something can permit or allow the passage of substances or energy.