Torricellian | a. Of or pertaining to Torricelli, an Italian philosopher and mathematician, who, in 1643, discovered that the rise of a liquid in a tube, as in the barometer, is due to atmospheric pressure. See Barometer. [ 1913 Webster ] Torricellian tube, a glass tube thirty or more inches in length, open at the lower end and hermetically sealed at the upper, such as is used in the barometer. -- Torricellian vacuum (Physics), a vacuum produced by filling with a fluid, as mercury, a tube hermetically closed at one end, and, after immersing the other end in a vessel of the same fluid, allowing the inclosed fluid to descend till it is counterbalanced by the pressure of the atmosphere, as in the barometer. Hutton. [ 1913 Webster ]
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Torrid | a. [ L. torridus, fr. torrere to parch, to burn, akin to E. Thist: cf. F. torride. See Thirst. ] 1. Parched; dried with heat; as, a torrid plain or desert. “Barca or Cyrene's torrid soil.” Milton. [ 1913 Webster ] 2. Violenty hot; drying or scorching with heat; burning; parching. “Torrid heat.” Milton. [ 1913 Webster ] Torrid zone (Geog.), that space or board belt of the earth, included between the tropics, over which the sun is vertical at some period of every year, and the heat is always great. [ 1913 Webster ]
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