LATENT HEAT • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • Definition of Latent heat

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/lˈeɪtənt hit/ Listen

adjective

Latent adj.

Not visible or apparent; hidden; concealed; secret; dormant; as, latent springs of action. "The evils latent in the most promising contrivances are provided for as they arise."

(Med.) Existing but not presenting symptoms; dormant or developing; of disease, especially infectious diseases; as, the latent phase of an infection.

Latent buds (Bot.), buds which remain undeveloped or dormant for a long time, but may eventually grow.

Latent heat (Physics), that quantity of heat which disappears or becomes concealed in a body while producing some change in it other than rise of temperature, as fusion, evaporation, or expansion, the quantity being constant for each particular body and for each species of change; the amount of heat required to produce a change of phase.

Latent period.

(a)

(Med.) The regular time in which a disease is supposed to be existing without manifesting itself.

(b)

(Physiol.) One of the phases in a simple muscular contraction, in which invisible preparatory changes are taking place in the nerve and muscle.

(c)

(Biol.) One of those periods or resting stages in the development of the ovum, in which development is arrested prior to renewed activity.

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Etymology of 'Latent heat'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Latent heat" Quotes from Famous Books

... Crawford. He agreed with Dr. Black that heat not only was generated in the lungs, but that the arterial blood had a greater capacity for heat than the venous, and that this increase of capacity takes place in the lungs. At the moment heat is generated, a portion of it, under the name of latent heat, is absorbed and conveyed to the different parts of the body Wherever arterial blood is converted into venous, this latent heat is given out. But, unfortunately for this theory, Dr. Davy proved the capacity of both, for heat, ...

— A Treatise on Anatomy, Physiology, and Hygiene (Revised Edition) • Calvin Cutter