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Potential vs Certain - What's the difference?

potential | certain |

As a noun potential

is .

As an adjective certain is

certain.

potential

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • Currently unrealized ability (with the most common adposition being to )
  • Even from a young age it was clear that she had the potential to become a great musician.
  • (physics) The or the gravitoelectric field.Novello, M. ? VII Brazilian School of Cosmology and Gravitation, Rio de Janeiro, August 1993] Atlantica Séguier Frontières, 1994, p. 257 ? "In general, a system can have both translational and rotational accelerations, however. It follows from Einstein's principle of equivalence that locally—i.e., to the extent that spacetime curvature can be neglected—gravitational effects are the same as inertial effects; therefore, gravitation can be approximately described in terms of gravitoelectric and gravitomagnetic fields corresponding to translational and rotational inertia, respectively. This is the gravitational Larmor theorem, which is very useful in the post-Newtonian approximation to general relativity. The gravitomagnetic field of a massive rotating body is a measure of its absolute rotation."''Thorne, Kip S. ? [http://einstein.stanford.edu/content/sci_papers/papers/nz-Thorne_101.pdf#page=3&view=FitV Gravitomagnetism, Jets in Quasars, and the Stanford Gyroscope Experiment] From the book "Near Zero: New Frontiers of Physics" (eds. J. D. Fairbank, B. S. Deaver, Jr., C. W. F. Everitt, P. F. Michelson), W. H. Freeman and Company, New York, 1988, pp. 3, 4 (575, 576) ? ''"From our electrodynamical experience we can infer immediately that any rotating spherical body (e.g., the sun or the earth) will be surrounded by a radial gravitoelectric (Newtonian) field ''g''''' and a dipolar gravitomagnetic field '''''H'' . The gravitoelectric monopole moment is the body's mass M; the gravitomagnetic dipole moment is its spin angular momentum S."''Grøn, Øyvind; Hervik, Sigbjørn ? [http://books.google.com/books?id=IyJhCHAryuUC&pg=PA203&lpg=PA203&dq=%22The+gravitoelectric+field+is+the+Newtonian+part+of+the+gravitational+field,+while+the+gravitomagnetic+field+is+the+non-Newtonian+part.%22&source=bl&ots=vF8KM_toq1&sig=5rqHuClm2mU_RdeMVPP0xPth7bA&hl=en&ei=Pd8DTd-kLMLrOdKx0LsB&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1 Einstein's General Theory of Relativity with Modern Applications in Cosmology Springer, 2007, p. 203 ? ''"In the Newtonian theory there will not be any gravitomagnetic effects; the Newtonian potential is the same irrespective of whether or not the body is rotating. Hence the gravitomagnetic field is a purely relativistic effect. The gravitoelectric field is the Newtonian part of the gravitational field, while the gravitomagnetic field is the non-Newtonian part."
  • (physics) The work (energy) required to move a reference particle from a reference location to a specified location in the presence of a force field, for example to bring a unit positive electric charge from an infinite distance to a specified point against an electric field.
  • (grammar) A verbal construction or form stating something is possible or probable.
  • Adjective

    (-)
  • Existing in possibility, not in actuality.
  • The heroic man,—and is not every man, God be thanked, a potential hero?—has to do so, in all times and circumstances. Carlyle, Thomas ? Chartism ? Chapman & Hall, 1858, p. 229
  • (archaic) Being potent; endowed with energy adequate to a result; efficacious; influential.
  • And hath, in his effect, a voice potential Shakespeare, William ? Othello ? 1603
  • (physics) A potential field is an irrotational (static) field.
  • From Maxwell equations (6.20) it follows that the electric field is potential: E(r) = ?''grad''?(r).'' ''Soviet Physics, Uspekhi v. 40, issues 1–6, American Institute of Physics, 1997, p. 39
  • (physics) A is an irrotational flow.
  • The non-viscous flow of the vacuum should be potential (irrotational). Volovik, Grigory E. ? The Universe in a Helium Droplet Oxford University Press, 2009, p. 60
  • (grammar) Referring to a verbal construction of form stating something is possible or probable.
  • References

    certain

    English

    Adjective

    (wikipedia certain) (en adjective)
  • Sure, positive, not doubting.
  • I was certain of my decision.
  • (obsolete) Determined; resolved.
  • * Milton
  • However, I with thee have fixed my lot, / Certain to undergo like doom.
  • Not to be doubted or denied; established as a fact.
  • * Bible, Dan. ii. 45
  • The dream is certain , and the interpretation thereof sure.
  • Actually existing; sure to happen; inevitable.
  • Bankruptcy is the certain outcome of your constant gambling and lending.
  • * Dryden
  • Virtue that directs our ways / Through certain dangers to uncertain praise.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Death, as the Psalmist saith, is certain to all.
  • Unfailing; infallible.
  • * Mead
  • I have often wished that I knew as certain a remedy for any other distemper.
  • Fixed or stated; regular; determinate.
  • * Bible, Ex. xvi. 4
  • The people go out and gather a certain rate every day.
  • Not specifically named; indeterminate; indefinite; one or some; sometimes used independently as a noun, and meaning certain persons.
  • * Bible, Luke v. 12
  • It came to pass when he was in a certain city.
  • * Macaulay
  • About everything he wrote there was a certain natural grace and decorum.

    Synonyms

    * See also

    Antonyms

    * (not doubting) uncertain * (sure to happen) impossible, incidental

    Derived terms

    * certainly

    Determiner

    (en determiner)
  • Having been determined but unspecified. The quality of some particular subject or object which is known by the speaker to have been specifically singled out among similar entities of its class.
  • * Bible, Acts xxiii. 12
  • Certain of the Jews banded together.
  • * , title=The Mirror and the Lamp
  • , chapter=3 citation , passage=One saint's day in mid-term a certain newly appointed suffragan-bishop came to the school chapel, and there preached on “The Inner Life.”}}

    Statistics

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    Anagrams

    * * 1000 English basic words ----