Quotes About Rarefaction

The first set make the underlying body one—either one of the three5 or something else which is denser than fire and rarer than air—then generate everything else from this, (15) and obtain multiplicity by condensation and rarefaction. Now these are contraries, which may be generalized into 'excess and defect'.

Transverse waves usually have to travel along the edge of the medium – for example, on the top of the water that the wave passes through. For a longitudinal wave, the regular cycle is in the same direction as the wave moves forward, not at right angles. The medium is repeatedly squashed up and relaxed like a concertina, so what travels through it is a pattern of compression and rarefaction.

Let me make one thing clear: this theory that the universe, after having reached an extremity of rarefaction, will be condensed again has never convinced me. And yet many of us are counting only on that, continually making plans for the time when we'll all be back there again.

I will make man scarcer than pure gold, and mankind rarer than the gold of Ophir.