transformation, transform a cion

[Fr. transformation, from Lat. transformationem, acc us. of transformatio, from transform at us, pa. par. of transformo = to transform (q. v.); Sp. trans for mac i on, trasformacion; Ital. transform azione, trasformazione.] I. Ordinary Language : 1. The act of changing the form or appearance of; the act or operation of changing the external appearance of. "Upon whose dead corpse there was such misuse, Such beastly shamele transformation , By those Welchmen done, as may not be, Without much shame, retold or spoken of." Shakesp.: Henry IV., Pt. I. , i. 1. 2. The state of being changed in form or appear ance; a change in form, appearance, nature, disposition, character, or the like; metamorphosis. "What beast couldst thou be, that were not subject to a beast? And what a beast art thou already, that seest not thy lo in transformation."- Shakesp.: Timon of Athens, iv. 3. another; as, the trans jor mat i on of lead into gold; 3. The change of one metal or substance into transmutation. *4. A conversion from sinfulne to holy obedi IMG:content-1332.png:[blocks in formation] 1. Biol .: The series of changes which every germ undergoes in reaching the embryonic condition, either in the body of the parent or within the egg, as distinguished from those which species born in an imperfectly developed state present in the course of their external life, and which are more generally known as metamorphosis (q. v.). 2. Chemistry: A term applied to those chemical changes whereby an entirely new set of compounds is produced, as when sugar is converted by the aid of a ferment into alcohol and carbonic anhydride, or where complex compounds are resolved by the aid of destructive distillation into simpler substances, usually called transformation products. 3. Math .: The operation or proce of changing in form or expre ion; as, (1) The change of a given geometrical figure into another of equal area, but of a different number of sides, or of a given solid into another of equal solidity, but having a different number of faces. (2) The operation of changing the form of an equation without destroying the quality of its members. All the operations performed upon equations, in order to simplify them or to solve them, are transformations. (3) The operation of changing the form of a frac. tion without changing its value. The operations of reducing to simplest terms, of changing the fractional unit, ., are transformations. 4. Pathol .: The morbid change of one structure into another, as when muscle is transformed into fat, or o ification of the heart takes place. 5. Physiol.: The change which takes place in the blood in its pa age from the arterial to the venous uting to the growth of non-vascular ti ue; (2) contributing to the growth of the organized sub stance of the various organs; and (3) the separation of mucus, urine, bile, ., from the blood. 6. Theater : A transformation-scene (q. v.). transformation-myth, s. Anthrop.: A myth which represents a human being as changed into an animal, a tree or plant, or some inanimate being. "The ethnographic student finds a curious interest in transformation-myths like Ovid's, keeping up as they do vestiges of philosophy of archaic type." -Tylor: Prim. Cult . (ed. 1873), ii. 220. transformation of energy. s. Physics: (See extract.) "it has been found by experiment that when one kind of energy disappears or is expended, energy of some other kind is produced, and that, under proper conditions, the disappearance of any one of the known kinds of energy can be made to give rise to a greater or le amount of any other kind. One of the simplest illustra tions that can be given of this transformation of energy is afforded by the oscillations of a pendulum. When the pendulum is at rest in its lowest position it does not po e any energy, for it has no power of setting either itself or other bodies in motion or of producing in them any kind of change. In order to set the pendulum oscil. lating, work must be done upon it, and it thereafter pos se es an amount of energy corresponding to the work that has been expended. When it has reached either end of its path, the pendulum is for an instant at rest, but it po e es energy by virtue of its position, and can do an amount of work while falling to its lowest position which is represented by the product of its weight into the vertical height through which its center of gravity descends. When at the middle of its path the pendulum is pa ing through its position of equilibrium, and has no power of doing work by falling lower; but it now po e es energy by virtue of the velocity which it has gained, and this energy is able to carry it up on the second side of its lowest position to a height equal to that from which it has descended on the first side. By the time it reaches this position the pendulum has lost all its velocity, but it has regained the power of falling; this, in its turn, is lost as the pendulum returns again to its lowest position, but at the same time it regains its previous velocity. Thus during every quarter of an oscillation, the energy of the pendulum changes from potential energy of position inte actual energy or energy of motion, or vice vers a."-Ganot. Physics (ed. At kins on), § 65.