anisotropy
Sign in to savethumb|upright=1.36|Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe|WMAP image of the tiny anisotropies in the [[cosmic microwave background radiation]] Anisotropy () is the structural property of non-uniformity in different directions, as opposed to isotropy. An anisotropic object or pattern has properties that differ according to direction of measurement. For example, many materials exhibit very different physical or mechanical properties when measured along different axes, e.g. absorbance, refractive index, conductivity, and tensile strength.
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- Fields of interest
- Computer graphics
- Chemistry
- Real-world imagery
- Geophysics and geology
- Medical acoustics
- Materials science and engineering
- Microfabrication
- Neuroscience
- Remote sensing and radiative transfer modeling
- See also
- References
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thumb|upright=1.36|Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe|WMAP image of the tiny anisotropies in the [[cosmic microwave background radiation]] Anisotropy () is the structural property of non-uniformity in different directions, as opposed to isotropy. An anisotropic object or pattern has properties that differ according to direction of measurement. For example, many materials exhibit very different physical or mechanical properties when measured along different axes, e.g. absorbance, refractive index, conductivity, and tensile strength.
An example of anisotropy is light coming through a polarizer. Another is wood, which is easier to split along its grain than across it because of the directional non-uniformity of the grain (the grain is the same in one direction, not all directions).