adjective
- Also cross-sec·tion·al. of or relating to a cross section.
verb (used with object)
- to make or divide into a cross section.
noun
- a section made by a plane cutting anything transversely, especially at right angles to the longest axis.
- a piece so cut off.
- a photograph, diagram, or other pictorial representation of such a section.
- the act of cutting anything across.
- a typical selection; a sample showing all characteristic parts, relationships, etc.: a cross section of American opinion.
- Surveying. a vertical section of the ground surface taken at right angles to a survey line.
- Also called nuclear cross section. Physics. a quantity expressing the effective area that a given nucleus presents as a target to a bombarding particle, giving a measure of the probability that the particle will induce a reaction.
noun
- maths a plane surface formed by cutting across a solid, esp perpendicular to its longest axis
- a section cut off in this way
- the act of cutting anything in this way
- a random selection or sample, esp one regarded as representativea cross section of the public
- surveying a vertical section of a line of ground at right angles to a survey line
- physics a measure of the probability that a collision process will result in a particular reaction. It is expressed by the effective area that one participant presents as a target for the other
also cross section, 1748, originally in engineering sketches, from cross (adj.) + section (n.). Figurative sense of “representative sample” is from 1903.
- In particle physics, an expression of the probability of the occurrence of an event, typically the scattering of subatomic particles, over a given area.