intermittent adj

1 stopping and starting at irregular intervals; "intermittent rain showers"

2 stopping and starting at regular intervals

English

Etymology

From intermittens, from prefix inter-, plus present participle mittens, from mittere.

Pronunciation

• a UK /ˌɪntɜː(ɹ)ˈmɪtn̩t/, 1=/%Int3:(r)"mItn=t/
• a US /ˌɪntɚˈmɪtn̩t/, 1=/%Int@`"mItn=t/

Adjective

1. Stopping and starting at intervals; coming after a particular time span; not steady or constant

   The day was cloudy with intermittent rain.

   Intermittent bugs are most difficult to reproduce.

Derived terms

• intermittently

Related terms

• inter
• inter-
• intermittence
• intermittency

Translations

French

Adjective

1. Intermittent.

In dynamical systems, intermittency is the alternation of phases of apparently periodic and chaotic dynamics.

Consider a dynamical system. Let x be the observed variable. If x plotted as a function of time exhibits segments of relative constant values (laminar phase) interspersed by erratic bursts, the system dynamics is intermittent.http://www.ccs.fau.edu/~ding/Intermittency.pdf

In the apparently periodic phases the behaviour is not quite, but only nearly periodic. Thus, rather than a (truly periodic) series of values such as 2, 4, 2, 4, ... one might have something like 2.0001, 4.0003, 2.0002, 4.0001, 2.0003, 3.9999, 1.8715, 6.7486, ... where the first six values are apparently periodic but where the actually chaotic nature of the system becomes apparent after the value 3.9999 is reached.

Intermittency factor is the fraction of time that motion is turbulent, denoted \mu.

See also

• Turbulent flow

alternate, alternating, arrested, beating, broken, broken off, capricious, careening, catchy, checked, chopped-off, choppy, circling, cyclic, cyclical, decousu, desultory, deviative, disconnected, discontinued, discontinuous, discrete, disjunctive, eccentric, episodic, epochal, erratic, even, every other, fitful, flickering, fluctuating, guttering, halting, herky-jerky, heteroclite, immethodical, incoherent, inconstant, infrequent, intermitting, interrupted, irregular, isochronal, isochronous, iterative, jagged, jerky, lurching, measured, metrical, metronomic, noncontinuous, nonlinear, nonsequential, nonserial, nonuniform, occasional, on-again-off-again, oscillatory, parenthetic, patchy, periodic, periodical, pulsating, pulsing, rambling, random, reciprocal, recurrent, recurring, rhythmic, rhythmical, rotary, rough, scrappy, seasonal, serial, snatchy, spasmatic, spasmic, spasmodic, spastic, sporadic, spotty, staggering, steady, suspended, uncertain, unconnected, undulant, undulatory, unequal, uneven, unjoined, unmethodical, unmetrical, unregular, unrhythmical, unsettled, unsteady, unsuccessive, unsystematic, variable, veering, wandering, wavelike, wavering, wheeling, wobbling, wobbly