Talk:Isotropy

For a May 2005 deletion debate over this page see Votes for deletion/Isotropy

Merge with "Rotational invariance"?
I don't thing it is appropriate. The concepts are distinct and the names are distinct. Isotropic is a global property of a tensor field, saying that it is everywhere a scalar. For one thing, rotational invariance is more vague, e.g. one can say that f(x,y) is rotationally invariant if f(x,y) = g(x^2 + y^2) for some g. I don't think people would use "isotropic" for this. Does this make sense ? Jorge Stolfi 22:10, 7 February 2006 (UTC)

I certainly wouldn't know to look up Rotational invariance when looking for isotropic for materials questions on my university course. The seperate entry is useful. ps this is my fist Wikipedia addition :-) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.169.93.4 (talk • contribs)

The latter argument is ok with me. Concerning your first, you should read what the article says about "optical isotropy" (Check out the link also). [user:milk]


 * I've removed the notice, as the arguments favour removing it. &mdash;Pengo 22:26, 25 March 2006 (UTC)

still, it would be good to mention the connection. A tensor field is called isotropic if it is rotationally invariant at each point or in other words spherically symmetric at each point, right? --MarSch 11:23, 21 March 2007 (UTC)

Chemistry usage
There is a chemistry usage which should also be mentioned —Preceding unsigned comment added by 141.14.162.128 (talk) 12:28, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

Rheology
The isotropy of a fluid is important in rheology. Perhaps we could get someone from the rheology page to write a section for us. 128.173.39.143 (talk) 20:34, 8 May 2011 (UTC)

Isotropic Aerial
..." The gain of an arbitrary antenna is usually reported in decibels relative to an isotropic antenna, and is expressed as dBi or dB(i). ..." . Uhh, when I studied gain and directivity of aerials in 1975, I seem to recall that it was compared to a dipole. Is my memory that bad? Old_Wombat (talk) 09:28, 11 May 2011 (UTC)
 * Both definitions are used (dBi, dBd); see Antenna gain. D Anthony Patriarche (talk) 16:41, 31 January 2019 (UTC)

cubes and cubic crystals
There needs to be somewhere in Wikipedia that cubic crystals are optically (and electrically) isotropic. Since the polarizabililty tensor is diagonal with all elements equal, so will any rotation of it. In common usage, this is the reason to use cubic zirconia (instead of hexagonal, optically anisotropic and so birefringent zirconia) in jewelry. Also, a solid cube has the same moment of inertial around any axis through the center, for the same reason. Gah4 (talk) 00:46, 8 April 2020 (UTC)

How do you pronounce it?
How? BTW, I am completely out of place by making this comment. !ZanzibarWikiwoowiiBarfuttress (talk) 09:50, 30 April 2023 (UTC)