Result from Foreign Dictionaries (3 entries found)

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]: Virtual \Vir"tu*al\ (?; 135), a. [Cf. F. virtuel. See {Virtue}.] 1. Having the power of acting or of invisible efficacy without the agency of the material or sensible part; potential; energizing. [1913 Webster] Heat and cold have a virtual transition, without communication of substance. --Bacon. [1913 Webster] Every kind that lives, Fomented by his virtual power, and warmed. --Milton. [1913 Webster] 2. Being in essence or effect, not in fact; as, the virtual presence of a man in his agent or substitute. [1913 Webster] A thing has a virtual existence when it has all the conditions necessary to its actual existence. --Fleming. [1913 Webster] To mask by slight differences in the manners a virtual identity in the substance. --De Quincey. [1913 Webster] {Principle of virtual velocities} (Mech.), the law that when several forces are in equilibrium, the algebraic sum of their virtual moments is equal to zero. {Virtual focus} (Opt.), the point from which rays, having been rendered divergent by reflection of refraction, appear to issue; the point at which converging rays would meet if not reflected or refracted before they reach it. {Virtual image}. (Optics) See under {Image}. {Virtual moment} (of a force) (Mech.), the product of the intensity of the force multiplied by the virtual velocity of its point of application; -- sometimes called {virtual work}. {Virtual velocity} (Mech.), a minute hypothetical displacement, assumed in analysis to facilitate the investigation of statical problems. With respect to any given force of a number of forces holding a material system in equilibrium, it is the projection, upon the direction of the force, of a line joining its point of application with a new position of that point indefinitely near to the first, to which the point is conceived to have been moved, without disturbing the equilibrium of the system, or the connections of its parts with each other. Strictly speaking, it is not a velocity but a length. {Virtual work}. (Mech.) See {Virtual moment}, above. [1913 Webster] From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]: virtual adj 1: being actually such in almost every respect; "a practical failure"; "the once elegant temple lay in virtual ruin" [syn: {virtual(a)}, {practical(a)}] 2: existing in essence or effect though not in actual fact; "a virtual dependence on charity"; "a virtual revolution"; "virtual reality" From The Jargon File (version 4.4.7, 29 Dec 2003) [jargon]: virtual adj. [via the technical term virtual memory, prob.: from the term virtual image in optics] 1. Common alternative to {logical}; often used to refer to the artificial objects (like addressable virtual memory larger than physical memory) simulated by a computer system as a convenient way to manage access to shared resources. 2. Simulated; performing the functions of something that isn't really there. An imaginative child's doll may be a virtual playmate. Oppose {real}.