1. A mass of fluid, especially of a liquid, having a whirling or circular motion tending to form a cavity or vacuum in the center of the circle, and to draw in towards the center bodies subject to its action; the form assumed by a fluid in such motion; a whirlpool; an eddy.
2. (Cartesian System)
Defn: A supposed collection of particles of very subtile matter, endowed with a rapid rotary motion around an axis which was also the axis of a sun or a planet. Descartes attempted to account for the formation of the universe, and the movements of the bodies composing it, by a theory of vortices.
3. (Zoöl.)
Defn: Any one of numerous species of small Turbellaria belonging to Vortex and allied genera. See Illustration in Appendix. Vortex atom (Chem.), a hypothetical ring-shaped mass of elementary matter in continuous vortical motion. It is conveniently regarded in certain mathematical speculations as the typical form and structure of the chemical atom. — Vortex wheel, a kind of turbine.
VORTEX FILAMENT
Vor"tex fil"a*ment.
Defn: A vortex tube of infinitesimal cross section.
VORTEX FRINGE
Vor"tex fringe.
Defn: The region immediately surrounding a disk moving flatwise through air; — so called because the air has a cyclic motion as in vortex ring.
VORTEX LINE
Vortex line.