-tron, -tronic, -tronics +
(Greek: a suffix referring to a device, tool, or instrument; more generally, used in the names of any kind of chamber or apparatus used in experiments)
A possible allusion to the Greek instrumental suffix, as in árotron, "plow" as spelled in the U.S. or "plough", as spelled by the British; from the Greek stem aroun, "to plow".
The suffix -tron is the result of the combining form extracted from electron, used with nouns or combining forms, principally in the names of electron tubes (ignitron; klystron; magnetron) and of devices for accelerating subatomic particles (cosmotron; cyclotron); also, more generally, in the names of any kind of chamber or apparatus used in experiments (biotron).
2. A small, often pocket-sized, electronic instrument used to perform the basic operations of mathematical calculations.
3. An electronic tool for arithmetic and logarithmic computations which may also include a digital printer and a computer.
4. A calculator in which integrated circuits perform calculations and show the results on a digital display.
Most basic models provide all four arithmetic operations (+, -, x, ÷), usually with a floating decimal.
2. The use of electronic means, or exploitations of electronic characteristics to reduce, to submerge, or to eliminate the radar echoing properties of a target.
2. A system for automatically checking out purchased goods from retail food stores, consisting of a device that scans packages and reads symbols imprinted on the labels, and a computer which converts the symbol information to tell a cash register the price of the item.
The computers are also equipped to keep records of sales and inventories.
2. An instrument that scans curves by a graphical recorder on a continuous paper form and converts them into digital form.
2. An electric circuit in which the balance of electrons in a given electric part; such as, a tube, transistor, or amplifier, is disturbed by something other than an applied electric voltage.
3. An electric circuit having at least one element that manipulates the voltage or current in the circuit.
2. A clock in which the timekeeping impulse is provided by the oscillations (alternating current and associated electric and magnetic fields) of a tiny tuning fork attached to an electronic circuit.
2. An electron-tube or transistor circuit which switches one circuit connection rapidly and in sequence or following in an uninterrupted order to many other circuits, without the wear and noise of mechanical switches.
An example is the radial-beam tube, in which a rotating magnetic field causes an electron beam to sweep over one anode after another anode and produces the desired switching actions.
2. The sensing sections of tabulating equipment that enable a machine to process the contents of punched cards in a specified procedure.
2. The amount of space in which a target appears to occupy in a radar resolution cell, as it appears to that radar beam.
A cross reference of word units that are related, directly and/or indirectly, with "electricity": electro-; galvano-; hodo-; ion-; piezo-; volt; biomechatronics, info; mechatronics, info.
Related topics about "technology": Biometrics: Index; Biomimetics: Index; Biopiracy; Emerging Technologies; Geographic Information System (GIS): Index; Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS); Global Positioning System (GPS); Information Tech; Mechatronics; Nanotechnology; RFID; Robotics; Technological Breakthroughs; Technological Innovations; WAAS; Wireless Communications.