Flux
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As flux roughly means 'rate of flow', in various contexts it means 'amount of stuff happening', in a turnover sort of way.
This sense pops up in
physics,
biology (movement of chemicals, sometimes specific to metabolism),
but also physiology and a few other places you might not expect it.
In physics:
- Electric flux is a property of an electric field
- luminous flux is amount of visible light, radiant flux refers to any electromagnetism (verify)
But also:
- [In metallurgy] (e.g. welding) flux is about cleaning and purifying agents to keep things flowing
- in welding it might refer to anything that helps keep the weld pool clean
- in soldering, soldering flux is often specifically an acid that removes oxidation -- so that solder can flow more easily
And as a name, because it sounds vaguely cool
- Flux is a query language used by InfluxDB
See also: