3 ms·

Is "damping" a technical term, distinct from "dumping"? The article uses it more than once so it seems deliberate...

• orra 5y ago
  Damping is a physics or maths term. To damp means to (steadily?) decrease the amplitude of a wave or oscillation.
• saltcured 5y ago
  Damping is generally a technique which reduces, slows, or restricts a system. It is not a synonym for dumping. We have old, related terms like the "damper" on a fireplace, which I suspect may invoke a more basic analogy of putting water on wood fuel, i.e. making it damp and slower to burn. In modern usage, "damping" usually refers to a drag or parasitic affect in some oscillatory system, but it does not have to be oscillatory. It can be other drag effects that convert energy, with a usual assumption that it will bring the system to a new equilibrium. An object falling through the atmosphere can be considered to have its fall dampened by the air drag, converging towards its terminal velocity. I am not familiar with all the physics involved in falling towards/into such a star, so I do not know if there are field effects which would cause damping of the fall prior to impact of the trash with an actual surface, similar to the atmospheric descent towards earth. I also wonder if they imagine the orbital system is being damped to allow the trash to impact the star, by bleeding off tangential velocity to decay the orbit.