WordGarden.iometastability
C2Pronunciation
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Meanings
Noun
a long-lived state that appears stable but can shift when disturbed
an indeterminate intermediate state that can occur in a digital circuit when timing conditions are violated
Beyond the definition
Imagine a ball resting in a shallow dip on the side of a mountain. It looks still, but one good nudge will send it rolling down to the valley floor. That is a state that seems stable for a while, even though it can suddenly change if something disturbs it. It is not so weak that it falls apart at once, but it is not fully stable either. This idea often appears in science. For example, supercooled water can stay liquid below its freezing point until a small shock makes it quickly turn to ice.
Metastability describes a condition in which a system is not in its lowest-energy state, yet it stays in its current form for a surprisingly long time. A common picture is a ball caught in a small hollow on a rough hillside. It is not at the very bottom, where it would be fully stable, but it is settled enough that it takes a push to move it into a more stable state.
The term comes from the physical sciences, where it describes substances or systems that persist because an energy barrier blocks change. For example, diamond is metastable under ordinary conditions: graphite is the more stable form of carbon, but turning diamond into graphite requires so much atomic rearrangement that the change happens extremely slowly.
The idea also appears in other fields. In electronics and computer science, it can describe a signal or circuit that hangs for a moment between clear states instead of settling cleanly into a "0" or "1." More broadly, people sometimes use it in a figurative way for any situation that looks settled but could shift quickly if the right trigger appears. In every case, the central idea is the same: a temporary balance that can last, but not forever.
Examples
- 1
Digital circuits
In a digital circuit, metastability can make a memory element give an unpredictable output for a moment.
- 2
Chip design
The engineers added a synchronizer to lower the risk of metastability when the signal entered the chip.
- Patternlower the risk of + problem
reduce the chance of it
- 3
Materials research
Researchers observed metastability in the material before it settled into a more stable state.
See also
Similar
- quasi-stability
- temporary stability
- apparent stability
Shades of meaning
- kinetic stability
- metastable equilibrium
Contrast
- stable equilibrium
- instability
Used with (collocations)
- metastable state
- metastability in flip-flops
- metastability analysis
Word family
- metastable
Explore
- activation energy
- phase transition
Forms and spellings
1 form open this card.
Main spelling
- metastabilitynoun