hydraulic
part of speech
adjective (hydraulic); noun «hydraulics» (uncountable — the science, or the hydraulic parts of a machine)
meaning for a pupil
1) Worked by the pressure of a liquid, usually oil or water, pushed through pipes. tree →
2) To do with moving water, for example in dams, canals and pipes: hydraulic engineering. tree →
3) (of cement) Able to set hard under water. tree →
sense in the lessons
In science and design-technology lessons, hydraulic systems show how a small push on liquid in a narrow pipe can make a big force in a wide pipe — this is how car brakes, diggers, car lifts and dentists' chairs work. Children build hydraulic models with syringes and water. Phrases: hydraulic lift, hydraulic brakes, hydraulic arm, hydraulic press, hydraulic pump.
examples
- The digger's hydraulic arm lifted the heavy rocks. tree →
- We made a hydraulic robot arm using syringes and coloured water. tree →
- The mechanic raised the car on a hydraulic lift. tree →
- Cars stop using hydraulic brakes. tree →
- The dentist's chair moves up with a hydraulic pump. tree →
- A hydraulic press can squash a can flat. tree →
- The engineer studied hydraulics to design the dam. tree →
note
«Hydraulic» is an adjective; «hydraulics» is the noun for the subject. Compare «pneumatic» — worked by air or gas pressure instead of liquid. The idea: liquids are very hard to squash, so pressure passes through them. In maths/science, pressure = force ÷ area, so a bigger piston gets a bigger force from the same pressure.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «hydraulic» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.