Glossary Search

Words starting with the letter M

Macerate
To soften, or separate the parts of a substance by soaking it into a liquid with or without heat.

Magnet
A subtance, usually metallic, that has the ability to attract similar substances with a force that is not electric or gravitational. When something is described as magnetic, it means that material displays properties in a magnet, such as attraction to steel and other metals.

Magnetic field
The region around a magnet that experiences the force of attraction or repulsion of that magnet. The earth’s magnetic field attracts the needle of a compass. Moving electrical charges also produce a magnetic field around the wire carrying the current.

Magnetism
Refers to a force that pulls together or pushes objects apart. Magnetism is exerted in a region around a magnet referred to as a magnetic field.

Mail server
A computer, usually belonging to an ISP, which stores and distributes electronic mail messages.

Mail Transfer Agent (MTA)
A computer program or software agent which transfers email messages from one computer to another.

Mainframe
A very large, expensive and powerful computer capable of supporting thousands of users at the same time. It is a high level computer designed for the most intensive and demanding computer tasks.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
A prestigious engineering university and research institute in Cambridge.

Mean
Arithmetic: average number. The average is calculated by dividing the sum of two or more quantities by the number of these quantities.

Mechanical
Produced by physical forces.

Mechanical energy
Mechanical energy is the energy a moving object has, such as a car or running water. It is a form of kinetic energy used to do work.

Mechanical television
Mechanical television was a television system that uses mechanical or electromechanical devices to capture and display images. However, the images themselves were usually transmitted electronically and via radio waves.

Megabit (Mb)
Amount of memory equal to 1,048,576 bits.

Megabyte (MB)
Amount of memory equal to one thousand kilobytes or 1,048,576 bytes.

Megajoule (MJ)
Unit of measure for energy 1MJ= 1million joules.

Megawatt (MW)
Watts are the units by which we measure electrical power. A megawatt is equal to 1,000,000 watts. A light globe may use 40, 60 or 100 watts while an electric heater may use some thousands of watts.

Meltdown
Meltdown occurs when the core of a nuclear reactor becomes overheated and begins to melt. When this happens the reactor can explode releasing radioactivity into the environment.

Memex
A portmonteau of the words "memory extender", the Memex was a concept of an online library – not very different from the world-wide-web we know today. His vision was one of an interconnected knowledge base where users could have the ability to create information trails, link related text and illustrations, and store such links for future reference. Although his ideas were not unique, his vision is often regarded as the trigger for the development of PCs, the internet and the world-wide-web.

Mercury
A heavy, silver-white metallic element that is liquid in room temperature. It is a highly poisonous metal.

Message board
An application that allows users to publish and reply to messages from other internet users and to review the flow of discussion. It is also known as a discussion group.

Meter
Energy: An instrument that records or regulates the amount of something passing through it, like electricity or gas.

Methane
An odourless, gaseous hydrocarbon (CH4), occurring naturally as coal gas or marsh gas.

Methanol
A light, volatile alcohol eligible for gasoline blending.

Metropolitan Area Network (MAN)
A communications network intended to serve the area of a city. In Australia, such networks usually use fibre-optic cables.

Microbiological
Relating to microorganisms and their life processes.

Microfiltration
A process for filtering water by forcing it through a screen with very small pores (0.1 to 2 microns in diameter).

Micron
One millionth of a metre, a micrometre.

Microorganism
Very tiny living thing, too small to see with the human eye.

Microphone
An audio device that converts sound energy (such as voice waves) into electrical energy which can then be amplified.

Microprocessor
Microprocessors integrated circuits on chips that are central to computer technology. They control the logic of PCs and almost all digital devices, from clock radios to fuel-injection systems in cars.

Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a family of operating systems used on personal computers (PCs).

More than 90 per cent of the world's desktop computers now run on various versions of Microsoft Windows.

Middle Ages
The time in European history between the end of the Holy Roman Empire in the 5th century AD and the beginning of the Italian Renaissance around 1350 AD.

Millennium
A millenium is a period of time equal to a thousand years. Also refers to a thousandth anniversary. Millenia is the plural (more than one) of millennium.

Minicomputer
Built primarily between 1963 and 1987, such computers were the mid-range computers between the mainframes (very huge and extremely expensive computers) and the microcomputers (like the personal computer, PC). Minicomputers were actually the size of a two-drawer filing cabinet and generally served between 10 and 300 people simultaneously.

Mirror Site
A website that is a duplication of an existing site, to reduce the traffic on a particular server and to enhance the availability of the original site.

Modem
Short for modulator/demodulator. It is a device that converts a digital signal to an analogue signal so that information can be passed through a telephone line and then decoded to a computer.

Modems
Modems are devices that lets a computer talk to another computer over a phone line. When someone speaks of standard modems, he or she is usually referring to a 33.6k or 56k dial-up modem.

Modular
A unit made up of standard parts.

Molecule
The smallest physical unit of an element or compound, consisting of one or more atoms.

Monitor
1. To check, observe or record how something works, without interfering.
2. A device similar to a television screen that receives video signals from the computer and displays the information for the user.

Mosaic
Developed by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) in 1992, Mosaic was the first web browser for the world-wide-web and helped trigger the popularity of the Internet. It officially ceased on 7 January 1997, having been supplanted by commercial browsers such as Netscape Navigator.

Moving Pictures Experts Group (MPEG)
A popular file format for audio and video. MPEG-1 is used for VCD format while MPEG-2 is used for DVD format. MPEG-3 was designed to handle HDTV signals in the range of 20 to 40 Mbps. MPEG-4 was introduced in late 1998 and compresses video, audio and certain types of 3D information. It processes detailed 3D representation for faces, human bodies and general 3D scenes.

MP3
It is an acronym of MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 audio layer
3. It is a compressed audio format that still allows a relatively high sound quality while reducing the file size. A compression rate of 12:1 is possible through MP3.

MS Windows
Microsoft Windows is a family of operating systems used on personal computers (PCs).

More than 90 per cent of the world's desktop computers now run on various versions of Microsoft Windows.

Mulch
Straw, leaves, loose earth etc spread on the ground to protect the roots of newly planted trees, crops and other plants.

Multimedia
A combination of multiple media types, including text, graphics, animation, audio and video.

Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME)
A standard specifying the format of non-text data – such as graphics, audio, video animations etc. – transferred over the internet.

Music, language: A rhythmic pattern.