How to Use topological in a Sentence

topological

adjective
  • The painting is also a superb topological map of open wounds.
    Kyle Dunn’s Night Fever, Vulture, 11 May 2023
  • The result is the first direct measurement of the topological order of a quantum spin liquid.
    Quanta Magazine, 2 Dec. 2021
  • The group has since gained even better control over the BEC medium, enabling them to detect the decay of the knots and the formation of a new type of topological defect (a vortex).
    Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, 15 Nov. 2019
  • Alternating dark and light lines represent lines of constant gap height, much like the lines on a topological map.
    Discover Magazine, 15 May 2013
  • One potential way to reduce the heat problem is with a topological design.
    Stephon Alexander, Wired, 31 Aug. 2021
  • This means that from a topological point of view, a curve actually looks like a two-dimensional surface — and that surface can have holes.
    Jordana Cepelewicz, Quanta Magazine, 25 Aug. 2022
  • As human culture tried to make sense of life in the middle of a global, decentralized network, topological metaphors ruled.
    Ian Bogost, The Atlantic, 24 Feb. 2020
  • The field of topological quantum computing still has promise, but the task has shown itself to be even more difficult than researchers first imagined.
    Michael Moyer, Quanta Magazine, 22 Dec. 2021
  • In the paper, the scientists use pressure maps—like topological geographical maps, but for the depth of each footprint.
    Caroline Delbert, Popular Mechanics, 16 Oct. 2020
  • The topological approach reduces the problem to the barest facts, Marston says: Earth is rotating and has an equator where the Coriolis force switches direction.
    George Musser, Science | AAAS, 5 Oct. 2017
  • Optimization was used to increase a measure called the topological gap.
    John Timmer, Ars Technica, 15 Mar. 2022
  • The three men invigorated the field of topological chemistry, the academy said on Wednesday.
    Kenneth Chang and Sewell Chan, New York Times, 5 Oct. 2016
  • Some researchers, most notably at Microsoft, hope to sidestep this challenge by developing a type of qubit out of clusters of electrons known as a topological qubit.
    Tom Simonite Sophia Chen, WIRED, 22 Feb. 2023
  • The fundamental groupoid of the space formed by the inflatable exterior of a beach ball, a sphere in topological terms, also has this description: there is a unique path up to homotopy between any two points.
    Emily Riehl, Scientific American, 17 Sep. 2021
  • Job one for the Equator was a general bathymetric map—an underwater topological survey—of fifty-seven thousand square miles straddling the line of the Seventh Arc.
    Bucky McMahon, Esquire, 14 Sep. 2015
  • The molecules are the atomic equivalent of the Borromean rings, a topological curiosity in which three rings intertwine so that removing any one ring causes the other two to fall apart.
    Adrian Cho, Science | AAAS, 7 Sep. 2017
  • Moore was the son of a pit deputy, and his later explorations of the body as a topological puzzle made up of infolding solids and voids may have begun with experiencing the landscape as an intestinal space of sunken shafts and snaking tunnels.
    Richard B. Woodward, WSJ, 3 Dec. 2022
  • This property, called topological stability, is shared by geometric objects such as the Möbius strip, a shape that can be obtained by joining the two ends of a ribbon together with a half-twist in between.
    Ron Cowen, Scientific American, 8 Aug. 2013
  • On the surface of a topological insulator, electrons flow smoothly, while on the inside, electrons are immobile.
    Quanta Magazine, 25 Sep. 2018
  • By some trick of physics, the topological twists in the interior translated into an edge current that flowed without dissipating.
    Katie McCormick, Quanta Magazine, 18 July 2023
  • So, no one was exactly sure if a topological insulator laser could exist.
    Chris Lee, Ars Technica, 2 Feb. 2018
  • Morava K-theory was created in the 1970s to expand the tower of topological theories.
    Quanta Magazine, 9 Dec. 2021
  • The researchers’ simulations successfully recreated what a topological soliton would look like if placed in front of a camera lens.
    Darren Orf, Popular Mechanics, 2 May 2023
  • This distinction, between topological and smooth equivalence, doesn’t apply in three dimensions and is one of the deep mysteries of four-dimensional space — though less so now for Seifert surfaces.
    Quanta Magazine, 16 June 2022
  • To create the more error-proof quantum material, Potter’s team looked to topological phases.
    Zeeya Merali, Scientific American, 26 July 2022
  • In this new perspective, topological spaces are thought of as being assembled from infinite points of dust glued together.
    Quanta Magazine, 19 May 2015
  • The company is researching the development of a topological qubit.
    Peter Bright, Ars Technica, 25 Sep. 2017
  • This system marks the birth of topological codes—and with it, another connection between condensed matter physics and quantum error correction.
    Zaira Nazario, Scientific American, 1 May 2022
  • But its topological properties don’t change, even though its geometry does.
    Joanna Thompson, Scientific American, 5 Apr. 2022
  • Leonhard Euler kicked off the topological investigation of shapes in the 18th century.
    quantamagazine.org, 26 Jan. 2021

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'topological.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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