Where does discharge collide?

The release of stored electric charge, as when a charged capacitor drives current through a circuit, built-up static jumps a gap as a spark, or a voltage across a gas breaks it down into a conducting glow or arc: the charge that had been held apart flows until the stored energy is spent. Raizer's 1991 Gas Discharge Physics set out how an applied field ionises a gas and sustains the current we see as a glow, spark, or arc. Here the word names the flow of charge out of a store or across a gap, timed in the decay of a voltage or the striking of an arc, and not the release of a patient, the flow of a river, or the ending of an obligation.[1]

Unit

A flow of charge out of a store or across a gap, in amperes over time

Recovery means

The store can be recharged, and a gas returns to an insulator once the field is removed

Measured by

Characterised by the decaying voltage and current of a capacitor, or the breakdown voltage and current of a gas gap

In hydrology, the volume of water passing through a river's cross-section in a given time, usually reported in cubic metres per second: it is the product of the channel's cross-sectional area and the water's mean velocity, and it summarises how much water a stream is carrying at that moment. Rantz and colleagues' 1982 manual Measurement and Computation of Streamflow, issued by the United States Geological Survey, set out how discharge is gauged and how a rating curve relates the easily read water level to the discharge it implies. Here the word names a rate of water flow, scaled by volume per unit time, and not a patient leaving a ward, charge leaving a capacitor, or a debt being cancelled.[2]

Unit

A river's water flow, in cubic metres per second

Recovery means

Not applicable

Measured by

Gauged from cross-sectional area and current-meter velocity, then read routinely from water level using a rating curve

In law, the release of a person from a legal obligation or status, so that a duty is treated as extinguished: a contract can be discharged by full performance, a debtor can be discharged in bankruptcy, and a debt or duty can otherwise be released or cancelled. Tabb's 1991 article The Historical Evolution of the Bankruptcy Discharge traced how the bankruptcy discharge grew from a creditor's tool into a debtor's fresh start that wipes out qualifying debts. Here the word names the ending of a legal duty or claim, marked by the moment an obligation ceases to bind, and not a hospital release, an electrical release, or the flow of a river.[3]

Unit

One obligation released, at the moment it ceases to bind

Recovery means

A discharged duty is generally gone for good, though some obligations are excepted from discharge

Measured by

Established by the legal event that ends the duty: performance, a court order, or a statutory discharge