A disturbance in the regular elliptic or other motion of a heavenly body, produced by some force additional to that which causes its regular motion; as, the perturbations of the planets are caused by their attraction on each other.
A non-random disturbance.
disturbance in the normal movement of an orbiting body arising from an external force, usually gravitational.
A small disturbing effect
A small gravitational effect, such as that of one planet on another.
For a body orbiting the Sun or a planet, the gravitational effect of a third body (e.g.,another planet) on its orbit, usually resulting in small changes or periodic fluctuations. [For comets, outgassing near the sun may also act on its orbit.
an unhappy and worried mental state; "there was too much anger and disturbance"; "she didn't realize the upset she caused me"
activity that is an intrusion or interruption; "he looked around for the source of the disturbance"; "there was a disturbance of neural function"
a disposition that is confused or nervous and upset
a somewhat obscurely defined disturbance, blockage, or imbalance in the body's energic (sic) system that is the cause of negative emotions
Modifications to simple conic section orbits caused by such disturbances as air drag, non-uniformity of the Earth, and gravitational fields of more distant bodies such as the Moon.
The disturbing effect, when small, on the motion of a body produced by a third body or other external agent.
A perturbation is a disturbance or abnormality.
A disturbance; often develops into a low-pressure system.
Any departure introduced into an assumed steady state of a system. The magnitude is often assumed to be small so that product terms in the dependent variables may be neglected; the term "perturbation" is therefore sometimes used as synonymous with "small perturbation." The perturbation may be concentrated at a point or in a finite volume of space; it may be a wave (sine or cosine function); in the case of a rotating system, it may be symmetric about the axis of rotation; or it may be a displacement by the parcel method. The mathematical work in an instability problem may be facilitated by the perturbation technique, whether or not the equations are linearized. In synoptic meteorology, this term is used for any departure from zonal flow within the major zonal currents of the atmosphere. It is especially applied to the wavelike disturbances within the tropical easterlies. See easterly wave; compare disturbance.
Perturbation is a term used in astronomy to describe alterations to an object's orbit caused by gravitational interactions with other bodies. For example, the orbits of comets are often perturbed, particularly by the gravitational fields of the giant planets - Jupiter's gravitational influence caused the period of Comet Hale-Bopp's orbit to decrease from 4200 to 2800 years. Planets also perturb the orbits of other planets, a fact which lead to the discovery of Neptune as a result of its perturbations of the orbit of Uranus.