Talk:Length constant

Physiology Mid‑importance

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	This article has been classified as relating to the physiology of the brain, nerves and nervous system.

Purpose[edit]

Okay, it's used in neurobiology, but what for?

Response

In neurobio, lambda quantifies the distance over which a dendritic signal can travel until it reaches 37% of its original intensity when accounting for leak and axial resistance

Aangi14 (talk) 01:44, 12 February 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Subject areas[edit]

I'd like to see this page generalised/expanded to wider electrophysiology rather than just neuroscience, as the concept of something like a 'voltage diffusion length scale' exists elsewhere too. Any objections to this? Mirams (talk) 14:17, 7 June 2016 (UTC)[reply]

It seems that the article contains a factual error where it says 'the distance at which 63% of Vmax has been reached during the rise of voltage.' and 'the distance at which 37% of Vmax has been reached during the fall of voltage.' This property applies to the time constant tau, but lambda should be indifferent to rising or falling of voltage. It should simply be described as the distance at which Vm falls to 37% of Vmax. Edhazer (talk) 00:13, 30 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]