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/rez'euh looh"sheuhn/, n.1. a formal expression of opinion or intention made, usually after voting, by a formal organization, a legislature, a club, or other group. Cf. concurrent resolution, joint resolution.2. a resolve or determination: to make a firm resolution to do something.3. the act of resolving or determining upon an action or course of action, method, procedure, etc.4. the mental state or quality of being resolved or resolute; firmness of purpose.5. the act or process of resolving or separating into constituent or elementary parts.6. the resulting state.7. Optics. the act, process, or capability of distinguishing between two separate but adjacent objects or sources of light or between two nearly equal wavelengths. Cf. resolving power.8. a solution, accommodation, or settling of a problem, controversy, etc.9. Music.a. the progression of a voice part or of the harmony as a whole from a dissonance to a consonance.b. the tone or chord to which a dissonance is resolved.10. reduction to a simpler form; conversion.11. Med. the reduction or disappearance of a swelling or inflammation without suppuration.12. the degree of sharpness of a computer-generated image as measured by the number of dots per linear inch in a hard-copy printout or the number of pixels across and down on a display screen.[1350-1400; ME < L resolution- (s. of resolutio), equiv. to resolut(us) RESOLUTE + -ion- -ION]Syn. 4. resolve, determination, perseverance, tenacity; strength, fortitude.
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in chemistry, any process by which a mixture called a racemate (q.v.) is separated into its two constituent enantiomorphs (enantiomorph). (Enantiomorphs are pairs of substances that have dissymmetric arrangements of atoms and structures that are nonsuperposable mirror images of one another.) Two important methods of resolution were employed by Louis Pasteur (Pasteur, Louis). The first of these, known as the method of spontaneous resolution, can be used if the racemic substance crystallizes as a conglomerate composed of observably different particles of the two enantiomorphs, which can be physically sorted. Only a few instances of this condition have been reported; consequently, this method, although of historical and theoretical interest, seldom is applicable. Pasteur's second method, however, is of much greater practicality: it is based upon the conversion of the mixture of enantiomorphs into a mixture of diastereoisomers (diastereoisomer) (optical isomers that are not mirror images of one another), which differ in physical properties and therefore can be separated. This transformation requires the use of a previously obtained optically active substance. For example, Pasteur showed in 1853 that, when racemic acid is mixed with a naturally occurring base, such as cinchonine, the resulting salt is a mixture of diastereoisomers and no longer one of enantiomorphs. The two salts present in the mixture, therefore, have different solubilities and so are separable.* * *
Universalium. 2010.
