intermittent adj
1. stopping and starting at irregular intervals; "intermittent rain showers"
2. stopping and starting at regular intervals

Intermittent \In`ter*mit"tent\, a. [L. intermittens, -entis, p. pr. of intermittere: cf. F. intermittent.] Coming and going at intervals; alternating; recurrent; periodic; as, an intermittent fever. --Boyle. Intermittent fever (Med.), a disease with fever which recurs at certain intervals; -- applied particularly to fever and ague. See Fever. Intermittent gearing (Mach.), gearing which receives, or produces, intermittent motion. Intermittent springs, springs which flow at intervals, not apparently dependent upon rain or drought. They probably owe their intermittent action to their being connected with natural reservoirs in hills or mountains by passages having the form of a siphon, the water beginning to flow when it has accumulated so as to fill the upper part of the siphon, and ceasing when, by running through it, it has fallen below the orifice of the upper part of the siphon in the reservoir.

Intermittent \In`ter*mit"tent\, n. (Med.) An intermittent fever or disease. --Dunglison.

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In dynamical systems, intermittency is the alternation of phases of apparently periodic and chaotic dynamics.

In the apparently periodic phases the behaviour is not quite, but only nearly periodic. Thus, rather than a (truly periodic) series of values such as 2, 4, 2, 4, ... one might have something like 2.0001, 4.0003, 2.0002, 4.0001, 2.0003, 3.9999, 1.8715, 6.7486, ... where the first six values are apparently periodic but where the actually chaotic nature of the system becomes apparent after the value 3.9999 is reached.

Intermittency factor is the fraction of time that motion is turbulent, denoted μ.

In technology, in particular electronics, an intermittent fault, sometimes called just an "intermittent", is one that does not manifest continuously. These faults are particularly difficult to detect, as they may occur at times when a system is in use, but not when attempts are made to repair it.

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