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profilometer

[‚prō·fə′läm·əd·ər]

(engineering)

An instrument for measuring the roughness of a surface by means of a diamond-pointed tracer arm attached to a coil in an electric field; movement of the arm across the surface induces a current proportional to surface roughness.

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.