Regardless of the context, filter comprises a passage of analysis in the process towards a result, being used and appreciated in water cleaning processes, in the technological and security field or in communicational aspects, where it often intersects with the idea of censorship.
Material or device used to clean a fluid of impurities or to separate substances
To the porous material or the device from which a certain fluid is made to pass in order to clean it of impurities or with the mission of separating certain substances found in it it is called a filter. Coffee filter, sink filter, oil filter, among others.
Filters can be paper, such as those used to prepare coffee in machines, plastic or steel, which are mostly used to strain rice or noodles. Other elements such as cotton, sand, or glass wool can also be used.
One of the most popular synonyms of this sense is that of strainer, a super-used kitchen utensil that consists of a metal cloth or plate, with very small holes and that is attached to a handle to be able to manipulate it better and that is used precisely in culinary activities to remove solid particles from a liquid or a viscous substance.
One of the most common cases is that of cream in milk when it is cooked. When this substance is cooked, it produces this thick substance known as cream and that will form on the milk, meanwhile, with the strainer you can separate this cream from the liquid, especially for those people who dislike cream.
Filtration process
The process of separating different elements in relation to a liquid through a filter that allows the passage of water but not that of solid elements, is called filtration.
This filtration procedure is commonly used to clean the water, so that it reaches users clean and without impurities or solid contaminants. However, this process does not release any other type of contamination to the filtered water.
Cigarette mouthpiece that retains nicotine
On the other hand, to the cigarette holder located on the opposite side of the ignition and whose function is the retention of nicotine it is called a filter. That is, the mission is to filter the highly toxic smoke particles for the smoker, many of the particles are carcinogenic, therefore, the presence of the filter is essential; Active carbon is the compound that filters normally contain to be able to filter the aforementioned harmful particles, it usually appears as a small black stone after the filter burns.
Electronic, optical filter
At the behest of the electronics, the electric filter or electronic filter It is an element that serves to discriminate a certain frequency or range of frequencies coming from an electrical signal that passes through it, being able to modify both the phase and the amplitude.
On optics, the filter is called screen that interposes before the light in order to prevent the passage of certain radiation.
Among the most common optical filters are color filters, which are those that only let through that light that observes a certain wavelength. In different areas this type of filter is used, such as: in photography, in lighting, in scientific events, in computing, for computer monitors, among others. Meanwhile, filters that simply attenuate light uniformly over the entire frequency range are known as neutral density filters.
Select the best within a set
Also, in common parlance, we often use the term filter to refer to the means used to select the best within a given set. “ These primary elections are a filter for the best candidates to run in the next elections..”
On the other hand, following the colloquial use of language, the word filter is usually used to refer to that individual who is used by another to select the people who visit him or the topics to be discussed, according to the relevance or benefits they report. .
Let us think of a large politician or an important businessman, the secretaries, act as "filters" for their bosses, answering the phone or all those queries, people who come to see them. Once they collect the information that each person demands, they make a synthesis that they present to their boss, who will finally decide who to attend to and what topic to pay special attention to.
Computer filter
And in computing, the use of the word filter is also common, since it is about computer programs used to process a stream of data; The operating system Unix it is abundant in this type of filters.
