granularitate

Granularitate, or granularity, is a Romanian term describing the quality or degree of being granular or consisting of discrete grains. The word derives from the Latin granum (grain) and is used in Romanian and other contexts to denote the scale or resolution at which a system is described or observed.

In materials science and physics, granularitatea refers to granular materials—assemblies of macroscopic particles such as sand, grains, or powders—that behave between solids and fluids. Their macroscopic properties depend on particle size distribution, shape, packing, and inter-particle forces. Phenomena such as dilatancy, jamming, shear banding, and segregation arise from grain-scale interactions. Descriptors include packing fraction, coordination number, and the rheology of granular flows, with characterization by sieve analysis, laser diffraction, and imaging.

In information technology and data management, granularity describes the level of detail in data, tasks, or permissions. Fine-grained (high granularity) systems control access or store data at a small unit level; coarse-grained (low granularity) systems use larger units. Granularity affects performance, security, and flexibility. In time-series, granularity refers to the sampling interval; in databases, to column or row-level detail.

In philosophy and cognitive science, granularity concerns the granularity of descriptions or representations, noting that different observers may use different levels of description without contradiction, with implications for theory-building and cross-disciplinary analysis.