limiar

Limiar is a Portuguese word that translates to "threshold" in English. It refers to a point of entry or the beginning of a change. In various contexts, it signifies a boundary or a minimum level required to produce an effect or to be perceived.

The concept of limiar is applied in psychology, particularly in psychophysics, to describe the lowest intensity at which a stimulus can be detected 50% of the time. This is known as the absolute limiar. There is also the differential limiar, which is the smallest detectable difference between two stimuli.

In a more general sense, limiar can refer to the starting point of a process, an event, or a transition. It can be used in fields like economics to denote the minimum income required for a certain status, or in engineering to indicate the minimum load a structure can withstand before failure. The term emphasizes the critical nature of a specific point that marks a significant shift from one state to another. Understanding the limiar is crucial for analyzing and predicting outcomes in many scientific and practical applications.