Homogeneity and Heterogeneity - Heterogeneity

Heterogeneity is the state of being heterogeneous. It is the nature of opposition, or contrariety of qualities. It is diverse in kind or nature; composed of diverse parts, or resulting from differing causes. In general, a heterogeneous entity is composed of dissimilar parts, hence the constituents are of a different kind. The parts (or constituents) are connected, and of a conglomerate mass, and viewed in respect to the parts of which it is made up.

Various disciplines understand heterogeneity, or being heterogeneous, in different ways. For example:

• In physics, it is understood as having more than one phase (solid, liquid, gas) present in a system or process.
• In chemistry, a heterogeneous material consists of either or both of a) multiple states of matter or b) hydrophilic and hydrophobic substances in one mixture; an example of the latter would be a mixture of water, octane, and silicone grease.
• With information technology (see:Heterogeneous computing) it means a network comprising different types of computers, potentially with vastly differing memory sizes, processing power and even basic underlying architecture. Alternatively, a data resource with multiple types of formats.
• In sociology it may refer to a society or group that includes individuals of differing ethnicities, cultural backgrounds, sexes, or ages.
• Rocks (geology) are inherently heterogeneous, usually occurring at the micro-scale and mini-scale.
• In medicine and genetics, a genetic or allelic heterogeneous condition is one where the same disease or condition can be caused, or contributed to, by varying different genes or alleles.