Portal:Physics

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The Physics Portal

The expansion of the universe according to the Big Bang theory in physics

Physics is the scientific study of matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. It is one of the most fundamental scientific disciplines. A scientist who specializes in the field of physics is called a physicist.

Physics is one of the oldest academic disciplines. Over much of the past two millennia, physics, chemistry, biology, and certain branches of mathematics were a part of natural philosophy, but during the Scientific Revolution in the 17th century, these natural sciences branched into separate research endeavors. Physics intersects with many interdisciplinary areas of research, such as biophysics and quantum chemistry, and the boundaries of physics are not rigidly defined. New ideas in physics often explain the fundamental mechanisms studied by other sciences and suggest new avenues of research in these and other academic disciplines such as mathematics and philosophy.

Advances in physics often enable new technologies. For example, advances in the understanding of electromagnetism, solid-state physics, and nuclear physics led directly to the development of technologies that have transformed modern society, such as television, computers, domestic appliances, and nuclear weapons; advances in thermodynamics led to the development of industrialization; and advances in mechanics inspired the development of calculus. (Full article...)

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This is a Featured article, which represents some of the best content on English Wikipedia.

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Typhoon Trami showing a well-defined eye at the center of the storm as seen from the International Space Station

The eye is a region of mostly calm weather at the center of a tropical cyclone. The eye of a storm is a roughly circular area, typically 30–65 kilometers (19–40 miles; 16–35 nautical miles) in diameter. It is surrounded by the eyewall, a ring of towering thunderstorms where the most severe weather and highest winds of the cyclone occur. The cyclone's lowest barometric pressure occurs in the eye and can be as much as 15 percent lower than the pressure outside the storm.

In strong tropical cyclones, the eye is characterized by light winds and clear skies, surrounded on all sides by a towering, symmetric eyewall. In weaker tropical cyclones, the eye is less well defined and can be covered by the central dense overcast, an area of high, thick clouds that show up brightly on satellite imagery. Weaker or disorganized storms may also feature an eyewall that does not completely encircle the eye or have an eye that features heavy rain. In all storms, however, the eye is where the barometer reading is lowest. (Full article...)

List of Featured articles

AdS/CFT correspondence Archimedes Astrophysics Data System Atom Atomic line filter Big Bang Niels Bohr James E. Boyd (scientist) Calutron James Chadwick Chicago Pile-1 Jürgen Ehlers Electron Leonhard Euler Enrico Fermi Richard Feynman Ursula Franklin Gamma-ray burst General relativity Introduction to general relativity Josiah Willard Gibbs Gliding Heavy metals Herbig–Haro object History of Mars observation Hubble Deep Field Johannes Kepler Laplace–Runge–Lenz vector M-theory Magnetosphere of Jupiter Manhattan Project Mechanical filter Mirror symmetry (string theory) Montreal Laboratory Emmy Noether Numerical weather prediction Oganesson Mark Oliphant Gerard K. O'Neill J. Robert Oppenheimer Periodic table Photon Planets beyond Neptune Plutonium Quark Isidor Isaac Rabi Radiocarbon dating Redshift Louis Slotin Smyth Report Speed of light Star Sun Supernova Edward Teller Tornado Trinity (nuclear test) Tropical cyclone Uranium White dwarf Wind ZETA (fusion reactor)

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Did you know - show different entries

A laser beam used for welding

• ... that lasers can be used to separate two isotopes very efficiently?

• ... that your feet are slightly younger than your head, because time runs slow at a lower Gravitational Potential. This is a consequence of Gravitational Time Dilation

• ...that Max Planck created a system of measurement based solely on natural units?

More did you know facts

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Motion of the Sun (yellow), Earth (blue), and Mars (red). At left, Copernicus's heliocentric motion. At right, traditional geocentric motion, including the retrograde motion of Mars. For simplicity, Mars's period of revolution is depicted as 2 years instead of 1.88, and orbits are depicted as perfectly circular or epitrochoid.

In the 16th century, Nicolaus Copernicus proposed a major shift in the understanding of the cycle of the heavenly spheres. Driven by a desire for a more perfect (i.e. circular) description of the cosmos than the prevailing Ptolemaic model - which posited that the Sun circled a stationary Earth - Copernicus instead advanced a (quasi) heliocentric system where the Sun was located near, though not precisely at, the mathematical center of the heavens. In the 20th century, the science historian Thomas Kuhn characterized the "Copernican Revolution" as the first historical example of a paradigm shift in human knowledge. Both Arthur Koestler and David Wootton, on the other hand, have disagreed with Kuhn about how revolutionary Copernicus' work should be considered. (Full article...)

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These are Good articles, which meet a core set of high editorial standards.

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  Image 1

  

  Calutron Girls photographed by Ed Westcott at their calutron control panels at Y-12

  
  The Calutron Girls were a group of young women—mostly high school graduates—who had joined the Manhattan Project at the Y-12 National Security Complex located at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, from 1943 to 1945. Although they were not allowed to know at the time, they were monitoring dials and watching meters for calutrons, mass spectrometers adapted for separation of uranium isotopes for the development of nuclear weapons for use during World War II. The enriched uranium was used to make the "Little Boy" atomic bomb for the Hiroshima nuclear bombing on August 6, 1945. (Full article...)
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  Image 2

  
  

  

  Bohr in 1955

  
  Aage Niels Bohr (Danish: [ˈɔːwə ˈne̝ls ˈpoɐ̯ˀ] ^ⓘ; 19 June 1922 – 8 September 2009) was a Danish nuclear physicist who shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1975 with Ben Roy Mottelson and James Rainwater "for the discovery of the connection between collective motion and particle motion in atomic nuclei and the development of the theory of the structure of the atomic nucleus based on this connection". His father was Niels Bohr.
  
  Starting from Rainwater's concept of an irregular-shaped liquid drop model of the nucleus, Bohr and Mottelson developed a detailed theory that was in close agreement with experiments. (Full article...)
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  Image 3

  

  
  Kenneth Tompkins Bainbridge (July 27, 1904 – July 14, 1996) was an American physicist at Harvard University who worked on cyclotron research. His accurate measurements of mass differences between nuclear isotopes allowed him to confirm Albert Einstein's mass–energy equivalence concept. He was the Director of the Manhattan Project's Trinity nuclear test, which took place July 16, 1945. Bainbridge described the Trinity explosion as a "foul and awesome display". He remarked to J. Robert Oppenheimer immediately after the test, "Now we are all sons of bitches." This marked the beginning of his dedication to ending the testing of nuclear weapons and to efforts to maintain civilian control of future developments in that field. (Full article...)
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  Image 4

  

  Two geostationary satellites in the same orbit

  
  A geostationary orbit, also referred to as a geosynchronous equatorial orbit (GEO), is a circular geosynchronous orbit 35,786 km (22,236 mi) in altitude above Earth's equator, 42,164 km (26,199 mi) in radius from Earth's center, and following the direction of Earth's rotation.
  
  An object in such an orbit has an orbital period equal to Earth's rotational period, one sidereal day, and so to ground observers it appears motionless, in a fixed position in the sky. The concept of a geostationary orbit was popularised by the science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke in the 1940s as a way to revolutionise telecommunications, and the first satellite to be placed in this kind of orbit was launched in 1963. (Full article...)
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  Wigner in 1963

  
  Eugene Paul Wigner (Hungarian: Wigner Jenő Pál, pronounced [ˈviɡnɛr ˈjɛnøː ˈpaːl]; November 17, 1902 – January 1, 1995) was a Hungarian-American theoretical physicist who also contributed to mathematical physics. He received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1963 "for his contributions to the theory of the atomic nucleus and the elementary particles, particularly through the discovery and application of fundamental symmetry principles".
  
  A graduate of the Technical Hochschule Berlin (now Technische Universität Berlin), Wigner worked as an assistant to Karl Weissenberg and Richard Becker at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Berlin, and David Hilbert at the University of Göttingen. Wigner and Hermann Weyl were responsible for introducing group theory into physics, particularly the theory of symmetry in physics. Along the way he performed ground-breaking work in pure mathematics, in which he authored a number of mathematical theorems. In particular, Wigner's theorem is a cornerstone in the mathematical formulation of quantum mechanics. He is also known for his research into the structure of the atomic nucleus. In 1930, Princeton University recruited Wigner, along with John von Neumann, and he moved to the United States, where he obtained citizenship in 1937. (Full article...)
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  Image 6

  

  
  Hans Albrecht Eduard Bethe (/ˈbɛθə/; German: [ˈhans ˈbeːtə] ^ⓘ; July 2, 1906 – March 6, 2005) was a German-American physicist who made major contributions to nuclear physics, astrophysics, quantum electrodynamics and solid-state physics, and received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1967 for his work on the theory of stellar nucleosynthesis. For most of his career, Bethe was a professor at Cornell University.
  
  In 1931, Bethe developed the Bethe ansatz, which is a method for finding the exact solutions for the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of certain one-dimensional quantum many-body models. In 1939, Bethe published a paper which established the CNO cycle as the primary energy source for heavier stars in the main sequence classification of stars, which earned him a Nobel Prize in 1967. During World War II, Bethe was head of the Theoretical Division at the secret Los Alamos National Laboratory that developed the first atomic bombs. There he played a key role in calculating the critical mass of the weapons and developing the theory behind the implosion method used in both the Trinity test and the "Fat Man" weapon dropped on Nagasaki in August 1945. (Full article...)
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  Image 7

  
  

  

  Amedeo Avogadro

  
  The Avogadro constant, commonly denoted N_A, is an SI defining constant with an exact value of 6.02214076×10²³ mol⁻¹ when expressed in reciprocal moles. It defines the ratio of the number of constituent particles to the amount of substance in a sample, where the particles in question are any designated elementary entity, such as molecules, atoms, ions, or ion pairs. The numerical value of this constant when expressed in terms of the mole is known as the Avogadro number, commonly denoted N₀. The Avogadro number is an exact number equal to the number of constituent particles in one mole of any substance (by definition of the mole), historically derived from the experimental determination of the number of atoms in 12 grams of carbon-12 (¹²C) before the 2019 revision of the SI, i.e. the gram-to-dalton ratio, g/Da. Both the constant and the number are named after the Italian physicist and chemist Amedeo Avogadro.
  
  The Avogadro constant is used as a proportionality factor to define the amount of substance n(X), in a sample of a substance X, in terms of the number of elementary entities N(X) in that sample:
  : ${\displaystyle n(\mathrm {X} )={\frac {N(\mathrm {X} )}{N_{\mathrm {A} }}}}$. (Full article...)
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  Image 8

  
  

  

  Wilson at the Fermilab groundbreaking ceremony

  
  Robert Rathbun Wilson (March 4, 1914 – January 16, 2000) was an American physicist known for his work on the Manhattan Project during World War II, as a sculptor, and as an architect of the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), where he was the first director from 1967 to 1978.
  
  A graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, Wilson received his doctorate under the supervision of Ernest Lawrence for his work on the development of the cyclotron at the Berkeley Radiation Laboratory. He subsequently went to Princeton University to work with Henry DeWolf Smyth on electromagnetic separation of the isotopes of uranium. In 1943, Wilson and many of his colleagues joined the Manhattan Project's Los Alamos Laboratory, where Wilson became the head of its Cyclotron Group (R-1), and later its Research (R) Division. (Full article...)
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  Image 9

  The Saffir–Simpson hurricane wind scale (SSHWS) is a tropical cyclone intensity scale that classifies hurricanes—which in the Western Hemisphere are tropical cyclones that exceed the intensities of tropical depressions and tropical storms—into five categories distinguished by the intensities of their sustained winds. This measuring system was formerly known as the Saffir–Simpson hurricane scale, or SSHS.
  
  To be classified as a hurricane, a tropical cyclone must have one-minute-average maximum sustained winds at 10 m (33 ft) above the surface of at least 74 mph (64 kn, 119 km/h; Category 1). The highest classification in the scale, Category 5, consists of storms with sustained winds of at least 157 mph (137 kn, 252 km/h). The classifications can provide some indication of the potential damage and flooding a hurricane will cause upon landfall. (Full article...)
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  Image 10

  
  

  

  Portrait by Christian Albrecht Jensen, 1840 (copy from Gottlieb Biermann, 1887)

  
  Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss (/ɡaʊs/ ^ⓘ; German: Gauß [kaʁl ˈfʁiːdʁɪç ˈɡaʊs] ^ⓘ; Latin: Carolus Fridericus Gauss; 30 April 1777 – 23 February 1855) was a German mathematician, astronomer, geodesist, and physicist, who contributed to many fields in mathematics and science. He was director of the Göttingen Observatory in Germany and professor of astronomy from 1807 until his death in 1855.
  
  While studying at the University of Göttingen, he propounded several mathematical theorems. As an independent scholar, he wrote the masterpieces Disquisitiones Arithmeticae and Theoria motus corporum coelestium. Gauss produced the second and third complete proofs of the fundamental theorem of algebra. In number theory, he made numerous contributions, such as the composition law, the law of quadratic reciprocity and triangular case of the Fermat polygonal number theorem. He also contributed to the theory of binary and ternary quadratic forms, the construction of the heptadecagon, and the theory of hypergeometric series. Due to Gauss's extensive and fundamental contributions to science and mathematics, more than 100 mathematical and scientific concepts are named after him. (Full article...)
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  Image 11

  

  A depiction of the ultrasound signals emitted by a bat, and the echo from a nearby object

  
  
  Echolocation, also called bio sonar, is a biological active sonar used by several animal groups, both in the air and underwater. Echolocating animals emit calls and listen to the echoes of those calls that return from various objects near them. They use these echoes to locate and identify the objects. Echolocation is used for navigation, foraging, and hunting prey.
  
  Echolocation calls can be frequency modulated (FM, varying in pitch during the call) or constant frequency (CF). FM offers precise range discrimination to localize the prey, at the cost of reduced operational range. CF allows both the prey's velocity and its movements to be detected by means of the Doppler effect. FM may be best for close, cluttered environments, while CF may be better in open environments or for hunting while perched. (Full article...)
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  Image 12

  
  

  

  Agnew in 1955

  
  Harold Melvin Agnew (March 28, 1921 – September 29, 2013) was an American physicist, best known for having flown as a scientific observer on the Hiroshima bombing mission and, later, as the third director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
  
  Agnew joined the Metallurgical Laboratory at the University of Chicago in 1942, and helped build Chicago Pile-1, the world's first nuclear reactor. In 1943, he joined the Los Alamos Laboratory, where he worked with the Cockcroft–Walton generator. After the war ended, he returned to the University of Chicago, where he completed his graduate work under Enrico Fermi. (Full article...)
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  Image 13

  

  Figure 1. The light path through a Michelson interferometer. The two light rays with a common source combine at the half-silvered mirror to reach the detector. They may either interfere constructively (strengthening in intensity) if their light waves arrive in phase, or interfere destructively (weakening in intensity) if they arrive out of phase, depending on the exact distances between the three mirrors.

  
  
  Interferometry is a technique which uses the interference of superimposed waves to extract information. Interferometry typically uses electromagnetic waves and is an important investigative technique in the fields of astronomy, fiber optics, engineering metrology, optical metrology, oceanography, seismology, spectroscopy (and its applications to chemistry), quantum mechanics, nuclear and particle physics, plasma physics, biomolecular interactions, surface profiling, microfluidics, mechanical stress/strain measurement, velocimetry, optometry, and making holograms.
  
  Interferometers are devices that extract information from interference. They are widely used in science and industry for the measurement of microscopic displacements, refractive index changes and surface irregularities. In the case with most interferometers, light from a single source is split into two beams that travel in different optical paths, which are then combined again to produce interference; two incoherent sources can also be made to interfere under some circumstances. The resulting interference fringes give information about the difference in optical path lengths. In analytical science, interferometers are used to measure lengths and the shape of optical components with nanometer precision; they are the highest-precision length measuring instruments in existence. In Fourier transform spectroscopy they are used to analyze light containing features of absorption or emission associated with a substance or mixture. An astronomical interferometer consists of two or more separate telescopes that combine their signals, offering a resolution equivalent to that of a telescope of diameter equal to the largest separation between its individual elements. (Full article...)
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  Image 14

  
  

  

  Josephson in 2004

  
  Brian David Josephson (born 4 January 1940) is a British theoretical physicist and emeritus professor at the University of Cambridge. He shared the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physics with Leo Esaki and Ivar Giaever for his discovery of the Josephson effect, made in 1962 when he was a Ph.D. student at Cambridge.
  
  Josephson has spent his academic career as a member of the Theory of Condensed Matter Group in Cambridge's Cavendish Laboratory. He has been a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, since 1962, and served as Professor of Physics from 1974 until 2007. (Full article...)
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  Image 15

  

  A waterspout near Thailand in 2016

  
  A waterspout is a rotating column of air that occurs over a body of water, usually appearing as a funnel-shaped cloud in contact with the water and a cumuliform cloud. There are two types of waterspout, each formed by distinct mechanisms. The most common type is a weak vortex known as a "fair weather" or "non-tornadic" waterspout. The other less common type is simply a classic tornado occurring over water rather than land, known as a "tornadic", "supercellular", or "mesocyclonic" waterspout, and accurately a "tornado over water". A fair weather waterspout has a five-part life cycle: formation of a dark spot on the water surface; spiral pattern on the water surface; formation of a spray ring; development of a visible condensation funnel; and ultimately, decay. Most waterspouts do not suck up water.
  
  While waterspouts form mostly in tropical and subtropical areas, they are also reported in Europe, Western Asia (the Middle East), Australia, New Zealand, the Great Lakes, Antarctica, and on rare occasions, the Great Salt Lake. Some are also found on the East Coast of the United States, and the coast of California. Although rare, waterspouts have been observed in connection with lake-effect snow precipitation bands. (Full article...)

More good articles

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November anniversaries

• 1952 - detonation of the first Hydrogen bomb, code named "Ivy Mike".
• 1947 - invention of the first transistor, between November 17 to December 23. APS.
• 1930 - Patent granted for Einstein-Szilard refrigerator designed by Albert Einstein and Leó Szilárd. APS.
• 1919 - Elmer Imes's published work presented the first accurate measurement of the distance between atoms in molecules with high resolution infrared spectroscopy. APS.
• 1915 – Einstein's presentation to the Prussian Academy of Science specifies how the geometry of space and time is influenced by whatever matter is present. (see: General relativity and APS)
• 1895 - Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen discovers X-rays.
• 1887 - Michelson–Morley experiment provided strong evidence against the luminiferous ether. APS.
• 1872 - death of Mary Somerville who gained an international reputation as a scientist in the intervals of raising a family of six children. APS
• 1783 - John Michell predicted the existence of black holes, and the possibility of a luminous twin to aid in detection. APS
• 1676 – using his first quantitative measurement of the speed of light, Ole Rømer accurately predicts the delay of eclipse of Io

Births

• 1934 – Carl Sagan
• 1932 - Melvin Schwartz
• 1929 - Richard E. Taylor
• 1925 - Simon van der Meer
• 1902 - Eugene Wigner
• 1837 - Johannes Diderik van der Waals
• 1867 - Marie Curie (Nov. 7)
• 1828 - Balfour Stewart
• 1878 - Lise Meitner (Nov. 7)
• 1887 - Henry Moseley
• 1888 - C V Raman (Nov. 7)
• 1892 - Dmitri Skobeltsyn (Nov. 24)

More anniversaries

General images

The following are images from various physics-related articles on Wikipedia.

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  Image 1The Standard Model (from History of physics)
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  Image 2Galileo Galilei (1564–1642), early proponent of the modern scientific worldview and method (from History of physics)
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  Image 3Einstein proposed that gravitation results from masses (or their equivalent energies) curving ("bending") the spacetime in which they exist, altering the paths they follow within it. (from History of physics)
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  Image 4Computer simulation of nanogears made of fullerene molecules. It is hoped that advances in nanoscience will lead to machines working on the molecular scale. (from Condensed matter physics)
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  Image 5A Feynman diagram representing (left to right) the production of a photon (blue sine wave) from the annihilation of an electron and its complementary antiparticle, the positron. The photon becomes a quark–antiquark pair and a gluon (green spiral) is released. (from History of physics)
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  Image 6Cartesian coordinate system was introduced by René Descartes (from History of physics)
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  Image 71927 Solvay Conference included prominent physicists Albert Einstein, Werner Heisenberg, Max Planck, Hendrik Lorentz, Niels Bohr, Marie Curie, Erwin Schrödinger, Paul Dirac (from History of physics)
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  Image 8Hydrogen emission spectrum is discrete (here in log scale). The lines can only be explained with quantum mechanics. (from History of physics)
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  Image 9A magnet levitating above a high-temperature superconductor. Today some physicists are working to understand high-temperature superconductivity using the AdS/CFT correspondence. (from Condensed matter physics)
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  Image 10The Voltaic pile, the first battery was invented by Alessandro Volta in 1800 (from History of physics)
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  Image 11Magdeburg hemispheres, an experiment by Otto von Guericke where two metal hemispheres are held together by vacuum and cannot be separated even if largue forces are applied. (from History of physics)
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  Image 12Ibn al-Haytham (c. 965–1040). (from History of physics)
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  Image 13Chien-Shiung Wu worked on parity violation in 1956 and announced her results in January 1957. (from History of physics)
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  Image 14Sir Isaac Newton (1642–1727) (from History of physics)
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  Image 15Richard Feynman's Los Alamos ID badge (from History of physics)
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  Image 16The Hindu-Arabic numeral system. The inscriptions on the edicts of Ashoka (3rd century BCE) display this number system being used by the Imperial Mauryas. (from History of physics)
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  Image 17Composite montage comparing Jupiter (left) and its four Galilean moons (from top: Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto) (from History of physics)
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  Image 18Albert Einstein (1879–1955), ca. 1905 (from History of physics)
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  Image 19Johannes Kepler's first law of planetary motion states that planets move in elliptical orbits about the Sun. (from History of physics)
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  Image 20Newton's cannonball, a though experiment by Newton relating the motion of a projectile and orbiting of planets. (from History of physics)
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  Image 21Aristotle (384–322 BCE) (from History of physics)
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  Image 22Heike Kamerlingh Onnes and Johannes van der Waals with the helium liquefactor at Leiden in 1908 (from Condensed matter physics)
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  Image 23A replica of the first point-contact transistor in Bell labs (from Condensed matter physics)
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  Image 24Classical physics (Rayleigh–Jeans law, black line) failed to explain black-body radiation – the so-called ultraviolet catastrophe. The quantum description (Planck's law, colored lines) is said to be modern physics. (from Modern physics)
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  Image 25Heliocentric model proposed in 1543 by Nicolaus Copernicus (from History of physics)
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  Image 26Marie Skłodowska-Curie
  (1867–1934) received Nobel prizes in physics (1903) and chemistry (1911). (from History of physics)
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  Image 27A page from al-Khwārizmī's Algebra. (from History of physics)
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  Image 28Classical physics is usually concerned with everyday conditions: speeds are much lower than the speed of light, sizes are much greater than that of atoms, yet very small in astronomical terms. Modern physics, however, is concerned with high velocities, small distances, and very large energies. (from Modern physics)
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  Image 29Image of X-ray diffraction pattern from a protein crystal (from Condensed matter physics)
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  Image 30An engraving of Benjamin Franklin's kite experiment used to study lightning. (from History of physics)
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  Image 31Replica of William Herschel's telescope used to discover Uranus (from History of physics)
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  Image 32Star maps by the 11th century Chinese polymath Su Song are the oldest known woodblock-printed star maps to have survived to the present day. This example, dated 1092, employs the cylindricalequirectangular projection. (from History of physics)
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  Image 33The first Bose–Einstein condensate observed in a gas of ultracold rubidium atoms. The blue and white areas represent higher density. (from Condensed matter physics)
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  Image 34The quantum Hall effect: Components of the Hall resistivity as a function of the external magnetic field (from Condensed matter physics)
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  Image 35The ancient Greek mathematician Archimedes, developer of ideas regarding fluid mechanics and buoyancy. (from History of physics)
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  Image 36One possible signature of a Higgs boson from a simulated proton–proton collision. It decays almost immediately into two jets of hadrons and two electrons, visible as lines. (from History of physics)
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  Image 37Maxwell's demon, thought experiment by James Clerk Maxwell to describe the kinetic theory of gases and describe how a microscopic creature could lead to violations of the second law of thermodynamics. (from History of physics)
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  Image 38Crookes tube used to study cathode rays. It lead to the discovery of the electron by J. J. Thomson. (from History of physics)
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  Image 39James Prescott Joule's apparatus for measuring the mechanical equivalent of heat which the "work" of the falling weight is converted into the "heat" of agitation in the water. (from History of physics)
• 
  Image 40Christiaan Huygens (1629–1695) (from History of physics)

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Categories

Category puzzle

Fundamentals: Concepts in physics | Constants | Physical quantities | Units of measure | Mass | Length | Time | Space | Energy | Matter | Force | Gravity | Electricity | Magnetism | Waves

Basic physics: Mechanics | Electromagnetism | Statistical mechanics | Thermodynamics | Quantum mechanics | Theory of relativity | Optics | Acoustics

Specific fields: Acoustics | Astrophysics | Atomic physics | Molecular physics | Optical physics | Computational physics | Condensed matter physics | Nuclear physics | Particle physics | Plasma physics

Tools: Detectors | Interferometry | Measurement | Radiometry | Spectroscopy | Transducers

Background: Physicists | History of physics | Philosophy of physics | Physics education | Physics journals | Physics organizations

Other: Fiction about physics | Physics lists | Physics software | Physics stubs

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Physics topics

Classical physics traditionally includes the fields of mechanics, optics, electricity, magnetism, acoustics and thermodynamics. The term Modern physics is normally used for fields which rely heavily on quantum theory, including quantum mechanics, atomic physics, nuclear physics, particle physics and condensed matter physics. General and special relativity are usually considered to be part of modern physics as well.

Fundamental Concepts	Classical Physics	Modern Physics	Cross Discipline Topics
Continuum	Solid Mechanics	Fluid Mechanics	Geophysics
Motion	Classical Mechanics	Analytical mechanics	Mathematical Physics
Kinetics	Kinematics	Kinematic chain	Robotics
Matter	Classical states	Modern states	Nanotechnology
Energy	Chemical Physics	Plasma Physics	Materials Science
Cold	Cryophysics	Cryogenics	Superconductivity
Heat	Heat transfer	Transport Phenomena	Combustion
Entropy	Thermodynamics	Statistical mechanics	Phase transitions
Particle	Particulates	Particle physics	Particle accelerator
Antiparticle	Antimatter	Annihilation physics	Gamma ray
Waves	Oscillation	Quantum oscillation	Vibration
Gravity	Gravitation	Gravitational wave	Celestial mechanics
Vacuum	Pressure physics	Vacuum state physics	Quantum fluctuation
Random	Statistics	Stochastic process	Brownian motion
Spacetime	Special Relativity	General Relativity	Black holes
Quantum	Quantum mechanics	Quantum field theory	Quantum computing
Radiation	Radioactivity	Radioactive decay	Cosmic ray
Light	Optics	Quantum optics	Photonics
Electrons	Solid State	Condensed Matter	Symmetry breaking
Electricity	Electrical circuit	Electronics	Integrated circuit
Electromagnetism	Electrodynamics	Quantum Electrodynamics	Chemical Bonds
Strong interaction	Nuclear Physics	Quantum Chromodynamics	Quark model
Weak interaction	Atomic Physics	Electroweak theory	Radioactivity
Standard Model	Fundamental interaction	Grand Unified Theory	Higgs boson
Information	Information science	Quantum information	Holographic principle
Life	Biophysics	Quantum Biology	Astrobiology
Conscience	Neurophysics	Quantum mind	Quantum brain dynamics
Cosmos	Astrophysics	Cosmology	Observable universe
Cosmogony	Big Bang	Mathematical universe	Multiverse
Chaos	Chaos theory	Quantum chaos	Perturbation theory
Complexity	Dynamical system	Complex system	Emergence
Quantization	Canonical quantization	Loop quantum gravity	Spin foam
Unification	Quantum gravity	String theory	Theory of Everything

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This is a list of recognized content, updated weekly by JL-Bot (talk · contribs) (typically on Saturdays). There is no need to edit the list yourself. If an article is missing from the list, make sure it is tagged (e.g. {{WikiProject Physics}}) or categorized correctly and wait for the next update. See WP:RECOG for configuration options. Good articles 2019 revision of the SI Harold Agnew Alhazen's problem Samuel King Allison Luis Walter Alvarez Ames Project Elda Emma Anderson Animal echolocation Antimetric electrical network Aristotle Astronomy Atmosphere of Uranus History of atomic theory Avogadro constant Robert Bacher Kenneth Bainbridge Violin acoustics Hans Bethe Francis Birch (geophysicist) Black hole Aage Bohr Max Born Bouncing ball Norris Bradbury Hugh Bradner Calutron Girls Celestial spheres Charm quark Robert F. Christy Clapotis John Cockcroft Arthur Compton CT scan Condensed matter physics Edward Condon Henri Coutard Edward Creutz Charles Critchfield Marie Curie Joan Curran Cyclone Cyclotron DU spectrophotometer Harry Daghlian Deep Impact (spacecraft) Beryl May Dent Diffusion damping Dirac delta function Discovery of the neutron Dynamics of the celestial spheres Ecliptic Albert Einstein Einstein–Szilard letter Elastance Electricity Electron backscatter diffraction Electron diffraction Extended Wulff constructions Ronald Fedkiw Val Logsdon Fitch Fiveling Foucault's measurements of the speed of light Fizeau experiment Flerovium Floating Clouds (artwork) Force Foster's reactance theorem James Franck Augustin-Jean Fresnel Frisch–Peierls memorandum Frog battery Klaus Fuchs Fujiwhara effect Carl Friedrich Gauss Joseph Gelders Geostationary orbit Glass Glass fiber Gleason's theorem Maria Goeppert Mayer Alvin C. Graves Gravity bong John T. Hayward Hilbert space A History of the Theories of Aether and Electricity Robert Hooke Christiaan Huygens Ice Icosahedral twins Mujaddid Ahmed Ijaz Insect flight Interferometry Mary Jackson (engineer) Brian Josephson Donald William Kerst Kilogram Laser Inertial Fusion Energy Ernest Lawrence Hilde Levi Joel S. Levine Magnetic resonance imaging Magnetoreception Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 satellite communications Margaret Eliza Maltby John Marburger Leslie H. Martin Harrie Massey Maximum sustained wind James Clerk Maxwell Boyce McDaniel Metric system Mobility analogy Molniya orbit Philip Morrison Seth Neddermeyer Negative resistance John von Neumann Isaac Newton Newton's theorem of revolving orbits Nobel Prize in Physics Noctilucent cloud Nuclear power Nucleon magnetic moment Adriana Ocampo PSR B1937+21 Rudolf Peierls William Penney, Baron Penney Bruno Pontecorvo Chanda Prescod-Weinstein Pythagoras Quantum Reality Quantum electrodynamics Quantum mechanics RaLa Experiment James Rainwater C. V. Raman Norman Ramsey Jr. Frederick Reines Representation theory of the Lorentz group George T. Reynolds Bruno Rossi Joseph Rotblat S-1 Executive Committee Safety of high-energy particle collision experiments Saffir–Simpson scale Matthew Sands Schiehallion experiment Glenn T. Seaborg Emilio Segrè Arne Slettebak Henry DeWolf Smyth Steam devil Carl Størmer Subtle is the Lord Leo Szilard Tamper (nuclear weapon) Nikola Tesla Thin Man (nuclear bomb) Charles Allen Thomas Ernest Titterton Triboelectric effect Tropical cyclone intensity scales Type II supernova Type Ia supernova Type Ib and Ic supernovae Stanisław Ulam Universe John Clive Ward Waterspout Katharine Way Alvin M. Weinberg Wetting John Archibald Wheeler E. T. Whittaker Eugene Wigner Robert R. Wilson Wind turbine Leona Woods Wow! signal Chien-Shiung Wu Wu Zhonghua Wu experiment Walter Zinn

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