Glossary of classical physics

This article is a glossary of classical physics. It is some of the most common terms in classical physics and how they are used.

A

• Acceleration - the rate of change of velocity with respect to time
• Ampère's circuital law - relates a circulating magnetic field to an electric current passing through a loop
• Atom - smallest unit of a chemical element, the limit of classical physics on the small length scales

B

• Boltzmann constant - a physical constant relating temperature to energy

C

• Chaos theory - the study of processes in nonlinear dynamical systems, such as the Butterfly effect
• Classical mechanics - a set of laws describing the motion of bodies and their aggregations
• Coulomb's Law - the force acting between charged bodies
• Crystal - a regular ordering of atoms, molecules, or ions
• Choke coil - an inductance used in an AC circuit to control current

D

• Determinism - classical physics is largely deterministic
• Dip(δ) - the angle which the direction of total intensity of earth's magnetic field makes with a horizontal line in the magnetic meridian at that place.

E

• Elastic collision - a collision during which no kinetic energy is lost
• Electric current - the flow of electric charge through an object
• Electrical resistance - a measure of the degree to which an object opposes the passage of electric current
• Energy - a measure of being able to do mechanical work
• Electromotive force - the amount of energy gained per unit charge that passes through a device in the opposite direction to the electric field existing across that device
• Eddy currents - changing magnetic flux linked with metal plate produces induced current which flow in closed paths throughout the body of the metal

F

• Force - an external cause for acceleration in a physical system
• Free energy - the amount of mechanical work that can be extracted from a system

G

• Gravity - an attractive force between particles with mass
• Geomagnetism - the branch of physics which deals with the study of earth's magnetic field

H

• Hamiltonian mechanics - a reformulation of Lagrangian mechanics

I

• Ideal gas - a gas consisting of identical particles of negligible volume, with no intermolecular forces
• Inertia - a historical concept used for describing massive, moving objects

J

• Joule's law - equation for the heat generated by a current flowing in a conductor

K

• Kinetic energy - energy due to motion

L

• Lagrangian - a function describing the equations of motion for a system
• Lagrangian mechanics - an abstract reformulation of classical mechanics
• Light - electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength visible to the human eye

M

• Macroscopic - attribute used for objects and processes observable by the naked eye
• Mass - a measure of the amount of matter
• Maxwell's equations - four equations that describe electric and magnetic fields, and their interaction with matter
• Molecule - a group of atoms joined by chemical bonds
• Momentum - the product of mass and velocity
• Magnetic field - the space around a magnet or a current within which its magnetic influence can be detected or experienced.

N

• Newton's laws of motion - the three laws of Isaac Newton, published in Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica in 1687
• Newtonian mechanics - the first formulation of classical mechanics

O

• Ohm's law - relationship between the current flowing in a conductor and the voltage difference between its ends

P

• Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica - a three-volume work published by Isaac Newton in 1687, introducing his famous three laws of motion
• Potential energy - energy stored when doing work against a force

Q

• Quantum mechanics - the theory that separates classical and modern physics

R

• Resonance - the tendency of a system to absorb more energy at its resonance frequency in a given process

S

• Semiclassical - refers to a combination of classical mechanics and quantum mechanics
• Special theory of relativity - a theory published in 1905 by Albert Einstein that replaced Newton's notions of space and time
• Statistical mechanics - the application of mathematical statistics to the collective motions of large populations of particles

T

• Temperature - the average kinetic energy of molecules
• Thermodynamics - the study of thermal processes in physical systems

U

• Ultraviolet catastrophe - a false prediction made by classical mechanics preceding quantum mechanics

V

• Velocity - the rate of change of position with respect to time and speed

W

• Wave - a disturbance that propagates in a periodically repeating fashion, often transferring energy
• Work - energy transferred by a force

X

• X-rays - a form of ionizing electromagnetic radiation and magnetical ambiance's

Y

• Young's modulus - a measure of the stiffness of a body or material

See also

• List of basic physics topics