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Physics (from Ancient Greek: φυσική (ἐπιστήμη), romanized: physikḗ (epistḗmē), lit. 'knowledge of nature', from φύσις phýsis 'nature') is the natural science that studies matter, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. Physics is one of the most fundamental scientific disciplines, and its main goal is to understand how the universe behaves.
Physics is one of the oldest academic disciplines and, through its inclusion of astronomy, perhaps the oldest. 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 emerged as unique research endeavors in their own right. 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 academic disciplines such as mathematics and philosophy.
Advances in physics often enable advances in new technologies. For example, advances in the understanding of electromagnetism, solid-state physics, and nuclear physics led directly to the development of new products that have dramatically transformed modern-day 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.
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A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain or squalls. Depending on its location and strength, a tropical cyclone is referred to by different names, including hurricane (/ˈhʌrɪkən, -keɪn/), typhoon (/taɪˈfuːn/), tropical storm, cyclonic storm, tropical depression, and simply cyclone. A hurricane is a tropical cyclone that occurs in the Atlantic Ocean and northeastern Pacific Ocean, and a typhoon occurs in the northwestern Pacific Ocean; in the south Pacific or Indian Ocean, comparable storms are referred to simply as "tropical cyclones" or "severe cyclonic storms".
"Tropical" refers to the geographical origin of these systems, which form almost exclusively over tropical seas. "Cyclone" refers to their winds moving in a circle, whirling round their central clear eye, with their winds blowing counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere. The opposite direction of circulation is due to the Coriolis effect. Tropical cyclones typically form over large bodies of relatively warm water. They derive their energy through the evaporation of water from the ocean surface, which ultimately recondenses into clouds and rain when moist air rises and cools to saturation. This energy source differs from that of mid-latitude cyclonic storms, such as nor'easters and European windstorms, which are fueled primarily by horizontal temperature contrasts. Tropical cyclones are typically between 100 and 2,000 km (62 and 1,243 mi) in diameter. Read more...Did you know -
- ... that it is estimated that The Sun burns around 620 million metric tons of Hydrogen per second into 616 million metric tons of Helium?
- ... that the Big Bang was secured as the best theory for the origin of the universe by the discovery of the cosmic microwave background radiation in 1964?
- ... that neutron stars are so dense (10¹⁷ kg/m³) that a teaspoonful (5 mL) would have ten times the mass of the total human population?
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Ancient, medieval and Renaissance astronomers and philosophers developed many different theories about the dynamics of the celestial spheres. They explained the motions of the various nested spheres in terms of the materials of which they were made, external movers such as celestial intelligences, and internal movers such as motive souls or impressed forces. Most of these models were qualitative, although a few of them incorporated quantitative analyses that related speed, motive force and resistance. Read more...
February anniversaries
- 13 February 1910 – William Shockley's birthday
- 15 February 1564 – Galileo Galilei's birthday
- 15 February 1786 – Cat's Eye Nebula discovered
- 15 February 1988 - Richard Feynman died
- 18 February 1967 – J. Robert Oppenheimer died
- 18 February 1745 – Alessandro Volta's birthday
- 18 February 1838 – Ernst Mach's birthday
- 23 February 1855 – Carl Friedrich Gauss died
- 28 February 1901 – Linus Pauling's birthday
Categories
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: Physics in fiction | Pseudophysics | Physics lists | Physics software | Physics stubs
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 Engraving of André-Marie Ampère | |
| Born | 20 January 1775 |
| Died | 10 June 1836 (aged 61) Marseille, France |
| Nationality | French |
| Known for | Ampère's circuital law, Ampère's force law |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Physics |
| Institutions | École Polytechnique |
| Signature | |
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André-Marie Ampère (20 January 1775 – 10 June 1836) was a French physicist and mathematician who is generally regarded as one of the main founders of the science of classical electromagnetism, which he referred to as "electrodynamics". The electric current unit of measurement known as the ampere is named after him.
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- 2019 redefinition of the SI base units
- Harold Agnew
- Samuel King Allison
- Luis Walter Alvarez
- Ames Project
- Elda Emma Anderson
- Antimetric electrical network
- Aristotle
- Astronomy
- Atmosphere of Uranus
- Atomic theory
- Avogadro constant
- Robert Bacher
- Kenneth Bainbridge
- Hans Bethe
- Bicycle and motorcycle dynamics
- Francis Birch (geophysicist)
- Black hole
- Aage Bohr
- Max Born
- Bouncing ball
- Norris Bradbury
- Hugh Bradner
- Celestial spheres
- Robert F. Christy
- Clapotis
- John Cockcroft
- Arthur Compton
- Condensed matter physics
- Edward Condon
- Edward Creutz
- Charles Critchfield
- Marie Curie
- Joan Curran
- Cyclone
- DU spectrophotometer
- Harry Daghlian
- Deep Impact (spacecraft)
- Diffusion damping
- Dirac delta function
- Discovery of the neutron
- Dynamics of the celestial spheres
- Earth's magnetic field
- Ecliptic
- Albert Einstein
- Einstein–Szilárd letter
- Elastance
- Electricity
- Experiments and Observations on Electricity
- Ronald Fedkiw
- Val Logsdon Fitch
- Fizeau–Foucault apparatus
- Fizeau experiment
- Flerovium
- Floating Clouds (artwork)
- Force
- Foster's reactance theorem
- James Franck
- Franklin's electrostatic machine
- Frisch–Peierls memorandum
- Frog battery
- Klaus Fuchs
- Galileo Galilei
- Geostationary orbit
- Geothermal energy
- Maria Goeppert Mayer
- Alvin C. Graves
- Gravity bong
- John T. Hayward
- Hilbert space
- History of the metric system
- Mujaddid Ahmed Ijaz
- Interferometry
- International System of Units
- Mary Jackson (engineer)
- Brian Josephson
- Donald William Kerst
- Kilogram
- Laser Inertial Fusion Energy
- Ernest Lawrence
- Hilde Levi
- Liquid crystal
- MAUD Committee
- Magnetic resonance imaging
- Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 satellite communications
- John Marburger
- Leslie H. Martin
- Harrie Massey
- Maximum sustained wind
- James Clerk Maxwell
- Boyce McDaniel
- Metric system
- Mobility analogy
- Molniya orbit
- Philip Morrison
- Nature
- Seth Neddermeyer
- Negative resistance
- John von Neumann
- Neutron magnetic moment
- Isaac Newton
- Newton's theorem of revolving orbits
- Nobel Prize in Physics
- Noctilucent cloud
- Optical properties of carbon nanotubes
- Rudolf Peierls
- Bruno Pontecorvo
- Chanda Prescod-Weinstein
- Pythagoras
- Quantum Reality
- Quantum electrodynamics
- RaLa Experiment
- James Rainwater
- Norman Foster 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
- Henry DeWolf Smyth
- Solar energy
- Steam devil
- Storm surge
- Carl Størmer
- Leo Szilard
- Nikola Tesla
- Thin Man (nuclear bomb)
- Charles Allen Thomas
- Ernest Titterton
- Tropical cyclone scales
- Type II supernova
- Type Ia supernova
- Type Ib and Ic supernovae
- Stanislaw Ulam
- Universe
- John Clive Ward
- Waterspout
- Katharine Way
- Weak interaction
- Alvin M. Weinberg
- Wetting
- John Archibald Wheeler
- Eugene Wigner
- Robert R. Wilson
- Wind shear
- Wind power
- Leona Woods
- Wow! signal
- Wright brothers
- Chien-Shiung Wu
- Wu Zhonghua
- X-ray crystallography
- Walter Zinn
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.
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