0% found this document useful (0 votes)
17 views4 pages

Physics Definitions

The document provides definitions and explanations of fundamental physics concepts, including scalar and vector quantities, motion, forces, energy, waves, light, and electricity. Key terms such as mass, velocity, acceleration, pressure, and resistance are defined, along with descriptions of various phenomena like oscillation, thermal energy, and electric fields. It serves as a comprehensive reference for understanding basic principles of physics.
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
0% found this document useful (0 votes)
17 views4 pages

Physics Definitions

The document provides definitions and explanations of fundamental physics concepts, including scalar and vector quantities, motion, forces, energy, waves, light, and electricity. Key terms such as mass, velocity, acceleration, pressure, and resistance are defined, along with descriptions of various phenomena like oscillation, thermal energy, and electric fields. It serves as a comprehensive reference for understanding basic principles of physics.
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 4

Physics De nition

1) Scalar quantities: Quantities with magnitude only


2) Vector quantities: Quantities with magnitude and direction
3) Distance: The number of units moved by an object from one place to another
4) Mass: The measure of the quantity of matter in an object(kg)
5) Speed: Distance travelled per unit time
6) Velocity: Speed with a direction
7) Acceleration: Rate of change of velocity
8) Acceleration of free fall:
9) Oscillation: Oscillation is going back and forth repeatedly between two positions or states.
10) Volume: The quantity of space and object takes up(cm3)
11) Density: The total mass of an object by its volume (kg/cm3)
12) Force: Push or pull exerted by one object on another(Newtons)
13) Terminal Velocity: Terminal velocity is de ned as the highest velocity attained by an object
falling
14) Inertia: Inertia is the natural tendency of objects in motion to stay in motion and objects at rest
to stay at rest, unless a force causes its velocity to change.
15) Static Friction: force that keeps an object at rest.
16) Dynamic Friction: friction that opposes the movement of a body which is already in motion
17) Drag:force exerted by a uid stream on any obstacle in its path or felt by an object moving
through a uid
18) Gravitational force: pull from earths surface
19) Weight: Earths gravitational force on an object
20) Gravitational eld: Region in which a mass experiences a force due to gravitational attraction
21) Momentum:the product of an object's mass and velocity
22) Impulse: The sudden force acting on an object for a short interval of time
23) Centripetal force: the force on an object on a circular path that keeps the object moving on the
path.
24) Centrifugal Force:the outward force, away from the axis of rotation, acting on a revolving
object.
25) Moment: Turning e ect of a force, aka torque
26) Centre of gravity:the point within an object where its weight is evenly balanced in all
directions.
27) Load: Force applied to a spring
28) Extension: di erence between the stretched and un stretched length
29) Limit to proportionality: the point at which the extension is still proportional to load
30) Elastic limit: The point beyond which the spring is left permanently stretched
31) Pressure: the amount of force exerted per area
32) Energy: the ability to do work, which is the ability to exert a force causing displacement of an
object
33) Work done: the amount of energy transferred to an object by an external Force when it is
moved over a certain distance by that Force
34) Kinetic energy:the energy an object has because of its motion
35) Potential energy:stored energy that depends upon the relative position of various parts of a
system
36) E ciency:a comparison of the energy output to the energy input in a given system.
37) Power:the rate of doing work
38) Internal energy: Total kinetic and potential energies of all those atoms or molecules in a
material
39) Heat: energy transferred is known as heat
40) Thermal energy: the energy contained within a system that is responsible for its temperature.
41) Temperature scale: Range of numbers measuring the level of hotness
42) Absolute zero: Lowest temperature there is (-273 degrees C)
43) Convection current : as a natural process of heat transfer involving the movement of energy
and heat from one place to another
44) Speci c heat capacity: The energy that must be transferred to an abject to increase its
temperature
45) Latent Heat capacity: The energy required to change the state of an object
ffi
fi
fl
ff
fi
ff
fi
fl
fi
46) Thermal capacity:the quantity of heat necessary to produce a unit change of temperature in a
unit mass of a material.
47) Transverse waves: Waves which move perpendicular to the direction of travel or energy
transfer. The waves oscillation go from up to down.
48) Longitudinal Waves: Waves move parallel to the direction of travel or energy transfer . Wave
oscillations go from side to side
49) Compressions: a region in a longitudinal wave where the particles are closest together.
50) Rarefactions:a region in a longitudinal wave where the particles are furthest apart.
51) Wavelength: The distance between any point on a wave and an equivalent point on the next
wave
52) Frequency: The number of waves passing by any point per second
53) Amplitude: The maximum distance a point moves from its rest position when a wave passes
54) Re ection:Re ection is when light bounces o an object
55) Rarefaction: When waves change direction and speed due to a change in medium its called
rarefaction.
56) Di raction: Waves bend round the sides of an obstacle, or spread out as they pass through a
gap.
57) Sound Waves:the pattern of disturbance caused by the movement of energy traveling through
a medium (such as air, water or any other liquid or solid matter) as it propagates away from
the source of the sound.
58) Echoes:A repeated sound that is caused by the re ection of sound waves from a surface
59) Pitch:the measure of sound frequency expressed in terms of Hertz. Higher the frequency,
higher the pitch
60) Ultrasound: A sound above 20000 Hz
61) Luminous: objects which emit their own light
62) Non luminous: Objects which re ect light
63) Monochromatic light: Light of a single wavelength and colour
64) Laterally inverted:the apparent reversal of the mirror image's left and right when compared
with the object
65) Real Images: as the images formed due to the convergence of light rays after being re ected
or refracted from a mirror, lens, or object. In other words, a real image is formed in front of the
mirror
66) Virtual images: an upright image that is achieved where the rays seem to diverge., formed on
same side as object
67) Refractive index: The ratio of the speed of light in a vacuum to its speed in a speci c medium.
68) Deviated: When the light bends through a prism and comes out in another direction
69) Spectrum: When a beam of white lights splits into a range of colours
70) Dispersion: E ect of rays being split into a range of colours
71) Total internal re ection: complete re ection of a ray of light within a medium such as water or
glass from the surrounding surfaces back into the medium
72) Critical angle: The angle beyond which total internal re ection takes place.
73) Convex lens:a lens that converges rays of light that convey parallel to its principal axis
74) Concave lens:a lens that diverges a straight light beam from the source to a diminished,
upright, virtual image
75) Principal focus:Principal focus is a point (on the principal axis) where parallel incident rays
meet after re ecting (in mirrors) or refracting (in lenses). The point at which all rays converge
and meet
76) Focal length:he distance between a lens and its focal point, while the focal point is the point at
which parallel light rays converge or diverge
77) Concave lens: a lens that diverges a straight light beam from the source to a diminished,
upright, virtual image.
78) Diverging lens:a lens that diverges a straight light beam from the source to a diminished,
upright, virtual image.
79) Focal plane:a plane that is perpendicular to the axis of a lens or mirror and passes through the
focus.
80) Conductors:the materials or substances which allow electricity to ow through them
81) Insulators: Materials that do not allow electricity to pass through them
82) Semiconductors:materials which have a conductivity between conductors (generally metals)
and nonconductors or insulators
ff
fl
fl
ff
fl
fl
fl
fl
ff
fl
fl
fl
fi
fl
83) Earthed:the process in which the instantaneous discharge of the electrical energy takes place
by transferring charges directly to the earth through low resistance wire.
84) Induced charges:When the electrons move out of an area, they leave an unbalanced positive
charge due to the nuclei. This results in a region of negative charge on the object nearest to
the external charge, and a region of positive charge on the part away from it. These are called
induced charges.
85) Electric eld: an invisible force eld created by the attraction and repulsion of electrical
charges
86) Ions: a chemical species which holds a positive or negative charge of some magnitude
87) Cell:A cell is a single electrical energy source that uses chemical reactions to produce a
current. Provides the push needed for currents to ow
88) Current:the rate at which electrons ow past a point in a complete electrical circuit
89) Potential Di erence:the di erence in the amount of energy that charge carriers have between
two points in a circuit
90) Electromotive force: Maximum potential di erence across cell
91) Series circuit: one in which all circuit elements are arranged in a single path
92) Parallel circuit:an electrical path that branches so that the current divides and only part of it
ows through any branch
93) Resistance: the opposition that a substance o ers to the ow of electric current
94) Resistivity: a property that describes the extent to which a material opposes the ow of
electric current through it
95) Power: rate at which energy is transferred
fl
fi
ff
ff
fi
fl
ff
ff
fl
fl
fl

You might also like