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| Newton's First Law of Motion |
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| An object in motion tends to stay in motion and an object at rest tends to stay at rest, unless acted on by an outside force (Law of Inertia) |
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| Newton's Second Law of Motion |
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| Force = Mass x Acceleration |
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| Newton's Third Law of Motion |
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| For every action, there is an equal but opposite reaction. |
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| Force of attraction between masses. One of four fundamental forces (interactions) |
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A measure of an object's inertia (resistance to change in motion)
Units are kilograms or grams |
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Change in motion. Can be done in three ways:
1. Speed Up
2. Slow Down
3. Change Direction
Units are m/s^2 |
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| Any influence on motion, such as a push or pull (Units are Newtons) |
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| Force that opposes motion (it is always in the opposite direction of the motion) |
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| Friction from a fluid (like air or water) |
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| Keeps the nucleus of an atom together. One of four fundamental forces (interactions) |
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| Involved in radioactive decay. One of four fundamental forces (interactions) |
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| Acceleration due to gravity. On Earth, equal to 9.8 m/s2 |
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| Speed in a specific direction |
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| Distance from starting point to ending point ("as the crow flies") |
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| A disturbance that travels in time and space |
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| Inertia of a moving object. Represented by the letter 'p' |
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| Only done if there is a force applied and an object moves a nonzero distance. Units are Joules. |
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| The rate at which work is done. Units are Watts. |
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| Due to motion. Units are Joules. |
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| Due to position or shape. Units are Joules |
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| Important to development of theory of gravitation, optics, and calculus. Wrote a book called Principia about physics and math. |
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| Charged particles interacting. One of the four fundamental forces (interactions) |
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| The flow of electrons (negatively charged subatomic particles) |
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| Subatomic particles that make up protons, neutrons, electrons, and others. They come in different "flavors" - up, down, strange, charm, top, and bottom. Named for a phrase in James Joyce's book Finnegan's Wake. |
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| The smallest, countable piece of something. Plural is Quanta |
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| Light's smallest pieces (quanta) |
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| Zeroth Law of Thermodynamics |
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| If two system A and B are each in thermal equilibrium with a third system C, then A and B are in thermal equilibrium with each other. |
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| First Law of Thermodynamics |
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| Change in internal energy of a system is equal to heat added to the system minus work done by the system |
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| Second Law of Thermodynamics |
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| Tendency of entropy to increase over time |
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| Third Law of Thermodynamics |
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| Entropy approaches zero at absolute zero temperature. |
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| Commonly called "disorder" but more precisely, it is a measure of the number of possible configurations of the contents of a system. For example, all the different ways that a deck of cards can be shuffled. |
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| An idea that some physicists had that is believed to not even exist. It would be a magnet with only a south pole or only a north pole. If it was discovered, it would mean that magnets are closer to charged particles. |
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| The Ultraviolet Catastrophe |
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| A prediction that black bodies (objects that absorb all radiation that hits them) would emit an infinite amount of energy (which would be physically impossible). It was solved by describing light as quantized into photons. |
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| Had a "Miracle Year" in 1905 in which he did a lot of physics. Developed General and Special Relativity and discovered the Photoelectric Effect. |
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| Special Theory of Relativity |
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| Combines the idea that objects that are moving have to be moving relative to something and that the speed of light is a cosmic speed limit. It makes for some strange effects when objects go very fast, such as Time Dilation and Length Contraction. |
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| General Theory of Relativity |
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| Combines Special Relativity with Gravity. |
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| A Theory of Everything. A dream of physicists to take the four fundamental forces and explain them with one single theory. Hasn't happened yet. |
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| Pauli Exclusion Principle |
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| The idea that electrons cannot have the same "address" (their physical properties must be different). This is why electrons have energy levels in the atom, because they go up into the next available slot. |
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| A famous analogy for quantum mechanics. It says that there is a cat in a box which we cannot see. Then there's something in the box that could kill the cat and every few minutes there's a 50% chance that the cat is killed. Without opening the box, what do we say about the cat? One interpretation of quantum mechanics would say the cat is both alive and dead at the same time. |
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| Measure of kinetic energy |
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| Famous physicist. She was fundamental in separating out pure radium and curium (radioactive elements) for the first time. She did a lot of work on x-rays and eventually died of cancer from it. |
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| An attempt at a Theory of Everything that says that the most fundamental particle is a multi-dimensional string. |
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| Group of atoms that are really really cold and act like a new phase of matter. Approaching 0 degrees Kelvin. |
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| A device that smashes beams of particles or subatomic particles into things to see what comes out. |
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| The Large Hadron Collider. In Switzerland at CERN. It is attempting to find the Higgs Boson. |
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| An hypothetical particle that causes the gravitational force. Think of it like how electrons are what flow to create electricity, a Higgs Boson is what leads to gravity between masses. |
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| An hypothetical particle that causes the gravitational force. Think of it like how electrons are what flow to create electricity, a Higgs Boson is what leads to gravity between masses. |
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