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A weight-and-pulley system devised to measure the acceleration due to gravity at Earth's surface by measuring the net acceleration of a set of weights of known mass around a frictionless pulley. |
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The number of items in a sample of a substance which is equal to the number of atoms or molecules in a sample of an ideal gas which is at standard temperature and pressure. |
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The product of the pressure and the volume of an ideal gas at constant temperature is a constant. |
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The continuous random motion of solid microscopic particles when suspended in a fluid medium due to the consequence of ongoing bombardment by atoms and molecules. |
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The volume of an ideal gas at constant pressure is proportional to the thermodynamic temperature of that gas. |
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The primary law for electrostatics, analogous to NEWTON'S LAW OF UNIVERSAL GRAVITATION. It states that the force between two point charges is proportional to the algebraic product of their respective charges as well as proportional to the inverse square of the distance between them. |
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Dalton's law of partial pressures |
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The total pressure of a mixture of ideal gases is equal to the sum of the partial pressures of its components; that is, the sum of the pressures that each component would exert if it were present alone and occupied the same volume as the mixture. |
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Waves emitted by a moving object as received by an observer will be blueshifted (compressed) if approaching, redshifted (elongated) if receding. It occurs both in sound as well as electromagnetic phenomena, although it takes on different forms in each. |
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The electric charge carried by one mole of electrons (or singly-ionized ions). It is equal to the product of Avogadro constant and the (absolute value of the) charge on an electron. |
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The principle that states the path taken by a ray of light between any two points in a system is always the path that takes the least time. |
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The stress applied to any solid is proportional to the strain it porduces within the elastic limit for that solid. The constant of that proportionality is the Young modulus of elasticity for that substance. |
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A relationship discovered between distance and radial velocity. The further away a galaxy is away from is, the faster it is receding away from us. The cause is interpreted as the expansion of spacetime itself. |
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Boyle's law and Charles' law. |
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The series which describes the emission spectrum of hydrogen when electrons are jumping to the ground state. All of the lines are in the ultraviolet. |
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The decrease of the magnetic flux within a superconducting metal when it is cooled below the transition temperature. That is, superconducting materials reflect magnetic fields. |
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Newton's First Law of Motion |
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A body continues in its state of constant velocity (which may be zero) unless it is acted upon by an external force. |
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Newton's Second Law of Motion |
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For an unbalanced force acting on a body, the acceleration produced is proportional to the force impressed; the constant of proportionality is the inertial mass of the body. |
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Newton's Third Law of Motion |
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In a system where no external forces are present, every action force is always opposed by an equal and opposite reaction force. |
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An experiment which, after being executed, yields no result. Null experiments are just as meaningful as non-null experiments; if current theory predicts an observable effect (or predicts there should be no observable effect), and experimentation (within the required accuracy) does not yield said effect, then the null experiment has told us something about our theory. |
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Occam's razor (or Ockham) |
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The suggestion that the simpler a theory is, the better. If two theories predict phenomena to the same accuracy, then the one which is simpler is the better one. |
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The ration of the potential difference between the ends of a conductor to the current flowing through it is constant; the constant of proportionality is called the resistance, and is different for different materials. |
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Pressure applied to an enclosed imcompressible static fluid is transmitted undiminished to all parts of the fluid. |
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The fundamental constant equal to the ratio of the energy of a quantum of energy to its frequency. |
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For a wavefront travelling through a boundary between two media, the first with a refractive index of n1, and the other with one of n2, the angle of incidence theta is related to the angle of refraction phi by n1 sin theta = n2 sin phi. |
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Stefan-Boltzmann constant |
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The constant of proportionality present in the Stefan-Boltzmann law. |
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The radiated power P (rate of emission of electromagnetic energy) of a hot body is proportional to the radiating surface area, A, and the fourth power of the thermodynamic temperature, T. |
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The phenomena by which, at sufficiently low temperatures, a conductor can conduct charge with zero resistance. |
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First Law of Thermodynamics |
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The change in internal energy of a system is the sum of the heat transferred to or from the system and the work done on or by the system. |
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Second Law of Thermodynamics |
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The entropy - a measure of the unavailability of a system's energy to do useful work - of a closed system tends to increase with time. |
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Third Law of Thermodynamics |
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For changes involving only perfect crystalline solids at absolute zero, the change of the total entropy is zero. |
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Zeroth law of Thermodynamics |
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If two bodies are each in thermal equilibrium with a third body, then all three bodies are in thermal equilibrium with each other. |
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A principle, central to quantum mechanics, which states that two complementary parameters (such as position and momentum, energy and time, or angular momentuma dn angular displacement) cannot both be known to infinite accuracy; the more you know about one, the less you know about the other. |
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A characteristic constant dependent on the material, used in calculating the susceptibility of paramganetic materials. |
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