In addition to describing electromagnetism, his equations alsopredict that waves can propagate through the electromagneticfield, and would always propagate at the same speed -- these are electromagnetic waves.
Meissner effect (W. Meissner; 1933)
The decrease of the magnetic flux within a superconducting metalwhen it is cooled below the critical temperature. That is,superconducting materials reflect magnetic fields.
Michelson-Morley experiment (A.A. Michelson, E.W. Morley; 1887)
Possibly the most famous null-experiment of all time, designed toverify the existence of the proposed "lumeniferous aether" throughwhich light waves were thought to propagate. Since the Earthmoves through this aether, a lightbeam fired in the Earth'sdirection of motion would lag behind one fired sideways, where noaether effect would be present. This difference could be detectedwith the use of an interferometer.
The experiment showed absolutely no aether shift whatsoever,where one should have been quite detectable. Thus the aetherconcept was discredited as was the constancy of the speed oflight.
Millikan oil drop experiment (R.A. Millikan)
A famous experiment designed to measure the electronic charge.Drops of oil were carried past a uniform electric field betweencharged plates. After charging the drop with x-rays, he adjustedthe electric field between the plates so that the oil drop wasexactly balanced against the force of gravity. Then the charge onthe drop would be known. Millikan did this repeatedly and foundthat all the charges he measured came in integer multiples only ofa certain smallest value, which is the charge on the electron.
Newton's law of universal gravitation (Sir I. Newton)
Two bodies attract each other with equal and opposite forces; themagnitude of this force is proportional to the product of the twomasses and is also proportional to the inverse square of thedistance between the centers of mass of the two bodies.
Newton's laws of motion (Sir I. Newton)
Newton's first law of motion. A body continues in its state of rest or of uniform motion unless it is acted upon by an external force.
Newton's second law of motion. For an unbalanced force acting on a body, the acceleration produces is proportional to the force impressed; the constant of proportionality is the inertial mass of the body.
Newton's third law of motion. In a system where no external forces are present, every action is always opposed by an equal and opposite reaction.
Ohm's law (G. Ohm; 1827)
The ratio of the potential difference between the ends of aconductor to the current flowing through it is constant; theconstant of proportionality is called the resistance, and isdifferent for different materials.
Olbers' paradox (H. Olbers; 1826)
If the Universe is infinite, uniform, and unchanging then theentire sky at night would be bright -- about as bright as the Sun.The further you looked out into space, the more stars there wouldbe, and thus in any direction in which you looked your line-of-sight would eventually impinge upon a star. The paradox isresolved by the Big Bang theory, which puts forth that theUniverse is not infinite, non-uniform, and changing.
Pascal's principle
Pressure applied to an enclosed imcompressible static fluid istransmitted undiminished to all parts of the fluid.
Paschen series
The series which describes the emission spectrum of hydrogen whenthe electron is jumping to the third orbital. All of the linesare in the infrared portion of the spectrum.
Pauli exclusion principle (W. Pauli; 1925)
No two identical fermions in a system, such as electrons in anatom, can have an identical set of quantum numbers.
Peltier effect (J.C.A. Peltier; 1834)
The change in temperature produced at a junction between twodissimilar metals or semiconductors when an electric currentpasses through the junction.
permeability of free space; magnetic constant; m 0
The ratio of the magnetic flux density in a substance to theexternal field strength for vacuum. It is equal to 4 p . 10-7 H/m.
permittivity of free space; electric constant; e0
The ratio of the electric displacement to the intensity of theelectric field producing it in vacuum. It is equal to 8.854.10-12 F/m.
Pfund series
The series which describes the emission spectrum of hydrogen whenthe electron is jumping to the fifth orbital. All of the linesare in the infrared portion of the spectrum.
Photoelectric effect
An effect explained by A. Einstein that demonstrate that lightseems to be made up of particles, or photons. Light can exciteelectrons (called photoelectrons) to be ejected from a metal.Light with a frequency below a certain threshold, at anyintensity, will not cause any photoelectrons to be emitted fromthe metal. Above that frequency, photoelectrons are emitted inproportion to the intensity of incident light. The reason is that a photon has energy in proportion to itswavelength, and the constant of proportionality is Planck'sconstant. Below a certain frequency -- and thus below a certainenergy -- the incident photons do not have enough energy to knockthe photoelectrons out of the metal. Above that threshold energy,called the workfunction, photons will knock the photoelectrons outof the metal, in proportion to the number of photons (theintensity of the light). At higher frequencies and energies, thephotoelectrons ejected obtain a kinetic energy corresponding tothe difference between the photon's energy and the workfunction.
Planck constant; h
The fundamental constant equal to the ratio of the energy of aquantum of energy to its frequency. It is the quantum of action.It has the value 6.626196.10-34 J.s.
Planck's radiation law
A law which more accurately described blackbody radiation becauseit assumed that electromagnetic radiation is quantized.
Poisson spot (S.D. Poisson)
See Arago spot. Poisson predicted the existence of such a spot,and actually used it to demonstrate that the wave theory of lightmust be in error.
Principle of causality
The principle that cause must always preceed effect. Moreformally, if an event A ("the cause") somehow influences an eventB ("the effect") which occurs later in time, then event B cannotin turn have an influence on event A. The principle is best illustrated with an example. Say thatevent A constitutes a murderer making the decision to kill hisvictim, and that event B is the murderer actually committing theact. The principle of causality puts forth that the act ofmurder cannot have an influence on the murderer's decision tocommit it. If the murderer were to somehow see himself committingthe act and change his mind, then a murder would have beencommitted in the future without a prior cause (he changed hismind). This represents a causality violation. Both time traveland faster-than-light travel both imply violations of causality,which is why most physicists think they are impossible, or atleast impossible in the general sense.
Principle of determinism
The principle that if one knows the state to an infinite accuracyof a system at one point in time, one would be able to predict thestate of that system with infinite accuracy at any other time,past or future. For example, if one were to know all of thepositions and velocities of all the particles in a closed system,then determinism would imply that one could then predict thepositions and velocities of those particles at any other time.This principle has been disfavored due to the advent of quantummechanics, where probabilities take an important part in theactions of the subatomic world, and the Heisenberg uncertaintyprinciple implies that one cannot know both the position andvelocity of a particle to arbitrary precision.
Rayleigh criterion; resolving power
A criterion for the how finely a set of optics may be able todistinguish. It begins with the assumption that central ring ofone image should fall on the first dark ring of the other.relativity principle; principle of relativity
Rydberg formula
A formula which describes all of the characteristics of hydrogen'sspectrum, including the Balmer, Lyman, Paschen, Brackett, andPfund series.
Schroedinger's cat (E. Schroedinger; 1935)
A thought experiment designed to illustrate the counterintuitiveand strange notions of reality that come along with quantummechanics.
A cat is sealed inside a closed box; the cat has ample air,food, and water to survive an extended period. This box isdesigned so that no information (i.e., sight, sound, etc.) canpass into or out of the box -- the cat is totally cut off fromyour observations. Also inside the box with the poor kitty(apparently Schroedinger was not too fond of felines) is a phialof a gaseous poison, and an automatic hammer to break it, floodingthe box and killing the cat. The hammer is hooked up to a Geigercounter; this counter is monitoring a radioactive sample and isdesigned to trigger the hammer -- killing the cat -- should aradioactive decay be detected. The sample is chosen so thatafter, say, one hour, there stands a fifty-fifty chance of a decayoccurring.
The question is, what is the state of the cat after that onehour has elapsed? The intuitive answer is that the cat is eitheralive or dead, but you don't know which until you look. But it is one of them. Quantum mechanics, on the other hands, saysthat the wavefunction describing the cat is in a superposition ofstates: the cat is, in fact, fifty per cent alive and fifty percent dead; it is both. Not until one looks and "collapses thewavefunction" is the Universe forced to choose either a live cator a dead cat and not something in between.
This indicates that observation also seems to be an importantpart of the scientific process -- quite a departure from theabsolutely objective, deterministic way things used to be withNewton.
Schwarzchild radius
The radius that a spherical mass must be compressed to in order totransform it into a black hole; that is, the radius of compressionwhere the escape velocity at the surface would reach lightspeed.
Snell's law; law of refraction
A relation which relates the change in incidence angle of awavefront due to refraction between two different media.
Speed of light in vacuo
One of the postulates of A. Einstein's special theory ofrelativity, which puts forth that the speed of light in vacuum --often written c, and which has the value 299 792 458 m/s -- ismeasured as the same speed to all observers, regardless of theirrelative motion. That is, if I'm travelling at 0.9 c away fromyou, and fire a beam of light in that direction, both you and Iwill independently measure the speed of that beam as c. One of the results of this postulate (one of the predictionsof special relativity is that no massive particle can beaccelerated to (or beyond) lightspeed, and thus the speed of lightalso represents the ultimate cosmic speed limit. Only masslessparticles (photons, gravitons, and possibly neutrinos, should theyindeed prove to be massless) travel at lightspeed, and all otherparticles must travel at slower speeds.
Spin-orbit effect
An effect that causes atomic energy levels to be split becauseelectrons have intrinsic angular momentum (spin) in addition totheir extrinsic orbital angular momentum.
Static limit
The distance from a rotating black hole where no observer canpossibly remain at rest (with respect to the distant stars)because of inertial frame dragging.
Stefan-Boltzmann constant; sigma (Stefan, L. Boltzmann)
The constant of proportionality present in the Stefan-Boltzmannlaw. It is equal to