This page gathers the 3,177 dictionary entries belonging to the domain “Physics”, as labelled by Wiktionary. Each word leads to its full entry: definitions, etymology, pronunciation, examples. Page 25 of 32: from “resinous” to “semi-infinite”.
- resinous adj Negative (of electric charge).
- resistance noun A force that tends to oppose motion.
- resistive adj Acting as a resistor; resisting the passage of electrical current.
- resistivity noun The resistance offered at a particular temperature by an electrical conductor of any given material in a cube of unit length, expressed in…
- resistor noun An electric component that transmits current in direct proportion to the voltage across it.
- resolve verb To render visible or distinguishable the parts of something.
- resonance noun The increase in the amplitude of an oscillation of a system under the influence of a periodic force whose frequency is close to that of the…
- resonant adj Adjusted as to dimensions so that currents or electric surgings are produced by the passage of electric waves of a given frequency.
- response time noun The time taken for the display of an instrument to move to a new value following a step change.
- responsivity noun A measure of the gain of a system.
- responsor noun A receiver used in conjunction with an interrogator to receive and interpret signals from a transponder.
- rest noun Absence of motion.
- rest energy noun The energy of the mass component of a body at rest; equal to the product of its rest mass and the square of the speed of light
- resummation noun A procedure to obtain a finite result from a divergent sum (series) of functions, involving the integral transformation of another…
- resuspend verb To undergo (or cause to undergo) resuspension.
- resuspension noun The renewed suspension of a precipitated sediment, such as stirring up settled mud at the bottom of a body of water.
- retardance noun The difference in phase shift between two characteristic polarizations of light upon reflection from an interface. Retardance can be…
- retardation noun Deceleration; reduction in the magnitude of velocity.
- retarded adj Designating a parameter of an electromagnetic field which is adjusted to account for the finite speed of radiation.
- rethermalize verb To return to thermal equilibrium.
- retrocausality noun Any of several hypothetical phenomena that reverse causality, allowing an effect to occur before its cause.
- reversible adj Capable of returning to the original state.
- Reynolds number noun A dimensionless parameter that determines the behavior of viscous flow patterns. In pipe flow a value less than about 2,000 (known as the…
- rheometry noun The measurement of electrical current.
- rheostat noun An electrical resistor with two terminals, the resistance of which can be varied continuously by moving a knob or slider to regulate the…
- right-handed adj Of a particle for which the direction of its spin is the same as the direction of its motion.
- righting arm noun The horizontal distance between the center of mass of a tilted vessel and the vertical line connecting its center of buoyancy and its…
- rigid body noun An idealized solid whose size and shape are fixed and remain unaltered when forces are applied; used in Newtonian mechanics to model real…
- ring modulation noun A signal processing function in which two signals (typically a complex signal and a less complex carrier such as a sine wave) are combined…
- ripple noun A small oscillation of an otherwise steady signal.
- rise time noun Of a voltage or current step function, the amount of time taken by a signal to change from a specified low value to a specified high value.
- rishon noun A hypothetical fundamental particle in an early preon model.
- Ritzian adj Conforming to a Ritz series.
- rocker switch noun An electromechanical device used to control electrical circuits by rocking or pivoting a hinged actuator around a central axis to connect…
- roll off verb To show reduced response at the upper or lower limits of a frequency range.
- rolling brownout noun A deliberate reduction in voltage.
- ROM noun Acronym of read-only memory.
- root mean square velocity noun The root mean square of the velocities of all the molecules in a volume of gas; directly proportional to its temperature in the case of an…
- rotameter noun A device used to measure fluid flow, in which a float rises in a tapered vertical tube to a height dependent on the rate of flow through…
- rotochemical adj Describing the heating produced by various affects of the reduction in angular momentum of a rotating neutron star (especially a pulsar)
- roton noun The quantum of rotation in a superfluid
- router noun In integrated circuit or printed circuit board design, an algorithm for adding all wires needed to properly connect all of the placed…
- running noun The dependence of measured value, typically a coupling constant, on the energy scale at which it is probed due to higher-order interaction…
- running coupling noun A coupling whose strength measurement appears to deviate from its true value as the energy scale at which it is probed shrinks, the…
- Rutherfordian adj Of or pertaining to Ernest Rutherford, his planetary model of the atom (called the Rutherford model), or predictions made on the basis of…
- Rydberg atom noun Any atom which has a single valence electron in a shell well outside any other electrons in the aton; approximates the hydrogen atom.
- Rydberg molecule noun A molecule, especially one consisting of two atoms of the same element, that has a permanent dipole because one of the atoms is in a very…
- Rydberg state noun Any of those electronically excited states of an atom or molecule with energies that follow the Rydberg formula as they converge on an…
- s- prefix Subatomic particles with a spin (quantum angular momentum) of 0, predicted by supersymmetry; the bosonic equivalent of known fermions.
- S-factor noun A rescaling of a nuclear reaction's total cross section to account for the Coulomb repulsion between the charged reactants. It determines…
- sakaton noun Any of the elementary particles (the proton, neutron, and lambda baryon) that make up other hadrons in the Sakata model, a precursor to the…
- Sakharov condition noun Any of the three necessary conditions that a baryon-generating interaction must satisfy to produce matter and antimatter at different…
- salt-effect distillation noun a technique of extractive distillation in which a salt or a non-volatile liquid is added to the mixture being distilled in order to remove…
- sand battery noun An unspillable electrochemical battery whose cells use electrolyte soaked sand – typically used to test telegraph cables at sea.
- saturate verb To render pure, or of a colour free from white light.
- saturation noun The condition in which, after a sufficient increase in a causal force, no further increase in the resultant effect is possible; e.g. the…
- saturation point noun The temperature at which the air becomes saturated and water vapor condenses to form dew.
- sbottom squark noun A squark which is the hypothetical supersymmetric partner of a bottom quark.
- scalar noun An amplifier whose output is a constant multiple of its input.
- scalar field noun A function that assigns a scalar value to every point in space.
- scale invariance noun a feature of objects or laws that do not change if length scales (or energy scales) are multiplied by a common factor.
- scaling noun The expression of the terms of an equation using powers of nondimensional quantities.
- scan line noun One of the horizontal lines that compose a raster scanning pattern, as on a television or computer display.
- scanning transmission electron microscope noun An electron microscope that transmits a very narrow beam of electrons through a sample; it can detect individual large or heavy atoms.
- scatter verb To deflect (radiation or particles).
- scattering noun The process whereby a beam of waves or particles is dispersed by collisions or similar interactions.
- scharm squark noun A squark which is the hypothetical supersymmetric partner of a charm quark.
- Schmitt trigger noun A comparator circuit with hysteresis implemented by applying positive feedback to the non-inverting input of a comparator or differential…
- Schottky anomaly noun A variation in the heat capacity of a solid at low temperatures which arises from the thermal population of discrete energy levels as the…
- Schottky effect noun A phenomenon in condensed matter physics related to an increase in electron emission from an emitter surface and a reduction in its surface…
- Schrödinger's kitten noun Any of several experiments that show the paradoxical effects of quantum mechanics on a small scale, especially one that shows an atom to be…
- Schrödinger's wave equation noun A three-dimensional partial differential equation which determines the evolution of a quantum mechanical wave function
- Schuler pendulum noun Any pendulum having a period equal to that of a hypothetical pendulum whose length is equal to the Earth's radius (84.4 minutes); its arm…
- Schwinger effect noun The predicted spontaneous creation of particle-antiparticle pairs in the presence of an extremely strong electric field.
- sciagraph noun A radiograph.
- scintillation counter noun A detector of particles and ionizing radiation which uses a photomultiplier to generate flashes of light
- scintillometer noun A device that measures fluctuations in the Earth’s atmosphere.
- scram verb To shut down (a nuclear reactor or, by extension, some other thing) for safety reasons, usually because of an emergency.
- screen mask noun A component used for precise printing on devices such as circuit boards.
- screening constant noun A measure of the screening / shielding of an electron from the charge of the nucleus by other, inner electrons
- sdown squark noun A squark which is the hypothetical supersymmetric partner of a down quark.
- SDSL noun symmetric digital subscriber line
- sea noun A constant flux of gluons splitting into quarks, which annihilate to produce further gluons.
- second source noun A company that is licensed to manufacture and sell electronic components originally designed by another company (the first source).
- secondary noun An inductive coil or loop that is magnetically powered by a primary in a transformer or similar.
- secondary emission noun The emission of electrons from the surface of a solid when bombarded with electrons or other charged particles
- secondary ion mass spectrometry noun A technique used to visualize the three-dimensional structure of solids by employing an energetic ion beam to fragment the atomic or…
- Seebeck effect noun the thermodynamic effect by which heat being passed through a thermocouple is converted into electricity
- seed noun A small particle, bubble, or imperfection that serves as a nucleation point for some process.
- selection rule noun Any of several general rules concerning the transitions between the states of a quantum mechanical system; they derive from the symmetry…
- self-confinement noun A restriction in the movement of particles due to their internal properties (such as charge).
- self-conjugate adj Of a subatomic particle that is identical to its antiparticle; includes all gauge bosons except the charged W-boson and gluons.
- self-energy noun the portion of the elementary particle's mass due to the interaction with its environment
- self-sustenance noun The independent sustenance of oneself, such as not requiring much oxygen to breathe or food to eat and liquids to drink like average…
- self-trapped adj Of a particle or excitation, becoming localized in a specific region due to its interaction with its surrounding environment, often causing…
- selfenergy noun The contribution to a particle's mass or potential energy as a result of interactions between the particle and its environment
- selfie camera noun A camera on the same side or surface of a smartphone as the main display, used for taking selfies and making video calls.
- selfquenching noun The quenching of an excited atom (etc) by interaction with another of the same type of atom in the ground state
- selsyn noun A synchro whose currents are used directly to drive a receiver synchro that rotates in unison with the synchro transmitter.
- semi-infinite adj Sufficiently thick that the level of penetration of a projectile is not affected by its thickness.