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 27 of 32: from “space quadrature” to “strongly interacting massive particle”.
- space quadrature noun A difference of a quarter of a wavelength between the spatial positions of two corresponding points in a wave
- space wave noun The component of an electromagnetic wave (especially a radio wave) that travels directly from transmitter to receiver without being…
- spacelike adj lying outside each other's light cone, so that no information can pass from one to the other
- spacetime noun The four-dimensional continuum of the three spatial dimensions plus time.
- spacetime metric noun A mathematical tool used in the theory of relativity to describe the curvature of space and time.
- spade noun A device for terminating an electrical conductor resembling a small spade.
- spaghetti noun Electrical insulating tubing or electrical wiring.
- Sparrow criterion noun A resolution limit used to determine the moment when two point sources of equal intensity can be considered resolved.
- spaser noun The nanoplasmonic counterpart of a laser; a nanoscale source of optical fields with potential uses in nanoscale lithography, probing and…
- species noun A particular type of atom, molecule, ion or other particle.
- specific adj Of a value divided by mass (e.g. specific orbital energy).
- specific activity noun The activity per unit mass of a radionuclide: number of decays per unit time, per mass.
- specific gravity noun Synonym of relative density (“a dimensionless measure which is the ratio of the mass of a substance to that of some reference substance…
- speckle noun The random distribution of light when it is scattered by a rough surface.
- spectral line noun a dark or bright line in an otherwise continuous spectrum caused by the absorption or emission of light, at a single wavelength, by the…
- spectromagnetograph noun An instrument that measures the vectors and velocities of the magnetic fields on the surface of the sun.
- spectrometry noun The measurement of the wavelength of electromagnetic radiation, especially any of several techniques used to analyze the structure of…
- spectrophone noun An instrument that is used to investigate the vibration of polyatomic gases by measuring pressure vibrations in the gas upon radiation with…
- spectrophotometry noun the quantitative analysis of electromagnetic spectra by use of a spectrophotometer; especially in order to determine the structure or…
- spectroscopy noun The scientific study of spectra.
- spectrum analyzer noun An electronic device that displays the frequency spectrum of an electrical, optical or acoustic waveform.
- speed noun The rate of motion or action, specifically the magnitude of the velocity; the rate distance is traversed in a given time.
- speed of light noun The speed of electromagnetic radiation, which in a perfect vacuum is equivalent to 299,792,458 metres per second.
- speromagnetic adj Describing a material in which the spins are aligned in fixed but random alignments due to the local magnetic anisotropy.
- spherocylinder noun A lens of this form.
- spheromak noun A particular form of stabilized magnetic field in which a plasma may be confined for use in nuclear fusion.
- spin foam noun A topological structure made out of two-dimensional faces that represents one of the configurations that must be summed to obtain a…
- spin Hall effect noun The appearance of spin accumulation on the lateral surfaces of an electric current-carrying sample, the signs of the spin directions being…
- spin ice noun Any crystalline material in which the behavior of the magnetic moments is analogous to the behavior of the protons in water ice.
- spin label noun An organic compound, containing an unpaired electron spin, that can be bonded to a molecule under investigation so as to be analysed using…
- spin magnetic moment noun The part of the magnetic moment of an object that originates from its spin, rather than its movement, in which the magnetic field is…
- spin quantum number noun A quantum number that specifies the spin of a particle; for an electron, it may only take the values ±1/2
- spin wave noun a wave, propagated through a crystal lattice as a result of changes in the spin angular momentum of electrons in the lattice
- spin-density wave noun The low-energy, ground state of a metal in which densities of the electron spins and charges follow a regular spatial distribution
- spin-spin energy noun The energy due to the interaction of two spinning systems; the dot product of their spin angular momenta
- spinoidal noun An upper or lower limit of stability of a solution, beyond which it decomposes into multiple phases
- spinon noun One of three kinds of quasiparticle (the others being the holon and orbiton) that electrons in solids are able to split into during the…
- splice noun The electrical and mechanical connection between two pieces of wire or cable.
- split-phase power noun A type of electrical power distribution system using two line wires connected to the ends of a distribution transformer and a grounded…
- split-ring noun Either of a pair of concentric metallic rings with slits on opposite sides, used in split-ring resonators.
- split-ring resonator noun A metamaterial component composed of pair of concentric annular rings with splits in them at opposite ends. The rings are made of a…
- spot noun An autosoliton.
- spring constant noun A characteristic of a spring which is defined as the ratio of the force affecting the spring to the displacement caused by it.
- spur noun A spurious tone, one that interferes with a signal in a circuit and is often masked underneath that signal.
- sputter verb To cause surface atoms or electrons of a solid to be ejected by bombarding it with heavy atoms or ions.
- squegging noun An irregular oscillation characterised by short periods of oscillation punctuated by brief periods of quiescence.
- squirt noun The whole system of flow in the vicinity of a source.
- SRAM noun Static random access memory.
- sstrange squark noun A squark which is the hypothetical supersymmetric partner of a strange quark.
- stage noun The number of an electronic circuit’s block, such as a filter, an amplifier, etc.
- standard hydrogen electrode noun An electrode with a standard electrode potential of zero; used as a standard against which other electrodes are measured.
- standard temperature and pressure noun One of various standard sets of conditions for experimental measurements used to aid reproducibility. Abbreviated as STP. Often…
- standby noun Sleep mode.
- standby time noun The maximum amount of time in which a mobile phone can be continuously turned on and ready to communicate.
- standing wave noun A wave form which occurs in a limited, fixed medium in such a way that the reflected wave coincides with the produced wave. A common…
- Stark effect noun The splitting and shift of a spectral line into several components in the presence of an electric field.
- state noun A complete description of a system, consisting of parameters that determine all properties of the system.
- static electricity noun Electrostatics.
- static equilibrium noun Any system in which the sum of the forces, and torque, on each particle of the system is zero; mechanical equilibrium.
- statistical mechanics noun The branch of physics that uses statistical laws to make theoretical predictions about macroscopic systems of particles.
- steady state noun Any state that does not change over time, or is in a dynamic equilibrium.
- Steiner point noun One vertex of a Steiner tree.
- stenopaeic adj Pertaining to a narrow opening or slit in an opaque barrier that restricts the light which reaches the eye.
- stereogenic adj describing a grouping of atoms in a molecule
- stereometamaterial noun Any metamaterial whose properties depend on its three-dimensional structure; especially any chiral metamaterial
- sterile antineutrino noun A hypothetical type of antineutrino that does not interact by means of electromagnetic, strong, or weak nuclear forces, but only through…
- sterile neutrino noun A type of neutrino (and potentially dark matter), that may be supermassive, which has right-handed chirality, and only interacts with other…
- sticky bit noun A fault in a digital circuit, where a signal does not change as expected, but remains always in one state.
- stiction noun The static friction that needs to be overcome to enable relative motion of stationary objects in contact.
- stigmatism noun Image-formation property of an optical system which focuses a single point source in object space into a single point in image space
- stoke noun Misconstruction of stokes, a unit of kinematic viscosity.
- stop noun The squark that is the superpartner of a top quark.
- stop squark noun A squark which is the hypothetical supersymmetric partner of a top quark.
- stopping power noun The retarding force exerted on a high-energy particle by interactions with the medium through which it passes.
- storage ring noun A type of circular particle accelerator in which a continuous or pulsed particle beam may be kept circulating, typically for many hours.
- storage time noun The amount of time that an electronic device can store energy.
- storage tube noun A class of a cathode ray tube that is designed to hold an image for a long period of time, typically as long as power is supplied to the…
- STP noun Initialism of standard temperature and pressure.
- straintronics noun A situation, observed in graphene and elsewhere, in which an applied strain causes electrons to behave as if they were in a magnetic field.
- strake noun Also used more generally to regulate fluid flow in pipes or vents to prevent turbulence or vortexes.
- strand noun A group of wires, usually twisted or braided.
- strange noun A strange quark.
- strange matter noun A proposed form of matter that includes strange quarks in addition to the usual up and down quarks of nuclear matter. Equivalently, a…
- strange quark noun A quark having a fractional electric charge of -1/3 and a mass of about 80 to 130 MeV.
- strangelet noun A proposed fragment of strange matter, consisting of a bound state of roughly equal numbers of up, down, and strange quarks.
- strangeness noun One of the quantum numbers of subatomic particles, depending upon the relative number of strange quarks and anti-strange quarks.
- strangeon noun A particle composed of strange quarks, down quarks, up quark. A strange cluster with three-light-flavor symmetry.
- strappable adj Able to be linked in series.
- strapper noun A wire that joins two light switches so that a light can be turned off or on from either switch.
- streamline noun A line that is tangent to the velocity of flow of a fluid; equivalent to the path of a specific particle in that flow.
- stress noun The internal distribution of force across a small boundary per unit area of that boundary (pressure) within a body. It causes strain or…
- stress function noun A function that finds a more tractable method for the elastic equations that describe the deformation of an elastic body subject only to…
- stresslet noun A function that represents the symmetric first moment of the surface stress of a body in a flowing fluid.
- stretch verb To make a pulse or particle bunch longer by applying dispersion to it.
- string noun A tiny one-dimensional string-like entity, the main object of study in string theory, a branch of theoretical physics.
- string theory noun A candidate unified theory of all physical forces and particles; a theory which suggests that subatomic particles are one-dimensional…
- string-net noun A proposed extended object whose collective behaviour is considered to model the existence and properties of some subatomic particles
- stripboard noun A type of prototyping board characterized by a ⅒″ regular rectangular grid of holes, with wide parallel strips of copper cladding running…
- stripline noun A form of electromagnetic transmission medium that uses a flat strip of metal sandwiched between dielectrics
- strongly interacting massive particle noun a candidate type of dark matter composed of particles that only interact through the strong nuclear force, one of the fundamental forces of…