Thermodynamics
Heat, temperature, and energy transfer
Physics: 1902 Nobel Prize in Physics
1902 Nobel Prize in Physics Awarded to: Hendrik Antoon Lorentz, Pieter Zeeman In recognition of the extraordinary service they rendered by their researches into the influence of magnetism upon radia...
Physics: 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics
1903 Nobel Prize in Physics Awarded to: Antoine Henri Becquerel, Pierre Curie, Marie Curie, née Skłodowska In recognition of the extraordinary services he has rendered by his discovery of spontaneou...
Physics: Dark matter
Dark matter In astronomy and cosmology, dark matter is an invisible and hypothetical form of matter that does not interact with light or other electromagnetic radiation....
Physics: Photon
Photon A photon (from Ancient Greek φῶς, φωτός (phôs, phōtós) 'light') is an elementary particle that is a quantum of the electromagnetic field, including electromagnetic radiation such as light and...
Physics: Temperature
Temperature In classical thermodynamics and kinetic theory, temperature reflects the average kinetic energy of the particles in a system, providing a quantitative measure of how energy is distributed...
Physics: Charles-Augustin de Coulomb
Charles-Augustin de Coulomb (1736) Charles-Augustin de Coulomb ( KOO-lom, -lohm, koo-LOM, -LOHM; French: [kulɔ̃]; 14 June 1736 – 23 August 1806) was a French officer, engineer, and physicist....
Physics: Heat
Heat In thermodynamics, heat is defined as the form of energy crossing the boundary of a thermodynamic system by virtue of a temperature difference across the boundary....
Physics: Entropy
Entropy Entropy is a scientific concept, most commonly associated with states of disorder, randomness, or uncertainty....
Physics: Amedeo Avogadro
Amedeo Avogadro (1776) Lorenzo Romano Amedeo Carlo Avogadro, Count of Quaregna and Cerreto (, also US: , Italian: [ameˈdɛːo avoˈɡaːdro]; 9 August 1776 – 9 July 1856) was an Italian scientist, most no...
Physics: Radioactivity
Radioactivity Radioactive decay (also known as nuclear decay, radioactivity, radioactive disintegration, or nuclear disintegration) is the process by which an unstable atomic nucleus loses energy by ...
Physics: Laser
Laser A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation....
Physics: Joseph Fourier
Joseph Fourier (1768) Jean-Baptiste Joseph Fourier (; French: [ʒɑ̃ batist ʒozɛf fuʁje]; 21 March 1768 – 16 May 1830) was a French mathematician and physicist born in Auxerre, Burgundy and best known ...
Physics: Sadi Carnot
Sadi Carnot (1796) Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot (French: [nikɔla leɔnaʁ sadi kaʁno]; 1 June 1796 – 24 August 1832) was a French military engineer and physicist....
Physics: Robert Brown
Robert Brown (1773) Jason Robert Brown (born June 20, 1970) is an American musical theatre composer, lyricist, and playwright....
Physics: 1911 Nobel Prize in Physics
1911 Nobel Prize in Physics Awarded to: Wilhelm Wien His discoveries regarding the laws governing the radiation of heat....
Physics: James Prescott Joule
James Prescott Joule (1818) James Prescott Joule (; 24 December 1818 – 11 October 1889) was an English physicist....
Physics: William Thomson (Lord Kelvin)
William Thomson (Lord Kelvin) (1824) William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin (26 June 1824 – 17 December 1907), was a British mathematician, mathematical physicist and engineer....
Physics: Big Bang
Big Bang The Big Bang is a physical theory that describes how the universe expanded from an initial state of high density and temperature....
Physics: James Clerk Maxwell
James Clerk Maxwell (1831) James Clerk Maxwell (13 June 1831 – 5 November 1879) was a Scottish physicist and mathematician who was responsible for the classical theory of electromagnetic radiation, ...
Physics: 1913 Nobel Prize in Physics
1913 Nobel Prize in Physics Awarded to: Heike Kamerlingh Onnes His investigations on the properties of matter at low temperatures which led, inter alia, to the production of liquid helium....
Physics: Pulsar
Pulsar A pulsar (pulsating star, on the model of quasar) is a highly magnetized rotating neutron star that emits beams of electromagnetic radiation out of its magnetic poles....
Physics: Ludwig Boltzmann
Ludwig Boltzmann (1844) Ludwig Eduard Boltzmann ( BAWLTS-mahn or BOHLTS-muhn; German: [ˈluːtvɪç ˈeːduaʁt ˈbɔltsman]; 20 February 1844 – 5 September 1906) was an Austrian mathematician and theoretica...
Physics: Laws of thermodynamics
Laws of thermodynamics The laws of thermodynamics are a set of scientific laws which define a group of physical quantities, such as temperature, energy, and entropy, that characterize thermodynamic s...
Physics: Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen
Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen (1845) Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen (27 March 1845 – 10 February 1923) was a German experimental physicist who produced and detected electromagnetic radiation in a wavelength range k...
Physics: Zeroth law of thermodynamics
Zeroth law of thermodynamics The zeroth law of thermodynamics is one of the four principal laws of thermodynamics....
Physics: Electromagnetic spectrum
Electromagnetic spectrum The electromagnetic spectrum is the full range of electromagnetic radiation, organized by frequency or wavelength....
Physics: Infrared
Infrared Infrared (IR; sometimes called infrared light) is electromagnetic radiation (EMR) with wavelengths longer than that of visible light but shorter than microwaves....
Physics: Ultraviolet
Ultraviolet Ultraviolet radiation (UV; sometimes called ultraviolet light) is electromagnetic radiation of wavelengths of 100–400 nanometers, shorter than that of visible light, but longer than X-ray...
Physics: X-ray
X-ray An X-ray is a form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength shorter than those of ultraviolet rays and longer than those of gamma rays....
Physics: First law of thermodynamics
First law of thermodynamics The first law of thermodynamics is a formulation of the law of conservation of energy in the context of thermodynamic processes....
Physics: Gamma ray
Gamma ray A gamma ray, also known as gamma radiation (symbol γ), is a penetrating form of electromagnetic radiation arising from high-energy interactions like the radioactive decay of atomic nuclei o...
Physics: Microwave
Microwave Microwave is a form of electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths shorter than other radio waves but longer than infrared waves....
Physics: Radio wave
Radio wave Radio waves (formerly called Hertzian waves) are a type of electromagnetic radiation with the lowest frequencies and the longest wavelengths in the electromagnetic spectrum, typically with...
Physics: Second law of thermodynamics
Second law of thermodynamics The second law of thermodynamics is a physical law based on universal empirical observation concerning heat and energy interconversions....
Physics: 1917 Nobel Prize in Physics
1917 Nobel Prize in Physics Awarded to: Charles Glover Barkla His discovery of the characteristic Röntgen radiation of the elements....
Physics: Third law of thermodynamics
Third law of thermodynamics The third law of thermodynamics states that the entropy of a closed system at thermodynamic equilibrium approaches a constant value when its temperature approaches absolut...
Physics: Boyle's law
Boyle's law Boyle's law, also referred to as the Boyle–Mariotte law or Mariotte's law (especially in France), is an empirical gas law that describes the relationship between pressure and volume of a ...
Physics: Power (physics)
Power (physics) Power is the amount of energy transferred or converted per unit time....
Physics: Charles's law
Charles's law Charles's law (also known as the law of volumes) is an experimental gas law that describes how gases tend to expand when heated....
Physics: Gay-Lussac's law
Gay-Lussac's law Gay-Lussac's law usually refers to Joseph-Louis Gay-Lussac's law of combining volumes of gases, discovered in 1808 and published in 1809....
Physics: Avogadro's law
Avogadro's law Avogadro's law (sometimes referred to as Avogadro's hypothesis or Avogadro's principle) or Avogadro-Ampère's hypothesis is an experimental gas law relating the volume of a gas to the...
Physics: 1922 Nobel Prize in Physics
1922 Nobel Prize in Physics Awarded to: Niels Henrik David Bohr His services in the investigation of the structure of atoms and of the radiation emanating from them....
Physics: Wu experiment
Wu experiment By: Chien-Shiung Wu (1956) The Wu experiment was a particle and nuclear physics experiment conducted in 1956 by the Chinese-American physicist Chien-Shiung Wu in collaboration with the ...
Physics: Photoelectric effect
Photoelectric effect The photoelectric effect is the emission of electrons from a material caused by electromagnetic radiation such as ultraviolet light....
Physics: Stefan–Boltzmann law
Stefan–Boltzmann law The Stefan–Boltzmann law, also known as Stefan's law, describes the intensity of the thermal radiation emitted by matter in terms of that matter's temperature....
Physics: Bremsstrahlung
Bremsstrahlung In particle physics, bremsstrahlung (; German: [ˈbʁɛms....
Physics: Synchrotron radiation
Synchrotron radiation Synchrotron radiation (also known as magnetobremsstrahlung) is the electromagnetic radiation emitted when relativistic charged particles are subject to an acceleration perpendic...
Physics: Wien's displacement law
Wien's displacement law In physics, Wien's displacement law states that the black-body radiation curve for different temperatures will peak at different wavelengths that are inversely proportional to...
Physics: Absolute zero
Absolute zero Absolute zero is the lowest theoretically possible temperature, a state at which a system's internal energy, and in ideal cases entropy, reach their minimum values....
Physics: Bose–Einstein condensate
Bose–Einstein condensate In condensed matter physics, a Bose–Einstein condensate (BEC) is a state of matter that is typically formed when a gas of bosons at very low densities is cooled to temperatur...
Physics: Fourier's law of heat conduction
Fourier's law of heat conduction Thermal conduction is the diffusion of thermal energy (heat) within one material or between materials in contact....
Physics: Telescope
Telescope A telescope is a device used to observe distant objects by their emission, absorption, or reflection of electromagnetic radiation....
Physics: Carl Anderson
Carl Anderson (1905) Carlton Earl "Carl" Anderson (February 27, 1945 – February 23, 2004) was an American singer, film and theater actor best known for his portrayal of Judas Iscariot in the Broadway...
Physics: Joule's paddle wheel experiment
Joule's paddle wheel experiment By: James Joule (1843) James Prescott Joule (; 24 December 1818 – 11 October 1889) was an English physicist....
Physics: Discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation
Discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation By: Penzias and Wilson (1964) The discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation constitutes a major development in modern physical cosmology....
Physics: 1936 Nobel Prize in Physics
1936 Nobel Prize in Physics Awarded to: Victor Franz Hess, Carl David Anderson His discovery of cosmic radiation / for his discovery of the positron....
Physics: Photoelectric effect
Photoelectric effect The photoelectric effect is the emission of electrons from a material caused by electromagnetic radiation such as ultraviolet light....
Physics: 1938 Nobel Prize in Physics
1938 Nobel Prize in Physics Awarded to: Enrico Fermi His demonstrations of the existence of new radioactive elements produced by neutron irradiation, and for his related discovery of nuclear reactio...
Physics: Charles Townes
Charles Townes (1915) Charles Hard Townes (July 28, 1915 – January 27, 2015) was an American physicist....
Physics: Arthur Schawlow
Arthur Schawlow (1921) Arthur Leonard Schawlow (May 5, 1921 – April 28, 1999) was an American physicist who, along with Charles Townes, developed the theoretical basis for laser science....
Physics: Radioactive decay
Radioactive decay Radioactive decay (also known as nuclear decay, radioactivity, radioactive disintegration, or nuclear disintegration) is the process by which an unstable atomic nucleus loses energy...
Physics: 1948 Nobel Prize in Physics
1948 Nobel Prize in Physics Awarded to: Patrick Maynard Stuart Blackett His development of the Wilson cloud chamber method, and his discoveries therewith in the fields of nuclear physics and cosmic ...
Physics: 1961 Nobel Prize in Physics
1961 Nobel Prize in Physics Awarded to: Robert Hofstadter, Rudolf Ludwig Mössbauer His pioneering studies of electron scattering in atomic nuclei and for his thereby achieved discoveries concerning ...
Physics: 1978 Nobel Prize in Physics
1978 Nobel Prize in Physics Awarded to: Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa, Arno Allan Penzias, Robert Woodrow Wilson His basic inventions and discoveries in the area of low-temperature physics / for their d...
Physics: 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics
2006 Nobel Prize in Physics Awarded to: John C. Mather, George F. Smoot Their discovery of the blackbody form and anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background radiation....