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#1 2021-12-11 19:53:44

Jai Ganesh
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Important Laws/Principles in Physics

1. Newton's laws of motion

Newton’s laws of motion are three statements describing the relations between the forces acting on a body and the motion of the body, first formulated by English physicist and mathematician Isaac Newton, which are the foundation of classical mechanics.

Newton’s first law: the law of inertia

Newton’s first law states that if a body is at rest or moving at a constant speed in a straight line, it will remain at rest or keep moving in a straight line at constant speed unless it is acted upon by a force. In fact, in classical Newtonian mechanics, there is no important distinction between rest and uniform motion in a straight line; they may be regarded as the same state of motion seen by different observers, one moving at the same velocity as the particle and the other moving at constant velocity with respect to the particle. This postulate is known as the law of inertia.

The law of inertia was first formulated by Galileo Galilei for horizontal motion on Earth and was later generalized by René Descartes. Although the principle of inertia is the starting point and the fundamental assumption of classical mechanics, it is less than intuitively obvious to the untrained eye. In Aristotelian mechanics and in ordinary experience, objects that are not being pushed tend to come to rest. The law of inertia was deduced by Galileo from his experiments with balls rolling down inclined planes.

For Galileo, the principle of inertia was fundamental to his central scientific task: he had to explain how is it possible that if Earth is really spinning on its axis and orbiting the Sun, we do not sense that motion. The principle of inertia helps to provide the answer: since we are in motion together with Earth and our natural tendency is to retain that motion, Earth appears to us to be at rest. Thus, the principle of inertia, far from being a statement of the obvious, was once a central issue of scientific contention. By the time Newton had sorted out all the details, it was possible to accurately account for the small deviations from this picture caused by the fact that the motion of Earth’s surface is not uniform motion in a straight line (the effects of rotational motion are discussed below). In the Newtonian formulation, the common observation that bodies that are not pushed tend to come to rest is attributed to the fact that they have unbalanced forces acting on them, such as friction and air resistance.

Newton’s second law: F = ma

Newton’s second law is a quantitative description of the changes that a force can produce on the motion of a body. It states that the time rate of change of the momentum of a body is equal in both magnitude and direction to the force imposed on it. The momentum of a body is equal to the product of its mass and its velocity. Momentum, like velocity, is a vector quantity, having both magnitude and direction. A force applied to a body can change the magnitude of the momentum or its direction or both. Newton’s second law is one of the most important in all of physics. For a body whose mass m is constant, it can be written in the form F = ma, where F (force) and a (acceleration) are both vector quantities. If a body has a net force acting on it, it is accelerated in accordance with the equation. Conversely, if a body is not accelerated, there is no net force acting on it.

Newton’s third law: the law of action and reaction

Newton’s third law states that when two bodies interact, they apply forces to one another that are equal in magnitude and opposite in direction. The third law is also known as the law of action and reaction. This law is important in analyzing problems of static equilibrium, where all forces are balanced, but it also applies to bodies in uniform or accelerated motion. The forces it describes are real ones, not mere bookkeeping devices. For example, a book resting on a table applies a downward force equal to its weight on the table. According to the third law, the table applies an equal and opposite force to the book. This force occurs because the weight of the book causes the table to deform slightly so that it pushes back on the book like a coiled spring.

If a body has a net force acting on it, it undergoes accelerated motion in accordance with the second law. If there is no net force acting on a body, either because there are no forces at all or because all forces are precisely balanced by contrary forces, the body does not accelerate and may be said to be in equilibrium. Conversely, a body that is observed not to be accelerated may be deduced to have no net force acting on it.

Influence of Newton’s laws

Newton’s laws first appeared in his masterpiece, Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (1687), commonly known as the Principia. In 1543 Nicolaus Copernicus suggested that the Sun, rather than Earth, might be at the centre of the universe. In the intervening years Galileo, Johannes Kepler, and Descartes laid the foundations of a new science that would both replace the Aristotelian worldview, inherited from the ancient Greeks, and explain the workings of a heliocentric universe. In the Principia Newton created that new science. He developed his three laws in order to explain why the orbits of the planets are ellipses rather than circles, at which he succeeded, but it turned out that he explained much more. The series of events from Copernicus to Newton is known collectively as the Scientific Revolution.

In the 20th century Newton’s laws were replaced by quantum mechanics and relativity as the most fundamental laws of physics. Nevertheless, Newton’s laws continue to give an accurate account of nature, except for very small bodies such as electrons or for bodies moving close to the speed of light. Quantum mechanics and relativity reduce to Newton’s laws for larger bodies or for bodies moving more slowly.


It appears to me that if one wants to make progress in mathematics, one should study the masters and not the pupils. - Niels Henrik Abel.

Nothing is better than reading and gaining more and more knowledge - Stephen William Hawking.

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#2 2021-12-12 13:58:53

Jai Ganesh
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Re: Important Laws/Principles in Physics

2. Kepler's laws of planetary motion

Kepler’s laws of planetary motion, in astronomy and classical physics, are laws describing the motions of the planets in the solar system. They were derived by the German astronomer Johannes Kepler, whose analysis of the observations of the 16th-century Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe enabled him to announce his first two laws in the year 1609 and a third law nearly a decade later, in 1618. Kepler himself never numbered these laws or specially distinguished them from his other discoveries.

Kepler’s three laws of planetary motion can be stated as follows: (1) All planets move about the Sun in elliptical orbits, having the Sun as one of the foci. (2) A radius vector joining any planet to the Sun sweeps out equal areas in equal lengths of time. (3) The squares of the sidereal periods (of revolution) of the planets are directly proportional to the cubes of their mean distances from the Sun. Knowledge of these laws, especially the second (the law of areas), proved crucial to Sir Isaac Newton in 1684–85, when he formulated his famous law of gravitation between Earth and the Moon and between the Sun and the planets, postulated by him to have validity for all objects anywhere in the universe. Newton showed that the motion of bodies subject to central gravitational force need not always follow the elliptical orbits specified by the first law of Kepler but can take paths defined by other, open conic curves; the motion can be in parabolic or hyperbolic orbits, depending on the total energy of the body. Thus, an object of sufficient energy—e.g., a comet—can enter the solar system and leave again without returning. From Kepler’s second law, it may be observed further that the angular momentum of any planet about an axis through the Sun and perpendicular to the orbital plane is also unchanging.

The usefulness of Kepler’s laws extends to the motions of natural and artificial satellites, as well as to stellar systems and extrasolar planets. As formulated by Kepler, the laws do not, of course, take into account the gravitational interactions (as perturbing effects) of the various planets on each other. The general problem of accurately predicting the motions of more than two bodies under their mutual attractions is quite complicated; analytical solutions of the three-body problem are unobtainable except for some special cases. It may be noted that Kepler’s laws apply not only to gravitational but also to all other inverse-square-law forces and, if due allowance is made for relativistic and quantum effects, to the electromagnetic forces within the atom.


It appears to me that if one wants to make progress in mathematics, one should study the masters and not the pupils. - Niels Henrik Abel.

Nothing is better than reading and gaining more and more knowledge - Stephen William Hawking.

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#3 2021-12-16 21:57:04

pamshaw
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Re: Important Laws/Principles in Physics

Some basic principles of Physics:
Phase
In physics, a common principle lies regarding phase. A phase is a region of space throughout which all physical properties of a material are essentially uniform. Examples of physical properties include density, index of refraction, magnetization, and chemical composition. A simple description is that a phase is a region of material that is chemically uniform, physically distinct, and mechanically separable. In a system consisting of ice and water in a glass jar, the ice cubes are one phase, the water is a second phase, and the humid air is a third phase over the ice and water.
Heat Transfer
Heat transfer is a discipline of thermal engineering that concerns the generation, use, conversion, and exchange of thermal energy between physical systems. Heat transfer is classified into various mechanisms, such as thermal conduction, thermal convection, thermal radiation, and energy transfer by phase changes. Engineers also consider transferring mass of differing chemical species, either cold or hot, to achieve heat transfer. While these mechanisms have distinct characteristics, they often occur simultaneously in the same system.
Wave
A wave is a propagating dynamic disturbance of one or more quantities, sometimes described by a wave equation. In physical waves, at least two field quantities in the wave medium are involved. Waves can be periodic, in which case those quantities repeatedly oscillate about an equilibrium value at some frequency.
Sound
In physics, sound is a vibration propagating as an acoustic wave through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid, or solid. In psychology, the sound is the reception of such waves and their perception by the brain.
Temperature
Temperature is a physical quantity that expresses hot and cold. It is the manifestation of thermal energy, present in all matter, which is the source of the occurrence of heat, a flow of energy when a body is in contact with another that is colder or hotter. Temperature is measured with a thermometer.

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#4 2021-12-16 23:03:02

Jai Ganesh
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Re: Important Laws/Principles in Physics

3. Kirchhoff's circuit laws

Kirchhoff's circuit laws are two equalities that deal with the current and potential difference (commonly known as voltage) in the lumped element model of electrical circuits. They were first described in 1845 by German physicist Gustav Kirchhoff. This generalized the work of Georg Ohm and preceded the work of James Clerk Maxwell. Widely used in electrical engineering, they are also called Kirchhoff's rules or simply Kirchhoff's laws. These laws can be applied in time and frequency domains and form the basis for network analysis.

Both of Kirchhoff's laws can be understood as corollaries of Maxwell's equations in the low-frequency limit. They are accurate for DC circuits, and for AC circuits at frequencies where the wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation are very large compared to the circuits.

Kirchhoff's current law

This law, also called Kirchhoff's first law, Kirchhoff's point rule, or Kirchhoff's junction rule (or nodal rule), states that, for any node (junction) in an electrical circuit, the sum of currents flowing into that node is equal to the sum of currents flowing out of that node; or equivalently:

The algebraic sum of currents in a network of conductors meeting at a point is zero.

Recalling that current is a signed (positive or negative) quantity reflecting direction towards or away from a node, this principle can be succinctly stated as:

where n is the total number of branches with currents flowing towards or away from the node.

The law is based on the conservation of charge where the charge (measured in coulombs) is the product of the current (in amperes) and the time (in seconds). If the net charge in a region is constant, the current law will hold on the boundaries of the region.[2][3] This means that the current law relies on the fact that the net charge in the wires and components is constant.

Uses

A matrix version of Kirchhoff's current law is the basis of most circuit simulation software, such as SPICE. The current law is used with Ohm's law to perform nodal analysis.

The current law is applicable to any lumped network irrespective of the nature of the network; whether unilateral or bilateral, active or passive, linear or non-linear.

Kirchhoff's voltage law

This law, also called Kirchhoff's second law, Kirchhoff's loop (or mesh) rule, or Kirchhoff's second rule, states the following:

The directed sum of the potential differences (voltages) around any closed loop is zero.

Similarly to Kirchhoff's current law, the voltage law can be stated as:

Here, n is the total number of voltages measured.

Generalization
In the low-frequency limit, the voltage drop around any loop is zero. This includes imaginary loops arranged arbitrarily in space – not limited to the loops delineated by the circuit elements and conductors. In the low-frequency limit, this is a corollary of Faraday's law of induction (which is one of Maxwell's equations).

This has practical application in situations involving "static electricity".

Limitations

Kirchhoff's circuit laws are the result of the lumped-element model and both depend on the model being applicable to the circuit in question. When the model is not applicable, the laws do not apply.

The current law is dependent on the assumption that the net charge in any wire, junction or lumped component is constant. Whenever the electric field between parts of the circuit is non-negligible, such as when two wires are capacitively coupled, this may not be the case. This occurs in high-frequency AC circuits, where the lumped element model is no longer applicable.[4] For example, in a transmission line, the charge density in the conductor will constantly be oscillating.

On the other hand, the voltage law relies on the fact that the action of time-varying magnetic fields are confined to individual components, such as inductors. In reality, the induced electric field produced by an inductor is not confined, but the leaked fields are often negligible.

Modelling real circuits with lumped elements

The lumped element approximation for a circuit is accurate at low frequencies. At higher frequencies, leaked fluxes and varying charge densities in conductors become significant. To an extent, it is possible to still model such circuits using parasitic components. If frequencies are too high, it may be more appropriate to simulate the fields directly using finite element modelling or other techniques.

To model circuits so that both laws can still be used, it is important to understand the distinction between physical circuit elements and the ideal lumped elements. For example, a wire is not an ideal conductor. Unlike an ideal conductor, wires can inductively and capacitively couple to each other (and to themselves), and have a finite propagation delay. Real conductors can be modeled in terms of lumped elements by considering parasitic capacitances distributed between the conductors to model capacitive coupling, or parasitic (mutual) inductances to model inductive coupling. Wires also have some self-inductance, which is the reason that decoupling capacitors are necessary.


It appears to me that if one wants to make progress in mathematics, one should study the masters and not the pupils. - Niels Henrik Abel.

Nothing is better than reading and gaining more and more knowledge - Stephen William Hawking.

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#5 2022-02-05 20:55:39

Jai Ganesh
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Re: Important Laws/Principles in Physics

4) Coulomb's law

Coulomb's law, or Coulomb's inverse-square law, is an experimental law of physics that quantifies the amount of force between two stationary, electrically charged particles. The electric force between charged bodies at rest is conventionally called electrostatic force or Coulomb force. Although the law was known earlier, it was first published in 1785 by French physicist Charles-Augustin de Coulomb, hence the name. Coulomb's law was essential to the development of the theory of electromagnetism, maybe even its starting point, as it made it possible to discuss the quantity of electric charge in a meaningful way.

The law states that the magnitude of the electrostatic force of attraction or repulsion between two point charges is directly proportional to the product of the magnitudes of charges and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them,

Here, K or

is Coulomb's constant (
,
q1 and q2 are the signed magnitudes of the charges, and the scalar r is the distance between the charges.

The force is along the straight line joining the two charges. If the charges have the same sign, the electrostatic force between them is repulsive; if they have different signs, the force between them is attractive.

Being an inverse-square law, the law is analogous to Isaac Newton's inverse-square law of universal gravitation, but gravitational forces are always attractive, while electrostatic forces can be attractive or repulsive. Coulomb's law can be used to derive Gauss's law, and vice versa. In the case of a single stationary point charge, the two laws are equivalent, expressing the same physical law in different ways. The law has been tested extensively, and observations have upheld the law on the scale from

to
.


It appears to me that if one wants to make progress in mathematics, one should study the masters and not the pupils. - Niels Henrik Abel.

Nothing is better than reading and gaining more and more knowledge - Stephen William Hawking.

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#6 2022-02-15 22:31:12

Jai Ganesh
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Re: Important Laws/Principles in Physics

5) Gas Laws

The gas laws were developed at the end of the 18th century, when scientists began to realize that relationships between pressure, volume and temperature of a sample of gas could be obtained which would hold to approximation for all gases.

Boyle's law

In 1662 Robert Boyle studied the relationship between volume and pressure of a gas of fixed amount at constant temperature. He observed that volume of a given mass of a gas is inversely proportional to its pressure at a constant temperature. Boyle's law, published in 1662, states that, at constant temperature, the product of the pressure and volume of a given mass of an ideal gas in a closed system is always constant. It can be verified experimentally using a pressure gauge and a variable volume container. It can also be derived from the kinetic theory of gases: if a container, with a fixed number of molecules inside, is reduced in volume, more molecules will strike a given area of the sides of the container per unit time, causing a greater pressure.

A statement of Boyle's law is as follows:

The volume of a given mass of a gas is inversely related to pressure when the temperature is constant.

The concept can be represented with these formulae:

, meaning "Volume is inversely proportional to Pressure", or
, meaning "Pressure is inversely proportional to Volume", or
, or
,
where P is the pressure, and V is the volume of a gas, and k1 is the constant in this equation (and is not the same as the proportionality constants in the other equations in this article).

Charles's law

Charles's law, or the law of volumes, was found in 1787 by Jacques Charles. It states that, for a given mass of an ideal gas at constant pressure, the volume is directly proportional to its absolute temperature, assuming in a closed system. The statement of Charles's law is as follows: the volume (V) of a given mass of a gas, at constant pressure (P), is directly proportional to its temperature (T). As a mathematical equation, Charles's law is written as either:

, or
, or
,
where "V" is the volume of a gas, "T" is the absolute temperature and k2 is a proportionality constant (which is not the same as the proportionality constants in the other equations in this article).

Gay-Lussac's law

Gay-Lussac's law, Amontons' law or the pressure law was found by Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac in 1808. It states that, for a given mass and constant volume of an ideal gas, the pressure exerted on the sides of its container is directly proportional to its absolute temperature.

As a mathematical equation, Gay-Lussac's law is written as either:

, or
, or
,
where P is the pressure, T is the absolute temperature, and k is another proportionality constant.

Avogadro's law

Avogadro's law (hypothesized in 1811) states that at a constant temperature and pressure, the volume occupied by an ideal gas is directly proportional to the number of molecules of the gas present in the container. This gives rise to the molar volume of a gas, which at STP (273.15 K, 1 atm) is about 22.4 L. The relation is given by

, or
,
where n is equal to the number of molecules of gas (or the number of moles of gas).

Combined and ideal gas laws

The Combined gas law or General Gas Equation is obtained by combining Boyle's Law, Charles's law, and Gay-Lussac's Law. It shows the relationship between the pressure, volume, and temperature for a fixed mass (quantity) of gas:

This can also be written as:


With the addition of Avogadro's law, the combined gas law develops into the ideal gas law:

,
where
P is pressure
V is volume
n is the number of moles
R is the universal gas constant
T is temperature (K)
where the proportionality constant, now named R, is the universal gas constant with a value of 8.3144598 (kPa∙L)/(mol∙K). An equivalent formulation of this law is:

where
P is the pressure
V is the volume
N is the number of gas molecules
k is the Boltzmann constant
in SI units)
T is the temperature (K)

These equations are exact only for an ideal gas, which neglects various intermolecular effects (see real gas). However, the ideal gas law is a good approximation for most gases under moderate pressure and temperature.

This law has the following important consequences:

If temperature and pressure are kept constant, then the volume of the gas is directly proportional to the number of molecules of gas.
If the temperature and volume remain constant, then the pressure of the gas changes is directly proportional to the number of molecules of gas present.
If the number of gas molecules and the temperature remain constant, then the pressure is inversely proportional to the volume.
If the temperature changes and the number of gas molecules are kept constant, then either pressure or volume (or both) will change in direct proportion to the temperature.


It appears to me that if one wants to make progress in mathematics, one should study the masters and not the pupils. - Niels Henrik Abel.

Nothing is better than reading and gaining more and more knowledge - Stephen William Hawking.

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#7 2022-02-19 02:07:47

jabah013.307
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From: Kingdom Of Jabah013.307
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Re: Important Laws/Principles in Physics

Oooh, interesting!


Quote Of The Month:
'Whether it's the best of times or the worst of times, it's the only time we've got.' - Art Buchwald.

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#8 2022-02-19 02:09:01

jabah013.307
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From: Kingdom Of Jabah013.307
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Posts: 165
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Re: Important Laws/Principles in Physics

How do you know all this, Professor? yikes


Quote Of The Month:
'Whether it's the best of times or the worst of times, it's the only time we've got.' - Art Buchwald.

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#9 2022-02-19 03:03:01

Jai Ganesh
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Re: Important Laws/Principles in Physics

Working overtime, often odd hours!


It appears to me that if one wants to make progress in mathematics, one should study the masters and not the pupils. - Niels Henrik Abel.

Nothing is better than reading and gaining more and more knowledge - Stephen William Hawking.

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#10 2022-02-19 03:05:18

jabah013.307
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From: Kingdom Of Jabah013.307
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Posts: 165
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Re: Important Laws/Principles in Physics

I like reading this!


Quote Of The Month:
'Whether it's the best of times or the worst of times, it's the only time we've got.' - Art Buchwald.

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#11 2022-02-19 14:12:30

Jai Ganesh
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Registered: 2005-06-28
Posts: 48,352

Re: Important Laws/Principles in Physics

6) Laws of Thermodynamics

The laws of thermodynamics define a group of physical quantities, such as temperature, energy, and entropy, that characterize thermodynamic systems in thermodynamic equilibrium. The laws also use various parameters for thermodynamic processes, such as thermodynamic work and heat, and establish relationships between them. They state empirical facts that form a basis of precluding the possibility of certain phenomena, such as perpetual motion. In addition to their use in thermodynamics, they are important fundamental laws of physics in general, and are applicable in other natural sciences.

Traditionally, thermodynamics has recognized three fundamental laws, simply named by an ordinal identification, the first law, the second law, and the third law. A more fundamental statement was later labelled as the zeroth law, after the first three laws had been established.

The zeroth law of thermodynamics defines thermal equilibrium and forms a basis for the definition of temperature: If two systems are each in thermal equilibrium with a third system, then they are in thermal equilibrium with each other.

The first law of thermodynamics states that, when energy passes into or out of a system (as work, heat, or matter), the system's internal energy changes in accord with the law of conservation of energy.

The second law of thermodynamics states that in a natural thermodynamic process, the sum of the entropies of the interacting thermodynamic systems never decreases. Another form of the statement is that heat does not spontaneously pass from a colder body to a warmer body.

The third law of thermodynamics states that a system's entropy approaches a constant value as the temperature approaches absolute zero. With the exception of non-crystalline solids (glasses) the entropy of a system at absolute zero is typically close to zero.

The first and second laws prohibit two kinds of perpetual motion machines, respectively: the perpetual motion machine of the first kind which produces work with no energy input, and the perpetual motion machine of the second kind which spontaneously converts thermal energy into mechanical work.


It appears to me that if one wants to make progress in mathematics, one should study the masters and not the pupils. - Niels Henrik Abel.

Nothing is better than reading and gaining more and more knowledge - Stephen William Hawking.

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#12 2022-02-19 22:48:58

jabah013.307
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From: Kingdom Of Jabah013.307
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Posts: 165
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Re: Important Laws/Principles in Physics

Hmmmm, interesting.


Quote Of The Month:
'Whether it's the best of times or the worst of times, it's the only time we've got.' - Art Buchwald.

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#13 2022-02-20 02:08:57

Jai Ganesh
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Re: Important Laws/Principles in Physics

7) Newton's law of universal gravitation

Newton's law of universal gravitation is usually stated as that every particle attracts every other particle in the universe with a force that is directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between their centers. The publication of the theory has become known as the "first great unification", as it marked the unification of the previously described phenomena of gravity on Earth with known astronomical behaviors.

This is a general physical law derived from empirical observations by what Isaac Newton called inductive reasoning. It is a part of classical mechanics and was formulated in Newton's work Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica ("the Principia"), first published on 5 July 1687. When Newton presented Book 1 of the unpublished text in April 1686 to the Royal Society, Robert Hooke made a claim that Newton had obtained the inverse square law from him.

In today's language, the law states that every point mass attracts every other point mass by a force acting along the line intersecting the two points. The force is proportional to the product of the two masses, and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.

The equation for universal gravitation thus takes the form:

where F is the gravitational force acting between two objects, m1 and m2 are the masses of the objects, r is the distance between the centers of their masses, and G is the gravitational constant.

The first test of Newton's theory of gravitation between masses in the laboratory was the Cavendish experiment conducted by the British scientist Henry Cavendish in 1798. It took place 111 years after the publication of Newton's Principia and approximately 71 years after his death.

Newton's law of gravitation resembles Coulomb's law of electrical forces, which is used to calculate the magnitude of the electrical force arising between two charged bodies. Both are inverse-square laws, where force is inversely proportional to the square of the distance between the bodies. Coulomb's law has the product of two charges in place of the product of the masses, and the Coulomb constant in place of the gravitational constant.

Newton's law has since been superseded by Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity, but it continues to be used as an excellent approximation of the effects of gravity in most applications. Relativity is required only when there is a need for extreme accuracy, or when dealing with very strong gravitational fields, such as those found near extremely massive and dense objects, or at small distances (such as Mercury's orbit around the Sun).


It appears to me that if one wants to make progress in mathematics, one should study the masters and not the pupils. - Niels Henrik Abel.

Nothing is better than reading and gaining more and more knowledge - Stephen William Hawking.

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#14 2022-02-27 20:59:47

pamshaw
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Re: Important Laws/Principles in Physics

The discussion here lists different laws that explain most things happening around us. Among the listed laws, the first one is Newton's law of motion, further divided into three laws, first, second, and third; each has its significance and application in the daily world. Newton's law influenced modern physics and asked the world to upgrade the basics.
The following law in the list is Kepler's law of planetary motion; they are also divided into three more laws that explain planetary movements. Its usefulness applies to the motion of natural and artificial satellites. The next law is Kirchhoff's law which explains the circuits and the current flow through them just like the rest of the laws; this has its limitations.
Columb's law for the electric charges gas laws was proposed over time and included Boyle's law, Charle's law, and Avogadro's law. There is an ideal gas equation that is derived from the gas laws. The community finds this information interesting and useful; there are further laws of thermodynamics and Newton's gravitational law on the forum explaining each.

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#15 2022-02-27 21:40:57

Jai Ganesh
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Re: Important Laws/Principles in Physics

8) Conservation of energy

In physics and chemistry, the law of conservation of energy states that the total energy of an isolated system remains constant; it is said to be conserved over time. This law, first proposed and tested by Émilie du Châtelet, means that energy can neither be created nor destroyed; rather, it can only be transformed or transferred from one form to another. For instance, chemical energy is converted to kinetic energy when a stick of dynamite explodes. If one adds up all forms of energy that were released in the explosion, such as the kinetic energy and potential energy of the pieces, as well as heat and sound, one will get the exact decrease of chemical energy in the combustion of the dynamite.

Classically, conservation of energy was distinct from conservation of mass. However, special relativity showed that mass is related to energy and vice versa by E = mc² , and science now takes the view that mass-energy as a whole is conserved. Theoretically, this implies that any object with mass can itself be converted to pure energy, and vice versa. However this is believed to be possible only under the most extreme of physical conditions, such as likely existed in the universe very shortly after the Big Bang or when black holes emit Hawking radiation.

Conservation of energy can be rigorously proven by Noether's theorem as a consequence of continuous time translation symmetry; that is, from the fact that the laws of physics do not change over time.

A consequence of the law of conservation of energy is that a perpetual motion machine of the first kind cannot exist, that is to say, no system without an external energy supply can deliver an unlimited amount of energy to its surroundings. For systems which do not have time translation symmetry, it may not be possible to define conservation of energy. Examples include curved spacetimes in general relativity or time crystals in condensed matter physics.


It appears to me that if one wants to make progress in mathematics, one should study the masters and not the pupils. - Niels Henrik Abel.

Nothing is better than reading and gaining more and more knowledge - Stephen William Hawking.

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#16 2022-03-02 01:14:16

Jai Ganesh
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Re: Important Laws/Principles in Physics

9) Uncertainty principle

In quantum mechanics, the uncertainty principle (also known as Heisenberg's uncertainty principle) is any of a variety of mathematical inequalities asserting a fundamental limit to the accuracy with which the values for certain pairs of physical quantities of a particle, such as position, x, and momentum, p, can be predicted from initial conditions.

Such variable pairs are known as complementary variables or canonically conjugate variables; and, depending on interpretation, the uncertainty principle limits to what extent such conjugate properties maintain their approximate meaning, as the mathematical framework of quantum physics does not support the notion of simultaneously well-defined conjugate properties expressed by a single value. The uncertainty principle implies that it is in general not possible to predict the value of a quantity with arbitrary certainty, even if all initial conditions are specified.

Introduced first in 1927 by the German physicist Werner Heisenberg, the uncertainty principle states that the more precisely the position of some particle is determined, the less precisely its momentum can be predicted from initial conditions, and vice versa. In the published 1927 paper, Heisenberg concludes that the uncertainty principle was originally

~ h using the full Planck constant. The formal inequality relating the standard deviation of position
and the standard deviation of momentum
was derived by Earle Hesse Kennard later that year and by Hermann Weyl in 1928:

where ħ is the reduced Planck constant, h/(2π).

Historically, the uncertainty principle has been confused with a related effect in physics, called the observer effect, which notes that measurements of certain systems cannot be made without affecting the system, that is, without changing something in a system. Heisenberg utilized such an observer effect at the quantum level as a physical "explanation" of quantum uncertainty. It has since become clearer, however, that the uncertainty principle is inherent in the properties of all wave-like systems, and that it arises in quantum mechanics simply due to the matter wave nature of all quantum objects. Thus, the uncertainty principle actually states a fundamental property of quantum systems and is not a statement about the observational success of current technology. It must be emphasized that measurement does not mean only a process in which a physicist-observer takes part, but rather any interaction between classical and quantum objects regardless of any observer.

Since the uncertainty principle is such a basic result in quantum mechanics, typical experiments in quantum mechanics routinely observe aspects of it. Certain experiments, however, may deliberately test a particular form of the uncertainty principle as part of their main research program. These include, for example, tests of number–phase uncertainty relations in superconducting or quantum optics systems. Applications dependent on the uncertainty principle for their operation include extremely low-noise technology such as that required in gravitational wave interferometers.


It appears to me that if one wants to make progress in mathematics, one should study the masters and not the pupils. - Niels Henrik Abel.

Nothing is better than reading and gaining more and more knowledge - Stephen William Hawking.

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#17 2022-04-04 19:39:35

Jai Ganesh
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Re: Important Laws/Principles in Physics

10) Ohm's law

Ohm's law states that the current through a conductor between two points is directly proportional to the voltage across the two points. Introducing the constant of proportionality, the resistance, one arrives at the usual mathematical equation that describes this relationship:

,

where I is the current through the conductor in units of amperes, V is the voltage measured across the conductor in units of volts, and R is the resistance of the conductor in units of ohms. More specifically, Ohm's law states that the R in this relation is constant, independent of the current. If the resistance is not constant, the previous equation cannot be called Ohm's law, but it can still be used as a definition of static/DC resistance. Ohm's law is an empirical relation which accurately describes the conductivity of the vast majority of electrically conductive materials over many orders of magnitude of current. However some materials do not obey Ohm's law; these are called non-ohmic.

The law was named after the German physicist Georg Ohm, who, in a treatise published in 1827, described measurements of applied voltage and current through simple electrical circuits containing various lengths of wire. Ohm explained his experimental results by a slightly more complex equation than the modern form above.

In physics, the term Ohm's law is also used to refer to various generalizations of the law; for example the vector form of the law used in electromagnetics and material science:

,

where J is the current density at a given location in a resistive material, E is the electric field at that location, and σ (sigma) is a material-dependent parameter called the conductivity. This reformulation of Ohm's law is due to Gustav Kirchhoff.


It appears to me that if one wants to make progress in mathematics, one should study the masters and not the pupils. - Niels Henrik Abel.

Nothing is better than reading and gaining more and more knowledge - Stephen William Hawking.

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#18 2022-05-01 23:02:28

Jai Ganesh
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Re: Important Laws/Principles in Physics

11) Pascal's Law

Pascal's law (also Pascal's principle or the principle of transmission of fluid-pressure) is a principle in fluid mechanics given by Blaise Pascal that states that a pressure change at any point in a confined incompressible fluid is transmitted throughout the fluid such that the same change occurs everywhere. The law was established by French mathematician Blaise Pascal in 1653 and published in 1663.

Definition

Pascal's principle is defined as

* A change in pressure at any point in an enclosed fluid at rest is transmitted undiminished to all points in the fluid.

* Pressure exerted on a fluid in an enclosed container is transmitted equally and undiminished to all parts of the container and acts at right angle to the enclosing walls.

* Alternate definition: The pressure applied to any part of the enclosed liquid will be transmitted equally in all directions through the liquid.

Pascal's law can be interpreted as saying that any change in pressure applied at any given point of the fluid is transmitted undiminished throughout the fluid.

Applications

Forces can be multiplied using such a device. One newton input produces 50 newtons output. By further increasing the area of the larger piston (or reducing the area of the smaller piston), forces can be multiplied, in principle, by any amount. Pascal's principle underlies the operation of the hydraulic press. The hydraulic press does not violate energy conservation, because a decrease in distance moved compensates for the increase in force. When the small piston is moved downward 100 centimeters, the large piston will be raised only one-fiftieth of this, or 2 centimeters. The input force multiplied by the distance moved by the smaller piston is equal to the output force multiplied by the distance moved by the larger piston; this is one more example of a simple machine operating on the same principle as a mechanical lever.

A typical application of Pascal's principle for gases and liquids is the automobile lift seen in many service stations (the hydraulic jack). Increased air pressure produced by an air compressor is transmitted through the air to the surface of oil in an underground reservoir. The oil, in turn, transmits the pressure to a piston, which lifts the automobile. The relatively low pressure that exerts the lifting force against the piston is about the same as the air pressure in automobile tires. Hydraulics is employed by modern devices ranging from very small to enormous. For example, there are hydraulic pistons in almost all construction machines where heavy loads are involved.

Other applications:

* Force amplification in the braking system of most motor vehicles.
* Used in artesian wells, water towers, and dams.
* Scuba divers must understand this principle. Starting from normal atmospheric pressure, about 100 kilopascal, the pressure increases by about 100 kPa for each increase of 10 m depth.
* Usually Pascal's rule is applied to confined space (static flow), but due to the continuous flow process, Pascal's principle can be applied to the lift oil mechanism (which can be represented as a U tube with pistons on either end).


It appears to me that if one wants to make progress in mathematics, one should study the masters and not the pupils. - Niels Henrik Abel.

Nothing is better than reading and gaining more and more knowledge - Stephen William Hawking.

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#19 2022-05-11 00:19:04

Jai Ganesh
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Re: Important Laws/Principles in Physics

12) Newton's law of cooling

Newton's law of cooling states that the rate of heat loss of a body is directly proportional to the difference in the temperatures between the body and its environment. The law is frequently qualified to include the condition that the temperature difference is small and the nature of heat transfer mechanism remains the same. As such, it is equivalent to a statement that the heat transfer coefficient, which mediates between heat losses and temperature differences, is a constant. This condition is generally met in heat conduction (where it is guaranteed by Fourier's law) as the thermal conductivity of most materials is only weakly dependent on temperature. In convective heat transfer, Newton's Law is followed for forced air or pumped fluid cooling, where the properties of the fluid do not vary strongly with temperature, but it is only approximately true for buoyancy-driven convection, where the velocity of the flow increases with temperature difference. Finally, in the case of heat transfer by thermal radiation, Newton's law of cooling holds only for very small temperature differences.

When stated in terms of temperature differences, Newton's law (with several further simplifying assumptions, such as a low Biot number and a temperature-independent heat capacity) results in a simple differential equation expressing temperature-difference as a function of time. The solution to that equation describes an exponential decrease of temperature-difference over time. This characteristic decay of the temperature-difference is also associated with Newton's law of cooling.

Historical background

Isaac Newton published his work on cooling anonymously in 1701 as "Scala graduum Caloris. Calorum Descriptiones & signa" in Philosophical Transactions, volume 22, issue 270.

Newton did not originally state his law in the above form in 1701. Rather, using today's terms, Newton noted after some mathematical manipulation that the rate of temperature change of a body is proportional to the difference in temperatures between the body and its surroundings. This final simplest version of the law, given by Newton himself, was partly due to confusion in Newton's time between the concepts of heat and temperature, which would not be fully disentangled until much later.

In 2020, Maruyama and Moriya repeated Newton's experiments with modern apparatus, and they applied modern data reduction techniques. In particular, these investigators took account of thermal radiation at high temperatures (as for the molten metals Newton used), and they accounted for buoyancy effects on the air flow. By comparison to Newton's original data, they concluded that his measurements (from 1692 to 1693) had been "quite accurate".

Relationship to mechanism of cooling

Convection cooling is sometimes said to be governed by "Newton's law of cooling." When the heat transfer coefficient is independent, or relatively independent, of the temperature difference between object and environment, Newton's law is followed. The law holds well for forced air and pumped liquid cooling, where the fluid velocity does not rise with increasing temperature difference. Newton's law is most closely obeyed in purely conduction-type cooling. However, the heat transfer coefficient is a function of the temperature difference in natural convective (buoyancy driven) heat transfer. In that case, Newton's law only approximates the result when the temperature difference is relatively small. Newton himself realized this limitation.

A correction to Newton's law concerning convection for larger temperature differentials by including an exponent, was made in 1817 by Dulong and Petit. (These men are better-known for their formulation of the Dulong–Petit law concerning the molar specific heat capacity of a crystal.)

Another situation that does not obey Newton's law is radiative heat transfer. Radiative cooling is better described by the Stefan–Boltzmann law in which the heat transfer rate varies as the difference in the 4th powers of the absolute temperatures of the object and of its environment.


It appears to me that if one wants to make progress in mathematics, one should study the masters and not the pupils. - Niels Henrik Abel.

Nothing is better than reading and gaining more and more knowledge - Stephen William Hawking.

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#20 2022-05-11 20:01:00

Jai Ganesh
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Re: Important Laws/Principles in Physics

13) Faraday's law of induction

Faraday's law of induction (briefly, Faraday's law) is a basic law of electromagnetism predicting how a magnetic field will interact with an electric circuit to produce an electromotive force (emf)—a phenomenon known as electromagnetic induction. It is the fundamental operating principle of transformers, inductors, and many types of electrical motors, generators and solenoids.

The Maxwell–Faraday equation (listed as one of Maxwell's equations) describes the fact that a spatially varying (and also possibly time-varying, depending on how a magnetic field varies in time) electric field always accompanies a time-varying magnetic field, while Faraday's law states that there is emf (electromotive force, defined as electromagnetic work done on a unit charge when it has traveled one round of a conductive loop) on the conductive loop when the magnetic flux through the surface enclosed by the loop varies in time.

Faraday's law had been discovered and one aspect of it (transformer emf) was formulated as the Maxwell–Faraday equation later. The equation of Faraday's law can be derived by the Maxwell–Faraday equation (describing transformer emf) and the Lorentz force (describing motional emf). The integral form of the Maxwell–Faraday equation describes only the transformer emf, while the equation of Faraday's law describes both the transformer emf and the motional emf.

History

Electromagnetic induction was discovered independently by Michael Faraday in 1831 and Joseph Henry in 1832. Faraday was the first to publish the results of his experiments. In Faraday's first experimental demonstration of electromagnetic induction (August 29, 1831), he wrapped two wires around opposite sides of an iron ring (torus) (an arrangement similar to a modern toroidal transformer). Based on his assessment of recently discovered properties of electromagnets, he expected that when current started to flow in one wire, a sort of wave would travel through the ring and cause some electrical effect on the opposite side. He plugged one wire into a galvanometer, and watched it as he connected the other wire to a battery. Indeed, he saw a transient current (which he called a "wave of electricity") when he connected the wire to the battery, and another when he disconnected it.  This induction was due to the change in magnetic flux that occurred when the battery was connected and disconnected. Within two months, Faraday had found several other manifestations of electromagnetic induction. For example, he saw transient currents when he quickly slid a bar magnet in and out of a coil of wires, and he generated a steady (DC) current by rotating a copper disk near the bar magnet with a sliding electrical lead ("Faraday's disk").

Michael Faraday explained electromagnetic induction using a concept he called lines of force. However, scientists at the time widely rejected his theoretical ideas, mainly because they were not formulated mathematically.  An exception was James Clerk Maxwell, who in 1861–62 used Faraday's ideas as the basis of his quantitative electromagnetic theory. In Maxwell's papers, the time-varying aspect of electromagnetic induction is expressed as a differential equation which Oliver Heaviside referred to as Faraday's law even though it is different from the original version of Faraday's law, and does not describe motional emf. Heaviside's version is the form recognized today in the group of equations known as Maxwell's equations.

Lenz's law, formulated by Emil Lenz in 1834, describes "flux through the circuit", and gives the direction of the induced emf and current resulting from electromagnetic induction.

Faraday's law

Alternating electric current flows through the solenoid on the left, producing a changing magnetic field. This field causes, by electromagnetic induction, an electric current to flow in the wire loop on the right.

The most widespread version of Faraday's law states:

The electromotive force around a closed path is equal to the negative of the time rate of change of the magnetic flux enclosed by the path.


It appears to me that if one wants to make progress in mathematics, one should study the masters and not the pupils. - Niels Henrik Abel.

Nothing is better than reading and gaining more and more knowledge - Stephen William Hawking.

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#21 2022-05-18 00:58:51

Jai Ganesh
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Re: Important Laws/Principles in Physics

14) Archimedes' principle

Archimedes' principle states that the upward buoyant force that is exerted on a body immersed in a fluid, whether fully or partially, is equal to the weight of the fluid that the body displaces. Archimedes' principle is a law of physics fundamental to fluid mechanics. It was formulated by Archimedes of Syracuse.

Explanation

In On Floating Bodies, Archimedes suggested that (c. 246 BC):

Any object, totally or partially immersed in a fluid or liquid, is buoyed up by a force equal to the weight of the fluid displaced by the object.

Archimedes' principle allows the buoyancy of any floating object partially or fully immersed in a fluid to be calculated. The downward force on the object is simply its weight. The upward, or buoyant, force on the object is that stated by Archimedes' principle, above. Thus, the net force on the object is the difference between the magnitudes of the buoyant force and its weight. If this net force is positive, the object rises; if negative, the object sinks; and if zero, the object is neutrally buoyant—that is, it remains in place without either rising or sinking. In simple words, Archimedes' principle states that, when a body is partially or completely immersed in a fluid, it experiences an apparent loss in weight that is equal to the weight of the fluid displaced by the immersed part of the body(s).

Formula

A floating object's weight Fp and its buoyancy Fa (Fb in the text) must be equal in size.
Consider a cuboid immersed in a fluid, its top and bottom faces orthogonal to the direction of gravity (assumed constant across the cube's stretch). The fluid will exert a normal force on each face, but only the normal forces on top and bottom will contribute to buoyancy. The pressure difference between the bottom and the top face is directly proportional to the height (difference in depth of submersion). Multiplying the pressure difference by the area of a face gives a net force on the cuboid  —  the buoyancy  —  equaling in size the weight of the fluid displaced by the cuboid. By summing up sufficiently many arbitrarily small cuboids this reasoning may be extended to irregular shapes, and so, whatever the shape of the submerged body, the buoyant force is equal to the weight of the displaced fluid.

The weight of the displaced fluid is directly proportional to the volume of the displaced fluid (if the surrounding fluid is of uniform density). The weight of the object in the fluid is reduced, because of the force acting on it, which is called upthrust.


It appears to me that if one wants to make progress in mathematics, one should study the masters and not the pupils. - Niels Henrik Abel.

Nothing is better than reading and gaining more and more knowledge - Stephen William Hawking.

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#22 2022-05-23 00:10:25

Jai Ganesh
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Re: Important Laws/Principles in Physics

15) Hooke's law

In physics, Hooke's law is an empirical law which states that the force (F) needed to extend or compress a spring by some distance (x) scales linearly with respect to that distance—that is,

where k is a constant factor characteristic of the spring (i.e., its stiffness), and x is small compared to the total possible deformation of the spring. The law is named after 17th-century British physicist Robert Hooke. He first stated the law in 1676 as a Latin anagram. He published the solution of his anagram in 1678 as: ut tensio, sic vis ("as the extension, so the force" or "the extension is proportional to the force"). Hooke states in the 1678 work that he was aware of the law since 1660.

Hooke's equation holds (to some extent) in many other situations where an elastic body is deformed, such as wind blowing on a tall building, and a musician plucking a string of a guitar. An elastic body or material for which this equation can be assumed is said to be linear-elastic or Hookean.

Hooke's law is only a first-order linear approximation to the real response of springs and other elastic bodies to applied forces. It must eventually fail once the forces exceed some limit, since no material can be compressed beyond a certain minimum size, or stretched beyond a maximum size, without some permanent deformation or change of state. Many materials will noticeably deviate from Hooke's law well before those elastic limits are reached.

On the other hand, Hooke's law is an accurate approximation for most solid bodies, as long as the forces and deformations are small enough. For this reason, Hooke's law is extensively used in all branches of science and engineering, and is the foundation of many disciplines such as seismology, molecular mechanics and acoustics. It is also the fundamental principle behind the spring scale, the manometer, the galvanometer, and the balance wheel of the mechanical clock.

The modern theory of elasticity generalizes Hooke's law to say that the strain (deformation) of an elastic object or material is proportional to the stress applied to it. However, since general stresses and strains may have multiple independent components, the "proportionality factor" may no longer be just a single real number, but rather a linear map (a tensor) that can be represented by a matrix of real numbers.

In this general form, Hooke's law makes it possible to deduce the relation between strain and stress for complex objects in terms of intrinsic properties of the materials it is made of. For example, one can deduce that a homogeneous rod with uniform cross section will behave like a simple spring when stretched, with a stiffness k directly proportional to its cross-section area and inversely proportional to its length.


It appears to me that if one wants to make progress in mathematics, one should study the masters and not the pupils. - Niels Henrik Abel.

Nothing is better than reading and gaining more and more knowledge - Stephen William Hawking.

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#23 2022-05-25 01:49:04

Jai Ganesh
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Re: Important Laws/Principles in Physics

16) 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 amount of substance of gas present. The law is a specific case of the ideal gas law. A modern statement is:

Avogadro's law states that "equal volumes of all gases, at the same temperature and pressure, have the same number of molecules."

For a given mass of an ideal gas, the volume and amount (moles) of the gas are directly proportional if the temperature and pressure are constant.

The law is named after Amedeo Avogadro who, in 1812, hypothesized that two given samples of an ideal gas, of the same volume and at the same temperature and pressure, contain the same number of molecules. As an example, equal volumes of gaseous hydrogen and nitrogen contain the same number of atoms when they are at the same temperature and pressure, and observe ideal gas behavior. In practice, real gases show small deviations from the ideal behavior and the law holds only approximately, but is still a useful approximation for scientists.

Mathematical definition

The law can be written as:

or

where

V is the volume of the gas;
n is the amount of substance of the gas (measured in moles);
k is a constant for a given temperature and pressure.

This law describes how, under the same condition of temperature and pressure, equal volumes of all gases contain the same number of molecules. For comparing the same substance under two different sets of conditions, the law can be usefully expressed as follows:

The equation shows that, as the number of moles of gas increases, the volume of the gas also increases in proportion. Similarly, if the number of moles of gas is decreased, then the volume also decreases. Thus, the number of molecules or atoms in a specific volume of ideal gas is independent of their size or the molar mass of the gas.

Derivation from the ideal gas law

The derivation of Avogadro's law follows directly from the ideal gas law, i.e.

where R is the gas constant, T is the Kelvin temperature, and P is the pressure (in pascals).

Solving for V/n, we thus obtain

Compare that to

which is a constant for a fixed pressure and a fixed temperature.

An equivalent formulation of the ideal gas law can be written using Boltzmann constant kB, as

where N is the number of particles in the gas, and the ratio of R over kB is equal to the Avogadro constant.

In this form, for V/N is a constant, we have

If T and P are taken at standard conditions for temperature and pressure (STP), then

, where
is the Loschmidt constant.


It appears to me that if one wants to make progress in mathematics, one should study the masters and not the pupils. - Niels Henrik Abel.

Nothing is better than reading and gaining more and more knowledge - Stephen William Hawking.

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#24 2022-06-07 20:01:44

Jai Ganesh
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Re: Important Laws/Principles in Physics

17) Hess's Law

Hess's law of constant heat summation, also known simply as Hess' law, is a relationship in physical chemistry named after Germain Hess, a Swiss-born Russian chemist and physician who published it in 1840. The law states that the total enthalpy change during the complete course of a chemical reaction is independent of the sequence of steps taken.

Hess's law is now understood as an expression of the fact that the enthalpy of a chemical process is independent of the path taken from the initial to the final state (i.e. enthalpy is a state function). According to the first law of thermodynamics, the enthalpy change in a system due to a reaction at constant pressure is equal to the heat absorbed (or the negative of the heat released), which can be determined by calorimetry for many reactions. The values are usually stated for reactions with the same initial and final temperatures and pressures (while conditions are allowed to vary during the course of the reactions). Hess's law can be used to determine the overall energy required for a chemical reaction that can be divided into synthetic steps that are individually easier to characterize. This affords the compilation of standard enthalpies of formation, which may be used to predict the enthalpy change in complex syntheses.

Theory

Hess's law states that the change of enthalpy in a chemical reaction is the same regardless of whether the reaction takes place in one step or several steps, provided the initial and final states of the reactants and products are the same. Enthalpy is an extensive property, meaning that its value is proportional to the system size. Because of this, the enthalpy change is proportional to the number of moles participating in a given reaction.

In other words, if a chemical change takes place by several different routes, the overall enthalpy change is the same, regardless of the route by which the chemical change occurs (provided the initial and final condition are the same). If this were not true, then one could violate the first law of thermodynamics.


It appears to me that if one wants to make progress in mathematics, one should study the masters and not the pupils. - Niels Henrik Abel.

Nothing is better than reading and gaining more and more knowledge - Stephen William Hawking.

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#25 2022-06-11 15:15:24

Jai Ganesh
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Re: Important Laws/Principles in Physics

17) Quantitative electrolysis and Faraday's laws

Quantitative aspects of electrolysis were originally developed by Michael Faraday in 1834. Faraday is also credited to have coined the terms electrolyte, electrolysis, among many others while he studied quantitative analysis of electrochemical reactions. Also he was an advocate of the law of conservation of energy.

First law

Faraday concluded after several experiments on electric current in a non-spontaneous process that the mass of the products yielded on the electrodes was proportional to the value of current supplied to the cell, the length of time the current existed, and the molar mass of the substance analyzed. In other words, the amount of a substance deposited on each electrode of an electrolytic cell is directly proportional to the quantity of electricity passed through the cell.

Below is a simplified equation of Faraday's first law:

where

m is the mass of the substance produced at the electrode (in grams),
Q is the total electric charge that passed through the solution (in coulombs),
n is the valence number of the substance as an ion in solution (electrons per ion),
M is the molar mass of the substance (in grams per mole).

Second law

Faraday devised the laws of chemical electrodeposition of metals from solutions in 1857. He formulated the second law of electrolysis stating "the amounts of bodies which are equivalent to each other in their ordinary chemical action have equal quantities of electricity naturally associated with them." In other words, the quantities of different elements deposited by a given amount of electricity are in the ratio of their chemical equivalent weights.

An important aspect of the second law of electrolysis is electroplating, which together with the first law of electrolysis has a significant number of applications in industry, as when used to protectively coat metals to avoid corrosion.

Applications

There are various extremely important electrochemical processes in both nature and industry, like the coating of objects with metals or metal oxides through electrodeposition, the addition (electroplating) or removal (electropolishing) of thin layers of metal from an object's surface, and the detection of alcohol in drunk drivers through the redox reaction of ethanol. The generation of chemical energy through photosynthesis is inherently an electrochemical process, as is production of metals like aluminum and titanium from their ores. Certain diabetes blood sugar meters measure the amount of glucose in the blood through its redox potential. In addition to established electrochemical technologies (like deep cycle lead acid batteries) there is also a wide range of new emerging technologies such as fuel cells, large format lithium-ion batteries, electrochemical reactors and super-capacitors that are becoming increasingly commercial. Electrochemistry also has important applications in the food industry, like the assessment of food/package interactions, the analysis of milk composition, the characterization and the determination of the freezing end-point of ice-cream mixes, or the determination of free acidity in olive oil.


It appears to me that if one wants to make progress in mathematics, one should study the masters and not the pupils. - Niels Henrik Abel.

Nothing is better than reading and gaining more and more knowledge - Stephen William Hawking.

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