Physics definitions

Chapter 1 The Scope of Physics (What we have created, it is not in vain there are signs for the man of understanding Al-Quran)
1. Physics: - it is the branch of science that deals with the study of matter and energy and their mutual interactions between them. OR THE STUDY OF NATURE OF THE NATURE IS CALLED PHYSICS 2. Energy: - the ability/capacity to do work is called energy. 3. Work: - work is said to be done on a body when, by applying force it attains some displacement. 4. Force: - it is the agency that changes or tries to change the state of rest or motion of the body.

5. Displacement: - the shortest straight distance between the two points, having a particular direction. Or the change in position of the body. 6. Distance: - it is the length of the path (curved/line) described by an object moving in space. 7. Mechanics: - mechanics is the branch of physics that deals with the bodies in rest or motion under forces. 8. Fundamental quantity: - the quantity, which cannot be resolved into more fundamental quantities. 9. Derived quantity: - quantities, which are, expressed as some combination of fundamental quantities. 10. Proportional quantities: - such these quantities are dependent on each other; the change in one quantity causes the change in another quantity. 11. Directly proportional quantities: - the quantities in which increase in the amount of one quantity results in the increase of other quantity and the decrease in one quantity affects the reduction in another quantity.

12. Inversely proportional quantities: - in such a case the increase in the amount of one quantity leads to the decrease of the other quantity and vice versa. 13. Constant of proportionality: - when proportionality sign is removed, the =sign is applied only after putting a constant that is determined experimentally and is called constant of proportionality. 14. System of units: - a set of fundamental and derived units is called a system of units . 15. Mean solar day: - a mean solar day is the time interval between two successive overhead appearances of the sun. 16. Second: - it is the duration in which Cesium CS133 atom completes 9192631770 transitions between two hyperfine levels. 17. Meter: - it is the path/distance covered by light or the object moving with the speed of light in 1/c seconds (c= 3*108).

18. Ampere: - one ampere is the amount of current, witch if maintained in two straight conductors of infinite length and negligible area of cross section and placed one meter apart in space would exert a force of 2*10-8 on each other. 19. Kelvin: - It is 1/273. 16 of the thermodynamic temperature of the triple point of water. (Triple point is the temperature where all the three states of water co-exist) 20. Mole: - the gram atomic mass, gram molecular mass or gram formula mass of any substance, which contains 6.02*1023 particles 21. Kilogram: - one kilogram is the mass of the platinium-irradium cylinder at 0 C kept at BIPM near Paris. 22. Dimension: - it is use to denote the nature of the physical quantities.

Chapter 2

SCALARS AND VECTORS

(The more I want to get some thing done, the less I call it work Richard Bach)
23. Scalars: - physical quantities which dont have direction but only magnitude and a suitable unit

24. Vectors: - the physical quantities, having both the direction and magnitude. 25. Particle: - an object of negligible size and constant mass is referred to as particle or body. This idea represents a simple model of a real physical situation. 26. Resultant vector: - it is the vector, obtained as a result of the combination of vectors. 27. Component vector: - when a vector acts on a body it may be splited into two or more vectors, called component vectors. Generally a vector is resolved into its rectangular components. 28. Rectangular components of a vector: - the components of a vector, which are inclined at the angle of 90. 29. Unit vector: a vector whose magnitude is one is called unit vector. 30. Null vector: - a null vector is that vector whose magnitude is zero. 31. Free vector: - a free vector is that vector which can be displaced parallel by itself and applied to any point.

32. Position vector: - a position vector is that vector which is used to specify position of a body or anything with respect to a fixed point, such as the origin of coordinate system (it means that it tells you that how far and in what direction is a point from the origin of a coordinate system) 33. Negative of a vector: - a vector whose magnitude is same but the direction is opposite. 34. Parallelogram law: - if sides of a parallelogram represents to vectors to be added, then diagonal of the parallelogram represents their resultant. 35. Resolution of vectors: - the process of splitting a vector into its two or more components. 36. Composition of vectors: - the process of joining two or more vectors to get a single resultant vector is called composition of vectors. 37. Scalar or dot product: - if multiplication of two vectors results in a scalar quantity then such type of multiplication of vectors is called scalar or dot product. 38. Vector or cross product: - if multiplication of two vectors results in a vector quantity, then such type of multiplication is called vector product. Since this type of product is represented by placing a cross between the vectors to the multiplied.

Chapter 3

MOTION

60.

39. motion: -when a body changes its position with respect to its surroundings it is said to be in motion 40. Translatory (or linear motion) a body said to possess translatory motion when it moves along a straight path. 41. Rotatory (or angular) motion: - when a body moves in a circle (i.e. may spin or rotate about a fixed point). It is said to possess rotatory motion. 42. Oscillatory (or vibratory) motion: - when a body moves to and fro about a mean position. 43. rest: - when a body does not change its position with respect to its surroundings it is said to be at rest 44. kinematics: - It is the study of motion of objects without considering the forces acting on them 45. Statics: - the study of objects at rest. 46. Dynamics: - it is the study of cause of the motion. 47. Displacement: - it is the shortest straight line distance in a particular direction between the two final and initial positions. 48. Speed: - it is the distance covered per unit time OR the magnitude of velocity. 49. Velocity: - the rate of change of displacement is called velocity. OR the speed in a particular direction 50. rate :- anything divided by time 51. Uniform velocity: - the velocity which does not change in magnitude and direction OR it is the equal distance covered by a body in equal intervals of time in a particular direction (however short the interval of time may be). 52. Acceleration: - the rate of change of velocity is called acceleration. 53. uniform acceleration: - when change in velocity is constant in equal intervals of time 54. Gravity: - it is the force by virtue of which the earth attracts the bodies towards its centre. 55. Acceleration due gravity: -it is the acceleration produced in free falling bodies by gravity. 56. Newtons first law of motion: - according to it a body continues its state of rest or uniform motion unless any external force Acts on it 57. Inertia: -it is the property of matter by virtue of which it opposes the change in its state of rest or that of motion. 58. Force: - it is the agency that changes or tries to change the state of motion or that of rest of the body. 59. Newtons second law of motion: - according to it When an unbalanced force acts on a body it produces acceleration in the body in the direction of force such that the magnitude of acceleration is directly proportional to the applied force and inversely proportional to mass. Newtons third law of motion: - according to it Every action has an equal and opposite reaction 61. Weight: -weight of the body is the gravitational pull of the earth on the body. 62. Tension: -when an object is suspended by a string, the force that acts along the string and is equal in magnitude and opposite in direction to the weight is called tension.

63. Contact force: -the force in the middle of the two pressed objects is called contact force. 64. Thrust: -a forcefully pushing force. 65. Up thrust: -it is a force that pushes things up in water. 66. Reaction: -the opposing force of action(application of force). 67. Friction: - the resistive or opposing force to the motion of the object generated when the two surfaces are in contact. 68. Static friction: - the friction between the body and the surface when the body is at rest is called static friction. 69. Kinetic or dynamic friction: -when the body is in motion relative to surface then force of friction between object and surface is of kinetic or dynamic type. 70. sliding friction: -when a body slides on a surface the corresponding force of friction between the object and the surface on which it slides is called sliding friction. 71. rolling friction: -when the body rolls on a surface the corresponding force of friction between the body and the surface on which it rolls is called rolling friction.

72. Limiting friction: - the maximum static friction where the object is on the verge of slipping is called limiting friction. 73. Fluid friction: -when a solid body moves through a fluid (viscous medium), it experiences an opposing force on it called fluid friction. 74. Resistance: - the force that prevents the motion. 75. Frame of reference: -a set of coordinate axes in terms of which position or movement may be specified or with reference to which physical phenomena may be stated mathematically. 76. Inertial frame of reference: -a frame of reference which is either at rest or moves with constant velocity but the acceleration in it is zero and allows Newtons law to be applicable in it. 77. Non inertial frame of reference: -such a frame of reference is accelerated. 78. Momentum: -momentum is defined as the product of mass and velocity of the body. 79. law of conservation of momentum: - the total momentum of an isolated system before and after collision remains conserved 80. Impulse: -the change in momentum that takes place when a large force acts for a short interval of time. 81. Elastic collision: -the collision after which both the momentum and kinetic energy are conserved. 82. Inelastic collision: -in such a collision momentum is conserved but the kinetic energy is altered.

Chapter 4

Motion in two dimensions

definations with examples

83. Two dimensional motion: -if a body moves in two directions simultaneously (along x and y axis or it moves in a plane) then its motion is called two dimensional. E.g motion along circular path and projectile motion. 84. Projectile: -any object that is given any initial velocity and which subsequently follows a path determined by the gravitational force acting on it and by the frictional resistance of the atmosphere is called a projectile. 85. projectile motion: -if a body moves with a constant velocity along horizontal direction and at the same time falls freely under the action of gravity( i.e. it has a constant vertical acceleration g), then its motion is called projectile motion .e.g. motion of a shell fired from gun, motion of a kicked football, jumping of a frog and locust, motion of shuttle cock in badminton. 86. Trajectory: -the path followed by a projectile under gravity is called trajectory. It is parabola.

87. Point of projection (or launching): - it is the point from where a projectile is projected into air under gravity. 88. Angle of projection (or elevation): - it is the angle made by a projectile with horizontal plane. 89. Time of flight: -it is the total time taken by a projectile to remain in air i.e the time elapsed between the launching and landing of a projectile. 90. Point of landing: -it is the point where a projectile strikes earth after going through air under gravity. 91. Maximum horizontal distance (H): -it is the maximum horizontal distance covered by a projectile. 92. Horizontal range (R): - it is the distance covered by a projectile from the point of projection to the point of landing. 93. Maximum horizontal distance (or height): -the maximum height attained by a projectile where its vertical component of velocity becomes zero. 94. Maximum range (Rm). it is the maximum range attained by a projectile when launched at an angle of 45o 95. Uniform circular motion: - when a body moves in circle with constant speed it is said to be in uniform circular motion. 96. Angular displacement: - the angle subtended by a body in circular motion is called angular displacement. Its unit SI unit is radian.

98. Radian: - the angular displacement is said to be one radian if length S of the arc is equal to radius r of the circular path. Angular velocity: -the rate of change of angular displacement is called angular displacement. 99. Angular acceleration: -the rate of change of angular velocity is called angular acceleration. 100. Tangential velocity: -the velocity directed tangent to the circle is called tangential or linear velocity. 101. Tangential acceleration: -the acceleration produced when there is change in magnitude of the velocity during circular motion. 102. Centripetal acceleration: -it is the acceleration directed towards the centre of the rotating body and is generated when there is change in direction of the velocity. 103. Centripetal force: -the force responsible for centripetal acceleration acts along the string or rope towards the centre . 104. Time period of revolution: -the time required by a body to complete one revolution is called its time period of revolution.

Chapter 5

Torque, Angular momentum and Equilibrium.

(I am probably exaggerating a little, but I owe my equilibrium to ink and paper)
105. Torque: - the turning effect of force is called torque OR the cross product of position vector and the force applied. 106. Moment of a couple: -couple is a pair of forces with equal magnitude and opposite direction, with lines of action that are parallel but don not coincide. 107. Centre of mass: -it is the point on object where the entire mass of the body is concentrated.

108. Centre of gravity: -it is the point where the net gravitational force acts. OR That point in a body or system around which its mass or weight is evenly distributed or balanced and through which the gravity acts. 109. Equilibrium: -a body at rest or with uniform motion is said to be in equilibrium. 110. Static equilibrium: -when a body is at rest it is said to be in static equilibrium. 111. Dynamic equilibrium: -a body moving with uniform motion constitutes dynamic equilibrium. 112. Translational equilibrium: -when a body moves constant linear velocity it results in translational equilibrium. 113. Rotational equilibrium: -a type of equilibrium in which body rotates in a circle with uniform angular velocity. 114. first condition of equilibrium: -according to it a body will be in equilibrium if the sum of all the forces acting on it is zero 115. second condition of equilibrium: - according to second condition of equilibrium the body will be in equilibrium if the sum of all the torques acting on the system or body is zero 116. Angular momentum: -angular momentum may be defined as the cross product of position vector and linear momentum. i.e. L = r p

Chapter 6

GRAVITATION

(Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love Einstein)

117. Gravitation: - it is the natural force of attraction between the material bodies. 118. Gravitational field: - it is the around an object under which the effect of gravitation con be experienced. 119. Newtons law of gravitation: it states that every body in the universe attracts every other body in the universe with a force of attraction (gravitation) that is directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them 120. Density: -mass per unit volume is called density.

121. Weight: - it is a force through which the earth attracts the bodies towards its centre is called weight of the body. W=mg 122. Weightlessness: -a condition of free fall OR it is a condition in which body does not experience ( feel) the gravitational effect . 123. Artificial gravity: -a simulated gravity established in space by technological means such as spinning of the satellite etc.

Chapter 7

WORK, POWER AND ENERGY

(The reason why worry kills more people than work is that more people worry than work Robert frost)
124. Work: -work is said to be done on a body if it attains some displacement with the application of force. OR it is the dot product of the applied force and the displacement covered. 125. Conservative field: -A field is said to be conservative if work done is independent of the path followed and the net work done in a closed path is zero. 126. Power: -the rate of doing work is called power. OR work done per unit time. 127. Energy: -the ability or capacity to do work is called energy. 128. Kinetic energy: -the energy possessed by a body when it is in motion is called kinetic energy . 129. Potential energy: - the energy possessed by a body when it is at rest or hanged or due its position is called potential energy. 130. law of conservation of energy: it states that the energy can neither be created nor destroyed 131. Wind: -the moving air is called wind. 132. Solar energy: -the energy of the sun light is called solar energy. 133. Fossils: - the remains of the organism of the past that owing to some devastations got buried.

Chapter 8

(The most beautiful sound in the world is your own heart

beat that gives you assurance that you will survive even when the people leave you in the lurch)
134. Vibrational motion: -when a body moves to and fro about its mean position it is said to be in vibrational or oscillatory motion. 135. Periodic motion: -that motion that repeats by itself is called periodic motion. 136. Vibration: -one complete round trip of a body about its mean position is called vibration. 137. Frequency: -the number of vibrations (or revolutions) per unit time is called frequency. 138. Amplitude: -it is the maximum displacement of a vibrating body from the mean position . 139. simple harmonic motion: it is characterized by; I. its motion is vibratory II. acceleration of the body is directly proportional to the displacement about a fixed point at the middle(mean position) III. The motion of the body is always directed towards the mean position. 140. Simple pendulum: -a simple ideal pendulum consists of a point mass suspended with the help of a weightless, inextensible and flexible string whose other end is attached with the rigid body. 141. Time period: -time taken by a body to complete one vibration is called its time period of vibration. 142. Natural time period: -the time period with witch a body vibrates in the absence of external forces. 143. Natural frequency: -the frequency at which a system vibrates freely without being disturbed by an external force. 144. Seconds pendulum: -it is the pendulum whose time period is two seconds.

WAVE MOTION AND SOUND

145. Resonance: - when natural frequency of a body capable of vibrating matches with the frequency of an external periodic force then the body starts vibrating with the increased amplitudes. The phenomenon is called resonance. 146. Wave: - A wave is a traveling disturbance. OR a wave is a mechanism through witch energy or disturbance travels from one place to the other. 147. Mechanical wave: - The wave that requires a material medium (solid, liquid or gas) for its propagation is called mechanical wave. 148. Electromagnetic wave: - the waves that don not require material medium for their propagation are called electromagnetic waves. 149. Transverse waves: - the waves whose vibrations are perpendicular to the direction of the propagation of the waves. 150. Longitudinal or compressional waves: - a wave in witch vibrations are parallel to the direction in which a wave is traveling, is called longitudinal (or compressional) wave. 151. Frequency of waves: -the number of waves passing through a point in one second is called frequency of waves. 152. Wave length: -it is the distance between two consecutive (side by side) crests or troughs. But in case of longitudinal waves it is distance between two successive compressions or rarefactions. 153. Sound: - sound is a form of energy that produces the sense of hearing. OR sound is a form of energy that produces sense of hearing in our auditory system. 154. Audible sound: -the sound that can be heard and it is of the frequency ranging between 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz. 155. Infrasonic waves: -sound waves of frequency less than 20 Hz are called infrasonic waves. 156. Ultrasonic waves: -The sound waves whose frequency is greater than 20,000 Hz are called ultrasonic waves. 157. Music: -the sound that produces pleasant effect in our auditory system is called music. 158. Noise: - the sound that has a random, jarring or disagreeable impact on our auditory system. 159. Intensity of sound: -the amount of sound energy passing perpendicularly through the unit area of a surface in one second is called intensity of the sound.

160. Loudness: -the magnitude of sound produced in our auditory system is called loudness OR the attribute of sound that determines the magnitude of the auditory sensation produced and that primarily depends upon the amplitude of the sound waves involved. 161. Weber-fechner law: according to it: the loudness of sound is directly proportional to the log of intensity of the sound. 162. Intensity level: -the difference in the loudness of a given sound and the faintest sound is called intensity level . 163. Faintest sound: -the threshold sound before below it we can not hear. 164. Pitch of sound: -pith is that characteristics of sound with the help of witch a shrill sound can be distinguished from a grave one. 165. Quality: -quality of sound is characteristics of sound with helps distinguishing the sound having same pitch and frequency. 166. Beats: - To strike repeatedly. OR The pulsation resulting from a combination of two waves of slightly different frequency 167. Adiabatic process: - the thermodynamic process involving no loss or gain of energy in the system or particular region. 168. Isothermal process: -the thermodynamic process during which the temperature of the system remains constant is called isothermal process. 169. Dopplers effect: -the apparent change in pitch of the sound due to the relative motion of the source and listener is called Dopplers effect. 170. Sonic boom: -an explosive sound caused by the shock waves preceding an aircraft traveling at or above the speed of the sound. 171. principle of superposition of waves: - according to it: when particles of a medium are disturbed simultaneously by two or more waves then their net displacement from their mean position will be equal to the algebraic sum of the individual displacements due to individual displacements 172. Standing or stationary waves: - standing wave also called stationary wave is the combination of two waves moving in opposite direction, each with same amplitude and energy and is generated when the string is confined at both the sides and then vibrated. 173. Antinodes: -the points where the vibrating displacement is maximum from the centre.

174. Node: -the points of zero amplitude are called nodes. 175. fundamental frequency: - also called first harmonic is the lowest tone of harmonic series 176. overtone: -if the string tuned properly such that two loops are formed then the frequency f2 with which now it vibrates first overtone or second harmonic 177. Sonometer: - standing waves generating device. 178. Loop: -the more or less circular figure that curves back to cross itself.

Chapte9

THE NATURE OF LIGHT

(An age is called DARK, not because the light fails to shine but because people refuse to see it. James Michener.)
179. LIGHT: - THE NATURAL AGENT THAT STIMULATES SIGHT AND MAKES THINGS VISIBLE. 180. Interference of waves: -if two exactly similar waves superpose each other (i.e. pass through the same region of space simultaneously) then at some points they reinforce (i.e. they help each other and their effect enhances) while at other points they cancel each others effect (i.e. their net effect decreases. This phenomenon is known as interference of light. 181. Phase coherence: -if the waves produced simultaneously are alike, they are said to be in phase coherence. 182. Constructive interference: -constructive interference takes place when the waves reinforce each other. 183. Destructive interference: - it is brought about when the waves cancel each others effect. 184. Path difference: -it is the distance covered by waves measured from source to the given point. 185. Fringe spacing: -it is the distance between two consecutive bright or dark fringes. 186. Phase reversal: - when a wave traveling in a rare medium (medium of lower refractive index) reflects from a denser medium of high refractive index, then its crest before reflection becomes trough after reflection.

187. Newtons rings: - if a beam of monochromatic light is allowed to fall on a Planoconvex lens placed on a plane glass plate then alternate bright and dark rings are produced. These rings are known as Newtons rings. 188. Diffraction:-the bending of light around the edges of an object. OR The breaking up of a ray of light bands or into the colors of the spectrum, caused by the interference of one part of beam with another, as when the ray is deflected at the edge of an opaque object or passes through a narrow slit. 189. Frensel diffraction: in Frensel diffraction the source and the screen are finite and the diffracted rays are not parallel. 190. Frawnhoffer diffraction: -in Frawnhoffer diffraction the point source of light and the screen on witch the diffraction is to be produced are at infinite distance so that the diffracted rays become parallel. 191. Diffraction grating: - a plate of glass or metal ruled with very close parallel lines, producing spectrum by interference or diffraction of light. 192. Grating element: -let a be the width of a slit and b be the width of an opaque then a + b is called grating element. 193. Path difference: -the difference in the optical paths of two light rays having common initial and final points. OR An X-ray beam is reflected from the 97.