Commonly Used Terms

  • acceleration: The rate of increase of speed or velocity.
  • accuracy: Closeness of a measurement to the standard value of that quantity.
  • amplitude: In any periodic motion, the maximum displacement from equilibrium.
  • angular: Measured by an angle.
  • attraction: A force acting mutually between particles of matter, tending to draw them together, and resisting their separation.
  • axis: A straight line with respect to which a body or figure is symmetrical or one of the reference lines of a coordinate system.
  • balance: Physical equilibrium, simplest form produced by even distribution of weight on each side of the vertical axis.
  • calculus: A branch of mathematics that includes rates of change and finding lengths, areas, and volumes (differential and integral calculus).
  • charged: Object that has an imbalance of positive and negative electrical charges.
  • circular: Shaped like a circle or relating to a circle or its mathematical properties.
  • collision: An encounter between objects resulting in exchange or transformation of energy.
  • component: Any one of the vector terms added to form a vector or resultant.
  • conductor: Material that allows charged particles or heat to move through it.
  • conservation: The preservation of a physical quantity during transformations or reactions.
  • constant: Not changing; uniform.
  • damping: To diminish the vibration or oscillation of something (such as a string or a voltage).
  • distance: Scalar measure of the interval between two locations measured along the actual path connecting them.
  • displacement: Vector measure of the interval between two locations measured along the shortest path connecting them.
  • electricity: Any phenomenon associated with stationary or moving electrons, ions, or other charged particles.
  • electromagnetic: Type of physical interaction that occurs between electrically charged particles.
  • electron: A stable elementary particle present in all atoms, orbiting the nucleus in numbers equal to the atomic number of the element.
  • energy: The ability to do work.
  • equation: A statement that the values of two mathematical expressions are equal.
  • equilibrium: A state in which opposing forces or influences are balanced.
  • experiment: A scientific procedure undertaken to make a discovery, test a hypothesis, or demonstrate a known fact.
  • force: That which causes a change in the velocity of an object. The magnitude of the force is equal to the product of the mass of the body and its acceleration.
  • friction: Force which opposes motion between two objects in contact.
  • gravity: The force that attracts a body toward the center of the earth, or toward any other physical body having mass.
  • half-life: The time required for any specified property (e.g., the concentration of a substance in the body) to decrease by half.
  • impulse: A force acting briefly on a body and producing a finite change of momentum.
  • inertia: A property of matter by which it continues in its existing state of rest or uniform motion in a straight line, unless that state is changed by an external force.
  • inverse: A reciprocal quantity, mathematical expression, geometric figure, etc., that is the result of inversion.
  • joule: Unit of work or energy in the International System of Units (SI); the work done when the point of application of a force of 1 newton is displaced through a distance of 1 meter in the direction of the force.
  • kinetic energy: The energy of motion of a body, equal to the work it would do if brought to rest.
  • magnetism: One aspect of the combined electromagnetic force. It refers to physical phenomena arising from the force caused by magnets, objects that produce fields that attract or repel other objects.
  • mass: The quantity of matter in an object.
  • matter: Substance that occupies space and has mass.
  • measure: To find out the size, amount, or degree of something by using an instrument or device marked in standard units or by comparing it with an object of known size.
  • mechanics: Area of science concerned with the behavior of physical bodies under forces or displacements, and the subsequent effects of the bodies on their environment.
  • potential energy: The energy of a body or system as a result of its position in an electric, magnetic, or gravitational field.
  • projectile: An object propelled through the air.
  • proportion: Ratio; relationship of one thing to another in terms of quantity, size, or number. 
  • qualitative: Relating to, measuring, or measured by the quality of something (not quantity)..
  • quantitative: Relating to, measuring, or measured by the quantity of something.
  • resistance: The opposition to a flow of electric current through a circuit component, medium, or substance. Magnitude of the real part of the impedance, measured in ohms.
  • rotation: Motion around an axis.
  • scalar: Having only magnitude, not direction.
  • temperature: Measure of the average kinetic energy of the particles in a system.
  • tension: A force that tends to produce an elongation of a body or structure.
  • torque: A measure of how much a force acting on an object causes that object to rotate.
  • trajectory: Path that an object with mass in motion follows through space as a function of time.
  • uncertainty: Parameter, associated with the result of a measurement, that characterizes the dispersion of the values that could reasonably be attributed to the measurement.
  • vector: Quantity that has both magnitude and direction.
  • velocity: The speed at which something moves in a particular direction.
  • voltage: An electromotive force or potential difference expressed in volts.
  • wave: A disturbance of a field in which a physical attribute oscillates repeatedly at each point or propagates from each point to neighboring points, or seems to move through space.
  • weight: The force of gravity on an object, defined as mass times acceleration of gravity (w = mg).