Portal:Physics
Physics Portal Main Page | Physics Textbook | Wikiprojects and things to do |
The Physics Portal
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6f/Stylised_atom_with_three_Bohr_model_orbits_and_stylised_nucleus.svg/107px-Stylised_atom_with_three_Bohr_model_orbits_and_stylised_nucleus.svg.png)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6f/CMB_Timeline300_no_WMAP.jpg/400px-CMB_Timeline300_no_WMAP.jpg)
Physics is the natural science of matter, involving the study of matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. Physics is one of the most fundamental scientific disciplines. A scientist who specializes in the field of physics is called a physicist.
Physics is one of the oldest academic disciplines and, through its inclusion of astronomy, perhaps the oldest. Over much of the past two millennia, physics, chemistry, biology, and certain branches of mathematics were a part of natural philosophy, but during the Scientific Revolution in the 17th century, these natural sciences branched into separate research endeavors. Physics intersects with many interdisciplinary areas of research, such as biophysics and quantum chemistry, and the boundaries of physics are not rigidly defined. New ideas in physics often explain the fundamental mechanisms studied by other sciences and suggest new avenues of research in these and other academic disciplines such as mathematics and philosophy.
Advances in physics often enable new technologies. For example, advances in the understanding of electromagnetism, solid-state physics, and nuclear physics led directly to the development of new products that have dramatically transformed modern-day society, such as television, computers, domestic appliances, and nuclear weapons; advances in thermodynamics led to the development of industrialization; and advances in mechanics inspired the development of calculus. (Full article...)
![A man stands in front of a C-shaped object twice his size.](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/db/Alpha_calutron_tank.jpg/220px-Alpha_calutron_tank.jpg)
A calutron is a mass spectrometer originally designed and used for separating the isotopes of uranium. It was developed by Ernest Lawrence during the Manhattan Project and was based on his earlier invention, the cyclotron. Its name was derived from California University Cyclotron, in tribute to Lawrence's institution, the University of California, where it was invented. Calutrons were used in the industrial-scale Y-12 uranium enrichment plant at the Clinton Engineer Works in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The enriched uranium produced was used in the Little Boy atomic bomb that was detonated over Hiroshima on 6 August 1945.
The calutron is a type of sector mass spectrometer, an instrument in which a sample is ionized and then accelerated by electric fields and deflected by magnetic fields. The ions ultimately collide with a plate and produce a measurable electric current. Since the ions of the different isotopes have the same electric charge but different masses, the heavier isotopes are deflected less by the magnetic field, causing the beam of particles to separate into several beams by mass, striking the plate at different locations. The mass of the ions can be calculated according to the strength of the field and the charge of the ions. During World War II, calutrons were developed to use this principle to obtain substantial quantities of high-purity uranium-235, by taking advantage of the small mass difference between uranium isotopes. (Full article...)Did you know -
![Albert Einstein's official portrait after receiving the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/50/Albert_Einstein_%28Nobel%29.png/125px-Albert_Einstein_%28Nobel%29.png)
- ...that while Albert Einstein is most famous for his Theory of Relativity, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for his explanation of the photoelectric effect?
- ...that gravitational tidal accelerations are the result of the curvature of spacetime?
- ...that the blue glow of the Cherenkov effect is due to electrons moving faster than the speed of light in water?
Selected image -
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2a/Pi-unrolled-720.gif/520px-Pi-unrolled-720.gif)
Related portals
September anniversaries
- 6 September 1809 - Sir George Cayley identifies the four aerodynamic forces
- 3 September 1821 - Faraday discovers electromagnetic rotation (the principle behind the electric motor).
- - September 1911 - The Sackur-Tetrode Equation is published in Annalen der Physik.
- 29 September 1904 - Nature publishes Wood's letter discrediting N-rays.
- 27 September 1905 - E=mc2 --- Annalen der Physik publishes the Mass–Energy equivalence
- 9 September 1934: The American Rocket Society (ARS) launched Rocket No. 4 to 400 feet.
- 17 September 1959 - The first powered X-15 flight.
- 9 September 1959 - The Atlas 10-D rocket is launched.
- 1 September 1974 - Pioneer 11 sends polar images of Jupiter.
- 20 September 1979 - The High Energy Astronomical Observatory (HEAO) 3 is launched.
- - September 1981 - Invention of the scanning tunneling microscope.
Births
- 22 September 1791 Michael Faraday (d.1867)
- 29 September 1901 Enrico Fermi
Deaths
- 5 September 1906 - Ludwig Boltzmann
- 7 September 1783 - Leonhard Euler
- 9 September 2003 - Edward Teller
General images
Categories
![Category puzzle](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/da/C_Puzzle.png/38px-C_Puzzle.png)
Fundamentals: Concepts in physics | Constants | Physical quantities | Units of measure | Mass | Length | Time | Space | Energy | Matter | Force | Gravity | Electricity | Magnetism | Waves
Basic physics: Mechanics | Electromagnetism | Statistical mechanics | Thermodynamics | Quantum mechanics | Theory of relativity | Optics | Acoustics
Specific fields: Acoustics | Astrophysics | Atomic physics | Molecular physics | Optical physics | Computational physics | Condensed matter physics | Nuclear physics | Particle physics | Plasma physics
Tools: Detectors | Interferometry | Measurement | Radiometry | Spectroscopy | Transducers
Background: Physicists | History of physics | Philosophy of physics | Physics education | Physics journals | Physics organizations
Other: Physics in fiction | Physics lists | Physics software | Physics stubs
Physics topics
Classical physics traditionally includes the fields of mechanics, optics, electricity, magnetism, acoustics and thermodynamics. The term Modern physics is normally used for fields which rely heavily on quantum theory, including quantum mechanics, atomic physics, nuclear physics, particle physics and condensed matter physics. General and special relativity are usually considered to be part of modern physics as well.
More recognized content
Associated Wikimedia
The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:
-
Commons
Free media repository -
Wikibooks
Free textbooks and manuals -
Wikidata
Free knowledge base -
Wikinews
Free-content news -
Wikiquote
Collection of quotations -
Wikisource
Free-content library -
Wikiversity
Free learning tools -
Wikivoyage
Free travel guide -
Wiktionary
Dictionary and thesaurus