Questions tagged [terminology]
Use this for questions relating to the proper use of physics terminology or nomenclature.
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What is the literal meaning of displacement current?
I think I know what the displacement current is.
But I don't know why they use the word "displacement" exactly.
What is the literal meaning of "displacement" of the displacement ...
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Adjectives regarding interfaces
I'm studying X-Ray reflectivity at interfaces and the book I'm reading reads:
... The ideally flat, but graded interface, and the ideally sharp, but roughened interface, will be considered...
I'm ...
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Help understanding quote on theory and knowledge in Gravitation (Misner, Wheeler, & Thorne, 2017)
I came across an interesting discussion at the start of chapter 3 of MWT Gravitation. It reads:
Here and elsewhere in science, as stressed not least by Henri Poincare, that view is out of date which ...
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Difference between Bravais lattice, point lattice and space lattice
I am good at crystallographic terminologies. Can somebody explain to me what is the difference between Bravais lattice, point lattice, and space lattice, if any?
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WKB method as a Semiclassical Approach
A naive question about WKB approach. It is dubbed to be a "semiclassical" method. What is precisely mean in quantum mechanical context to be "semiclassical"? Wikipedia states that ...
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Is Ansatz compared to Solution like Hypothesis compared to Theory?
I wonder how you would describe a correct use of the term "ansatz" in English physics literature? In German, "ein Ansatz" simply means "an approach". Could we say, in the ...
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Can someone explain 'virtual mass' in fluids in simple words (for a dummy/high schooler)?
so I recently came across the term 'virtual mass' and when I looked up more about it, it just gave me some stuff about fluid mechanics that I dont understand properly. My understanding of virtual mass ...
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Terminology: angular frequency vs frequency
I am confused about the usage of the terms frequency and angular frequency in physics texts. E.g. in the book "Classical Electrodynamics" of J.D. Jackson, one considers in formula (7.3) page ...
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What is altermagnetism?
Since 2022, I have come across several papers on Altermagnetism, a novel phase of matter that breaks time reversal, but without a net magnetization. It also has many other interesting properties.
What ...
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What is the difference between scale invariance and scale free?
A question several years ago asked, "What is the difference between scale invariance and self-similarity. It appears that a new term has become popular in recent years, which is "scale ...
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What is the difference between the strong force and the strong nuclear force?
Is there a difference between the strong nuclear force, and the strong force (without the nuclear in between)? I have heard that the strong nuclear force binds protons and neutrons together, while the ...
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Who said "Spinor is a square root of a vector"?
I'm trying to find out who said that "spinor is a square root of a vector". According to a source (Yu. B. Rumer, A. I. Fet, Group theory and quantized fields, Nauka, 1977 (in Russian) ), it ...
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What is a "timelike half-curve"?
I know what a timelike curve is. But what is a time-like half-curve, as in the definition of a Malament-Hogarth spacetime (below), which appears in this paper?
Definition: A spacetime $(M,g)$ is ...
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What is the difference between reflectivity and reflectance?
This question is in the context of solar reflections in buildings that cause glare. The two terms are similar but they have differences.
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What is the name of the physical quantity which is the gyromagnetic ratio divided by $2 \pi$?
I am reading Abramowitz and Stegun's Handbook of Mathematical Functions and I come across Table $2.3$, Adjusted Values of Constants.
In there we see:
Gyromagnetic ratio of proton: $\gamma$, with value ...
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