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54 glossary terms
Physics and mathematics are the languages scientists use to describe the structure of reality. The terms here range from the familiar (prime numbers, Planck length) to concepts that still unsettle physicists a century after they were proposed, such as wave-particle duality and quantum entanglement. Mathematics runs alongside, not because physics cannot stand without it, but because so many physical ideas become precise only when expressed in the shorthand of equations. This glossary covers the quiet workhorses of classical physics, the strangeness of quantum mechanics, and the mathematical structures that let theorists probe phenomena no instrument can yet reach.
Quantum physics is the branch of physics that describes the behavior of matter and energy at atomic and subatomic scales, where particles follow rules that differ fundamentally from everyday experience.
Rayleigh scattering is the elastic scattering of light by molecules smaller than its wavelength, explaining blue skies, red sunsets, and fiber-optic signal loss.
A supersolid is a quantum state of matter that combines the rigid structure of a crystal with the frictionless flow of a superfluid.
Paleomagnetic dating determines the age of rocks and sediments by measuring the magnetic signatures they acquired when they formed, matching polarity patterns to a global timeline of Earth's magnetic reversals.
Leptons are elementary particles that do not experience the strong nuclear force, including electrons, muons, taus, and their neutrino partners.
A magnetic field reversal is a change in polarity where Earth's magnetic north and south poles swap positions, recorded in rocks across hundreds of millions of years.
Kinetic molecular theory explains gas behavior as the result of constant, random molecular motion whose collisions produce pressure and temperature.
A prime number is a natural number greater than 1 whose only factors are 1 and itself. Primes are the atoms of arithmetic.
Lichtenberg figures are branching, tree-like shapes produced when high-voltage electrical discharges spread across or through an insulating material.
Quantum mechanics is the branch of physics that describes how matter and energy behave at atomic and subatomic scales, where the rules of classical physics break down.
