/ English Dictionary |
PHYSICAL PHENOMENON
Pronunciation (US): | (GB): |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A natural phenomenon involving the physical properties of matter and energy
Classified under:
Nouns denoting natural phenomena
Hypernyms ("physical phenomenon" is a kind of...):
natural phenomenon (all phenomena that are not artificial)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "physical phenomenon"):
floatation; flotation (the phenomenon of floating (remaining on the surface of a liquid without sinking))
chop (the irregular motion of waves (usually caused by wind blowing in a direction opposite to the tide))
turbulence; turbulency (unstable flow of a liquid or gas)
transparence; transparency (permitting the free passage of electromagnetic radiation)
syzygy (the straight line configuration of 3 celestial bodies (as the sun and earth and moon) in a gravitational system)
surface tension (a phenomenon at the surface of a liquid caused by intermolecular forces)
fundamental interaction; interaction ((physics) the transfer of energy between elementary particles or between an elementary particle and a field or between fields; mediated by gauge bosons)
propagation (the movement of a wave through a medium)
conduction; conductivity (the transmission of heat or electricity or sound)
resolution ((computer science) the number of pixels per square inch on a computer-generated display; the greater the resolution, the better the picture)
resolution; resolving power (the ability of a microscope or telescope to measure the angular separation of images that are close together)
refraction (the change in direction of a propagating wave (light or sound) when passing from one medium to another)
reflection; reflexion (the phenomenon of a propagating wave (light or sound) being thrown back from a surface)
force per unit area; pressure; pressure level (the force applied to a unit area of surface; measured in pascals (SI unit) or in dynes (cgs unit))
optical phenomenon (a physical phenomenon related to or involving light)
opacity (the phenomenon of not permitting the passage of electromagnetic radiation)
acoustic phenomenon (a physical phenomenon associated with the production or transmission of sound)
atmospheric phenomenon (a physical phenomenon associated with the atmosphere)
boundary layer (the layer of slower flow of a fluid past a surface)
chaos (the formless and disordered state of matter before the creation of the cosmos)
cloud (any collection of particles (e.g., smoke or dust) or gases that is visible)
decalescence (phenomenon that occurs when a metal is being heated and there is a sudden slowing in the rate of temperature increase; slowing is caused by a change in the internal crystal structure of the metal)
electrical phenomenon (a physical phenomenon involving electricity)
electricity (a physical phenomenon associated with stationary or moving electrons and protons)
energy (any source of usable power)
energy; free energy ((physics) a thermodynamic quantity equivalent to the capacity of a physical system to do work; the units of energy are joules or ergs)
power ((physics) the rate of doing work; measured in watts (= joules/second))
event (a phenomenon located at a single point in space-time; the fundamental observational entity in relativity theory)
field; field of force; force field (the space around a radiating body within which its electromagnetic oscillations can exert force on another similar body not in contact with it)
force ((physics) the influence that produces a change in a physical quantity)
hysteresis (the lagging of an effect behind its cause; especially the phenomenon in which the magnetic induction of a ferromagnetic material lags behind the changing magnetic field)
resonance (an excited state of a stable particle causing a sharp maximum in the probability of absorption of electromagnetic radiation)
mechanical phenomenon (a physical phenomenon associated with the equilibrium or motion of objects)