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Law of Physics
Law of physics
A Law of physics is a mathematical
relationship between measurable quantities that describe the physical state and
properties of bodies. This is a fundamental concept in
physics.
Collectively, the laws of physics are those
physical theories which have been widely published and tested, and are
considered by the scientific community in general to be valid. They also tend to
be very general, basic theories: instead of having a large list of laws
governing many different phenomena in different circumstances, special cases are
arrived at through a generalization of basic ideas. Well-known laws of physics
include
Einstein's Theory of
General Relativity,
Newton's Laws of Motion,
Maxwell's Equations for Electricity and Magnetism, and the theory of
Quantum Mechanics.
Interestingly, these so-called "laws" can essentially be
viewed as a series of approximations: well-established physical laws are found
to be invalid in some special cases, and the new theory created to explain these
discrepencies can be said to have generalized the original, rather than
superseded it. One well-known example is that of
Newton's law of
gravity: while it described the world accurately in most normal
circumstances, such as the movement of the planets around the sun, it was found
to be inaccurate when applied to very large masses or very high velocities.
Einstein developed the theory of general relativity, which accurately handled
gravitational interactions both those extreme conditions and in the range
occupied by Newton's law. However, Newton's formula for gravity is still used in
most circumstances, as an easier-to-calculate approximation of gravitational
interaction. The same phenomena can be observed when comparing Maxwell's
Equations with the theory of
quantum electrodynamics, and in other cases.
See
History of Physics.
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