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Asked by anon-252499 on 8 Jun 2020.
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Ashleigh Barron answered on 8 Jun 2020:
There are quite a few laws of physics. A law of physics is a fact we all know or recognise to be true based on many years of experiments and observations. For example Ohm’s law which states that a current through a conductor between two points is directly proportional to its voltage. Which we know as I=V/R. This was first stated by the Physicist Ohm but is now know as fact and taught in schools and used everyday in electronics. A lot of the Physics laws are named after the physicist who discovered them such as Newton’s laws, Coloumb’s Law, Archimedes principle and Bernoulli’s Principle.
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Susan Cartwright answered on 8 Jun 2020:
There are many laws of physics. Some are more fundamental than others: for example, the special theory of relativity is based on the principle that it is impossible to determine your absolute state of motion by means of any physical measurement, and the principle underlying the general theory of relativity is that it is impossible to tell the difference between acceleration and gravity (in other words, if you were in a closed box and an alien spacecraft were towing you through interstellar space at an acceleration of 1g (9.81 m/s^2), there is no exoeriment you could do in the box that would tell you that you were not stationary on the Earth’s surface). Other fundamental laws include the conservation laws (conservation of energy, momentum, angular momentum), which are deeply related to symmetries of space and time.
Historically, many laws of physics were discovered, and often named after their discoverers. Some of these laws can be derived from more fundamental laws (for example, we can derive the ideal gas law from Newton’s laws, making some assumptions about how gas molecules behave). But I don’t think that we can boil all of them down to a single “most fundamental” law – that is essentially what theorists looking for a “Theory of Everything” are trying to do, but they haven’t managed it yet.
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Sophia Pells answered on 10 Jun 2020:
There are loads! Laws in physics are just rules we have for how the world and the Universe behaves. Some are general and apply to lots of situations, like the law of conservation of energy, and some are very specific and only apply in certain situations, like the ideal gas law that explains how gases behaved but only in certain cases. There are physicists looking at trying to tie all the laws together and create a ‘Theory of Everything’ but we don’t have one yet.
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Ry Cutter answered on 10 Jun 2020:
A law of physics is essentially a rule you cannot break! Unlike real laws, which you can break but shouldn’t, you physically cannot break a law of physics.
Some well known (important) laws:
– Conservation of energy:- In a closed system nothing can gain or lose energy.
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– Newton’s 1st law:- A body continues in its state of rest, or of uniform motion in a straight line, unless acted on by another force.
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– Newton’s 2nd law:- Force is equal to mass times acceleration (F=MA)
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– Newton’s 3rd law:- To every action there is equal and opposite reaction
—Laws of physics are based on our understanding of the universe. This means we should try and break them! We learn by pushing our understanding to the limit.
Great Question,
Ry
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