Physics: Expert Guides and Resources

Physics is filled with equations and formulas that deal with angular motion, Carnot engines, fluids, forces, moments of inertia, linear motion, simple harmonic motion, thermodynamics, and work and energy.Here’s a list of some important physics formulas and equations to keep on hand — arranged by topic — so you don’t have to go searching to find them.

In physics, you can apply Hooke’s law, along with the concept of simple harmonic motion, to find the angular frequency of a mass on a spring. And because you can relate angular frequency and the mass on the spring, you can find the displacement, velocity, and acceleration of the mass.Hooke’s law says thatF = –kxwhere F is the force exerted by the spring, k is the spring constant, and x is displacement from equilibrium.

When an object moves in a circle, if you know the magnitude of the angular velocity, then you can use physics to calculate the tangential velocity of the object on the curve.At any point on a circle, you can pick two special directions: The direction that points directly away from the center of the circle (along the radius) is called the radial direction, and the direction that’s perpendicular to this is called the tangential direction.

Physics constants are physical quantities with fixed numerical values. The following list contains the most common physics constants, including Avogadro’s number, Boltzmann’s constant, the mass of electron, the mass of a proton, the speed of light, the gravitational constant, and the gas constant. Avogadro’s

In physics, how much torque you exert on an object depends on two things: the force you exert, F; and the lever arm. Also called the moment
arm, the lever arm is the perpendicular distance from the pivot point to the point at which you exert your force and is related to the distance from the axis, r, byis the angle between the force and a line from the axis to the point where the force is applied.

In physics, you can examine how much potential and kinetic energy is stored in a spring when you compress or stretch it. The work you do compressing or stretching the spring must go into the energy stored in the spring. That energy is called elastic potential energy and is equal to the force, F, times the distance, s:W = FsAs you stretch or compress a spring, the force varies, but it varies in a linear way (because in Hooke’s law, force is proportional to the displacement).