physics: Quick Facts

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Last updated

Oct. 30, 2026

News •

Scientists just broke a textbook rule of physics • Oct. 28, 2026, 11:40 PM ET (Science Daily)

Physicists May Have Recreated Ball Lightning's Mysterious Glow in a Lab • Oct. 24, 2026, 4:04 AM ET (ScienceAlert)

Photos and Videos

A diagram of a cylindrical vessel containing gas, with a movable piston held down by a weight. Countless small dots beneath the piston represent gas particles in rapid, random motion, illustrating Bernoulli's model of gas pressure.

illustration of Robert Hooke's law of elasticity of materials

Illustration of a space-based long-range interferometer system for detecting gravitational waves, showing three spacecraft in triangular formation exchanging laser beams, with labeled components including interferometers, solar arrays, thrusters, and the path of gravity waves, as well as Earth's position and orbital path in the background.

A grid representing spacetime is distorted by three spheres of different sizes, illustrating how massive objects curve spacetime according to general relativity.

Three thermometers compare temperature scales, showing absolute zero, freezing, and boiling points of water in Celsius, Fahrenheit, and Kelvin, with labeled values for each scale.

Two-panel diagram illustrating Brownian motion. The top shows a Brownian particle among randomly moving blue molecules, while the bottom highlights uneven molecular collisions on the particle's surface, causing its movement.

Diagram of the electromagnetic spectrum with labeled sections for radio waves, microwaves, infrared, visible light, ultraviolet, X-rays, and gamma rays, each paired with an example use and corresponding image.

$Diffraction grating$

Diagram of the Millikan oil-drop experiment showing a chamber with oil droplets sprayed from an atomizer, falling between two charged metal plates. A light source and viewing microscope are used to observe the droplets, which are influenced by electric and ionizing radiation to measure their charge.

A man wearing glasses and a blue turtleneck holds a globe patterned like a soccer ball, with stadium and physics equations in the background and text above stating Science of Soccer.

Robert Millikan's method for measuring the charge of an electron

quantum mechanics and probability

Know about the common misconceptions in physics like how gravity affects light, the shape of the earth, and measuring velocity in special relativity

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Topics

mechanics optics quantum mechanics thermodynamics Cosmology gravity electronics nuclear physics acoustics biophysics Astronomy chemistry Earth sciences metrology mathematics principles of physical science Star chemical element subatomic particle atom

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Key People

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Alfred Otto Carl Nier

American physicist

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William Penney

British scientist

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Arsène d’Arsonval

French physician and physicist

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George Pake

American physicist

Isaac Newton

Isaac Newton

English physicist and mathematician

Portrait of Albert Einstein in a suit and tie, looking slightly to the side with a neutral expression.

Albert Einstein

German-American physicist

Galileo

Galileo

Italian natural philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician

Michael Faraday

Michael Faraday

British physicist and chemist

Hermann von Helmholtz

Hermann von Helmholtz

German scientist and philosopher

Ernest Rutherford

Ernest Rutherford

British physicist

Werner Karl Heisenberg sits at a desk in a suit with his hands folded, bookshelves in the background.

Werner Heisenberg

German physicist and philosopher

Neils Bohr

Niels Bohr

Danish physicist

Kelvin, William Thomson, Baron

William Thomson, Baron Kelvin

Scottish engineer, mathematician, and physicist

Max Planck

Max Planck

German physicist

Joseph Black, detail of an engraving by J. Rogers after a portrait by Sir Henry Raeburn

Joseph Black

British scientist

Enrico Fermi

Enrico Fermi

Italian-born American scientist

Marie Curie

Marie Curie

Polish-born French physicist

James Clerk Maxwell

James Clerk Maxwell

Scottish mathematician and physicist

Henry Cavendish

Henry Cavendish

British physicist

Al-Bīrūnī, Afghan commemorative stamp, 1973.

al-Bīrūnī

Persian scholar and scientist

Michael Faraday (L) English physicist and chemist (electromagnetism) and John Frederic Daniell (R) British chemist and meteorologist who invented the Daniell cell.

Faces of Science

Italian-born physicist Dr. Enrico Fermi draws a diagram at a blackboard with mathematical equations. circa 1950.

Physics and Natural Law

$Elementary Particles series. Interplay of abstract fractal forms on the subject of nuclear physics, science and graphic design. Quantum wave, quantum mechanics$

Quantum Mechanics

atom. Orange and green illustration of protons and neutrons creating the nucleus of an atom.

Another Physics Quiz

How Much Do You Know About Physics?

Italian physicist Guglielmo Marconi at work in the wireless room of his yacht Electra, c. 1920.

All About Physics Quiz

36 Questions from Britannica’s Most Popular Science Quizzes