An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics
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The relationship between angles of incidence and refraction for a wave incident on an interface between two media with different indices of refraction. The law states that the ratio of the sine of the → angle of incidence to the sine of the → angle of refraction is a constant: n₁/n₂ = sinθ₂/sinθ₁. See also → refractive index. Also known as Descartes' law or the law of refraction.

Named after Dutch mathematician Willebrord Snellius (1580-1626), one of the discoverers of the law; → law.

The empirical law that predicts the variation of → sunspot latitudes during a → solar cycle. At the start of a sunspot cycle, sunspots tend to appear around 30° to 45° latitude on the Sun's surface. As the cycle progresses, they appear at lower and lower latitudes, until 5° to 10°, at the end of the cycle. This tendency is revealed on a → butterfly diagram. Although named after Gustav Spörer, the "law" was first discovered by Richard Carrington.

→ Sporer minimum; → law.

The empirical law that predicts the variation of → sunspot latitudes during a → solar cycle. At the start of a sunspot cycle, sunspots tend to appear around 30° to 45° latitude on the Sun's surface. As the cycle progresses, they appear at lower and lower latitudes, until 5° to 10°, at the end of the cycle. This tendency is revealed on a → butterfly diagram. Although named after Gustav Spörer, the "law" was first discovered by Richard Carrington.

→ Sporer minimum; → law.

A law that governs the behavior of a system consisting of a large number of particles and which differs from the laws obeyed by each of the particles making up the macroscopic system. See also → dynamical law.

→ statistical; → law.

The flux of radiation from a blackbody is proportional to the fourth power of its absolute temperature: L = 4πR²σT⁴. Also known as Stefan's law.

Ludwig Eduard Boltzmann (1844-1906), an Austrian physicist, who made important contributions in the fields of statistical mechanics and statistical thermodynamics and Josef Stefan (1835-1893), an Austrian physicist; → law.

1) Fluid mechanics: At low velocities, the frictional force on a spherical body moving through a fluid at constant velocity is equal to 6πRηv, where R is the radius of the sphere, η the fluid → viscosity, and v the velocity.
2) Spectroscopy: The wavelength of → luminescence excited by radiation is always greater than that of the exciting radiation.

→ Stokes; → law.

The → entropy of an idealized state of maximum order is zero at the temperature of → absolute zero. Another version of this law: As a system approaches absolute zero, all processes cease and the entropy of the system approaches a minimum value.

→ third; → law; → thermodynamics.

The empirical rule relating the approximate distances of the → solar system  → planets from the → Sun. The original formulation was: a = (n + 4) / 10, where a is the mean distance of a planet from the Sun in → astronomical units and n = 0, 3, 6, 12, 24, 48, 96, 192 (doubling for each successive planet). The planets were seen to fit this sequence quite well, provided the → asteroids between → Mars and → Jupiter are counted as one planet, as did → Uranus discovered in 1781. However, → Neptune and the ex-planet → Pluto do not conform to the rule. The question of whether there is any physical significance to the "law," i.e. some dynamical reason that will explain planetary orbit spacing has led to much discussion during the past two centuries. Today, many astronomers are very skeptical and consider this "laws" to be numerical coincidence.

Named after the German mathematician Johann Titius (1729-1796), who first found the law in 1766, and the German astronomer Johann Elert Bode (1747-1826), who published it in 1772; → law.

In fluid dynamics, a theorem that relates the speed of fluid flowing out of an opening to the height of fluid above the opening: v = (2gh)^1/2, where v is the exit velocity of the water, h is the height of the water column, and g is the acceleration due to gravity (9.81 m/s²). It was later shown to be a particular case of → Bernoulli's theorem.

After the Italian scientist Evangelista Torricelli (1608-1647), who found this relationship in 1643.

In the theory of → radiation-driven winds, an equation that describes the behavior of the → wind velocity of → hot stars as a function of distance from the star. This velocity β-law is given by the expression: v(r) = v_∞(1 - R_*/r)^β, where v_∞ is the → terminal velocity, R_* is the stellar radius, and r the distance from the center. For → O-type stars, the exponent is estimated to be β = 0.8.

→ velocity; → law.

Same as the → von Zeipel theorem.

→ von Zeipel theorem; → law.

A physiological relationship stating that to make a sensation increase in arithmetical proportion, the stimulus must increase in geometrical progression. In acoustics, the → bel (B) unit is used to relate the intensity of sound to an intensity level corresponding to the human hearing sensation. Similarly, the division of stars into a scale of → magnitudes is based upon the Weber-Fechner law. Same as Fechner's law.

After Ernst Heinrich Weber (1795-1878), a German physician, was one of the first people to approach the study of the human response to a physical stimulus in a quantitative fashion, and Gustav Theodor Fechner (1801-1887), a German physicist who founded psycho-physics and proposed the mathematical formulation in 1860; → law.

For all metals the ratio of the → thermal conductivity, κ, to the → electrical conductivity, σ, is directly proportional to the absolute temperature: K/σ = (1/3)(πk/e)²T, where k is → Boltzmann's constant and e the electron's charge.

Named after the German physicists Gustav Heinrich Wiedemann (1826-1899) and Rudolph Franz (1826-1902); → law.

The wavelength corresponding to the maximum emissive power of a black body is inversely proportional to the absolute temperature of the body: λ_max.T = 0.29 cm-deg. Wien's law explains why objects of different temperature emit spectra that peak at different wavelengths. Hotter objects emit most of their radiation at shorter wavelengths; hence they will appear to be bluer. Wien's law was an early attempt to describe the → blackbody radiation. The law closely approximated the true shape of the blackbody spectrum at short wavelengths, but ultimately failed because it relied solely on classical physics. It was superseded by → Planck's radiation law, which correctly describes the blackbody spectrum at all wavelengths.

After the German physicist Wilhelm Wien (1864-1928), who found the law in 1896. He was awarded the 1911 Nobel Prize in physics; → displacement; → law.

Two objects that are in → thermal equilibrium with a third object will be in thermal equilibrium with each other.

→ zero; → law; → thermodynamics.