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solid-state physics

(Encyclopedia)solid-state physics, study of the properties of bulk matter rather than those of the individual particles that compose it. Solid-state physics is concerned with the properties exhibited by atoms and m...

Roentgen, Wilhelm Conrad

(Encyclopedia)Roentgen or Röntgen, Wilhelm Conrad both: rĕntˈgĭn, rŭntˈ–, Ger. vĭlˈhĕlm kônˈrät röntˈgən [key], 1845–1923, German physicist. His notable research in many fields of physics, especi...

Stern, Otto

(Encyclopedia)Stern, Otto stûrn, Ger. ôˈtō shtĕrn [key], 1888–1969, American physicist, b. Germany, Ph.D. Univ. of Breslau, 1912. After resigning from his post at the Univ. of Hamburg in 1933, he became prof...

Huygens, Christiaan

(Encyclopedia)Huygens, Christiaan krĭsˈtyän hoiˈgəns [key], 1629–95, Dutch mathematician and physicist; son of Constantijn Huygens. He improved telescopic lenses and discovered (1655) a satellite of Saturn a...

complementarity principle

(Encyclopedia)complementarity principle, physical principle enunciated by Niels Bohr in 1928 stating that certain physical concepts are complementary. If two concepts are complementary, an experiment that clearly i...

Thomson, Sir George Paget

(Encyclopedia)Thomson, Sir George Paget, 1892–1975, English physicist; son of Sir Joseph John Thomson. He was professor of natural philosophy at the Univ. of Aberdeen (1922–30) and from 1930 to 1952 was profess...

parity

(Encyclopedia)parity or space parity, in physics, quantity that refers to the relationship between an object or process and the image that it can produce in a mirror. For example, any right-handed object will produ...

Schrödinger, Erwin

(Encyclopedia)Schrödinger, Erwin ĕrˈvĭn shröˈdĭng-ər [key], 1887–1961, Austrian theoretical physicist. He was educated at Vienna, taught at Breslau and Zürich, and was professor at the Univ. of Berlin (1...

vibration

(Encyclopedia)vibration, in physics, commonly an oscillatory motion—a movement first in one direction and then back again in the opposite direction. It is exhibited, for example, by a swinging pendulum, by the pr...

Weiss, Rainer

(Encyclopedia)Weiss, Rainer, 1932–, American physicist, b. Berlin, Germany, Ph.D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1962. Weiss has been on the faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology since 1964...