Here are certain words, commonly used when teaching Physics. The same words also have their literal meanings. The undersigned author is a professor of physics and English. He has listed some words that he used to come across while teaching both subjects. They may have certain common applications. Some words may be difficult for Physics, but may be in common use in Literature. Likewise, some words may be rare in Literature, but may be in common use in Physics. Therefore, a combined study on both topics is provided for a common word so that the knowledge on both topics can be improved.
However, this is only a modest attempt. The number of words covered in each article is very small, compared to the vast ocean of the English language. If the articles serve as motivation for readers to improve vocabulary, the author’s purpose will be considered fulfilled.
In this article, we are considering some words that start with the alphabets D, E, F, and G.
1. Daughter Nuclei:
The general meaning of the simple word ‘daughter’ is known to all of us. But Physics has taken on the scientific meaning of ‘ability to reproduce’. A nuclide that decays into smaller particles is known as a parent, and nuclides that are produced by radioactive decay are known as daughters. More interestingly, they are capable of producing more nuclides, which justifies the name ‘daughter’.
2. Dating Techniques:
The dating technique is not the quality of only lovers, but the phrase also applies to nuclear particles, which means the method of estimating the actual age of rocks, paleontological specimens, archaeological sites, etc.
3.Eccentricity::
The dictionary meaning of this word is ‘uniqueness of behavior’ or ‘oddity’. This aspect has been skilfully taken up by Physics, rather by mathematical Physics, to represent the constant ratio of the distance of a point on the curve from the focus to its distance from its directrix, or in short, not having the same center that other.
4. Step:.
Echelon means a staggered arrangement of troops, ships, planes, etc. It also means various degrees among the employees of an organization. In physics, it means a staggered arrangement of a stake of glass plates in an interferometer.
5. Entropy:
Entropy is one of the most fascinating words in physics that is pregnant with meanings. The undersigned author has written some articles on “What is life?” based on the theories of entropy. During the course of preparing the article, the author was very interested in finding the root of the word ‘Entropy’. The scientific meaning of Entropy is ‘a measure of unavailable energy’, energy that still exists but is lost in order to do work. In fact, it is a measure of disorder. The entropy of the Universe is increasing, which means that the disorder of the Universe tends to infinity.
The origin of this word is a combination of ‘in’ which means inwards and ‘tropo’ which means ‘to turn’, so entropy means transformation of energy inwards.
Therefore, it can be seen, physics also provides an opportunity to learn the phonetics of English words.
6. Enthalpy:
Enthalpy is another scientific word meaning the total heat content of a system derived from the word “enthalpy” which means “to warm up” or heat up.
7. Ephemeris:
Ephemeral means something that exists for only one day. In Physics, it means a tabulation of the position of the stars and planets on a daily basis.
8. Equinox
Nox means night. Equinox means either of the two cases in which the center of the Sun appears to cross the celestial equator. It will happen on March 21 and September 23 when day and night are divided equally.
9. Erg:
We know that an Erg is a unit of work or energy used in the CGS system. The origin is from the Greek where erg means ‘work’.
10. Eutectic mixtures:
Low melting point alloys are known as eutectic mixtures. The origin is from a combination of ‘eu’ which means well and ‘to take’.
11. Exponential:
A function that varies as the power of another quantity. It originated from the Latin words, ex and ponere, which mean place. Also exponents and entities meaning to expose. The term exponential has its origin in this word which means a function that varies as the power of another quantity. In everyday life, it is applied to population growth.
12 galaxy:
Galaxy is a well-known word that means a large collection of stars, sometimes big celebrities, etc. Any ‘Gala’ collection is referred to as ‘Galaxy’. This word is a combination of two words Gala and ‘dairy’, (or, aktos, in Greek) the latter word meaning ‘Milk’. It should be noted that our galaxy is referred to as the Milky Way.
13. Galvanometer:
We all know that a galvanometer is an instrument for measuring electric currents. But some of us may not know that it is named after its discoverer Luigi Galvani from Bologna.
The name of the instrument is so common that we cannot find the origin in textbooks.
14. Gibbous.
Gibbous means hump or hunch. It is unequally convex on two sides In astronomy
refers to the phase of the moon between half moon and full moon, which is shaped like a hump.
15. Grid:
In optics, grating or diffraction grating is a device for producing spectra consisting of a glass or metal sheet speculum with a large number of equidistant
lines drawn on it. The dictionary meaning is a grid or cage. The instrument has derived its name from the work it is doing.
16. Gravity (gravity):
This is one of the most important words in physics. It refers to the force of attraction between any two masses. It comes from the Latin word `Gravis or Gravitas which means ‘heavy’. It may be interesting to note that ‘serious’ situation means a serious situation that causes ‘heaviness’ in the heart or in the feelings.
Greek alphabets:
Readers are advised to check various Greek alphabets (such as Alpha, Beta, etc., which are direct derivations of English alphabets and can know the meaning of each alphabet. Another group of words are mathematical prefixes such as Milli, micro, nano, pyco, giga etc.
The purpose of this article is to encourage readers to analyze and understand the meaning of technical words along with their literal meaning. It should be noted that only the words that are common to both usages have been explained.
I sincerely hope that the article will be of great help for readers to improve their knowledge of both physics and English. Depending on the response of the readers, we may read more on the subject.