Laws of science

The laws of science, scientific laws, or scientific principles are statements that describe or predict a range of phenomena as they appear
in nature.[1] The term "law" has diverse usage in many cases: approximate, accurate, broad or narrow theories, in all natural scientific
disciplines (physics, chemistry, biology, geology, astronomy etc.). Scientific laws summarize and explain a large collection of facts
determined by experiment, and are tested based on their ability to predict the results of future experiments. They are developed either
from facts or through mathematics, and are strongly supported by empirical evidence. It is generally understood that they reflect causal
relationships fundamental to reality, and are discovered rather than invented.[2]

Laws reflect scientific knowledge that experiments have repeatedly verified (and never falsified). Their accuracy does not change when
new theories are worked out, but rather the scope of application, since the equation (if any) representing the law does not change. As
with other scientific knowledge, they do not have absolute certainty (as mathematical theorems or identities do), and it is always
possible for a law to be overturned by future observations. A law can usually be formulated as one or several statements or equations, so
that it can be used to predict the outcome of an experiment, given the circumstances of the processes taking place.

Laws differ from hypotheses and postulates, which are proposed during the scientific process before and during validation by
experiment and observation. These are not laws since they have not been verified to the same degree and may not be sufficiently
general, although they may lead to the formulation of laws. A law is a more solidified and formal statement, distilled from repeated
experiment. Laws are narrower in scope than scientific theories, which may contain one or several laws.[3] Unlike hypotheses, theories
and laws may be simply referred to as scientific fact.[4] Although the nature of a scientific law is a question in philosophy and although
scientific laws describe nature mathematically, scientific laws are practical conclusions reached by the scientific method; they are
intended to be neither laden withontological commitments nor statements of logicalabsolutes.

According to the unity of science thesis, all scientific laws follow fundamentally from physics. Laws which occur in other sciences
ultimately follow from physical laws. Often, from mathematically fundamental viewpoints, universal constants emerge from a scientific
law.

Contents
Conservation laws
Conservation and symmetry
Continuity and transfer
Laws of classical mechanics
Principle of least action
Laws of gravitation and relativity
Modern laws
Classical laws
Thermodynamics
Electromagnetism
Photonics
Laws of quantum mechanics
Radiation laws
Laws of chemistry
Geophysical laws
See also
Notes
External links
Conservation laws

Conservation and symmetry

Most significant laws in science are conservation laws. These fundamental laws follow from homogeneity of space, time and phase, in
other words symmetry.

Noether's theorem: Any quantity which has a continuous differentiable symmetry in the action has an associated
conservation law.
Conservation of mass was the first law of this type to be understood, since most macroscopic physical processes
involving masses, for example collisions of massive particles or fluid flow
, provide the apparent belief that mass is
conserved. Mass conservation was observed to be true for all chemical reactions. In general this is only approximative,
because with the advent of relativity and experiments in nuclear and particle physics: mass can be transformed into
energy and vice versa, so mass is not always conserved, but part of the more general conservation of mass-energy .
Conservation of energy, momentum and angular momentum for isolated systems can be found to besymmetries in
time, translation, and rotation.
Conservation of chargewas also realized since charge has never been observed to be created or destroyed, and
only found to move from place to place.

Continuity and transfer

Conservation laws can be expressed using the general continuity equation (for a conserved quantity) can be written in differential form
as:

where ρ is some quantity per unit volume, J is the flux of that quantity (change in quantity per unit time per unit area). Intuitively, the
divergence (denoted ∇•) of a vector field is a measure of flux diverging radially outwards from a point, so the negative is the amount
piling up at a point, hence the rate of change of density in a region of space must be the amount of flux leaving or collecting in some
region (see main article for details). In the table below, the fluxes, flows for various physical quantities in transport, and their associated
continuity equations, are collected for comparison.

Physics,
Conserved
conserved Volume density ρ (of q) Flux J (of q) Equation
quantity q
quantity
ρ u, where
Hydrodynamics, m = mass ρ = volume mass density u = velocity field of fluid (m
fluids (kg) (kg m−3) s−1)

Electromagnetism, q = electric ρ = volume electric charge J = electric current density

electric charge charge (C) density (C m−3) (A m−2)

Thermodynamics, E = energy u = volume energy density

q = heat flux (W m−2)
energy (J) (J m−3)

ρ = ρ(r, t) = |Ψ|2 =
P = (r, t) = probability density function
Quantum
∫|Ψ|2d3r = (m−3),
mechanics, j = probability current/flux
probability Ψ = wavefunction of
probability
distribution
quantum system
More general equations are the convection–diffusion equation and Boltzmann transport equation, which have their roots in the
continuity equation.

Laws of classical mechanics

Principle of least action

All of classical mechanics, including Newton's laws, Lagrange's equations, Hamilton's equations, etc., can be derived from this very
simple principle:

where is the action; the integral of the Lagrangian

of the physical system between two times t1 and t2. The kinetic energy of the system is T (a function of the rate of change of the
configuration of the system), and potential energy is V (a function of the configuration and its rate of change). The configuration of a
system which has N degrees of freedom is defined by generalized coordinatesq = (q1, q2, ... qN).

There are generalized momenta conjugate to these coordinates,p = (p1, p2, ..., pN), where:

The action and Lagrangian both contain the dynamics of the system for all times. The term "path" simply refers to a curve traced out by
the system in terms of the generalized coordinates in the configuration space, i.e. the curve q(t), parameterized by time (see also
parametric equation for this concept).

The action is a functional rather than a function, since it depends on the Lagrangian, and the Lagrangian depends on the path q(t), so the
action depends on the entire "shape" of the path for all times (in the time interval from t1 to t2). Between two instants of time, there are
infinitely many paths, but one for which the action is stationary (to the first order) is the true path. The stationary value for the entire
continuum of Lagrangian values corresponding to some path, not just one value of the Lagrangian, is required (in other words it is not as
simple as "differentiating a function and setting it to zero, then solving the equations to find the points of maxima and minima etc",
rather this idea is applied to the entire "shape" of the function, seecalculus of variations for more details on this procedure).[5]

Notice L is not the total energy E of the system due to the difference, rather than the sum:

The following[6][7] general approaches to classical mechanics are summarized below in the order of establishment. They are equivalent
formulations, Newton's is very commonly used due to simplicity, but Hamilton's and Lagrange's equations are more general, and their
range can extend into other branches of physics with suitable modifications.
 Laws of motion
Principle of least action:

The Euler–Lagrange equationsare: Hamilton's equations

Using the definition of generalized momentum,

there is the symmetry:
The Hamiltonian as a function of generalized
coordinates and momenta has the general form:

Hamilton-Jacobi equation

Newton's laws
Newton's laws of motion

They are low-limit solutions to relativity. Alternative formulations of Newtonian mechanics are Lagrangian
and Hamiltonian mechanics.

The laws can be summarized by two equations (since the 1st is a special case of the 2nd, zero resultant
acceleration):

where p = momentum of body, Fij = force on body i by body j, Fji = force on body j by body i.

For a dynamical system the two equations (effectively) combine intoone:

in which FE = resultant external force (due to any agent not part of system). Body i does not exert a force
on itself.

From the above, any equation of motion in classical mechanics can be derived.

Corollaries in mechanics

Euler's laws of motion

Euler's equations (rigid body dynamics)

Corollaries in fluid mechanics

Equations describing fluid flow in various situations can be derived, using the above classical equations of motion and often
conservation of mass, energy and momentum. Some elementary examples follow.

Archimedes' principle
 Bernoulli's principle
Poiseuille's law
Stoke's law
Navier–Stokes equations
Faxén's law

Laws of gravitation and relativity

Modern laws

Special relativity

Postulates of special relativity are not "laws" in themselves, but assumptions of their nature in terms of
relative motion.

Often two are stated as "the laws of physics are the same in all inertial frames" and "the speed of light is constant". However the second
is redundant, since the speed of light is predicted byMaxwell's equations. Essentially there is only one.

The said posulate leads to theLorentz transformations– the transformation law between twoframe of references moving relative to each
other. For any 4-vector

this replaces the Galilean transformation law from classical mechanics. The Lorentz transformations reduce to the Galilean
transformations for low velocities much less than the speed of lightc.

The magnitudes of 4-vectors are invariants - not "conserved", but the same for all inertial frames (i.e. every observer in an inertial frame
will agree on the same value), in particular ifA is the four-momentum, the magnitude can derive the famous invariant equation for mass-
energy and momentum conservation (seeinvariant mass):

in which the (more famous)mass-energy equivalence E = mc2 is a special case.

General relativity

General relativity is governed by the Einstein field equations, which describe the curvature of space-time due to mass-energy equivalent
to the gravitational field. Solving the equation for the geometry of space warped due to the mass distribution gives the metric tensor.
Using the geodesic equation, the motion of masses falling along the geodesics can be calculated.

Gravitomagnetism

In a relatively flat spacetime due to weak gravitational fields, gravitational analogues of Maxwell's equations can be found; the GEM
equations, to describe an analogousgravitomagnetic field. They are well established by the theory, and experimental tests form ongoing
research.[8]
 Einstein field equations(EFE): Geodesic equation:

where Λ = cosmological constant, Rμν = Ricci where Γ is a Christoffel symbol of the second kind,
curvature tensor, Tμν = Stress–energy tensor, gμν = containing the metric.
metric tensor

GEM Equations
If g the gravitational field andH the gravitomagnetic field, the solutions in these limits are:

where ρ is the mass density and J is the mass current density ormass flux.

In addition there is thegravitomagnetic Lorentz force:

where m is the rest mass of the particlce and γ is theLorentz factor.

Classical laws
Tycho Brahe), are true for any central forces.[9]
Kepler's Laws, though originally discovered from planetary observations (also due to
 Newton's law of universal gravitation: Gauss' law for gravity:
For two point masses: An equivalent statement to Newton's law is:

For a non uniform mass distribution of local mass

density ρ (r) of body of Volume V, this becomes:

Kepler's 1st Law: Planets move in an ellipse, with the star at a focus

where

is the eccentricity of the elliptic orbit, of semi-major axis a and semi-minor axis b, and l is the semi-latus
rectum. This equation in itself is nothing physically fundamental; simply the polar equation of an ellipse in
which the pole (origin of polar coordinate system) is positioned at a focus of the ellipse, where the orbited star
is.

Kepler's 2nd Law: equal areas are swept out in equal times (area bounded by two radial distances and the
orbital circumference):

where L is the orbital angular momentum of the particle (i.e. planet) of massm about the focus of orbit,

Kepler's 3rd Law: The square of the orbital time periodT is proportional to the cube of the semi-major axisa:

where M is the mass of the central body (i.e. star).

Thermodynamics
 Laws of thermodynamics
First law of thermodynamics: The change in internal energy Zeroth law of thermodynamics: If two systems
dU in a closed system is accounted for entirely by the heat Q
δ are in thermal equilibrium with a third system,
absorbed by the system and the work δW done by the then they are in thermal equilibrium with one
system: another.

Second law of thermodynamics: There are many Third law of thermodynamics:

statements of this law, perhaps the simplest is "the entropy of
As the temperature T of a system
isolated systems never decreases", approaches absolute zero, the entropyS
approaches a minimum valueC: as
T → 0, S → C.

meaning reversible changes have zero entropy change,

irreversible process are positive, and impossible process are
negative.

For homogeneous systems the first and second law can be

combined into the Fundamental thermodynamic relation:

Onsager reciprocal relations: sometimes called the Fourth Law of Thermodynamics

;
.

Newton's law of cooling

Fourier's law
Ideal gas law, combines a number of separately developed gas laws;

Boyle's law
Charles's law
Gay-Lussac's law
Avogadro's law, into one

now improved by other equations of state

Dalton's law (of partial pressures)

Boltzmann equation
Carnot's theorem
Kopp's law

Electromagnetism
Maxwell's equations give the time-evolution of the electric and magnetic fields due to electric charge and current distributions. Given
the fields, the Lorentz force law is the equation of motion for charges in the fields.
 Maxwell's equations Lorentz force law:
Gauss's law for electricity

Gauss's law for magnetism

Faraday's law

Ampère's circuital law (with Maxwell's

correction)

Quantum electrodynamics(QED): Maxwell's equations are generally true and consistent with relativity -
but they do not predict some observed quantum phenomena (e.g. light propagation as EM waves, rather
than photons, see Maxwell's equations for details). They are modified in QED theory
.

These equations can be modified to include magnetic monopoles, and are consistent with our observations of monopoles either existing
or not existing; if they do not exist, the generalized equations reduce to the ones above, if they do, the equations become fully symmetric
in electric and magnetic charges and currents. Indeed, there is a duality transformation where electric and magnetic charges can be
"rotated into one another", and still satisfy Maxwell's equations.

Pre-Maxwell laws

These laws were found before the formulation of Maxwell's equations. They are not fundamental, since they can be derived from
Maxwell's Equations. Coulomb's Law can be found from Gauss' Law (electrostatic form) and the Biot–Savart Law can be deduced from
Ampere's Law (magnetostatic form). Lenz' Law and Faraday's Law can be incorporated into the Maxwell-Faraday equation. Nonetheless
they are still very effective for simple calculations.

Lenz's law
Coulomb's law
Biot–Savart law

Other laws

Ohm's law
Kirchhoff's laws
Joule's law

Photonics
Classically, optics is based on a variational principle: light travels from one point in space to another in the shortest time.

Fermat's principle
In geometric optics laws are based on approximations in Euclidean geometry (such as theparaxial approximation).

Law of reflection
Law of refraction, Snell's law
In physical optics, laws are based on physical properties of materials.
 Brewster's angle
Malus's law
Beer–Lambert law
In actuality, optical properties of matter are significantly more complex and require quantum mechanics.

Laws of quantum mechanics

Quantum mechanics has its roots in postulates. This leads to results which are not usually called "laws", but hold the same status, in that
all of quantum mechanics follows from them.

One postulate that a particle (or a system of many particles) is described by a wavefunction, and this satisfies a quantum wave equation:
namely the Schrödinger equation (which can be written as a non-relativistic wave equation, or a relativistic wave equation). Solving this
wave equation predicts the time-evolution of the system's behaviour
, analogous to solving Newton's laws in classical mechanics.

Other postulates change the idea of physical observables; using quantum operators; some measurements can't be made at the same
instant of time (Uncertainty principles), particles are fundamentally indistinguishable. Another postulate; the wavefunction collapse
postulate, counters the usual idea of a measurement in science.

Quantum mechanics, Quantum field theory Wave-particle duality

Schrödinger equation (general form): Describes Planck–Einstein law: the energy of photons is
the time dependence of a quantum mechanical proportional to the frequency of the light (the
system. constant is Planck's constant, h).

De Broglie wavelength: this laid the foundations of

The Hamiltonian (in quantum mechanics) H is a wave–particle duality, and was the key concept in
self-adjoint operator acting on the state space, the Schrödinger equation,
(see Dirac notation) is the instantaneous quantum
state vector at time t, position r, i is the unit
imaginary number, ħ = h/2π is the reduced Planck's
constant. Heisenberg uncertainty principle: Uncertainty in
position multiplied by uncertainty in momentum is at
least half of the reduced Planck constant, similarly
for time and energy;
Wave mechanics
Schrödinger equation(original form):

The uncertainty principle can be generalized to any

pair of observables - see main article.

Pauli exclusion principle: No two identical fermions can occupy the same quantum state b( osons can).
Mathematically, if two particles are interchanged, fermionic wavefunctions are anti-symmetric, while
bosonic wavefunctions are symmetric:

where ri is the position of particle i, and s is the spin of the particle. There is no way to keep track of
particles physically, labels are only used mathematically to prevent confusion.

Radiation laws
Applying electromagnetism, thermodynamics, and quantum mechanics, to atoms and molecules, some laws of electromagnetic radiation
and light are as follows.
 Stefan-Boltzmann law
Planck's law of black body radiation
Wien's displacement law
Radioactive decay law

Laws of chemistry
Chemical laws are those laws of nature relevant to chemistry. Historically, observations led to many empirical laws, though now it is
known that chemistry has its foundations inquantum mechanics.

Quantitative analysis

The most fundamental concept in chemistry is the law of conservation of mass, which states that there is no detectable change in the
quantity of matter during an ordinary chemical reaction. Modern physics shows that it is actually energy that is conserved, and that
energy and mass are related; a concept which becomes important in nuclear chemistry. Conservation of energy leads to the important
concepts of equilibrium, thermodynamics, and kinetics.

Additional laws of chemistry elaborate on the law of conservation of mass. Joseph Proust's law of definite composition says that pure
chemicals are composed of elements in a definite formulation; we now know that the structural arrangement of these elements is also
important.

Dalton's law of multiple proportions says that these chemicals will present themselves in proportions that are small whole numbers (i.e.
1:2 for Oxygen:Hydrogen ratio in water); although in many systems (notably biomacromolecules and minerals) the ratios tend to require
large numbers, and are frequently represented as afraction.

More modern laws of chemistry define the relationship between ener

gy and its transformations.

Reaction kinetics and equilibria

In equilibrium, molecules exist in mixture defined by the transformations possible on the timescale of the equilibrium,
and are in a ratio defined by the intrinsic energy of the molecules—the lower the intrinsic energy , the more abundant
the molecule. Le Chatelier's principlestates that the system opposes changes in conditions from equilibrium states, i.e.
there is an opposition to change the state of an equilibrium reaction.
Transforming one structure to another requires the input of energy to cross an energy barrier; this can come from the
intrinsic energy of the molecules themselves, or from an external source which will generally accelerate
transformations. The higher the energy barrier , the slower the transformation occurs.
There is a hypothetical intermediate, ortransition structure, that corresponds to the structure at the top of the energy
barrier. The Hammond–Leffler postulate states that this structure looks most similar to the product or starting material
which has intrinsic energy closest to that of the energy barrier. Stabilizing this hypothetical intermediate through
chemical interaction is one way to achievecatalysis.
All chemical processes are reversible (law ofmicroscopic reversibility) although some processes have such an energy
bias, they are essentially irreversible.
The reaction rate has the mathematical parameter known as therate constant. The Arrhenius equation gives the
temperature and activation energy dependence of the rate constant, an empirical law .

Thermochemistry

Dulong–Petit law
Gibbs–Helmholtz equation
Hess's law

Gas laws

Raoult's law
Henry's law

Chemical transport

Fick's laws of diffusion

 Graham's law
Lamm equation

Geophysical laws
Archie's law
Buys-Ballot's law
Birch's law
Byerlee's law

See also
List of laws
List of scientific laws named after people
Scientific law
Physical law

Notes
1. "law of nature" (http://oed.com/search?searchType=dictionary&q=law+of+nature). Oxford English Dictionary(3rd ed.).
Oxford University Press. September 2005. (Subscription or UK public library membership (http://www.oxforddnb.com/help/sub
scribe#public) required.)
2. William F. McComas (30 December 2013).The Language of Science Education: An Expanded Glossary of Key erms
T
and Concepts in Science Teaching and Learning (https://books.google.com/books?id=aXzGBAAAQBAJ)
. Springer
Science & Business Media. p. 58.ISBN 978-94-6209-497-0.
3. Definitions from the NCSE(http://ncse.com/evolution/education/definitions-fact-theory-law-scientific-work)
4. Gould, Stephen Jay (1981-05-01). "Evolution as Fact and Theory"(http://www.stephenjaygould.org/library/gould_fact-a
nd-theory.html). Discover. 2 (5): 34–37.
5. Feynman Lectures on Physics: Volume 2, R.P. Feynman, R.B. Leighton, M. Sands, Addison-W
esley, 1964, ISBN 0-201-
02117-X
6. Encyclopaedia of Physics (2nd Edition), R.G. Lerner
, G.L. Trigg, VHC Publishers, 1991, ISBN (Verlagsgesellschaft) 3-
527-26954-1 (VHC Inc.) 0-89573-752-3
7. Classical Mechanics, T.W.B. Kibble, European Physics Series, McGraw-Hill (UK), 1973,ISBN 0-07-084018-0
8. Gravitation and Inertia, I. Ciufolini and J.A. Wheeler
, Princeton Physics Series, 1995,ISBN 0-691-03323-4
9. 2.^ Classical Mechanics, T.W.B. Kibble, European Physics Series, McGraw-Hill (UK), 197
3, ISBN 0-07-084018-0

External links
Physics Formulary, a useful book in different formats containingmany or the physical laws and formulae.
Eformulae.com, website containing most of the formulae in dif ferent disciplines.

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