Printer Friendly
Dictionary, Encyclopedia and Thesaurus - The Free Dictionary
3,903,466,484 visitors served.
forum Join the Word of the Day Mailing List For webmasters
?
Dictionary/
thesaurus
Medical
dictionary
Legal
dictionary
Financial
dictionary
Acronyms
 
Idioms
Encyclopedia
Wikipedia
encyclopedia
?

inverse-square law

   Also found in: Dictionary/thesaurus, Medical, Legal, Wikipedia 0.01 sec.
inverse-square law [′in‚vərs ¦skwer ‚lȯ]
(physics)
Any law in which a physical quantity varies with distance from a source inversely as the square of that distance.

inverse-square law
inverse-square law
A law which applies to a light source (or to a sound source) that is in a space far away from any reflecting surface: the intensity at a point, as measured on a surface which is perpendicular to a line drawn between the point and the source, varies inversely with the square of the distance between the point and the source. (For sound waves, this decrease in intensity is equivalent to a drop in sound-pressure level of 6 dB for each doubling of distance from the source.)


Want to thank TFD for its existence? Tell a friend about us, add a link to this page, add the site to iGoogle, or visit the webmaster's page for free fun content.
?Page tools
Printer friendly
Cite / link
Feedback
Mentioned in?  References in periodicals archive?   Encyclopedia browser?   Full browser?
No references found
 
For example, the observed behavior of the Earth revolving around the sun can be perfectly explained if the sun has a net positive charge and the planets have a net negative charge, since opposite charges attract and the force is an inverse-square law, exactly like the increasingly discredited theory of gravity.
I will also describe two equivalence experiments and a test of the inverse-square law of gravitation.
We know that if we go slowly it takes longer to get there; we know that when we fall down, the farther we fall the more it hurts; we know that the faster the motion of something that hits us, and the bigger it is, the more it hurts; we know that the farther we are from our Mommy, the fainter are her cries, though we never heard of the inverse-square law or anything much else in the language.
 
 
 
Encyclopedia
?

Terms of Use | Privacy policy | Feedback | Advertise with Us | Copyright © 2012 Farlex, Inc.
Disclaimer
All content on this website, including dictionary, thesaurus, literature, geography, and other reference data is for informational purposes only. This information should not be considered complete, up to date, and is not intended to be used in place of a visit, consultation, or advice of a legal, medical, or any other professional.