law of nature
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law of nature
n
1. (Philosophy) an empirical truth of great generality, conceived of as a physical (but not a logical) necessity, and consequently licensing counterfactual conditionals
2. (Philosophy) a system of morality conceived of as grounded in reason. See natural law2, nomological2
3. See law18
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| Noun | 1. | law of nature - a generalization that describes recurring facts or events in nature; "the laws of thermodynamics" concept, conception, construct - an abstract or general idea inferred or derived from specific instances all-or-none law - (neurophysiology) a nerve impulse resulting from a weak stimulus is just as strong as a nerve impulse resulting from a strong stimulus principle, rule - a rule or law concerning a natural phenomenon or the function of a complex system; "the principle of the conservation of mass"; "the principle of jet propulsion"; "the right-hand rule for inductive fields" Archimedes' principle, law of Archimedes - (hydrostatics) the apparent loss in weight of a body immersed in a fluid is equal to the weight of the displaced fluid Avogadro's hypothesis, Avogadro's law - the principle that equal volumes of all gases (given the same temperature and pressure) contain equal numbers of molecules Bernoulli's law, law of large numbers - (statistics) law stating that a large number of items taken at random from a population will (on the average) have the population statistics Benford's law - a law used by auditors to identify fictitious populations of numbers; applies to any population of numbers derived from other numbers; "Benford's law holds that 30% of the time the first non-zero digit of a derived number will be 1 and it will be 9 only 4.6% of the time" Bose-Einstein statistics - (physics) statistical law obeyed by a system of particles whose wave function is not changed when two particles are interchanged (the Pauli exclusion principle does not apply) Boyle's law, Mariotte's law - the pressure of an ideal gas at constant temperature varies inversely with the volume Coulomb's Law - a fundamental principle of electrostatics; the force of attraction or repulsion between two charged particles is directly proportional to the product of the charges and inversely proportional to the distance between them; principle also holds for magnetic poles Dalton's law of partial pressures, law of partial pressures, Dalton's law - (chemistry and physics) law stating that the pressure exerted by a mixture of gases equals the sum of the partial pressures of the gases in the mixture; the pressure of a gas in a mixture equals the pressure it would exert if it occupied the same volume alone at the same temperature distribution law - (chemistry) the total energy in an assembly of molecules is not distributed equally but is distributed around an average value according to a statistical distribution equilibrium law, law of chemical equilibrium - (chemistry) the principle that (at chemical equilibrium) in a reversible reaction the ratio of the rate of the forward reaction to the rate of the reverse reaction is a constant for that reaction Fechner's law, Weber-Fechner law - (psychophysics) the concept that the magnitude of a subjective sensation increases proportional to the logarithm of the stimulus intensity; based on early work by E. H. Weber Fermi-Dirac statistics - (physics) law obeyed by a systems of particles whose wave function changes when two particles are interchanged (the Pauli exclusion principle applies) Charles's law, Gay-Lussac's law, law of volumes - (physics) the density of an ideal gas at constant pressure varies inversely with the temperature Henry's law - (chemistry) law formulated by the English chemist William Henry; the amount of a gas that will be absorbed by water increases as the gas pressure increases Hooke's law - (physics) the principle that (within the elastic limit) the stress applied to a solid is proportional to the strain produced Hubble law, Hubble's law - (astronomy) the generalization that the speed of recession of distant galaxies (the red shift) is proportional to their distance from the observer Kepler's law, Kepler's law of planetary motion - (astronomy) one of three empirical laws of planetary motion stated by Johannes Kepler Kirchhoff's laws - (physics) two laws governing electric networks in which steady currents flow: the sum of all the currents at a point is zero and the sum of the voltage gains and drops around any closed circuit is zero law of averages - a law affirming that in the long run probabilities will determine performance law of constant proportion, law of definite proportions - (chemistry) law stating that every pure substance always contains the same elements combined in the same proportions by weight law of diminishing returns - a law affirming that to continue after a certain level of performance has been reached will result in a decline in effectiveness law of effect - (psychology) the principle that behaviors are selected by their consequences; behavior having good consequences tends to be repeated whereas behavior that leads to bad consequences is not repeated law of equivalent proportions, law of reciprocal proportions - (chemistry) law stating that the proportions in which two elements separately combine with a third element are also the proportions in which they combine together law of gravitation, Newton's law of gravitation - (physics) the law that states any two bodies attract each other with a force that is directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them |
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