Physics equations describe the world and motion, and can be rearranged to solve for different unknowns. Common equations describe energy, force, and speed, including E=mc2 for energy, F=ma for force, and d=vt for velocity.
There are several physical equations that are used by physicists to describe the phenomena of the world and motion. These equations can be rearranged to solve for different unknowns. Therefore, what may seem like two separate equations are often the same reworked equation. Some of the more common physics equations are used to describe energy, force and speed. These equations can help scientists understand how objects will react under certain circumstances without having to experiment directly on objects.
Perhaps the best known physical equations have to do with energy: E=mc2. In this equation, E stands for energy, m for mass, and c for the speed of light in a vacuum (about 186,000 miles/second or 3×108 meters/second. This equation was developed by scientist Albert Einstein. He determined that the mass of an object and its energy are two types of the same thing, in other words, the mass of an object can be converted into energy and vice versa.
Other physical equations that have to do with energy are those that describe kinetic and potential energy. Kinetic energy (K or sometimes KE) is described by the equation K=½mv2, where m equals the mass of the object and v equals the velocity. U=mgy is the physical equation describing gravitational potential energy, where U stands for potential energy, m for mass, y for the distance of the object above the ground, and g for the acceleration due to gravity on earth (about 32,174 ft /s2 or 9.81 m/s2). This value can change slightly due to altitude and latitude and is technically a negative number as the object is moving downwards, however the negative is often ignored. Capitalizing the variable “g” is important since “g” is known as the acceleration due to gravity and “G” is the gravitational constant.
Of course, when dealing with gravity, you also know the force that gravity exerts on an object. This is described with the physical equation, F=Gm1m2/r2. In this case, G—note the capitalization—is the universal gravitational constant (about 6.67×10-11 N.m2/kg2), m1 and m2 are the two masses of the objects, and r is the distance between the two objects. Another physical equation having to do with force describes Newton’s second law of motion. This is described by F=ma, where F is force, m is mass, and a is acceleration.
The physical equations dealing with velocity are d=vt, which describes the distance an object travels in a certain time, and ed=½at2+v0t, which describes the distance traveled during acceleration. In both equations, d is the symbol for distance, v for speed, and t for time. In the first equation, t is the time the object traveled, and in the second equation, t is the acceleration time. The variable, a, in the second equation stands for the acceleration of an object. Some use the variable vi to describe the initial speed rather than v0.
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