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The science of nature, or of natural objects; that branch of science which treats of the laws and properties of matter, and the forces acting upon it; especially, that department of natural science which treats of the causes (as gravitation, heat, light, magnetism, electricity, etc.) that modify the general properties…

The science treating of the physical characteristics of the stars and other heavenly bodies, their chemical constitution, light, heat, atmospheres, etc.

Hence: The scientific knowledge of mental phenomena; mental philosophy; psychology. Metaphysics, in whatever latitude the term be taken, is a science or complement of sciences exclusively occupied with mind. Sir W. Hamilton. Whether, after all, A larger metaphysics might not help Our physics. Mrs. Browning.…

The science of the connection between nerve action and consciousness; the science which treats of the relations of the psychical and physical in their conjoint operation in man; the doctrine of the relation of function or dependence between body and soul.

ute equation (Astron.), the sum of the optic and eccentric equations. -- Absolute space (Physics), space considered without relation to material limits or objects. -- Absolute terms. (Alg.), such as are known, or which do not contain the unknown quantity. Davies & Peck. -- Absolute temperature (Physics), the tempera…

tual advancement, contains within itself a principle of acceleration. I. Taylor. (Astr. & Physics.) Acceleration of the moon, the increase of the moon's mean motion in its orbit, in consequence of which its period of revolution is now shorter than in ancient times. -- Acceleration and retardation of the tides. See Pri…

ena, and laws. Acoustics, then, or the science of sound, is a very considerable branch of physics. Sir J. Herschel.

valve of an organ pipe. Grove. Chose in action. (Law) See Chose. -- Quantity of action (Physics), the product of the mass of a body by the space it runs through, and its velocity.

Apt or tending to adhere; clinging. Thomson. Adhesive attraction. (Physics) See Attraction. -- Adhesive inflammation (Surg.), that kind of inflammation which terminates in the reunion of divided parts without suppuration. -- Adhesive plaster, a sticking; a plaster containing resin, wax, litharge, and olive oil.…

That department of physics which treats of the atmosphere.

(Physics) A mass formed by the union of homogeneous particles; -- in distinction from a compound, formed by the union of heterogeneous particles.

Not forming an angle. Agonic line (Physics), an imaginary line on the earth's surface passing through those places where the magnetic needle points to the true north; the line of no magnetic variation. There is one such line in the Western hemisphere, and another in the Eastern hemisphere.

the world with those of the gospel. C. J. Smith. The alliance . . . between logic and metaphysics. Mansel.

Pertaining to the physics of astronomical science.

An elementary principle or maximum; a short, proverbial rule, in law, ethics, or metaphysics. The legal brocard, "Falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus," is a rule not more applicable to other witness than to consciousness. Sir W. Hamilton.

That branch of physics which treats of heat and electricity. R. Park.

accents, or to stammer, in my second cradle, the elemental sounds of their barbarous metaphysics. Burke.

Pertaining to Samuel Taylor Coleridge, or to his poetry or metaphysics.

or of receiving and transmitting, as, the conductivity of a nerve. Thermal conductivity (Physics), the quantity of heat that passes in unit time through unit area of plate whose thickness is unity, when its opposite faces differ in temperature by one degree. J. D. Everett. -- Thermometic conductivity (Physics), the t…

were attracted by a continuity of glittering objects. Dryden. Law of continuity (Math. & Physics), the principle that nothing passes from one state to another without passing through all the intermediate states. -- Solution of continuity. (Math.) See under Solution.