Specific capacitance 2026-10-20
Capacitance normalized by a stated mass or volume. Mass-specific differential capacitance is ; electrode and full-device mass conventions must be distinguished.
Specific capacity 2026-10-20
Electrical charge delivered per unit mass, commonly expressed in ampere-hours per gram. For an ideal active material transferring electrons per formula unit, when is in grams per mole.
Specific entropy Created 2026-10-05 Updated 2026-10-18
Specific entropy is entropy per unit mass. For a perfect gas with constant specific heat capacity at constant volume and specific-heat ratio , differences obey
where is pressure and is mass density. Thus a homentropic flow has constant .
Specific gas constant 2026-10-20
The gas constant per unit mass for a specified composition. An ideal gas obeys . With dimensionless mean molecular weight relative to an atomic mass unit, ; the common astrophysical notation uses a modified mass-based constant rather than the molar gas constant without a mass conversion.
Specific heat capacity Created 2026-09-28 Updated 2026-10-14
Specific heat capacity is heat capacity per unit mass:
Its units are , and the constraint remains part of the definition. In particular, specific heat capacity at constant volume and specific heat capacity at constant pressure are different responses. For homogeneous material, doubling the mass doubles its heat capacity while leaving its specific heat capacity unchanged. [ref]
As an illustrative material model, give a fixed-volume body mass and constant specific heat capacity at constant volume . With no phase transition and no other work, increasing its uniform temperature by requires
These stipulated values describe no measured substance. The right panel of the diagram in heat capacity shows the straight line : a temperature increase of takes of heat. If the specific heat capacity at constant volume depends on temperature, use instead. The corresponding fixed-pressure calculation uses specific heat capacity at constant pressure and gives under the assumptions in heat capacity.
Choosing between specific heat capacity, molar heat capacity and volumetric heat capacity is choosing whether to compare equal mass, equal amount of substance or equal volume. A small sample with large specific heat capacity can still have less total heat capacity than a much larger sample.
Specific heat capacity at constant pressure Created 2026-09-28 Updated 2026-10-14
The specific heat capacity at fixed pressure and composition is , where is specific enthalpy. Equivalently, it is heat capacity at constant pressure divided by mass. Under the process assumptions in heat capacity, it includes expansion work as well as the internal energy change. The sensible heat example uses this response separately for ice and water.
Specific heat capacity at constant volume Created 2026-10-06 Updated 2026-10-14
The specific heat capacity at constant volume is the temperature derivative of specific internal energy at fixed density and composition: . It is the corresponding extensive heat capacity at constant volume divided by material mass.
Specific internal energy Created 2026-10-06 Updated 2026-10-14
Specific internal energy is internal energy per unit mass. For a perfect gas with constant specific-heat ratio, . Its material balance is , where is heat supplied per unit volume per unit time.
Specific kinetic energy 2026-10-25
Kinetic energy per unit mass. For an acceleration field , its change along an actual trajectory is , by the chain rule. This differs by a mass factor from the work integral of a physical force.
The energy per unit mass required to change a saturated liquid to vapour at a stated pressure and coexistence temperature. In a steam-condensation calorimetry experiment, sensible cooling of the condensate must be subtracted from the measured receiver heat gain.
Specific orbital energy Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
The specific orbital energy is the mechanical energy per unit mass,
Its sign distinguishes bound elliptic, marginal parabolic, and unbound hyperbolic Kepler orbits.
Specific rotation Created 2026-10-14 Updated 2026-10-18
For a chemical solution in a validated linear regime,
where is path length in and is solute mass per final solution volume in . These conventions give specific rotation units . Specify solvent, temperature and wavelength : specific rotation is conditional on the sample environment.[ref]
For an original model, stipulate an unnamed enantiomer pair in the same achiral solvent at and wavelength . Assign the positive member specific rotation , assumed constant over the modeled concentrations. With and ,
These are chosen model parameters, not measured properties of a named material. Doubling only or only doubles within this stipulated linear model; doubling both multiplies it by four. A real chemical solution must be checked for concentration dependence rather than assuming that is dilute enough.
For an additive mixture containing only this enantiomer pair as solutes, put and write for their mass concentrations. Then
Because enantiomers have the same molar mass, their relative mole fractions within the pair also equal their relative mass fractions: , . Thus , which connects optical rotation to enantiomeric excess.
Specific volume 2026-10-14
The volume per unit mass; for a uniform substance it is the reciprocal of mass density. The Clapeyron equation pairs a difference of specific volumes with latent heat per unit mass.
Spectroscopic test of the Twin Quasar lens Created 2026-10-14 Updated 2026-10-20
The two resolved quasar images of 0957+561 provide an observational question: are they separate sources, or different light paths from one source? In May 1979, spectrophotometry used the McDonald Observatory 2.7 m reflecting telescope, the UVITS spectrograph, and an intensified dissector scanner at the f/9 focus of the Cassegrain reflector. A 600-groove-per-millimetre diffraction grating produced 4100-7100 ångström scans sampled every 2 ångströms, with about 7 ångström resolution over most of that range. Two spectrograph slits, about 52 arcseconds apart, recorded object and sky background simultaneously for subtraction. Interleaving observations of the two images reduced instrumental and atmospheric gain changes.[ref]
The readout was received light versus wavelength for each image. Closely matching absorption line redshifts supported a common source and absorber; differences in continua and line strengths motivated differential interstellar extinction. Spectral agreement supplied evidence for gravitational lensing, rather than proving the point-mass gravitational lens model. The authors discussed a physical double and discrepant optical and radio light ratios. Their note added in proof attributed the redder spectrum to foreground galaxy contamination and emphasized an extended mass distribution.[ref]
Let a thin spherical shell have equilibrium radius , mass per unit area, and radial restoring stiffness per unit area. If it encloses gas of density and sound speed , its spherically symmetric normal-mode frequencies obey
The fraction is the frequency-dependent acoustic added mass of the enclosed gas.
In a spherically dominated Newtonian gravitational field, the circular orbit speed satisfies . A flat galaxy rotation curve therefore implies . Differentiating the enclosed mass gives , yielding the inverse-square density profile. This is a halo-region approximation, not a mass inversion for a flattened stellar disk. A flat curve extending to infinite radius would imply infinite mass, so a real halo profile must eventually change or truncate.
An elastic recoil interaction whose leading coherent nuclear amplitude does not depend on nuclear spin. At low momentum transfer, proton and neutron amplitudes add; equal couplings give an -fold amplitude and the displayed cross-section scaling, with reduced masses and . A finite-momentum nuclear form factor reduces coherence. Unequal nucleon couplings or other interactions change how experiments on different targets should be compared.
Clemson's documented apparatus is a book held tightly closed with several rubber bands. Toss it freely with spin about each principal axis in turn: the stated visual readout is steady orientation for the smallest and largest principal moments of inertia, but a flip before the catch for the intermediate one. The same book and the two extreme-axis throws provide comparison controls; the bands support the rigid body approximation by restraining the pages. This is a documented qualitative demonstration, not a measurement of .[ref]
For a rectangular book with length , width and thickness , where , a uniform mass model gives principal moments of inertia , and . The intermediate principal axis runs across the width through the centre of mass; the maximum is normal to the cover. A marked cover or end helps distinguish ordinary spin from reversal of a directed body axis.
Interpret only the interval after release and before the catch: hand contact applies torque, whereas gravity in a uniform gravitational field has zero net torque about the centre of mass because . Air resistance, page motion, an imperfect release and short flight limit the approximation. A toss ending before the perturbation grows need not reveal instability. Comparable initial angular speeds and flight durations would improve the comparison; these are suggested controls, not quantified controls reported by Clemson.
Spin-zero massive N=1 supermultiplet Created 2026-10-07 Updated 2026-10-14
At rest the two complex supercharges have anticommutators . A normalized scalar Clifford vacuum generates four states at occupation levels : two spin-zero bosonic states and one spin-half pair. Products of three creation charges vanish. The one-creation normalization is and the two-creation normalization is . The resulting on-shell content is a complex scalar and a massive fermion with equal masses.
Spring constant Created 2026-10-14 Updated 2026-10-18
The spring constant is the positive proportionality coefficient in the ideal spring restoring force . Its SI unit is newtons per metre. With a constant attached mass , it sets the angular frequency of simple harmonic motion. Doubling doubles the restoring force at a fixed displacement, but increases that angular frequency only by a factor .