A physical law or scientific law is, according to the Oxford English dictionary, "a theoretical principle deduced from particular facts, applicable to a defined group or class of phenomena, and expressible by the statement that a particular phenomenon always occurs if certain conditions be present." Physical laws are typically conclusions based on repeated scientific experiments and observations over many years and which have become accepted universally within the scientific community. The production of a summary description of our environment in the form of such laws is a fundamental aim of science. These terms are not used the same way by all authors.
The distinction between natural law in the political-legal sense and law of nature or physical law in the scientific sense is a modern one, both concepts being equally derived from physis, the Greek word (translated into Latin as natura) for nature.
Read more about Physical Law: Description, Examples, Laws As Definitions, Laws Being Consequences of Mathematical Symmetries, Laws As Approximations, Physical Laws Derived From Symmetry Principles, History: Religion, Greek Philosophy, and The Role of Roman Law in The Development of The Concept of , Other Fields
Famous quotes containing the words physical and/or law:
“The real exertion in the case of an opera singer lies not so much in her singing as in her acting of a role, for nearly every modern opera makes great dramatic and physical demands.”
—Maria Jeritza (1887–1982)
“The basis of good manners is self-reliance. Necessity is the law of all who are not self-possessed.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)