Examples
Universality gets its name because it is seen in a large variety of physical systems. Examples of universality include:
- Avalanches in piles of sand. The likelihood of an avalanche is in power-law proportion to the size of the avalanche, and avalanches are seen to occur at all size scales. This is termed "self-organized criticality".
- The formation and propagation of cracks and tears in materials ranging from steel (e.g., scissors) to rock to paper. The variations of the direction of the tear, or the roughness of a fractured surface, are in power-law proportion to the size scale.
- The electrical breakdown of dielectrics, which resemble cracks and tears.
- The percolation of fluids through disordered media, such as petroleum through fractured rock beds, or water through filter paper, such as in chromatography. Power-law scaling connects the rate of flow to the distribution of fractures.
- The diffusion of molecules in solution, and the phenomenon of diffusion-limited aggregation.
- The distribution of rocks of different sizes in an aggregate mixture that is being shaken (with gravity acting on the rocks).
- The appearance of critical opalescence in fluids near a phase transition.
Read more about this topic: Universality (dynamical Systems)
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