law -
the collection of rules imposed by authority; "civilization presupposes respect for the law"; "the great problem for jurisprudence to allow freedom while enforcing order"
law the learned profession that is mastered by graduate study in a law school and that is responsible for the judicial system; "he studied law at Yale"
administrative law the body of rules and regulations and orders and decisions created by administrative agencies of government
law of the land a phrase used in the Magna Carta to refer to the then established law of the kingdom (as distinct from Roman or civil law); today it refers to fundamental principles of justice commensurate with due process; "the United States Constitution declares itself to be `the supreme law of the land'"
martial law the body of law imposed by the military over civilian affairs (usually in time of war or civil crisis); overrides civil law
military law the body of laws and rules of conduct administered by military courts for the discipline, trial, and punishment of military personnel
law of moses,
mosaic law the laws (beginning with the Ten Commandments) that God gave to the Israelites through Moses; it includes many rules of religious observance given in the first five books of the Old Testament (in Judaism these books are called the Torah)
islamic law,
sharia,
sharia law,
shariah,
shariah law the code of law derived from the Koran and from the teachings and example of Mohammed; "sharia is only applicable to Muslims"; "under Islamic law there is no separation of church and state"
statutory law the body of laws created by legislative statutes
securities law the body of laws governing the issuance and selling of securities
avogadro's hypothesis,
avogadro's law the principle that equal volumes of all gases (given the same temperature and pressure) contain equal numbers of molecules
bernoulli's law,
law of large numbers (statistics) law stating that a large number of items taken at random from a population will (on the average) have the population statistics
benford's law a law used by auditors to identify fictitious populations of numbers; applies to any population of numbers derived from other numbers; "Benford's law holds that 30% of the time the first non-zero digit of a derived number will be 1 and it will be 9 only 4.6% of the time"
bose-einstein statistics (physics) statistical law obeyed by a system of particles whose wave function is not changed when two particles are interchanged (the Pauli exclusion principle does not apply)
boyle's law,
mariotte's law the pressure of an ideal gas at constant temperature varies inversely with the volume
coulomb's law a fundamental principle of electrostatics; the force of attraction or repulsion between two charged particles is directly proportional to the product of the charges and inversely proportional to the distance between them; principle also holds for magnetic poles
dalton's law of partial pressures,
law of partial pressures,
dalton's law (chemistry and physics) law stating that the pressure exerted by a mixture of gases equals the sum of the partial pressures of the gases in the mixture; the pressure of a gas in a mixture equals the pressure it would exert if it occupied the same volume alone at the same temperature
distribution law (chemistry) the total energy in an assembly of molecules is not distributed equally but is distributed around an average value according to a statistical distribution
equilibrium law,
law of chemical equilibrium (chemistry) the principle that (at chemical equilibrium) in a reversible reaction the ratio of the rate of the forward reaction to the rate of the reverse reaction is a constant for that reaction
fechner's law,
weber-fechner law (psychophysics) the concept that the magnitude of a subjective sensation increases proportional to the logarithm of the stimulus intensity; based on early work by E. H. Weber
fermi-dirac statistics (physics) law obeyed by a systems of particles whose wave function changes when two particles are interchanged (the Pauli exclusion principle applies)
henry's law (chemistry) law formulated by the English chemist William Henry; the amount of a gas that will be absorbed by water increases as the gas pressure increases
hooke's law (physics) the principle that (within the elastic limit) the stress applied to a solid is proportional to the strain produced
hubble's law,
hubble law (astronomy) the generalization that the speed of recession of distant galaxies (the red shift) is proportional to their distance from the observer
kirchhoff's laws (physics) two laws governing electric networks in which steady currents flow: the sum of all the currents at a point is zero and the sum of the voltage gains and drops around any closed circuit is zero
law of averages a law affirming that in the long run probabilities will determine performance
law of diminishing returns a law affirming that to continue after a certain level of performance has been reached will result in a decline in effectiveness
law of effect (psychology) the principle that behaviors are selected by their consequences; behavior having good consequences tends to be repeated whereas behavior that leads to bad consequences is not repeated
law of gravitation,
newton's law of gravitation (physics) the law that states any two bodies attract each other with a force that is directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them
law of multiple proportions,
dalton's law (chemistry) law stating that when two elements can combine to form more than one compound the amounts of one of them that combines with a fixed amount of the other will exhibit a simple multiple relation
law of mass action (chemistry) the law that states the following principle: the rate of a chemical reaction is directly proportional to the molecular concentrations of the reacting substances
law of thermodynamics (physics) a law governing the relations between states of energy in a closed system
mendel's law (genetics) one of two principles of heredity formulated by Gregor Mendel on the basis of his experiments with plants; the principles were limited and modified by subsequent genetic research
ohm's law electric current is directly proportional to voltage and inversely proportional to resistance; I = E/R
pascal's law,
pascal's law of fluid pressures pressure applied anywhere to a body of fluid causes a force to be transmitted equally in all directions; the force acts at right angles to any surface in contact with the fluid; "the hydraulic press is an application of Pascal's law"
mendeleev's law,
periodic law (chemistry) the principle that chemical properties of the elements are periodic functions of their atomic numbers
planck's law (physics) the basis of quantum theory; the energy of electromagnetic waves is contained in indivisible quanta that have to be radiated or absorbed as a whole; the magnitude is proportional to frequency where the constant of proportionality is given by Planck's constant
planck's radiation law (physics) an equation that expresses the distribution of energy in the radiated spectrum of an ideal black body
principle of relativity (physics) a universal law that states that the laws of mechanics are not affected by a uniform rectilinear motion of the system of coordinates to which they are referred
power law,
stevens' law,
stevens' power law (psychophysics) the concept that the magnitude of a subjective sensation increases proportional to a power of the stimulus intensity
law -
legal document setting forth rules governing a particular kind of activity; "there is a law against kidnapping"
riot act a former English law requiring mobs to disperse after a magistrate reads the law to them
law -
the learned profession that is mastered by graduate study in a law school and that is responsible for the judicial system; "he studied law at Yale"
law -
A well-established, observedphysical characteristic or behavior of nature. The word is used to simply identify "what happens," without implying any explanatory mechanism or causation. Compare to theory.
