Physics & Chemistry

Physical Laws and Their Namesakes Trivia Word Search

101 original clues · new puzzle every time you play

Test your knowledge of Physical Laws and Their Namesakes with a free trivia word search from thewordfind.com. Read each clue, work out the answer, then find it hidden in the letter grid — every puzzle is freshly generated, so no two plays are ever quite the same. Don't know an answer? Tap the hint button in-game to reveal the first letter, or just scan the grid — every answer is hiding in there somewhere. Between the clues and the full answer key below, this topic doubles as a quick study guide — good for a trivia night, a classroom quiz, or just picking up something new about Physical Laws and Their Namesakes along the way.

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A few sample clues

This chemist's law states that the total pressure of a gas mixture equals the sum of each gas's partial pressure.

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The Saint-_ _ _ _ _ _ principle states that the effect of a localized load is felt only close to where it's applied, not far away.

This effect describes how a photon loses energy and increases in wavelength after scattering off an electron.

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This physicist's uncertainty principle states that certain pairs of properties can't both be measured with arbitrary precision at once.

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This law states that a paramagnetic material's magnetization is directly proportional to an applied magnetic field, at constant temperature.

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All 101 questions in this topic, with answers — use it to study, or just browse. Every actual play of the puzzle only pulls a random handful of these into one game, so knowing them all here won't spoil which ones show up or where they're hidden in the grid. Play it here.

This effect describes the drop in fluid pressure that occurs when flow speeds up through a constricted section of pipe.

VENTURI

This effect describes a change in a material's refractive index in response to an applied electric field.

KERR

This scientist's free energy combines enthalpy and entropy to predict whether a chemical process will occur spontaneously.

GIBBS

This scientist's law states that equal volumes of gas at the same temperature and pressure contain equal numbers of molecules.

AVOGADRO

This law relates the electric flux through a closed surface to the total electric charge enclosed within it.

GAUSS

This gas law states that pressure is directly proportional to temperature when volume and amount of gas stay constant.

GAYLUSSAC

This law states that the force needed to stretch or compress a spring is proportional to the distance it is displaced.

HOOKE

This physicist's four coupled equations form the mathematical foundation of classical electromagnetism.

MAXWELL

This physicist's temperature marks the point above which an antiferromagnetic material loses its ordered magnetic structure.

NEEL

This physicist's mass-energy equivalence formula, E=mc-squared, reshaped 20th-century physics.

EINSTEIN

This physicist's circuit laws govern how current and voltage behave at junctions and around closed loops.

KIRCHHOFF

This principle explains how faster-moving fluid exerts less pressure, helping generate lift on an airplane wing.

BERNOULLI

Paired with another name, this law relates how much light a solution absorbs to its concentration and the light's path length.

BEER

Paired with another scientist's name, this equation relates the pressure and temperature at which two phases of matter are in equilibrium.

CLAUSIUS

Paired with another name, this ultracold matter state forms when many bosons occupy the same lowest-energy quantum state.

BOSE

This physicist's wave equation describes how a quantum system's state changes over time.

SCHRODINGER

Paired with another name, this photochemical law states that only light actually absorbed by a substance can cause a chemical change.

DRAPER

This law relates the circulating magnetic field around a closed loop to the electric current passing through it.

AMPERE

This effect explains why a siren's pitch sounds higher as it approaches and lower as it moves away.

DOPPLER

This law states that current through a conductor is directly proportional to the voltage across it.

OHM

This law describes how space-charge-limited electric current varies with the three-halves power of applied voltage.

CHILD

This law sets an upper limit of about 59.3% on the kinetic energy a wind turbine can extract from moving air.

BETZ

This physiologist's laws describe how particles spread out via diffusion and define the diffusion coefficient.

FICK

This physicist's laws describe the geometric rules governing the structure of soap films and bubbles.

PLATEAU

The weak intermolecular attraction named for this Dutch physicist explains why real gases deviate from ideal behavior.

WAALS

This law of thermochemistry states that the total enthalpy change of a reaction is the same whether it happens in one step or several.

HESS

Paired with another physicist's name, this photochemical law states that each photon absorbed triggers exactly one primary chemical event.

STARK

This equation allows calculation of a cell's reduction potential from concentrations of the reacting species.

NERNST

This law of induction states that a changing magnetic field creates a proportional electromotive force in a nearby circuit.

FARADAY

This principle sets a theoretical minimum amount of energy that must be dissipated to erase one bit of information.

LANDAUER

This physicist's oil-drop experiment measured the electric charge carried by a single electron.

MILLIKAN

This law calculates how much a light ray bends when passing between two materials of different refractive index.

SNELL

Paired with another physicist's name, this early attempt to describe blackbody radiation broke down badly at short wavelengths.

RAYLEIGH

This law gives the angles at which X-rays scattered from a crystal lattice interfere constructively.

BRAGG

Paired with another name, this law states a black body's total radiated energy scales with the fourth power of its temperature.

STEFAN

This gas law states that pressure and volume are inversely proportional at constant temperature.

BOYLE

This astronomer's three laws describe how planets move in elliptical orbits around the sun.

KEPLER

This effect generates a voltage when a temperature difference exists across the junction of two different conductors.

SEEBECK

This effect deflects moving objects sideways relative to the ground because of Earth's rotation.

CORIOLIS

This physicist's three laws describe how forces cause objects to accelerate, and how every action has an equal and opposite reaction.

NEWTON

This chemist's rule predicts that the more substituted, more stable alkene product tends to form in an elimination reaction.

ZAITSEV

This biochemist's rules found that in DNA, the amount of one paired base always equals the amount of its partner base.

CHARGAFF

This law states that for very brief flashes, the product of a light stimulus's intensity and duration stays constant for detection.

BLOCH

Paired with another name, this effect is the temperature drop a real gas undergoes expanding without doing external work.

THOMSON

This physicist's rule predicts the order in which electron orbitals fill as atoms get heavier.

MADELUNG

This physicist's effect describes a supercurrent that can flow between two superconductors separated by a thin insulating barrier.

JOSEPHSON

This chemist's equation describes how a reaction's rate constant depends on temperature and activation energy.

ARRHENIUS

Paired with another scientist's name, this law describes how magnetic susceptibility behaves above a ferromagnet's ordering temperature.

WEISS

Paired with another scientist's name, this equation describes the pressure drop for slow, viscous flow through a narrow cylindrical pipe.

HAGEN

This law states that pressure applied to an enclosed, incompressible fluid is transmitted equally in all directions.

PASCAL

This chemist's rule predicts which carbon a hydrogen atom will attach to when adding across an unsymmetrical alkene double bond.

MARKOVNIKOV

This law describes how the radiant intensity from a perfectly diffusing surface varies with the viewing angle.

LAMBERT

This law states that a black body's radiation peaks at a wavelength inversely proportional to its temperature.

WIEN

This physicist's laws describe the heating effect of electric current and the behavior of gases during free expansion.

JOULE

This physicist's early atomic model placed electrons in fixed circular orbits with quantized energy levels.

BOHR

This physicist's relativistic wave equation predicted the existence of antimatter.

DIRAC

This effect explains the curved flight path of a spinning ball moving through air.

MAGNUS

Paired with another scientist's name, these equations describe the motion of viscous fluid substances like air and water.

NAVIER

This law defines the angle of incidence at which reflected light becomes completely polarized.

BREWSTER

This law gives the frictional drag force on a small sphere moving slowly through a viscous fluid.

STOKES

This astronomer's period-luminosity relation let scientists use pulsating stars to measure vast cosmic distances.

LEAVITT

Paired with another physicist's name, this law gives the magnetic field produced by a steady electric current.

BIOT

This effect describes how a superconductor expels magnetic field lines from its interior below a critical temperature.

MEISSNER

This force law defines how a charged particle is pushed by combined electric and magnetic fields.

LORENTZ

This physicist's law relates the frequency of an element's characteristic X-ray emissions to its atomic number.

MOSELEY

This ancient Greek's principle states that a submerged body experiences an upward force equal to the weight of fluid it displaces.

ARCHIMEDES

This law states that the amount of gas dissolved in a liquid is proportional to the gas's pressure above it.

HENRY

This law states that an induced electric current flows in a direction that opposes the change that created it.

LENZ

This exclusion principle states that no two identical fermions, like electrons in an atom, can occupy the same quantum state.

PAULI

This physicist's formula predicts the wavelengths of light emitted when a hydrogen atom's electron drops to a lower energy level.

RYDBERG

This effect causes a temperature difference to appear across the junction of two different conductors carrying an electric current.

PELTIER

This chemistry rule states that electrons fill separate orbitals of equal energy singly before any orbital gets a second electron.

HUND

This eerie blue radiation is emitted when a charged particle travels through a medium faster than light does in that medium.

CHERENKOV

This effect is a tiny attractive force between two uncharged metal plates placed extremely close together in a vacuum.

CASIMIR

This mathematician's series describes the visible spectral lines produced by hydrogen atoms.

BALMER

This law describes how a heated black body's radiation output varies with wavelength and temperature.

PLANCK

This law states that galaxies recede from an observer at a speed proportional to their distance.

HUBBLE

This law states that the rate of heat flow through a material is proportional to the temperature gradient across it.

FOURIER

This physicist's gold-foil experiment revealed that an atom's positive charge is concentrated in a tiny, dense nucleus.

RUTHERFORD

This law states that a solvent's vapor pressure in a mixture is proportional to its mole fraction.

RAOULT

This optics principle holds that an opaque disc and a same-size hole produce identical diffraction patterns away from the direct beam.

BABINET

This chemist's law relates a gas's rate of diffusion or effusion to the square root of its molar mass.

GRAHAM

Paired with another name, this statistics describes how particles obeying the exclusion principle are distributed among energy states.

FERMI

This physicist proposed that all matter, not just light, carries an associated wavelength.

BROGLIE

This chemistry principle predicts how a system at equilibrium shifts to counteract a change in conditions.

CHATELIER

This physicist's constant relates the average kinetic energy of particles in a gas to its temperature.

BOLTZMANN

Paired with another name, this law states a metal's thermal-to-electrical conductivity ratio is proportional to its temperature.

FRANZ

Paired with another scientist's name, this classical law estimates a solid's molar heat capacity from the number of atoms in its lattice.

DULONG

This law states that the electrostatic force between two charges is inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.

COULOMB

Paired with another name, this famous null-result experiment failed to detect Earth's motion through a hypothesized luminous ether.

MICHELSON

This effect describes the splitting of atomic spectral lines when the source is placed in a magnetic field.

ZEEMAN

This effect produces a measurable voltage across a current-carrying conductor placed in a perpendicular magnetic field.

HALL

This physicist's law relates the speed of fluid leaving an opening under gravity to the height of fluid above it.

TORRICELLI

Paired with another name, this outdated rule predicted the roughly geometric spacing of planetary orbits in the solar system.

BODE

This gas law states that volume increases in proportion to temperature at constant pressure.

CHARLES

This law describes how the intensity of polarized light changes as it passes through a polarizing filter at an angle.

MALUS
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