1
Newton's laws of motion
Laws in physics about force and motion
Three laws of physics describing how an object's motion is related to the forces acting on it.
Physics · Curated list
Laws and principles: the 30 most written about
Newton's laws of motion, Conservation of energy, Ohm's law and 27 more, ranked by how much of the world has written about each one.
- Entries
- 30
- Photographed
- 19
- Fetched
- 2026-09-25
Laws and principles, ranked
Most written-about first. Each description summarises the law or principle's Wikipedia article, which its name links to.
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1
2
Conservation of energy
Law of physics and chemistry
The law that an isolated system's total energy stays constant: it is conserved over time. For a closed system, the amount of energy inside can change only through energy coming in or going out.
3
Ohm's law
Law of electrical current and voltage
The law that, in a conductor that behaves well, the current flowing between two points rises in direct proportion to the voltage between them.
Wikidata · Photo: Waveguide2 ( talk ) (Transferred by Nk /Originally uploaded by Waveguide2 ), Public domain
4
Newton's law of universal gravitation
Classical statement of gravity as force
Newton's account of gravity as a force. Every particle pulls on every other; the force grows with the product of the two masses and falls off with the square of the distance separating their centres of mass. Spherically symmetrical objects kept apart pull on one another as though each one's mass were concentrated at its centre.
Wikidata · Photo: User:Dna-Dennis, CC BY 3.0
5
Kepler's laws of planetary motion
Laws describing planetary orbits
Laws of astronomy that give good approximations of how planets orbit the Sun. Johannes Kepler published them between 1609 and 1621 in three works: Harmonice Mundi, Astronomia nova and Epitome Astronomiae Copernicanae.
6
Coulomb's law
Fundamental physical law of electromagnetism
Also called Coulomb's inverse-square law, a law of physics giving the force between two electrically charged particles that are not moving. That force is usually called the Coulomb force or the electrostatic force.
Wikidata · Photo: User:Dna-Dennis, CC BY 3.0
- 7
Archimedes' principle
Buoyancy principle in fluid dynamics
The principle that a body wholly or partly immersed in a fluid is pushed upward by a force equal to the weight of the fluid it displaces. It is a physical law at the foundation of fluid mechanics.
8
Gauss's law
Foundational law of electromagnetism relating electric field and charge distributions
One of Maxwell's equations of electromagnetism, also called Gauss's flux theorem or sometimes Gauss's theorem. It applies the divergence theorem to link how electric charge is distributed to the electric field that results.
Wikidata · Photo: Esfera2.PNG : User:老陳 derivative work: 老陳 ( talk ), CC BY-SA 3.0
9
Boyle's law
Relation between gas pressure and volume
An empirical gas law, also named the Boyle–Mariotte law or Mariotte's law, relating the pressure and volume of a confined gas. One statement of it: for a fixed mass of ideal gas in a closed system, with temperature and amount of gas held steady, the absolute pressure it exerts is inversely proportional to the volume it takes up.
Wikidata · Photo: NASA's Glenn Research Center, Public domain
- 10
First law of thermodynamics
Law of thermodynamics establishing the conservation of energy
The law of conservation of energy stated for thermodynamic processes. For a process in a thermodynamic system with no transfer of matter, it separates two main ways energy can be transferred: as heat and as thermodynamic work.
11
Second law of thermodynamics
Physical law for entropy and heat
A physical law, grounded in universal empirical observation, about how heat and energy convert into one another. Put simply, heat always passes of its own accord from hotter regions of matter to colder ones.
12
Bernoulli's principle
Principle relating to fluid dynamics
A principle of fluid dynamics linking pressure, speed and height. In a fluid flowing horizontally, for instance, a rise in speed happens together with a fall in pressure.
Wikidata · Photo: user:ComputerGeezer and Geof, CC BY-SA 3.0
13
Hooke's law
Force needed to pull a spring grows linearly with distance
An empirical law of physics: the force needed to stretch or compress a spring by some distance grows linearly with that distance, Fₛ = kx. Here k is a constant particular to the spring, and x is small next to the largest deformation the spring can take.
Wikidata · Photo: Robert Hooke, Public domain
- 14
Kirchhoff's circuit laws
Two equalities that deal with the current and potential difference
Two equalities describing current and potential difference in electrical circuits, within the lumped element model. The German physicist Gustav Kirchhoff first set them out in 1845.
- 15
Ideal gas law
Equation of the state of a hypothetical ideal gas
Also called the general gas equation, it states how a hypothetical ideal gas behaves: its equation of state. It describes many gases well under many conditions, though it has several limitations.
- 16
Avogadro's law
Relationship between volume and amount of a gas at constant temperature and pressure
An experimental gas law, also called Avogadro-Ampère's hypothesis, relating a gas's volume to the amount of gas present. It is a particular case of the ideal gas law.
17
Hubble's law
Observation in physical cosmology
Officially the Hubble–Lemaître law, a finding of physical cosmology: galaxies recede from Earth at speeds proportional to how far away they are. The farther away a galaxy is, the faster it moves away.
Wikidata · Photo: Brews ohare, CC BY-SA 3.0
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18
Biot–Savart law
Law of classical electromagnetism
An equation of electromagnetism, within physics, for the magnetic field produced by a steady electric current. It ties that field to the current's magnitude, direction, length and nearness.
Wikidata · Photo: Guy vandegrift, CC BY-SA 4.0
- 19
Ampère's circuital law
Concept in classical electromagnetism
A law of classical electromagnetism, often just called Ampère's law and sometimes Oersted's law. For any closed loop, it ties the circulation of the magnetic field around it to the electric current that passes through it.
20
Pascal's law
Principle in fluid mechanics
A principle of fluid mechanics: a change of pressure at any point in an enclosed, incompressible fluid passes through the whole fluid, so that the same change is felt everywhere. The French mathematician Blaise Pascal established it in 1653 and it was published in 1663.
Wikidata · Photo: Olivier Cleynen, CC0
21
Faraday's law of induction
Basic law of electromagnetism
A law of electromagnetism describing how a magnetic field that changes can drive an electric current in a circuit. This effect, electromagnetic induction, is the basic working principle of transformers and inductors, and of many kinds of electric motors, generators and solenoids.
Wikidata · Photo: Աշոտ Վարդումյան, CC BY-SA 3.0
22
Lenz's law
Electromagnetic opposition to change
The law that when a changing magnetic field induces a current in a conductor, that current flows in the direction whose own magnetic field resists the change in the original field. The physicist Heinrich Lenz, after whom it is named, formulated it in 1834.
- 23
Stefan–Boltzmann law
Physical law on the emissive power of black body
Also called Stefan's law, it gives the intensity of the thermal radiation matter emits as a function of that matter's temperature. Its name honours Josef Stefan, who found the relationship empirically, and Ludwig Boltzmann, who derived it from theory.
- 24
Dalton's law
Empirical law of partial pressures
The empirical law that in a mixture of gases that do not react, the total pressure equals the partial pressures of the separate gases added together. John Dalton observed it in 1801 and published it in 1802.
- 25
Hess's law
Thermodynamic law in chemistry
Also called Hess's law of constant heat summation, a law of physical chemistry and thermodynamics named after Germain Hess, a Swiss-born Russian physician and chemist, who published it in 1840. It says the total change in enthalpy over a chemical reaction does not depend on the steps the reaction goes through.
- 26
Third law of thermodynamics
Law of physics
The law that the entropy of a closed system in thermodynamic equilibrium approaches a constant as its temperature approaches absolute zero. That constant cannot depend on any other parameter of the system, such as its pressure or an applied magnetic field.
- 27
Zeroth law of thermodynamics
Physical law for definition of temperature
One of the four main laws of thermodynamics. It defines temperature independently, without reference to entropy, which the second law defines.
28
Einstein field equations
Field-equations in general relativity
Equations of the general theory of relativity that tie the geometry of spacetime to how matter-energy is distributed in it.
Wikidata · Photo: Albert Einstein, Public domain
29
Gay-Lussac's law
Relationship between pressure and temperature of a gas at constant volume
Two separate principles of physical chemistry, both established by Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac: one relating pressure to temperature, and the law of combining volumes.
Wikidata · Photo: Dione Murrieta, CC BY-SA 4.0
30
Equivalence principle
Hypothesis that inertial and gravitational masses are equivalent
The hypothesis that the equivalence seen between inertial and gravitational mass is a consequence of nature. Its weak form, known for centuries, concerns masses of any composition falling freely: they follow the same paths and land at the same moment.
Wikidata · Photo: NASA/David Scott, Public domain
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How this list was made
Every Wikidata item that is a physical law, or a kind of one, and that has its own English Wikipedia article, ranked by the number of Wikimedia sites with a page about it — Wikipedia's language editions, mostly, and sister projects such as Wikiquote. That counts how many communities independently thought it worth describing, and nobody can buy a place on it. The top 30 are shown.
Removed by hand
Wikidata files these under this list's query, but they are not what the list is about:
- general relativity — A theory rather than a law, listed under Branches and theories.
- special relativity — A theory rather than a law, listed under Branches and theories.
- redshift — A phenomenon, not a law.
- blueshift — A phenomenon, not a law.
- diffusion — A process, not a law.
- wave–particle duality — A property of quantum objects, not a law.
- Young's modulus — A property of materials, not a law.
- Titius–Bode law — An empirical pattern in the distances of the planets, not a physical law.
- Newton's second law of motion for constant mass — One of Newton's laws of motion, which are listed together instead.
- Newton's third law of motion — One of Newton's laws of motion, which are listed together instead.
- Newton's first law — One of Newton's laws of motion, which are listed together instead.
Kept by hand
These belong on the list but Wikidata does not file them where the query looks:
- Newton's laws of motion — Wikidata files each of the three laws separately and gives the set no type the query can reach, so the set is listed in their place.
Fetched from Wikidata on 2026-09-25. Each description is this site's summary of the entry's Wikipedia article, which its name links to: the wording is ours, the facts are Wikipedia's, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. To correct an entry, correct it there; the next refresh carries the change.
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