Capacitive reactance – in an AC circuit, the voltage across the capacitor divided by the current through the capacitor; analogous to resistance in a DC circuit(see equation 21.18)

Capacitive time constant – in a circuit with a capacitor and a resistor, the time for the current to decay to 37% (1/e)of its initial value (see equation 21.8)

Capacitance – the charge stored on each plate divided by the potential difference between the plates

Capacitor – a device for storing electric charge; two conductors separated by an insulator

Carnot cycle – the most efficient thermal cycle possible, consisting of four reversible processes, two isothermal and two adiabatic (see figure 13.9)

Cathode ray – historically electrons emanating from the negative electrode (cathode) and striking the positive electrode (anode) in a vacuum tube

Celsius temperature scale – scale to measure temperature that defines the freezing point of water as 0 and the steam point as 100

Center of mass – that point where the mass of an object could be concentrated without changing the mass' reaction to the forces

Centripetal acceleration – the acceleration, toward the center of the circle, of an object in uniform circular motion about this center

Centripetal force – the net force acting on an object which produces uniform (constant speed) circular motion

Charging by induction – inducing a charge without touching the receiving object with a charged object (see figure 16.5)

Chain reaction – a nuclear reaction in which energy released during the reaction triggers another reaction in a domino effect

Cherenkov radiation – glow caused by the high-speed particle emitted in the decay of fission products (see figure 29.24)

Coefficient of friction – the ratio of the force of friction to the normal force pressing the surfaces together (see table 4.2)

Coefficient of performance – ratio of the heat extracted from a cold reservoir to the work done to extract the heat (see equation 13.5a)

Coherence – the condition that the phase difference between waves is constant in time and space (see figure 24.10)

Compound microscope – two converging lenses (an eyepiece and an objective lens) arranged to magnify small objects (see figure 23.8)

Compressive strain – the ratio of the decrease in length to the initial length before force was applied (see tensile strain)

Compton wavelength – represented by the quantity h/mc with a value of 2.426 ´ 10-12m

Conduction – process in which thermal energy is transferred without any net movement of mass

Conductor – a material through which charge may flow easily

Conservation laws – those laws of nature that state that some quantity is the same before and after an event or interaction

Conservative force – a force is conservative if the work done by the force depends only on the initial and final positions; the work done by a conservative force is path independent

Conservation of angular momentum – when the net external torque on a system is zero, angular momentum of that system remains constant

Conservation of linear momentum– when the net external force on a system is zero, the total momentum of that system remains constant

Conservation of mechanical energy - if the forces are all conservative, the sum of the kinetic and potential energies is a constant.

Constructive interference – the increase in amplitude when two waves, which are in phase, are added

Convection – process of heat transfer that is accomplished by a movement of mass

Converging lens – a lens that refracts incident light rays toward the optical axis of the lens

Coordinate system – the system for assigning the numbers needed to define the location of a point in a reference frame

Coulomb – the SI unit for charge

Coulomb’s law – the force of attraction or repulsion of two electric charges is proportional to the product of the charges and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them (see equation 16.1)

Couple – a pair of forces that are equal in magnitude but opposite in direction and not lying along the same line.

Critical angle - the incidence angle corresponding to a 90 degree angle of refraction

Crystalline solid – a solid who's atoms are arranged in a regular manner, forming a three-dimensional array or lattice

Curie law – .magnetic susceptibility depends inversely on the absolute temperature (see equation 19.15)

Cyclotron – a type of particle accelerator in which charged particles are accelerated while being confined by a magnetic field to a circular path (see figure 19.19)