Glossary
Physics Professor Terms & Vocabulary
15 essential physics professor terms with plain-English definitions: the vocabulary you’ll hear in training and on day one.
Key physics professor vocabulary
These 15 terms come up constantly in physics professor training, on the job and in interviews. Knowing them helps you follow instructions, document accurately and sound prepared.
- Adjunct
- Part-time instructor.
- Astrophysics
- Physics of space.
- Demonstration
- In-class experiment.
- Electromagnetism
- Electricity and magnetism.
- Mechanics
- Study of motion.
- Office hours
- Time set aside for students.
- Peer review
- Expert review of research.
- Quantum mechanics
- Physics of very small things.
- Relativity
- Physics of space and time.
- Sabbatical
- Paid leave for research.
- Simulation
- Computer model.
- Syllabus
- Course plan.
- Tenure
- Permanent faculty status.
- Thermodynamics
- Physics of heat.
- Uncertainty
- Measurement error range.
Practice these terms
Test yourself with the free Physics Professor practice test: it includes vocabulary questions built from this list. For a complete course, see Physics Professor training.
Browse terms from every career in our career glossary.