acoustic: Having to do with sound or hearing.
arachnid: A group of invertebrate animals that includes spiders, scorpions, mites and ticks. Many have silk or venom glands.
buoy: A floating device anchored to the bottom of a body of water. A buoy may mark channels, warn of dangers or carry instruments to measure the environment.
coil: Concentric rings or spirals formed by winding wire or some other fiber around and around a core; or the shape that such a wire would make.
component: Something that is part of something else (such as pieces that go on an electronic circuit board or ingredients that go into a cookie recipe).
diamagnetism: A weak, anti-magnetic property that will cause some materials to be partly expelled by or from a magnetic field. First observed in 1778, this force was later studied and named by English physicist Michael Faraday in the mid- to late-19th century.
electric field: A region around a charged particle or object within which a force would be exerted on other charged particles or objects.
electricity: A flow of charge, usually from the movement of negatively charged particles, called electrons.
element: A building block of some larger structure. (in chemistry) Each of more than one hundred substances for which the smallest unit of each is a single atom. Examples include hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, lithium and uranium.
engineer: A person who uses science and math to solve problems. As a verb, to engineer means to design a device, material or process that will solve some problem or unmet need.
field: An area of study, as in: Her field of research is biology. Also a term to describe a real-world environment in which some research is conducted, such as at sea, in a forest, on a mountaintop or on a city street. It is the opposite of an artificial setting, such as a research laboratory.
force: Some outside influence that can change the motion of an object, hold objects close to one another, or produce motion or stress in a stationary object.
frequency: The number of times some periodic phenomenon occurs within a specified time interval. (In physics) The number of wavelengths that occurs over a particular interval of time.
graphite: Like diamond, graphite (the substance found in pencil lead) is a form of pure carbon. Unlike diamond, graphite is very soft. The main difference between these two forms of carbon is the number and type of chemical bonds between carbon atoms in each substance.
gravity: The force that attracts anything with mass, or bulk, toward any other thing with mass. The more mass that something has, the greater its gravity.
levitate: To seemingly defy the force of gravity by hovering (or floating) in some fluid, especially air, or to make that hovering happen.
levitation: The act of suspending or causing to float in air a person or object — seemingly in violation of gravity.
lightning: A flash of light triggered by the discharge of electricity that occurs between clouds or between a cloud and something on Earth’s surface. The electrical current can cause a flash heating of the air, which can create a sharp crack of thunder.
magnet: A material that usually contains iron and whose atoms are arranged so they attract certain metals.
magnetic field: An area of influence created by certain materials, called magnets, or by the movement of electric charges.
magnetism: The attractive influence, or force, created by certain materials, called magnets, or by the movement of electric charges.
mechanical engineer: Someone trained in a research field that uses physics to study motion and the properties of materials to design, build and/or test devices.
molecule: A group of atoms that represents the smallest possible amount of a chemical compound. Molecules can be made of single types of atoms or of different types.
motor: A device that converts electricity into mechanical motion. (in biology) A term referring to movement.
physics: The scientific study of the nature and properties of matter and energy. Classical physics is an explanation of the nature and properties of matter and energy that relies on descriptions such as Newton’s laws of motion. A scientist who works in such areas is known as a physicist.
power plant: An industrial facility for generating electricity.
pressure: Force applied uniformly over a surface, measured as force per unit of area.
protein: A compound made from one or more long chains of amino acids. Proteins are an essential part of all living organisms. They form the basis of living cells, muscle and tissues; they also do the work inside of cells. Antibodies, hemoglobin and enzymes are all examples of proteins. Medicines frequently work by latching onto proteins.
range: The full extent or distribution of something. For instance, a plant or animal’s range is the area over which it naturally exists. (in math or for measurements) The extent to which values can vary (such as the highest to lowest temperatures). Also, the distance within which something can be reached or perceived.
sea: An ocean (or region that is part of an ocean). Unlike lakes and streams, seawater — or ocean water — is salty.
silk: A fine, strong, soft fiber spun by a range of animals, such as silkworms and many other caterpillars, weaver ants, caddis flies and spiders.
solid: Firm and stable in shape; not liquid or gaseous.
sound wave: A wave that transmits sound. Sound waves have alternating swaths of high and low pressure.
spider: A type of arthropod with four pairs of legs and two main body sections (a head-thorax combination and an abdomen). Spiders often have the ability to spin threads of silk they can use to create webs or other structures.
steer: To guide the movement of something (a vehicle, a person or an idea) in some particular direction.
strategy: A thoughtful and clever plan for achieving some difficult or challenging goal.
tissue: Made of cells, it is any of the distinct types of materials that make up animals, plants or fungi. Cells within a tissue work as a unit to perform a particular function in living organisms. Different organs of the human body, for instance, often are made from many different types of tissues.
triboelectric: (n. triboelectricity) An adjective to describe an electric charge that develops when two things rub against each other, causing friction.
wave: A disturbance or variation that travels through space and matter in a regular, oscillating fashion.