The Fabric of the Cosmos the book, such as discussions revolving around classical physics, quantum mechanics, and cosmological physics. Chapter 2, "The Universe and the Bucket", features space as its key point. The question posed by Greene is this: "Is space a human abstraction, or is it a physical entity?" The key thought experiment is a spinning bucket of water, designed to make one think about what creates the force felt inside the bucket when it is spinning. The ideas of Isaac Newton, Ernst Mach, and Gottfried Leibniz on this thought experiment are discussed in detail. Chapter 3, "Relativity and the Absolute", focuses on spacetime.
Degrees of freedom (physics and chemistry) Degrees of freedom (physics and chemistry) In physics, a degree of freedom is an independent physical parameter in the formal description of the state of a physical system. The set of all states of a system is known as the system's phase space, and degrees of freedom of the system, are the dimensions of the phase space. A degree of freedom of a physical system is an independent parameter that is necessary to characterize the state of a physical system. In general, a degree of freedom may be any useful property that is not dependent on other variables. The location