Physics

This subcategory gathers instruments belonging to physics: the apparatus physicists build and read to detect, measure and manipulate matter and energy, including particle detectors such as the bubble chamber, cloud chamber and Geiger counter, particle accelerators such as the cyclotron, synchrotron and Large Hadron Collider, and the everyday laboratory instruments of electromagnetism, thermodynamics and solid-state physics such as the galvanometer, oscilloscope, cathode-ray tube, torsion balance, transistor and scanning tunneling microscope. An instrument placed here is built to detect, generate or measure a physical quantity or a subatomic event, distinct from an instrument built for chemical analysis, astronomical observation, earth measurement or life-sciences work, which belong to their own subcategories.