Description
Physics is the study of matter and its motion based on fundamental concepts such as force, energy, mass and charge. Some topics include acoustics, aerodynamics, chemical physics, fluid mechanics, geophysics, optics, particle physics, plasma, quantum mechanics and solid state physics. Students and researchers with an interest in these or other fields dealing with physics will find resources here that may be useful to them.
Overview for physics
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CRC Handbook of Chemistry and PhysicsSearchable and browsable ebook version of the CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics. Interactive tables allow live sorting, filtering, and exporting of the data.
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Recommended online resources
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Inspec from Engineering VillageInspec indexes literature for physics, computer science, electronics, and information technology. It includes scholarly articles, books, conference articles and proceedings, reports, standards, and some patents.
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arXiv.org from Cornell UniversityarXiv.org is an open-access repository of scholarly preprints hosted by Cornell University. It provides full-text articles in physics, mathematics, computer science, quantitative biology, quantitative finance, statistics, electrical engineering, systems science, and economics. Researchers use arXiv to share early versions of their work prior to formal peer review. Content is available in PDF and other formats, and submissions are moderated for relevance and quality.
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Derwent Innovations Index from Web of ScienceThe Derwent Innovations Index (DII) is a patent database that provides access to information from over 60 patent authorities, focusing on chemical, electrical, electronic, and mechanical engineering fields. It features enhanced records with rewritten titles, abstracts, and specialized Derwent codes for improved searchability, alongside full patent family information and citation data. As a part of the Web of Science (WoS) platform, it allows simultaneous searching with other scholarly literature for a more rounded view of an invention's development and impact. 1966-present
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IEEE XploreIEEE Xplore contains full text documents from IEEE and IEE journals, transactions, magazines, ebooks, letters, conference proceedings, standards, and IET (Institution of Engineering and Technology) publications. Full text content is provided as PDFs.Full-text journals back to 1884, conference proceedings back to 1951.
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OSTI Office of Scientific and Technical Information citation searchOSTI.GOV makes available over 70 years of research results from DOE and its predecessor agencies discoverable. OSTI.GOV contains nearly 3 million citations, including citations to 1.5 million journal articles, 1 million of which have digital object identifiers (DOIs) linking to full-text articles on publishers' websites. Documents available in a variety of formats, including PDF, MS Word, HTML, Postscript, TIFF, and XML.
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ScopusScopus indexes citations of journal articles, conference papers, and books in the sciences, medicine, social sciences, arts, and humanities. You can perform cited reference searches. You can compare authors, institutions, and journals using various metrics. Helpful resources include Scopus training videos, Scopus webinars (recorded and upcoming), and the Quick reference guide PDF. Coverage spans from the 1800s to the present.
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SPIE Digital LibraryThe SPIE Digital Library provides full-text access to journals, conference proceedings, eBooks, and technical papers in optics and photonics. Content covers research in engineering, physics, medicine, and energy. Most materials are available as PDFs, and some include video presentations. Coverage for conference proceedings begins in 1962, with most full-text content available from 1990 onward. Some volumes are not included due to electronic rights restrictions.
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Web of Science from Clarivate AnalyticsThe Web of Science (WoS) research platform hosts multiple, specialized databases covering academic literature, conference proceedings, patents, and other scholarly content. At the heart of the platform is the Web of Science Core Collection, a curated set of citation indexes for high-quality, peer-reviewed journals, books, and conference proceedings. Additional databases cover specific subject areas (e.g. biology), formats, or regional publications (e.g. Korean). Users may search across all databases on the platform or select a specific database from the 'Search in' drop-down menu.
Engineering reference sheets
Some engineering material can be difficult to locate. These reference sheets give general information about the resource as well as instructions on how to retrieve the material from the Virginia Tech library collection.
Interlibrary Loan Services
All current Virginia Tech students, faculty, and staff, regardless of your location, may request through ILLiad for materials:
- not owned by Virginia Tech (books, articles from journals and conference proceedings, book chapters, standards, and technical papers)
- owned by Virginia Tech but are unavailable for use (print books)
- owned by Virginia Tech and available in print (scans of articles from journals and conference proceedings, book chapters, standards, and technical papers)
We ship requests via UPS to users outside the immediate Blacksburg area (Montgomery, Giles and Pulaski counties).
Articles, book chapters, and many technical papers are delivered in PDF format to your ILLiad account. Occasionally, due to copyright restrictions, a paper copy of an article or standard is held for your at the Newman User Services Desk or sent o the mailing address listed on your account.