radar
Science & Engineering abbreviation · Physics
| Stands for | Radio detection and ranging |
|---|---|
| Categories | Science & Engineering |
radar stands for Radio detection and ranging, a physics abbreviation.
System that sends out radio waves and listens for echoes to find the distance, direction and speed of objects such as aircraft, ships, storms and vehicles. Radar guides air traffic control, weather forecasting, police speed enforcement, collision-avoidance systems and military defense.
Example: Doppler radar showed a hook echo, prompting a tornado warning for the county.
Usage notes
US Navy officers Samuel Tucker and F. R. Furth coined the acronym in 1940. British physicist Robert Watson-Watt demonstrated aircraft detection in 1935, and Britain's Chain Home radar network helped win the Battle of Britain. The microwave oven was invented after engineer Percy Spencer noticed radar emitters melting a candy bar. Radar reads the same backward and forward.
Related abbreviations
More physics abbreviations
- PE – Potential energy
- PMT – Photomultiplier tube
- QCD – Quantum chromodynamics
- QED – Quantum electrodynamics
- QFT – Quantum field theory
- QM – Quantum mechanics
- RF – Radio frequency
- RHIC – Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider
- SEM – Scanning electron microscope
- SHM – Simple harmonic motion
- SLAC – SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
- SM – Standard Model