ENADE Física key terms

Official federal rules that define the essential contents and the competences and skills expected in each undergraduate program, guiding curriculum design, teaching and evaluation in Brazilian higher education.

Description of the knowledge, skills and attitudes a graduate should demonstrate at the end of a program, stated in the DCN and used as a reference for assessment.

Capacity to mobilize knowledge, skills and attitudes to solve problems and act appropriately in real situations, integrating theory and practice rather than only recalling facts.

Specific, observable ability to perform a task or procedure, such as measuring, modeling or interpreting data, usually developed as part of a broader competence.

Institutional document that organizes a program's curriculum, stating objectives, content sequence, teaching methods, assessment and how the DCN and graduate profile are implemented.

Approach that integrates concepts and methods from different disciplines to address a problem, going beyond simple juxtaposition of contents from separate courses.

Teaching and assessment practice that connects physical concepts to real phenomena, technology, society or students' experience, giving meaning to formal content.

Learning in which new information is deliberately connected to prior knowledge, producing durable understanding instead of isolated memorization of formulas or definitions.

Ability to analyze a situation, identify relevant variables, choose models and strategies, obtain results and critically evaluate them, a central competence in physics training.

Process of constructing simplified representations of physical systems, stating assumptions and validity limits, then using the model to explain observations or make predictions.

Planning, executing and interpreting controlled investigations, including measurement, error control and comparison between data and theoretical predictions.

Systematic approach to producing knowledge based on testable hypotheses, controlled observation, reproducibility and revision of conclusions in light of evidence.

Principles stating that certain physical quantities remain constant in isolated systems, such as energy, linear momentum, angular momentum and electric charge.

Branch of physics describing motion and its causes through Newton's laws, work and energy, momentum and rotational dynamics, valid for speeds much lower than light.

Theory of gravitational interaction, from Newton's universal law to Kepler's orbital laws, explaining falling bodies, planetary motion and satellite dynamics.

Study of energy transfer as heat and work, of temperature and entropy, and of the laws governing the direction of processes in macroscopic systems.

State function measuring the dispersion of energy in a system; it never decreases in an isolated system, expressing the second law's arrow of time.

Framework connecting microscopic particle behavior to macroscopic thermodynamic properties through probability distributions and statistical averages.

Theory unifying electricity and magnetism through electric and magnetic fields, Maxwell's equations and electromagnetic waves, including circuits and induction.

Physical quantity defined at every point of space, such as electric or gravitational field, mediating interactions between bodies without requiring contact.

Oscillating electric and magnetic fields propagating through space at the speed of light, covering radio waves, light, X-rays and gamma rays.

Study of light propagation, reflection, refraction, interference, diffraction and polarization, including image formation by lenses and mirrors.

Superposition of waves producing regions of reinforcement or cancellation, observable when coherent waves meet and used to measure wavelengths.

Spreading and bending of waves around obstacles or through apertures, explaining limits of resolution and patterns produced by slits and gratings.

Einstein's theories stating that measurements of time, length and simultaneity depend on the observer's frame and that mass and energy are equivalent.

Theory describing matter and radiation at atomic scales, with quantized energy, wave-particle duality, uncertainty and probabilistic predictions.

Study of the constitution of matter from elementary particles to atoms, molecules and condensed phases, linking microscopic structure to macroscopic properties.

Mathematical tools of derivatives and integrals used to describe rates of change, accumulate quantities and solve equations of motion and field problems.

Equations relating a function to its derivatives, used to model oscillations, decay, diffusion, circuits and field distributions in physics.

Study of vectors, matrices and linear transformations, essential for representing states, operators and coordinate changes in classical and quantum physics.

Quantified doubt about a measured value, combining statistical and instrumental contributions, expressed with appropriate significant figures and units.

Method of checking equations and predicting relations by comparing physical dimensions of quantities, using units as a consistency and modeling tool.

Communication of scientific knowledge to non-specialist audiences in accessible language, promoting public understanding and informed citizenship.

Set of principles guiding honest conduct in research and teaching, including data integrity, authorship, conflict-of-interest disclosure and respect for participants.

Digital resources such as simulations, sensors, spreadsheets and virtual laboratories used to teach, investigate and assess physics learning.

Continuous assessment whose purpose is to diagnose learning, give feedback and adjust teaching, rather than only to rank or certify students.

Ability to understand, evaluate and use scientific information to make decisions and participate in public debates involving science and technology.