Force (disambiguation)
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Force has several meanings:
- In physics, force is transforming(transporting) motion, as in F = m · a.
- In sociology, force compels obedience by means of actual or threatened violence or sanctions.
- In military science, a force is a military group, such as in "armed force."
- In politics, political force is state-sanctioned coercion used to enforce the decrees of a political regime.
- In law, force of law or coming into force refer to legal validity. Also in law, "force (law)" involves either unlawful violence, as in a "forced entry".
- In philosophy, force is a term going back to Frege, allowing a distinction of statements made with assertoric force (assertions), from other kinds.
- In games, including some sports, certain actions or results are said to be forced when the game's rules or conventions require them, as a "forced bet" in poker or a "forcing bid" in contract bridge.
- In baseball, a force means that there is a possible force play.
- In gardening, forcing a flower bulb means processing it so that it blooms at a different time of the year (or season) than it normally does.
- In mathematics, "force" is used in the sense of given conditions' "forcing" a certain result and, therefore, in the related sense of a "brute-force" method, which usually means one that is neither efficient nor intellectually elegant but is "forced" to reach the desired result eventually.
- Also in mathematics, forcing is a proof-technique of set theory.
- In finance, money may be described as a "force" that can be "leveraged" to increase it.
- In cooking, "force" is an obsolete word (derived from "farce" and meaning "to cut [up]") for stuffing, usually used now only of "forced meat" (or "forcemeat"), which is seasoned ground meat.
- In the Star Wars universe The Force is a mystical energy souce used by the Jedi.
- In northern England, force is an old dialect word for a waterfall and is in the names of some waterfalls, coming from Old Norse fors or foss = "waterfall".
- In breakfast cereals, Force is a brand of wheat flakes first produced by the Force Food Company in 1901.