Physics

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This article is about the field of science. For other uses, see Physics (disambiguation).
Not to be confused with Physical science.

Various examples of physical phenomena

Physics

 History of physics
 Outline of physics
 Timeline of fundamental physics discoveries
 Physics glossary
 Index of physics articles
 Physics category
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Physics (from Ancient Greek: φυσική (ἐπιστήμη), romanized: physikḗ
(epistḗmē), lit. 'knowledge of nature', from φύσις phýsis 'nature')[1][2][3] is the natural
science that studies matter,[a] its motion and behavior through space and time, and the
related entities of energy and force.[5] Physics is one of the most fundamental scientific
disciplines, and its main goal is to understand how the universe behaves.[b][6][7][8]
Physics is one of the oldest academic disciplines and, through its inclusion
of astronomy, perhaps the oldest.[9] Over much of the past two millennia,
physics, chemistry, biology, and certain branches of mathematics were a part of natural
philosophy, but during the Scientific Revolution in the 17th century these natural
sciences emerged as unique research endeavors in their own right. [c] Physics intersects
with many interdisciplinary areas of research, such as biophysics and quantum
chemistry, and the boundaries of physics are not rigidly defined. New ideas in physics
often explain the fundamental mechanisms studied by other sciences [6] and suggest new
avenues of research in academic disciplines such as mathematics and philosophy.
Advances in physics often enable advances in new technologies. For example,
advances in the understanding of electromagnetism, solid-state physics, and nuclear
physics led directly to the development of new products that have dramatically
transformed modern-day society, such as television, computers, domestic appliances,
and nuclear weapons;[6] advances in thermodynamics led to the development
of industrialization; and advances in mechanics inspired the development of calculus.

Contents

 1History

o 1.1Ancient astronomy

o 1.2Natural philosophy

o 1.3Physics in the medieval European and Islamic world

o 1.4Classical physics

o 1.5Modern physics

 2Philosophy

 3Core theories

o 3.1Classical physics

o 3.2Modern physics

o 3.3Difference between classical and modern physics

  4Relation to other fields

o 4.1Prerequisites

o 4.2Application and influence

 5Research

o 5.1Scientific method

o 5.2Theory and experiment

o 5.3Scope and aims

o 5.4Research fields

 5.4.1Nuclear and particle physics

 5.4.2Atomic, molecular, and optical physics

 5.4.3Condensed matter physics

 5.4.4Astrophysics

 6Current research

 7See also

 8Notes

 9References

 10Sources

 11External links

History
Main article: History of physics

Ancient astronomy
Main article: History of astronomy
Ancient Egyptian astronomy is evident in monuments like the ceiling of Senemut's tomb from the Eighteenth
Dynasty of Egypt.

Astronomy is one of the oldest natural sciences. Early civilizations dating back before
3000 BCE, such as the Sumerians, ancient Egyptians, and the Indus Valley Civilisation,
had a predictive knowledge and a basic understanding of the motions of the Sun, Moon,
and stars. The stars and planets, believed to represent gods, were often worshipped.
While the explanations for the observed positions of the stars were often unscientific
and lacking in evidence, these early observations laid the foundation for later
astronomy, as the stars were found to traverse great circles across the sky,[9] which
however did not explain the positions of the planets.
According to Asger Aaboe, the origins of Western astronomy can be found
in Mesopotamia, and all Western efforts in the exact sciences are descended from
late Babylonian astronomy.[11] Egyptian astronomers left monuments showing knowledge
of the constellations and the motions of the celestial bodies, [12] while Greek
poet Homer wrote of various celestial objects in his Iliad and Odyssey; later Greek
astronomers provided names, which are still used today, for most constellations visible
from the Northern Hemisphere.[13]
Natural philosophy
Main article: Natural philosophy

Natural philosophy has its origins in Greece during the Archaic period (650 BCE – 480

BCE), when pre-Socratic philosophers like Thales rejected non-naturalistic explanations
for natural phenomena and proclaimed that every event had a natural cause. [14] They
proposed ideas verified by reason and observation, and many of their hypotheses
proved successful in experiment;[15] for example, atomism was found to be correct
approximately 2000 years after it was proposed by Leucippus and his pupil Democritus.
[16]

Physics in the medieval European and Islamic world

Main articles: European science in the Middle Ages and Physics in the medieval Islamic world
The basic way a pinhole camera works

The Western Roman Empire fell in the fifth century, and this resulted in a decline in
intellectual pursuits in the western part of Europe. By contrast, the Eastern Roman
Empire (also known as the Byzantine Empire) resisted the attacks from the barbarians,
and continued to advance various fields of learning, including physics. [17]
In the sixth century Isidore of Miletus created an important compilation of Archimedes'
works that are copied in the Archimedes Palimpsest.
In sixth century Europe John Philoponus, a Byzantine scholar, questioned Aristotle's
teaching of physics and noted its flaws. He introduced the theory of impetus. Aristotle's
physics was not scrutinized until Philoponus appeared; unlike Aristotle, who based his
physics on verbal argument, Philoponus relied on observation. On Aristotle's physics
Philoponus wrote:
But this is completely erroneous, and our view may be corroborated by actual
observation more effectively than by any sort of verbal argument. For if you let fall from
the same height two weights of which one is many times as heavy as the other, you will
see that the ratio of the times required for the motion does not depend on the ratio of
the weights, but that the difference in time is a very small one. And so, if the difference
in the weights is not considerable, that is, of one is, let us say, double the other, there
will be no difference, or else an imperceptible difference, in time, though the difference
in weight is by no means negligible, with one body weighing twice as much as the
other[18]
Philoponus' criticism of Aristotelian principles of physics served as an inspiration
for Galileo Galilei ten centuries later,[19] during the Scientific Revolution. Galileo cited
Philoponus substantially in his works when arguing that Aristotelian physics was flawed.
[20][21]
 In the 1300s Jean Buridan, a teacher in the faculty of arts at the University of Paris,
developed the concept of impetus. It was a step toward the modern ideas of inertia and
momentum.[22]
Islamic scholarship inherited Aristotelian physics from the Greeks and during the Islamic
Golden Age developed it further, especially placing emphasis on observation and a
priori reasoning, developing early forms of the scientific method.
The most notable innovations were in the field of optics and vision, which came from the
works of many scientists like Ibn Sahl, Al-Kindi, Ibn al-Haytham, Al-Farisi and Avicenna.
The most notable work was The Book of Optics (also known as Kitāb al-Manāẓir),
written by Ibn al-Haytham, in which he conclusively disproved the ancient Greek idea
about vision, but also came up with a new theory. In the book, he presented a study of
the phenomenon of the camera obscura (his thousand-year-old version of the pinhole
camera) and delved further into the way the eye itself works. Using dissections and the
knowledge of previous scholars, he was able to begin to explain how light enters the
eye. He asserted that the light ray is focused, but the actual explanation of how light
projected to the back of the eye had to wait until 1604. His Treatise on Light explained
the camera obscura, hundreds of years before the modern development of
photography.[23]

Ibn al-Haytham (c. 965–c. 1040), Book of Optics Book I, [6.85], [6.86]. Book II, [3.80] describes his camera
obscura experiments.[24]

The seven-volume Book of Optics (Kitab al-Manathir) hugely influenced thinking across

disciplines from the theory of visual perception to the nature of perspective in medieval
art, in both the East and the West, for more than 600 years. Many later European
scholars and fellow polymaths, from Robert Grosseteste and Leonardo da Vinci to René
Descartes, Johannes Kepler and Isaac Newton, were in his debt. Indeed, the influence
of Ibn al-Haytham's Optics ranks alongside that of Newton's work of the same title,
published 700 years later.
The translation of The Book of Optics had a huge impact on Europe. From it, later
European scholars were able to build devices that replicated those Ibn al-Haytham had
built, and understand the way light works. From this, such important things as
eyeglasses, magnifying glasses, telescopes, and cameras were developed.