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Line 1: − + − + − Law of gravity:+ + − <math>F = \frac{GMm}{r^2}</math>+ + + − This law shows how the force between any two objects (you and your laptop for instance) varies with the distance squared between the two objects.+ − Newton also developed the mathematical domain of Calculus: the study of rates of change. Calculus is essential to our understanding of technology around us from how electricity works to how your cell phone communicates and to the dynamics of speeding bullets and cars. Newton took around 33 years to publish this after developing it which caused a bitter feud with [[Gottfried Leibniz]], another mathematician of the time who developed it independently.+ + − Another famous physicist was [[Ernest Rutherford]] who kicked off the idea of our current model of the atom. The current model, advanced by Bohr and then polished by Schrödinger dictates that all positive charge in an [[atom]] is in its nucleus (along with neutrons) and orbited by negative charge (electrons) in much the same way as planets orbit a star. In fact, to a certain extent, Newtonian dynamics can be used to describe the motion of the electron on its path around the nucleus. + + − Understanding the laws of physics has been the academic pursuit of many world-changing people, including the ones listed below. + − Applied physicists and engineers using the laws of physics have helped develop countless technological advancements that make our world as comfortable to live in as it is today. + + − Other famous physicists include [[Aristotle]], [[Tycho Brahe]], [[Johannes Kepler]], [[Carl Gauss]], [[Isaac Newton]], [[James Maxwell]], [[Erwin Schroedinger]], [[Ernest Rutherford]], [[Werner Heisenberg]], [[Niels Bohr]], [[Albert Einstein]], [[J. Robert Oppenheimer]], [[Enrico Fermi]], [[Richard Feynman]], [[Joseph Taylor]], [[Lyman Page]], [[Leon Cooper]], and [[James Valles, Jr.]]+ − + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
Major revision; would appreciate corrections and/or feedback
'''Physics''' is the study of the interactions of matter and energy <ref>http://wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=physics</ref>, and is the science that deals with the laws of [[God|God's]] universe. [[Galileo]] was the first to discover and propose some of the fundamental laws of physics that we still use today. He began by studying how a ball rolled down an incline and showed that its speed would be proportional to the height it started at. A scientist who studies ''physics'' is called a [[physicist]].
'''Physics''' is the branch of [[physical science]] that traditionally deals with [[matter]], [[energy]], [[force]], and [[motion]]. These concepts can be applied to virtually any area of the physical sciences; therefore, physics is often considered to be the most fundamental branch of science. Indeed, according to [[reductionism|reductionist]] thought, all other branches of science are specialized subdivisions of physics.
[[Isaac Newton|Newton]] devised many theories still commonly used in the branch of mechanics. The most famous of which, the law of gravity, was published in his notoriously difficult book entitled Principia, partly responsible for making him one of the most admired and famous scientists of all time.
Physics can be broadly divided into two major categories: [[Classical Physics]] and [[Modern Physics]].
==Classical Physics==
Classical physics generally encompasses all areas of physics that were well-understood by the end of the 19th century (i.e., before the events that led to the advent of quantum mechanics). It is applicable to problems on an "everyday" scale; that is, situations in which energies are large enough to permit one to neglect quantum effects, but small enough to neglect relativistic effects. Areas of study within classical physics include
*[[Mechanics]], the study of forces acting on bodies
*[[Thermodynamics]], the study of heat and entropy
*[[Electricity and magnetism]], the study of electric and magnetic phenomena
Most kinds of [[wave]] behavior are also considered to lie within the classical domain. Therefore, the studies of [[sound]] (which may be considered a subset of mechanics) and the wavelike nature of [[light]] (a subset of electricity and magnetism) are classical pursuits.
==Modern Physics==
Modern physics generally includes areas of study within physics that surfaced after 1900, the year in which [[Max Planck]] proposed a "quantum hypothesis" to explain the properties of light emitted by [[black body|hot, dark objects]]. The two major aspects of modern physics are
*[[Relativity]], a form of mechanics that is applicable in very high-energy situations
*[[Quantum mechanics]], a probabilistic description of the discrete behavior of matter and energy at tiny length and energy scales
Modern physics was distinguished from classical physics mainly because these two ideas were so radically different from the classical viewpoint that they produced a [[paradigm shift]] in the way that physicists interpret the natural world.
==History==
===Physics in Antiquity===
Ancient [[Greek]] scholars, such as [[Democritus]] and [[Aristotle]], thought of the material [[universe]] as being composed four different [[elements]]--[[earth]], [[air]], [[fire]], and [[water]]. Motion and interactions between objects were explained by the concept of a "natural state" for each element. Bodies tended to move towards their natural state, and remained motionless when they attained it. For example, a rock fell to the ground after being tossed in the air because it was composed mostly of earth; as such, it moved toward its natural state at the center of the Earth as much as it was able. The Greeks also made advances in [[astronomy]]; [[Ptolemy]] developed a geocentric (Earth-centered) model of the solar system.
[[Category:Physics| ]]
The ideas of the Greeks formed a [[paradigm]] that lasted for over 1000 years, making it one of the most successful scientific theories ever in terms of length of time spent as the dominant viewpoint.
===The Scientific Revolution===
As [[scientific method|scientific methodology]] became further developed, the Aristotelian view came under scrutiny. By the 16th century, force and motion had become topics of interest among scientists of the day. [[Galileo Galilei]] performed a series of experiments involving rolling balls down inclined planes, and [[Johannes Kepler]] found [[Kepler's laws|mathematical relations]] governing the motion of the [[planets]]. [[Isaac Newton]] was able to explain the results of Galileo and Kepler through the use of three succinct [[Newton's laws of motion|laws of motion]] and an expression that accounted for [[gravity|gravitational]] force. Newton also made important contributions to the field of [[optics]] and suggested that light consisted of tiny corpuscles (particles).
As a result of the success of Newton's laws, the Aristotelian paradigm was rejected. It was replaced by a "clockwork universe" viewpoint, in which (theoretically) all future events could be predicted with arbitrary precision, given enough information about the present.
===Further Development of Classical Physics===
Newtonian mechanics was expanded by several other scientists, notably [[Pierre-Simon Laplace]] and [[Joseph Louis Lagrange]]. The motions of
As Newton's laws became the dominant tool in physical science, they began to be applied to phenomena other than gravitational interactions. During the first half of the 19th century, several laws governing electricity and magnetism were discovered. In the mid-1860s, [[James Clerk Maxwell]] unified these individual laws into a single set of [[Maxwell's equations|equations]]. Maxwell was able to derive a [[wave equation]] from his new set of equations, and found that the speed of the waves predicted by the equation was close to the measured [[speed of light]]. [[Thomas Young]] had [[double-slit experiment|demonstrated]] in 1801 that light had wavelike properties, but Maxwell's result provided the new insight that light waves were oscillating electric and magnetic fields.
Thermodynamics also came of age during roughly the same era. Advances by [[James Joule]], [[Sadi Carnot]], and [[Lord Kelvin]], among many others, led to a better understanding of heat and entropy, and the formulation of the laws of thermodynamics. Later, attempts to relate the behavior of particles on the atomic and molecular level to the properties of large aggregates of such particles led to the development of [[statistical mechanics]].
===The Modern Era===
By the close of the 19th century, the study of physics was widely thought to be essentially complete, with the exception of only a few "loose ends"--minor unsolved problems to be dealt with. As a solution to the so-called [[ultraviolet catastrophe]] problem, which involved light emission from [[black body|hot, dark objects]], Max Planck proposed in 1900 that the sources of light could be represented by small individual oscillators. Planck referred to the individual oscillators as ''quanta''. At the time, Planck did not regard his finding as revolutionary; he thought that he was merely "fudging" the mathematics to arrive at a better solution. However, in 1905, [[Albert Einstein]] published a solution to the [[photoelectric effect]] problem: light could be thought of as being composed of very small, discrete packets (quanta), as opposed to the classical representation of light as a collection of waves. The discoveries of Planck and Einstein ushered in an entirely new era in physics. By the end of the 1930s, quantum mechanics--the name given to the new theory that applied to matter and energy on atomic scales--was well-established. Other physicists began applying the theory to more specific aspects of physics, resulting in quantum mechanical descriptions of electricity and magnetism, the [[weak force|weak]] and [[strong force|strong]] atomic forces, [[condensed matter]] physics, and many other areas.
In another 1905 publication, Einstein announced his discovery of what became known as the [[special relativity|special theory of relativity]], which revolutionized the way physicists thought about [[space]] and [[time]]. Einstein later extended the concept to non-inertial [[reference frames]], which resulted in the [[general relativity|general theory of relativity]], an improved description of [[gravity|gravitational]] interactions, which was published in 1915.
The development of quantum mechanics and relativity induced a shift from the Newtonian "clockwork universe" paradigm. According to quantum mechanics, the fundamental laws of the universe are not deterministic, but probabilistic; one can't predict events with certainty, but can only find the [[probability]] of an event taking place. According to relativity, the universe has no preferred reference frame, and there is no such thing as absolute space and absolute time.
===Contemporary Physics===
Like all other modern sciences, areas of interest in contemporary physics encompass an enormous variety of general and specialized subjects. Today's professional physicists can generally be categorized into two types: theoretical physicists, who are trained extensively in [[mathematics]] and work to develop or enhance physical theories; and experimental physicists, who obtain and analyze data in laboratory or laboratory-like settings. Theorists and experimentalists often collaborate in attempts to reconcile theoretical predictions with experimental results. Both types of physicists conduct research on a plethora of unsolved problems.
Some of the active areas of research on fundamental universal laws are listed below.
*The [[Standard Model]] of particle physics is known to be incomplete; particle physicists are working to predict and discover unknown constituents of matter
*Evidence suggests that the matter in the universe that humans can currently detect directly is only a fraction of the matter that actually exists. Attempts to discover the nature of the as-yet-undetectable [[dark matter]] are underway.
*The universe is known to be expanding at an accelerated rate. Such acceleration requires energy, but the form and source of this [[dark energy]] is not well-understood.
*Quantum mechanics has not yet successfully been applied to the gravitational interaction. At huge energy scales, where both quantum mechanics and general relativity are required to describe the system, the known laws of physics break down. Attempts to discover a quantum theory of gravity have led to [[string theory]] and [[m-theory]], but to date neither have permitted the design of a technologically feasible experiment to verify them.
*General relativity predicts the existence of gravitational waves, but none have been conclusively detected. Due to the weakness of the gravitational interaction, extremely sensitive detectors are required. The [[LIGO]] project is an example of current efforts to detect such waves.