User:Bayes/Physics draft

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 reductionist thought, other branches of science are specialized subdivisions of physics.

Physics is generally subdivided into two major categories: Classical Physics and Modern Physics.

Classical Physics

Classical physics generally describes the aspects of physics that were well-understood by the end of the 19th century (i.e., before the advent of quantum mechanics). It includes the study of mechanics, thermodynamics, and electricity and magnetism.

Mechanics deals with the action of forces on bodies, and encompasses statics, the study of forces on objects at rest, and dynamics, the study of forces on moving bodies. The major contributors to mechanics were Galileo Galilei, Isaac Newton, Joseph Louis Lagrange, and William Rowan Hamilton.

Thermodynamics/Statistical Mechanics

E&M

waves/light/sound

Modern Physics

Planck's quantum hypothesis, relativity, quantum mechanics

History

Physics in Antiquity

Greeks, Aristotle, etc.

Development of Classical Mechanics

Galileo, Brahe, Kepler, Newton, etc. Perhaps Lagrange, Hamilton here as well? (though they came later)

Development of Electricity and Magnetism

Ampere, Faraday, Maxwell

Development of Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics

Thompson, Joule, Boltzmann

Development of Quantum Mechanics

Planck, Einstein, Bohr, Schrodinger, Heisenberg, Born, Dirac, Fermi

Physics Today

Particles, dark matter, dark energy