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,[4] 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.[a][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.
[b]
 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.

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.

Classical physics
Main article: Classical physics
Sir Isaac Newton (1643–1727), whose laws of motion and universal gravitation were major milestones in
classical physics

Physics became a separate science when early modern Europeans used experimental and

quantitative methods to discover what are now considered to be the laws of physics.[25][page  needed]
Major developments in this period include the replacement of the geocentric model of the Solar
System with the heliocentric Copernican model, the laws governing the motion of planetary
bodies determined by Johannes Kepler between 1609 and 1619, pioneering work
on telescopes and observational astronomy by Galileo Galilei in the 16th and 17th Centuries,
and Isaac Newton's discovery and unification of the laws of motion and universal gravitation that
would come to bear his name.[26] Newton also developed calculus,[c] the mathematical study of
change, which provided new mathematical methods for solving physical problems.[27]
The discovery of new laws in thermodynamics, chemistry, and electromagnetics resulted from
greater research efforts during the Industrial Revolution as energy needs increased.[28] The laws
comprising classical physics remain very widely used for objects on everyday scales travelling at
non-relativistic speeds, since they provide a very close approximation in such situations, and
theories such as quantum mechanics and the theory of relativity simplify to their classical
equivalents at such scales. However, inaccuracies in classical mechanics for very small objects and
very high velocities led to the development of modern physics in the 20th century.

Modern physics
Main article: Modern physics

See also: History of special relativity and History of quantum mechanics

Max Planck (1858–1947), the originator of the theory of quantum mechanics

Albert Einstein (1879–1955), whose work on the photoelectric effect and the theory of relativity led to a

revolution in 20th century physics

Modern physics began in the early 20th century with the work of Max Planck in quantum
theory and Albert Einstein's theory of relativity. Both of these theories came about due to
inaccuracies in classical mechanics in certain situations. Classical mechanics predicted a
varying speed of light, which could not be resolved with the constant speed predicted by Maxwell's
equations of electromagnetism; this discrepancy was corrected by Einstein's theory of special
relativity, which replaced classical mechanics for fast-moving bodies and allowed for a constant
speed of light.[29] Black-body radiation provided another problem for classical physics, which was
corrected when Planck proposed that the excitation of material oscillators is possible only in discrete
steps proportional to their frequency; this, along with the photoelectric effect and a complete theory
predicting discrete energy levels of electron orbitals, led to the theory of quantum mechanics taking
over from classical physics at very small scales.[30]
Quantum mechanics would come to be pioneered by Werner Heisenberg, Erwin
Schrödinger and Paul Dirac.[30] From this early work, and work in related fields, the Standard Model
of particle physics was derived.[31] Following the discovery of a particle with properties consistent with
the Higgs boson at CERN in 2012,[32] all fundamental particles predicted by the standard model, and
no others, appear to exist; however, physics beyond the Standard Model, with theories such
as supersymmetry, is an active area of research.[33] Areas of mathematics in general are important to
this field, such as the study of probabilities and groups.

Philosophy
Main article: Philosophy of physics

In many ways, physics stems from ancient Greek philosophy. From Thales' first attempt to
characterise matter, to Democritus' deduction that matter ought to reduce to an invariant state,
the Ptolemaic astronomy of a crystalline firmament, and Aristotle's book Physics (an early book on
physics, which attempted to analyze and define motion from a philosophical point of view), various
Greek philosophers advanced their own theories of nature. Physics was known as natural
philosophy until the late 18th century.[34]
By the 19th century, physics was realised as a discipline distinct from philosophy and the other
sciences. Physics, as with the rest of science, relies on philosophy of science and its "scientific
method" to advance our knowledge of the physical world.[35] The scientific method employs a priori
reasoning as well as a posteriori reasoning and the use of Bayesian inference to measure the
validity of a given theory.[36]
The development of physics has answered many questions of early philosophers, but has also
raised new questions. Study of the philosophical issues surrounding physics, the philosophy of
physics, involves issues such as the nature of space and time, determinism, and metaphysical
outlooks such as empiricism, naturalism and realism.[37]
Many physicists have written about the philosophical implications of their work, for instance Laplace,
who championed causal determinism,[38] and Erwin Schrödinger, who wrote on quantum mechanics.
[39][40]
 The mathematical physicist Roger Penrose had been called a Platonist by Stephen Hawking,[41] a
view Penrose discusses in his book, The Road to Reality.[42] Hawking referred to himself as an
"unashamed reductionist" and took issue with Penrose's views.[43]

Core theories
Further information: Branches of physics and Outline of physics

Though physics deals with a wide variety of systems, certain theories are used by all physicists.
Each of these theories were experimentally tested numerous times and found to be an adequate
approximation of nature. For instance, the theory of classical mechanics accurately describes the
motion of objects, provided they are much larger than atoms and moving at much less than
the speed of light. These theories continue to be areas of active research today. Chaos theory, a
remarkable aspect of classical mechanics was discovered in the 20th century, three centuries after
the original formulation of classical mechanics by Isaac Newton (1642–1727).
These central theories are important tools for research into more specialised topics, and any
physicist, regardless of their specialisation, is expected to be literate in them. These include classical
mechanics, quantum mechanics, thermodynamics and statistical mechanics, electromagnetism,
and special relativity.

Classical physics
Main article: Classical physics
Classical physics implemented in an acoustic engineering model of sound reflecting from an acoustic diffuser

Classical physics includes the traditional branches and topics that were recognised and well-
developed before the beginning of the 20th century—classical
mechanics, acoustics, optics, thermodynamics, and electromagnetism. Classical mechanics is
concerned with bodies acted on by forces and bodies in motion and may be divided
into statics (study of the forces on a body or bodies not subject to an acceleration), kinematics (study
of motion without regard to its causes), and dynamics (study of motion and the forces that affect it);
mechanics may also be divided into solid mechanics and fluid mechanics (known together
as continuum mechanics), the latter include such branches
as hydrostatics, hydrodynamics, aerodynamics, and pneumatics. Acoustics is the study of how
sound is produced, controlled, transmitted and received.[44] Important modern branches of acoustics
include ultrasonics, the study of sound waves of very high frequency beyond the range of human
hearing; bioacoustics, the physics of animal calls and hearing,[45] and electroacoustics, the
manipulation of audible sound waves using electronics.[46]
Optics, the study of light, is concerned not only with visible light but also with infrared and ultraviolet
radiation, which exhibit all of the phenomena of visible light except visibility, e.g., reflection,
refraction, interference, diffraction, dispersion, and polarization of light. Heat is a form of energy, the
internal energy possessed by the particles of which a substance is composed; thermodynamics
deals with the relationships between heat and other forms of energy. Electricity and magnetism have
been studied as a single branch of physics since the intimate connection between them was
discovered in the early 19th century; an electric current gives rise to a magnetic field, and a
changing magnetic field induces an electric current. Electrostatics deals with electric charges at
rest, electrodynamics with moving charges, and magnetostatics with magnetic poles at rest.

Modern physics
Main article: Modern physics
 Modern physics

Manifold dynamics: Schrödinger and Klein–Gordon equations

Founders[show]

Concepts[show]

Branches[show]

Scientists[show]

Categories[show]

 v
 t
 e

Solvay Conference of 1927, with prominent physicists such as Albert Einstein, Werner Heisenberg, Max
Planck, Hendrik Lorentz, Niels Bohr, Marie Curie, Erwin Schrödinger and Paul Dirac

Classical physics is generally concerned with matter and energy on the normal scale of observation,
while much of modern physics is concerned with the behavior of matter and energy under extreme
conditions or on a very large or very small scale. For example, atomic and nuclear physics studies
matter on the smallest scale at which chemical elements can be identified. The physics of
elementary particles is on an even smaller scale since it is concerned with the most basic units of
matter; this branch of physics is also known as high-energy physics because of the extremely high
energies necessary to produce many types of particles in particle accelerators. On this scale,
ordinary, commonsensical notions of space, time, matter, and energy are no longer valid.[47]
The two chief theories of modern physics present a different picture of the concepts of space, time,
and matter from that presented by classical physics. Classical mechanics approximates nature as
continuous, while quantum theory is concerned with the discrete nature of many phenomena at the
atomic and subatomic level and with the complementary aspects of particles and waves in the
description of such phenomena. The theory of relativity is concerned with the description of
phenomena that take place in a frame of reference that is in motion with respect to an observer;
the special theory of relativity is concerned with motion in the absence of gravitational fields and
the general theory of relativity with motion and its connection with gravitation. Both quantum theory
and the theory of relativity find applications in all areas of modern physics.[48]

Difference between classical and modern physics

While physics aims to discover universal laws, its theories lie in explicit domains of applicability.

The basic domains of physics

Loosely speaking, the laws of classical physics accurately describe systems whose important length
scales are greater than the atomic scale and whose motions are much slower than the speed of
light. Outside of this domain, observations do not match predictions provided by classical
mechanics. Albert Einstein contributed the framework of special relativity, which replaced notions
of absolute time and space with spacetime and allowed an accurate description of systems whose
components have speeds approaching the speed of light. Max Planck, Erwin Schrödinger, and
others introduced quantum mechanics, a probabilistic notion of particles and interactions that
allowed an accurate description of atomic and subatomic scales. Later, quantum field
theory unified quantum mechanics and special relativity. General relativity allowed for a dynamical,
curved spacetime, with which highly massive systems and the large-scale structure of the universe
can be well-described. General relativity has not yet been unified with the other fundamental
descriptions; several candidate theories of quantum gravity are being developed.

Application and influence

Main article: Applied physics
Archimedes' screw, a simple machine for lifting

The application of physical laws in lifting liquids

Applied physics is a general term for physics research which is intended for a particular use. An
applied physics curriculum usually contains a few classes in an applied discipline, like geology or
electrical engineering. It usually differs from engineering in that an applied physicist may not be
designing something in particular, but rather is using physics or conducting physics research with the
aim of developing new technologies or solving a problem.
The approach is similar to that of applied mathematics. Applied physicists use physics in scientific
research. For instance, people working on accelerator physics might seek to build better particle
detectors for research in theoretical physics.
Physics is used heavily in engineering. For example, statics, a subfield of mechanics, is used in the
building of bridges and other static structures. The understanding and use of acoustics results in
sound control and better concert halls; similarly, the use of optics creates better optical devices. An
understanding of physics makes for more realistic flight simulators, video games, and movies, and is
often critical in forensic investigations.
With the standard consensus that the laws of physics are universal and do not change with time,
physics can be used to study things that would ordinarily be mired in uncertainty. For example, in
the study of the origin of the earth, one can reasonably model earth's mass, temperature, and rate of
rotation, as a function of time allowing one to extrapolate forward or backward in time and so predict
future or prior events. It also allows for simulations in engineering that drastically speed up the
development of a new technology.
But there is also considerable interdisciplinarity, so many other important fields are influenced by
physics (e.g., the fields of econophysics and sociophysics).

Research
Scientific method
Physicists use the scientific method to test the validity of a physical theory. By using a methodical
approach to compare the implications of a theory with the conclusions drawn from its
related experiments and observations, physicists are better able to test the validity of a theory in a
logical, unbiased, and repeatable way. To that end, experiments are performed and observations are
made in order to determine the validity or invalidity of the theory.[55]
A scientific law is a concise verbal or mathematical statement of a relation that expresses a
fundamental principle of some theory, such as Newton's law of universal gravitation.[56]
Theory and experiment
Main articles: Theoretical physics and Experimental physics

The astronaut and Earth are both in free fall

Lightning is an electric current

Theorists seek to develop mathematical models that both agree with existing experiments and
successfully predict future experimental results, while experimentalists devise and perform
experiments to test theoretical predictions and explore new phenomena. Although theory and
experiment are developed separately, they strongly affect and depend upon each other. Progress in
physics frequently comes about when experimental results defy explanation by existing theories,
prompting intense focus on applicable modelling, and when new theories generate experimentally
testable predictions, which inspire developing new experiments (and often related equipment,
possibly roping in some applied physicists to help build it).[57]
Physicists who work at the interplay of theory and experiment are called phenomenologists, who
study complex phenomena observed in experiment and work to relate them to a fundamental theory.
[58]

Theoretical physics has historically taken inspiration from philosophy; electromagnetism was unified

this way.[d] Beyond the known universe, the field of theoretical physics also deals with hypothetical
issues,[e] such as parallel universes, a multiverse, and higher dimensions. Theorists invoke these
ideas in hopes of solving particular problems with existing theories. They then explore the
consequences of these ideas and work toward making testable predictions.
Experimental physics expands, and is expanded by, engineering and technology. Experimental
physicists involved in basic research design and perform experiments with equipment such
as particle accelerators and lasers, whereas those involved in applied research often work in
industry developing technologies such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
and transistors. Feynman has noted that experimentalists may seek areas that have not been
explored well by theorists.[59]

Scope and aims

Physics involves modeling the natural world with theory, usually quantitative. Here, the path of a particle is
modeled with the mathematics of calculus to explain its behavior: the purview of the branch of physics known
as mechanics.

Physics covers a wide range of phenomena, from elementary particles (such as quarks, neutrinos,

and electrons) to the largest superclusters of galaxies. Included in these phenomena are the most
basic objects composing all other things. Therefore, physics is sometimes called the "fundamental
science".[54] Physics aims to describe the various phenomena that occur in nature in terms of simpler
phenomena. Thus, physics aims to both connect the things observable to humans to root causes,
and then connect these causes together.
For example, the ancient Chinese observed that certain rocks (lodestone and magnetite) were
attracted to one another by an invisible force. This effect was later called magnetism, which was first
rigorously studied in the 17th century. But even before the Chinese discovered magnetism,
the ancient Greeks knew of other objects such as amber, that when rubbed with fur would cause a
similar invisible attraction between the two.[60] This was also first studied rigorously in the 17th
century and came to be called electricity. Thus, physics had come to understand two observations of
nature in terms of some root cause (electricity and magnetism). However, further work in the 19th
century revealed that these two forces were just two different aspects of one force—
electromagnetism. This process of "unifying" forces continues today, and electromagnetism and
the weak nuclear force are now considered to be two aspects of the electroweak interaction. Physics
hopes to find an ultimate reason (theory of everything) for why nature is as it is (see section Current
research below for more information).[61]

Research fields
Contemporary research in physics can be broadly divided into nuclear and particle
physics; condensed matter physics; atomic, molecular, and optical physics; astrophysics;
and applied physics. Some physics departments also support physics education
research and physics outreach.[62]
Since the 20th century, the individual fields of physics have become increasingly specialised, and
today most physicists work in a single field for their entire careers. "Universalists" such as Albert
Einstein (1879–1955) and Lev Landau (1908–1968), who worked in multiple fields of physics, are
now very rare.