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The Methodology of Physics

Physics evolves through both experimental and theoretical means. Experimentation can reveal unexpected behaviors, while theoretical extrapolation and reexamination of assumptions also advance physics. Some key developments include Planck's quantum hypothesis derived from blackbody radiation observations, Dirac predicting the positron through relativistic extension of quantum theory, and Pauli hypothesizing neutrinos to preserve conservation laws in beta decay. The methodology also includes constructing idealized models that are progressively refined to better represent reality, such as early gas molecule models. The correspondence principle asserts new theories must agree with old ones where both apply, like quantum mechanics reducing to classical mechanics at small scales. Experimental physics involves detecting particles with instruments and accelerators reaching enormous energies, while theoretical physics uses mathematics to develop

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247 views3 pages

The Methodology of Physics

Physics evolves through both experimental and theoretical means. Experimentation can reveal unexpected behaviors, while theoretical extrapolation and reexamination of assumptions also advance physics. Some key developments include Planck's quantum hypothesis derived from blackbody radiation observations, Dirac predicting the positron through relativistic extension of quantum theory, and Pauli hypothesizing neutrinos to preserve conservation laws in beta decay. The methodology also includes constructing idealized models that are progressively refined to better represent reality, such as early gas molecule models. The correspondence principle asserts new theories must agree with old ones where both apply, like quantum mechanics reducing to classical mechanics at small scales. Experimental physics involves detecting particles with instruments and accelerators reaching enormous energies, while theoretical physics uses mathematics to develop

Uploaded by

nikita bajpai
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© © All Rights Reserved
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The methodology of physics

Physics has evolved and continues to evolve without any single


strategy. Essentially an experimental science, refined measurements
can reveal unexpected behaviour. On the other hand, mathematical
extrapolation of existing theories into new theoretical areas, critical
reexamination of apparently obvious but untested assumptions,
argument by symmetry or analogy, aesthetic judgment, pure
accident, and hunch—each of these plays a role (as in all of science).
Thus, for example, the quantum hypothesis proposed by the
German physicist Max Planck was based on observed departures of
the character of blackbody radiation (radiation emitted by a heated
body that absorbs all radiant energy incident upon it) from that
predicted by classical electromagnetism. The English
physicist P.A.M. Dirac predicted the existence of the positron in
making a relativistic extension of the quantum theory of
the electron. The elusive neutrino, without mass or charge, was
hypothesized by the German physicist Wolfgang Pauli as
an alternative to abandoning the conservation laws in the beta-
decay process. Maxwell conjectured that if changing magnetic fields
create electric fields (which was known to be so), then changing
electric fields might create magnetic fields, leading him to the
electromagnetic theory of light. Albert Einstein’s special theory of
relativity was based on a critical reexamination of the meaning of
simultaneity, while his general theory of relativity rests on the
equivalence of inertial and gravitational mass.

Although the tactics may vary from problem to problem, the


physicist invariably tries to make unsolved problems more tractable
by constructing a series of idealized models, with each successive
model being a more realistic representation of the actual physical
situation. Thus, in the theory of gases, the molecules are at first
imagined to be particles that are as structureless as billiard balls
with vanishingly small dimensions. This ideal picture is then
improved on step by step.

The correspondence principle, a useful guiding principle for


extending theoretical interpretations, was formulated by the Danish
physicist Niels Bohr in the context of the quantum theory. It asserts
that when a valid theory is generalized to a broader arena, the new
theory’s predictions must agree with the old one in the overlapping
region in which both are applicable. For example, the
more comprehensive theory of physical optics must yield the same
result as the more restrictive theory of ray optics
whenever wave effects proportional to the wavelength of light are
negligible on account of the smallness of that wavelength.
Similarly, quantum mechanics must yield the same results as
classical mechanics in circumstances when Planck’s constant can be
considered as negligibly small. Likewise, for speeds small compared
to the speed of light (as for baseballs in play), relativistic
mechanics must coincide with Newtonian classical mechanics.

Some ways in which experimental and theoretical physicists attack


their problems are illustrated by the following examples.

The modern experimental study of elementary particles began with


the detection of new types of unstable particles produced in the
atmosphere by primary radiation, the latter consisting mainly of
high-energy protons arriving from space. The new particles were
detected in Geiger counters and identified by the tracks they left in
instruments called cloud chambers and in photographic plates.
After World War II, particle physics, then known as high-energy
nuclear physics, became a major field of science. Today’s high-
energy particle accelerators can be several kilometres in length, cost
hundreds (or even thousands) of millions of dollars, and accelerate
particles to enormous energies (trillions of electron volts).
Experimental teams, such as those that discovered the W+, W−,
and Z quanta of the weak force at the European Laboratory for
Particle Physics (CERN) in Geneva, which is funded by its 20
European member states, can have 100 or more physicists from
many countries, along with a larger number of technical workers
serving as support personnel. A variety of visual and electronic
techniques are used to interpret and sort the huge amounts of data
produced by their efforts, and particle-physics laboratories are
major users of the most advanced technology, be it superconductive
magnets or supercomputers.

Theoretical physicists use mathematics both as a logical tool for the


development of theory and for calculating predictions of the theory
to be compared with experiment. Newton, for one, invented integral
calculus to solve the following problem, which was essential to his
formulation of the law of universal gravitation: Assuming that the
attractive force between any pair of point particles is inversely
proportional to the square of the distance separating them, how
does a spherical distribution of particles, such as Earth, attract
another nearby object? Integral calculus, a procedure for summing
many small contributions, yields the simple solution that Earth
itself acts as a point particle with all its mass concentrated at the
centre. In modern physics, Dirac predicted the existence of the
then-unknown positive electron (or positron) by finding an
equation for the electron that would combine quantum mechanics
and the special theory of relativity.

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