PHYSICAL WORLD

1.1 WHAT IS PHYSICA;L WORLD ?

Humans have always been curious about the world around them. The night sky
with its bright celestial objects has fascinated humans since time immemorial. The
regular repetition of the day and night, the annual cycle of seasons, the eclipses,
tides and volcanoes, the rainbow have always been a source of wonder. The world
has an astonishing variety of materials and a bewildering diversity of life and
behavior. The inquiring and imaginative human mind has responded to wonder and
awe of nature in different ways. One kind of response from earliest times has been
observed the physical environment carefully, look for any meaningful patterns and
relation in natural phenomena , and build and use new tools to interact with nature.
This human endeavour led, in course of time, to modern science and technology.

The word science originate from the Latin word ‘Scientia’ meaning ‘to know’. The
Sanskrit word Vijnan and Arabic word ‘eulum’ convey similar meaning, namely
‘knowledge’. Science, in board sence, is as old as human species. The early
civilization of Egypt, India ,China, Greek, Mesopotamia and many others made
vital contribution to its progress. From the sixteenth century onwards, great strides
were made in science in Europe. By the middle of the twentieth century, science
had become a truly international enterprise, with many cultures and countries
contributing its rapid growth.

What is Science and what is the so-called Scientific Method? Science is a

systematic attempt to understand natural phenomena In as much detail and depth as
possible, and use the knowledge so gained to predict, modify and control
phenomena. Science is exploring, experimenting and predictinf from what we see
around us. The curiosity to learn about the world, unraveling the truth of nature is
the first step towards the discovery of science. The scientific method involves
several interconnected steps: Systematic observations, controlled experiments,
qualitative and quantitative reasoning, mathematical modeling, prediction and
verification or falsification of theories. There is much philosophical debate about
the nature and method of science that we need not to discuss here.

The interplay pf theory and observation is basis to the progress of science. Science is
ever dynamic. There is no final theory in science and no unquestioned authority
among scientists. As observations improve in detail and precision or experiments yield
new results , theories must account for them, if necessary, by introducing
modification.
2

Sometimes modification may not be drastic and may lie within the framework of
existing theory. For example Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) examined the extensive
data in planetary motion collected by Tycho Brahe (1571-1601), the planetary
circular orbit in heliocentric theory (sun in centre of the solar system) imagined by
Nicolas Copernicus(1473-1543) had to be replace by eplliptical orbits to fit data
better. Occasionally, however, the existing theory is simply unable to explain new
observations. This causes a major upheaval in science. In the beginning of twentieth
century, it was realized that Newtonian mechanics, till than a very successful theory,
but could not explain some of most basic features of atomic phenomena. Similarly,
then accepted wave picture of light failed to explain the photoelectric effect
properly(The photoelectric effect refers to the emission, or ejection, of electrons from the
surface of, generally, a metal in response to incident light.). This led to the development
of a radically new theory “Quantum Mechanics” to deal with atomic and molecular
phenomena.

Just a new experiment may suggest an alternative theoretical model, a theoretical

advance may suggest what to look for in some experiment. The result of experiment
of scattering of alpha particles( A positively charged particle that consists of two
protons and two neutrons bound together.) by gold foil, in 1911 by Ernest
Rutherford (1871-1937) established the nuclear model of atom, which then
became the basis of quantum theory of hydrogen atom given in 1913 by Niels
Bohr (1885-1962). On the other-hand, the concept of antiparticle was first
introduced theoretically by Paul Dirac (1902-1984) in 1930 and confirmed two
years later by the experiment discovery of positron (anti-electron) by Carl
Anderson.
Physics is a basic discipline in the category of Natural Science, which also includes
other discipline like Chemistry and Biology. The Physics word comes from a Greek
word meaning nature. It’s Sanskrit equivalent is ‘Bhautiki’ that is used to refer to the
study of the physical world. A precise definition of this discipline is neither nor
necessary. We can broadly define Physics as a study of basic law of nature and their
manifestation in different natural phenomena. The scope of physics is described
briefly in the next section. Here we remark on two principles thrusts in physics :
unification and reduction
1. Unification: It is the process of unifying the various distinct laws of
physics into a single theory that explains or validates all the different
phenomena. In other words, we can say that the diverse phenomena of
nature are expressed in few terms of laws and concepts.
2. Reduction: It is the process of breaking a complex system of the equations
into simpler parts.
3

In physics, we attempt to explain diverse physicsl phenomena in terms of a few

concepts and laws; The efforts is to see the physical world as manifestation of some
universal laws in the same law of gravitation [given by Newton] describes the fall of
an apple to the ground, the motion of the moon around the earth and the motion of
planets around the sun. Similarly, the basic laws of electromagnetism (Maxwell’s
equation) govern all electric and magnetic phenomena. The attempts to unify
fundamental forces of nature [ section 1.4]reflect this same quest for unification.
A related effort is to derive the properties of a bigger, more complex, system from the
properties and interactions of its constituent simple parts. This approach is called as
Reductionism and is at the heart of physics. For example, subject of thermodynamics
develop in nineteenth century, also deals with bulk system in terms of macroscopic
quantities such as temperature, internal energy, entropy, etc. Subsequently, the
subjects of Kinetic theory and statistical mechanics interpreted these quantities in
terms of the properties of the molecular constituents of the bulk system. In particular,
the temperature was seen to be related to the average kinetic energy of molecule of the
system.

1.2 SCOPE AND EXPERIMENT OF PHYSICS

We can get some idea of the scope of physics by looking at its various sub-discipline.
Basically, there are two domains of interest : macroscopic and microscopic. The
macroscopic domain includes phenomena at the laboratory, terrestrial and
astronomical scales. The microscopic domain includes atomic, molecular and nuclear
phenomena. Classical physics deals mainly with macroscopic phenomena and
includes subjects like Mechanics, Electrodynamics, Optics and Thermodynamics.
Mechanics founded on Newton’s law of motion and the law of gravitation is
concerned with motion (or equilibrium) of particles, rigid and deformable bodies, and
general system of particles. The propulsion (the force that pushes or drives a vehicle,
etc. forward)of a rocket or a jet of ejecting gases, propagation of water waves and
sound waves in air, the equilibrium(a state of balance, especially between forces or
influences that are working in opposite ways) of a bent rod under a load, etc.., are
problems of mechanics. Electrodynamics deals with electric and magnetic phenomena
associated with charged and magnetic bodies. It’s basic law were given by Coulomb,
Oersted, Ampere and Faraday, and encapsulated by Maxwell in his famous set of
equations. The motion of a current-carrying conductor in a magnetic field 1
4