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 that
studies 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.
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 were often worshipped, believed to represent gods.
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 article: European science in the Middle Ages
Main article: 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

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Concepts[show]

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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

The basic domains of physics

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

Relation to other fields