Introduction to Physics

Physics (from ancient Greek: φυσική (ἐπιστήμη), romanized: physikḗ (epistḗmē), lit. “knowledge of nature”, from φύσις → phýsis, “nature”) is the natural science that studies matter, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force.

Physics is the science that aims to study natural phenomena and their general laws by applying scientific methods. Originally a branch of philosophy, physics was called natural philosophy at least until the eighteenth century; only after the codification of the scientific method by Galileo Galilei, and thanks to continuous developments and discoveries in the scientific field, has the term “physics” been definitively distinguished from that of philosophy.

The meaning and scope of physics have evolved over time precisely because of its speculative and interpretative nature; apart from the casuistic interpretation of some phenomena by the School of Alexandria, physics remained closely linked to philosophy. This methodology changed only with the Renaissance, after the introduction of the experimental method that marked the beginning of the classical period.

In the subsequent development of physics, there was a subdivision into distinct sectors corresponding to the many aspects under which natural phenomena manifest themselves: mechanics, thermology, acoustics, electrology, optics, and magnetism. This subdivision, with its derived branches, is followed in a first approximation and for practical reasons, derived from the close relationship with technology, but it does not respond to the problems opened by the great mass of discoveries made in the twentieth century. The methodological approach of modern physics has been outlined, starting from the rejection of the mechanism typical of classical physics, from the introduction of new methods of experimental investigation and new mathematical models, and above all from two revolutionary theories: relativity and quantum mechanics.

Contemporary physics is not so much concerned with formulating specific laws as it is with studying and understanding the intimate structure of matter and defining the real connections and interdependencies between the phenomena that occur at each level of the organization of matter itself. The extreme specialization of research has led, on the one hand, to the definition of the fields of study of physics in the strict sense and, on the other hand, to the emergence of interdisciplinary sciences, which analyze and interpret the interdependent relationships between the microcosm and the macrocosm, both understood as a result of the intimate connection, arrangement and functionality of sets of infinitesimal entities that are essentially equal.

Among the interdisciplinary sciences in which physics is a protagonist, there is medical physics, which provides medicine with powerful tools for diagnosis and treatment, and computational physics, which is a mathematical and computer science tool provided to physics, so powerful that it constitutes a real new branch of physics, alongside theoretical and experimental physics.

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