Physics is one of the natural sciences and one of the oldest academic disciplines whose main goal is to understand the behavior of the universe. Physics, chemistry, biology, and some branches of mathematics form the pure sciences, also called the fundamental sciences, and have been part of natural philosophy.
They were created with the aim of studying natural phenomena, that is, all events that can be described, i.e, This goal is achieved through the rigorous application of the scientific method, the ultimate goal of which is to provide a simplified outline or model of the phenomenon being described: the set of physical principles and laws associated with a given class of observed phenomena defines a deductive, consistent, and relatively self-consistent physical theory, typically constructed from experimental induction.
The meaning and scope of physics have evolved over time precisely because of its speculative and interpretive character. The ancient world remained closely linked to philosophy, except for the causalistic interpretation of certain phenomena by the school of Alexandria. This methodology changed only with the Renaissance, following the introduction of the experimental method, which marked the beginning of classical physics. In the subsequent development of physics, there was a subdivision into different branches corresponding to the many aspects under which natural phenomena manifest themselves: mechanics, thermology, acoustics, electrology, optics, magnetism.
This subdivision, with its derived branches, is followed to a first approximation and for reasons of practical order, derived from the close relationship with technology, but it does not respond to the problem opened up by the great mass of discoveries made in the 20th century. Thus, the methodological direction of modernity was born, which began with the rejection of the mechanism proper to classical physics, the introduction of new methods of experimental investigation and new mathematical models and, above all, two revolutionary theories: that of relativity and that of quantum mechanics.
Contemporary physics aims not so much at formulating specific laws as at studying and understanding the intimate structure of matter and defining the real connections and interdependencies between phenomena occurring at each level of organisation of matter itself. The extreme specialisation of research has led, on the one hand, to the definition of the fields of study of physics in the strict sense (atomic physics; nuclear physics; molecular physics; solid-state physics; plasma physics; space physics; quantum physics) and, on the other hand, to the emergence of interdisciplinary sciences (astrophysics, chemical physics, biophysics, etc.) which analyse and interpret the interdependence of phenomena. On the other hand, the emergence of interdisciplinary sciences (astrophysics, chemistry, physics, biophysics, etc.) that analyse and interpret the interdependent relationships between the microcosm and the macrocosm, both understood as the result of the intimate connection, arrangement and functioning of essentially equal sets of infinitesimal entities.
Among the interdisciplinary sciences in which physics plays a leading role are medical physics, which provides medicine with very powerful tools for diagnosis and treatment, and computational physics, which on the other hand provides physics with a mathematical and computational tool so powerful that it constitutes a veritable new branch of physics alongside theoretical and experimental physics.
eBook index
- Branches of Physics
- History of Physics
- Metrology
- Mechanics
- Thermodynamics
- Electromagnetism
- Optics
- Acoustics