What is physics? If you type that question into an internet search engine, you will get over 66 million hits. A few give unexpected answers (did you know that ‘Physics was an instrumental band from San Diego, California, USA, that had featured a rotating cast of musicians...’?) but most links on the first page take you to something about physics being the study of matter and energy, time and space. Few physicists would disagree with that, but it’s so broad as to be not very helpful — after all, what else is there in the universe?
Some people argue that physics is about explaining the natural world in terms of a small number of fundamental objects, forces and principles. The UK’s Office of Science (part of the Department of Energy) included this idea in the web pages they wrote for the Year of Physics in 2005: ‘It explains ordinary matter as combinations of a dozen fundamental particles (quarks and leptons), interacting through four fundamental forces.’ You might like to think how this idea relates to the physics you are studying at the moment, and to articles that you read in PHYSICS REVIEW; quite often, it is the underlying laws and principles that you need to focus on rather than the details of a particular situation.
Your organisation does not have access to this article.
Sign up today to give your students the edge they need to achieve their best grades with subject expertise
Subscribe