What Is Physics and Why Does It Matter?

[Leo Liu]

The history of physical science is only a few hundred years. However, after such a short period of development, we are now able to make precise models for things as tiny as quarks to things as large as galaxies. Many of those models, such as Newton's laws, have practical value to our everyday lives.

Though we have been taught physics since high school, never did anyone tell me what physics really is. The teachers just made us learn how to apply the models to questions that appear on the tests and exams so that we can get good grades. I believe physics is more than that, yet I find it hard to answer the question of what physics is due to my ignorance.

What exactly is physics? What do you think physics is? What do you like/dislike about it?

Any thought will be appreciated.

 

[Keith_McClary]

One could say that Maxwell's equations are physics, and the rest of the EM textbook is just math.

 

[Baluncore]

The aim of the physics game is to discover the mathematical rules of the game.

Physics is the collection of all the mathematical interface models that relate the physical things we encounter in our environment.

Engineering is the energy economics of changing our physical environment.

 

[phinds]

The history of physical science is only a few hundred years.

Nonsense. Physical science has been studied for thousands of years. At the very least it can be traced back to Aristotle some 2,400 years ago.

 

[phinds]

What exactly is physics?

Physics is our (humans) attempt to explain and describe the universe and everything physical in it. We do that with theories, mathematical models, and, finally, experimentation to verify our theories and models.

 

[russ_watters]

https://www.google.com/search?q=what+is+physics

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physics

 

[jbriggs444]

What do you think physics is?

It's like pornography. To paraphrase justice Potter Stewart: I may not know what it is, but I know it when I see it.

 

[DennisN]

What do you like about it? [physics]

It can be fun, cool, entertaining, inspiring, thought-provoking and very useful.

What do you dislike about it?

Not anything I can think of.