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Physics is the natural science of matter, involving the study of matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. Physics is one of the most fundamental scientific disciplines. A scientist who specializes in the field of physics is called a physicist.
Physics is one of the oldest academic disciplines and, through its inclusion of astronomy, perhaps the oldest. 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. 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 and suggest new avenues of research in these and other academic disciplines such as mathematics and philosophy.
Advances in physics often enable 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; advances in thermodynamics led to the development of industrialization; and advances in mechanics inspired the development of calculus. (Full article...)
An atomic line filter (ALF) is a more effective optical band-pass filter used in the physical sciences for filtering electromagnetic radiation with precision, accuracy, and minimal signal strength loss. Atomic line filters work via the absorption or resonance lines of atomic vapors and so may also be designated an atomic resonance filter (ARF).
The three major types of atomic line filters are absorption-re-emission ALFs, Faraday filters and Voigt filters. Absorption-re-emission filters were the first type developed, and so are commonly called simply "atomic line filters"; the other two types are usually referred to specifically as "Faraday filters" or "Voigt filters". Atomic line filters use different mechanisms and designs for different applications, but the same basic strategy is always employed: by taking advantage of the narrow lines of absorption or resonance in a metallic vapor, a specific frequency of light bypasses a series of filters that block all other light. (Full article...)Did you know -
- ... that, in the Large Hadron Collider, protons move at 99.9999991% the speed of light when accelerated with the energy of 7 TeV?
- ... that, at a speed of 299,792,458 m/s, light can travel from the Earth to the Moon in 1.2 seconds?
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James Clerk Maxwell FRS FRSE (13 June 1831 – 5 November 1879) was a Scottish[1] theoretical physicist.[2] His most prominent achievement was formulating classical electromagnetic theory. This unites all previously unrelated observations, experiments, and equations of electricity, magnetism, and optics into a consistent theory.[3] Maxwell's equations demonstrate that electricity, magnetism and light are all manifestations of the same phenomenon, namely the electromagnetic field. Subsequently, all other classic laws or equations of these disciplines became simplified cases of Maxwell's equations. Maxwell's achievements concerning electromagnetism have been called the "second great unification in physics",[4] after the first one realised by Isaac Newton.
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July anniversaries
- July 1654 – Blaise Pascal's letters to Pierre de Fermat on the "Problem of Points"
- July 1820 – Hans Christian Ørsted published pamphlet about the relation between electricity and magnetism
- July 1849 – Fizeau publishes results of speed of light experiment.
- July 1914 – AT&T tested the first working transcontinental telephone line when the president of the company spoke from one coast to the other. Months later Alexander Graham Bell repeated his famous statement over the phone in New York City which was heard by Dr. Watson in San Francisco.
- July 1957 – John Bardeen, Leon Cooper and Robert Schrieffer submit detailed research report, "Theory of Superconductivity" to the Physical Review (it was published in December).
- July 1994 – Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 collides with Jupiter.
- 16 July 1945 – Trinity test, named by J. Robert Oppenheimer.
- 16 July 1969 – Apollo 11 launched.
- 20 July 1969 – Apollo 11 landed on the Moon.
- 23 July 1995 – Comet Hale-Bopp discovered.
- 2 July 1876 - Harriet Brooks was born; noted for research in nuclear transmutations and for discovering the Atomic recoil.
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Fundamentals: Concepts in physics | Constants | Physical quantities | Units of measure | Mass | Length | Time | Space | Energy | Matter | Force | Gravity | Electricity | Magnetism | Waves
Basic physics: Mechanics | Electromagnetism | Statistical mechanics | Thermodynamics | Quantum mechanics | Theory of relativity | Optics | Acoustics
Specific fields: Acoustics | Astrophysics | Atomic physics | Molecular physics | Optical physics | Computational physics | Condensed matter physics | Nuclear physics | Particle physics | Plasma physics
Tools: Detectors | Interferometry | Measurement | Radiometry | Spectroscopy | Transducers
Background: Physicists | History of physics | Philosophy of physics | Physics education | Physics journals | Physics organizations
Other: Physics in fiction | Physics lists | Physics software | Physics stubs
Physics topics
Classical physics traditionally includes the fields of mechanics, optics, electricity, magnetism, acoustics and thermodynamics. The term Modern physics is normally used for fields which rely heavily on quantum theory, including quantum mechanics, atomic physics, nuclear physics, particle physics and condensed matter physics. General and special relativity are usually considered to be part of modern physics as well.
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Sources
- ^ "James Clerk Maxwell". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 24 February 2010.
Scottish physicist best known for his formulation of electromagnetic theory
- ^ James Clerk Maxwell
- ^ "James Clerk Maxwell". IEEE Global History Network. 2011. Retrieved 2011-06-21.
- ^ Nahin, P.J. (1992). "Maxwell's grand unification". IEEE Spectrum. 29 (3): 45. doi:10.1109/6.123329.