About years ago, the Greek philosopher Thales was credited with discovering electrical energy. By rubbing fur against a piece of amber, Thales found that dust and other particles clung to the amber with what is known as an electrostatic force. And in BC, because it burned slower and longer than wood and provided more heat, the Chinese began to use coal as a source of fuel.
Found to be a superior source of energy, this fuel was introduced to the Western World by Marco Polo in , and was used for countless centuries thereafter. During the s, the Netherlands discovered reserves of coal and began providing it to countries throughout Europe. In the s England discovered its own source of coal and became both a manufacturer and distributor to neighboring countries.
Within a short while, England broadened its distribution route, becoming the world's largest producer and supplier. Within this same time period, Europeans discovered solar heat had the ability to grow plants indoors during cold weather months.
During the s, due to diminished forested territories, England's primary source of fuel was coal. Further contributing to the demand for coal at this time was the invention of the steam engine. Devised to pump water out of coal mines, later models of the steam engine sported an increased number of cylinders and a more efficient method for burning the coal.
Eventually, the newly improved steam engine served as the primary impetus for the Industrial Revolution. During the 19 th century, the Industrial Revolution was well under way. Beginning in England and moving throughout Europe, North America, and the rest of the world, the Revolution was marked by mass production, the by-product of newly introduced machinery. With the advent of such flourishing mechanized activity came an unprecedented need for additional sources of energy.
Along with the steam engine, the first steamboat debuted in and the first steam locomotive in Again, with new technology came an increased need for productive, high-capacity engines, and more inexpensive forms of energy.
During this era, scientists were aware that energy supplies were limited and began to seek out alternative sources, for example, solar energy, hydroelectric energy, and geothermal energy. Not only were they worried about coal shortages, but they were also concerned about the residual effects exhaust fumes, and so on caused by coal's combustible output fossil fuels.
During the mids, alternative energy sources were the focus of a great deal of study, research, and experimentation. Mouchout developed solar energy in Willsie, Eneas, et al. Physics helps you to help others. Medicine without physics technology would be barbaric. Schools without qualified physics teachers cut their students off from a host of well-respected, well paying careers. Physics majors do better on MCATs than bio or chem majors. More options, in fact, than almost any other college subject.
Conversely, not taking physics closes the door to more career options. Although the number of job ads specifically asking for physicists is smaller than, e.
Of the three top science-related positions in the U. Many people interact with technology developed or improved by particle physics. Over the decades, particle physics has developed the technologies needed to very accurately track particles as they collide and transform into hundreds of other particles. Prescription medications are often the first choice, and many medications are developed at particle accelerators called synchrotrons, which evolved out of particle physics research.
These accelerator-based machines produce exceptionally intense beams of X-rays that can determine the precise structure of viruses and mutations that cause disease, and screen potential drug candidates to find the ones that will most likely work.
Drugs developed in this way include Kaletra, one of the most-prescribed AIDS medications, and Tamiflu, an antiviral treatment that slows the spread of influenza. Particle physics has also made possible and advanced other treatment options, including accelerator-based therapy. Each year, tens of millions of patients receive X-ray, proton and ion therapy to treat cancer at more than 10, hospitals and medical facilities around the world.
In an average day, nearly everyone uses products or technologies that stem from or were improved with particle physics. The knowledge and tools developed in particle physics are also enabling advancements in other areas of science, spurring developments in biology, chemistry, materials science and computer science. Its primary aim is to provide researchers with a computing platform that is stable, secure and easily customized.
Managed and distributed by Fermilab in collaboration with other labs and universities, Scientific Linux has been downloaded more than 10 million times, free of charge. Based on open source code provided by the company RedHat, Scientific Linux is used by researchers in laboratories and university groups around the world, including the one led by Akemi Matsuno-Yagi, a biologist at The Scripps Research Institute in California.
Matsuno-Yagi depends on Scientific Linux for her research into one of the hottest areas of biology: molecular medicine. Matsuno-Yagi says running her equipment and databases on Scientific Linux makes her research more efficient and cost effective. If she were instead to use proprietary software, Matsuno-Yagi says, she would be required to upgrade to the newest version every year or two, which would involve rewriting her home-grown software each time—no insignificant undertaking.
The theory can allow us to predict weather patterns but is also the main reason why meteorologists can get it so wrong - minor fluctuations can change the direction of a weather front. There are more links between physics and chemistry than atoms. Chemical physics fuses both sciences and incorporates such mutual areas as atomics, molecular physics and solid state chemistry.
This is an umbrella term for anything with a mutual interest in chemistry and physics but does not include physical chemistry which is a related but slightly different subdiscipline and more a branch of chemistry than physics. Chemical physics studies the chemical reactions of substances through applied atomic physics.
It's interested in of electrons, nuclei, and atoms and molecules. Physical chemistry examines the physical nature of chemistry and chemical molecules and compounds. Related to mathematical physics, computational physics is the use of powerful mathematical and other models to test physics and other theories with a physical angle.
This is one of the oldest subdisciplines of physics that uses information technology Many have argued whether it is theoretical or applied as it takes theories and tests them. However, it is also a practical use in collecting data from physical sources.
The SETI program uses computational physics looking for signs of extraterrestrial life, filtering out natural background noise. Sadly, it has never been replicated and although our best chance of discovering extraterrestrial life will require powerful computing, we have not achieved it yet. Arguably, this is the discipline that physics was before it became physics the science.
Cosmology is related to astronomy and astrophysics but instead of looking at mathematical probabilities, physical structure, motions, relationships, gravity et al, it looks at all of this data for evidence of the formation of the universe, tracing its evolutionary history back to the Big Bang and those precious few seconds after the universe's formation. It also seeks to work out when the universe will end and what will happen next.
Simply, it is the study of the universe on the largest possible scale. This is the area of physics and astronomy concerned with string and superstring theory, dark matter and energy, and the theories concerning the possibility of the multiverse Temperature is an important influence of physical material.
Liquid matter turns solid when cold enough and to gas when hot enough. The simple physical effect is the slowing down and compacting of physical material. Cryophysics and cryogenics go beyond merely the study of temperature - it is an examination of the effects of extremely low temperatures, typically working in the Kelvin scale rather than Celsius or Fahrenheit.
In popular science, cryogenics is the belief that the human body can be reduced to these temperatures artificially to preserve organic material and prevent natural decomposition. But cryophysics and cryogenics are about far more than the preservation of organic matter - it is about studying properties and effects on both organic and inorganic matter.
Crystalline solids have an interesting molecular bonding that differs from all other matter. While the analysis of the structure of the physical material is not unique in crystallography, how such materials as diamond functions and fits together can help us understand other matter The science grew as a result of the discovery of laser and its many industrial, research, and medical applications.
It has many applications today in biomedical research, chemistry, physics, but also in areas we never perceived such as genetics and the treatment of diseases such as cancer, all because we can manufacture tools with precision and use the unique structure of crystals. If two sciences were never supposed to go together, those branches would be physics and economics.
Yet both use mathematics at their core. Econophysics is the use of physical principles, particularly those that are mathematical in nature including statistics 29 , statistical probability, stochastic processes probability and randomness and even chaos theory see above as applied to unpredictable problems. In fact, the use of physics and a modeling system goes back to the birth of classical liberalism and that method of economics that rose around the Industrial Revolution.
It allows for a non-static system in economics, one subject to irrational thoughts and actions on the part of the elements i. The science of electronics is not the actual devices, but the science that makes them possible. This is a subdiscipline of physics that examines all elements of the development of devices that use electricity, but it also looks at the properties of electrons when operating in a vacuum, through gases, or the effect and impact of conducting material.
It is concerned with elements of an electronic device including data transmission and storage, heat, transistors, LEDs and other diodes, circuits and circuit boards, and technologies designed to connect to them. The main challenge of electronics at present is to continue to increase in functionality while reducing power consumption.
This subarea of physics examines electromagnetic force. This is an interaction that takes place between electrically charged particles, creating electromagnetic, electrical and magnetic fields and light. Electromagnetism can manifest itself in many ways with lightning being one of the most common, but it is not the only example. Electromagnetism is vital for both organic and inorganic objects and their functions.
Electricity and magnetism were long considered two separate but complementary forces, but we know now that they are related and part of the same thing, hence why this subdiscipline is required - to study the causes and effects of electromagnetism in everyday use. Fluid mechanics is an applied area of physics that concerns the motions and properties of substances in a fluid state - plasmas, liquids, and gases. It is broken down into two areas: fluid dynamics and fluid statics. Fluid dynamics is not limited to physics but is included in any science that has a professional interest in the motion of the fluids listed here.
Typical applications include examining star formation astronomy , ocean oscillations and forcings meteorology and environmental science , how wind turbines function and can harness wind power environmental engineering , seismological activity.
It even has medical applications in studying the functions of blood within the circulatory system Fluid statics is the examination of fluidic substances when they are not in motion. Part environmental science, part engineering, and part physics, geophysics has massive implications and uses elsewhere.
It's used in archaeology , anthropology , geology and paleontology to discover buried remains. It's used to create maps of features over small and large areas. But at its core, geophysics is the characterization of topography and subsurface features as a physical geography , their physical attributes and effects, based on 3D models The technology may not have many uses for applied physics, but it has broad and potentially limitless uses elsewhere. But how does it work? It measures the Earth's shape, magnetic and gravitational fields, geological composition, topographical features and structures, and all associated dynamics.
Although it looks for hard buried remains as anomalies, it can also be used to examine the water cycle. Laser physics, also known as laser science 33 , is the study of the activities, applications, attributes and nature of lasers. A laser light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation is an intense beam of electromagnetic light of a single wavelength or spectrum color, It utilizes quantum electronics and optical cavity design as well as designing technology and media to use laser for example, Blu Ray discs that use a blue laser to read the data stored on it.
There is also industrial uses such as laser precision cutting, and medical uses such as soft tissue destruction; more recently is laser eye surgery used to correct defective vision.
This is one of the theoretical areas of physics that looks towards applied mathematics to solve some of the biggest conundrums and problems that exist in physics 34 but also applied research that uses math as a major tool.
Some of the issues that have utilized mathematical physics include calculating the size of our galaxy by pinpointing the stars within it and working out distances. It has fueled interest in the field and drive the SETI program. There are also used in statistical probability,. Therefore, it concerns the motion and gravitational effects of stars on planets but also studying the motion of aircraft, machinery, individual parts, and anything else that moves When an object is understood, it is possible to predict its future and past movements.
It is as much math as it is physics and is largely credited to Sir Isaac Newton who identified the possibility of movement of objects based on force. But it remains relevant today in aerospace engineering amongst other things; the reason it was given a new name was due to its limitations elsewhere and new branches of science that developed in the wake of Einstein's later equations.
Medical science is a multidisciplinary approach, one of the most important sciences in the world today, and one of the areas that have benefited most from medical applications. Medical physics is any application of physics to the medical world.
This can include nuclear medicine in the treatment of cancers and other growths, ultrasound to perform scans of body interiors to measure tumors or check on the progress of a fetus, radiology such as x-rays, and utilizing both theory and practical physics It can also be used to design and implement new medical technologies for treatment and scanning.
Although largely an Earth Science, meteorology is built on a strong foundation of physical principles.
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