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What is Physics in your opinion?

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Intro to Physics�Mrs. Coyle

Physics is the study of the physical world

including motion, energy, light, electricity, magnetism, sound etc.

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Physics

  • Mechanics
    • Kinematics (motion)
    • Statics, Dynamics (forces)
  • Electricity
  • Magnetism
  • Waves
  • Optics (geometric optics)
  • Nuclear Physics (Modern Physics)

Golden Gate Bridge

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Physics

  • The most basic science.
  • The foundation of other sciences
  • What?
  • Why?
  • How?
  • When?

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Aristotle (Greek 4th Century BC)

  • Logic
  • Studied motion
    • Natural and violent motion
    • 4 elements:

earth, water, air, fire

  • Geocentric view
  • Aristarchos(310-230 BC), disagreed and believed in heliocentric view.

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Democritus

  • Greek who devised the first atomic theory.

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Galileo Galilei (1564 AD)�

  • Father of the scientific method (along with the Englishman Francis Bacon 1500’s).
  • Studied motion.
  • Agreed with the Greek Aristarchos and Polish Copernicus (1473-1543) on heliocentric view point. This lead to his house arrest.

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Isaac Newton

    • English (1642-1727) related force and motion and studied light.

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A Glance at Some Scientists who Studied Electricity and Magnetism

  • American Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), experimented with electricity.
  • Michael Faraday (1791-1867), English with a grammar school education,

found that a moving magnet induces electric current to flow.

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The BIG Guy

  • Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
  • Relativity: there is no absolute frame of reference that is at rest.
  • Photoelectric effect (Light is quantized) (Nobel Prize)
  • Related mass and energy E=mc2

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The Scientific Method

  • Steps followed during scientific investigations.

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Scientific Method

  • Recognize a problem
  • Hypothesis- educated guess, testable
    • When tested and confirmed becomes a law
  • Observation -measurement, data collection (experiment)
  • Theory – information including tested hypothesis
  • Conclusion

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Law or Principle

  • A hypothesis that has been repeatedly tested and not contradicted.

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  • Laws change or are abandoned when contradicted.

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Scientific Fact

  • Observation
  • May change

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Science and Technology

  • Science 🡪 Pure
  • Technology 🡪 Applied

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Math and Units

  • Math- the language of Physics
  • Units SI – International System
    • Basic Units MKS
      • Meter m
      • Mass kg
      • Time s
  • National Bureau of Standards
  • Prefixes