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Revision as of 16:12, 1 July 2008
The Physics Portal
Physics (from Greek φυσική (ἐπιστήμη), i.e. "knowledge of nature", from φύσις, physis "nature"), is the natural science that involves the study of matter (anything that has mass and occupies space) and its motion (movement from place to another) through space and time, light and its propagation, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.
Physics is one of the oldest academic disciplines, perhaps the oldest through its inclusion of astronomy. Evidence exists that the earliest civilizations dating back to beyond 3000 BCE, such as the Sumerians, Ancient Egyptians, and the Indus Valley Civilization, all had a predictive knowledge and a very basic understanding of the motions of the Sun, Moon, and stars. Although originally part of other physical sciences and mathematics, Physics emerged to become a unique modern science during the Scientific Revolution of the 16th century.
Physics is both significant and influential, in part because advances in its understanding have often translated into new technologies, but also because new ideas in physics often resonate with other sciences, mathematics, and philosophy. For example, advances in the understanding of electromagnetism or nuclear physics led directly to the development of new products which have dramatically transformed modern-day society (e.g., television, computers, domestic appliances, atomic power, and nuclear weapons); advances in thermodynamics led to the development of motorized transport and advances in aviation engineering; and advances in mechanics inspired the development of calculus.
Physics also has philosophical implications. It can be historically traced back to ancient Greek philosophy. From Thales' first attempt to characterize matter to Democritus' deduction that matter ought to reduce to an invariant state, the Ptolemaic astronomy of a crystalline firmament, and Aristotle's book Physics, different Greek philosophers advanced their own theories of nature. Well into the 18th century, physics was known as "Natural philosophy". By the 19th century, physics was realized as a positive science and a distinct discipline separate from philosophy and the other sciences. Physics, as with the rest of science, relies on philosophy of science to give an adequate description of the scientific method.
Selected article
Uranium is a silver-gray metallic chemical element in the actinide series of the periodic table that has the symbol U and atomic number 92. It has 92 protons and electrons, 6 of them valence electrons. Uranium has the highest atomic weight of the naturally occurring elements. It occurs naturally in low concentrations (a few parts per million) in soil, rock and water, and is commercially extracted from uranium-bearing minerals such as uraninite. There are many current applications of uranium, including the fissile explosive material used in nuclear weapons, fuel for nuclear power plants, high density bullets, and, prior to the discovery of the harmful effects of its radiation, glass and ceramic dyes, and in luminescent paints...
Selected picture
The Yucca Flat area of the Nevada Test Site evincing the underground nuclear tests made by the United States government.
Did you know...
Physics 1
Physics 2
Physics 3
Physics 4
Physics 5
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Physics news
- November 29, 2013. Trying to determine the nature of dark energy and dark matter from intensive South Pole Telescope data collections. See: Smithsonian online.
- November 26, 2013. The 2nd Bangkok International Conference on Biological Engineering & Natural Science scheduled for January 18, 2014 to January 20, 2014. See: Nature events directory.
- November 26, 2013. Chang'e 3 is a lunar exploration mission operated by China National Space Administration, incorporating a robotic lander and a rover. During this second phase of the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program, Chang'e 3 is scheduled for launch 1 December 2013. See: Nature News
- October 9, 2013. With an online academic journal to be made available Spring 2014, Nature Publishing Group will fill a noted weak area of research - data sets that are often not published or only partially published will be published in this new journal. See: Nature Editorial.
- October 8, 2013. Peter Higgs and François Englert, win the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics for the theoretical discovery of a mechanism that contributes to our understanding of the origin of mass of subatomic particles, and which recently was confirmed through the discovery of the predicted fundamental particle, by the ATLAS and CMS experiments at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider. Nobelprize.org
August anniversaries
- 2 August 1932 – The positron is discovered by Carl D. Anderson.
- 2 August 1939 – Einstein and Leó Szilárd urge Franklin D. Roosevelt to begin the Manhattan project.
- 3 August 1958 – USS Nautilus under the Arctic ice cap.
- 3 August 1972 – U.S. Senate ratifies Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.
Birthdays
- 1820 - John Tyndall 2 August
- 1871 - Ernest Rutherford 30 August
- 1887 - Erwin Schrödinger 12 August
- 1902 - Paul Dirac 8 August
- 1931 – Roger Penrose 8 August
- 1934 - Valery Bykovsky 2 August
- 1951 - Edward Witten 26 August
- 1959 – Koichi Tanaka 3 August
Deaths
- 2 August 1922 – Alexander Graham Bell
- 3 August 1942 – Richard Willstätter, Nobel laureate
- 28 August 2006 - Melvin Schwartz, Nobel laureate
Things you can do
Summary
- Edit a physics article
- Whether you are an expert or a novice, be bold, improve an article by editing it. Practice in the sandbox if you must. But hurry back to fix that glaring error that has been bothering you.
- Join WikiProject Physics.
- Watch the WikiProject Physics talk page for physics-related issues on Wikipedia.
- Improve Physics Portal.
- Add to Did you know and upcoming anniversaries.
- Add new Selected articles and Selected pictures to the queues.
- Add to Physics news.
- Review articles
- Assign importance and quality to unassessed articles (See Physics quality control)
- Review an article for techno babble and report confusing sections in articles talk page. (Give enough detail to help the editors.)
- Advanced Editing
- Expand a physics stub.
- Fix a page needing attention: Modern physics, Classical physics and other physics topics.
- Create a requested article.
- Add a requested image.
- Check out other physics-related WikiProjects: WikiProject Science, WikiProject Fluid dynamics, WikiProject Elements.
Check list for physics novices and experts new to wikipedia
- Edit a physics article
- Whether you are an expert or a novice, be bold, improve an article by editing it. Practice in the sandbox if you must. But hurry back to fix that glaring error that has been bothering you.
- Register with Wikipedia for a user name. (See the username policy)
- Visit the help page
- Add articles to your watch list.
- Check your watchlist on regular basis
- Revert an obvious vandalism edit
- Remove unnecessary jargon.
- Edit your user page to tell Wikipedia enough about you to help other editors get to know you
- Review an article and make a useful comment on the talk page
- Add your name to the WikiProject Physics members list
Activities for physics novices and experts familiar with wikipedia
- Edit a physics article
- Add your name to the WikiProject Physics members list
- Revert Vandalism
- Add or improve diagrams and figures
- Assign importance and quality to unassessed articles (See Physics quality control)
- Review article for techno babble and suggest areas that need improving on talk page (or add clean up tag.)
- Review, nominate, or submit a physics education article in Wikiversity:Second Journal of Science
- Fix a page needing attention
Categories
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.
Physics textbook
Related portals
Associated Wikimedia
The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:
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Commons
Free media repository -
Wikibooks
Free textbooks and manuals -
Wikidata
Free knowledge base -
Wikinews
Free-content news -
Wikiquote
Collection of quotations -
Wikisource
Free-content library -
Wikispecies
Directory of species -
Wikiversity
Free learning tools -
Wikivoyage
Free travel guide -
Wiktionary
Dictionary and thesaurus
