THE HARD UNIVERSE

Physics is the study of the properties and interrelationships of matter and energy, except those involving biological or chemical reaction. Divided into sub-specialisations such as mechanics, optics, electromagnetism, the study of heat and understanding the structure of the universe, it is one of the most popular areas of science.
Previously known as natural philosophy, physics can be said to have really started with Archimedes, who in 250BC, was said to have run naked from his bath screaming ‘eureka.’

THE FIRST PHYSICS

This fabled outburst was due to his understanding of buoyancy and water displacement – i.e. when a physical body enters a body of water, the water rises. This and other ideas led Archimedes to manipulate physical forces to device all manner of machines.
No further major advances were made in physics until 1600, when William Gilbert understood the properties of magnetism. He even argued that Earth itself was a magnet. However, within a few years physics was to rise with Galileo – funnily enough by realising that things fall, and why they do so.
In effect, about 1608 he experimented with falling bodies, realising that they fell at the same speed, regardless of weight. Going on to realise the forces involved with a pendulum, he had provided evidence of a mystery that had to be resolved.

GRAVITY AND THINGS

Galileo died in 1642, and in that year Isaac Newton was born. Working on optics and devising the calculus, Newton went on to validate science by devising provable laws of motion and bodies that led to a mechanistic view of the world and the universe. Becoming known as the first great scientist, he gave us the theory of universal gravitation, where all bodies exert a force on all other bodies proportional to their size. In such a way, bodies are held in place, or are influenced by the gravitational pull of other bodies.
Extending his work into motion, Newton further placed laws upon action, arguing that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Following Newton, the world could never be the same again.

ELECTROMAGNETISM

So wide was his work that when, in 1690, Christians Huygens devised his wave theory of light, Newton was hot on his tail with his corpuscular theory, where a luminous g body emits particles of light.
The truth of this argument was not, yet, to be settled, but there was to be a progression of ideas in physics that were to lead to a bringing together of magnetism, light, and the growing understanding of electricity.
This began with the identification of electromagnetism in 1819 by Hans Oersted. This was soon to be further understood by Michael Faraday. The relationship between electricity and magnetism was explained by an electric current being surrounded by a magnetic field.
However, it took until 1873, and James Maxwell, to bring light into the same system. Light, argued Maxwell, was an electromagnetic radiation.

CONSERVING THINGS

Such ideas were soon to lead to the ultimate success in physics, whereby universal forces became interrelated and led to the universe itself. In 1847 a further element was put in place by James Joule who understood heat as kinetic energy.
But a strange phenomenon seemed to be occurring. Physical forces seemed to be trapped in a closed system, where energies may change, but always remain constant. Noted by Julius von Mayer, it was to lead to the law of conservation of energy.
Physics was proving a mechanistic world in which motion and bodies acted in predictable ways, and energies such as light, electricity and magnetism were interrelated in an exact closed system where balance seemed to reign.
Physics seemed to be on the verge of finally explaining the world. But it was not to be. Physics was about to get a severe shock that would seriously blunt their understanding of a mechanistic universe. But that is another story for another time.

© Anthony North, August 2007

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