By: Christopher Cameron
Physics is one of those fields that you either love or hate, but no matter what your position, you can never escape it. It isn't because it is a required class that you have to take before you can graduate high school, it is because it is always around us and we are constantly affected by it. Even writing this article is a matter of physics. By me simply moving my fingers with a appropriate force down on the specific keys on my keyboard, the key is pressed down. Once I press the key there is much more that goes on, but even the simple movement of my fingers over the keys is a matter of physics.
Physics is a field of natural science. It deals with matter, charge, mass and the movement of each. It also encompasses the results of each of these movements which could be energy, force and speed. In a nutshell physics is an attempt to understand how the world behaves and why. It explains why cars work the way they do, why the earth moves around the sun and spins at the speeds it does, it explains why you can talk to someone thousands of miles away on the telephone and birds can fly. Almost every aspect of the world we live in can be explained by physics.
The study of this subject can be as complicated or as simple as you would like it to be. Science projects in first grade are often related to physics, but so are the life-long studies of many accomplished scientists. The scope of physics is truly universal, which is shown by the effects it has on the other subjects we study. You will find connections to physics in philosophy, mathematics, and other branches of sciences.
Generally the study of physics includes the scientific method. This method allows you test any ideas or questions that you may have. Essentially you will come up with a hypothesis, question or theory about a certain something. For example, your hypothesis might be that if you drop a ball from the roof, it will fall to the ground. After you’ve come up with your hypothesis, you do the experiment and you drop the ball. Your analysis comes as you watch the ball fall to the ground. You will have shown whether or not your hypothesis was correct. Of course this was a simple example and things get far more complex in physics, if you want them to, but you get the idea. Once you've determined that something happens, your next step will be to find more and more experiments that you can do to determine why something happens.
Finding out the 'why' of the world is truly what physics is all about. People always want to know why certain things are the way that they are and what we can do to change them. There are models and graphs and theories all over the world about why the world is the way it is, and almost every one of them has a hand in physics. Gravity, planetary rotation, bone structure, weather, everything is connected through physics.
