Since my childhood, I always wondered after seeing the night sky, rainbow, planes, etc., and tried hard to know all about those day-to-day phenomena happening in nature. I was born in a village where I didn’t have any facilities like a library, internet, cable TV, and any other sources to know about these things. I was asking my family members, other people about these phenomena but the irony was that there was not a single person in my family and whole village who studied natural sciences.
But there is a very famous proverb in English that “Where there is a will, there is a way” and this proverb well suited me. During the search for these answers, I found a very basic science general knowledge book in the storeroom of my home. It was so basic that it didn’t have any scientific knowledge but had questions like who discover what and the study of this is called that. Any wise man said that “Drowning man catches at a straw ” and this book became that straw for me through this book I came to know the word which has changed my life completely and that word was Physics. Let’s see what this word physics means and how it can change the life of anyone.
The word physics came from the Roman word “Physike” which means the knowledge of nature. It is clear from its meaning that Physics means to study nature and enrich our knowledge. It is the oldest subject (including astronomy) in human history and the basic aim of this subject is to study the world around us and make our lives better.
Physics is the basic foundation of matter and energy so everything which exists in this universe whether visible or invisible come under the domain of physics. The world of physics is infinite and we are trying to understand it by segmenting it into the various fields of study but keep in mind that nature is one so physics is also one and we segmented physics just for our convenience otherwise nature doesn’t discriminate based on subjects. There are four basic forces in nature i.e. Gravitational, Electromagnetic, Nuclear (Strong), Weak forces and we have segmented fields of study in physics according to the regime of these fundamental forces. Physics reveals the beauty of the universe at scales ranging from subatomic physics. So it needs large numbers of the subject to study it thoroughly.
To learn about various fields of study in physics we have to understand the cube of physics. In the cube of physics, we have a three axial cube, in which one axis is of Planck’s constant “h”, the second axis is of Gravitational constant “G” and the third axis is of universal constat (most of the time called as the velocity of light constant) “c”. We have classical mechanics (CM) at the origin, to study CM we don’t need to bother about all these constants h, G, and c mean in CM we can understand our day-to-day life physics like the motion of the vehicle, manually operated alarm, etc… If we want to study the gravitational effects on classical mechanics we have to move upward from the origin and incorporate the gravitational constant G into the theory and Sir I Isaac Newton did the same so this field is known as the Newtonian gravity regime. If we will move along the constant c axis then in this path we first come to know about the world of electrodynamics where we study the behavior of static and moving charged particles. And if we continue our journey in this axis we end up knowing about the Special Theory of Relativity (STR) where we will study particles or objects which are having velocity comparable to the velocity of light. If we move upward from STR we will get General Theory of Relativity (GTR) which is the study of an object at a velocity comparable to the speed of light and the effect of gravity on those objects at this relativistic speed. In GTR we will also study the space-time curvature formed by very heavy objects. Hence we can say that the yellow plane of the cube is the entire of our classical world and if we know the physics of the yellow regime we can predict the future state of the classical world. If we move toward the axis of “h” from the origin we will come to know about the very mysterious branch of physics i.e. Quantum Mechanics (QM) in QM we will study the particles at low speed whose path can’t be traceable and subjects like electronics, nanotechnology, chemistry falls in this QM regime. If we want to study particles which are having relativistic speed we need to incorporate the constant “c” in the QM and this will give us the very good and hugely successful theory known as Quantum Field Theory (QFT) and the results which we get from this theory are so accurate that they match to experimental data up to thirteen decimal places. In QFT, we study the fields of energy and the fluctuation or collision of these energy fields which give rise to all matter particles. If we want to study the gravitational effect on QM then we end up at Gravitational Quantum Mechanics (GQM) this is an entirely new field of study. And we incorporate constant “c” with the GQM we end up with Gravitational Quantum Field Theory (GQFT) or we call it as a theory of everything here in this regime physics of black holes, Big Bang falls but till now we don’t know much about this field because till now we haven’t able to quantize gravity or we haven’t able to unify the all fundamental forces. But researchers are doing tremendous work on these problems and in the future, we will conquer all these problems.
Physics provides us the thinking framework to solve any problem from the first principle. The first principle means if you know small things you can use that knowledge to understand bigger things and again use that to understand the society and their behavior because our society is based on scientific methods. Physics t big knowledge to understand much bigger things. Physics provide us the insight to provide us the higher problem-solving skills which are useful in physics research and also useful in all other industries like finance, health, architect, computer programmer, administration, robotics, IoT, etc. and by using these problem-solving skill you can earn as much money you can. And all of the above you will get pleasure and different points of view toward the world after studying physics.
Physics is more than just solving an equation and mathematical problems but physics is all about understanding underlying principles on which our nature works. Physics advances our understanding of nature and provides seeds for future technologies. Since any technology depends on the laws of nature, so, the better we understand those laws, the more powerful the technology we can create. Every time we advance our understanding of nature’s working has led to transform or upgrade our technology which will directly benefit our society. The most common example of this technology advancement is that Guglielmo Marconi applied Maxwell’s electromagnetism to send the first intercontinental wireless message. Another example is from Einstein’s theory which suggested that matter is a concentrated form of energy and eventually this led us to understand the fusion processes happening inside stars, the atom bomb, etc. Einstein’s theory of relativity set the basis for the Global Positioning System (GPS). All the satellite system is working because of the advances happen in physics. Digital Camera first invented to take pictures of the universe from satellites then it came to our lives and changed our world completely.
Our defense industry is continuously benefited by the knowledge of physics because all the weapons like guns, tanks, missiles, submarines, radars, sonars, and all other explosives are based on physics methods.
After the revolution in Quantum physics, our life has been changed due to the discovery of transistors, diodes, solar cells, etc. Physics revolutionizes our medical industry also by equipping us with X-ray, MRI, CT- Scan, ultrasound, etc. Physics providing us the knowledge to make such nanotechnological-based medicines that can directly heal the damaged tissue or cell without affecting other healthy cells. Nowadays we are understanding biological things with the knowledge of physics examples. our heart pumping is based on Bernoulli’s principle, muscle moment can be understood from the knowledge of classical mechanics, high BP can be understood by the basic knowledge of GTR and fluid mechanics, we are understanding our brain based on electromagnetism and quantum mechanics even we have the quantum mechanical model of our brain to understand the brain, physics is telling us that how DNA is working. Physics is telling us about the origin of life and the universe. Even we are making artificial organs with the help of 3D printers and efficient materials which are completely based on physics.
Physics is also helping us to understand the market and risks associated with the market and this newly emerging field of physics is known as Econophysics. Today we are working on Social Physics where we are studying the social connection of humans and animals based on the network theory and other related theories. And our well-known social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. are all based on this network theory. Our weather prediction becoming accurate day by day just because of our knowledge of physics. Through the knowledge of astronomy we have developed various methods to know about directions, other stars, and today we are looking for extraterrestrial life in the universe.
Physics indeed gets weird in some theories but an inquiry is always driven by a hunger to understand the universe fundamentally. As we proceed forward in knowing nature all the complex theories will unfurl gradually.
Today we are in the age of nanotechnology, superconductors, quantum computing & information, neural technology, and 3D printing and all this technology came to existence through the knowledge of physics. Real-life events are very much nonlinear, complex, unstable, and uncertain but physics is making progress in tackling these complex systems. Future of the physics is very illuminated and full of opportunity and joy. As our understanding of physics and other sciences growing fast day by day that in near future you will see the full driverless vehicles, fully magnetic levitating trains, absolute quantum computer and TV & in near future it can be possible that we can know about our feeling without saying anything with the help of latest technology-driven by physics, in near future we will get highly efficient solar cells and we will have endless, clean & green energy. Physics and Artificial intelligence both together will completely change the world and make everything fast, more accurate, and precise.
Now the question arises that if this subject is so good then where we can learn this? The answer is very simple that is you can learn this in any university, college, the institute where they provide you Physics major with full faculty and experimental facilities.
All the things which were in the human mind thousands of years back are all become possible because of our knowledge of physics and it is empowering us to fulfill all our needs. We can say that Physics is more than just knowledge but it is a way of thinking. If we want to understand the future we need to understand Physics. So it is very much required to study physics to understand nature and upgrade our society.