It surely is true that across all physics that vast amounts of knowledge and the solutions to enormous variations of problems come from within a minute number of models and equations. If you appreciate these concepts, the keys to many other questions inherently follow. The universe has a seemingly limitless number of objects, phenomena, and happening which appear unrelated at first glance. The principal purpose of physics is to discover cohesions and configurations, such that you can use understandings of past experiments and observations to foresee plausible future products.

You could say the goal of finding patterns to better understand and simplify the complex world around us is in many other academic realms other than just physics. It is an overarching aspect of academia at large. Regardless, this is chiefly correct of physics. The most straightforward physical laws can explain so many of the happenings experienced. Physics explains how cars can move because the friction their tires produce to keeps them stuck to the road. Physics explains how rockets use conservation of momentum to heave fuel out of their back ends at high speed, allowing them to accelerate through any vacant space.

Physics is even about how when one drinks water from a straw, one sucks the air out of their mouth. This vacuum lowers the air pressure inside one's mouth, forcing water up the straw by the more substantial air pressure in the surrounding room. The goal of physics is to take heaps of different phenomena around us and explicate them using a small set of simple laws.

The most basic but ever-important laws of physics have essential applications in the whole natural universe as we know it. Physics also aims to familiarize humans with the logic and critical thinking skills needed for success in today's critical world. Memorization does not cut it in this field. There is a concise list of definitions that you need to study, but that is all it takes to understand basic physics mechanics. Academics must strive toward an in-depth understanding of mechanics laws for application to problems and the real world.

It is not possible to memorize all the different potential problems and their associated formulae. It is necessary to understand what the laws and formulas mean and how to apply them to new situations previously not considered logically. Physics is an ever-evolving scientific field. We do not know all the laws of physics yet. Even the laws we do know regularly change and improve. New experimentations performed with slightly more precision at a little higher or a little lower energy than before, often reveal strange and novel anomalies.

These anomalies show places where the old laws break down. The old laws were not 'wrong,' but rather, incomplete. They remain a valid approximation at previously tested energies. Physicists love these irregularities, places where the old laws of physics are incomplete and require improvement. This lack of clarity is where the exciting work to discover new, more complete laws happen.

For example, Newton discovered a theory of gravity. It works very well in most scenarios. A few centuries later, however, Einstein discovered a more 'complete' theory of gravity. It reduced Newton's theory for application in most common scenarios. However, Einstein's theory also works in scenarios where Newton's theory does not. For example, Einstein's theory can explain the bending of light around the sun and supplies this precisely. Without his contribution, we would not have a GPS or Google Earth.

A discordancy between Einstein's theory of gravity and the laws of quantum mechanics means that Einstein's theory likely is not the complete 'true' theory of gravity either, what gives? The laws of physics are always an approximation of the whole truth. As our experiments improve, our laws of physics evolve, and our approximations get enhanced.

No physics introduction is complete if it neglected to mention the scientific method. You have all heard of Aristotle. How good a philosopher he was is another matter, but as a physicist, he was dreadful. Everything he said concerning physics was wrong. His single accomplishment in physics was misleading people for over a thousand years. He managed to get so much wrong because he thought he did not need to check his ideas for veracity. He assumed that any idea he thought up must automatically be correct. That is absurd.

To prevent this from happening again, we use the scientific method. It is essential in physics to test all theories with valid experiments to verify if they are accurate. The same goes for every other scientific and academic field of study. The requisite of data to back up theories is crucial. Any theory which cannot be tested through experimentation using the scientific method is not scientific. Are you ready to begin this mystical and complex journey?

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Thomas Grylka is the owner, developer, designer, and writer of this blog and website. He loves his Siberian Husky, Zoey, and he does not love talking about himself in the third person. A graduate of Eastern Connecticut State University, Thomas hopes to build a career web developing and writing and live out the rest of his days with his dog.