The History of Physics Essay - 1534 Words

The History of Physics In order to attempt to trace the origins of the modern science that we now refer to as â€Å"physics,† we must begin with the origin of the term itself. Taken from the Greek word â€Å"physika† meaning growth or nature, physics most obviously began as the intelligent study of the human environment (Webster 393). From superstition and religious practices, the foundation of all other sciences was born. These concepts have subsequently grown into what we regard today as physics. It can be easily argued that the earliest evidence of mankind’s scientific assessment of the physical world can be traced to the Babylonians. In all probability, the Babylonians had the first written language†¦show more content†¦The discovery of the studies and technologies of these previous cultures does in some regard require a glance farther back. A Greek philosopher named Herodotus supposedly reported that Pythagoras lived in both Egypt and Babylon where he studied mathematics (Lindberg 13). It is impossible to determine whether this is historical fact or merely legend. It would be extremely difficult to ascertain exactly how much of the Greek’s thinking was influenced by such cultures; if in fact it was influenced at all. Many texts choose the ancient Greek port of Miletus as the beginning of the discovery of nature that we commonly think of as the original physics. The town of Miletus is credited as the home of a Greek philosopher named Thales and what is know of Thales is taken from the writings of Aristotle (Spangenburg 8). Thales is considered to be the first example of a person leaving supernatural explanations in an effort to better understand the natural world (Lindberg 29). If Thales of Miletus recorded any of his own ideas, none have survived. At least none have yet been discovered. Anaximander, another Greek philosopher, was a student of Thales and expressed a belief that all life originated in theShow MoreRelatedA Brief History Of Early Nuclear Physics889 Words   |  4 Pages1 Introduction 1.1 A Brief History of Early Nuclear Physics In the early 1900s it was seen that a small number of alpha particles were deflected by a large angle, the current model at the time predicted only small deflections of the particles. These results were explained by introducing a tiny positively charged nucleus into our picture of the atom. 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