What is Physics?
Ask a physicist what physics has to do with, and you are likely to be told: "Everything!" Though oversimplified, this answer does contain a kernel of truth. In their study of nature, physicists concern them selves with interactions involving matter and energy of every form.
Physicists' interests range from the tiny world of subatomic particles to stars, galaxies and the vast cosmic sea of space and time in which they travel. They have developed intricate tools to assist the human senses in probing these remote extremes of our natural environment. They have distilled their understanding of nature into laws of great generality and elegance, from the mathematical patterns needed to interpret the perfect symmetry and the regularity of atoms and crystals, to the powerful mathematical treatment of chaos and diso rder needed to deal with the concept of heat.
Of course, not all physicists work at the very limits of our knowledge of nature. Many use their understanding of physics to develop practical applications that solve more familiar human problems. The pioneering work on semiconductors in the 1940s led to the development of computers, transistor radios and a communication network that is bringing the peoples of the world ever closer together. The laser, invented in the 1960s, has been used in such varied applications as eye surgery and radar, and even in computerized cash registers. The list of problems solved is long; the list of future possibilities is endless. So there is some truth in the s tatement that "physics has to do with everything."
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