Overview
Physics is one of the most fundamental scientific disciplines, with its main goal being to understand how the universe behaves. At its core, physics involves the study of matter and energy and the interactions between them. It is one of the oldest academic disciplines and includes within its scope the study of everyday occurrences as well as rare events.
The field encompasses a wide range of sub-disciples, from the study of subatomic particles in quantum mechanics to the large-scale structure of the universe in cosmology. Modern physics is dominated by two major theories: general relativity, which describes the large-scale structure of spacetime; and quantum mechanics, which describes the interactions of subatomic particles.
The word "physics" comes from the Ancient Greek φυσική (epistémē), meaning "knowledge of nature." Aristotle's book Physica is considered one of the foundational texts of the discipline.
Historical Development
The history of physics dates back to ancient civilizations, where early observations of the natural world led to the first attempts to explain physical phenomena. The ancient Greeks, including Aristotle and Archimedes, made significant contributions to what we now recognize as physics. However, the modern understanding of physics began to take shape during the Scientific Revolution of the 16th and 17th centuries.
Isaac Newton's formulation of the laws of motion and universal gravitation in the 17th century laid the foundation for classical mechanics. The 19th century saw the unification of electricity and magnetism by James Clerk Maxwell, while the early 20th century brought about the revolutionary theories of special and general relativity by Albert Einstein and the development of quantum mechanics.
As of 2025, the Aevum Encyclopedia contains 42,817 physics articles covering everything from elementary particle physics to condensed matter, astrophyics, and biophysics — collectively read over 2.3 billion times.