ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF PHYSICS

It is known that most ancient civilizations tried from the beginning to explain the functioning
of their environment; They looked at the stars and thought about how they could rule their
world. This led to many interpretations of a more philosophical than physical nature; Not in
vain at that time physics was called natural philosophy . Many philosophers are in the early
development of physics, such as Aristotle , Thales of Miletus or Democritus , for being the
first to try to find some type of explanation for the phenomena that surrounded them.
Although the descriptive theories of the universe left by these thinkers were erroneous,
they were valid for a long time, almost two thousand years, in part due to the acceptance
by the Catholic Church of several of its precepts, such as the geocentric theory or the
theses. of Aristotle.

This stage, called obscurantism in science, ends when Nicholas Copernicus , considered
the father of modern astronomy , in 1543 received the first copy of his De Revolutionibus
Orbium Coelestium . Although Copernicus was the first to formulate plausible theories, he
is another person who is considered the father of physics as we know it today. A professor
of mathematics at the University of Pisa at the end of the 16th century would change the
history of science, using experiments for the first time to verify his assertions: Galileo
Galilei . With the invention of the telescope and his work on inclined planes , Galileo used
the scientific method for the first time and reached conclusions capable of being verified.
Their works were joined by great contributions from other scientists such as Johannes
Kepler , Blaise Pascal and Christian Huygens .

Later, in the 17th century , an English scientist brought together the ideas of Galileo and
Kepler in a single work, unifying the ideas of celestial movement and those of movements
on Earth in what he called gravity . In 1687 , Sir Isaac Newton , in his work Philosophiae
Naturalis Principia Mathematica , formulated the three principles of motion and a fourth
Law of universal gravitation , which completely transformed the physical world; all
phenomena could be seen in a mechanical way.

Newton 's work in the field endures to the present day; All macroscopic phenomena can be
described according to its three laws . That is why during the rest of that century and the
subsequent 18th century all research was based on his ideas. Hence, other disciplines
were developed, such as thermodynamics , optics , fluid mechanics and statistical
mechanics . The well-known works of Daniel Bernoulli , Robert Boyle and Robert Hooke ,
among others, belong to this era.

It is in the 19th century that fundamental advances in electricity and magnetism occur,
mainly at the hands of Charles-Augustin de Coulomb , Luigi Galvani , Michael Faraday
and Georg Simon Ohm , culminating in the work of James Clerk Maxwell of 1855 , which
achieved the unification of both branches in the so-called electromagnetism . In addition,
the first discoveries about radioactivity and the discovery of the electron by Joseph John
Thomson in 1897 occur.

During the 20th century , physics developed fully. In 1904, the first model of the atom was
proposed . In 1905 , Einstein formulated the Special Theory of Relativity , which coincides
with Newton's Laws when phenomena develop at small speeds compared to the speed of
light. In 1915 he extended the Special Theory of Relativity, formulating the General Theory
of Relativity , which replaced Newton's Law of Gravitation and included it in the cases of
small masses. Max Planck , Albert Einstein , Niels Bohr and others developed Quantum
Theory in order to explain anomalous experimental results on the radiation of bodies. In
1911 , Ernest Rutherford deduced the existence of a positively charged atomic nucleus
from particle scattering experiments. In 1925 Werner Heisenberg , and in 1926 Erwin
Schrödinger and Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac , formulated quantum mechanics , which
comprises the preceding quantum theories and provides the theoretical tools for
condensed matter physics .

Later, Quantum Field Theory was formulated to extend quantum mechanics in a manner
consistent with the Special Theory of Relativity, reaching its modern form in the late
1940s , thanks to the work of Richard Feynman , Julian Schwinger , Tomonaga and
Freeman Dyson . who formulated the theory of quantum electrodynamics . Likewise, this
theory provided the basis for the development of particle physics . In 1954 , Chen Ning
Yang and Robert Mills developed the foundations of the standard model . This model was
completed in the 1970s , and with it it was possible to predict the properties of particles not
previously observed, but that were discovered successively, the last of them being the top
quark .

Attempts to unify the four fundamental interactions have taken physicists into unthinkable
new fields. The two most accepted theories, quantum mechanics and general relativity ,
which are capable of describing the macro and micro world with great accuracy, seem
incompatible when we want to see them from the same point of view. That is why new
theories have come to light, such as supergravity or string theory , which is where
research is focused at the beginning of the 21st century .

Physics before the Greeks

As we already know, physics is the natural science that studies physical phenomena,
properties of space , time, matter , energy and their interactions. The Chinese,
Babylonians, Egyptians and Mayans observed the movements of the planets and were
able to predict eclipses, but they were unable to find an underlying system that explained
planetary movement . The speculations of Greek philosophers introduced two fundamental
ideas about the components of the Universe .
At the beginning of time there were so-called natural phenomena, such as rain, eclipses,
daylight, volcanic eruptions, thunder, or free fall, it was then that humans, upon realizing
this, began to ask themselves questions about how this happened, trying to explain and
formulate explanations that gave reasons to explain said events. As time went by, there
were thinkers who focused on observing these phenomena and thus trying to explain them
and many years passed. There were many failed theories of these observers, but even so
they continued trying to give a logical answer to such events. It should be noted that these
first experiments are the basis of current physics. Among the first civilizations that gave
rise to first experiments are: Chinese, Egyptians, Mayans , Babylonians, who tried to
explain the days and seasons of the year, thus creating their own calendars, other
civilizations achieved great creations in technologies such as metallurgy , construction of
tools and buildings.
Thus, beginning to understand natural phenomena, they realized that they could take
advantage of them in some way or another, so they began to make calendars, pyramids,
and all kinds of work.
Physics during the Greeks
The Greeks made great contributions to physics, both in their observations and
knowledge, but they made the mistake of not having experienced reality, and thus their
laws were not proven.
An example of a Greek mathematical philosopher is Pythagoras, who believed that the
earth was circular, famous especially for the Pythagorean theorem, he stated that
everything was mathematics .

Some of his discoveries are: Pythagorean triples, regular solids, perfect numbers, irrational
numbers, averages and figurative numbers.
This time was very important and more so for the Greeks, since they observed the
phenomena and made their conclusions, another important scientist is Empedocles.
Empedocles was a Greek politician and philosopher who had several root theories, one of
them was that of organic evolution, which assumed that in the beginning there were
numerous parts of men and animals distributed randomly, coming together out of love and
hate.

Aristotle: was one of the most influential philosophers of antiquity, he was the formalizer of
economics , astronomy , anatomy and biology . His influences are Plato , Socrates , and
Heraclitus , the experiments of those already mentioned helped Aristotle to reaffirm
hypotheses , and thus discover whether it was true or not.

Aristotle proposed the theory of spontaneous generation which proposes the spontaneous
origin of fish and insects from dew, humidity and sweat.
Another philosopher was Archimedes :
Greek mathematician, physicist, engineer, inventor and astronomer, he is considered one
of the most important philosophers of the classical era.
Among his knowledge and studies are hydrostatics , statics and the explanation of the
principle of the lever.

I devise Archimedes' principle: a physical law that establishes that when an object is fully
or partially submerged in a liquid, it experiences an upward thrust equal to the weight of
the liquid displaced. The task of doing experiments or measurements was not easy, but as
we could already see, the Greeks played an important role in working under the laws of
natural phenomena, some not mentioned are: Democritus, Galileo, Newton and Epicurus.
The Physics in the Middle Ages
As the years went by and the arrival of the Middle Ages, it can be said that it was not a
great time of discovery in any field in the West. The important thing was that Aristotle 's
writings were translated, approximately in 1500, and thus they sought to improve the
scientific method and the search for new theories that would collapse the Aristotelian
system .
Mathematical experiments at this time served a lot in the idea of the deductive method .
A philosopher who carried out his studies at this time was Bacon, who was a follower of
the inductive method, he reaffirmed the value of experimental science , and thus, unlike
Aristotle, he changed the way of seeing natural phenomena.
This time is considered the dark stage of humanity, because if someone dedicated
themselves to explaining phenomena in nature they were considered pagan. Some of the
scientists who carried out experiments in secret for fear of being punished were: Mendel
and Da Vinci.
Gregory Mendel was a Catholic monk who described the so-called Mendel laws , which
govern genetic inheritance . Initially, he carried out crosses of seeds, studying the
characteristics of genes.

Mendel's laws:
 First Law , or Principle of Uniformity: "When two purebred individuals are crossed, the
resulting hybrids are all equal." Homozygous individuals, one dominant (AA) and the
other recessive (aa), give rise to only heterozygous individuals, that is, the individuals of
the first filial generation are uniform among themselves (Aa).
 Second law, or Principle of segregation: "Certain individuals are capable of transmitting
a character even if it is not manifested in them." The crossing of two F1 individuals (Aa)
will give rise to a second filial generation in which the "a" phenotype reappears, even
though all the F1 individuals were of "A" phenotype. This makes Mendel presume that
the character "a" had not disappeared, but had only been "overshadowed" by the
character "A", but that when an individual reproduces, each character segregates
separately.
 Third law, or Principle of independent transmission: This law refers to polyhybrid
crossing (monohybrid: when one character is considered; polyhybrid: when two or more
characters are considered). Mendel worked on this cross in peas, in which the
characteristics he observed (seed color and surface roughness) were found on
separate chromosomes . In this way, he observed that the characters were transmitted
independently of each other. This law, however, is no longer fulfilled when there is
linkage (two genes are in very close loci and do not separate in meiosis ).
The Middle Ages did not have much good news, since the church ordered the burning
alive of anyone who studied physics, which is why the great Italian inventors stopped
being productive, and science moved to Germany , Holland and England .
Physics in the Renaissance
At the arrival of the Renaissance , the Greek scholars emigrated to Italy with the
manuscripts of Plato and Aristotle. Men had been convinced of the end of an era, and the
break with the medieval world.
Man discovers what freedom and intelligence are, along with the current of thought of that
time which is humanism , which is a movement that sought through the teaching of
grammar , history , poetry and philosophy to cultivate learning. of the man
The Renaissance was also a stage in which great discoveries were precipitated, and not
only that of America , but also scientific ones:
Nicholas Copernicus: who claims that the earth revolves around the sun .
Galileo: confirms the rotation of the earth around the sun and discovers mathematical laws
of the fall of bodies.
Kepler: in 1618 he exposed the 3 laws of planetary motion.
Servetus: who first conceived the idea of blood circulation.
At this time the human spirit dedicated itself to observing nature and finding its place in it.
A kingdom full of enigmas and secrets opened before him, a new world, a cosmos of
extraordinary beauty in which a sublime order was sensed. If before we sought to
understand nature from within, as a whole and always from the perspective of human
destiny in the afterlife, now our gaze is directed towards the abundance of phenomena,
which, of course, are still considered the work of God. If before he had looked down,
towards the entire physical world, from beyond, now man placed himself among things,
and from them he raised his gaze to the sky. The central point of thought moved from the
supernatural to the natural. Along with the revelation of God through the word, the
revelation of God arose through his work; Along with the Holy Scriptures, the book of
nature appeared, the interpretation of which now became the main task. Explaining the
word of God was the responsibility of theologians; Examining his work was the
responsibility of students of natural phenomena. A secularization of science and
philosophy began, and the establishment of these new objectives favored the gradual and
definitive emancipation of man with respect to the Church, which had until now
monopolized his intellectual life.
Physics in the classical period
In the 19th century, fundamental advances in electricity and magnetism occurred, as well
as discoveries of radioactivity and the discovery of the electron.
During the 20th century, physics developed fully:
In 1904 the first atomic model was proposed
In 1905 Einstein formulated the theory of special relativity which coincides with Newton's
laws and characteristics of velocity .
In 1915, the theory of general relativity was formulated, which replaced Newton 's law of
gravitation.
Physics in the modern period
The definition of physics separates "modern" from "ancient", the former refers particularly
to the interaction between particles which will be observed with the help of a microscope .
Through this approach, different technological advances have been obtained in countless
fields; For example, thermodynamics , developed in the 19th century, is responsible for
establishing and quantifying the basis of mechanical and chemical engineering.
Thermodynamic concepts such as the volume , temperature and pressure of a gas are
necessary to understand the functioning of the chemical and industrial systems that
govern today. During the 19th century, physicists tended to be at the same time
philosophers , mathematicians, biologists, chemists or engineers; Today physics has
developed on such large scales that modern physicists limit their attention to only two
branches of their science. The most preponderant discoveries of this time in electricity and
magnetism are today part of the field of communications and electronics engineers since
they have properties of this field.
By 1880, physics presented a different panorama since most phenomena could be
explained by Newton's mechanics , Maxwell's electromagnetic theory and Boltzmann's
thermodynamics, only a few problems remained to be resolved. The explanation of the
emission and absorption spectra of gases and solids and the determination of the
properties of ether were revolutionary phenomena that broke out in 1895 when Wilhelm
Roentgen discovered X-rays ; Then, Joseph Thompson discovered the electron and in
19896 Antoine Becquerel discovered radioactivity. These discoveries completed what was
believed to be "complete" and many of them defied all available theories.
Some of the most important discoveries in physics in the modern period:
1895: X-rays are discovered and their properties are studied. German physicist Wilhelm
Röntgen achieves the first x-ray by experimenting with a cathode ray tube that he had
covered in thick black paper. He realizes that the tube also emitted mysterious rays that he
called X, these had the property of penetrating opaque bodies. For this contribution he was
awarded the first Nobel Prize in Physics in 1901.
1905: The Theory of Relativity redefines time and space Albert Einstein publishes his
Theory of Special Relativity, which postulates that nothing can move faster than light , that
time and space are not absolute, and that matter and energy are equivalent. (E=mc2)
1913: The atom model of Niels Bohr , Danish physicist, is exposed. He presents his atomic
model in which electrons rotate at high speeds in circular orbits around the nucleus,
occupying the lowest possible energy orbit, that is, the orbit closest to the nucleus. . The
electron can "rise" or "fall" in energy level, for which it needs to "absorb" or "emit" energy,
for example in the form of radiation or photons.
1930: Plastic is invented German chemist Hermann Staudinger shows how small
molecules form polymer chains, the fundamental structure of plastic , and suggests how to
make polymers. At the EI Company du Pont de Nemours, the American chemist Wallace
Hume Carohers develops nylon and synthetic rubber.
1932: The neutron is discovered. British physicist James Chadwick bombards beryllium
with helium nuclei, and finds the neutron, the second constituent of the atomic nucleus
along with the proton. This electrically neutral particle can be used to bombard and probe
the nucleus.
1969: Human beings reach the Moon In a feat that began direct human exploration of
astronomical bodies, American astronaut Neil Armstrong becomes the first human being to
walk on the Moon.
Crucial experiments
Galileo: The fall of bodies with an inclined plane contrary to what Aristotle proposed, who
believed that heavier objects fell faster than lighter ones. He carried out experiments with
the inclined plane to reach the conclusion that "objects accelerate regardless of their
mass" since on an inclined plane it only slows down the falling movement (decreases the
value of the acceleration) but does not alter its nature (the acceleration remains constant).
In his experiments Galileo let spheres of different masses roll down an inclined plane and
from his results he also concluded that starting from rest, with the ball stopped at the
highest point of the inclined plane, the distance traveled was proportional to the square of
the elapsed time.
Newton: Decomposition of sunlight using a prism.
Isaac Newton was born the year Galileo died. Graduating from Trinity College in
Cambridge in 1665, he hid at home for a couple of years waiting for the end of the plague.
Common wisdom held that white light was the purest form (Aristotle again) and that
colored light therefore had to be altered in some way. To test this hypothesis , Newton
directed a beam of sunlight through a glass prism and showed that it decayed into a
spectral cast on the wall. People already knew about rainbows, of course, but they were
considered only as beautiful aberrations. In fact, Newton concluded, it was those colors -
red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet and the gradations in between - that were
fundamental. What seemed simple on its surface, a beam of white light, was beautifully
complex if one looked closer.
In the previous experiments we can realize that these philosophers made very accurate
predictions and thus made theories, hypotheses and so on in their experiments in the field
of physics.