Physics

Physics has long been known as the science that tries to explain everything. It is the
study of matter and energy, and the search for laws that determine their behavior.

The History of Physics

2,600 years ago, the classical Greek philosopher named Pythagoras discovered that
the harmony of stringed instruments followed a system of mathematical rules.
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This insight spurred Pythagoras to look for simple mathematical laws to explain
virtually all natural phenomena from the motion of a floating speck of dust to the
structure of the entire universe.

This belief in the mathematical order of the cosmos has remained the guiding principle
of physics to the present day.

Around 400 B.C., the Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle expanded on the ideas
of Pythagoras.
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They saw great order in the circular movement of the stars, but they were confounded
by planets that at times appeared to move through the sky in reverse, or retrograde
motion.

In 1543, the Polish scientist Nicolaus Copernicus restored physical harmony to

the universe by placing the Sun, rather than the Earth, at the center of the solar
system.

In the early 1600s, the German scientist Johannes Kepler realized that planets did
not move in perfect circles. Rather, each traveled a curved, oval path called an
ellipse.
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Based on this insight, Kepler devised a set of simple mathematical laws that accurately
described the orbits, speeds, and revolution times of all the planets.

About the same time, motion itself was being studied by the Italian physicist Galileo
Galilei, and the French mathematician Rene Descartes.
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They realized, separately, that any free-moving object will travel in a straight line
unless some influence, or force, acts upon it.

This insight became the foundation of the laws of motion developed by the English
physicist Isaac Newton.

In 1687, Newton published the Principia, a landmark work widely acknowledged as

one of the most important scientific texts ever written.

In it, he set the three laws of motion.