Why Physics?

Physics has the literal meaning of nature of things. It is the study of properties and nature of
energy and matter in the world and how the universe behaves, ranging from kinematics,
electricity, optics, and waves to relativity and quantum physics. Physics is one of the most
fundamental and oldest academic subject in the world and is the basis of many other studies.
In middle school, I told myself I would never do physics; I was terrible at it and could not
understand it. But in the first semester of high school, we had to learn combined sciences,
meaning I had to study physics again. This time, it was different. It was actually fascinating
to learn mechanics and the way forces act on objects and on each other. Since physics has
piqued my interest, I decided to study for the physics SAT subject test and APs, further
broadening my knowledge in the subject. After getting 800 on the subject test, it has
encouraged my confidence in physics and led me to get a 5 in Physics C: Mechanics. Physics
has become my portal to other areas of expertise and interests, such as engineering, biology,
and even chemistry. I realized that when studying biology, you need to know chemistry, and
in order to learn chemistry, you need to know physics. So, in order to have a sturdy
groundwork for my future studies, I have chosen physics as the course to attend in Oxford
summer courses.
I believe physics has originated in the times of Ancient Greece and other civilizations. Many
of mathematic and scientific discoveries have been made in ancient times, with people like
Euclid and Archimedes. People would have pondered the wonders of nature and the world,
leading to studies that we now call physics. It would have been necessary for architecture,
weaponry, and infrastructure even then. In a more modern era, there were brilliant minds such
as Newton, Copernicus, Galileo, Faraday, and many more. Especially during the Industrial
Revolution and the Renaissance, people focused more on humans, not gods, creating
ambition to know about how our planet works. At first, physics was closely related with
astronomy and math. Nowadays, physics is crucial in many other disciplines like molecular
biology, chemistry, geology, and engineering. Ophthalmology, the study of eye, relate
strongly with optics of physics. Seismology, the study of earthquakes, requires the nature of
waves and dynamics. There are even fields of study called econophysics and sociophysics,
relating to economics and sociology respectively. Just like the meaning of physics, it is the
study of nature of matter, covering almost every sciences, tech, engineering, and math.
Humankind has developed immensely with the knowledge of physics. From the architecture
of furniture to buildings, radios to smartphones and tablets, physics have been the
rudimentary knowledge. Without it, we would not be living the way we are now: no cars, no
computers, no buildings and skyscrapers, no engineering, pretty much everything. In the
future, physics would play a huge role, as it is doing now, in space exploration. Relativity,
dynamics, gravitation are all required. As physics has always been, it will continue to be the
path of advancement of technology in our society.