what is physics?

[wanghankun]

I am disappointed by my high school physics education. My teacher teaches me physics in the textbook however not the nature of the physics: What is physics?

Also the textbook only gives a mere introduction of the science, so i dont see the whole picture.

[Delta1212]

The broadest overview of physics would go something like this: It's the methodology for determining the behavior of everything in the universe, and the body of knowledge regarding that behavior accumulated using that methodology.

 

The methodology, in this case, being the scientific method (observe, hypothesize, test, repeat) and the body of knowledge generally consisting of mathematical formulae that describe the behavior of some aspect of nature.

 

As far as getting the whole picture, there's a reason that textbooks tend to start with an introduction to the subject: it's a huge subject and almost everything in it builds upon previous levels of knowledge. Any kind of broad overview that doesn't build on the basics that are probably in your textbook is going to be superficial to the point of being useless.

 

It'd be like trying to teach someone calculus without first teaching them how to count. The lesson is going to boil down to something like "you can use it to describe curves" which is nice but useless as far as helping someone actually understand calculus.

[wanghankun]

thanks for the reply. that was a nice description.

 

I have a sence of blindness when trying to learn physics (and other scientific fields)... not from the text book, but from the internet and websites such as wikipedia. its makes me feel like a really ignorant person.

[Delta1212]

thanks for the reply. that was a nice description.

 

I have a sence of blindness when trying to learn physics (and other scientific fields)... not from the text book, but from the internet and websites such as wikipedia. its makes me feel like a really ignorant person.

 

Everyone starts out ignorant. It's only a permanent state of affairs for those people who aren't willing to correct it.

[imatfaal]

thanks for the reply. that was a nice description.

 

I have a sence of blindness when trying to learn physics (and other scientific fields)... not from the text book, but from the internet and websites such as wikipedia. its makes me feel like a really ignorant person.

 

 

Also remember that a significant portion of wikipedia is written in order to demonstrate how knowledgeable the author is rather than to educate others. Try Hyperphysics, the Khan Acamedy, and mathworld