How Many Branches Of Physics

How Many Branches Of Physics

Edited By Team Careers360 | Updated on Mar 22, 2023 04:47 PM IST

There are mainly two branches of physics: Classical physics and modern physics.

Physics

Physics is one of the oldest academic disciplines and maybe the oldest due to its integration with astronomy. Physics has many interactions with interdisciplinary fields of study, such as quantum chemistry and biophysics, and its boundaries need to be better defined. New ideas in physics frequently explain the fundamental mechanisms investigated by other sciences, and this opens up new directions for investigation in these and other academic fields like mathematics and philosophy.

How Many Branches Of Physics
How Many Branches Of Physics

Importance

Technological advancements are frequently made possible by advances in physics. For instance, improvements in our understanding of electromagnetism, solid-state physics, and nuclear physics directly influenced the creation of new goods that profoundly altered modern society, such as television, computers, home appliances, and nuclear weapons; improvements in thermodynamics sparked the industrialisation of society; and improvements in mechanics provided the impetus for the invention of calculus.

Branches Of Physics

A. Classical Physics

This part of physics mainly concerns the laws of motion and attraction, as laid out in Newton and Clark Maxwell’s dynamic thermodynamics. This part of science manages matter and energy.

Matter and energy are thought of as separate entities in classical physics. Typical branches of classical physics include acoustics, optics, and electromagnetics. Additionally, any scientific theory that appears pointless and unsupported by modern physics is consequently considered a part of classical physics.

Furthermore, there are numerous branches in classical physics.

1. Optics:

The study of electromagnetic radiation and its interactions with matter is one of the more popular subfields of physics. It examines the actions of various lights, including ultraviolet, visible, infrared, etc. It is divided further into three groups: Quantum, Geographical and physical optics.

  • Physical optics, or the study of light as waves, is interested in both the nature and the properties of light.

  • Examining how light interacts with various objects, such as lenses, mirrors, and prisms, is the aim of geometric optics (the study of light as rays).

  • Quantum optics, which examines light as a collection of particles, study light.

2. Mechanics

The aim of mechanics is to investigate the connections between various concepts, such as force, matter, motion, etc. It makes use of the concept of motion and the motion of objects under force or not.

The laws of gravity, friction, displacement and other phenomena are also known to us. The other two branches of mechanics are quantum and classical mechanics.

The subject of quantum mechanics is the behaviour of tiny particles like neutrons, protons, and electrons.

3. Acoustics

This Branch primarily focuses on sound waves, including their characteristics, uses, and production. It also examines how mechanical waves move through different types of media, including solids, liquids, and gases.

Additionally, the ideas of sound, ultrasound, vibration, and infrasound are involved. In addition, it addresses the effects of sound production, reception, control, transmission, and vibrations.

4. Thermodynamics

It focuses on heat and other types of energy, as the name implies. It reports back to the nineteenth century.

Thermodynamics revolves around the three laws considered the base of this branch. Studies of concepts like convection, radiation, and conduction are done under this branch.

Laws of thermodynamics-

  • First Law states that energy is neither created nor destroyed; we can only transfer it from one form to another. It is also known as the law of conservation of energy.

  • Second Law: It tells that the entropy of any isolated system(the universe is an ultimate isolated system) only increases and never decreases.

  • Third Law: It states that when the temperature approaches zero, a system’s entropy will be zero.

5. Electromagnetism

Electricity and magnetism are the two subfields of electromagnetism that are the focus of the study. The electric and moving charges that generate the electric and magnetic forces are studied, along with Maxwell's equations, Faraday's laws, and Coulomb's law.

B. Modern Physics

Modern Physics is a branch of physics that deals with the fundamental nature of the universe with post-Newtonian concepts. Early in the 20th century, some experimental findings did not agree with classical physics' predictions, which describe physical phenomena on an everyday scale. These theories eventually gave rise to modern physics. The theories of relativity and quantum theory are the two cornerstones of contemporary physics. While the theory of relativity describes gravity and large-scale physics, quantum theory explains physical phenomena on a short scale.

Modern physics is supported by two pillars, which are:

  1. Einstein’s theory of relativity

  2. Max Plank’s quantum theory of physics

1. Quantum Physics

Quantum physics covers-

  • Quantum field theory

  • Quantum electrodynamics

  • Quantum mechanics

  • Quantum statistics

Schrodinger's equation is a key concept in quantum mechanics. Quantum physics is the study of matter and energy at the most fundamental level, to put it simply.

It operates under the fundamental tenet that energy exists as discrete "quanta" packets. Quanta behave differently in a macroscopic matter where particles may behave as waves and waves may behave as particles.

2. Nuclear Physics

Physical science's branch of nuclear physics controls the elements, architecture, interactions, and behaviour of nuclear cores. It is important to distinguish this branch of physics from nuclear physics, which examines the entire particle, including its electrons.

The discipline of physics known as nuclear physics is devoted to studying the make-up, characteristics, and behaviour of the nuclear core.

3. Atomic Physics

The branch of physics known as atomic physics controls how the particle separates from the nucleus is created. It primarily focuses on how electrons move and behave in the shells surrounding the core as well as how this arrangement can change.

Therefore, electrons, particles, and molecules are the main focus of nuclear physics. Atomic physics focuses primarily on the concept of an isolated atom.

4. Relativistic physics

Regarding the Albert Einstein theorem, it is discussed that time and space are merely relative concepts and that all motion must be understood in terms of a particular frame of reference.

It covers the concepts of -

  • Special relativity

  • General Relativity

  • Einstein field equation

Other Branches Of Physics

There are other branches of physics also-

  • Astrophysics

  • Geophysics

  • Plasma Physics

  • Sound and Oscillation

  • Electronics

  • Chemical Physics

  • Engineering Physics

  • Solid-state Physics

  • Particle Physics

  • Biophysics

  • Condensed Matter Physics

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