Enrico Fermi's field

Usage examples of physics.

Through its principle of relativity, the special theory of relativity declares a democracy of observational vantage points: the laws of physics appear identical to all observers undergoing constant-velocity motion.

There are other physicists, however, who are deeply unsettled by the fact that the two foundational pillars of physics as we know it are at their core fundamentally incompatible, regardless of the ultramicroscopic distances that must be probed to expose the problem.

But as shall become clear, when seen in its proper context, string theory emerges as a dramatic yet natural outgrowth of the revolutionary discoveries of physics during the past hundred years.

I hope that, by explaining the major achievements of physics going back to Einstein and Heisenberg, and describing how their discoveries have grandly flowered through the breakthroughs of our age, this book will both enrich and satisfy this curiosity.

For science students and teachers, I hope this book will crystallize some of the foundational material of modern physics, such as special relativity, general relativity, and quantum mechanics, while conveying the contagious excitement of researchers closing in on the long-sought unified theory.

Since the theory unifies the laws of the large and of the small, laws that govern physics out to the farthest reaches of the cosmos and down to the smallest speck of matter, there are many avenues by which one can approach the subject.

The problem is this: There are two foundational pillars upon which modern physics rests.

This quixotic quest isolated Einstein from the mainstream of physics, which, understandably, was far more excited about delving into the newly emerging framework of quantum mechanics.

And a sizeable part of the physics and mathematics community is becoming increasingly convinced that string theory may provide the answer.

Although it would be hard to explain the properties of a tornado in terms of the physics of electrons and quarks, I see this as a matter of calculational impasse, not an indicator of the need for new physical laws.

The laws of physics that each deduces from the experiments will likewise be identical.

With an audacious step in the service of scientific hegemony, Newton united the physics governing both heaven and earth and declared the force of gravity to be the invisible hand at work in each realm.

He felt that probability was turning up in fundamental physics because of a subtle version of the reason it turns up at the roulette wheel: some basic incompleteness in our understanding.

Heisenberg discovered the uncertainty principle, physics turned a sharp corner, never to retrace its steps.

That is, without the strong force, physics would change under the kinds of shifts of color charges indicated above.