A Brief History of Physics

Podcast

Going to be doing some episodes in the future that deal with turning points in our understanding of the universe around us, so I thought it'd be helpful to do an episode with background on the history of physics -- just to put things in a better perspective.

"Physics" is a pretty broad subject, so I'll emphasize four main threads

Nature of matter

Nature of light

Behavior of celestial objects (Earth, moon, planets, Sun)

Physical laws, why do things behave the way they do?

People have likely been wondering about the world around them, and how it works, ever since spoken language began. Obviously, though, history can only work with what's documented in some fashion -- and that has a much shorter history. Another issue is the destruction of the library of Alexandria around 400 AD -- wiped out documentation of much early work. Fall of Roman Empire a few decades later didn't help either...

Another theme you'll see is that before modern forms of communications were invented, developments tended to cluster in an area (like an intellectual center of gravity), and largely just spread as a function of military conquest. A lot of mixing / communication of knowledge only took place when borders / populations moved around.

Ancient & classical physics -- largely based on philosophy, not much in the way of experimentation. Self-limiting: stifling tendency to accept the ideas of philosophers, rather than to question and test those ideas. If you don't do testing, it's also very hard to differentiate which philosophy is better than another. Early state of mathematics also limited what could be done.