Hey it's Professor Dave, I want to tell you
about classical physics.
Let's go back in time to the dawn of man.
Homo sapiens will live in small tribes
for hundreds of thousands of years
struggling to survive, but as these
tribes grow and merge, their cultures
merge, and eventually written language
evolves. This is the beginning of
recorded history and the dawn of modern
civilization. In these early centers of
culture like ancient Greece, great
thinkers would gather to discuss ideas
and ask questions.
What are we? What is the universe made of?
How does it behave? The analysis that was
prompted by these questions was labeled
natural philosophy, a singular field of
study that encompassed science
philosophy and religion, as these were
more or less one topic back then.
Philosophers made conjectures about what
they could observe, the form and
properties of matter, and the changes
matter can undergo. But over the
centuries our understanding of the
universe progressed until we arrived at
figures like Galileo and Newton, who
brought about the birth of classical
physics. What was incredible about this time
was the realization that everything in
the universe operates according to
certain principles, principles that can
be known, understood, and described using
mathematics. The implications of this are
astonishing.
It means that if we drop an object off
the top of a tall building there is a
mathematical equation that predicts how
fast the ball will drop, precisely where
it will be at any given instant, and so forth.
This means that the motion of any object
in the universe is not random but is
instead quantifiable, calculable, and
predictable, whether we are talking about
a pebble or a galaxy. In this way
classical physics was able to take the
chaotic and mysterious world of our
ancestors and transform it into a
landscape of mathematical order. Whether
this idea seems off-putting or exciting
we have to accept that the universe is
math, because when we use these equations
to make highly precise predictions
about how an object will behave
the correlation with real events is
undeniable.
It is precisely this kind of math that
allows us to fly airplanes, build roller
coasters, and even send astronauts to the
moon. At the beginning of the 20th
century advancements made by Albert
Einstein and other brilliant people
showed us that classical physics breaks
down in its ability to describe things
if those things are very small, smaller
than an atom, or if those things are
moving very fast, near the speed of light.
But we now know a lot about these realms
too, which comprise the field of modern
physics, and we will be ready to learn
about that once we have completed our
study of classical physics, since
classical came first and we still use
these concepts to describe the motion of
almost everything in the universe.
Einstein himself once said that the most
incomprehensible thing about the
universe is that it is comprehensible.
This means that through the language of
physics we have already begun the
incredible task of knowing how the
universe works on the most intimate
level, and the technology we have been
able to create is a working
demonstration of our sophisticated
understanding of physics, from computers
and satellites, to lasers and rockets.
Whether we can one day know everything
there is to know we can't yet say, but we
already know more than enough to keep
you busy catching up for a while, so
let's learn some physics!