Sherry Peng

The pursuit of physics is to understand the universe- what it is, what it’s made of, and how it works. Physics is a subject stemmed from curiosity, aimed at answering the question of “Why?” Using a first-principles approach and mathematics as the language to express patterns, we are able to model both the simplest events that we experience everyday and events that exist outside of our planet. From discovering gravity to showing the existence of force fields and electric charges, there is no one correct direction in discovery. Physics is a physical science, therefore, focusing on the constituents and behavior of matter. However, physics is often applied in the life sciences due to its focus on the foundations of key properties like energy, velocity, and thermodynamics. Physics is not as rigorously structured as mathematics, rather, its focus is on identifying and thinking of interesting possibilities and using math to express their hypothesis.

Physics seems like this ultra-complicated abstract subject, but here’s a simple question that jumpstarted Newtonian mechanics in the late 1600’s:

Why do things move or don’t move?

For example, why does my table not just randomly move around? Is there some invisible “thing” actively holding it there, or is stillness simply the default state of the universe? This question might sound dumb at first, but it opens up a lot of discussion on the framework of the universe. It also inspired Newton’s first law: an object at rest stays at rest, an object in motion stays in motion. (Specifically, the object in motion will continue with the same speed and direction for eternity, until some external force acts on it, like a wall or a comet or a person’s hand.)

Here are a couple more simple, but thought-provoking questions physics aims to answer in a consistent and rigorous manner:

• Why is the sky blue?
• Why can you feel acceleration, but not speed?
• What even is time?
• Why can you lift a heavier object easier underwater?
• Why does a frisbee fly, but not a plate?

But why use math? Why not use speaking languages to describe real-life events and patterns? It turns out that the words we use to speak are quite vague compared to specific combinations of numbers, variables, and operators. The language of math is one that seems highly complicated, but it can also not be accurately generalized and simplified to everyday speak. We cannot describe the universe and its patterns in sentences, while math’s rigid notation somehow can. It is easy to argue for or against this philosophy in math, but its usefulness in physics and engineering cannot be ignored. The core of mathematics is pattern identification and a deep look into the unobvious areas that pave the way for use of these tools by physicists or engineers later. Physics, and thus engineering, cannot have been developed without the futuristic tools that mathematicians worked on long before they predicted any possible use-cases. Through thousands of years, countless ideas and theorems have been blissfully swept under the rug, while many others have been cornerstones in laying the groundwork for jaw-dropping physical discoveries. In other words, mathematics is the rigid ground-layer that makes discovery justifiable, predictable, and quantifiable.

There is often a blurry line in drawing mathematics vs. physics. Mathematics is a rigorous and creative subject that aims to discover elegant and unique tools that may or may not be used by physicists in the future. Physics can be viewed as figuring out ways to use these abstract tools mathematicians have come up with to make new discoveries about the universe. The heart of physics is in its creativity to pull mathematical concepts and form a theory about our world, paving the way for engineers to build and improve lives. Understanding what matter is, how matter interacts, and how matter evolves is essential for effective and efficient building. Without physics, engineers would be stuck with the same old tools and civilization would live in a sad world with minimal movement forward.

In Short

Will expand more on this analogy and provide examples later on math, physics, and engineering. This is meant to open up content for conversation. I will also discuss the main concentrations in physics, applications, etc.