PHYSICS AND MATHEMATICS
What science fields usean abundance of mathematics?
The sciences that are “heavy users” of mathematics are the so-called physical sciences,
including physics, chemistry, geology, and astronomy. These scientific fields are often
contrasted with the natural or biological sciences. The physical sciences analyze the
nature and properties of energy and non-living matter, and they often need the help of
mathematics to determine the complex relationships between their interactions.
What is physics?
Physics is often described as the science of the interactions between matter and ener-
gy. It includes the subfields of atomic structure, heat, electricity, magnetism, optics,
and many other phenomena.
Traditionally speaking, physics is divided into classical and modern—although
many subdivisions of the two overlap—and both are ruled by mathematics. Classical
physics includes Newtonian mechanics, thermodynamics, acoustics, optics, electricity,
and magnetism. Modern physics includes such fields as quantum field theory and rela-
tivistic mechanics.
Other common divisions of physics are experimental and theoretical physics. The-
oretical physicists use mathematics to describe the physical world and predict how it
will behave; they depend on experimental results to check, understand, change, or
eliminate theories. Experimental physicists test their predictions with practical exper-
iments, often using mathematics to conduct the experiments.
275
MATH IN THE
PHYSICAL
SCIENCES