What does physics study?
Physics is the science of the most general natural phenomena and the laws that govern them. It describes the properties of matter, energy, space and time.
Methods of scientific inquiry
- Observation — recording a phenomenon under natural conditions.
- Hypothesis — a scientific assumption that explains a phenomenon.
- Experiment — a reproducible observation under controlled conditions.
- Theory — a system of experimentally confirmed laws explaining many phenomena.
Mechanics and its branches
Mechanics studies the mechanical motion of bodies and their interactions. Mechanical motion is the change of a body's position relative to other bodies over time.
- Kinematics — describes motion without considering its causes.
- Dynamics — relates motion to the forces causing it: $\vec F = m\vec a$.
- Statics — studies the conditions of equilibrium.
A physical model is a simplified representation of a real body. For example, the material point model is used when the size of the body does not matter in the problem.