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Physics is the natural science of matter, involving the study of matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. Physics is one of the most fundamental scientific disciplines, with its main goal being to understand how the universe behaves. A scientist who specializes in the field of physics is called a physicist.
Physics is one of the oldest academic disciplines and, through its inclusion of astronomy, perhaps the oldest. Over much of the past two millennia, physics, chemistry, biology, and certain branches of mathematics were a part of natural philosophy, but during the Scientific Revolution in the 17th century these natural sciences emerged as unique research endeavors in their own right. Physics intersects with many interdisciplinary areas of research, such as biophysics and quantum chemistry, and the boundaries of physics are not rigidly defined. New ideas in physics often explain the fundamental mechanisms studied by other sciences and suggest new avenues of research in these and other academic disciplines such as mathematics and philosophy.
Advances in physics often enable new technologies. For example, advances in the understanding of electromagnetism, solid-state physics, and nuclear physics led directly to the development of new products that have dramatically transformed modern-day society, such as television, computers, domestic appliances, and nuclear weapons; advances in thermodynamics led to the development of industrialization; and advances in mechanics inspired the development of calculus. (Full article...)
Amalie Emmy Noether (US: /ˈnʌtər/, UK: /ˈnɜːtə/; German: [ˈnøːtɐ]; 23 March 1882 – 14 April 1935) was a German mathematician who made many important contributions to abstract algebra. She proved Noether's first and second theorems, which are fundamental in mathematical physics. She was described by Pavel Alexandrov, Albert Einstein, Jean Dieudonné, Hermann Weyl and Norbert Wiener as the most important woman in the history of mathematics. As one of the leading mathematicians of her time, she developed theories of rings, fields, and algebras. In physics, Noether's theorem explains the connection between symmetry and conservation laws.
Noether was born to a Jewish family in the Franconian town of Erlangen; her father was the mathematician Max Noether. She originally planned to teach French and English after passing the required examinations but instead studied mathematics at the University of Erlangen, where her father lectured. After completing her doctorate in 1907 under the supervision of Paul Gordan, she worked at the Mathematical Institute of Erlangen without pay for seven years. At the time, women were largely excluded from academic positions. In 1915, she was invited by David Hilbert and Felix Klein to join the mathematics department at the University of Göttingen, a world-renowned center of mathematical research. The philosophical faculty objected, however, and she spent four years lecturing under Hilbert's name. Her habilitation was approved in 1919, allowing her to obtain the rank of Privatdozent. (Full article...)Did you know -
- ... that it is estimated that The Sun burns around 620 million metric tons of Hydrogen per second into 616 million metric tons of Helium?
- ... that the Big Bang was secured as the best theory for the origin of the universe by the discovery of the cosmic microwave background radiation in 1964?
- ... that neutron stars are so dense (10¹⁷ kg/m³) that a teaspoonful (5 mL) would have ten times the mass of the total human population?
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Archimedes' screw, also called the Archimedean screw or screwpump, is a machine historically used for transferring water from a low-lying body of water into irrigation ditches. The screw pump is commonly attributed to Archimedes on the occasion of his visit to Egypt, but this tradition may reflect only that the apparatus was unknown to the Greeks before Hellenistic times and introduced in his lifetime by unknown Greek engineers. Some writers have suggested that the device may have been in use in Assyria some 350 years earlier.
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Archimedes' screw was operated by hand and could raise water efficiently
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An Archimedes' screw in Huseby south of Växjö Sweden
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Archimedes' screw]
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Roman screw used to dewater mines in Spain
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Modern Archimedes' screws which have replaced some of the windmills used to drain the polders at Kinderdijk in the Netherlands
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Archimedes' screw as a form of art by Tony Cragg at 's-Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands
Related portals
June anniversaries
- 1 June 1831 – James Clark Ross discovers the North Magnetic Pole.
- 1 June 1869 – Thomas Edison receives a patent for his electric voting machine.
- 1 June 1910 – Robert Falcon Scott expedition leaves England for South Pole.
- 1 June 1978 – First Patent Cooperation Treaty international filings.
- 1 June 1980 – Cable News Network (CNN) begins broadcasting.
- 1 June 1990 – Bush and Gorbachev sign chemical weapons ban.
- 1 June 2000 – Patent Law Treaty is signed.
- 2 June 1966 – Surveyor 1 lands on the Moon.
- 2 June 2003 - ESA launches Mars Express probe to Mars.
- 3 June 1965 - First American spacewalk, mission Gemini IV
- 3 June 1973 – A Soviet supersonic Tupolev Tu-144 crashes.
- 4 June 781 BC – First historic solar eclipse is recorded in China.
- 4 June 1973 – A patent for the ATM is granted.
- 4 June 1996 - First flight. Ariane 5 rocket explodes after roughly 20 seconds.
- 5 June 1977 – Apple II, personal computer goes on sale.
Birthdays
- 1 June 1633 – Geminiano Montanari, Italian astronomer (d. 1687)
- 1 June 1796 – Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot, French physicist (d. 1832)
- 1 June 1899 – Edward Charles Titchmarsh, English mathematician (d. 1963)
- 1 June 1907 – Frank Whittle, invented jet engine. (d. 1996)
- 1 June 1917 – William S. Knowles Nobel Prize laureate
- 1 June 1940 – Kip Thorne, American physicist
- 2 June 1930 – Pete Conrad, American astronaut (d. 1999)
- 2 June 1949 – Heather Couper, British astronomer
- 3 June 1659 – David Gregory, Scottish astronomer (d. 1708)
- 3 June 1923 – Igor Shafarevich, Russian mathematician
- 4 June 1704 – Benjamin Huntsman, English inventor and manufacturer (d. 1776)
- 4 June 1877 – Heinrich Wieland, German biochemist & Nobel laureate (d. 1957)
- 4 June 1916 – Robert F. Furchgott, American chemist & Nobel laureate (d. 2009)
- 4 June 1967 – Robert Shane Kimbrough, American astronaut
- 5 June 1760 – Johan Gadolin, Finnish scientist (d. 1852)
- 5 June 1819 – John Couch Adams, English astronomer (d. 1892)
- 5 June 1862 – Allvar Gullstrand, Swedish ophthalmologist Nobel laureate (d. 1930)
- 5 June 1900 – Dennis Gabor, Hungarian physicist, Nobel laureate (d. 1979)
- 5 June 1965 – Michael E. Brown, American astronomer
- 13 June 1831 - James Clerk Maxwell, Scottish physicist (d. 1879)
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Classical physics traditionally includes the fields of mechanics, optics, electricity, magnetism, acoustics and thermodynamics. The term Modern physics is normally used for fields which rely heavily on quantum theory, including quantum mechanics, atomic physics, nuclear physics, particle physics and condensed matter physics. General and special relativity are usually considered to be part of modern physics as well.
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