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What is physics?

Physics is the branch of science that deals with the structure of matter and how the fundamental constituents of the universe interact. It studies objects ranging from the very small using quantum mechanics to the entire universe using general relativity .

Physicists and other scientists use the International System of Units (SI) in their work because they wish to use a system that is agreed upon by scientists worldwide. Since 2019 the SI units have been defined in terms of fundamental physical constants, which means that scientists anywhere using SI can agree upon the units they use to measure physical phenomena.

physics , science that deals with the structure of matter and the interactions between the fundamental constituents of the observable universe . In the broadest sense, physics (from the Greek physikos ) is concerned with all aspects of nature on both the macroscopic and submicroscopic levels. Its scope of study encompasses not only the behaviour of objects under the action of given forces but also the nature and origin of gravitational, electromagnetic, and nuclear force fields. Its ultimate objective is the formulation of a few comprehensive principles that bring together and explain all such disparate phenomena.

(Read Einstein’s 1926 Britannica essay on space-time.)

Physics is the basic physical science . Until rather recent times physics and natural philosophy were used interchangeably for the science whose aim is the discovery and formulation of the fundamental laws of nature. As the modern sciences developed and became increasingly specialized, physics came to denote that part of physical science not included in astronomy , chemistry , geology , and engineering . Physics plays an important role in all the natural sciences, however, and all such fields have branches in which physical laws and measurements receive special emphasis, bearing such names as astrophysics , geophysics , biophysics , and even psychophysics . Physics can, at base, be defined as the science of matter , motion , and energy . Its laws are typically expressed with economy and precision in the language of mathematics .

Both experiment, the observation of phenomena under conditions that are controlled as precisely as possible, and theory, the formulation of a unified conceptual framework, play essential and complementary roles in the advancement of physics. Physical experiments result in measurements, which are compared with the outcome predicted by theory. A theory that reliably predicts the results of experiments to which it is applicable is said to embody a law of physics. However, a law is always subject to modification, replacement, or restriction to a more limited domain, if a later experiment makes it necessary.

The ultimate aim of physics is to find a unified set of laws governing matter, motion, and energy at small (microscopic) subatomic distances, at the human (macroscopic) scale of everyday life, and out to the largest distances (e.g., those on the extragalactic scale). This ambitious goal has been realized to a notable extent. Although a completely unified theory of physical phenomena has not yet been achieved (and possibly never will be), a remarkably small set of fundamental physical laws appears able to account for all known phenomena. The body of physics developed up to about the turn of the 20th century, known as classical physics, can largely account for the motions of macroscopic objects that move slowly with respect to the speed of light and for such phenomena as heat , sound , electricity , magnetism , and light . The modern developments of relativity and quantum mechanics modify these laws insofar as they apply to higher speeds, very massive objects, and to the tiny elementary constituents of matter, such as electrons , protons , and neutrons .

The scope of physics

The traditionally organized branches or fields of classical and modern physics are delineated below.

Mechanics is generally taken to mean the study of the motion of objects (or their lack of motion) under the action of given forces. Classical mechanics is sometimes considered a branch of applied mathematics. It consists of kinematics , the description of motion, and dynamics , the study of the action of forces in producing either motion or static equilibrium (the latter constituting the science of statics ). The 20th-century subjects of quantum mechanics, crucial to treating the structure of matter, subatomic particles , superfluidity , superconductivity , neutron stars , and other major phenomena, and relativistic mechanics , important when speeds approach that of light, are forms of mechanics that will be discussed later in this section.

In classical mechanics the laws are initially formulated for point particles in which the dimensions, shapes, and other intrinsic properties of bodies are ignored. Thus in the first approximation even objects as large as Earth and the Sun are treated as pointlike—e.g., in calculating planetary orbital motion. In rigid-body dynamics , the extension of bodies and their mass distributions are considered as well, but they are imagined to be incapable of deformation . The mechanics of deformable solids is elasticity ; hydrostatics and hydrodynamics treat, respectively, fluids at rest and in motion.

The three laws of motion set forth by Isaac Newton form the foundation of classical mechanics, together with the recognition that forces are directed quantities ( vectors ) and combine accordingly. The first law, also called the law of inertia , states that, unless acted upon by an external force , an object at rest remains at rest, or if in motion, it continues to move in a straight line with constant speed . Uniform motion therefore does not require a cause. Accordingly, mechanics concentrates not on motion as such but on the change in the state of motion of an object that results from the net force acting upon it. Newton’s second law equates the net force on an object to the rate of change of its momentum, the latter being the product of the mass of a body and its velocity. Newton’s third law, that of action and reaction, states that when two particles interact, the forces each exerts on the other are equal in magnitude and opposite in direction. Taken together, these mechanical laws in principle permit the determination of the future motions of a set of particles, providing their state of motion is known at some instant, as well as the forces that act between them and upon them from the outside. From this deterministic character of the laws of classical mechanics, profound (and probably incorrect) philosophical conclusions have been drawn in the past and even applied to human history.

Lying at the most basic level of physics, the laws of mechanics are characterized by certain symmetry properties, as exemplified in the aforementioned symmetry between action and reaction forces. Other symmetries, such as the invariance (i.e., unchanging form) of the laws under reflections and rotations carried out in space , reversal of time, or transformation to a different part of space or to a different epoch of time, are present both in classical mechanics and in relativistic mechanics, and with certain restrictions, also in quantum mechanics. The symmetry properties of the theory can be shown to have as mathematical consequences basic principles known as conservation laws , which assert the constancy in time of the values of certain physical quantities under prescribed conditions. The conserved quantities are the most important ones in physics; included among them are mass and energy (in relativity theory, mass and energy are equivalent and are conserved together), momentum , angular momentum , and electric charge .

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Physics Essays has been established as an international journal dedicated to theoretical and experimental aspects of fundamental problems in Physics and, generally, to the advancement of basic knowledge of Physics. The Journal’s mandate is to publish rigorous and methodological examinations of past, current, and advanced concepts, methods and results in physics research. Physics Essays dedicates itself to the publication of stimulating exploratory, and original papers in a variety of physics disciplines, such as spectroscopy, quantum mechanics, particle physics, electromagnetic theory, astrophysics, space physics, mathematical methods in physics, plasma physics, philosophical aspects of physics, chemical physics, and relativity.  The establishment of such an advanced physics journal was endorsed, among others, by one of its first Editorial Board members and Nobel Prize Gerhard Herzberg, who wrote a Foreword in 1988 in which he states that "..... The new journal promises also to give greater freedom to authors in discussing critical and unsettled points in the foundations of physics, a policy that relieves some of the rigidity of the present reviewing system adopted by many journals. ....", and added ".... It is my pleasure and privilege to wish the new journal all possible success. May it contribute to the better understanding of the foundations and development of physics and inspire an appreciation for the value of unrestrained scientific inquiry ...".  The "Foreword" by Gerhard Herzberg (Phys. Essays, Volume 1, No. 1 p. 3, Year 1988) is available by clicking here .  This policy was confirmed 15 years later in an Editorial  (Phys. Essays, Volume 15, No. 1 p. 3, Year  2003)  available by clicking  he re .

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Physics - Free Essay Examples And Topic Ideas

Physics, the natural science concerned with the fundamental principles governing the universe, branches into numerous theories and applications like classical mechanics, quantum mechanics, and thermodynamics. Essays on physics could delve into historical milestones, key theories, or modern advancements in fields like quantum computing or astrophysics. Moreover, discussions might extend to the implications of physical laws on technology, environment, and the broader understanding of the universe. A vast selection of complimentary essay illustrations pertaining to Physics you can find at Papersowl. You can use our samples for inspiration to write your own essay, research paper, or just to explore a new topic for yourself.

Apollo 13: through Physics

The film “Apollo 13”, directed by Ron Howards, depicts events from the infamous failed Apollo 13 mission in a realistic fashion. Through the use of physics, many of these events can be proven to be accurate. More specifically, I will be investigating how Newtons three laws of motion facilitated the ship’s movements throughout its course, and how the implications of gravity affected the astronauts on their mission to the moon. To see how these laws are applied to the film […]

Physics in Motion: Exploring the Dynamics of Static Vs Kinetic Friction

Friction is a ubiquitous phenomenon in the field of theoretical physics, exerting significant influence on several aspects of our daily experiences. The basic force acts as a constraint on the translational motion of objects in reference to their surfaces. In the realm of physical phenomena, friction manifests in two distinct forms: kinetic and static. Despite their adherence to conflicting ideologies, both entities have tremendous importance in various ways. This article examines the distinctions between static and kinetic friction, and provides […]

Albert Einstein’s Biography

Albert Einstein was a great physicist and mathematician and was known for his theories on relativity, and of matter and heat. Einstein was born on March 14th, 1879 in Württemberg, Germany. As a child, Einstein was mesmerized in music (he played the violin), mathematics and science. Einstein became religious at age 12, even composing several songs in praise of God and also singing religious songs on the way to school. After he read science books that opposed his religious beliefs. […]

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Physics Unveiled: a Real-World Illustration of Newton’s Second Law

When we delve into the realms of physics, we often encounter the legendary Sir Isaac Newton, a name synonymous with the three foundational laws of motion. Of these, Newton's Second Law often comes to life in textbook problems involving different forces and masses. However, the real magic unfolds when we step out of the academic bubble and see this law at play in the everyday fabric of our lives. Newton's Second Law states that the force acting on an object […]

Why Tulane: Undergraduate Admission

I am Debaroty Roy, a graduate student from Tulane University. I have completed my undergraduate from Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, Bangladesh. I am interested in pursuing my PhD in Chemical Engineering Department of Louisiana State University. I did my undergraduate in Chemical Engineering which combines chemistry, physics, biology and mathematics to solve problems. During my undergraduate years, I developed a very broad range of skills. It included fundamental heat and material balance to complex mass, heat and momentum […]

About Motion of Soccer Ball

When a soccer ball is kicked or in motion it is determined by newton's laws of motion. Newton's first law of motion states that an object will move in a straight line unless acted on by other external forces. Newton's second law of motion explains that the velocity, the speed of an object in a given direction, changes when it interacts with an external force. The forces that can stop and interfere with the motion of the soccer ball is […]

A German Mathematician and Physicist Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein was a German mathematician and physicist who developed the special and general theories of relativity, and was born in Wurttemberg, Germany, on March 14, 1879. Albert Einstein was born at Ulm. Six weeks after Albert's birth, his family packed up and moved to Munich, where he later began schooling at the Luitpold Gymnasium. After a while, Albert's family gathered their bags once more and moved to Italy where he continued his studies at Aarau, Switzerland. In 1896, Albert […]

If Time Travel were Real

On the off chance that I could go back in time I would learn however much I can. I would go to my kid hood, significant dates ever, and attempt to discover significant political dates in history too. what's more, attempt to discover where did my family came from. I could enter a time machine, I couldn't imagine anything better than to have the option to return in time when I was a youngster. Taking the information I have now […]

The Study of Black Holes

The study of black holes are important because they are a great unknown that could change modern day science as a know it. Black holes are among one of the strangest things in our universe. To understand why blacks holes are so important you first have to know what they are. A black hole is a large amount of matter packed into a very small space. The result is a gravitational field so strong that nothing, not even light, can […]

What are Black Holes?

Have you ever wondered what lies at the center of our Milky Way, what happens to stars when they die, or what may lie in the darkest spots of the observable universe? The answer to all of those questions is black holes. Albert Einstein was the first one to suggest that black holes existed in 1926; he used it in his general theory of relativity. An actual black hole was discovered in 1971. Ever since black holes have been known […]

Supermassive Black Holes

Thanks to recent advancements in technology, astronomers have been given the means to better understand how supermassive black holes formed, as well as their relation to the evolution of their respective galaxies. Before understanding what a supermassive black hole is, it is probably best to learn about normal black holes in comparison. A black hole is essentially a vortex containing a gravitational field that is strong enough to prevent any form of matter or radiation from escaping it. As the […]

Magnetism in Nanomaterials

The basic concepts regarding the interactions between magnetic nanoparticles and a static or time-varying external magnetic field were reviewed. We also analyzed how these pertain to the current biomedical applications of magnetic nanoparticles, focusing particularly on magnetic separation and drug delivery. However, these are only two of the many biomedical applications of magnetic nanoparticles currently being explored. The main mechanism involves the oscillatory movement of ferromagnetic ions in magnetic twisting cytometry. This process involves binding ferromagnetic microspheres to specific receptors […]

Black Hole: a Black Sphere in the Universe

To begin with, what is a black hole? A black sphere in the universe that sucks up everything within its path? Although black holes do capture objects in their entirety, this is only plausible if the object comes within the gravitational force field of the black hole, meaning, as cool as it sounds, no it does not ""suck"" things into itself. How do black holes form? For a black hole to come about, a star has to die, when this […]

The Universe of Black Holes

Abstract Black holes are some of the strangest and most fascinating objects found in outer space. They are objects of extreme density, with such strong gravitational attraction that even light cannot escape from their grasp if it comes near enough. Albert Einstein first predicted black holes in 1916 with his general theory of relativity. The term ""black hole"" was coined in 1967 by American astronomer John Wheeler, and the first one was discovered in 1971. Stellar-mass black holes are formed […]

How Software Engineering and Nanotechnology Can be Related

The technology is evolving every day and humanity is relying on it more than anticipated. Scientists trying to figure out how to preserve the ecosystem with different devices. Today, Software development has been essential throughout research understanding computer language and becoming part of our nature. The next level to really see the future, right in front of us, must be Nano scales or Nanotechnology. With this, we can do so much in every field; Find cure of many diseases, build […]

What did Albert Einstein do to Change the World

Born March 14, 1879 and died April 18, 1955 was a German man named albert Einstein. He Grew up with his Jewish family. His father named Herman Einstein and mother named Pauline Koch. He moved to Munich with his family to stat school at Luitpold gymnasium. After a while He moved to Milan, Italy to continue school. During the end of the 1880s a polish medical Student named max Talmud became a tutor to albert Einstein. Talmud had introduced his […]

The Phenomenon of Black Holes

In many films and even television shows, when the idea of black holes is discussed we see a common theme of these phenomena being deemed as either a time warp, or as a form of transport from one place to another. Science Fiction films have created the idea that black holes serve as a way for space travelers to either pass through and jump out somewhere across the universe, or as a way to communicate with the past and the […]

Black Holes: Facts, Theory and Definition

First before we go into details, a black hole is a region of space that has a gravitational force that's so intense that no matter or radiation can escape. Black holes are created by a star that reaches the end point of their life and has a mass that's three times stronger than our sun's mass. That same star then gets crushed under its own gravity and keeps collapsing until all of the mass is concentrated into a tiny space. […]

Why is Albert Einstein a Genius

Albert Einstein is one of the most famous and admired physicists in the history of science: knowing that there are so many hardly conceivable ideas (for example, that the mass of a body increases with speed) does not leave more option than to surrender to his genius. Albert Einstein was born in the German city of Ulm on March 14, 1879. He was the firstborn son of Hermann Einstein and Pauline Koch, both Jews, whose families came from Swabia. The […]

Myths and Folktales about Black Holes

Black Holes are the places in space where the gravitational pull or force is so strong that light can not even escape. Personally, I found Black Holes to be the most interesting and questionable thing we have discussed in Astronomy 101 because of the lack of knowledge we, as humans, know about them. Growing up as a child, there were myths and folktales that Black Holes went around eating galaxies, stars, and planets. After this semester, in Astronomy 101, it […]

Albert Einstein Favorite Scientist

In the seventeenth century, the simplicity and elegance with which Isaac Newton had managed to explain the laws that govern the movement of bodies and that of the stars, unifying terrestrial and celestial physics, so dazzled his contemporaries that he came to consider himself mechanics completed. At the end of the 19th century, however, the relevance of some phenomena that classical physics could not explain was already unavoidable. It was up to Albert Einstein to overcome such shortcomings with the […]

Exposing Black Holes

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Christianity and Science

Introduction: Christianity believes in divine creation and that God was the facilitator of the universe, but what this means in relation to science is not always clear. People who believe in the Big Bang theory think that a "singularity," which would have been scorching hot, expanded rapidly about 13.8 billion years ago. This topic is extremely important due to the fact that if there was one simple, factual way the universe was created, it would be flat-out ignorant to not […]

Are Black Holes a Threat to Mankind?

In space, there is nothing more frightening than the words "black hole." The inferences made by long-distance observations indicate something sinister about an object that seemingly consumes light and energy. "Black holes were theorized more than 200 years ago and later were predicted by Einstein's theory of general relativity. The discovery of active galaxies forced astronomers to think that monstrous black holes really do exist and are the 'engines' at the heart of these fireworks. The gushers of light and […]

Sizes of a Soccer Ball

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Transcending Harry Potter

The 21st century is known as the century of science and technology. As technology is an inseparable part of human daily life, it is important to know that the development of technology is formed and described by the principles of physics, which is the most fundamental field of all the science. One of the most important physics principles are Newtons' Laws of motion which was founded by Isaac Newton, an English scientist and mathematician. The Newton's Laws of motion are […]

Interstellar Movie Review: a Journey through Science and Speculation

Interstellar: A Cinematic Marvel Grounded in Science The movie Interstellar is a 2014 science-fiction epic by Christopher Nolan that leaves the viewer asking, “What happens now?” Nobel Prize-winning physicist, Kip Thorne, assisted Nolan on the scientific aspects of the movie. This makes the film even more impressive because this fantastic voyage is grounded in real science. Physicist, Kip Thorne, explains that “much of Interstellar’s science is at or just beyond today’s frontiers of human understanding. This adds to the film’s […]

Behavior of a Simple Nexorade or Reciprocal Frame System

Among the group of space structures is a typology called nexorades or reciprocal frame structures. Nexorades can have different designs and shapes. This article centers around a basic setup to get results that are easy to peruse and convey. The point is to improve comprehension of the structural behavior of nexorades to simplify their design. Two investigative techniques are proposed to compute the bending resistance and the stiffness of a nexorade. The impact of the connections between members on the […]

How does a Roller Coaster Work

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Important Discoveries in Mathematics

Since the word fractal was popularized by Benoit Mandelbrot in the 1970’s, he has become the father of fractals. Mandelbrot had been fascinated by discoveries of mathematicians from the early 19th century who were attempting to define their understanding of what a curve is. Experiments like George Cantor's discovery that a single line could be divided infinitely, and Koch's triangle, a shape that has an infinite perimeter but finite area, resulted in the term ‘monsters’. These monsters were beyond the […]

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How to Write Essay About Physics

Understanding the essay prompt.

When tasked with writing an essay about physics, the first step is to thoroughly understand the essay prompt. This involves clarifying the specific aspect of physics you need to address. It could range from discussing a particular theory, a historical advancement in the field, or the application of physics in modern technology. Equally important is to understand the nature of the essay – is it argumentative, descriptive, analytical, or something else? This will shape your approach to writing.

If you find yourself struggling with physics homework and in need of assistance, a reliable option to consider is seeking help from PapersOwl. This platform offers expert guidance in the field of physics, providing assistance with specific assignments. Whether you're grappling with the intricacies of quantum mechanics or the fundamentals of classical physics, PapersOwl's team of knowledgeable tutors can offer tailored support. Their service is designed to not only help you complete your homework but also to enhance your overall understanding of physics, ensuring that you're well-prepared for future challenges in the subject.

Research and Information Gathering

A strong essay is built on a foundation of comprehensive research. Utilize credible sources such as academic journals, textbooks, and authoritative online resources. During your research phase, it's crucial to take detailed notes. These notes should include key theories, evidence, and any other information that can support your essay's arguments or viewpoints.

Crafting a Thesis Statement

The cornerstone of your essay is the thesis statement. This statement should concisely outline your main argument or the central idea you plan to explore. A well-crafted thesis is specific and guides the direction of your essay, focusing on a particular aspect of physics rather than being overly broad or vague.

Structuring the Essay

Organizing your essay is critical for clarity and coherence. Start with an introduction that sets the stage for your topic and presents your thesis statement. The body of your essay should consist of several paragraphs, each dedicated to exploring a specific point or argument that supports your thesis. Conclude your essay by summarizing the main points and restating your thesis, considering the evidence you have presented.

Writing the Essay

In the writing phase, clarity and precision are key, especially when dealing with complex physics concepts. Ensure that your arguments are presented logically, guiding the reader through your thought process. If your essay requires it, include and explain relevant mathematical formulas. Remember to write in a way that is accessible to your intended audience, avoiding unnecessary jargon or overly complex explanations.

Citation and References

Proper citation of your sources is crucial in academic writing. Choose an appropriate citation style, like APA or MLA, and use it consistently throughout your essay. Every piece of information that isn't common knowledge, including theories, experimental data, or direct quotes, needs to be properly acknowledged.

Editing and Revision

Once your first draft is complete, the next step is to review and revise it. Check for clarity and coherence, ensuring that each part of your essay logically flows into the next. Pay close attention to the scientific accuracy of your physics content. Finally, proofread your essay to correct any grammatical, punctuation, or spelling errors.

Seeking Feedback and Finalizing the Essay

Getting feedback on your essay can be immensely beneficial. Consider having your essay peer-reviewed or consult with instructors, especially to verify the accuracy of the physics content. Use this feedback to make necessary revisions. Once you're satisfied with the content and structure, prepare your final draft, ensuring it adheres to any formatting guidelines provided.

Writing an essay about physics involves a blend of accurate scientific understanding, thorough research, clear and logical structuring, and precise writing. By methodically following these steps, you can effectively communicate complex physics concepts in an engaging and informative manner. Remember, the essence of a successful physics essay lies in its clarity, logical argumentation, and scientific validity.

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Introductory essay

Written by the educators who created The Edge of Knowledge, a brief look at the key facts, tough questions and big ideas in their field. Begin this TED Study with a fascinating read that gives context and clarity to the material.

Particle physicists are nothing if not ambitious. And the aim of particle physics is to understand what everything's made of, and how everything sticks together. And by everything I mean, of course, me and you, the Earth, the Sun, the 100 billion suns in our galaxy and the 100 billion galaxies in the observable universe. Absolutely everything. Brian Cox

To the outside observer, it may seem that physics is in some ways the opposite of art and that physicists must sacrifice their artistic intelligence to make way for cold rationality and logic. But nothing could be farther from the truth: Each step forward in our understanding of the universe could not have been conceived without an enormous dose of intuition and creativity.

Physicists are on a quest to figure out how nature works at the most fundamental level. This is a romantic story, penned in what may seem the least emotive of languages: mathematics. What's surprising is that the immeasurable beauty of the world is far from lost once its inner workings are expressed in this abstract language. Moreover, there remains something deeply intriguing about the fact that the universe is governed by the rules of mathematics in the first place. As we'll hear from Murray Gell-Mann in the first of the TEDTalks in The Edge of Knowledge, these beautiful mathematical laws are "not merely a conceit of the human mind" — instead, they're an intrinsic part of nature.

Many successful ideas in science can be described as beautiful and very often this is a reference to the simplicity and conciseness of nature's laws. Einstein's special and general theories of relativity, which describe how space, time and gravity behave, are based on only three brief postulates. The laws of electromagnetism, which govern every aspect of how we experience the worldthrough sight, sound, smell, taste or touch, are so concise thatthey can be written on the front of a T-shirt. The Standard Model of Particle Physics, which describes all of the known particles and three of the four forces that act between them, fits on the side of a coffee mug. As we will hear from Garrett Lisi, looking for beauty in the patterns that emerge in the laws of physics can tell us about how the universe works at the most fundamental level.

Science is a collaborative discipline and a global one too. It is the extent to which scientists cooperate that allows science to move at an incredible pace. The majority of the ideas presented in these TEDTalks have been around no longer than 50 years; some less than a decade. Since these speakers featured in The Edge of Knowledge delivered their TEDTalks, scientists working in global collaborations have developed and implemented several new experimental measurements. Most recently, the European Space Agency's Planck satellite has made precise measurements of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB): the results are in agreement with the predictions of the Standard Cosmological Model, which describes how the universe evolved from the Big Bang to what we see today. In Brian Cox's TEDTalk, we'll hear about the search for new elementary particles at CERN's Large Hadron Collider, encompassing the work of over 10,000 physicists from over 100 countries. This search is underway, and appears already to have yielded one of the most important scientific results of the 21st century: the discovery of the Higgs boson, the final ingredient predicted by the Standard Model of Particle Physics.

Notwithstanding the significance of these recent discoveries and their agreement with predictions, our picture of the fundamental structure of the universe is far from complete: a number of big mysteries remain in both particle physics and cosmology. As we'll hear from Patricia Burchat, many of these mysteries link together the physics of the smallest elementary particles and the largest distances of the cosmos. One of the most enduring mysteries is how to reconcile a complete theory of gravity with our understanding of the fundamental particles. From Brian Greene, we'll hear about the potential of string theory to solve this problem and the possible existence of tiny, curled up, extra spatial dimensions.

However, fundamental laws are not enough on their own. Aristotle said that "all human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsion, habit, reason, passion, and desire." It's the first of these — chance — that is not decided by the laws of physics; in fact, chance is not decided at all. The fundamental laws of physics cannot predict what will happen; they can only tell us what might happen. This uncertainty is built into the laws of quantum mechanics.

As we'll hear from Aaron O'Connell, the most striking feature of quantum mechanics is that it's weird. For example, we're challenged to contemplate the possibility that a thing can be in more than one place at the same time. It's quantum mechanics, more than any other idea in fundamental physics, which forces us to question our intuition about how everyday objects behave. For the microscopic constituents of the universe, our everyday observations simply do not hold. In spite of its counter-intuitiveness, quantum mechanics has come to define our modern world through the technologies that it underpins. From the tiny switches crammed by the billions onto microchips to medical scanners and laser therapies, all rely upon the weirdness of quantum mechanics.

Ultimately, science remains an empirical discipline. Thinking up beautiful theories is not enough on its own: every theory must stand up to the experimental observations of how nature actually works. If it doesn't, then the theory can't be correct and we must try again. If, on the other hand, our observations and predictions agree, then we're encouraged and — if the evidence is sufficient — we might even dare to claim some measure of understanding.

Through our human creativity, expressed in a process of trial and improvement, incremental advances in our understanding accumulate and scientific progress is made. As the chess grandmaster Gary Kasparov puts it, our success is "the ability to combine creativity and calculation...into a whole that is much greater than the sum of its parts." With each of these steps forward, science closes one more door and moves on to try one of the many, many doors that remain open.

This series of TEDTalks discusses some of the toughest questions and the most profound ideas in fundamental physics. The concepts not only challenge us to think objectively and rationally, but also require us to put aside many of our everyday preconceptions and intuitions about how nature works. Be prepared to re-watch the talks and re-read the supporting material; trying to get your head around 13.8 billion years of the universe's history isn't something you can do in an afternoon!

Let's begin with CalTech physicist Murray Gell-Mann for an introduction to the Standard Model of particle physics and the quest for a unified theory.

Murray Gell-Mann

Beauty, truth and ... physics, relevant talks.

Aaron O'Connell

Making sense of a visible quantum object.

CERN's supercollider

Brian Greene

Making sense of string theory.

Garrett Lisi

An 8-dimensional model of the universe.

Patricia Burchat

Shedding light on dark matter.

Physical Review Letters

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ON THE COVER

Universal hyperuniform organization in looped leaf vein networks, july 8, 2024.

Ficus religiosa leaf (left) and zoomed-in image of its vein network (right). The scale bar is 0.5 cm.

Yuan Liu et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 133 , 028401 (2024)

• Issue 2 Table of Contents
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Editorial: Coauthor! Coauthor!

May 21, 2024.

When determining the authorship list for your next paper, be generous yet disciplined.

NEWS AND COMMENTARY

Temperature affects aging in granular materials, july 12, 2024.

Experiments on a bed of plastic beads reveal a temperature-dependent stiffening over time, which appears to be related to molecular-scale deformations.

Focus story on: Kasra Farain and Daniel Bonn Phys. Rev. Lett. 133 , 028203 (2024)

First Direct Detection of Electron Neutrinos at a Particle Collider

July 11, 2024.

Electron neutrinos produced by proton–proton collisions at the LHC have been experimentally observed.

Synopsis on: Roshan Mammen Abraham et al. (FASER Collaboration) Phys. Rev. Lett. 133 , 021802 (2024)

EDITORS' SUGGESTION

Clock with 8 × 10 − 19 systematic uncertainty.

An optical lattice clock with a 19-digit frequency accuracy results from the precise evaluation of the dynamic component of the clock transition’s blackbody radiation shift.

Alexander Aeppli et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 133 , 023401 (2024)

Physical Running of Couplings in Quadratic Gravity

A theoretical analysis suggests that higher derivative gravity theories display signs of UV completeness.

Diego Buccio, John F. Donoghue, Gabriel Menezes, and Roberto Percacci Phys. Rev. Lett. 133 , 021604 (2024)

Irreversible Monte Carlo Algorithms for Hard Disk Glasses: From Event-Chain to Collective Swaps

An irreversible algorithm utilizing collective particle swaps outperforms known Monte Carlo methods for configuration space sampling during the glassy slowing of dynamics in disordered systems.

Federico Ghimenti, Ludovic Berthier, and Frédéric van Wijland Phys. Rev. Lett. 133 , 028202 (2024)

Time-Dependent Variational Principle with Controlled Bond Expansion for Matrix Product States

A controlled bond expansion approach to simulate quantum dynamics resolves the numerical difficulty of the standard time-dependent variational principle method for matrix product states, where dominant projection errors spoil the numerical accuracy.

Jheng-Wei Li, Andreas Gleis, and Jan von Delft Phys. Rev. Lett. 133 , 026401 (2024)

Dark Matter Could Bring Black Holes Together

July 9, 2024.

Dark matter that interacts with itself could extract significant momentum from a binary supermassive black hole system, causing the black holes to merge.

Synopsis on: Gonzalo Alonso-Álvarez, James M. Cline, and Caitlyn Dewar Phys. Rev. Lett. 133 , 021401 (2024)

Quantum Criticality with Emergent Symmetry in the Extended Shastry-Sutherland Model

Identification of a continuous phase transition between the plaquette valence-bond solid phase and the antiferromagnetic phase accompanied by an emergent O(4) symmetry strongly suggests a deconfined quantum critical point in the ground state phase diagram of the extended Shastry-Sutherland model.

Wen-Yuan Liu et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 133 , 026502 (2024)

Exchange Energy of the Ferromagnetic Electronic Ground State in a Monolayer Semiconductor

The large exchange energy observed when flipping a spin in the ferromagnetic phase of MoS 2 , as determined from the optical emission spectrum, suggests very stable ferromagnetic ordering.

Nadine Leisgang et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 133 , 026501 (2024)

Abyss Aerosols: Drop Production from Underwater Bubble Collisions

The flapping instability of the film squeezed between underwater colliding bubbles is the primary mechanism for submicron droplet formation.

Xinghua Jiang, Lucas Rotily, Emmanuel Villermaux, and Xiaofei Wang Phys. Rev. Lett. 133 , 024001 (2024)

Nuclear Decay Detected in the Recoil of a Levitating Bead

A levitating microparticle is observed to recoil when a nucleus embedded in the particle decays—opening the door to future searches of invisible decay products.

Viewpoint on: Jiaxiang Wang et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 133 , 023602 (2024)

Essay: Quantum sensing with atomic, molecular, and optical platforms for fundamental physics

Next in the PRL series of forward-looking Essays, Jun Ye and Peter Zoller envision exciting research paths at the intersection of AMO physics, quantum technologies, and fundamental physics.

APS Announces Outstanding Referees for 2024

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Meet The Editors

University of florence.

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2024 International Symposium on Quantum Fluids and Solids

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Trending in PRL

Agnostic Phase Estimation Xingrui Song et al . Phys. Rev. Lett. 132 , 060801 (2024)

Observing the Quantum Mpemba Effect in Quantum Simulations Lata Kh. Joshi et al . Phys. Rev. Lett. 133 , 010402 (2024)

Laser Excitation of the 229 Th Nuclear Isomeric Transition in a Solid-State Host R. Elwell et al . Phys. Rev. Lett. 133 , 013201 (2024)

Mott-Insulator State of FeSe as a Van der Waals 2D Material Is Unveiled Byungkyun Kang, Maengsuk Kim, Chul Hong Park, and Anderson Janotti Phys. Rev. Lett. 132 , 266506 (2024)

PRL Nobel Prize winning research

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Physics archive

Unit 1: one-dimensional motion, unit 2: two-dimensional motion, unit 3: forces and newton's laws of motion, unit 4: centripetal force and gravitation, unit 5: work and energy, unit 6: impacts and linear momentum, unit 7: torque and angular momentum, unit 8: oscillations and mechanical waves, unit 9: fluids, unit 10: discoveries and projects, unit 11: review for ap physics 1 exam.

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Essays in Physics: Thirty-two thoughtful essays on topics in undergraduate-level physics

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“Essays in Physics” gives accounts of 32 chosen topics. The level is that of a 3–4-year university course in Physics. The topics discussed are diverse but “mainstream”. Each essay aims to say something fresh that complements what the reader will find elsewhere. Just what “fresh” means inevitably depends somewhat on the subject matter. Some chapters give a “different” slant on a familiar idea (e.g. electromagnetic energy, Lorentz transformation, photon emission). Some contain an analysis not available elsewhere (diffraction, feedback stability). Some correct material that is commonplace in many textbooks (much atomic physics). Some add insightful discussion to standard material (free energy, Brillouin zones). One in particular refines technique (perturbation theory). One brings order to confusion (- m d B ). The aim in all cases is to encourage a fuller, and correct, understanding, and an enhanced intellectual acuity (critical faculty). With a subject as mature as physics, it is bold to claim originality. However I will dare to make that claim, in particular for Chapters 10, 22 and 30, but also for parts of most other chapters.

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Course info.

• Prof. David Kaiser

Departments

• Science, Technology, and Society

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• History of Science and Technology
• Modern History

Learning Resource Types

Einstein, oppenheimer, feynman: physics in the 20th century.

There are three essays and one essay revision for STS.042. All papers should be double-spaced, in 12-point font, and have standard margins of standard width (1 to 1.25 inches). Acceptable file formats include .doc, .docx, and .pdf.

Assignment: Write a referee report on Einstein’s 1905 paper on special relativity.

Due date: Friday of Week 5

Length: 4–5 double-spaced pages. 

Grade: Your grade on Paper 1 will contribute 25% of your final course grade.

Due date: Friday of Week 8

Length: 6–7 double-spaced pages. 

Grade : Your grade on Paper 2 will contribute 20% of your final course grade.

Paper 2 Revision Exercise

Assignment: Revise paper 2. Your revised paper should again be 6–7 double-spaced pages.

Due date: Friday of Week 11

Due date: Wednesday of Week 15

Length: 10–12 double-spaced pages. 

Grade: Your grade on Paper 3 will contribute 35% of your final course grade.

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A List of 240 Physics Topics & Questions to Research

Plates break when you drop them. Glasses help you see better. Have you ever wondered why?

Physics has the answer. It studies the observable as well as invisible aspects of nature. An essential part of this is examining the structure and interactions of matter.

Are you a high-schooler studying for your exams? Or maybe you need to write an interesting physics paper for your Ph.D. research or college seminar? This article presents a list of the most popular topics in physics for you to choose from.

Best of all, you don’t have to push yourself too hard to finish your essay. Custom-writing.org is happy to help students with all kinds of written assignments.

🔝 Top 10 Physics Research Topics

✅ branches of physics.

• ⭐ Top 10 Physics Topics
• ⚙️ Mechanics
• 🌡️ Thermodynamics
• ⚡ Electromagnetism
• 🔊 Sounds & Waves
• ☢️ Modern Physics
• 🔋 Physics Project Topics
• 🔭 Astrophysics
• 🌎 Physical Geography
• 🤔 Theoretical Physics
• ⚛️ Quantum Physics

🔍 References

• Modern vs. classical physics
• Gravity method in geophysics
• Why can’t the multiverse be real?
• Nuclear physics vs. quantum physics
• Photonics’ relationship to other fields
• Is electromagnetism the strongest force?
• What would extra dimensions look like?
• The importance of kinematics in real life
• Is string theory a generalization of quantum field theory?
• The difference between liquid pressure and air pressure

Now: before writing about physics you should know about its main branches. These are classical and modern . Let’s take a closer look:

• Mechanics , which is concerned with motion. Two of its essential aspects are kinematics and dynamics.
• Optics helps us understand the properties of light.
• Another branch investigates waves and sound . It studies the way they travel and how they are produced.
• Thermodynamics deals with heat and motion. One of its key concepts is entropy.
• Electromagnetism studies the interactions between charged particles. It also deals with the forces and fields that surround them.
• Finally, physical geographers observe our Earth’s physical features. These include environmental processes and patterns.
• Atomic physics , which examines the structure and behavior of atoms.
• Nuclear physics investigates the nucleus of atoms. This branch often deals with radioactivity.
• Scientists working in quantum physics concentrate on the erratic behavior of waves and particles.
• Relativity can be general and special. Special relativity deals with time and motion. General relativity describes gravity as an alteration of spacetime caused by massive objects.
• Cosmology and astrophysics explore the properties of celestial bodies. Cosmologists strive to comprehend the universe on a larger scale.
• Mesoscopic physics covers the scale between macroscopic and microscopic.

You can talk about any of these branches in your essay. Keep in mind that this division is a basic outline. Strictly speaking, everything that happens around you is physics! Now, we’re all set to move on to our physics paper topics.

⭐ Top 10 Physics Topics 2024

• Biophysics vs. biochemistry
• The future of nano-physics
• The use of perturbation theory
• Possible cause of baryogenesis
• Solid-state vs. condensed matter physics
• Why is the quark model introduced?
• The importance of plasma in physics
• Statistical mechanics vs. statistical physics
• Ways to calculate electronic structure
• Difference between matter and dark matter

🧲 Classical Physics Topics to Write About

Classical physics deals with energy, force, and motion. You encounter this kind of physics in everyday life. Below, we’ve compiled a list with compelling prompts you’ll recognize from your physics class:

⚙️ Mechanics Essay Topics

• What does Newton’s laws of motion state?
• How do ships stay afloat?
• Equipartition: for what systems does it not hold?
• What does Bernoulli’s principle state about fluids?
• Surface tension: what causes it?
• How does buoyancy work?
• An overview of the molecular origins of viscosity.
• The equipartition theorem: how does it connect a system’s temperature to its energies?
• The benefits of the continuum assumption.
• Contrast the different types of forces.
• Explain the term “momentum.”
• Kinematics: describing the relationships of objects in constrained motion.
• What causes objects to oscillate?

🌡️ Thermodynamics Paper Topics

• Thermodynamics as a kinetic theory of matter.
• What is entropy?
• Describe the three types of thermodynamic processes.
• The Carnot heat engine as part of a thermodynamic cycle.

• Perpetual motion: is it possible or not?
• Investigate fire in terms of chemistry and thermodynamics.

⚡ Electromagnetism Topics to Research

• Examine the connection between electric potential and electric field.
• What makes an excellent conduit?
• How does a dielectric impact a capacitor?
• Contrast current, resistance, and power.
• How do magnetic fields relate to electricity?
• Explain inductance. What causes it?
• How do induction stoves work?

🔊 Essay Topics on Sounds & Waves

• Sound waves: how do they travel?
• Describe the two types of mechanical waves.
• What are electromagnetic waves used for?
• The difference between interference and diffraction.
• Music and vibrations: the properties of sound.

👓 Optics Topics to Write About

• How does reflection work?
• What happens when an object absorbs light?
• Why does light break into a rainbow?
• Lasers: what do we use them for?
• What causes Aurora Borealis?
• Photography: what happens when you change the aperture?
• Explain what influences the colors of sunsets.
• Fata Morgana mirages: where do they originate from?
• What is the Novaya Zemlya effect?

☢️ Modern Physics Topics for a Paper

The world of modern physics shifts away from its more tangible origins. It deals with atoms and even smaller particles. Nuclear, atomic, and quantum physics belong to this category. One of the central problems of modern physics is redefining the concept of gravity.

• Relativity: a discovery that turned our understanding of physics upside down.
• An overview of 20th century physics.
• The ultraviolet catastrophe and how it was solved.
• What happens to the energy entering an ideal blackbody?
• The photoelectric effect: creating current with light.
• Why did the classical lightwave model become outdated?
• How do night vision devices work?
• The production of x-rays.
• Explain why the charge of electrons is quantized.
• How does the kinetic energy of an electron relate to the light’s frequency and intensity?
• Describe the photon model of the Compton Scattering.
• How do you identify an element using its line spectra?
• Cold Fusion: how likely is it?
• Explain the Pauli Exclusion Principle.
• Electron shells and atomic orbitals: properties of electrons.
• What causes peaks in the x-ray spectrum?
• How do you calculate radioactive decay?
• Carbon dating: how accurate is it?
• The discovery of radioactivity.
• What holds electronic nuclei together?
• Nuclear Fusion: will it ever be possible?
• Describe the types of elemental transmutation.
• Applications of nuclear fission.
• Virtual particles: how do they come into existence?

• Nucleosynthesis: creating atomic nuclei.
• How do you dope a semiconductor using ion implantation?
• What are the magic numbers?
• Superheavy primordial elements: the history of unbihexium.
• Predictions surrounding the island of stability.
• How does a computer tomography work?

🔋 Physics Project Topics for a Science Fair

What’s the most fun part of every natural science? If you said “experiments,” you guessed it! Everybody can enjoy creating rainbows or exploring the effects of magnets. Your next physics project will be as fascinating as you want it to be with these exciting ideas!

• Build a kaleidoscope and learn how it works.
• Investigate the centripetal force with the help of gelatin and marbles.
• Make a potato battery.
• Construct an elevator system.
• Prove Newton’s laws of motion by placing objects of different weights in a moving elevator.
• Learn how a telescope works. Then build one from scratch.
• Levitate small objects using ultrasound.
• Measure how fast a body in free fall accelerates.
• Find out what causes a capacitor to charge and discharge over time.
• Measure how light intensity changes through several polarizing filters.
• Observe how sound waves change under altered atmospheric conditions.
• Find out how a superheated object is affected by its container.
• Determine the mathematics behind a piece of classical music.
• Replicate an oil spill and search for the best way to clean it up.
• What makes a circular toy easy to spin? Experiment by spinning hula hoops of different sizes.
• Make DNA visible. What happens if you use different sources of plant-based DNA?
• Charge your phone with a handmade solar cell.
• Find out what properties an object needs to stay afloat.
• Create music by rubbing your finger against the rim of a glass. Experiment with several glasses filled with different amounts of water.
• Compare the free-fall speed of a Lego figure using various parachutes.
• Experiment with BEC to understand quantum mechanics.
• Make a windmill and describe how it works.
• Build an automatic light circuit using a laser.
• How do concave and convex mirrors affect your reflection?
• Investigate how pressure and temperature influence the air volume.
• Determine the conductivity of different fluids.
• Learn about the evolution of the universe by measuring electromagnetic radiation.
• Capture charged particles in an ion trap.
• Build a rocket car using a balloon.
• Experiment with pendulums and double pendulums. How do they work?

🔭 Astrophysics Topics for a Research Paper

Astrophysicists, astronomers, and cosmologists observe what happens in space. Astronomy examines celestial bodies, while astrophysics describes their mechanics. At the same time, cosmology attempts to comprehend the universe as a whole.

• Explain when a celestial body is called a planet.
• Dark energy and dark matter: how do they affect the expansion of the universe?
• The cosmic microwave background: investigating the birth of the universe.
• What are the possible explanations for the expansion of the universe?
• Evidence for the existence of dark matter.
• The discovery of gravitational waves: consequences and implications.
• Explore the history of LIGO.
• How did scientists observe a black hole?
• The origins of light.
• Compare the types of stars.
• Radioactivity in space: what is it made of?
• What do we know about stellar evolution?
• Rotations of the Milky Way.
• Write an overview of recent developments in astrophysics.
• Investigate the origin of moons.
• How do we choose names for constellations?
• What are black holes?
• How does radiative transfer work in space?
• What does our solar system consist of?
• Describe the properties of a star vs. a moon.

• What makes binary stars special?
• Gamma-ray bursts: how much energy do they produce?
• What causes supernovae?
• Compare the types of galaxies.
• Neutron stars and pulsars: how do they differ?
• The connection between stars and their colors.
• What are quasars?
• Curved space: is there enough evidence to support the theory?
• What produces x-rays in space?
• Exoplanets: what do we know about them?

🌎 Physical Geography Topics to Write About

Physical geographers explore the beauty of our Earth. Their physical knowledge helps them explain how nature works. What causes climate change? Where do our seasons come from? What happens in the ocean? These are the questions physical geographers seek to answer.

• What creates rainbows?
• How do glaciers form?
• The geographical properties of capes.
• What causes landslides?
• An overview of the types of erosion.
• What makes Oceania’s flora unique?
• Reefs: why are they important?
• Why is there a desert in the middle of Siberia?
• The geography of the Namibian desert.
• Explain the water cycle.
• How do you measure the length of a river?
• The Gulf Stream and its influence on the European climate.
• Why is the sky blue?
• What creates waves?
• How do marshes form?
• Investigate the causes of riptides.
• The Three Gorges Dam: how was it built?
• Explain the phenomenon of Green Sahara.
• The consequences of freshwater pollution.
• What are the properties of coastal plains?
• Why is the Atacama Desert the driest place on Earth?
• How does a high altitude affect vegetation?
• Atmospheric changes over the past 100 years.
• Predicting earthquakes: a comparison of different methods.
• What causes avalanches?
• Seasons: where do they come from?
• The Baltic and the Northern Seas meeting phenomenon.
• The geographical properties of the Altai Mountains.
• How do the steppes form?
• Why are some water bodies saltier than others?

🤔 Theoretical Physics Topics to Research

Math fans, this section is for you. Theoretical physics is all about equations. Research in this area goes into the development of mathematical and computer models. Plus, theoretical physicists try to construct theories for phenomena that currently can’t be explained experimentally.

• What does the Feynman diagram describe?
• How is QFT used to model quasiparticles?
• String theory: is it a theory of everything?
• The paradoxical effects of time travel.
• Monstrous moonshine: how does it connect to string theory?
• Mirror symmetry and Calabi-Yau manifolds: how are they used in physics?
• Understanding the relationship between gravity and BF theories.
• Compare the types of Gauge theories.

• Applications of TQFT in condensed matter physics.
• Examine the properties of fields with arbitrary spin.
• How do quarks and gluons interact with each other?
• What predictions does quantum field theory make for curved spacetime?
• How do technicolor theories explain electroweak gauge symmetry breaking?
• Quantum gravity: a comparison of approaches.
• How does LQG address the structure of space?
• An introduction into the motivation behind the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis.
• What does the M-theory state?
• What does the Ising model say about ferromagnetism?
• Compare the thermodynamic Debye model with the Einstein model.
• How does the kinetic theory describe the macroscopic properties of gases?
• Understanding the behavior of waves and particles: scattering theory.
• What was the luminiferous aether assumption needed for?
• The Standard Model of particles: why is it not a full theory of fundamental interactions?
• Investigate supersymmetry.
• Physical cosmology: measuring the universe.
• Describe the black hole thermodynamics.
• Pancomputationalism: what is it about?
• Skepticism concerning the E8 theory.
• Explain the conservation of angular momentum.
• What does the dynamo theory say about celestial bodies?

⚛️ Quantum Physics Topics for Essays & Papers

First and foremost, quantum physics is very confusing. In quantum physics, an object is not just in a specific place. It merely has the probability to be in one place or another. Light travels in particles, and matter can be a wave. Throw physics as you know it overboard. In this world, you can never be sure what and where things really are.

• How did the Schrödinger Equation advance quantum physics?
• Describe the six types of quarks.
• Contrast the four quantum numbers.
• What kinds of elementary particles exist?
• Probability density: finding electrons.
• How do you split an atom using quantum mechanics?
• When is an energy level degenerate?
• Quantum entanglement: how does it affect particles?
• The double-slit experiment: what does it prove?
• What causes a wave function to collapse?
• Explore the history of quantum mechanics.
• What are quasiparticles?
• The Higgs mechanism: explaining the mass of bosons.
• Quantum mechanical implications of the EPR paradox.
• What causes explicit vs. spontaneous symmetry breaking?
• Discuss the importance of the observer.
• What makes gravity a complicated subject?
• Can quantum mechanical theories accurately depict the real world?
• Describe the four types of exchange particles.
• What are the major problems surrounding quantum physics?
• What does Bell’s theorem prove?
• How do bubble chambers work?
• Understanding quantum mechanics: the Copenhagen interpretation.
• Will teleportation ever be possible on a large scale?
• The applications of Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle.
• Wave packets: how do you localize them?
• How do you process quantum information?
• What does the Fourier transform do?
• The importance of Planck’s constant.
• Matter as waves: the Heisenberg-Schrödinger atom model.

We hope you’ve found a great topic for your best physics paper. Good luck with your assignment!

You might also be interested in:

• 220 Best Science and Technology Essay Topics to Write About
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• What Is Quantum Mechanics?: LiveScience
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Why Study Physics?

Want to know “how” and “why” learn physics..

Physics is crucial to understanding the world around us, the world inside us, and the world beyond us. It is the most fundamental science.

Physics challenges our imaginations with concepts like relativity and string theory. It leads to great discoveries that, in turn, bring life-changing technologies, like computers, GPS, and lasers. Physicists also work to solve some of the greatest challenges of our times by finding ways to cure cancer, heal joints, or develop solutions for sustainable energy.

Learn more about the work that physicists do by reading stories from real physicists on our Physicists Profiles and Career Options pages.

If you’re an educator looking for resources to incorporate into your middle or high school classroom, review APS’s PhysicsQuest and STEP UP projects.

Like science? It begins with physics

Physics encompasses the study of the universe from the largest galaxies to the smallest (subatomic!) particles.

Moreover, physics is the basis for many other sciences, including chemistry, oceanography, seismology, and astronomy, as well as the applied sciences, like the various branches of engineering. The principles of physics are also applied in many areas of biology and biomedical science. Advanced education in all of these areas — and more! — is possible with a bachelor’s degree in physics.

Want to learn real-world skills? Study physics!

Physicists are problem solvers. Their analytical skills make them versatile and adaptable, so physicists often work interesting jobs in interesting places. You can find physicists in industrial and government labs, on college campuses, in the astronaut corps, and consulting for the special effects in TV shows and movies. In addition, many physics grads work for engineering or consulting firms, at newspapers and magazines, in government, for non-profits, in data science and app development roles, and even on Wall Street — places where their ability to think analytically is a great asset.

In general, though, most physics majors continue in STEM-related careers or careers that require strong problem-solving skills. Data shows that nearly 4 in 10 physics majors continue in engineering professions, while 1 in 4 go into computer or information systems. Another 1 in 4 physics majors continue in another STEM pathway or a non-STEM career where they regularly solve technical problems.

Want a job? People hire physicists

Physics brings a broad perspective to any problem. Because physicists learn how to critically analyze and breakdown even the most complex problems, they are not bound by context. This form of inventive thinking makes physicists desirable in any field. A bachelor’s degree in physics is a great foundation for careers in:

• Computer Science
• Data Science
• Engineering

Want a good salary? Physics tops the sciences

Even when the job market is slow, physicists get well-paying job offers. Employers know that a physicist brings additional skills and expertise — and they pay accordingly! That's why physics graduates can expect career salaries similar to those of computer science and engineering majors.

As of 2020, data shows the mean starting salary for a physics major taking a job in the STEM private sector was about $65k annually, with students who chose non-STEM technical pathways earning slightly less, at about $50k. But some physics majors, depending on their interests and skills acquired during college, start at much higher salaries — $80k or more.

Like most fields of STEM, if you pursue advanced education, your salary increases . After completing a master’s degree, physicists earn an average of about $90k annually, and after a doctorate, physicists earn a starting salary of roughly $120k.

View physics career statistical data

Five Myths About High School Physics

There are a lot of misconceptions about taking physics in high school — here are the facts.

Physicist Profiles

Discover how much you can do with a degree in physics by seeing how others have put theirs to use.

Career Navigator

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Physics Careers and Education

APS supports physicists and other scientists from the beginning of their education to every stage of their careers.

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Why spend unnecessary time on your Physics revision when you can focus on only what you need to, to get the best possible grade? Our team of expert Physics teachers and examiners have built and structured revision tools and materials that will ensure you are revising only what matters, so that you can really improve your grades. These Physics revision resources have been tailored specifically to your exam board and qualification level ((I)GCSE, A Level, IB). To start your revision, just look below and select the collection that matches your exam board and your current qualification level.

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Physics A Level Resources

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How to revise effectively for your Physics GCSE exam: tips for success

The life cycle of a star: a physics gcse revision guide, how to avoid losing marks with significant figures in a level physics exams, how can i best solve mathematical questions in my gcse physics exams, graph skills in gcse physics.

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• Arts & Sciences
• Graduate Studies in A&S

Your Personal Statement for Graduate School

Starting from scratch.

The personal statement is your opportunity to speak directly to the admissions committee about why they should accept you. This means you need to brag. Not be humble, not humblebrag, but brag. Tell everybody why you are great and why you’ll make a fantastic physicist (just, try not to come off as a jerk).

There are three main points you need to hit in your essay:

• Your experience in physics.  Direct discussion of your background in physics and your qualifications for graduate studies should comprise the bulk of your essay. What research did you do, and did you discover anything? Did you take inspiring coursework or go to a cool seminar? What do you want to do in graduate school? There’s a ton to discuss.
• Your personal characteristics.  What makes you stand out? You’ve probably done a lot in college that’s not physics research or coursework. You need to mention the most impressive or meaningful of these commitments and accomplishments, and you need to demonstrate how they will eventually make you a better physicist. Are you a leader? A fundraiser? A teacher? A competitive mathematician? A team player? An activist for social change?  All of these not-physics experiences may translate over to skills that will help you as a physics professor or researcher someday, and you can point this out!
• Context for your accomplishments.  Is there anything else about your personal history or college experience that an admissions committee needs to know? The application form itself may only have space for you to list raw scores and awards, but graduate schools evaluate applications holistically. Thus they ask for the  essay  so you have a chance to tell your story and bring forth any personal details (including obstacles you overcame) to help the committee understand how great you truly are. Your application readers want to help you, and they’re giving you the chance to show how hard you’ve worked and how far you’ve come. But it’s up to you to connect the dots.

This type of essay is a lot more serious and a lot less creative than a college essay, a law school essay, or an essay for admission to a humanities PhD program. You’re basically trying to list a lot of facts about yourself in as small a space as possible. This is the place to tell everyone why you’re great. Do not hold back on pertinent information.

The following is going to be a general guide about how to write a first draft of your main graduate school essay. By no means think this is the only way to do it — there are plenty of possibilities for essay-writing! However, see this as a good way to get started or brainstorm.

If you’re completely stuck, a good way to start writing your essay is to compose each of the five main components separately.

• Your research experience
• Your outside activities or work experience
• Personal circumstances
• A story about you that can serve as a hook 
• Your future goals + why you chose to apply to each school

At the end, we’ll piece these five different disjoint pieces together into one coherent essay.

1. Your research experience (and scientific industry employment)

This is the most important part of your essay, so it’s the place that we’ll start. We’ll pretend we’re structuring each research experience as its own paragraph (you can go longer or shorter, depending on how much time you spent in each lab or how much progress you made). Let’s see how it might work:

• .Simple overview of research: what you worked on, the name of your primary supervisor (professor or boss), and the location (university + department or company + division). The first time you mention a professor, you call them by their first and last name: “I worked for Emmett ‘Doc’ Brown in Hill Valley.” All subsequent times, you address them by their title and last name: “Dr. Brown and I worked on time travel.”
• “My research group was trying to build a time machine. My specific project was to improve the flux capacitor needed to make the machine work. I was able to make the capacitor exceed the 1.21 gigawatts needed for it to work. In addition, I helped do minor mechanical repairs on the DeLorean in which we built it.”
• “When I came back, I decided to take two additional graduate-level courses on time travel, and I found a similar internship the following summer.”

Then you just jam it all together into a semi-coherent paragraph:

In 1985, I worked for Emmett ‘Doc’ Brown in Hill Valley. Dr. Brown’s research group was trying to build a time machine. My specific project was to improve the flux capacitor needed to make the machine work. I was able to make the capacitor exceed the 1.21 gigawatts needed for it to work. In addition, I helped do minor mechanical repairs on the DeLorean in which we built it. When I came back, I decided to take two additional graduate-level courses on time travel, and I found a similar internship the following summer .

You’re not a character from  Back to the Future , and it’s not beautiful prose, but you have to start somewhere. It’s more important to get all the facts you need down on the page before you work too hard on editing. Save that for after you have a well-structured and mostly-written essay.

2. (A) Your primary extracurricular activities or (B) your primary life experiences

(A) Tell the committee about any other major honors or experiences you’ve had in physics. Also write a paragraph or two about your interests outside of physics class and science research. Use this space to highlight the really impressive features of your activities:

• a second major or minor
• leadership positions in clubs, student representative to department/university committees, elected position in student government
• science clubs: Society of Physics Students, Math Club, engineering organizations, societies for students underrepresented in the sciences, etc.
• teaching activities: TA positions, tutoring, volunteer teaching commitments in any field of study, coaching a team, etc.
• other regular volunteering activities
• science advocacy and activism: political issues (government funding, global warming, nuclear policy, etc), improving diversity and inclusion in the sciences, science outreach on campus or in the local community
• a significant time commitment: varsity sports, heavy school-year employment, etc.
• other relevant skills: writing/publishing experience, public speaking, proficiency in other languages
• major fellowships, scholarships, honors, prizes, or awards you’ve won and if needed, an explanation of their significance/meaning
• attendance of physics conferences, symposia, summer schools, etc. that you haven’t already been able to mention in conjunction with the description of your research

If you have done many extracurricular activities, focus your 1-2 paragraphs on leadership positions, teaching, and service, particularly in the sciences.

(B) If you came to college a few years after you left high school, or if you are coming to graduate school a few years after you left college, then you need to write a few paragraphs discussing those life experiences. What did you do during that time? What experiences led you to choose physics graduate school as your next step? If you applied earlier but your application was rejected, how have you become more qualified since the last time you applied? You can feel free to ignore some of the advice we give later about how much of the essay you should focus on discussing physics experiences — structure the essay however you need to, to get the pertinent information across. Also, use Google extensively to find advice from other people who were in a situation similar to yours.

3. Personal circumstances

Now, look back at the various disjoint pieces of your essay that you need to fit together. What else might be relevant about you that you haven’t been able to mention yet?

Are there any major shortcomings in your application package? You need to address these, but do so INDIRECTLY. If you point your own flaws out to the committee directly, you are setting yourself up for failure. However, it is possible to leave pointed explanations for them in plain sight in your essay.  For example, if you have a GPA that might seem low by normal graduate school standards, you could explain the significant amount of time you devoted to other major activities or a job, or describe any obstacles you have had to overcome (with the implication that you did so while still maintaining a GPA and completing your degree).

Even if your raw scores are perfect and your research excellent, you need to make your application stand out by letting the reader know who you are as a person. More specifically, you need to give some indication of how you will contribute to the diversity in background, experience, perspective, talents, and interests of students in the program.

• To quote a CommonApp essay prompt, “Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.”
• What makes you  you ? What makes you interesting/fun/cool? What makes you stand out that won’t already be visible from your transcripts, recommendation letters, and application forms? How might you contribute to the diversity in background, experience, perspective, talents, and interests of students in a graduate program?
• How did you end up in physics? Why do you want to pursue physics? Is there some event, course, experience, or activity that was particularly meaningful for your life or that guided you into this path?
• Was there an extenuating circumstance that affected your performance in college? Think carefully about how and where you will discuss it. For example, you could frame it in a positive light so that you come off as resilient. An example might be “Despite [this factor], I was still able to [accomplish that].” You can also ask a trusted professor to mention it in their reference letter.

4. The hook

The final major piece of writing we’re going to do is a hook to open your essay. Do you have some anecdote, story, or achievement that will really grab the reader’s attention right away? They’re reading through nearly a thousand applications in hopes of narrowing down the pile to under a hundred, so what will make you be among those who stand out? Think about this as you assemble the rest of your essay.

5. Your future goals and why you’re interested in each graduate school

For every school you’re applying to, you need to write 1-2 paragraphs (~10% of the essay) about why you’re applying to that school.

Now this can be tricky. You need to gather some information via the Google about each individual school beforehand:

• What would you be interested in researching at that school? Are there particular professors who stand out?
• Does the school prefer if you have a fairly defined idea of the 2-3 people you’d want to work for ahead of time, or do they favor applicants who aren’t certain yet?
• Does the school evaluate all applications at the same time, or do they send your application to separate committees for the research subfield(s) you indicate on the application form?
• Why are you going to graduate school and/or what do you want to do afterwards? How will your five to seven year experience doing a PhD at a certain place prepare you for that path?

Even if you definitely know what you want to do or even if you’re completely sure you need to explore a few areas of physics, you need to write this section of your essay to cater towards each school. This involves a few hours of research on each school’s website, looking up the research fields in which the department focuses and learning about the specialization of each professor.

Here’s a good way of compiling your first draft of this section:

• I [am interested in/want to] work on [one or two research fields you might be interested in]. Specific professors whom I would want to work for are [three to four professors].
• My life experiences that led me to pick these choices are [something].
• I am especially excited about [university name]’s [resource/opportunity] in [something to do with physics].

6. Compiling your final essay

By now, you should have written (most of) the disjoint individual pieces of the puzzle. You might be under the expected word count, you might be over the expected word count, or you might be right on track. You can forget about all that for now — it’s more important to get something together, and we’ll fix all those details later.

Because you’re probably submitting about a dozen distinct essays, let’s ignore the “Future plans” piece of the essay and try to just get one main body of the essay put together with the other paragraphs. For each school, you’ll tack the “future plans” part of the essay either onto the end of the essay or in some spot you’ve chosen in the middle that helps everything flow. For now, ignore word count and just get words on the page. You can go back through and slice out sections of the main essay to meet smaller word counts for certain schools.

Look at the pieces of your life. How do they logically fit together? Is your story best told chronologically, with one research experience or activity falling logically after the other? Or is there something that makes you so unique and special that it belongs right at the very beginning of the essay? Sort the pieces so that they assemble in a good order.

Next, we need to check on the size of these pieces. At the very least, discussion of research activities/STEM work experience and your future goals in research should make up 75-80% of your essay. If you wrote many long, elaborate paragraphs about your time in your fraternity or on the women’s tennis team, now is the time to scale that back to only a sentence. Remember that the admissions committees truly only care about your potential to succeed in the future as a physicist. If you couldn’t give a clear explanation to your major advisor about how a tangential experience shows your potential to succeed in physics, you shouldn’t include it. (Note that “I got straight A’s in graduate courses while also involved in [major time commitment]”  is   an acceptable reason to include something and is beneficial to state.)

Did you talk about anything that happened in your childhood? (“I was interested in physics since in the womb”) Get rid of it. The only things that happened before college that are appropriate to mention are: (1)  some significant aspect of your personal background that your application would be incomplete without, or (2)  major college-level achievements: research leading to a publication, getting a medal in the International Physics/Math Olympiad, or dual-enrollment programs. However, mention items from (2) sparingly. You want to show that you’ve made major strides in the past four years; do not focus on your glory days in the past.

Do your paragraphs transition neatly from one to the next, or does your essay still feel off-kilter? A simple one sentence transition between paragraphs – either at the end of one or at the start of the next – can do wonders for your essay. Make sure it would make sense to someone who doesn’t know your background as well as you. Use the transition sentences to make your essay more interesting. Tell a story.

Congratulations. Now you have your first real draft of facts. Before you joyously run to your computer to submit your graduate application or run to your professor to give it a look over, go to one of your friends first.

The biggest danger with a graduate admissions essay is that you come off as really self-centered or boring. Nobody wants to read a thousand essays that merely list every single fact about a person’s life; they want to read a story. We helped you put together the bare bones of a graduate admissions essay, but did you tell a story? Did your personality shine through?

It’s a lot easier to go back and do an overhaul of an essay if you have something down on the piece of paper. Your friends might be able to help point out places that you can make your essay flow better or seem more interesting. They can tell you where to add more pizzazz in an otherwise boring research statement (“I worked on computational models of astrophysics during the month of July.” versus “I was so stoked when I found out I’d be modeling exploding stars that summer! That was the moment I knew I wanted to be a physicist.”). Take a day off, walk around, and then go back to your draft ready to show the world how excited you are to be a physicist and what an exciting physicist you are.

Our next section gives general tips for editing your personal statement, no matter whether you took our advice on how to start writing.  Go through these steps very carefully to make sure you have an essay you’re proud of to send off to the admissions committee. 

By the end of this process, you should have an impressive, interesting, factual draft of your qualifications that you’re ready to show a couple of trusted professors. You’ve worked super hard, and you’ve done a good job, we’re sure. However, professors are always critical, so don’t be upset if they tell you quite a few things to change. A young student reads an essay a lot differently than the older professors who are on the admissions committee, so it’s really important to get their perspective. Listen to what they say and truly consider making those changes. Edit once more, and repeat as many times as you need to.

At some point, you’ll finally be done with this long, difficult process and can proudly press “submit!”

General Tips for Editing

First things first: a step-by-step method for proofing your essay:.

Here’s what to do step-by-step once  you’ve followed our advice and have created a full first draft .

• Read your essay aloud to yourself.  Is it interesting? Would everything make sense to someone who doesn’t know you? Probably not…  See our advice below for making your draft better . You’ll probably need to repeat step 1 many times before you get to something you think has pretty good content and is pretty interesting.
• Check your grammar, spelling, and style. We have a guide to doing that at the very bottom of this page.  Also, pay attention to your word processor: if there are any bright red or bright green underlines, that should be your first warning sign!
• Have a trusted friend (or two)   in the sciences  read the essay  for style and voice. Do you have a good opening hook? Are there any passages that make you come off as arrogant, whining, or annoying? (You absolutely have to brag about yourself, but don’t say it in a way that makes you come off as a jerk — scroll down for advice on that.) Have them proof your rewrite for any final errors.
• Once you’ve gone through steps 1-3 and are completely certain that this is a nearly-perfect draft,  have a PHYSICS PROFESSOR or two read your nearly-final essay.  (D on’t send them an incomplete draft; they’ll get peeved. They’ll probably also only look over it once, so use your one shot wisely. They have a lot of students, you know. ) A graduate admissions essay is very different from a college essay. The physicists reading your application aren’t looking for the student with the most well-rounded course choices, the head of the most clubs, or the person who can write the most creative statement. They’re looking for evidence of the specific attributes that show you have the capability of being a future physicist. This is why you need to ask a  professor  in the field of  physics . Not just a biology professor, not just a physicist in industry; make sure you ask a  physics professor . Have we made this clear?
• Listen to what you’re proofreaders say and amend your essay, but you don’t have to follow every last bit of advice. If your gut tells you to ignore one or two of their suggested changes, that’s okay. That is,  it’s fine to make sure your essay sounds like you and says everything you want it to say. 
• Rinse and repeat. (redo steps 2-5)
• At some point, you’ll either get right up close to the deadline or have a draft you think is final. READ IT ALOUD before you press submit.

General Content Advice

You’re applying to a physics program!

Don’t forget this! The people reading your application care most about your background in, preparation for, and involvement in activities related to physics research. You should be spending almost all of your essay demonstrating your interests and ability to do physics.

It’s okay to mention substantial time commitments and achievements outside physics; however, pay attention to how you do so.  Your capacity and potential to perform scientific research are what you are mainly being judged on,  so description of physics-related research, coursework, and goals should make up most of your main essay (you should aim for 75%+). If an application allows you to write separate research and personal statements, then the former statement needs to be 100% focused on physics, and the latter should frame your physics experiences/goals within the context of your personal life.

• Absolutely mention  teaching and outreach experiences  if you have any. Grad schools  really do care  about these! It’s great too if some of your teaching experience is in a STEM field.
• Also, don’t be shy about mentioning participation in  activism , particularly related to  diversity and inclusion  in STEM or higher education.  These are generally not seen as minuses on a physics application, and there are fellowships/ programs related to diversity at some graduate schools.
• Mention of activities tangential/irrelevant to the sciences should only make up a small portion of your essay, and you should mainly highlight your biggest achievements/time commitments. For example, you shouldn’t make a long list of every one of the dozen intramural sports teams you participated on in college. However, it would be great to mention that you captained the club soccer team or that your volleyball team won a local championship.
• You need to make sure it doesn’t seem like you would prefer to pursue one of these activities as a full-time career instead of physics research. Remember, you’re applying to a  physics  program! (Perhaps you could frame non-physics activities as demonstrating good aspects of your character: you’re hardworking, a leader, work well on a team, can balance multiple commitments, etc.)

Your essay isn’t meant to be a restatement of your CV. 

The essay illuminates the how and why of what’s on your CV, and connects the dots between experiences.

• You need to describe your research experiences in depth. What did each of the labs you worked in generally do, and what were your specific contributions? What did you learn about physics in each lab or what new physics did you observe/discover/create? What skills did you develop that will be useful in graduate studies? What did you learn about your own interests and talents in each lab? Did you write any reports or publish any papers? Did you present the work anywhere? Were you listed as an author on someone else’s presentation? Do you have any papers in preparation for publication, or do you plan to in the near future?
• Second of all, the essay should connect the dots. How did you choose to do what you did in college? How did you choose the research experiences in which you participated? What do you want to do in your graduate studies and further in the future? Why?

Make sure you’ve included information specific to the graduate school you’re writing about. 

Why are you applying to this specific program? What general research area are you leaning towards, and are there any specific professors you would be interested in?  This isn’t a binding commitment. But don’t make yourself seem too narrow: if you say you only would want to go to a certain school if you could work for one or two people, that will severely hurt your chances of getting in.

Have you addressed your shortcomings adequately?

Are there any major shortcomings in your application package? You need to address these, but do so INDIRECTLY. If you point your own flaws out to the committee directly, you are setting yourself up for failure. However, it is possible to leave pointed explanations for them in plain sight in your essay. For example, if you have a GPA that might seem low by normal graduate school standards, you could explain the significant amount of time you devoted to other major activities (with the implication that you did so while still maintaining a respectable GPA and completing your degree)…

Have you fully explained your personal background?

…but even if your raw scores are perfect and your research excellent, you need to make your application stand out by letting the reader know who you are as a person. More specifically, you need to give some indication of how you will contribute to the diversity in background, experience, perspective, talents, and interests of students in the program.

Your essay should contain the highlights of your college career: your experiences, your activities, your awards. But an essay shouldn’t be just a two-page-long list: a good essay conveys a sense of who you are as a person, your personality, and why you are unique or a unique fit for the program.

The application essay is your chance to explain any aspect of your background that is not reflected elsewhere, but that your application would be incomplete without. This is up to you: only you can fully explain your own story.

Along the same line, graduate school admissions committees don’t just admit the set of 22-year-olds who attended the top high schools, then the top-ranked colleges, where they got the top GPA in the toughest classes and were SPS president. Admissions committees consider all criteria in light of where each individual student started out and any circumstances he/she faced along the way.

Students who followed nontraditional paths, came from disadvantaged backgrounds, or faced other extenuating circumstances during college might wish to either mention these in their essay or ask a trusted advisor to write about it in their letter. Some topics you may wish to address are:

• Factors from before WashU.  Normally, you’re supposed to mention your pre-college experiences only sparingly (or not at all) in an admissions essay. However, there are circumstances in which it may be beneficial. Do you come from an under-resourced background, and you started out college in pre-calculus, which set back your study of physics to sophomore year? Were you hyper-accelerated in math or science, which makes your transcript look very strange and uneven? Did you transfer from a community college? From another college? Does a high school research experience relate to your future interests? Are you graduating early, and why? Anything else? If it’s important, mention it and explain how it affected you!
• You’re not 22!  Did you take a few gap years to find yourself, work off loans, get married and have kids, or serve in the military? Are you super young? What exactly is your background? What would you want the committee to know to help them evaluate if you’re a good candidate for graduate school? What life experiences have you had that made you want to go to – and that will help you succeed in – graduate school? It would be  abnormal  if  everyone entering a PhD program were 22! If you came from a nontraditional background, explain it, and don’t take our advice too seriously. A different essay style/structure may be more suitable.
• Personal circumstances.  A parent lost their job mid-college, which impacted your enrollment. You or a family member faced a major health problem. Your hometown suffered a natural disaster. You worked a full-time job while still in school. Another major event in your life. Tips we’ve seen online? You only need to mention the pertinent details, don’t make it the focus of your essay, and be positive — phrase it as what you were able to accomplish in light of a circumstance (instead of describing it in a way that might come off as a complaint).   Another option is to ask a close professor to mention the situation in their reference letter instead. 
• You made a mistake.  You had trouble adjusting your freshman year of college, but things went up from there. You made bad choices on what to spend your time on a couple semesters. You faced university disciplinary action or committed a non-traffic crime. Talk to your four-year advisor, major advisor, or a trusted professor about what appears on your record, what you have to report on your application, and how to mitigate its negative effects on your future to the greatest extent possible through your personal statement and other minor essays on the application. Always be honest, but always be positive: show how you’ve moved forward and grown since then.
• Anything else.  The list above was by no means comprehensive! If there is something an admissions committee needs to know in order to understand how great of a fit you are for their program, then mention it. If you have any questions about your essay and it’s contents, please ask a trusted professor.

Make your essay interesting!

The science graduate school application essay may not seem nearly as freeform or fun as your undergraduate CommonApp essay, the paper your roommate’s submitting to an MFA program, or a law school essay. However, the physics professors spending hours reading literally hundreds of essays will appreciate if you make yours more interesting than a list of your achievements. Make your essay stand out as one they’ll remember.

Showcase your personality.  Once you’ve gotten all the necessary facts together in your essay in some sort of coherent order, it’s time to make sure the essay is actually interesting to read. Read it aloud, and have a friend read it aloud. Does the essay convey who you really are, or does it sound like you’re reading some really dry, boring report? Most likely it’s the latter at this point.

Pull out another piece of paper or a new window on your computer screen, and start writing a new version of each paragraph that sounds a bit more interesting, enthusiastic about physics, and fun. It’ll take time, but you can do this without going over the word count. See how different these two sentences sound, even though they’re about the same length and convey the same content:

• Boring phrasing:  In my sophomore spring, I worked in the theoretical kinematics laboratory of Sir Isaac Newton at Cambridge. We studied the manner in which balls roll down hills.
• Better phrasing:  Sophomore spring, I enjoyed the opportunity to study the fascinating theoretical nature of how balls roll down hills with Sir Isaac Newton at Cambridge.

Both students convey the necessary facts the graduate committees are looking for: (1) the student worked abroad in a famous person’s lab, (2) the student did theoretical research, and (3) the specific project regarded how balls roll down hills. The first example sounds like a true but boring listing of facts. The second example not only tells what the student did, but also shows the student’s appreciation for the opportunity, as well as that the enthusiastic student found that they enjoyed work of a theoretical nature in this specific subject area.  Instead of directly writing “I love and care about physics,” show it through the way you phrase your essay. 

Don’t come off as unlikable

By now, you have probably been advised a thousand times about what not to write in an application like this one – insults, complaints, or bigoted remarks; opinions on polarized topics distant from physics; any trouble you got into in college that you wouldn’t want your parents to know about; etc.

But sometimes we still say things in personal statements that are meant with entirely good intentions but that other people read the completely wrong way. Your friends and professors should be able to pick some of these out in your essay, but here’s a simple guide to help yourself too.

(1) Don’t name-drop unless it has to do directly with your accomplishments in physics.  Look out for areas of your personal statement that may turn off a reader because you come off as arrogant, spoiled, or out of touch with reality. Also remember that life is not a complete meritocracy. It is much easier to get ahead if you have lots of connections that help you along the way — but despite this, you should not overtly use your personal statement to pull connections that are not directly physics-related.

Here are some exaggerated examples:

Bad:  The summer after junior year, my best friend’s father, Albert Einstein, hooked me up with an internship at Princeton with Eugene Wigner. Better:  The summer after junior year, I took a research internship at Princeton with Eugene Wigner. You don’t have to tell someone you got the internship because you happened to have a great connection (nobody will care that you’re friends with a famous person). It’s better to just say that you did the internship. They will, however, care about the name of the famous person you worked for.

Bad:  I did not do as well on the GRE as I hoped because I crashed my Lamborghini on the way to the test. Better:  I did not do as well on the GRE as I hoped because I got into a car accident on the way to the test. It might be easier to have a friend read for subtle (or not-so-subtle) phrasing and word choices that might read the wrong way to a reader. Here, the mention of the luxury car brand makes it look like the student is trying to show off (and probably doesn’t realize that the car costs more than they’ll earn from graduate school all five years total). 

Bad:  Your university’s biggest donor is a family friend, and five generations of my family have attended your physics graduate program. Better:  When I visited my physics PhD brother at your campus, I enjoyed seeing X, Y, and Z facilities, which I think will be greatly beneficial to my physics education. Also good:  I spent a summer in the laboratory of Professor — at your university, and I would love to continue working for her in graduate school. If you have a connection to the university, don’t just state it. Find a way to phrase it to make you seem more like a better fit for their graduate program.

(2) Please remember that the admissions committee does not owe you anything for any reason.  So, please don’t claim that you deserve admission, honor and recognition, or anything else from them. Do not even make the mistake of phrasing something badly so that it seems like you think that way. It will only make them dislike your application.

Bad:  Given the fact that I won a Fields Medal, a Wolf Prize in Physics, and the Nobel Peace Prize, I am clearly the best applicant out there. Better:  Some of the highlights of my college experience include a Fields Medal, the Nobel Peace Prize, and a Wolf Prize in Physics.

Bad:  I worked so hard in college that I clearly deserve the opportunity to attend your university. Better:  I found the time and effort I put into physics very worthwhile and fun, and I hope to keep working in this field in the future.

Bad:  I am a great fit for your program. Better:  Your program would be a great fit for me.

(3) You got where you are because of hard work, not just raw intelligence.  Or at least, frame it this way. Nobody wants to hear how naturally intelligent you think you are — instead, your personal statement should demonstrate the achievements that your intelligence has earned you. Leave it to your reference writers to provide an external evaluation of your mental capabilities. Just trust us on this one.  Using the same reasoning, don’t tell everyone about qualities of your character. Show them.  Graduate admissions committees are smart. They can infer these things.

Bad:  Because of my natural intelligence and talent for physics, I won the “Best Physicist” prize. Better:  Because of my research efforts, I won the “Best Physicist” prize.

Bad:  I am a super nice person because I help people with physics all the time with volunteer stuff. Better:  Every weekend for two hours, I enjoy showing small children the wonders of physics at the Volunteer Science Thing.

Bad:  I am super smart because I have published three papers. Better:  I have published three papers.

(4) Claim credit for your accomplishments, but give credit to others too where it’s due.  We’re sure you did a ton of hard work in college, and that’s great. However, you need to recognize that it wasn’t just you. Your research advisers, graduate student mentors, classroom professors, and many others helped you get where you are today.  Acknowledge your own successes, but give credit where it is due.

Bad:  Last summer I built the first-ever time travel machine. Better:  Last summer I worked at a secret government agency with a team of twenty scientists under the guidance of Aristotle to build the 21st century’s first-ever time machine.

Bad:  I wrote and published a particle physics paper myself, even though there are three authors. Better:  Professor — guided me through the process of writing and publishing my first-author particle physics paper.

(5)  Don’t be overly negative  or critical of any of your physics experiences.  That is, be yourself, and don’t give opinions that are completely untrue.   If you didn’t like doing theory research, then you don’t have to say you did. But it’s not a good idea to express extreme distaste for any area of physics in your essay — try to find something good about every experience and phrase it in a positive light. Here’s an example of a fib, the way you might be tempted to fix it, and an even better way of doing so:

• Your original attempt to seem happy:  I worked on computational and analytical aspects of string theory at the Institute of Advanced Study. It was one of the most fascinating experiences of my life and I could see myself doing the exact same thing in graduate school at your great string theory program. I like experimental work too.
• The way you actually feel about things:  I worked on a project about string theory at the Institute for Advanced Study. My research advisor had me split my time between computational work and pen-and-paper problems. I absolutely hated doing pen-and-paper math. It sucked!
• A more positive way of phrasing the truth:  I loved the computational aspects of my string theory work at the Institute for Advanced Study. However, the next summer, I discovered that I more enjoyed applying my computational skills in a laboratory setting.

The mechanics of your writing: sentence and word choices

You can make a drastic difference in the quality of your essay just by checking on a few more mechanical aspects of your writing: sentence structures, phrasing, and even grammar. As you work on your drafts, continually try to improve these things. Here are a few of the many aspects to which you might want to pay attention…

Are all of your sentences good sentences?  Are all of your sentences complete? Do any of the sentences run on? Do all the sentences logically follow one another? Does your story make basic sense? Make sure that nothing you wrote sounds or seems awkward!

Make sure your sentence structures aren’t repetitive.  It’s very easy to get caught into the habit of writing, “I did this. I did that. I did the other thing.” Your essay is going to use the first-person pronouns “I” and “we” more than you’re probably used to, but that’s okay and not self-centered. You are writing about yourself, you know! However, there are ways to do it that seem less obnoxious or monotonous. Let’s look at a few examples of how we can rephrase or rearrange sentences so that we don’t get stuck in the same patterns too often.

• I did research about nuclear reactors under the supervision of Enrico Fermi at the University of Chicago last summer.
• This past summer, I researched nuclear reactors with Enrico Fermi at the University of Chicago.
• Enrico Fermi taught me about building nuclear reactors last summer at the University of Chicago.
• Nuclear reactors captivated me during my summer internship with Enrico Fermi at the University of Chicago.
• My first exposure to nuclear reactors was last summer, when I worked for Enrico Fermi at the University of Chicago.
• At the University of Chicago, I studied nuclear reactors with Enrico Fermi.
• When I was at the University of Chicago last summer, I studied nuclear reactors with Enrico Fermi.
• I want to study theoretical physics in graduate school.
• At graduate school, I want to study theoretical physics.
• My preferred area of graduate research would be theoretical physics.
• My graduate research interests are in theoretical physics.
• The theoretical physics research opportunities at [insert university here] excite me.
• Theoretical research most attracts my interests for graduate studies.

As you can see, there are seemingly endless choices for rearranging the words in your sentences or finding ways you can rewrite them that carry across the same (or more!) information.

Make sure your word choices aren’t boring or repetitive.  You might find yourself using only commonplace adjectives over and over again (good, bad, happy, sad, etc.). Or perhaps you do the opposite — you have a plethora of repetitions of the same unusual adjective (like plethora) used multiple times in the same paragraph, one after the other.

Pull out a thesaurus and find some good synonyms! Or better yet, be more accurate about what you want to say. For example, consider word replacements in the overused phrases:

Professor Bender’s least favorite word: interesting. As in, “That research is/was/seems  interesting .”

• intriguing, fascinating, inspiring, delightful
• appealing, enticing, exciting, fun
• novel, cutting-edge, exhilarating
• challenging, thought-provoking, stimulating

The verb around which your essay is centered: research. “With Arthur Holly Compton, I  researched …”

• worked on, studied, learned
• examined, analyzed, investigated, probed, observed, experimented, tested
• found [a result], discovered, came up with [an idea], unraveled, explained
• calculated, computed, solved, answered, evaluated
• formulated, designed, fabricated, planned, developed, created, invented, built, prepared

Be clear and concise.  Most graduate schools only give you two pages to tell your story, even if you think it would be easier to hand in a novel. If you find yourself sitting at your computer with an incredibly long draft, you’re going to need to take out some material.

Start with irrelevant details: you don’t need to tell us that last spring, you worked on a laptop with exactly 16 gigabytes of RAM, 2 terabytes of storage, manufactured by a small company from your homestate, that has exactly 6 bumper stickers decorating its case. Get rid of that paragraph!

Next, look at your research and activity descriptions. Only include the most relevant information. If you got second place in an international physics competition and fourth place in the local math contest, you can remove the latter from the main body of your essay. If you worked on four projects with your biophysics group, two of which led to a paper and two of which mainly consisted of cleaning your mentor’s Petri dishes, then it should be obvious which should deserve most (or all) of your essay’s attention. Don’t be afraid to be vicious with your red pen.

Once you’ve gotten rid of things that are very obviously unnecessary and have cut your essay down to a couple of paragraphs above the required word count, it’s time to start modifying the lengths of your sentences and paragraphs themselves. While it may seem like you’ve done everything right, and that every single thing in your essay is utterly necessary, think again! Remember the paragraph in which we discussed the many ways in which you could rewrite a sentence? (scroll up…) Time to use that same strategy to shorten sentences or combine two short sentences into one long, complex one. Also, if you’re trying to make your essay meet a page count, make sure that none of your paragraphs end with a single word on a line — try to fill up each line with as many characters as possible by changing word choices or phrasing. The best way to do this is to look at some examples.

Example 1 – using abbreviations

• Old essay.  I worked in the Compton Group at Washington University my freshman summer…The next summer, I went to Fermilab to work on particle physics…In junior year, I worked in an optics laboratory at Washington University…As a senior, I worked on biophysics at Washington University.
• New essay.   I worked in the Compton Group at Washington University (WU) my freshman summer…The next summer, I went to Fermilab to work on particle physics…In junior year, I worked in a WU optics lab..As a senior, I worked on biophysics at WU.

Example 2 – combining sentences

• Old.  At graduate school, I would like to study particle physics. I am deeply interested in this topic because of my experience working in Professor Compton’s research group.
• New.  My past work with Professor Compton has motivated me to study particle physics in graduate school.

Example 3 – choosing shorter words or phrases, even if you think they sound less fancy (scientists prefer clarity and conciseness over clunky phrasing)

• Old.  My research provides incontrovertible evidence for this.
• New.  My research proves this.
• New.  My research demonstrates this.

Example 4 – condensing information that can be grouped together

• Old.  Team experiences comprised a large and enjoyable part of my college years, both in the laboratory and outside.   My junior year, our math team was in the top ten in the Putnam competition. My senior year, my physics team got a gold medal in the University Physics Competition. I am also on the varsity underwater basket weaving team, which won the University Athletic Association title.
• New.  During college I enjoyed working with teams both in and out of the lab. Some of my notable team achievements include a top-ten finish in the Putnam math contest, a gold medal in the University Physics Competition, and winning the division title in underwater basket weaving.

There are many other creative ways you can cut down on space in your essay. It may be difficult and time-consuming to cut down your composition to an appropriate length, so be sure to budget enough days before your essays are due!

Look out for silly mistakes!  Make sure you didn’t type something careless like “form” instead of “from.” Double-check that you didn’t confuse your/you’re or there/their/they’re. Are all your commas in the right places? Carefully and slowly read through your essay. If you accidentally had one mistake when you submitted, it probably won’t be a big deal. But if you have multiple careless errors in your essay, the admissions committees might get the wrong impression that you didn’t care enough to write your essay properly.

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The Year in Physics

December 22, 2022

Myriam Wares for Quanta Magazine

Introduction

The year began right as the James Webb Space Telescope was unfurling its sunshield — the giant, nail-bitingly thin and delicate blanket that, once open, would plunge the observatory into frigid shade and open up its view of the infrared universe. Within hours of the ball dropping here in New York City, the sunshield could have caught on a snag, ruining the new telescope and tossing billions of dollars and decades of work into the void. Instead, the sunshield opened perfectly, getting the new year in physics off to an excellent start.

JWST soon started to glimpse gorgeous new faces of the cosmos. On July 11, President Biden unveiled the telescope’s first public image — a panoramic view of thousands of galaxies various distances away in space and time. Four more instantly iconic images were released the next day. Since then, the telescope’s data has been distributed among hundreds of astronomers and cosmologists, and cosmic discoveries and papers are pouring forth.

Astronomy is swimming in fresh data of all kinds. In May, for instance, the Event Horizon Telescope released the first-ever photo of the supermassive black hole in the heart of our galaxy — one of several recent observations that are helping astrophysicists figure out how galaxies operate . Other telescopes are mapping the locations of millions of galaxies, an effort that recently yielded surprising evidence of an asymmetry in galaxy distribution .

Breakthroughs are coming fast in condensed matter physics, too. An experiment published in September all but proved the origin of high-temperature superconductivity , which could help in the field’s perennial quest for an even warmer version of the phenomenon that could work at room temperature. That’s also a goal of research on two-dimensional materials. This year, a kind of flat crystal that once helped lubricate skis has emerged as a powerful platform for exotic, potentially useful quantum phenomena.

Particle physicists, who seek new fundamental ingredients of the universe, have been less lucky. They’ve continued to unravel features of particles we already know of — including the proton , the subject of a wonderful visual project we published this fall. But theorists have few if any concrete clues about how to go beyond the Standard Model of particle physics, the stiflingly comprehensive set of equations for the quantum world that’s been the theory to beat for half a century. Hope is a virtue, though, and at least one possible crack in the Standard Model did open up this year. Let’s start the 2022 greatest-hits list there.

Samuel Velasco/Quanta Magazine

A Tantalizingly Heavy Boson

The Tevatron collider in Illinois smashed its last protons a decade ago, but its handlers have continued to analyze its detections of W bosons — particles that mediate the weak force. They announced in April that, by painstakingly tracking down and eliminating sources of error in the data, they’d measured the mass of the W boson more precisely than ever before and found the particle significantly heavier than predicted by the Standard Model of particle physics.

A true discrepancy with the Standard Model would be a monumental discovery, pointing to new particles or effects beyond the theory’s purview. But hold the applause. Other experiments weighing the W — most notably the ATLAS experiment at Europe’s Large Hadron Collider — measured a mass much closer to the Standard Model prediction. The new Tevatron measurement purports to be more precise, but one or both groups might have missed some subtle source of error.  

The ATLAS experiment aims to resolve the matter. As Guillaume Unal, a member of ATLAS, said, “The W boson has to be the same on both sides of the Atlantic.”

Emily Buder/Quanta Magazine; Kristina Armitage and Rui Braz for Quanta Magazine

Rethinking Naturalness

All that buzz about a tenuous hint of a problem with the Standard Model reflects the troubled situation particle physicists find themselves in. The 17 elementary particles known to exist — the ones described by the Standard Model — don’t solve all the mysteries of the universe. Yet the Large Hadron Collider hasn’t turned up an 18th.

For years, theorists have struggled with how to proceed. But recently, a new direction has opened up. Theorists are rethinking a long-held assumption known as naturalness — a way of reasoning about what’s natural or expected in the laws of nature. The idea is closely connected to nature’s reductionist, nesting-doll structure, where big stuff is explained by smaller stuff. Now theorists wonder if profound naturalness problems like the lack of new particles from the Large Hadron Collider might mean the laws of nature aren’t structured in such a simple bottom-up way after all. In a spate of new papers, they’re exploring how gravity might dramatically change the picture.

“Some people call it a crisis,” said the theoretical particle physicist Isabel Garcia Garcia, referring to the current moment in the field. But that’s too pessimistic, in her view: “It’s a time where I feel like we are on to something profound.”  

(Incidentally, as well as rethinking naturalness, Garcia Garcia also studies the physics of nothing — the subject of a rollicking explainer published in August.)

Sasha Maslov and Olena Shmahalo for Quanta Magazine

2D Physics Unlocked  

Thousands of condensed matter physicists have studied graphene, a crystal sheet made of carbon atoms that has special properties. But lately a new family of flat crystals has hit the scene: transition metal dichalcogenides, or TMDs. Stacking different TMDs gives rise to bespoke materials with different quantum properties and behaviors.

The near-magical properties of these materials are known largely thanks to Jie Shan and Kin Fai Mak, a married couple who co-run a lab at Cornell University. Quanta ’s profile of Shan and Mak , published this past summer, tells the story of 2D materials against the backdrop of condensed matter physics, while also unpacking a slew of exciting new breakthroughs spilling out of Shan and Mak’s lab, from artificial atoms to long-lived excitons. A short documentary about the duo and their discoveries also appeared on Quanta ’s YouTube channel .

Kim Taylor for Quanta Magazine

A Holographic Wormhole

In November, physicists announced a first-of-its-kind “quantum gravity experiment on a chip,” in the words of team leader Maria Spiropulu of the California Institute of Technology. They ran a “wormhole teleportation protocol” on Google’s Sycamore quantum computer, manipulating the flow of quantum information in the computer in such a way that it was mathematically equivalent, or dual, to information passing through a wormhole between two points in space-time.  

To be clear, the wormhole isn’t part of the space-time we inhabit. It’s a sort of simulation or hologram — though not one of the kinds we’re used to — and it has a different space-time geometry than the real, positively curved, 4D space-time we live in. The point of the experiment was to demonstrate holographic duality, a major theoretical discovery of the last 25 years which states that certain quantum systems of particles can be interpreted as a bendy, gravitating space-time continuum. (The space-time can loosely be thought of as a hologram that emerges from the lower-dimensional quantum system.) In more advanced quantum computer experiments in the coming years, researchers hope to explore the mechanics of holographic duality, with the ultimate goal of unraveling whether “gravity in our universe is emergent from some quantum [bits] in the same way that this little baby one-dimensional wormhole is emergent” from the Sycamore chip, said Daniel Jafferis of Harvard University, who developed the wormhole teleportation protocol.  

The holographic wormhole spawned endless opinions among physicists and lay readers alike. Some physicists thought the quantum simulation was too pared down compared to the theoretical model it was based on to have a holographic dual description as a wormhole. Many felt that the physicists behind the work, and we, the journalists who covered it, should have better emphasized that this was not an actual wormhole that could transport people to Andromeda. Indeed, to open up a wormhole in real space-time, you’d need negative-energy material, and that doesn’t seem to exist.  

NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI and Judy Schmidt

JWST Is Revolutionizing Astronomy

The biggest thing in physics this year is floating a million miles away, at a spot in space called Lagrange Point 2, where its sunshield can simultaneously block out the Earth, moon and sun. JWST’s images have made hearts stand still. Its data is already reshaping our understanding of the cosmos.

When Biden unveiled JWST’s first image, researchers immediately began spotting interesting galaxies in the vast tableau. Scientific papers appeared online within days. Two weeks later, Quanta reported that JWST data had already yielded new discoveries about galaxies, stars, exoplanets and even Jupiter. One of the most exciting early findings was that galaxies seem to have assembled surprisingly early in cosmic history — perhaps even earlier than cosmological models can easily explain. Expect to hear more about this in 2023.  

We’ll also have to wait patiently for JWST’s much-anticipated studies of the rocky planets in a nearby star system called TRAPPIST-1. A key JWST specialty is to dissect the starlight that pierces the atmosphere of a distant planet as the planet moves across the face of its star. This reveals what the planet’s atmosphere is made of, including possible evidence of “biosignature” gases that might signify alien biology. The telescope has produced excellent exoplanet spectra already. But potentially habitable worlds, like the TRAPPIST-1 planets, are so small that they’ll need to transit in front of their suns a few times over the next few years before atmospheric features will show up.  

Seeing clear-cut biosignatures in their skies might be unlikely. Still, some astronomers have waited their whole careers for the search to begin. Lisa Kaltenegger, director of the Carl Sagan Institute at Cornell University and one of the leading computer modelers of potentially habitable worlds, came of age just as the first exoplanets were discovered. She joined a cadre of dreamers who started thinking about how to find life on one. Our profile of Kaltenegger describes how she and her generation of exoplanet astronomers have planned for this era for decades, setting the stage for an epochal detection. More on that in the coming years.  

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What Is Quantum Physics?

This article was reviewed by a member of Caltech's Faculty .

Quantum physics is the study of matter and energy at the most fundamental level. It aims to uncover the properties and behaviors of the very building blocks of nature.

While many quantum experiments examine very small objects, such as electrons and photons, quantum phenomena are all around us, acting on every scale. However, we may not be able to detect them easily in larger objects. This may give the wrong impression that quantum phenomena are bizarre or otherworldly. In fact, quantum science closes gaps in our knowledge of physics to give us a more complete picture of our everyday lives.

Quantum discoveries have been incorporated into our foundational understanding of materials, chemistry, biology, and astronomy. These discoveries are a valuable resource for innovation, giving rise to devices such as lasers and transistors, and enabling real progress on technologies once considered purely speculative, such as quantum computers . Physicists are exploring the potential of quantum science to transform our view of gravity and its connection to space and time. Quantum science may even reveal how everything in the universe (or in multiple universes) is connected to everything else through higher dimensions that our senses cannot comprehend.

The Origins of Quantum Physics

The field of quantum physics arose in the late 1800s and early 1900s from a series of experimental observations of atoms that didn't make intuitive sense in the context of classical physics. Among the basic discoveries was the realization that matter and energy can be thought of as discrete packets, or quanta, that have a minimum value associated with them. For example, light of a fixed frequency will deliver energy in quanta called "photons." Each photon at this frequency will have the same amount of energy, and this energy can't be broken down into smaller units. In fact, the word "quantum" has Latin roots and means "how much."

Knowledge of quantum principles transformed our conceptualization of the atom, which consists of a nucleus surrounded by electrons. Early models depicted electrons as particles that orbited the nucleus, much like the way satellites orbit Earth. Modern quantum physics instead understands electrons as being distributed within orbitals, mathematical descriptions that represent the probability of the electrons' existence in more than one location within a given range at any given time. Electrons can jump from one orbital to another as they gain or lose energy, but they cannot be found between orbitals.

Other central concepts helped to establish the foundations of quantum physics:

• Wave-particle duality: This principle dates back to the earliest days of quantum science. It describes the outcomes of experiments that showed that light and matter had the properties of particles or waves, depending on how they were measured. Today, we understand that these different forms of energy are actually neither particle nor wave. They are distinct quantum objects that we cannot easily conceptualize.
• Superposition : This is a term used to describe an object as a combination of multiple possible states at the same time. A superposed object is analogous to a ripple on the surface of a pond that is a combination of two waves overlapping. In a mathematical sense, an object in superposition can be represented by an equation that has more than one solution or outcome.
• Uncertainty principle : This is a mathematical concept that represents a trade-off between complementary points of view. In physics, this means that two properties of an object, such as its position and velocity, cannot both be precisely known at the same time. If we precisely measure the position of an electron, for example, we will be limited in how precisely we can know its speed.
• Entanglement : This is a phenomenon that occurs when two or more objects are connected in such a way that they can be thought of as a single system, even if they are very far apart. The state of one object in that system can't be fully described without information on the state of the other object. Likewise, learning information about one object automatically tells you something about the other and vice versa.

Mathematics and the Probabilistic Nature of Quantum Objects

Because many of the concepts of quantum physics are difficult if not impossible for us to visualize, mathematics is essential to the field. Equations are used to describe or help predict quantum objects and phenomena in ways that are more exact than what our imaginations can conjure.

Mathematics is also necessary to represent the probabilistic nature of quantum phenomena. For example, the position of an electron may not be known exactly. Instead, it may be described as being in a range of possible locations (such as within an orbital), with each location associated with a probability of finding the electron there.

Given their probabilistic nature, quantum objects are often described using mathematical "wave functions," which are solutions to what is known as the Schrödinger equation . Waves in water can be characterized by the changing height of the water as the wave moves past a set point. Similarly, sound waves can be characterized by the changing compression or expansion of air molecules as they move past a point. Wave functions don't track with a physical property in this way. The solutions to the wave functions provide the likelihoods of where an observer might find a particular object over a range of potential options. However, just as a ripple in a pond or a note played on a trumpet are spread out and not confined to one location, quantum objects can also be in multiple places—and take on different states, as in the case of superposition—at once.

Observation of Quantum Objects

The act of observation is a topic of considerable discussion in quantum physics. Early in the field, scientists were baffled to find that simply observing an experiment influenced the outcome. For example, an electron acted like a wave when not observed, but the act of observing it caused the wave to collapse (or, more accurately, "decohere") and the electron to behave instead like a particle. Scientists now appreciate that the term "observation" is misleading in this context, suggesting that consciousness is involved. Instead, "measurement" better describes the effect, in which a change in outcome may be caused by the interaction between the quantum phenomenon and the external environment, including the device used to measure the phenomenon. Even this connection has caveats, though, and a full understanding of the relationship between measurement and outcome is still needed.

The Double-Slit Experiment

Perhaps the most definitive experiment in the field of quantum physics is the double-slit experiment . This experiment, which involves shooting particles such as photons or electrons through a barrier with two slits, was originally used in 1801 to show that light is made up of waves. Since then, numerous incarnations of the experiment have been used to demonstrate that matter can also behave like a wave and to demonstrate the principles of superposition, entanglement, and the observer effect.

The field of quantum science may seem mysterious or illogical, but it describes everything around us, whether we realize it or not. Harnessing the power of quantum physics gives rise to new technologies, both for applications we use today and for those that may be available in the future .

Dive Deeper

Woolf Essay Prize 2024

The Woolf Essay Prize 2024 has now closed. Check back here in January 2025 for the 2025 competition!

In 1928, Virginia Woolf addressed the Newnham Arts Society on the Subject of ‘Women and Fiction’, and from this talk emerged her seminal text,  A Room of One’s Own . Newnham is very proud of its place in the history of women’s education, and we are delighted in the continuation of the Woolf Essay Prize.  A Room of One’s Own  raises a number of questions surrounding the place of women in society, culture, and education, and the competition allows students to contemplate these themes and ideas while developing the independent research and writing skills essential to university-level study.

This year, the Woolf Essay Prize is open to all Women in Year 12 (or equivalent), regardless of school or country. For more information, including the question list, word limit, and submission details, please consult the Information and Questions document. The deadline for submission is 09:00am BST on Monday 8th July 2024. For any queries not answered here, please contact [email protected].

The Woolf Essay Prize will run separately to our Essay Writing Masterclass Programme , which encompasses a variety of subject interests.

This prize may be of particular interest to those studying English Literature, History, Politics, Philosophy or Sociology, but we absolutely welcome entries from interested students studying any combination of subjects.

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• Published: 05 July 2024

Five books that put physics in context

Nature Reviews Physics volume  6 ,  page 401 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

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To complement our Collection “Physics as a human endeavour”, we share some reading on the history and sociology of physics.

Quantum Legacies: Dispatches from an Uncertain World by David Kaiser (University of Chicago Press, 2020) . “The particularities of time and space can shape scientific research”, writes physicist and historian of science, David Kaiser, in the introduction to this collection of essays. Kaiser brings together his own writings from over the years that put scientists and scientific discoveries into their social and political contexts. Read about Dirac’s relationship with his father, how textbooks shape each generation of physicists and the impact of the Cold War on American physics. Part popular science, part popular history and part personal reflections, the book provides colour and context to the physics of the 20th century and opens up questions for the physics of the 21st.

The Alchemy of Us: How Humans and Matter Transformed One Another by Ainissa Ramirez (MIT Press, 2021) . Many people think of ‘culture’ as synonymous with the arts: painting, theatre and so on. But our day-to-day lives are shaped just as much by technology: think of how our relationship with our own faces has changed in the past 100 years, from when photographs were rare, expensive and carefully posed, to today’s era of the ubiquitous selfie. Technology, in turn, is shaped by materials science, which is constantly making new functions possible. In each chapter of The Alchemy of Us , Ramirez discusses the history of a technology, how it was enabled by developments in materials science, and how it has changed our lives. Ramirez also portrays the people — both famous and lesser-known — behind the technologies, resulting in a book that is both fascinating and very human.

When Science Meets Power by Geoff Mulgan (Polity, 2023) . There is no escaping politics in science. How the research landscape develops is shaped by political priorities. Yet politicians need science solutions. Geoff Mulgan explores this interdependence in When Science Meets Power . With some scientific and technological advances now threatening the survival of our species, he points out that political engagement to mitigate these threats depends on how we feel about what matters most. Mulgan proposes how to politicize science and scientize politics. He argues against scientific “objective detachment” and for the synthesis of science, politics and ethics. Then society as a whole can choose how to govern new technologies.

In a Flight of Starlings: The Wonder of Complex Systems by Giorgio Parisi (translated by Simon Carnell) (Penguin Press, 2023) . Parisi’s goal in writing this book is to help non-scientists trust science, by not simply saying “trust us” but showing concretely how scientific consensus is achieved. Part explanation of complex systems science, part personal account of what it’s like to do physics research, In a Flight of Starlings feels a bit like sitting at a conference dinner table where an Italian physics professor is holding forth. Although some of the physics explanations may require some background knowledge to understand them, the more autobiographical passages are accessible to all, and make for an entertaining read.

The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey into Dark Matter, Spacetime, and Dreams Deferred by Chanda Prescod-Weinstein (Bold Type Books, 2021) . There is no shortage of popular science books that explain how the universe works. But rather than an abstract tale of quarks and gluons, Prescod-Weinstein grounds the explanations of the Big Bang and the standard model within her own story of being a Black woman physicist. This book is as much about people as it is about physics. Through the structure of the universe, the structure of society is revealed, complete with racism, sexism, classism and ableism. In doing so, Prescod-Weinstein challenges the scientific community that prides itself on empiricism to value the experiences and intellect of Black women physicists.

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Five books that put physics in context. Nat Rev Phys 6 , 401 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42254-024-00737-w

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Published : 05 July 2024

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