Introduction

What is science?

  • Science is a collection of different scientific fields, or disciplines.

  • Scientific disciplines do not have fixed borders. Each discipline benefits from advances in other areas of science.

  • Understanding the contribution of one scientific discipline for the others is very important to effective use different scientific knowledge for the collaborative development and important for contribution of  societal problem solving. 

1.1 Physics and other sciences

Physics is the most essential field of science and it has a strong influence on most scientific developments.


Physics and chemistry

  • Both physics and chemistry are concerned with matter and its interaction with energy

  • However, physics looks at this question on a much smaller scale.

  • Physics concerns the movement of physical objects in time, while chemistry concerns the transformation of physical matter from one type to another.

Spectroscopy is the study of the interaction between matter and electromagnetic radiation as a function of the wavelength or frequency of the radiation.

 

 

Physics and biology

  • Physics can explain the human body like

 the mechanics of human motion

energetics of metabolism

 the fluid dynamics of blood flow through vessels

the mechanisms for speaking and hearing

the optical imaging system we call the eye

Physics of Newtonian mechanics and biology

  • The Newtonian mechanics tells us how different animals and their body parts move. Physics and biology helps to understand :-


How athletes run fast 

Why cheetah, runs fast

  • Newtonian mechanics tells us that a body is in stable equilibrium 

under the action of gravity.

Physics of fluid flow and biology

  • The physics of fluid flow, like viscosity, equation of continuity and turbulent flow, is very important in understanding the circulation of blood and blood pressure in the multicellular organisms.

  • Soft-bodied animals(such as the sea anemone and the earthworm) that lack a firm utilize Pascal's principle to produce body motion.

 

Physics of sound wave and biology

  • Sound is a mechanical wave produced by vibrating bodies

  • The vocal cords produce sound when they come together and then vibrate as air passes through them during exhalation of air from the lungs. 


When not speaking 

When speaking, the vocal folds vibrate 

Physics of electricity and biology

  • The nervous system and the muscle movement are governed by electric system.

  • Specialized cells called neurons receives, processes, and transmits information in the form of Electrical pulses to the brain for analyzing and store information.

    • Animals have evolved light-sensitive organs, like the eyes.

      •  

      • In photosynthesis, plants use light to convert carbon dioxide and water into organic materials, which are the building blocks of living organisms.The brain gives command to the Muscle using these electrical signals.

        Optical physics and biology

    • Optical physics is the study of light, includes topics such as microscopes, telescopes, vision, color, pigments, illumination, spectroscopy, and lasers.


 

 

 

Physics and astronomy

Astrophysics is the study of the physics of heavenly objects, called astronomical objects, like the solar system , stars,  interstellar gas and dust ,galaxies, and finally the study of the Universe as a whole. 

 

Newton’s laws of motion and astronomy 

  • Newton’s law of gravitation is used to describe the motion of the moon around a planet and the motion of the planets around the sun.

  • The knowledge of centripetal force and centrifugal force from our physics knowledge greatly help as to understand what keeps objects in orbit around others. 

 

Physics of electromagnetic wave and astronomy

Astronomers collect information about the radiation from space objects, they use light to measure distance of astronomical objects. 

Measuring the apparent brightness of an object gives its distance if we know it's true 

brightness.

Apparent brightness  ∝      True Brightness

                                               distance ² 

This is known as the inverse square law of apparent brightness.

 A light year is the distance that light travels in one year.

Physics of atoms and astronomy

  • Photon is emitted electrons of atoms jump from higher to a lower atomic orbit,

  • Photon is absorbed if electron jumps from lower electron orbit to higher electron orbit

  • The emission and absorption of radiation depends on the characteristics of individual atoms, and helps to measure something about the compositions, temperatures, and motions of stars.

 

Physics and geology

  • The understanding of geological processes demand the understanding of the different concepts of physics like  

  • heat and heat flow

  • Electricity and magnetism

  • Stress and strain

  • Waves including sound wave and fluid flow 

  • Force

  • Optics

  • Atomic structure

  • Electromagnetic radiation

  • In geology, these physics concepts are used to study the properties 

of rocks and minerals.                                

Last modified: Sanbata, 31 Caamsa 2025, 8:27 AM